Micro- and Nanoengineering of Biomaterials for Healthcare Applications

Abstract

Many advances in the healthcare industry have been enabled by innovations in materials science and engineering. Materials science has revolutionized medicine in a range of applications from the implantable stents for treating occluded blood vessels to degradable polymers for cancer drug delivery. While much attention has been given to the chemistry and the physical properties of these materials, it is now clear that the architecture of these materials is also important for directing their biological performance. Thus, appreciating the intricacies of materials architecture as well as combining these advantages with advances in materials chemistry may ignite future advances in biomedical industry. This special issue of Advanced Healthcare Materials was especially commissioned and prepared to highlight the latest advances in the application of micro- and nanoscale engineering of materials for various biological and biomedical applications. This issue comprises a number of original research articles and state-of-the-art reviews on the development and applications of micro- and nanoscale technologies for biomedicine.