Cutting-Edge Research of Nanoscience and Nanomaterials Use in Biosciences

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, there has been an ever-increasing increase in research activities dealing with materials at the nanoscale aiming to promote scientific innovations in different relevant research fields. Research on nanoscience and nanotechnology regards the fabrication, manipulation, and characterization of matter at the atomic, molecular, and supra-molecular scales. At these length scales, materials acquire distinguishing properties compared to the micro e mesoscale counterpart due to the occurrence of quantum phenomena. Thus, materials of 1–100 nm in at least one dimension are endowed, among others, with novel chemical reactivity, fluorescence, or conductivity, which can be used to study biology at the nanoscale and favour industrial applications.

Indeed, in biological sciences, the concept of bio/materials functioning at the nanoscale was provided by evolution over time, but only recently, thanks to sophisticated advances in microscopy techniques, has it been possible to get deeper insights into mechanistic details governing vital processes, including DNA replication, molecular recognition, or enzyme functioning.

Nanoscience and nanotechnology find applications in every sector of our daily life and aim to promote industrial competitiveness and ameliorate well-being and health. As examples, in the agri-food field, the production of nano-agrochemicals holds the promise to promote sustainability by reducing the massive exploitation of external inputs through targeted delivery, improved uptake and use efficiency. Nano-sensors allow automated monitoring of crops and resource management, while smart nano-packaging could grant an enhanced shelf life of food.

Similarly, nano-enabled materials have increased relevance in biomedicine, especially regarding their noteworthy potentialities for active targeted drug delivery, improved drug loading and stability for either in vivo and/or in vitro 3D experimental set-ups.

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences is dedicated to articles investigating innovative or pioneering methods on the engineering and characterization of nanomaterials, their interaction with biological matter, and technology transfer to the agri-food, environment, biomedicine, and space biology sectors.

Both experimental and theoretical manuscripts are accepted. All approaches toward an improved understanding of the atomic/molecular characteristics of nanomaterials and their applications will be considered.

Manuscript can be research papers or reviews.

Dr. Livia Visai
Dr. Giuseppina Rea
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• nanomaterials
• bioscience
• nanosensors
• biomaterials
• agri-food
• food technology
• molecular recognition
• drug delivery