Italian Researchers from University propose a versatile chemical technology to functionalize hyaluronic acid (HA) both with hydrophilic or hydrophobic chains and with amino or hydrazido pendant groups.Such functional derivatives of HA can be further functionalized to give a wide range of HA derivatives, some of which can be employed to obtain chemical, photocrosslinked or in situ forming self assembly hydrogels. Pharmaceutical and cosmetic devices are obtainable from this technology.