Hydrogels are soft materials composed of a three-dimensional network which contain a high percentage of water similar to body tissue and are therefore regarded as a biocompatible material. Hydrogels have various potential applications in the biomedical field such as drug delivery and as scaffold for tissue engineering.Control over the physical properties of a hydrogel by an external stimulus is highly desirable and is therefore actively studied. Light is a particularly interesting stimulus to manipulate the properties of a hydrogel as it is a remote stimulus that can be controlled spatially and temporally with great ease and convenience. Therefore we have developed photoresponsive hydrogels which will be used for applications in the biomedical field. In this contribution, we will show examples of controlled protein release from covalently cross-linked hydrogels and from supramolecular hydrogels

Photoresponsive hydrogels for biomedical applications

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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