Bioinspired Design of drug delivery systems

The increasing demand of smart carriers with superior functionalities and release profiles is leading to the development of innovative processes or the re-definition of pre-existing ones to design bioinspired drug delivery systems (DDS), not only addressed to improve drug loading capabilities, but also to uptake cells and/or to release biomolecules (i.e., viruses, bacteria, genes, molecular fragments) and/or drugs within selected targets. Today, innovative delivery systems can be engineered by organic and/or inorganic particles with controlled chemical or physical properties able to reproduce/support specific functions of biological tissues with relevant benefits for therapeutic applications. Different functional biopolymers (i.e., soft gels, polyelectrolytes, conjugate polymers) can be successfully used to encapsulate cells and/or to administer drugs or biomolecules through highly programmable time and space delivery routes. Moreover, the addition of biological recognition sites (i.e., proteins, peptides, etc.) further allows more efficiently guide cellular activities and synchronizing responses to environmental stimulation, in order to design bioinspired DDS for in vivo targeting. We would encourage scientists from multidisciplinary areas to contribute original and review articles regarding the recent advances in materials science and nanotechnology to design bioinspired drug delivery systems.