Polysaccharide Gels for Biomedical and Environmental Applications

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, “Polysaccharide Gels for Biomedical and Environmental Applications”, is dedicated to recent developments in carbohydrate gels, from fundamental to applicative aspects, as well as challenges in material science and solutions for the most relevant applications.

Polysaccharides are a highly valuable renewable resource and their use has an immense economical, ecological, medical and social impact. Research on materials based on this biopolymer class is broad and complex; therefore, this Special Issue will contain only a few representative examples, illustrating some of the innovations of scientists related to the following aspects:

• The chemical versatility of carbohydrates, which offers many new possibilities for functionalization and gel crosslinking that can be explored, such as dynamic bonds and photocrosslinking;
• The design and preparation methods of gels, which are diverse, varying from bulk and beads to films, microparticles, nanogels, and 3D-printed constructs;
• The investigation of specific properties, which offers answers in relation to the structure and application: gelling, swelling, rheological properties, loading and release of relevant molecules, mechanical strength and elasticity, adhesion, injectability, sensitivity to external factors (dynamic properties), (bio)degradation, biocompatibility, etc.
• Gels as powerful tools providing innovative solutions for advanced applications: drug delivery (especially in cancer), wound dressing, tissue engineering, diagnosis tools, sensors, water and soil purification, nutrient delivery, pollutants, degradation, etc.

It is hoped that these topics will stimulate new research and discoveries in the field, and the submission of both theoretical and experimental studies is welcome.

Dr. Ioana A. Duceac
Prof. Dr. Jana Čopíková
Dr. Sergiu Coseri
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.

• natural and modified polysaccharides
• dynamic and photoreactive crosslinks
• (nano)gels, gel composites and 3D-printed constructs
• structure–property–application relationships
• drug delivery and diagnosis in cancer and other diseases
• wound dressing and tissue engineering
• sensors
• environmental applications