Tissue Regeneration Or Regeneration of Engineered Tissues?

Tissue Regeneration or Regeneration of Engineered Tissues?

By Gabriela Voskerician, PhD

In spite of significant progress in all areas of medical care, evidence-based and palliative treatments can only manage patients' symptoms using medications or devices. Regenerative medicine, recognized as a translational component of tissue engineering research, aims at replacing, engineering or regenerating human cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function. In the past decade especially, no area at the intersection between Medicine and Engineering hast been more actively investigated or more promising than this new medical paradigm for achieving the goal of normal anatomical and physiological function.

To this end, the Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine has curated a special issue entitled “Tissue Regeneration or Regeneration of Engineered Tissues?”, which brings attention to the growing collaborative potential of fundamental biomaterials research and clinical practice. The Special Issue presents investigative research on tissue/organ regeneration from two different perspectives: the transplant surgical team and the tissue engineering translational research team. The shared guiding principle can be seen as two sides of the same coin: What if the success of transplant research would be applied to the design of tissue engineered scaffolds, while the tissue engineering design principles would support the development of organ replicas that alleviate the organ shortage and organ compatibility problem?

I was honored to partner with eminent transplant surgeon, Dr. Maria Siemionow, on the development of this special issue. We aimed to use these contributions to promote collaborative efforts between transplant research and tissue engineering innovation. Our primary motivation was to sharpen the focus of research and associated innovation from siloed professional interests to what matters most – the patient. We hope that you, the readers, will continue the conversation outside the confines of the Special Issue by identifying new venues for research/clinical collaboration.

In this Special Issue, the invited contributors discuss ways to restore normal function to a number of organs by means of direct transplantation or tissue engineering innovation. In the tissue engineering design space, there is particular interest in accelerating translation from bench to bedside. The Special Issue captures this aspect through contributions to applied research as well predictive efficacy modeling of composite scaffolds. The participation of recognized centers of excellence from around the world further enhances the value of the reported findings.

One conclusion from this fascinating group of papers is that the “or” in “Tissue Regeneration or Regeneration of Engineered Tissues?” needs to become an “and”. Please let us know if you agree. Send us your thoughts at [Subject: Editors’ Choice].