Welcome to Biomedical Materials (2006)

The timely communication of findings among researchers is one of the most important aspects of scientific investigation. Here we are very pleased to provide a new vehicle for such communication, the journal Biomedical Materials: Materials for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (BMM). We would like to take the opportunity of its launch to invite you all to use this journal as the means to present your research findings, insights and experiences to colleagues in the field. The commitment of BMM to maintaining a high degree of quality in the selection of papers and in the production of the journal is reflected in the Editorial Board and the publisher, Institute of Physics Publishing (IOP). The Editorial Board comprises scientists, engineers, and clinicians who are leaders in the many fields engaged in biomedical materials research and development. The board members will participate in overseeing the review of manuscripts and commission review articles on a wide range of topics that are sure to be of interest to the readership. IOP is a not-for-profit learned society publisher with a comprehensive range of products serving the scientific community. The commitment of IOP to BMM ensures that it will be a long-lived publication. Moreover, the experience of IOP with new publishing technologies will enable authors to readily submit their papers electronically and benefit from rapid publication online. The journal website is at http://bmm.iop.org. A wide range of materials is currently in use for the fabrication of implantable medical devices that have saved the lives of many and have profoundly improved the quality of life of others. Many of the advances in virtually every surgical specialty can be traced directly to the introduction of implantable medical devices. In some cases the biomaterial is the device and in other cases many materials are required for the fabrication of multi-component implants. BMM will look forward to publishing studies describing the performance of the materials used in the fabrication of devices as well as investigations of the function of the devices themselves. Beginning in the 1940s, many surgical specialties were transformed by the introduction of implantable medical devices, and all benefited from the newly developed absorbable sutures. The devices were, however, fabricated from only a few metals, polymers, and ceramics. From the 1960s, as a wide range of novel materials were being developed for non-medical applications, there was the promise of many new materials being implemented for the fabrication of medical devices. At the same time an expanding number of absorbable materials were investigated for implantable drug release systems. The 1970s through to the 1990s saw many new synthetic absorbable and non-absorbable polymers; biologically-derived materials (e.g., cross-linked xenografts), bio-derived macromolecules, coatings (passive and bioactive), and tissue adhesives being introduced for a myriad of clinical applications. The applications include blood-contacting devices and implants, soft tissue devices for repair and soft tissue reconstruction, dental materials, orthopedic devices to aid bone repair and replace damaged bone and joints, and wound dressings for large area damage to skin from trauma, ulcers and burns. By the turn of the century, the impending explosion of biomedical materials was clear; this explosion was coming in the use of absorbable biomaterials for the fabrication of scaffolds for the synthesis of tissue in vitro (tissue engineering) and as implants to facilitate the regeneration of tissue in vivo (regenerative medicine). It is because these applications are so rapidly expanding that `Materials for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine' was selected as the subtitle of BMM. Acceptable scaffolding materials for tissue engineered devices will need to not only be biocompatible in the traditional sense by allowing cellular interactions that result in tissue that mimics the naturally occurring material for which it will substitute, but also from biochemical and biomechanical perspectives. For most applications, tissue-engineered devices have a design requirement that the function in vivo be met immediately, and this function must be maintained as the scaffold resorbs and as the tissue remodels. Tissue-engineered devices may be formed on substrates of biodegradable polymers or on decellularized allografts or xenografts. Re-cellularization can be performed in a bioreactor or occur in situ. Moreover, growth factors or their genes and bioactive agents may be incorporated into the substrates to encourage the proper cell attachment and function. We are now seeing that the goals of tissue engineering may be met by implementing new technologies such as nanotechnology, self-assembling molecules, and gene-mutated protein materials. We are also now beginning to see a confluence of knowledge about the tissue response to permanent implant materials and the processes underlying biomaterial-based tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. In effect, the response to permanent implants involves the formation of tissue in the space between the device and surrounding tissue. The repair (with scar) or regeneration of tissue within the gap thus comprises the tissue response to the permanent implant. Strategies to enhance tissue engineering and regenerative medicine may also prove to enhance the response to permanent devices. Moreover, the combination of permanent materials and tissue-engineered products into hybrid artificial organs is emerging. BMM looks forward to the opportunity to publish work in all of these important areas of investigation. As is evident from the above survey, there is an extraordinary amount of research on biomedical materials being carried out in laboratories around the world. This can be seen in the many international conferences and the ever increasing number of publications on related subjects. The number of biomedical materials investigations has exceeded the capacity of the existing journals to publish the important work in a timely fashion. The timely publication of such findings is especially important in the biomedical materials area because the development of new and improved medical devices is critically dependent on up-to-date knowledge about the structure and properties of existing materials and new materials of fabrication. This is one of the compelling reasons for launching BMM. Also of note is that the region with the fastest growing body of work in biomedical materials is Asia. It is to the benefit of the world community of biomedical materials researchers that investigations from Asia take their place in publication alongside those from other parts of the world. The Editors-in-Chief and the Editorial Board look forward to achieving this goal, and will work with authors to address such issues as English language editing to whatever extent possible to assist in the publication process. While the principal objective of the journal is the publication of original research describing high impact biomedical materials advances, the following types of papers will also be published: Topical Reviews. Critical evaluations of the existing state-of-the-art. Tutorials. Background knowledge for an audience unfamiliar with the subject. Finally, we would like to acknowledge a number of individuals for their support and contributions in establishing BMM. We are grateful to Dr John Haynes, Dr Jane Roscoe, and Dr Mingfang Lu of IOP for taking the visionary step in launching this journal. We would like to thank the Editorial Board members for their support, and the referees who have provided thoughtful reviews of the manuscripts. Also, thanks to the authors who have been submitting manuscripts to BMM. We are committed to timely publication of state-of-the-art research in the field of biomedical materials. We are working hard to ensure that high standards are maintained, and that the rapid turn-around on papers continues. And most importantly, we are grateful to you, the readership, in participating with us in this enterprise to promote the further development of this valuable branch of science and engineering, and clinical care. Together we will witness the advancement and contribution of new biomedical materials for human health. Please let us hear from you regarding any suggestions for improving BMM.