Development of Functional Hydrogels in Biomedicine
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 21
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This issue aims to display recent advances in hydrogel-related research, as well as its important contributions to healthcare applications. Hydrogels are medically regarded as a supportive matrix and, due to their distinctive properties, they can be used in various forms, such as gels, sheets, or scaffolds. They can also be implemented in various ways, such as being injected, processed into scaffolds, or administered orally or topically. Further research topics include the synthesis and characterization of hydrogels, as well as their different medical uses such as wound dressings for various types of wounds, diagnosis applications (sensors, functional coatings), tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. An important aspect when developing a new hydrogel material is to improve biocompatibility, biodegradability, and mechanical properties. On the other hand, hydrogels may be used, for example, as 3D scaffolds for cell culture and tissue regeneration by incorporating bioactive molecules or cells into the hydrogel matrix or by obtaining the hydrogels from decellularized extracellular matrices. Another advantage of hydrogels is that they can be designed as drug delivery systems suitable for controlled and targeted release. Also, they may be chosen in formulation studies to improve drug absorption because of their mucoadhesive and bioadhesive properties. Moreover, recent research also focused on the role of hydrogels in personalized disease modeling, which can be achieved by mimicking the physiological conditions of specific diseases.
Dr. Maria Drăgan
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- hydrogels
- wound healing
- biomaterials
- nanotechnology
- regenerative medicine
- tissue regeneration
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