An update from the Biomaterials Science editors

Last year

Going into 2014, Biomaterials Science looked to build on the success of its first year and to establish itself as a high impact home for cutting-edge biomaterials research. We are pleased with the strides the journal has made, as last year proved to be another productive year for the journal. We have now published more than 300 papers from research groups from all over the world. This continued success is a result of the support we've received from our authors, readers, referees and Editorial and Advisory Board members – thank you!

Lectureship

We awarded the inaugural Biomaterials Science Lectureship prize, which honours a younger scientist who has made a significant contribution to the biomaterials field, to Suzie Pun (University of Washington). Suzie is currently the Robert J. Rushmer Associate Professor of Bioengineering, an Adjunct Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, and a member of the Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute at UW. Her research focus area is in drug and gene delivery systems and she has published over 70 research articles in this area. As part of the lectureship, Suzie gave two Award Lectures: one at the 1^st International Symposium on Immunobiomaterials in Tianjin, China, and the other at NanoDDS 2014 in North Carolina, US. Suzie has also recently published a Communication in the journal entitled ‘MMP9-sensitive polymers mediate environmentally-responsive bivalirudin release and thrombin inhibition’ (DOI: 10.1039/c4bm00259h).

Poster prize winners

Biomaterials Science was delighted to award a number of Poster Prizes throughout the course of 2014, including the NanoBio Australia conference held at The University of Queensland, Australia on 6^th–10^th July 2014. The winner was Young-Seon Ko (Korea Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea) with Ms Liyu Chen (The University of Queensland, Australia) finishing as Runner-up. We always look to encourage the next generation of biomaterials scientists, so please do get in touch if you have any sponsorship opportunities that we might be able to get involved with.

Themed issues

Another way in which we've aimed to support young investigators in the biomaterials field is through the publication of an ‘Emerging Investigators’ themed issue of Biomaterials Science, illustrating a sample of the ground-breaking research being done by up-and-coming biomaterials scientists around the world. We believe that this issue provides an exciting glimpse into the future of biomaterials science and hope it will inspire subsequent generations of young scientists, who may themselves become Emerging Investigators.

Themed issues also give us a forum to highlight particular areas of exciting, cutting-edge research within the biomaterials field. Last year, we published a bountiful issue on stem cell–materials interactions, guest edited by our Associate Editor Matthias Lutolf (EPFL) and Jason Burdick (University of Pennsylvania), and featuring a number of stimulating contributions. This themed issue aimed to highlight emerging efforts to engineer stem cell niches to better control and probe stem cell fate in culture and in vivo. The topics of papers ranged from the development of new biomaterials, stem cell and biomaterial interfaces, and the co-implementation of biomaterials and bioreactors.

Personnel changes

There were some changes last year in the Cambridge Editorial office, with Nicola Wise taking over from Liz Dunn as Executive Editor and Pete Livermore joining the team as Deputy Editor. Both Nicola and Pete look forward to meeting as many authors and reviewers as possible at upcoming meetings and symposia in 2015 – please do come and say hello!

Looking forward

Scope re-launch

Journals often help to shape their research field, but equally they must be malleable enough to adapt to changes in the research environment. It is important that journals keep pace with such changes if they are to be a leading-edge forum for research, especially newer journals that are still carving their niche. Biomaterials Science is still a relatively young and dynamic field and, hence, we took the opportunity after a year of publication to reflect on the journal's scope to see how well it captures the field. We decided that some modification of the scope was needed, in order for the journal to not only reflect the biomaterials field as it is currently, but where it appears to be headed in the future. After much discussion, we agreed a new scope statement, which is as follows:

Biomaterials Science is an international, high impact journal exploring the underlying science behind the function, interactions and design of biomaterials. Its scope encompasses insights into the chemistry, biology and materials science underpinning biomaterials research, new concepts in biomaterials design and using materials to answer fundamental biological questions. The journal is a collaborative venture between the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences, Kyoto University, Japan. It publishes primary research and review-type articles which advance fundamental understanding in areas including:

• Molecular design of biomaterials, including proof of concept studies

• Science of cells and materials at the mesoscale. Please read ‘Mesoscopic science, where materials become life and life inspires materials. A great opportunity to push back the frontiers of life, materials, and biomaterials sciences’, an Editorial article by co-Editor-in-Chief Norio Nakatsuji (DOI: 10.1039/c2bm90001g)

• Materials as model systems for stem cell biology

• Materials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

• Materials and systems for therapeutic delivery

• Interactions at the biointerface

• Biologically inspired and biomimetic materials, including bio-inspired self-assembly systems and cell-inspired synthetic tools

• Next-generation tools and methods for biomedical applications

We will also be publishing more themed issues as we look to showcase more exciting, emerging areas of biomaterials science. For example, our Associate Editor Jianjun Cheng (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA) and 2014 Lectureship winner Suzie Pun (University of Washington, USA) will guest edit an issue on Polymeric Biomaterials for Cancer Nanotechnology, slated for 2015. Please do get in touch with proposals or ideas for future areas to target.

Nicola Wise, Executive Editor; Pete Livermore, Deputy Editor; Phillip Messersmith, Editor-in-Chief; Norio Nakatsuji, Editor-in-Chief

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