Editorial pubs.acs.org/cm
Preface to the Chemistry of Materials Special Issue: Materials for Biological Applications
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imaging materials, including nanocarriers, is reviewed by Prud’homme and colleagues. Brennan and co-workers review the use of sol−gel derived silica materials for optical biosensing, while Ariga et al. describe the use of inorganic structures and their assemblies in the design and construction of artificial materials for biological applications. The field of polymers for therapeutic delivery has rapidly grown over the past decade. Advances in this area are reviewed by Larson and Ghandehari. We express our warm thanks to Marc Riemer and Meeli Chew Leith, who coordinated the handling of the manuscripts for the Special Issue, as well as the authors and reviewers who provided timely articles and reviews. We hope that this Special Issue provides you with a survey of the various types of chemistries that are used to prepare diverse functional materials for use in a range of biological applications. We sincerely hope that you find it valuable reading and useful in your scientific research and teaching endeavors and that it will stimulate further developments in this rapidly expanding area.
dvances in materials chemistry underpin developments in research areas spanning the physical, life, and engineering sciences and the biological fields. This Special Issue on “Materials for Biological Applications” contains a diverse collection of papers that highlight the latest developments in materials used in biological applications, including biosensing, imaging, drug and gene delivery, and tissue engineering, as well as advances in biomaterials and biointerfaces. Material building blocks covered in the issue include polymers, peptides, proteins, liquid crystals, and inorganic nanoparticles. This Special Issue contains review articles as well as research articles in this burgeoning field. Demonstrating the importance of interfacial chemistry for biological sensing, Lowe and Abbott review the formation and application of liquid crystalline materials that undergo ordering transitions to sense proteins, nucleic acids, viruses, bacteria, and mammalian cells. Self-assembled liquid crystal structures, as described by Andersson and colleagues, can be used to prepare bone-like nanocrystalline apatite. Designing surfaces for biological responses is also important in the field of DNA arrays and cell attachment. The use of polyelectrolyte multilayers for the in situ synthesis of oligonucleotide arrays on surfaces coated with cross-linked polymer multilayers is reported by Lynn and co-workers, while Kolodziej and Maynard review the use of electron beam lithography to pattern biomolecules on surfaces and their subsequent use to immobilize cells for tissue engineering applications. Advincula and colleagues demonstrate the preparation of smart and tunable biomaterial surfaces that can be either resistant or susceptible to proteins and bacterial cell adhesion by simple potential switching on reversibly wettable polymer films. Wallace and co-workers review protein interactions with organic conducting polymers, a class of “intelligent” and dynamic materials that offer unique strategies for controlling protein interactions. van Hest and co-workers provide a review of peptide and protein-based hydrogels, materials that show promise for use as injectable biomaterials in the field of tissue engineering. The review by Shakesheff and colleagues examines the underlying chemistry of various injectable scaffolds and describes the challenges for these materials in regenerative medicine in the future. Polyelectrolyte multilayer assemblies also hold promise for tissue engineering applications. Picart and colleagues review the chemical and physical properties that are important for biological processes in these systems, while Voegel and coworkers describe research on using chemically detachable polyelectrolyte films for cell sheet engineering. These systems have potential applications for tissue repair. Nanoparticles play a significant role in the area of drug delivery, imaging, and sensing. Parak and co-workers review the area of optical sensing of small ions with gold nanoparticles and quantum dots. Their potential use for intracellular detection in biological samples is highlighted. The field of near-infrared © 2012 American Chemical Society
Frank Caruso, Special Issue Co-Editor Patrick Stayton, Special Issue Co-Editor Michael D. Ward, Special Issue Co-Editor
Special Issue: Materials for Biological Applications Published: March 13, 2012 727
dx.doi.org/10.1021/cm3000969 | Chem. Mater. 2012, 24, 727−727
