Themed collection 10th Anniversary: Most popular articles

Approaches to thromboresistant materials are discussed including passivation; incorporation and/or release of anticoagulants, antiplatelet agents, thrombolytic agents; and mimicry of the vascular endothelium.

Injectable hydrogels have become an incredibly prolific area of research in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, because of their high water content, mechanical similarity to natural tissues, and ease of surgical implantation, hydrogels are at the forefront of biomedical scaffold and drug carrier design.

Chitosan bone scaffolds including porous sponges, nanofibers and hydrogels are highlighted along with scaffold fabrications and the influence of processing parameters on scaffold properties.

Over the past decades, injectable hydrogels have emerged as promising biomaterials because of their biocompatibility, excellent permeability, minimal invasion, and easy integration into surgical procedures.

Hydrogen-bonding (H-bonding) is a relatively strong, highly directional, and specific noncovalent interaction present in many organic molecules, and notably is responsible for supramolecular ordering in biological systems. This article aims to highlight recent work on the application of nature-inspired H-bonded organic molecules in organic electronic devices.

This review highlights recent advances in cryogelation techniques and starting materials that can be utilised to synthesise biocompatible and biologically relevant cryogels as well as discussing physicochemical characterisation techniques for these materials. It also discusses emerging trends in the application of cryogels, particularly as 3D ECM mimicking scaffolds for cell culture and tissue engineering.

Carbon “quantum” dots and their uses as high-performance yet nontoxic fluorescence agents for optical bioimaging are highlighted and discussed.

An overview of the properties of chitosan-based materials: polyelectrolyte complexes, gels, chitosan-surfactant complexes, smart coatings, organic–inorganic hybrids.

This review is a comprehensive overview and analysis of the most important advances in the field of substituted hydroxyapatite coatings.

Endo-lysosomal escape strategies of cationic polymer-mediated gene delivery at a glance.

The development of flexible and wearable healthcare devices facilitates a real-time monitoring of body activities as well as detecting various biosignals, which provided useful information to manage one's health condition for personal health monitoring.

In this review we present new concepts and recent progress in the application of semiconductor quantum dots (QD) as labels in two important areas of biology, bioimaging and biosensing.

Shining a light on spectrally converting lanthanide (Ln³⁺)-doped nanoparticles: progress, trends, and challenges in Ln³⁺-nanoprobes for near-infrared bioimaging, nanothermometry, and photodynamic therapy.

This review summarises smart thermo-responsive polymeric materials with reversible and ‘on–off’ remotely switchable properties for a wide range of biomedical and biomaterials applications.

Current efforts in the formulation of graphene-based nanocomposites with antimicrobial and antibiofilm activities in fighting against bacterial targets are reviewed.

Antifouling (AF) coatings bring economic benefits but raise environmental and health concerns. Non-toxic, non-biocide-release AF strategies are reviewed according to “detachment of biofoulants” and “prevention of attachment” approaches. Chemical and physical aspects of AF mechanisms and new amphiphilic, superhydrophilic and topographic AF strategies are discussed.

Structurally precise biohybrid nanomaterials were created by grafting various polymers to DNA with high conversions under ambient conditions. They are patterned onto DNA origami nanostructures to form customizable surface contours.

Microwave-assisted pyrolysis of natural phosphorus-rich phytic acid under the passivation of diamine offers a facile way to synthesize carbon dots with strong green fluorescence for bioimaging and biolabeling.

In situ polymerization at a bi-solvent interface produced Au–Ag alloy embedded PEDOT nanohybrids for non-enzymatic histamine detection. The composite demonstrated practical viability by detecting histamine produced by sub-cultured human neural cells.

The cellular damage response induced by γ-rays, X-rays and proton beams suggest these type of radiations are promising therapeutic modalities against resistant glioblastoma tumours when combined to stable metallacarboranes as radiosensitizers and PBFR.

The metallo-curcumin complexes, copper–curcumin and nickel–curcumin, are promising anti-endometriotic agents due to their high antioxidant activity, selective cytotoxicity and active transport mediated accumulation in endometriotic cells.

Bacillus subtilis are probiotic microbes that are difficult to formulate when they are not in their spore form. Using self-assembling coatings, these cells were successfully protected during the freeze-drying process.

A novel coating with antifouling and antimicrobial dual functions was fabricated to prevent transmission and spread of infectious diseases.

Hydroxyapatite (HAP) grafted with poly( D-lactide) (PDLA) was incorporated into poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) to construct a stereocomplex, thus improving the interfacial bonding between PLLA and HAP like a zip-lock structure in a scaffold.

GCMC simulation is the workhorse for simulating adsorption phenomena, explaining and predicting new experimental results for drug delivery applications.

S-doped carbon quantum dots have been synthesized and employed as a luminescent probe for multimodal applications.

The current work demonstrates that PEGylated reduced graphene oxide (PEG–RGO) has superior ssRNA loading and intracellular delivery capability, compared with its unreduced derivative, the widely studied PEG–GO.