Hydrogels and Hydrogel Nanocomposites: Enhancing Healthcare through Human and Environmental Treatment.

Humans are constantly exposed to exogenous chemicals throughout their life, which can lead to a multitude of negative health impacts. Advanced materials can play a key role in preventing or mitigating these impacts through a wide variety of applications. The tunable properties of hydrogels and hydrogel nanocomposites (e.g., swelling behavior, biocompatibility, stimuli responsiveness, functionality, etc.) have deemed them ideal platforms for removal of environmental contaminants, detoxification, and reduction of body burden from exogenous chemical exposures for prevention of disease initiation, and advanced treatment of chronic diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. In this review, three main junctures where the use of hydrogel and hydrogel nanocomposite materials can intervene to positively impact human health are highlighted: 1) preventing exposures to environmental contaminants, 2) prophylactic treatments to prevent chronic disease initiation, and 3) treating chronic diseases after they have developed.

Recent developments in stimuli responsive nanomaterials and their bionanotechnology applications.

Bionanotechnology is an ever-expanding field as innovations in nanotechnology continue to be developed based on biological systems or to be applied to address unmet needs in biology, biomedicine, etc., including various sensor and drug delivery solutions. Amidst the wide range of bionanomaterials that have been developed, stimuli responsive bionanomaterials are of particular interest and are thus emphasized within this review. Here, we have highlighted the most recent advances for stimuli responsive bionanomaterials with focus on those possessing responses based on activation, expansion/contraction and self-assembly/disassembly. The aim of this review is to bring attention to some of the most current bionanotechnology research and the interesting applications within this field.