Special Issue

Biomolecular and biomimetic materials for theranostics

Guest editors:

Haiyun Song, PhD
Professor
Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences
Chinese Academy of sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
Email:

Chunhai Fan, PhD
Professor
Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
Email:

The field of theranostics covers in vitro diagnosis, in vivo molecular imaging, and therapy with new tools. Especially, we have witnessed rapid advances in developing new materials for theranostics in the past decade. As examples, biosensors with nanostructured surfaces and/or nanoparticle-mediated signal amplification have remarkably increased the sensitivity for detecting a wide range of biomarkers for cancers and other important diseases. Designed multifunctional nanoprobes can readily enter cells, targeting specific organelles and emitting strong fluorescent or magnetic signals. Also, rational engineering of delivery materials holds great promise to greatly improve the efficacy and specificity of cancer therapy.

This special issue aims to highlight recent progresses in using biomolecular and biomimetic materials for theranostic applications. On the one hand, natural biomolecules including DNA, RNA and proteins allow for assembling precise and programmable nanostructures that can be readily adapted to biological systems. On the other hand, several types of artificial nanomaterials (e.g. carbon nanotubes, gold nanoparticles and magnetic nanoparticles) have shown biomimetic, enzyme-like properties, which has led to an interesting field of nanozymes. As an attempt to reflect important progress and provide a broader perspective, we organize this Special Issue by inviting active researchers to contribute a collection of reviews and original research articles.

The topics here should include, but not be limited to:   

  • Novel effects of nanomaterials on important biological processes and underlying mechanisms
  • Advances in nanobiotechnique-mediated approaches for imaging, biomarker detection, therapy or imaging-guided therapy.

Manuscripts for the special issue can be submitted online at http://www.thno.org/ms/submit?subgroup=bbmt (mark "Biomolecular and biomimetic materials for theranostics Special Issue" in the "Suggested reviewers" field to identify the paper).

Detailed formatting instructions, in particular, the formatting of references, can be found in http://www.thno.org/ms/author.

All inquiries should be sent to the guest editor(s) at the above email address.

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