Nanoengineering into Metal-Organic and Covalent Organic Frameworks for Precision Drug Delivery

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have emerged as a versatile class of crystalline porous materials with high surface areas, tunable pore geometries, and chemically programmable functionalities. These characteristics make them uniquely suited for drug-delivery, where payload capacity, drug-release, biocompatibility, and targeting precision remain persistent bottlenecks. Over the past decade, biocompatible variants such as cyclodextrin-MOFs, zirconium-based MOFs, and imine-linked COFs have moved the field from proof-of-concept loading studies toward sophisticated carriers capable of stimuli-responsive release, intracellular trafficking, and co-delivery of small molecules, nucleic acids, and biologics. Despite this progress, translation is constrained by challenges in colloidal stability, batch-to-batch reproducibility, scalable synthesis, in vivo fate, and regulatory pathways, gaps that demand coordinated advances across chemistry, formulation science, and pharmacology.This Research Topic aims to consolidate the latest advances in the rational design, synthesis, and biomedical application of MOFs and COFs as precision drug-delivery platforms. We seek contributions that bridge fundamental framework chemistry with translational drug-delivery objectives, with particular focus on studies that address reproducibility, scalability, and in vivo performance. We welcome work that integrates framework materials with emerging tools such as microfluidics, surface engineering, AI-guided design, and stimuli-responsive triggers, as well as studies tackling delivery across biological barriers and to challenging therapeutic targets. The goal is to create a high-impact collection that informs both materials chemists entering the biomedical space and pharmaceutical scientists seeking next-generation carriers for personalized and precision medicine, while highlighting the bench-to-bedside path for this fast-evolving class of porous materials.We invite Original Research, Reviews, Mini-Reviews, Methods, FAIR2 Data and Perspectives that advance the design, characterization, and therapeutic application of MOF and COF based delivery systems. Submissions spanning preclinical, translational, and computational angles are encouraged. Subthemes include, but are not limited to:- Rational design and green/scalable synthesis of biocompatible MOFs and COFs- Surface functionalization and nanoparticle engineering for targeted and intracellular delivery- Stimuli-responsive frameworks (pH, redox, enzymatic, light, magnetic, ultrasound) for triggered release- Delivery of nucleic acids (siRNA, mRNA, miRNA), peptides, and biologics- Frameworks for crossing biological barriers (blood-brain barrier, mucosal, tumor microenvironment)- MOF/COF coatings and composites for antimicrobial therapy, implants, and wound healing- Microfluidic and high-throughput fabrication of framework nanoparticles- AI- and data-driven design, screening, and pharmacokinetic prediction of MOF/COF carriers- In vivo fate, biodegradation, toxicology, and translational/regulatory considerations Topic editors: Vikramjeet Singh, Taskeen Janjua, Anjana Jayasree Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81325/nanoengineering-into-metal-organic-and-covalent-organic-frameworks-for-precision-drug-delivery