Chapter 1:Journey of Hydrogels to Nanogels: A Decade After

Since the early invention of hydrogels by the pioneers Wichterle and Lim in 1960, there has been a revolutionary progress in the development of hydrogel-based products on the market. Due to their ability to be tuned to desired properties, nanogels have become the choice of material for diverse biomedical applications and targeted drug delivery. It is evident that nanogels are the leading candidates, holding great potential owing to their unique nano structure, compositions and their three-dimensional framework, for applications like tissue engineering, targeted drug delivery, biosensors, imaging, gene delivery as well as stimulus-responsive bioactive carriers. This chapter describes the journey of hydrogels and related advancements towards nanogels along with advantages and progress.