title: Surface-bound microgels - From physicochemical properties to biomedical applications.
abstract: Microgels offer robust and facile approaches for surface modification, as well as opportunities to introduce biological functionality by loading such structures with bioactive agents, e.g., in the context of drug delivery, functional biomaterials, and biosensors. As such, they provide a versatile approach for the design of surfaces with pre-determined characteristics compared to more elaborate bottom-up approaches, such as layer-by-layer deposition and surface-initiated polymerization. In the present overview, properties of surface-bound microgels are discussed, ranging from physical adsorption and covalent grafting in dilute systems, to directed self-assembly, multilayer structures, and composites, as well as loading an release of drugs and other cargo molecules into/from such systems, and biomedical applications of these.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Uppsala University, P.O. Box 580, SE 751 23 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Lina
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nyström
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Uppsala University, P.O. Box 580, SE 751 23 Uppsala, Sweden; Department of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen, DK 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: martin.malmsten@farmaci.uu.se.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Malmsten
keywords: Biomaterial; Biosensor; Drug delivery; Microgel; Surface-bound