Hydrogels for Encapsulation Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Hydrogels have emerged as highly versatile materials for encapsulation technologies, owing to their unique combination of biocompatibility, high water content, tunable mechanical properties, and permeability. Encapsulation within hydrogels provides a protective and functional microenvironment for a wide range of biological and chemical entities, including bacteria, mammalian cells, therapeutic compounds, enzymes, and biosensors. These systems enhance viability, stability, and performance, and enable controlled and responsive release mechanisms in diverse applications.

Encapsulation using hydrogels offers clear advantages over alternative delivery systems, particularly in terms of structural customization and responsiveness to external stimuli. Recent advances in hydrogel engineering have led to the development of smart, functionalized, and stimuli-responsive systems that can be tailored for applications in biomedicine, environmental remediation, biocatalysis, and soft robotics, among others.

This Special Issue aims to highlight recent innovations in the design, synthesis, characterization, and application of hydrogels for encapsulation purposes. We welcome contributions exploring novel hydrogel formulations and encapsulation strategies for biomedical, environmental, industrial, and biotechnological applications.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:

• Design and synthesis of hydrogels for encapsulation
• Stimuli-responsive and functionalized hydrogels
• Hydrogels in biomedicine: probiotics, wound healing, cell therapy, and drug delivery
• Encapsulation strategies for environmental applications: bioremediation and wastewater treatment
• Hydrogel-based biosensors, biocatalysis, and industrial bioprocessing
• Advances in hydrogel characterization techniques for encapsulated systems

We invite researchers from various disciplines, including materials science, microbiology, chemistry, bioengineering, and related fields to contribute their latest findings and insights on this Special Issue.

We look forward to your submissions.

Dr. Maria Virginia Rivero Buceta
Dr. Luis García-Fernández
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.

• hydrogels
• functionalized hydrogels
• stimuli-responsive hydrogels
• encapsulation
• hydrogel encapsulation systems
• hydrogel characterization techniques
• encapsulated cells
• bacterial encapsulation
• encapsulated biomolecules
• controlled release
• microbial applications
• biomedicine
• environmental applications
• biosensors
• biocatalysis