Current Directions and Prospects of Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications (2nd Edition)
A special issue of Gels (ISSN 2310-2861). This special issue belongs to the section "Gel Applications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 728
Special Issue Editors
Interests: hydrogels; biosensors; surface modification for bioapplication
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: hydrogel sensing materials; bacteria detection; polymer brushes; stimulus-responsive polymers; cell release surfaces; nanobubbles, nanodroplets and nanocapsules; microparticle self-assembly
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: biomaterials; nanotechnology; regenerative medicine; polymer engineering; cell–material interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Hydrogels are interesting biomaterials due to their high swelling capacity, which allows them to hold and release materials at tailorable rates, as well as their excellent biocompatibility with minimal inflammatory responses. Even though the term ‘hydrogel’ was first coined in 1864, it was not until 1960 that these self-supporting 3D water-swollen viscoelastic polymer networks found their first application in the biomedical field, as reported in the seminal paper co-authored by Wichterle and Lim.
Single-component hydrogel systems have shown limitations due to either poor mechanical properties or insufficient cell-recognition moieties to facilitate cell adhesion and proliferation. To improve the performance of hydrogels in the biomedical field, new synthetic and analytical methods have been used to design more advanced smart and responsive (temperature, pH, light, ultrasound, enzyme, ionic strength, electrical, magnetic, etc.) hydrogels to better suit the targeted biomedical application.
For instance, the inclusion of nanomaterials into hydrogels led to the creation of a new generation of hydrogels known as nanocomposite hydrogels. Self-healing hydrogels have been designed for their own repair or to help in the healing of damaged tissues.
This Special Issue of Gels focuses on recent innovations related to hydrogels and showcases state-of-the-art original articles as well as comprehensive reviews in this rapidly evolving field.
Dr. Zhiyuan Jia
Prof. Dr. Holger Schönherr
Dr. Nowsheen Goonoo
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Gels is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- hydrogels
- stimuli-responsive materials
- self-healing
- nanocomposite
- biomedical application
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