Hydrogel Delivery Systems for Biomedical Applications

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue on “Hydrogel Delivery Systems for Biomedical Applications” is dedicated to recent developments from material design aspects to the synthesis, characterization, and biomedical applications of synthetic or naturally derived polymer-based hydrogel delivery systems. Within this context, a broad range of subjects, including nano- or macro-hydrogel materials, structure and dynamics, and biomedical applications will be discussed.

Hydrogel delivery systems can exert therapeutic effects of delivered agents and have been used clinically, providing a spatially and temporally controlled release of a variety of therapeutic agents, including drugs, cells, and other bioactive substances (e.g., growth factors, cytokines, miRNA, and exosomes). Due to their tunable physiochemical properties and interactions with encapsulated agents, hydrogels with designed degradability can serve as a platform for the programmable release of therapeutic agents. In this Special Issue, the design of hydrogel delivery systems, especially focusing on chemical and physical properties of the hydrogel material and the encapsulated agent–hydrogel interaction, is involved. Meanwhile, different delivery mechanisms that can be integrated to play their roles in enhancing therapeutic effects are also discussed.

Since it is impossible to cover all aspects of hydrogel delivery systems in one issue, this Special Issue will contain only a few representative examples, illustrating the complexity and diversity of hydrogel delivery systems. It is hoped that the topics will stimulate new research and discoveries in this flourishing field, providing guidelines for the rational design of advanced hydrogel delivery systems.

Dr. Yufei Ma
Prof. Dr. Bo Lei
Prof. Dr. Murugan Ramalingam
Guest Editors

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