Rational Design and Characterization of Hydrogels to Improve Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Applicability

Dear Colleagues,

In their pioneering 1960 work, Wichterle and Lim were the first to describe a hydrogel system for biomedical application. Since then, many other hydrogels have been proposed for application not only in the biomedical, but also in the pharmaceutical field, as drug delivery systems.

There has been a continuous effort to design innovative and smart gel-based systems to overcome the limitations of classical hydrogels, provide them with tailored features, and further extend their applicability in both pharmaceutical and biomedical fields. Significant progress has been made in improving the properties of hydrogels, but several challenges still remain to improve their clinical applicability. Many advances have derived from the more rational design and characterization of hydrogels, as it has become clear over the years that different physicochemical, biological, mechanical, and structural properties are needed depending on the final application intended for the specific hydrogel system.

This Special Issue serves to highlight and capture the contemporary progress and current landscape of three-dimensional networks made of interconnected hydrophilic polymer chains, including but not limited to hydrogels, cryogels, surgical adhesives, biomimetic hydrogels, smart hydrogels, self-healing hydrogels, composite hydrogels, bioinks, double-network and other interpenetrated and semi-interpenetrated hydrogels. We invite original and review articles on all aspects of the design, development, fabrication, characterization, and modeling of hydrogel systems for application in pharmacy and biomedicine, including tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Prof. Patrizia Paolicelli
Prof. Maria Antonietta Casadei
Guest Editors

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