This book explores the potential of hydrogels as a multiutility system and their benefits (biocompatibility, degradability, and supporting scaffolds) for a wide range of applications in diagnostics and therapeutics. It also discusses the future prospects and challenges facing hydrogels. A wide variety of smart hydrogels (conducting, stimuli responsive, and others) with possible biomedical applications are elaborated. The book demonstrates the effectiveness of hydrogels in diagnostics of diseases in various in vivo and in vitro environments and highlights the engineering/functionalization of hydrogels for everyday drug dosage as an efficient drug carrier, scaffold, and sensing application. Explores the potential of hydrogels as a multifunctional system and their benefits, particularly for biomedical applications in diagnostics as well as therapeutics. Highlights the designing and engineering of hydrogels for everyday drug dosage and possible functionalization to fabricate an efficient drug carrier. Examines the significance of biopolymer-based hydrogels and their responsiveness in different physiological fluids. Demonstrates the effectiveness of hydrogels in diagnostics of diseases in various in,vivo and in,vitro environments. Presents challenges associated with the hydrogels and discusses possible in-hand modifications at length. Dr. Anujit Ghosal worked in the School of Biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. Currently, he is affiliated with the School of Life Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, PRC. Dr. Ghosal researches in biochemistry, polymer chemistry, and nanotechnology. He has been the recipient of prestigious fellowships throughout his research career. His research ability is proven by his published peer-reviewed research and review articles and contributed book chapters. Dr. Ajeet Kaushik works as an assistant professor of chemistry and is exploring advanced electrochemical sensing systems and nanomedicine for personalized health wellness at the Department of Natural Sciences of the Division of Science, Arts, and Mathematics at Florida Polytechnic University, Lakeland, US. He is the recipient of various reputed awards for his service in the area of nanobiotechnology for health care. His excellent research credentials are reflected by his four edited books, 100 international research peer-reviewed publications, and three patents in the area of nanomedicine and smart biosensors for personalized health care.

This volume of Progress in Colloid and Polymer Science assembles original contributions and invited reviews from the priority research program "Intelligent Hydrogels", funded by the German Science Foundation DFG since 2006, with about 25 contributing research groups. In the center of interest of this program and the present book are responsive hydrogels, i.e. hydrophilic polymer or polyelectrolyte networks that are able to respond to environmental stimuli such as changes in temperature, pH, additive concentration or electrical field. The activities focus on different aspects: on hydrogel synthesis, on the modeling and simulation of thermophysical hydrogel properties, as well as on innovative new hydrogel applications as smart materials. The present book summarizes the highlights in the results of the priority program in original contributions and invited reviews.

This book discusses recent advances in hydrogels, including their generation and applications and presents a compendium of fundamental concepts. It highlights the most important hydrogel materials, including physical hydrogels, chemical hydrogels, and nanohydrogels and explores the development of hydrogel-based novel materials that respond to external stimuli, such as temperature, pressure, pH, light, biochemicals or magnetism, which represent a new class of intelligent materials. With their multiple cooperative functions, hydrogel-based materials exhibit different potential applications ranging from biomedical engineering to water purification systems. This book covers key topics including superabsorbent polymer hydrogel; intelligent hydrogels for drug delivery; hydrogels from catechol-conjugated materials; nanomaterials loaded hydrogel; electrospinning of hydrogels; biopolymers-based hydrogels; injectable hydrogels; interpenetrating-polymer-network hydrogels: radiation- and sonochemical synthesis of micro/nano/macroscopic hydrogels; DNA-based hydrogels; and multifunctional applications of hydrogels. It will prove a valuable resource for researchers working in industry and academia alike.

This volume of Progress in Colloid and Polymer Science assembles original contributions and invited reviews from the priority research program "Intelligent Hydrogels", funded by the German Science Foundation DFG since 2006, with about 25 contributing research groups. In the center of interest of this program and the present book are responsive hydrogels, i.e. hydrophilic polymer or polyelectrolyte networks that are able to respond to environmental stimuli such as changes in temperature, pH, additive concentration or electrical field. The activities focus on different aspects: on hydrogel synthesis, on the modeling and simulation of thermophysical hydrogel properties, as well as on innovative new hydrogel applications as smart materials. The present book summarizes the highlights in the results of the priority program in original contributions and invited reviews.

Following an overview of nanotechnologies for diagnostic purposes, this book goes on to look at nanoparticle-based magnetic resonance, molecular and other imaging applications, as well as the potential roles of carbon nanotubes and bionanoparticles in biomedical applications. The book's main focus is on drug delivery systems based on nonporous and nanosize materials, solid lipid and polymeric nanoparticles, intelligent hydrogels, core-shell nanoparticles, and nanocapsules, rounded off by a discussion of their biomedical applications. The final part of this volume covers such biomedical strategies as gene therapy, synthetic gene-transfer vectors and targeted delivery.

"Smart and intelligent nanomaterials are currently in sharp focus in materials research as their properties are increasingly becoming more understood. This large and fairly comprehensive volume includes thirty chapters divided into four main areas: Inorganic materials, organic materials, composite materials, and biomaterials. It covers the latest research and developments in smart nanomaterials: processing, properties, and applications. Included are molecular device materials, biomimetic materials, hybrid-type functionalized polymers-composite materials, information-and energy-transfer materials, as well as environmentally friendly materials"--

The science of mathematical modelling and numerical simulation is generally accepted as the third mode of scienti?c discovery (with the other two modes being experiment and analysis), making this ?eld an integral component of c- ting edge scienti?c and industrial research in most domains. This is especially so in advanced biomaterials such as polymeric hydrogels responsive to biostimuli for a wide range of potential BioMEMS applications, where multiphysics and mul- phase are common requirements. These environmental stimuli-responsive hydrogels are often known as smart hydrogels. In the published studies on the smart or stimu- responsive hydrogels, the literature search clearly indicates that the vast majority are experimental based. In particular, although there are a few published books on the smart hydrogels, none is involved in the modelling of smart hydrogels. For the few published journal papers that conducted mathematical modelling and numerical simulation, results were far from satisfactory, and showed signi?cant d- crepancies when compared with existing experimental data. This has resulted in ad hoc studies of these hydrogel materials mainly conducted by trial and error. This is a very time-consuming and inef?cient process, and certain aspects of fun- mental knowledge are often missed or overlooked, resulting in off-tangent research directions.