Advanced Biomaterials for Wound Healing: From Design to Application

Dear Colleagues,

In the era of rapid industrialization and the escalating human toll of conflicts, the surge in acute traumatic skin injuries has made wound healing and tissue regeneration urgent imperatives in modern healthcare. Wound care remains among the most dynamic and interdisciplinary research domains, drawing together biomaterial science, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and clinical medicine. The rising global burden of chronic wounds arising from non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and peripheral vascular diseases, alongside acute wounds resulting from trauma, burns, and infections complicated by antimicrobial resistance, continues to impose significant clinical and socioeconomic challenges worldwide. Addressing this burden demands sustained innovation in biomaterial-based therapeutic strategies capable of promoting rapid, safe, and functional tissue regeneration.

In recent times, there has been remarkable progress in the rational design of advanced biomaterials that actively modulate the wound microenvironment rather than functioning merely as passive protective barriers. A myriad array of polymeric and composite biomaterials is increasingly engineered to recapitulate the native extracellular matrix, providing mechanical support, controlled biodegradation, antimicrobial and antibiofilm activity, immunomodulation, pro-angiogenic signaling, and spatiotemporally controlled delivery of therapeutic agents such as growth factors, stem cells, extracellular vesicles, and bioactive molecules. Concurrently, the integration of intelligent wound dressings with wearable biosensors, stimuli-responsive systems, artificial intelligence, and digital health technologies is paving new avenues toward personalized and precision wound management, allowing real-time monitoring of parameters such as pH, temperature, moisture, infection, and biomarker levels to guide adaptive, on-demand therapeutic responses. Despite these substantial advances, significant obstacles remain in translating the laboratory innovations into clinically approved and commercially viable wound care products. Persistent challenges related to biomaterial design optimization, scalable and reproducible manufacturing, sterilization compatibility, regulatory approval, long-term biocompatibility and safety, cost-effectiveness, and rigorous clinical validation continue to demand coordinated scientific innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration between materials scientists, engineers, clinicians, and regulatory bodies. This Topic aims to disseminate cutting-edge research that bridges fundamental biomaterial design with translational and clinical applications, offering a platform for innovative concepts and interdisciplinary perspectives that advance the field toward next-generation wound care solutions.  

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Advanced biomaterial design for wound healing;
• Natural, synthetic, hybrid, and composite biomaterials;
• Hydrogels, cryogels, aerogels, and injectable biomaterials;
• Electrospun nanofibers and nanotechnology-based wound dressings;
• Biomimetic extracellular matrix-inspired materials;
• Smart and stimuli-responsive biomaterials;
• Controlled and targeted drug delivery systems;
• Antimicrobial, antibiofilm, and immunomodulatory biomaterials;
• Three-dimensional printing and bioprinting technologies;
• Tissue-engineered skin substitutes and skin equivalents;
• Exosome and extracellular vesicle-based wound therapeutics;
• Wearable biosensors and intelligent wound monitoring systems;
• Artificial intelligence and computational biomaterial design;
• Sustainable and environmentally responsible biomaterials.

Dr. Kannan Badri Narayanan
Dr. Sudip Mondal
Topic Editors