Themed collection Biomaterials Science Lectureship Winners

Lipid-based nanomaterials have shown to mediate specific and effective CRISPR delivery in vivo for the treatment of various diseases, including cancers, genetic disorders and infectious diseases.

DNA scaffolds with programmability in size, shape and surface chemistry have been engineered for the delivery of various anticancer therapeutics.

Hydrogels offer controllable and well-defined in vitro platforms to study the role of the fibroblast in wound healing and fibrosis.

Phototherapies including photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) have gained considerable attention due to their high tumor ablation efficiency, excellent spatial resolution and minimal side effects on normal tissue.

This review highlights how the dynamic chemistry of supramolecular polymeric hydrogels affords macroscopic properties implemented in emerging biomaterials.

Synthetic multifunctional assembling peptides were designed to mimic the structure of collagen and allow independent control of hydrogel mechanical and biochemical properties through covalent crosslinking, enabling long-term in vitro 3D cell culture.

Delivery is the key challenge for siRNA based therapeutics.

Enzymatically-responsive bivalirudin polymers loaded in thermoresponsive hydrogels mediate localized therapeutic peptide delivery in spinal cord injuries. These materials respond to upregulated remodelling enzymes to release therapeutic peptide into injured tissue.

Prolonged maintenance of therapeutically-relevant levels of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) is necessary to enable passive immunization against infectious disease.

Bioadhesive hydrogel patches based on chemically modified photocrosslinkable polymers with specific physicochemical properties for sealing and repair of ocular injuries.

Micelles loaded in a photocrosslinkable gelatin based hydrogel as a non-invasive suture-free approach for corneal tissue regeneration after injury with infection.

Growth factor delivery is often challenging due to their short half-life, low stability, and rapid deactivation. Here, we engineered novel biomimetic proteoglycan nanocarriers for the immobilization and controlled release of growth factors.

The design of new hydrogel-based biomaterials with tunable physical and biological properties is essential for the advancement of applications related to tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

In this work, we establish an approach for the three-dimensional (3D) culture and differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) within well-defined synthetic matrices using light-based chemistries of relevance for the study of both disease and regeneration.

Engineering visible light crosslinked GelMA hydrogels with tunable physical properties.

Tumor-targeting nanoparticles based on transferrin-capped polypyrrole are fabricated by a one-step approach for combination cancer therapy with a remarkable synergistic therapeutic effect.

Poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogel crosslinking mechanism has a differential effect on controlling protein release.

Reducible, dibromomaleimide-linked polycations exhibit reduced cytotoxicity compared to their non-degradable analogs and can be site-specifically functionalized.

Thiol–ene photoclick hydrogels with tunable biomechanical and biochemical properties for biological applications, including controlled cell culture, regenerative medicine, and drug delivery.

Inserting an ester bond into self-assembling peptides generated controllably degradable nanofibers and hydrogels for 3D cell culture.

Guanidinylated HPMA-co-oligolysine copolymers exhibit higher transfection efficiency to cultured cells than analogous lysine-based polymers for nucleic acid delivery.

Presented is an engineered PEG hydrogel capable of supporting the viability and subsequent axon extension of encapsulated mouse embryonic stem cell-derived motor neurons in 3D.