Biopolymer Beads for Biomedical Applications

Polysaccharides are the class of biopolymers synthesized enzymatically, utilizing monosaccharide units as building blocks. The interesting properties of the polysaccharides such as biocompatibility, chemical functionalization, and processibility in the form of beads have provided a platform to utilize the entities in the various biomedical applications such as protein purification, drug delivery, and immunodiagnostics. The chapter is focused on the thorough description of the methodology, processing parameters involved in the design of pristine as well as functional beads from the biopolymers agarose, cellulose, chitosan, alginate, and their established and potential biomedical applications