Dear Colleagues,

The design of biomaterials for biotechnology and tissue-engineering applications requires controlling the interaction of cells and extracellular matrix proteins with material surfaces. A variety of processes are used for designing instructive biomaterials. These technologies involve both chemical modifications, by grafting of chemical groups, adhesion ligands or growth factors, and physical modifications, by stochastically and geometrically structuring the surfaces or by tuning their mechanical properties.

The close interaction of cells with material surfaces is of fundamental relevance and contributes to the clinical success of implants. Cells can sense the physicochemical properties of their environment, resulting in focal adhesion reorganization, spatio-temporal localization and activation of receptor-dependent signalling proteins and phenotypic changes. Thus, the cell behavior on a biomaterial’s surface is still far from being elucidated. In particular, the adhesion and signalling processes occurring at the cell/material interface need to be described at the molecular level using -omics approaches as well as imaging or simulation techniques.

In this special issue, our ambition is to provide an overview of the combined effects that topographical, mechanical and chemical surface modifications of biomaterials can have on cell physiology and of advanced techniques that can be used to achieve this goal.

Prof. Dr. Barbara Nebe
Dr. Karine Anselme
Guest Editors

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• Biomaterials
• Topography
• Chemistry
• Cells
• In vitro
• Interface
• Biosystem
• Microscopy