Open call for papers – Biomaterials for theranostics and tissue engineering

An official collection of WBC2024

We are delighted to announce that Biomaterials Science will be publishing one of the official themed collections for WBC2024! We are very pleased to announce an open call for papers for this collection on ‘Biomaterials for theranostics and tissue engineering’.

This collection is being guest edited by Professor Lino Ferriera (UC-Biotech, Portugal) from Biomaterials Science and Professor Soo Hong Lee (Dongguk University, Korea) from WBC2024.

Both theranostics and tissue engineering are two of the biggest areas of biomaterials with the potential to revolutionize healthcare. Theranostics conveys the idea of combining both therapy and diagnosis to provide a holistic solution for disease management. Tissue engineering has developed into an advanced and attractive option for the treatment of various disease by combining cells, growth factors and scaffolds. In order to promote the development of the medical field, advances towards clinical translation are crucial. This official WBC themed collection will capture the latest cutting-edge innovations presented at the meeting in both of these rapidly evolving fields and we encourage you to submit your latest fundamental or translational research to feature in the collection.

Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to:

• Clinical advances in theranostics or tissue engineering
• In vivo and in vitro responses to biomedical interventions
• Molecular design of biomaterials for theranostics or tissue engineering
• Biologically inspired and biomimetic materials including self-assembly systems
• Development of carrier systems
• Controlled or sustained release strategies
• Next-generation tools and methods
• Imaging and image guided therapy
• Cell and immunotherapy

Submissions deadline: 1 December 2024

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Open Call for Papers: Novel Biomedical Polymer Materials

Guest Edited by Professor Huayu Tian and Professor Xuesi Chen

We are delighted to announce a special themed collection on Novel Biomedical Polymer Materials to be published across Biomaterials Science  and Journal of Materials Chemistry B. This collection is Guest Edited by:

Professor Huayu Tian (Xiamen University)

Professor Xuesi Chen (Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Submissions Deadline: 1 November 2023

Biomedical polymer materials, as materials for diagnosis, treatment and organ regeneration, have the mission of prolonging patients’ lives and improving their quality of life. Their research occupies a very important position in the fields of biotechnology, life sciences and medicine, and different fields of biomedicine have different requirements for biomedical materials. Thus, in order to promote the development of the medical field, the synthesis of new biomaterials is of great significance.

To this end, this themed collection in Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Biomaterials Science aims at providing a platform for recent developments in this rapidly evolving field and we encourage you to submit your latest research to feature in the collection.

Submissions to the journal should fit within the scope of Journal of Materials Chemistry B or Biomaterials Science – Please see the journal’s website for more information on the journal’s scope, standards, article types and author guidelines. You may submit to whichever journal you feel is most relevant to your current research. Please note that your article may be offered a transfer to the alternate journal if deemed more appropriate by the handling Editor. Articles that primarily focus on providing insight into the underlying science and performance of biomaterials within a biological environment are more suited to Biomaterials Science. whereas articles that primarily focus on demonstrating novel materials chemistry and bring a molecular picture on a given material’s suitability as a biomaterial are more suited to Journal of Materials Chemistry B.

For this collection, we strongly encourage full primary research in the way of Full Papers or Communications.

All manuscripts must be in scope for the journal and will undergo the normal initial assessment and peer review processes in line with the journal’s high standards, managed by the journal editors. Accepted manuscripts will be added to the online collection as soon as they are published and they will be featured in a regular issue of the relevant journal.

If you would like to contribute to this themed collection, please submit your article directly through the Biomaterials Science submission service or the Journal of Materials Chemistry B submission service. Please mention that your submission is a contribution to the Novel Biomedical Polymer Materials collection in the “Themed issues” section of the submission form and add a “Note to the Editor” that this is from the Open Call. The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of both the journal and the collection, and as such inclusion of accepted articles in the final themed collection is not guaranteed. All submissions will be subject to initial assessment and sent for peer review, if appropriate. We cannot guarantee peer review or acceptance of your submission in the journal.

If you have any questions about the collection or the submissions process, please do contact the Editorial Office at biomaterialsscience-rsc@rsc.org and they will be able to assist.

We look forward to receiving your latest work and considering it for this collection!

Call for papers: Injectable Hydrogels

Guest Edited by Dr Khoon Lim and Dr Julieta Paez

We are delighted to announce a special themed collection on Injectable Hydrogels to be published across Biomaterials Science  and Journal of Materials Chemistry B. This collection is Guest Edited by:

Dr Khoon Lim (University of Sydney, Australia)

Dr Julieta I Paez (University of Twente, The Netherlands)

Injectable hydrogels have emerged as intelligent and versatile materials that have been proven to possess huge potential for many biomedical applications including drug delivery, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. Hydrogels are a class of polymers with highly hydrated 3D networks that have microenvironmental properties such as oxygen/nutrient permeability that are similar to the native extracellular matrix. In addition to possessing the typical advantages of conventional hydrogels, injectable hydrogels offer an extra unique feature, which enables minimally invasive injectability and durability for irregularly shaped sites. As such, there has been a growing interest of using injectable hydrogels as scaffolds/carriers for therapeutic agents, including but not limited to drugs, cells, proteins, and bioactive molecules, targeted to treat chronic diseases including cancer, but also to facilitate the repair and regeneration of damaged organs/tissues.

In this context, it is pertinent to compile this themed collection focusing on recent rapid development in the field of injectable hydrogels. To this end, this themed collection in Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Biomaterials Science aims at providing a platform for recent developments in this rapidly evolving field of injectable hydrogels including, but not limited to:

• Emerging chemistries
• Synthesis pathways
• Fabrication methods
• Cell-material interactions
• In vitro and in vivo performances
• Targeted applications (drug delivery, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine)

Submissions to the journal should fit within the scope of Journal of Materials Chemistry B or Biomaterials Science – Please see the journal’s website for more information on the journal’s scope, standards, article types and author guidelines. We encourage you to submit your work to the journal you feel is most appropriate.

For this collection, we strongly encourage full primary research in the way of Full Papers or Communications.

Submission Deadline: 10 September 2023

If you would like to contribute to this themed collection, please submit your article directly through the Biomaterials Science submission service or the Journal of Materials Chemistry B submission service. Please mention that your submission is a contribution to the Injectable Hydrogels collection in the “Themed issues” section of the submission form and add a “Note to the Editor” that this is from the Open Call. The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of both the journal and the collection, and as such inclusion of accepted articles in the final themed collection is not guaranteed. All submissions will be subject to initial assessment and sent for peer review, if appropriate. We cannot guarantee peer review or acceptance of your submission in the journal.

If you have any questions about the collection or the submissions process, please do contact the Editorial Office at materialsb-rsc@rsc.org and they will be able to assist.

We look forward to receiving your latest work and considering it for this collection!

Biomaterials Science and companion journal Journal of Materials Chemistry B are pleased to announce an open call for submissions to a cross-journal themed collection on ‘Microneedles’.

This cross-journal themed collection on ‘Microneedles’ aims to bring together recent advancements in the field of microneedles that readers will find informative and useful. The topics could include microneedle fabrication and development approaches, applications of microneedles that add a new dimension to existing core knowledge in the microneedles field, sensing applications and clinical studies that evaluate efficacy or other aspects of microneedle use in humans.

The Guest Editors for this themed collection are: Ester Caffarel-Salvador, Ryan Donnelly, Harvinder Gill and Hyungil Jung

Find out more about the Guest Editors below:

Dr. Ester Caffarel-Salvador is a multidisciplinary scientist with a background in biotechnology and biochemistry. At MIT, she developed a pill to administer insulin orally, now in clinical trials, which led the MIT Technology Review to recognize her as one of the 35 Innovators Under 35 in 2019.

After taking a mini-MBA at Harvard and working across startups, VCs, consulting, and pharmaceutical companies, Ester is now the Associate Director of Strategic Innovation for Rare Diseases at Chiesi USA. She is also a lecturer at MIT and an advisor to several startups. Ester speaks seven languages and is passionate about advocating on career development for women in science.

Professor Ryan Donnelly holds the Chair in Pharmaceutical Technology at Queen’s University Belfast and is Director of QUB’s interdisciplinary research programme Materials & Advanced Technologies for Healthcare (MATCH). His personal research is centred on design and physicochemical characterisation of advanced polymeric drug delivery systems for transdermal and intradermal drug delivery, with a strong emphasis on improving patient outcomes. He is currently developing a range of novel microneedle technologies through independent research, but also in collaboration with several major pharma partners. He has obtained substantial UK Research Council, charity and industrial funding and authored over 600 peer-reviewed publications (H-index = 73), including 6 patent applications, 6 textbooks, 23 book chapters and approximately 300 full papers. He has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international conferences. Professor Donnelly is Europe/Africa Editor of Drug Delivery & Translational Research and the Controlled Release Society’s Communications Chair. He has won the Academy of Pharmaceutical Science’s Innovative Science Award (2020), the Controlled Release Society’s Young Investigator Award (2016), BBSRC Innovator of the Year and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists Pharmaceutical Research Meritorious Manuscript Award (2013 and 2022), the GSK Emerging Scientist Award (2012) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Science Award (2011).

Dr. Gill is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA. His research interests are in the fields of immunoengineering and micro-nano medicine. He has expertise in delivery systems such as microneedles, pollen grains, polymeric micro-nano particles, and gold nanoparticles. He has a history of innovativeness, and of providing fresh and unique perspectives to research and medical problems. Dr. Gill is working towards the development of a universal influenza vaccine using nanoparticle systems to enhance vaccine efficacy. He is amongst the pioneers of microneedle technology and has produced seminal work in the field. He was also the first to propose use of pollen grains as “Trojan horses” for oral vaccination and has published original and seminal papers in this field, which has attracted other researchers. He is also the pioneer of the use of microneedles for allergen immunotherapy and his lab is currently developing microneedles for the treatment of airway and peanut allergen immunotherapies. This technology is being commercialized through a startup company called Moonlight Therapeutics, which Dr. Gill has co-founded.

Dr. Gill completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering with honors and a gold medal from Panjab University, India (1994). After graduation, he worked in the petroleum industry for seven years. Subsequently he obtained his doctoral degree in Bioengineering from Georgia Institute of Technology (2007). Dr. Gill received his postdoctoral training in the field of influenza vaccines at Emory University (2009). Dr. Gill has received numerous awards and honors, including the prestigious NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2 award) and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award for his pollen research, Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Research Award, Barney E. Rushing, Jr. Faculty Distinguished Research Award STEM, Ed and Linda Whitaker Faculty Fellow Award, and Whitacre Engineering Research Award. For his accomplishments and contributions to Biomedical Engineering, he was awarded the Whitacre Endowed Professorship in Science and Engineering at Texas Tech.

Hyungil Jung is a Professor in the Department of Biotechnology at Yonsei University, where he is also the Chair of the Bio & Living Engineering Major in Global Leaders College, as well as Director of the Institute of Bio-Medical Health Care Convergence and the Department Head of Integrative Biotechnology & Translational Medicine. He is also the founder and CSO of JUVIC Inc., a company developing microneedle-based products. He received his B.S. and M.S. from Yonsei University in 1993 and 1995, and his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2002. He worked at Caltech as a Postdoctoral scholar from 2002 through 2004 and then joined Yonsei University at 2004. His main interests lie in commercialization of microneedles and overcoming the pressing challenges in microneedle development for commercialization. During his spare time, his hobby is indulging in board games, his favorite being Baduk, a widely popular traditional board game in Korea.

Submissions for this themed collection are open until 1 March 2023

The call for papers is open for the following article types:

• Communications
• Full papers
• Reviews
• Perspectives

If you would like to submit to this themed collection, you can submit your article directly to the online submission platform for Journal of Materials Chemistry B or Biomaterials Science. Please mention that this submission is a contribution to the Microneedles collection in the “Themed issues” section of the submission form and add a “Note to the Editor” that this is from the Open Call. The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of both the journal and the collection, and inclusion of accepted articles in the final themed issue is not guaranteed.

Please note that all submissions will be subject to initial assessment by the journal editors and as such we cannot guarantee peer review or final acceptance of your manuscript. If you have any questions about the collection, email us at materialsb-rsc@rsc.org.  We look forward to receiving and featuring your submissions in this exciting collection!

Biomaterials Science is delighted to announce an open call for submissions to a cross-journal themed collection on ‘Microneedles’ with companion journal Journal of Materials Chemistry B.

Guest edited by Dr Ester Caffarel-Salvador (Scientific Consultant, USA) Professor Ryan Donnelly (Queen’s University Belfast, UK), Professor Harvinder Gill (Texas Tech, USA) and Professor Hyungil Jung (Yonsei University, Korea).

Submissions open until 1 March 2023

Microneedles, since their inception as a unique transdermal drug and vaccine delivery system, have become a noteworthy system used in multiple routes, including gastrointestinal, oral (mouth cavity) and ocular, to name a few. The range of illnesses being targeted by microneedles has also increased significantly and includes infectious diseases, pain, diabetes, and allergies for example. Sensing is another upcoming application of microneedles. Innovation in microneedle fabrication continues to not only push the drug-carrying and delivering capacity of microneedles, but also making mass manufacturing feasible and economical. There is also increased activity in the commercial sector with different companies attempting to bring the first microneedle-based medical device to market.

This cross-journal themed collection on ‘Microneedles’ in Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Biomaterials Science aims to bring together recent advancements in the field of microneedles that readers will find informative and useful. The topics could include microneedle fabrication and development approaches, applications of microneedles that add a new dimension to existing core knowledge in the microneedles field, sensing applications and clinical studies that evaluate efficacy or other aspects of microneedle use in humans.

Submissions to the journal should fit within the scope of Journal of Materials Chemistry B or Biomaterials Science – Please see the journal website for more information on the journal’s scope, standards, article types and author guidelines. We encourage you to submit your work to the journal that you feel best reflects the scope of your work.

The call for papers is open for the following article types:

• Communications
• Full papers
• Reviews
• Perspectives

If you would like to submit to this themed collection, you can submit your article directly to the online submission platform for Journal of Materials Chemistry B or Biomaterials Science. Please mention that this submission is a contribution to the Microneedles collection in the “Themed issues” section of the submission form and add a “Note to the Editor” that this is from the Open Call. The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of both the journal and the collection, and inclusion of accepted articles in the final themed issue is not guaranteed.

Please note that all submissions will be subject to initial assessment by the journal editors and as such we cannot guarantee peer review or final acceptance of your manuscript. If you have any questions about the collection, email us at biomaterialsscience-rsc@rsc.org.  We look forward to receiving and featuring your submissions in this exciting collection!

Biomaterials Science is delighted to announce a call for papers for its latest themed collection on “CRISPR biomaterials” Guest Edited by Yuan Ping (Zhejiang University), Ming Wang (Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Qiaobing Xu (Tufts University). 

You can access the online collection here to look at the first few contributions to this collection.

The shortage of delivery biomaterials that can deliver genome editors and control editing activities represents one of the major challenges for successful CRISPR/Cas-based genome editing. This collection on CRISPR biomaterials seeks to fuel the development in the field of biomaterials for CRISPR/Cas-based genome editing components, and provide a comprehensive overview of the emerging delivery technologies and recent progresses for exploiting biomaterials for CRISPR/Cas systems. We aim to cover the principles of biomacromolecule delivery and gene editing, examine recent advances and challenges in both non-viral and viral delivery methods, and exemplify the status of related applications and clinical trials. The current challenges and future prospects of the delivery technologies for CRISPR system for clinical translations will also discussed.

Manuscripts should be submitted via the Royal Society of Chemistry’s online submission service available at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bmsci and let us know by email to biomaterialsscience-rsc@rsc.org. Please add a “note to the editor” in the submission form when you submit your manuscript to say that this is a submission for the themed collection. The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of the collection and inclusion of accepted articles in the collection is not guaranteed. Please see our website for more information on journal scope, standards, article types and author guidelines.

All manuscripts will be subject to the journal’s usual peer review process. Accepted manuscripts will be added to the online collection as soon as they are online and they will be published in a regular issue of Biomaterials Science.

If you have any questions about the journal or the collection, then please do contact the Editorial Office at biomaterialsscience-rsc@rsc.org.