The latest issue of Macromolecular Symposia features the proceedings from the 2011 Advanced Functional Polymers for Medicine (AFPM) conference held on the University of Twente campus in Enschede, the Netherlands, in June 2011. The volume (guest-edited by Dirk Grijpma, Andreas Lendlein and Luigi Ambrosio) covers the latest work on polymeric surface chemistry and associated medical applications, and can be found here.
The surface chemistry of polymeric materials is important for their application in medicine. For example, materials coming into contact with blood need to be hemocompatible, so that they may be safely implemented in the clinic. Creating and implementing multifunctional polymeric materials for medical purposes is complex and demands materials that address the multitude of challenges that they must face through their multiple functions.
A detailed overview is presented by A. Lendlein, B. F. Pierce, and D. W. Grijpma. It gives a general overview and summarizes the articles by topic, such as surface chemistry and fibers, synthetic polymers, porous scaffolds, nano and microparticles, shape-memory polymers, and biopolymers.
More cutting-edge work in this field can be found in the December issue of Macromolecular Bioscience.
