Nanostructured Materials for Biological and Pharmaceutical Applications (Second Edition)

Dear Colleagues,

The present Special Issue is a continuation of the previous successful Special Issue, titled “Nanostructured Materials for Biological and Pharmaceutical Applications” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/nanomaterials/special_issues/nano_bio_pharmaceutical), hosted by this editor.

Nanotechnology is an emerging field that encompasses the manipulation of matter at the nanometer scale, leading to a new class of materials with improved properties for a wide range of applications. Concerning terminology, nanotechnology can be characterized as science and engineering that deals with the design, synthesis, characterization, and application of materials and devices with at least one dimension on the nanometer scale. Currently, nanomedicine, which is related to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of various diseases using tools at the nanoscale, and biomedical engineering are among the most promising and challenging fields involved in the application of nanostructured materials. Nanostructured materials, including inorganic or organic, crystalline or amorphous, and supramolecular structures such as micelles, liposomes, polymersomes, dendrimers, cyclodextrins, polymeric, metal and metal oxide nanoparticles, lipid and polymeric nanocapsules, carbon nanostructures, quantum dots, etc., have been used in a wide variety of biological and pharmaceutical applications due to their excellent structural properties and their ability to be functionalized with specific ligands, achieving controllable size and shape, enhanced targetability, high loading capacity, controlled release of drugs or other bioactive molecules, etc. Although various types of nanostructured materials have been developed and proposed for potential biological applications, only a handful have been approved due to concerns and challenges they face in biocompatibility, pharmacokinetics, and in vivo targeting efficacy. Therefore, there is still room for improvement, as some aspects such as cytotoxicity, immunogenicity, and low biocompatibility need to be addressed in a more extensive manner.

The aim of this Special Issue is to highlight recent advances in all aspects relevant to the design, synthesis, and characterization of nanostructured materials for intended applications such as drug and gene delivery systems, stimulus-responsive therapeutics, bioimaging agents, bioanalytical diagnostics, theranostics, tissue engineering scaffolds and devices, antibacterial agents, etc. This Special Issue of Nanomaterials will collate original high-quality research papers focused on the most recent advances and comprehensive reviews addressing state-of-the-art topics in the field of various nanostructured materials for biological and pharmaceutical applications.

Dr. Zili Sideratou
Guest Editor

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nanomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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.