Book excerpt: Chitosan Based Biomaterials: Fundamentals, Volume 1, provides the latest information on chitosan, a natural polymer derived from the marine material chitin. Chitosan displays unique properties, most notably biocompatibility and biodegradability. It can also be easily tuned to modify its structure or properties, making chitosan an excellent candidate as a biomaterial. Consequently, chitosan is being developed for many biomedical functions, ranging from tissue engineering and implant coatings to drug and gene delivery. This book looks at the fundamentals of chitosan-based biomaterials. - Contains specific focus on the techniques and technologies needed to develop chitosan for biomedical applications - Presents a comprehensive treatment of the fundamentals - Provides contributions from leading researchers with extensive experience in chitosan