Biobased Polymer Composites for Biomedical Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Organic materials, in particular polymers and bio-based composites, are inherently congenial to human body, and as such they have been conventionally employed in a plethora of biomedical applications.

Due to their biocompatibility and mechanical integrity, hybrid polymer composites have been used in stents, prosthetic joints, vascular grafts, dental and orthopedic implants. In tissue engineering, biodegradable polymer scaffolds can mimic the extracellular matrix to support the regeneration of cartilage, bone, and skin. In pharmaceuticals, polymer vesicles and nanoparticles are used for sustained, localized, or targeted drug delivery systems in order to improve therapeutic efficacy and alleviate toxicity. Stimuli-responsive polymers are designed to react to environmental triggers or systemic variances such as temperature, pH, or redox potentials for smart diagnostics and programmable drug release. Polymeric hydrogel dressings with integrated multifunctional components have been developed to prevent infection and accelerate epidermal repair in order to promote wound healing. Antimicrobial polymers are being explored extensively to address the rapid emergence of resistance bacteria in the post-antibiotic era.

As polymers and biocomposites continue to present a growing interest and breakthrough potential in biomedical applications, there are still rooms for improvement in research and development with particular emphasis on superior performances or innovative approaches. We invite your contributions on this topic to highlight the recent progress of polymers and bio-based composite materials in biomedical applications.

Dr. Dicky Pranantyo
Guest Editor

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