Special issue on smart materials to regulate cell phenotype
Published 31 March, 2021
Advanced biomaterial healthcare strategies are of particular importance in the pursuit of new solutions in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. As interactions between cells and biomaterial surfaces play a major role in implant performance, the regulation of cellular phenotype via sensing cues coded in biomaterials is an important and timely topic to address. Emerging classes of ‘smart’ materials, designed to respond to various changes in the microenvironment, are exciting candidates to efficiently regulate cellular phenotype and function. Given their potential, there is an urgent need for the optimisation of smart materials and the subsequent characterisation of cell-material interactions and stimuli-sensitive cellular responses. Moreover, new chemical and physical strategies underlying the design of these materials must be developed and characterised.
This special issue will focus on these challenges. It will present and discuss new findings and identify guiding factors for the design and development of new biomaterials for medical applications.
Topics Covered:
- Chemical design of stimuli-sensitive ‘smart’ biomaterials
- Molecular biology of the cellular response to smart materials
- Mechanosensitive responses to smart materials
- Cell-responsive material interactions
- Cell adhesion and migration on/in smart materials
- Cell differentiation regulated by smart materials
- Regulation of cancer cell behaviour via smart materials
- Application of smart materials to tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
- Smart materials to regulate the immune response
- Smart materials controlling therapeutics release in response to cells
Important Deadlines:
- Submission deadline: 31 December 2022
Submission Instructions:
Please read the Guide for Authors before submitting. All articles should be submitted online; please select Regulate Cell Phenotype on submission.
Guest Editors:
- Prof. Qiang Wei, Sichuan University, China. Email: wei@scu.edu.cn
- Prof. Julien Gautrot, Queen Mary University of London, UK. Email: j.gautrot@qmul.ac.uk
- Prof. Andrew Holle, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Email: andrew.w.holle@gmail.com