Organic Supramolecular Nanomaterials in Biomedical Applications: Design, Synthesis, Assembly, and Property Regulation

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, with the rapid development of organic supramolecular chemistry and biomaterials, many new supramolecular nanobiomaterials and related technologies have emerged as powerful tools for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. These supramolecular nanobiomaterials have tuneable or controllable architectures, dynamic adaptivity, biochemical stimuli-responsiveness, and certain biomedical properties. In particular, the application of synthetic organic chemistry and controllable polymerization offers precise molecular/polymer structures, adjustable physical–chemical properties, as well as a great structural–functional diversity of supramolecular nanobiomaterials.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that there are many remaining challenges with current supramolecular nanobiomaterials, such as their unfavourable solubility, low storage stability, high in vitro cytotoxicity or severe cell membrane disruption, off-targeting effects, high in vivo metabolic toxicity or genetic toxicity, and poor immuno-compatibility. These drawbacks, challenges, and barriers must be overcome in future studies.

In this context, this Special Issue focuses on recent advances in the following areas:

1. Organic/polymer synthesis, controllable self-assembly, and the functionalization of supramolecular nanomaterials and their molecular/polymer building blocks.
2. The application of supramolecular nanomaterials in drug/gene/protein delivery, biosensing and bioimaging, and regenerative nanomedicine.
3. Stimuli-responsive targeting and specific bioactive supramolecular nanobiomaterials.
4. Organic–inorganic hybrid supramolecular nanomaterials and their nanosystems.
5. In vitro and in vivo biological behaviours and biochemical mechanisms of supramolecular nanobiomaterials.
6. In silico computation and simulation and the AI-assisted design and prediction of supramolecular nanobiomaterials.

This Special Issue of Molecules aims to bridge the gap between organic supramolecular chemistry, macromolecular/polymer chemistry and physics, organic synthesis and controllable polymerization, biomaterials, nanobiotechnology, and theoretical chemistry of supramolecular nanobiomaterials and their biomedical applications. We kindly invite researchers from across to world to contribute your new achievements in this interdisciplinary area.

Dr. Ruilong Sheng
Guest Editor

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