Ophthalmic Biomaterials for Drug Delivery, Tissue Repair and Vision Restoration

The eye is a small but demanding target for biomaterials. It has transparent tissues, tight barriers, delicate neural structures, and a limited tolerance for inflammation or scarring. These features make many conventional therapies difficult to deliver and difficult to sustain. Eye drops often have poor residence time, while repeated injections or surgeries carry burden and risk. At the same time, ophthalmology offers clear clinical needs where material design can make a real difference: controlled drug release, corneal and retinal repair, safer implants, anti-fibrotic surfaces, and tissue-mimicking platforms. Recent advances in hydrogels, nanoparticles, bioadhesive materials, smart contact lenses, and implant coatings suggest that the field is ready to move from promising concepts toward clinically useful technologies.The aim of this Research Topic is to bring together work that connects material design with well-defined ocular problems. We are especially interested in studies that do not treat the eye as a generic delivery site, but take seriously its anatomy, optics, immune environment, surgical constraints, and patient needs. A useful biomaterial for ophthalmology must be safe, transparent when required, stable or degradable in a controlled manner, compatible with clinical handling, and effective in relevant models. This collection will highlight approaches that improve how we deliver drugs, repair tissues, guide regeneration, or integrate devices in the eye. By placing clinical need and material mechanism side by side, we hope to identify design principles that can help the field move from elegant prototypes to therapies that ophthalmologists can realistically use.We welcome original research, reviews, brief reports, methods papers, and perspectives. Suitable topics include, but are not limited to:o Sustained drug delivery to the ocular surface, anterior segment, and posterior segmento Hydrogels and injectable depotso Nanoparticles and extracellular vesicle-based systemso Biomaterials for corneal, conjunctival, scleral, retinal, or retinal pigment epithelial repairo Tissue-engineered ocular modelso Smart contact lenseso Coatings for intraocular lenses, glaucoma devices, and other implantso Anti-inflammatory, anti-fibrotic, anti-angiogenic, and antimicrobial material strategieso Materials for cell, gene, or protein deliveryWe also encourage manuscripts that address sterilization, storage, surgical handling, optical performance, degradation, immune response, large-animal testing, manufacturing, and regulatory considerations. Clear discussion of limitations and translational barriers will be valued. Topic editors: Tianhui Chen, Yongxiang Jiang, Yan Yu Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82015/ophthalmic-biomaterials-for-drug-delivery-tissue-repair-and-vision-restoration