Biomaterials for advanced biomedical applications

Biomaterials are a type of high-tech materials for disease diagnosis and treatment,human tissue repair,replacement,or function enhancement.The development and application of biomaterials is related to the health of hundreds of millions of people and is also the necessary guarantee for human beings to enjoy high-quality life.As a basis of the whole biomedical engineering,biomaterial industry is also the forefront and key development field of materials science,biotechnology,and clinical medicine.It has also developed into one of the most dynamic and promising industries in the whole economic system.In recent years,the scale of its industry has been growing at a high speed of about 20%.Especially with the aging of the population,the upgrading of consumption and the continuous injection of new technologies,the market scale of biomaterials continues to grow.Therefore,it is particularly important to strengthen the construction of biomaterials related disciplines,accelerate the progress of basic research,promote the research and development of new products,and speed up the industrial development,so as to improve the level of human health and promote social stability and harmonious development.

Benefited from the introduction of new concepts in molecular biology in recent decades,especially the development of genomics and proteomics,the understanding of biomaterials,especially the biocompatibility,is deepening,which has greatly affected the design and use of biomaterials.At the same time,clinical needs and patient expectations continue to grow.Therefore,the development of cuttingedge treatment strategies with novel biomaterials is expected to open new application prospects.This special issue is composed of invited papers,including 11 original research papers and 7 review articles in the field of biomaterials for drug delivery,tissue engineering,antibacterial,immunotherapy,surface modification and 3D bioprinting.All these papers are authored by international leading scientists in the field of biomaterials.They cover the following key themes:

Bio-nanomaterials are widely developed for drug delivery and cancer therapyas reported in “Recent advances of morphology adaptive nanomaterials for anti-cancer drug delivery” by Hao Wang et al.,“Recent advances in functional nanomaterials for X-ray triggered cancer therapy” by Zhuang Liu et al.,“Indocyanine green-based nanodrugs:a portfolio strategy for precision medicine” by Gang Liu et al.,“Polymer coated nanodiamonds as gemcitabine prodrug with enzymatic sensitivity for pancreatic cancer treatment” by Jian Ji et al.,and“Micro-and nano-needles for advanced drug delivery”By Linlin Li et al.

Development of novel bio-mimic materials and biomaterial surface modification methodsare critically important for the regulation of cell fates as reported by the contributions “Cadherin-based biomaterials:inducing stem cells toward tissue construction and therapeutics”by Jun Yang et al.,and“Surface alloyed Ti–Zr layer constructed on titanium by Zr ion implantation for improving physicochemical and osteogenic properties” by Xuanyong Liu et al.

Scaffolds and hydrogels for tissue engineering or disease treatment

is the focus of the contributions including “Preparation of PLGA-collagen hybrid scaffolds with controlled pore structures for cartilage tissue engineering” by Guoping Chen et al.,“A novel injectable fibroblasts-porous PDLLA microspheres/collagen gel composites for softtissue augmentation”by Zhiyong Qian et al.,and“Novel enzymatically crosslinked chitosan hydrogels with free-radical-scavenging property and promoted cellular behaviors under hyperglycemia” by Ki Dong Park et al.

Antibacterial is also an important application of biomaterials.This topic is dealt with by two contributions by Guanghui Ma et al.“Sprayed pickering emulsion with high antibacterial activity for wound healing”and Shuilin Wu et al.“Rapid and highly effective bacteria-killing by polydopamine/IR780@MnO2–Ti using near-infrared light”.

Biomaterials-based immunotherapy or vaccine deliveryis the subject of three contributions including “Development of a nano-immunomodulator encapsulating R837 and caffeine for combined radio-/immunotherapy against orthotopic breast cancer” by Hsin-Cheng Chiu et al.,“Effect of polyvinyl butyrate nanoparticles incorporated with immune suppressing vitamins on alteration of population of intestinal immune cells”by Yoshiki Katayama et al.,and“pH-Responsive vaccine delivery systems for improving cellular immunity” by Wei Xue et al.

Biomaterialsalso play important roles in the development of 3D bioprinting.Three contributions in this special issue are concerned with this topic.They are “Direct ink writing of polycaprolactone/polyethylene oxide based 3D constructs”by Jie Huang et al.,“Patterning the neuronal cells via inkjet printing of self-assembled peptides on silk scaffolds”by Xiubo Zhao et al.,and“Recent advances and challenges in materials for 3D bioprinting” by Zhongwei Gu et al.

All the papers in this special issue are invited contributions and have gone through strict evaluation procedures.I am grateful to all the contributors and reviewers for their outstanding contributions and efforts.I would also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Prof.Yafang Han,the Editor-in-Chief of this journal,and Ms Xiaomei Ma and Dr.Fenfen Liang from the editorial office for their professional guidance and strong support.I do hope this special issue will provide useful information to the readers in the related fields.Professor Zhongwei Gu joined Nanjing Tech University in 2017 from Sichuan University and has been serving as a vice director of Tech Institute for Advanced Materials,director of Research Institute for Biomaterials and NJTech-BARTY Joint Research Center for Innovative Medical Technology.He graduated from Peking University in 1981,received postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Utah(1991-1993) and the Research Triangle Institute (1984-1986) in the United States.He was promoted as a full professor in 1994 and doctoral supervisor at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Beijing Union Medical College,and also is a Distinguished Guest Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Guangdong Province Academy of Sciences.He has been a Fellow of international Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE) since 2004 and won the Distinguished Visiting Fellowship Award of the Royal Academy of Engineering.He was honored for his important contribution to the National Medium-and Long-Term Science and Technology Development Planning Strategy Research.He has thrice been the chief scientist of the National Basic Research Program of China (the 973 program) since 1999.He has also served as a director of National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials and Engineering Research Center in Biomaterials (2005-2015),and director of National International Science and Technology Cooperation Base for Biomaterials since 2007,Sichuan University.He has been elected as an executive member of the council of the Chinese Materials Research Society (C-MRS),executive member of the council of the Chinese Society for Biomedical Engineering(CSBME),vice president and executive member of the council of the Chinese Society for Biomaterials (CSBM),director of the committee of Biomedical Polymer Materials Branch of Chinese Society for Biomaterials,and president of Sichuan Society for Biomedical Engineering.His research focuses on molecular design and precise preparation of novel biomedical polymers,self-assembled and nano-biomaterials,bioinspired and biomimetic materials for drug/gene delivery/molecular diagnosis/tissue engineering/regenerative medicine,and 3D bio-printing.He won the first prize of the Natural Science Award of the Ministry of Education of China,and has published over 400 peer-reviewed scientific papers on biomedical materials and written/translated 15 books and chapters,has more than 40 issued patents including US and EU patents.He has served as an invited speaker at many international and domestic conferences,including plenary/keynote/invited lectures.