Advanced Materials and Devices for Medical Applications
Rapidly increasing capabilities for non-invasive monitoring of physical and chemical parameters related to the state of the human body and emerging means for continuously providing various forms of intervention have strong potential to improve the quality of life. The development of functional materials and devices, as well as some unusual, enabling features in engineering design (flexibility, biocompatibility, dissolvability, programmability), promises to enable revolutionary advances in schemes for monitoring and intervention. This special topic will capture recent progress in functional materials and devices in this context. Works on materials development for advanced functionality toward monitoring and intervention with device platforms are particularly welcomed. Interdisciplinary research (including materials science, physics, chemistry, medical and electrical engineering, etc.) will also be of special interest.
Topics covered include, but are not limited to:
- Materials development for improved physical and chemical sensing of human health (body temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate, blood pressure, intraocular pressure, sweat dynamics, oxygen saturation, muscle activation, emotional/pain responses, biomarker concentrations, etc.)
- Improved devices through materials engineering for monitoring of human diseases (cancer, cardiovascular diseases, neural disorders, diabetes wounds, glaucoma, retinopathy, etc.)
- Materials challenges in medical intervention (implants, wearable devices, drug delivery systems, and devices for phototherapy, optogenetics, neuromodulation, electroceuticals, etc.)
Guest Editors
Qijie Liang; National University of Singapore
Sei Kwang Hahn; Pohang University of Science and Technology
John A. Rogers; Northwestern University