Biomaterials Science Blog

We are pleased to introduce the Biomaterials Science Outstanding Student Paper Award. This new annual award recognises outstanding work published in the journal, for which a substantial component of the research was conducted by a student. Read below for more information.

Our 2019 Winner 

The inaugural recipient of the 2019 Biomaterials Science Outstanding Student Paper award is Ms Jenna Graham, who has now completed her PhD within the Vogel group at ETH Zürich, for her contributions towards the paper titled ‘Fibrillar fibronectin plays a key role as nucleator of collagen I polymerization during macromolecular crowding-enhanced matrix assembly’ (DOI: 10.1039/ C9BM00868C).

In this paper, the authors investigate the underpinning mechanisms how macromolecular crowding, a property of the native extracellular environment that tissue engineers mimic in in vitro cell culture, accelerates the assembly of a tissue matrix environment by the cultured cells themselves. The authors demonstrate that crowding increases the deposition of low-tension fibronectin to the substrate surface, which then acts as a scaffold for collagen matrix assembly. Although previous studies showed that crowding enhances the enzymatic cleavage of collagen and collagen polymer assembly, this work found that fibroblast cells must first build fibronectin fibers before collagen matrix can be assembled, and that this process is also accelerated by crowding. In fact, if cells are not able to harvest fibronectin from their environment and build fibers due to, for instance, chemical crosslinking, the enhancing effect of crowding on matrix assembly is abolished. These findings identify fibronectin as a key component in tissue engineering systems and demonstrate that adding supplemental fibronectin in the form of an adsorbed surface coating can further accelerate extracellular matrix assembly in a crowded cell culture environment.

Read the full article here now!

Eligibility

In order to be eligible for this award, the nominee must:

• Have been a student at the time the research was conducted.
• Be first author of a research article published in 2019 in Biomaterials Science.

Selection Process

In order to choose the winner of the 2019 Outstanding Student Paper Award, a shortlist of articles that were published throughout the year were selected by the editorial office and then subsequently assessed by the journal’s Editorial Board members. The winner was selected based upon the significance, impact and quality of the research.

Prize

The winner of the Outstanding Student Paper Award will receive an engraved plaque and a travel bursary of £500 to use towards a meeting of their choice.

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To have your paper considered for the 2020 Biomaterials Science Outstanding Student Award, simply indicate upon submission if the first author of the paper fulfils this criteria.

Outstanding Reviewers for Biomaterials Science in 2018

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Biomaterials Science in 2018, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

We would like to say a big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

Dr Jinzhi Du, South China University of Technology ORCiD: 0000-0003-4037-1212

Dr Huile Gao, Sichuan University ORCiD: 0000-0002-5355-7238

Professor Ji Hyun Ryu, Wonkwang University

Dr April Kloxin, University of Delaware ORCiD: 0000-0002-4594-2953

Dr Yuhan Lee, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Dr Yang Li, Harvard Medical School ORCiD: 0000-0001-8186-2435

Dr Gang Liu, Xiamen University ORCiD: 0000-0003-2613-7286

Professor Xintao Shuai, Sun Yat-Sen University ORCiD: 0000-0003-4271-0310

Dr Tianmeng Sun, Jilin University ORCiD: 0000-0003-2261-4532

Professor Xian-Zhu Yang, South China University of Technology

We would also like to thank the Biomaterials Science board and the biomaterials research community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé.  You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Biomaterials Science in 2017, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

We would like to say a big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

Dr Kaimin Cai, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ORCID: 0000-0001-9442-8312
Dr Qing Cai, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, ORCID: 0000-0001-6618-0321
Dr Jinzhi Du, South China University of Technology, ORCID: 0000-0003-4037-1212
Dr Xiaohu Gao, University of Washington
Dr Xu Han, University of Miami, ORCID: 0000-0001-9095-1755 
Dr Xun He, Texas A&M University, ORCID: 0000-0002-4002-7932
Dr Zheng-Hong Peng, Yale University, ORCID: 0000-0001-9783-5108  
Dr Wujin Sun, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ORCID: 0000-0002-3167-111X
Dr Wentao Wang, Florida State University, ORCID: 0000-0003-2273-4171
Dr Yazhen Zhu, University of California, Los Angeles ORCID: 0000-0002-2130-8085

We would also like to thank the Biomaterials Science board and the biomaterials research community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé.  You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre