5D: High-Performance Biomaterials for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Biologically derived polymers and composites offer excellent opportunities in the biomaterials field. This versatile class of materials includes biopolymers (polyhydroxy alkanoates, hyaluronic acid), polysaccharides (starch, chitin/chitosan, alginate) or proteins (collagen, fibrin, silk fibroin) enabling developing engineered systems with outstanding biological performance. The innovative use of its characteristics, taking advantage of the similar structure or composition with respect to biological tissues, enables designing high performance solutions for biocompatibility, biodegradability and bioactivity of biomaterials. Also the advanced areas of tissue engineering, drug delivery and smart/active/adaptative systems may benefit from the wealth of natural polymers existing in nature.