We are pleased to announce the latest Acta Biomaterialia Special Issue on Zwitterionic Materials, guest edited by Shaoyi Jiang, Kazuhiko Ishihara and Jian Ji.
Avoiding nonspecific protein adsorption is a common theme for many applications of biomaterials. Nonfouling surface coatings, hydrogels and nanoparticles have led to significant improvements in many areas of biomaterials and medical applications.
Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-based nonfouling materials have been commonly used over the last 40 years. In recent years, there have been significant efforts to develop materials as alternatives to PEG. Among these, zwitterionic materials are a unique class of biocompatible and environmentally friendly materials.
Living systems use many zwitterionic molecules, such as amino acids, phospholipids, and DNA, which play an important role in constructing various tissue types and provide significant biological response. From the bio-inspired viewpoint, zwitterionic materials, including polymers bearing phosphorylcholine, carboxybetaine, and sulfobetaine groups, and mixed charged materials, have been investigated.
These materials hold great promise for biomedical and engineering applications and this special issue will provide an overview of the research in the area as well as showcase some of the latest advances.
To view articles in this special issue, please click here.