Advances in Nanostructured Biomaterials and Their Applications

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Synthesis, Interfaces and Nanostructures".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 11656

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
UCL Institute for Materials Discovery, University College London, London WC1E 7JE, UK
Interests: nanostructured materials; biomaterials; bionanomaterials; functional thin films and coatings; nanocomposites; chemical vapour deposition; (bio)sensors; functional nanostructured materials; healthcare and biomedical applications
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The design and engineering of biomaterials at nanoscale has transformed nanostructured biomaterials with unique properties for real world applications, including therapeutic, tissue engineering, drug/cell/gene delivery, imaging, medical implants and diagnostics.

This special issue aims to publish original, innovative, cutting edge and ground-breaking nanostructured biomaterials research. This includes communications and review articles, covering advances in the fundamental understanding, development and applications of nanostructured biomaterials obtained through experimental, theoretical and/or modelling approaches, addressing current limitations, challenges and outlook in this field towards practical industry, healthcare and biomedical applications.

We invite you to contribute to this special issue including but not limited to the following topics:

  • Novel nanostructured biomaterials applied in 1D, 2D, 3D and/or coatings and their applications, including sensing, healthcare, biomedical research or tissue engineering.
  • Nanoengineered biomaterials, including bioactive and/or biodegradable materials.
  • Sustainable and cost-effective fabrication of nanostructured biomaterials, including bionanocomposites.
  • Functionalisation and/or nano-surface engineering of biomaterials.
  • Improvement in characterisation and clinical testing of nanostructured biomaterials.
  • Interaction of nanostructured biomaterials with biological molecules such as proteins/enzymes, DNA, RNA, antibodies etc.
  • Surface and interface control in nanostructured biomaterials.
  • Intelligent (smart), biomimetic nanostructured biomaterials and their applications.

Prof. Kwang Leong Choy
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nanomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Nanoengineered biomaterials 
  • Bioactive coatings
  • Intelligent biomaterials
  • Bionanocomposites
  • Biodegradable materials
  • Surface modification
  • Biomedical applications

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 2679 KiB  
Article
Lyophilized Gelatin@non-Woven Scaffold to Promote Spheroids Formation and Enrich Cancer Stem Cell Incidence
by Jingjing Fu, Feng Chen, Huihui Chai, Lixia Gao, Xiaohui Lv and Ling Yu
Nanomaterials 2022, 12(5), 808; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12050808 - 28 Feb 2022
Viewed by 2264
Abstract
A gelatin@non-woven fabric (gelatin@NWF) hybrid scaffold with tailored micropore structures was fabricated by lyophilizing, using gelatin to support cells and the NWF matrix as a frame to enforce the mechanical stability of gelatin. By freezing the gelatin and NWF hybrid in liquid nitrogen [...] Read more.
A gelatin@non-woven fabric (gelatin@NWF) hybrid scaffold with tailored micropore structures was fabricated by lyophilizing, using gelatin to support cells and the NWF matrix as a frame to enforce the mechanical stability of gelatin. By freezing the gelatin and NWF hybrid in liquid nitrogen and subsequently lyophilizing and crosslinking the process, the gelatin@NWF scaffold was prepared to support cell growth and promote cell aggregation and spheroids’ formation. The results indicated that by tuning the lyophilizing temperature, the micropore size on the gelatin could be tailored. Consequently, tumor spheroids can be formed on gelatin@NWF scaffolds with honeycomb-like pores around 10 µm. The cell spheroids formed on the tailored gelatin@NWF scaffold were characterized in cancer stem cell (CSC)-associated gene expression, chemotherapy drug sensitivity, and motility. It was found that the expression of the CSC-associated biomarkers SOX2, OCT4, and ALDH1A1 in gene and protein levels in DU 145 cell spheres formed on gelatin@NWF scaffolds were significantly higher than in those cells grown as monolayers. Moreover, cells isolated from spheroids grown on gelatin@NWF scaffold showed higher drug resistance and motility. Tumor spheroids can be formed on a long-term storage scaffold, highlighting the potential of gelatin@NWF as a ready-to-use scaffold for tumor cell sphere generation and culturing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Nanostructured Biomaterials and Their Applications)
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13 pages, 4642 KiB  
Article
Sponge-like Chitosan Based Porous Monolith for Uraemic Toxins Sorption
by Siyu Xiong, Yaxuan Lyu, Andrew Davenport and Kwang Leong Choy
Nanomaterials 2021, 11(9), 2247; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11092247 - 30 Aug 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2193
Abstract
More than three million patients are treated for kidney failure world-wide. Haemodialysis, the most commonly used treatment, requires large amounts of water and generates mountains of non-recyclable plastic waste. To improve the environmental footprint, dialysis treatments need to develop absorbents to regenerate the [...] Read more.
More than three million patients are treated for kidney failure world-wide. Haemodialysis, the most commonly used treatment, requires large amounts of water and generates mountains of non-recyclable plastic waste. To improve the environmental footprint, dialysis treatments need to develop absorbents to regenerate the waste dialysate. Whereas conventional dialysis clears water-soluble toxins, it is not so effective in clearing protein-bound uraemic toxins (PBUTs), such as indoxyl sulfate (IS). Thus, developing absorption devices to remove both water-soluble toxins and PBUTs would be advantageous. Vapour induced phase separation (VIPS) has been used in this work to produce polycaprolactone/chitosan (PCL/CS) composite symmetric porous monoliths with extra porous carbon additives to increase creatinine and albumin-bound IS absorption. Moreover, these easy-to-fabricate porous monoliths can be formed into the required geometry. The PCL/CS porous monoliths absorbed 436 μg/g of albumin-bound IS and 2865 μg/g of creatinine in a single-pass perfusion model within 1 h. This porous PCL/CS monolith could potentially be used to absorb uraemic toxins, including PBUTs, and thus allow the regeneration of waste dialysate and the development of a new generation of environmentally sustainable dialysis treatments, including wearable devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Nanostructured Biomaterials and Their Applications)
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13 pages, 4569 KiB  
Article
Highly Efficient and Wide Range Humidity Response of Biocompatible Egg White Thin Film
by Hafiz Mohammad Mutee Ur Rehman, Muhammad Muqeet Rehman, Muhammad Saqib, Shenawar Ali Khan, Maryam Khan, Yunsook Yang, Seongwan Kim, Sheik Abdur Rahman and Woo-Young Kim
Nanomaterials 2021, 11(7), 1815; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11071815 - 13 Jul 2021
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 4403
Abstract
Biopolymers are a solution to solve the increasing problems caused by the advances and revolution in the electronic industry owing to the use of hazardous chemicals. In this work, we have used egg white (EW) as the low-cost functional layer of a biocompatible [...] Read more.
Biopolymers are a solution to solve the increasing problems caused by the advances and revolution in the electronic industry owing to the use of hazardous chemicals. In this work, we have used egg white (EW) as the low-cost functional layer of a biocompatible humidity sensor and deposited it on gold (Au) interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) patterned through the state-of-the-art fabrication technology of thermal vacuum evaporation. The presence of hydrophilic proteins inside the thin film of EW makes it an attractive candidate for sensing humidity. Usually, the dependence of the percentage of relative humidity (%RH) on the reliability of measurement setup is overlooked for impedimetric humidity sensors but we have used a modified experimental setup to enhance the uniformity of the obtained results. The characteristics of our device include almost linear response with a quick response time (1.2 s) and fast recovery time (1.7 s). High sensitivity of 50 kΩ/%RH was achieved in the desirable detection range of 10–85%RH. The device size was intentionally kept small for its potential integration in a marketable chip. Results for the response of our fabricated sensor for dry and wet fingertips, along with determining the rate of breathing through the mouth, are part of this study, making it a potential device for health monitoring. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Nanostructured Biomaterials and Their Applications)
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17 pages, 2390 KiB  
Article
Integration of an Aerosol-Assisted Deposition Technique for the Deposition of Functional Biomaterials Applied to the Fabrication of Miniaturised Ion Sensors
by Antonio Ruiz-Gonzalez and Kwang-Leong Choy
Nanomaterials 2021, 11(4), 938; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11040938 - 07 Apr 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1697
Abstract
Ion-selective electrodes are at the forefront of research nowadays, with applications in healthcare, agriculture and water quality analysis among others. Despite multiple attempts of miniaturization of these polyvinyl chloride (PVC) gel-based ion sensors, no ion-sensing devices with a thickness below the micrometer range, [...] Read more.
Ion-selective electrodes are at the forefront of research nowadays, with applications in healthcare, agriculture and water quality analysis among others. Despite multiple attempts of miniaturization of these polyvinyl chloride (PVC) gel-based ion sensors, no ion-sensing devices with a thickness below the micrometer range, and operating using open circuit potential, have been developed so far. This work reports the causes of this thickness limitation in potassium-selective sensors. Highly homogeneous ion-sensing films were fabricated by a method based on aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition, leading to smooth surfaces with 27 ± 11 nm of roughness. Such homogeneity allowed the systematic study of the performance and ionic diffusion properties of the sensing films at sub-micrometer scales. Sensitivities below the Nernst response were found at low thicknesses. The nature of this reduction in sensitivity was studied, and a difference in the superficial and bulk compositions of the films was measured. An optimal configuration was found at 15 µm, with a good selectivity against Na+ (KK+, Na+ = −1.8) a limit of detection in the range of 10−4 M and esponse time below 40 s. The stability of sensors was improved by the deposition of protective layers, which expanded the lifespan of the ion sensors up to 5 weeks while preserving the Nernst sensitivity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Nanostructured Biomaterials and Their Applications)
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