Share this article Share this article ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global market for Hydrogel is projected to reach US$15.3 billion by 2025, driven by their growing use in wound care products and drug delivery systems (DDS). Defined as a three-dimensional (3D) hydrophilic polymer capable of holding large amounts of water, hydrogel is valuable in biological applications as they resemble natural tissue and their high water content. Strong R&D interest is already underway for hydrogel biomaterials. New developments in hydrogel design and hydrogel synthesis are resulting in the development of hydrogels with mechanical properties. Superporous comb-type grafted hydrogels with fast response times; hybrid graft copolymers based self-assembling hydrogels; protein based hydrogels' and hybrid hydrogels are the emerging new future of smart hydrogel based biomaterials. Stimuli-sensitive hydrogels, especially polypeptide based responsive hydrogels hold promising potential.