Themed collection Biomaterials Science Emerging Investigators 2021

This themed collection in Biomaterials Science highlights the work of emerging investigators in the field of biomaterials science. Editor-in-Chief Jianjun Cheng and Executive Editor Maria Southall introduce the issue.

Surface acoustic wave microfluidic technology has found great potential in biomaterials science thanks to its advantages in micro/nano manipulation and characterization.

The biomaterials have been well designed as photoabsorbing/sensitizing agents or effective carriers to enhance the photoimmunotherapeutic efficacy and evade their side effects.

The illustration highlights the different functionalities of bioinks brought on by nanoparticles. Alongside, the figure also displays some of the applications of these nanoengineered bioinks.

Engineering the architectures of antimicrobial peptide-polymer conjugates provides compelling opportunities to balance bactericidal activity with stability and biocompatibility, to address the critical need for innovative antimicrobial treatments.

Cartilage-like hydrogels based on materials like gelatin, chondroitin sulfate, hyaluronic acid and polyethylene glycol are reviewed and contrasted, revealing existing limitations and challenges on biomimetic hydrogels for cartilage regeneration.

Hydrogel nanofibers build on established soft biomaterials to enable design and control of unique, dynamic cell culture systems.

Illustration of engineered hydrogel to recapitulate aspects of the tumor microenvironment.

Recent advances in biomaterial delivery vehicles have increased the ability to tailor precise protein delivery to restore normal healing cascades and stimulate robust tissue repair.

Neurodegenerative disorders, ischemic brain diseases, and brain tumors are debilitating diseases that severely impact a person's life and could possibly lead to their demise if left untreated.

Properties of native tissue can inspire biomimetic in vitro models of gynecological disease.

Recent advances in improving cancer immunotherapy have been summarized with a focus on using functionalized intact cells and cell derivatives.

Functional hydrogels show great potential for promoting the structural integration and signal transduction at bio/electronic interfaces.

The development of biomaterial-based therapeutics to induce immune tolerance holds great promise for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, allergy, and graft rejection in transplantation.

Biomaterials are emerging as invaluable tools to investigate key mechanisms of human development using advance in vitro models. Nanomaterials can contribute to further refine these models.

Extracellular vesicles have shown great advantages in cancer therapy, but there are still huge challenges to be overcome to implement their wide clinical application.

This review discusses the progress in developing materials that enhance viral transduction, including polymers, peptides, lipids, nanoparticles, and small molecules.

This review highlights the importance of flow in medical device thrombosis and explores current and emerging technologies to evaluate dynamic biomaterial Thrombosis in vitro.

This review highlights recent progress to develop biomaterials that boost tumor immunogenicity and improve the response rate to cancer immunotherapies.

The global surge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major concern for public health and proving to be a key challenge in modern disease treatment, requiring action plans at all levels.

This review summarizes the structures and biomedical applications of zwitterionic biomaterials in the administration of insulin.

This feature article summarizes the recent progress, challenges and future directions of free radical scavengers based on polydopamine, including the integrated mechanism, current regulating strategies, and kinds of biomedical applications.

Nanomedicine research has increased drastically over the past ten years, however, before clinical translation many regulatory factors must be considered.

Peptide-functionalized 3D-printed scaffolds drive mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) differentiation towards osteogenesis or chondrogenesis based on the presence and organization of both cartilage-promoting and bone-promoting peptides.

Using high-throughput screening, we were able to identify topographies that can significantly improve the efficiency of nonviral neuronal reprogramming.

The ability to spatiotemporally control the presentation of relevant biomolecules in synthetic culture systems has gained significant attention as researchers strive to recapitulate the endogenous extracellular matrix (ECM) in vitro.

We developed GRAS nanofibers for the delivery of viable bacteria into the gut. Model bacterium were encapsulated in alginate-based nanofibers via electrospinning and a bacteria loading of 2.74 × 10⁵ CFU g⁻¹ of mat was achieved.

A nano-hybrid oligopeptide hydrogel embedded with transfersomes is developed for topical delivery of anticancer drugs to inhibit the post-surgical tumour recurrence.

aECMs imparting integrin selectivity (α₅β₁ and α_vβ₃) and directional guidance cues are developed using MMP degradable PEG hydrogels, functionalized with bicyclic RGD peptides, and including aligned magnetic, short fibers for 3D oriented nerve growth.

In silico modelling can be a powerful design tool to predict the behaviour of additively manufacturable composite synthetic vascular conduits and grafts with tuneable compliance.

A new approach for obtaining highly conductive, yet biocompatible, 3D electroconductive porous scaffolds based on PEDOT:PSS and treated with sulphuric acid crystallisation, that can be processed with both isotropic and anisotropic microarchitecture.

Three chemically distinct polymeric excipients show significantly different effects on the nucleation and crystal growth kinetics of amorphous fluconazole, a classical antifungal drug.

With the morphological transformation of fluorescent self-assembled nanostructures, their functions can be varied simultaneously.

Galectin8-GFP cytosolic redistribution to bright puncta serve as sensor for LNP escape from endosomal compartments.

High-purity milk exosomes were engineered with surface PEGylation and siRNA encapsulation for enhanced oral drug delivery.

Collagen-glycosaminoglycan scaffolds are functionalized with alginate that responds to ultrasound by releasing nanoparticles on-demand for coordinated wound healing.

CATCH(+/−) peptide co-assemblies form injectable, biocompatible hydrogels with sequence-dependent viscoelastic properties.

We report the development of a polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogel scaffold that provides the advantages of conventional bulk PEG hydrogels for engineering cellular microenvironments and allows for rapid cell migration.

A nanoparticle-based formulation of sorafenib (NP-sfb) significantly inhibited hepatocellular carcinoma by suppressing angiogenesis and promoting cytotoxic T lymphocyte infiltration.

Functional graphenic material (FGM) scaffolds instruct bacterial attachment through electrostatic interactions with the bacterial cell wall.

Emulsion electrospinning is a versatile technique used to create tunable fibrous meshes for applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering.

High-throughput in vivo screening identified several LNPs formulated with DOPE that preferentially accumulated in the liver, while identical LNPs formulated with DSPC preferentially accumulated in the spleen.

Stacked porous silk scaffolds support spatial, cell-driven changes in an in vitro neuroblastoma model.

This work provides microenvironmental design parameters to optimize iPSC-cardiomyocyte tissues formed on tunable synthetic matrices that mimic myocardial ECM.

Targeted delivery of chemotherapeutics to cancer cells has the potential to yield high drug concentrations in cancer cells while minimizing any unwanted side effects.

Silk photo-lyogels fabricated by di-tyrosine photo-crosslinking and ice-templating silk fibroin on 3D printed templates toward in situ tissue engineering applications.

Complex coacervation shows promise as a strategy to improve the thermal stability of viruses for use in vaccine formulations.

Macroporous and mechanically reinforced sequential IPN hydrogels combine the biological activity of fibrin with the robust mechanical properties of PEG to generate advanced scaffolds for dermal tissue engineering.

C6M3 peptide modified polycations can mediate efficient gene delivery through pH triggered lytic activity for endo/lysosomal escape.

In this article, we describe a silver-decorated, light-activatable polymeric antimicrobial with strong synergistic chemo-photodynamic effect to combat bacterial infections.

Peptide hydrogels loaded with granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor and poly-(lactic-co-glycolic acid) microparticles can recapitulate lactate concentrations and the immunosuppressive nature of the tumor microenvironment.

Fe₃O₄@GO/BMP2 protecting mesenchymal stem cells by regulating reactive oxygen species and promoting osteogenic differentiation of cells.

Immune modulatory alginate encapsulation platform can be used in the pericardial space to provide enhanced therapeutic efficacy to the heart.

A novel cyclic graft polymeric prodrug with heterogeneous grafts of hydrophilic oligo (ethylene glycol) and reducibly conjugated camptothecin was synthesized with greater in vitro cytotoxicity against cancer cells than the linear graft analogues.

Rapamycin encapsulated in mono-(6-amino-6-deoxy)-beta cyclodextrin efficiently expands regulatory T cells for cell-based immunotherapy.