Cryogels: From Inception to Improving Life and Health

Dear Colleagues,

The Greek words kryos and tropos found their way to late 20th century gel-based thermoresponsive chemistry when a controlled methodology for the cryotropic gelation of polymers was first described. Since then, the remarkable potential of macroporous, hydrophilic, sponge-like architectures and swollen spatial polymeric networks has promoted a knowledge and application boom in the soft matter biological sciences. By leveraging diverse avenues of materials science and biotechnology, cryogels can provide potent standalone applications or be combined with other bioactive chemicals, while demonstrating extremely versatile finetuning.

Gels produced by freeze–thaw processes or generated by any sort of ice-based etching of porous structures are coined as cryogels. These scaffolds can be structural platforms that accommodate cell proliferation and tissue growth by facilitating nutrient transport and mediating diffusion kinetics. They can also act as functional delivery systems, hosting a consortium of chemical molecules to induce a desired bioactive function, or demonstrate a synergistic effect with those agents and deliver a concerted action to biological targets.

This Special Issue intends to showcase the role that cryogels, as soft thermoresponsive materials, may play in cryobiology. Cryoprotectants are cornerstone free agents used in a freezing medium, capable of preventing lethal ice growth in cells, tissues, organs, and whole organisms. However, they are not without limitations. Allied to a porous matrix, the added mechanical integrity to biologics prone to cold stressors could address the longstanding challenges of ice crystallization and solute effects simultaneously, breaking current barriers in the field. 

Reframing cryopreservation and cryogels as a problem–solution relationship would largely benefit from the following:

• The refinement of cryogel synthesis;
• An improved characterization methodology;
• New points of entry into strongly established cryopreservation protocols;
• Innovative cryogel-based cryopreservation applications;
• A mechanistic understanding of their interactions with ice formation;
• Other translational, marginal applications with direct contributions to the field. 

Therefore, we invite foundational and applied research contributions that explore the synthesis, characterization, and application of cryogels in the broader context of (but not exclusive to) cryobiology.

Cryogels have also shown promise in wound healing, pharmaceutical delivery systems, 3D cryobioprinting, and other soft matter thermoresponsive applications. Hence, both theoretical frameworks and experimental approaches from other fields are equally welcome in the hopes of highlighting their translational character.

This Special Issue will charter a valuable course for cryogels as an embryonic but emerging and impactful research asset, and we look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Bruno M. Guerreiro
Dr. Filomena Freitas
Guest Editors

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