Nanotechnology has opened a new era for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, allowing the creation of nanostructures within the same scale of natural ones appearing in different body parts. Therefore, nanoengineered systems are now closer to mimic the structures observed in naturally occurring systems, with the possibility to combine several therapeutic approaches, such drug delivery and cell labeling, only in one system. “Smart” hydrogels, the hydrophilic tri-dimensional networks of polymer chains, are systems able to change their properties in response to external stimuli such as temperature, pH, light, magnetic and electric fields, and ionic strength or enzymatic environments. In the last few years, our group has significantly impact the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine by means of strengthening research within the interdisciplinar domains of biomaterials, stem cells, nanomedicine and bioreactors/microfluidics technologies that have a crucial role in treatment of human musculoskeletal and neurodegenerative diseases. 

It will be present our most recent work dealing with the development, applications and processing of “smart” hydrogels and nanoparticle systems, with emphasis on their application for scaffolds improvement; drug delivery carriers; 3D in vitro models and labeling techniques, which can accelerate the research achievements in a wide range of fields including neurosciences.