Themed collection Emerging Investigators 2017

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This mini-review summarizes various methods for overcoming or utilizing hypoxia for enhanced PDT.

This mini-review discusses newly developed approaches to tuning hydrogel viscoelasticity and recent studies demonstrating an impact of viscoelasticity on cells.

Near-infrared light has significant advantages for light-triggered drug delivery systems within deep tissues.

Collective and individual cancer cell invasion can be investigated in vitro and ex vivo using microfabricated devices and hydrogels.

This review presents key peptide and antibody based kidney-targeting ligands, with a focus on use in nanoparticle systems.

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most challenging epidemics facing the world today, with over 300 million patients affected worldwide.

This review summarizes the bioinspired strategies for hard tissue repair, ranging from molecule-induced mineralization, to microscale assembly to macroscaffold fabrication.

This review article highlights the recent progresses in nanomedicine-based combination cancer therapy via site-specific co-delivery strategies.

This review discusses recent advances in using biomaterials to actively modulate various stages of wound healing from haemostasis through resolution.

Schematic illustration of inflammatory microenvironment in inflamed joints and events occurring in rheumatoid arthritis.

This review summarizes the recent synthetic strategies of the renal-clearable luminescent metal nanoparticles, and discusses the biological behaviors and current disease-related applications of this type of biomaterials in tumor targeting, kidney disease and antimicrobial investigations.

Bone tissue engineering uses the principles and methods of engineering and life sciences to study bone structure, function and growth mechanism for the purposes of repairing, maintaining and improving damaged bone tissue.

A cell surface engineering method allows for building glycan complexity with control over nanoscale presentation.

In this work, sinoporphyrin sodium was loaded into RGD-modified ferritin (R-Fn) nanocages by a rapid, scalable and versatile approach for imaging guided photodynamic and photothermal co-therapy.

Tumor-induced immune dysfunction has been observed in tumor bearing mice. The nanoparticle cellular distribution is significantly affected by the immune dysfunction, compared with tumor free mice.

Sequence variation in short self-assembled peptides enables creation of a diversity of nanostructures and biomaterials.

An oxaliplatin prodrug liposome with an extremely high drug loading ratio (>27%) was reported for treatment of triple-negative breast cancer.

Paclitaxel dimers containing mono thioether linkers can self-assemble into hollow nanovesicles that exhibit comparable cytotoxicity to Taxol.

The ability of octadecylamine-functionalized nanodiamond to promote anti-inflammatory behaviour in macrophages suggests its potential to act as an anti-inflammatory therapeutic.

Articular cartilage injuries are frequently difficult to repair because of the poor regenerative capacity of this tissue.

Engineering of myocardial tissue constructs is a promising approach for treatment of coronary heart disease.

Temporal control over SDF-1 release via PLGA nanoparticles differentially affects the SDF-1/CXCR4 signaling axis across the adult cortex.

An anti-inflammatory nanoparticle-coated suture reduces inflammation and pain at the wound site.

Cell alignment in muscle, nervous tissue, and cartilage is requisite for proper tissue function; however, cell sheeting techniques using the thermosensitive polymer poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) can only produce anisotropic cell sheets with resource-intensive modifications.

Here, we investigate the tubulogenic potential of commercially-sourced iPS-ECs with and without supporting commercially-sourced hMSCs within 3D natural fibrin or semi-synthetic gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) hydrogels.

Bioactivation of non-cell adhesive hydrophobic polymers was achieved by employing mussel-inspired chemistry in combination with a supramolecular and modular approach.

Engineered fibronectin nanofibers reveal a nodular to fibrillar transformation in molecular conformation during 7-fold extension.

The generation of microgel capsules with a photo-crosslinkable polymer shell and FITC-dextran encapsulation. Scale bars: 100 μm.

A near-infrared fluorescent turn-on probe has been reported for specific HER2 imaging and synergistic enhancement of anticancer activity of doxorubicin.

Cancer stem cells and bulk cancer cells can be simultaneously targeted when using nanomedicine.

Lipid modified magnetic nanoparticles could enhance the intracellular accumulation and immune responses of mouse antigen processing cells.

How to ablate tumor without damaging skin is a challenge for photothermal therapy.

The MRI enhanced by a zwitterionized dendritic contrast agent clearly indicates metastatic tumors in the liver.

Ibuprofen (IBU)-loaded fibrous PLA membranes can prevent peritendinous adhesion/granuloma formation and inflammation by reducing macrophage infiltration.

A Pt(IV)-backboned prodrug-like polymer was synthesized and formulated to a phosphatase-responsive polyion complex for cell-selective delivery.