The Future of Biomaterials and Bio-Inspired Materials: An Early Careers Scientists’ Perspective

Recognizing the future leaders in the study of biomaterials is fundamental to safeguarding tomorrow's driving force in research and innovation.

Here we present the article collection ‘The Future of Biomaterials and Bio-Inspired Materials: An Early Career Scientists’ Perspective’.

This collection welcomes articles from early career scientists that wish to share their opinion on the future of biomaterials field. Contributors to this collection are also free to submit other article types if preferred to present advances in theory, experiment, and methodology with applications to compelling problems. We aim to highlight the perspective and research of the leading scientists of the future across the entire breadth of biomaterials:

• Materials for cell/drug/gene delivery

• Materials for implants and prosthetic devices

• Materials for imaging and sensing devices

• Scaffolds for tissue engineering

• Biomedical coatings and antibacterial surfaces

• Bioactive and cell instructive materials

• Bio-inspired surface science linking structure to biocompatibility

• Self-healing materials

• Superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic surfaces

• Highly porous materials

• Bio-inspired adhesion (e.g., Gecko-like materials)

• Self-cleaning materials

• Responsive materials and actuators (e.g., metal actuators inspired by the movements of jellyfish)

• Applications of new bio-inspired materials (e.g., synthetic silks, light-harvesting photonic materials that mimic photosynthesis)

• Hierarchically-structured materials



While future innovations in biomaterials and bio-inspired materials are yet to be discovered, this Research Topic will give us a hint at what to expect.