Rational Design and Characterization of Innovative Multifunctional Biomimetic Materials

Tissue engineering is an attractive approach for restoring diseased or defective tissues for organ rehabilitation. However, when therapy is targeted at a tissue unable to undergo self-healing, the surgical application of biomimetic materials resembling the specific extracellular environment can be useful, but insufficient, to promote a full repair process. As such, next-generation biomimetic materials should hold multi-functional properties in order to provide a suitable environment for cells over time, allowing harmonization with the surrounding tissues in order to maximize tissue cross-talk. Moreover, they should be effective in preventing adverse events such as infections and inflammation. Finally, material properties should be targeted as much as possible toward a patient's personalized healing signature to optimize surgical and post-surgical management. For these reasons the design of materials is not trivial, and requires a rational approach and a robust preventive analysis, as well as careful characterization and evaluation to provide safety and repair efficacy. In this regard, improvements toward personalized regenerative medicine are essential to maximize the therapeutic outcome.

Based on these premises, the aim of this Research Topic is to provide for the Materials Science and Biomaterials community an updated state-of-the-art of research on design, characterization, manufacturing, and applications of biomimetic materials addressed to functionally regenerate tissues, support environmental cross-talk, and prevent infections. Advances in these fields will assist in disseminating the latest techniques aimed at improving materials' pro-regenerative properties.

We seek to collect experimental or theoretical review articles and leading-edge research papers dealing with biomimetic-material manufacturing and characterization, cell and stem-cell biology in response to material properties, microbiology, as well as in-vitro and in silico modeling for prosthetic and regenerative medicine applications.

Accordingly, the following themes will be considered as preferential (but not exclusively so):

 • precision manufacturing and characterization of materials
 • multifunctional coatings
 • materials for multi-tissue repair
 • anti-infective cytocompatible materials
 • anti-inflammatory materials
 • instructive materials
 • intelligent/responsive materials
 • personalized materials