Polyphosphazenes for Biomedical Applications

Polyphosphazenes, an emerging class of polymers, include macromolecules, which have been proven to be biocompatible, biodegradable, and bioactive. Their unprecedented structural diversity and unique properties make them suitable as vaccine adjuvants, microencapsulating agents, biodegradable materials, scaffolds for tissue engineering, biocompatible coatings, and carriers for gene delivery.

Polyphosphazenes for Biomedical Applications offers a thorough review of polyphosphazene research findings in the life sciences, chemistry, and chemical engineering. It emphasizes biomedical applications as well as recent advances in polyphosphazene development such as high-throughput discovery and the latest controlled methods of synthesis. The book brings together, analyzes, and contextualizes a wealth of knowledge that previously could only be found scattered throughout the scientific literature.

Following two introductory chapters, the book reviews:

• Vaccine delivery and immunomodulation

• Biomaterials

• Drug delivery systems

• Biodetection

• Well-defined polyphosphazenes: synthetic aspects and novel molecular architectures