Announcements

On 9 February 2023, Clarivate, a global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics, added the Preprint Citation Index to the Web of Science platform, streamlining the research process by allowing researchers to locate and link to preprints alongside other trusted content in the database.

The Preprint Citation Index will act as a bridge to connect cutting-edge preprints with peer-reviewed journal articles published within the Web of Science Core Collection. Alerts can be easily set to monitor new research across several repositories and authors will also be able to include preprints on their Web of Science Research Profile to more accurately display their various research outputs.

As of its launch, the Preprint Citation Index will provide nearly two million preprints from various repositories, including MDPI’s own Preprints.org.

MDPI's Preprints Platform – Preprints.org

To advance Open Science and the fast dissemination of research, MDPI offers researchers a free multidisciplinary preprint platform. Preprints.org accepts submissions from all research areas and offers authors high visibility, permanent archiving, article-level Metrics and immediately citable content by assigning a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to all preprints.

During submission to any MDPI journal, authors have the option to share their research as a preprint. After an initial screening, the manuscript is available online in 48 hours or less. Once online, preprints can be downloaded, shared, commented on, and cited, providing authors maximum visibility.

We invite you to join the ranks of the over 100k researchers using Preprints.org and share your research.

For more information, please visit Preprints.org.

Conference: 11th National Conference on Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
Date: 25–27 February 2023
Place: Guangzhou, China

MDPI will be attending the 11th National Conference on Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (CCBSB2023) as the exhibitor. The National Academic Conference on Bioinformatics and Systems Biology has been successfully held for ten sessions since its first session in 1998. It is a national event with the highest academic level and the greatest influence in the field of bioinformatics research in China. The theme of the conference is "The Latest Frontier Research of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology and Their Applications", and the topics cover translational informatics and data sharing security, biomedical data mining and computing, genome informatics, artificial intelligence and life sciences, group bioinformatics and integrated biology, non-coding RNA and RNA informatics, network biology, major disease omics informatics, biological macromolecular structure prediction and simulation, bioinformatics algorithm research, biological data resources, bioinformatics and drugs discovery, computational synthetic biology, agricultural and forestry informatics and other bioinformatics, and other frontier directions.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Genes;
• JPM;
• Cardiogenetics;
• Bioengineering;
• Biomolecules;
• Metabolites;
• Cells;
• Symmetry;
• Biomedicines;
• Computers;
• COVID;
• Epigenomes.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to start a conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit https://ccbsb2022.casconf.cn/.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Andrea Cataldo has been appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the Section “Biomedical Engineering and Biomaterials” in Bioengineering (IF: 5.046, ISSN: 2306-5354).

Dr. Andrea Cataldo received his materials engineering degree from the University of Salento, Lecce, Italy, in 1998, and a Ph.D. in information engineering in 2003 from the same University. From 2005 to 2013, he was a Researcher in the area of electric and electronic measurements and, currently, he is an Associate Professor. He is a lecturer in the courses “Instrumentation and Measurement Lab”, “Measurements” and “Principles of Bioengineering” and he is the supervisor of a research group at the Department of Engineering for Innovation, the director of the “measurement Lab” and the founder and technical supervisor of the spin-off MoniTech. His main research interests include measurement and sensing techniques, monitoring systems, sensors, dielectric characterization and non-destructive tests of materials. He has been involved in leading various research projects supported by public and private bodies. He has co-authored over 200 publications in international journals, book chapters, and international and national conferences, along with three books, and he holds four patents.

The following is a short Q&A with Dr. Andrea Cataldo, who shared his vision for the journal with us as well as his views on the research area and Open Access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take the role as its Section Editor-in-Chief?
The journal, although relatively new, thanks to an Open Access policy, a rigorous method of selection and revision of the works and, most importantly, a very high speed of the management of the editorial process, has significantly attracted many researchers and scientists working in the field of bioengineering. Another key reason for its strong attractiveness undoubtedly lies in the tremendous scientific and technological impact that the biomedical engineering, bioengineering and biomaterials sectors are currently experiencing.

2. What is your vision for the Section?
“Biomedical Engineering and Biomaterials” is a multidisciplinary Section collecting the current status, recent progress, and future perspectives in the context of bioengineering science, biomaterials and biomedical engineering.

The Section welcomes innovative contributions covering key aspects of bioengineering, medical diagnosis, biosensors, devices and biomedical instrumentation including design, characterization and application-focused research with a focus on innovative applications involving machine learning and AI.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?
Tremendous progress has been made in terms of innovative contributions and practical applications of bioengineering, medical diagnosis, biosensors, devices and biomedical instrumentation, including design-, characterization- and application-focused research. In particular, similarly to the enormous impact that enabling technologies 4.0 have entailed in many application fields, the introduction of such paradigms is also leading to an epochal technological transition in bioengineering.

On such a basis, the future of this research field seems particularly oriented to the practical application of advanced experimental tools based on machine learning and AI for medical diagnostics, smart sensing and bio-monitoring, predictive modeling, individualized surgery and computational modeling of biological systems.

4. What do you think of the development of Open Access in the publishing field?
As previously mentioned, I believe that the Open Access policy is key to success and an innovative strategy to guarantee a wide diffusion of scientific research without barriers and to anyone. However, without a rigorous and accurate review procedure and adequate scientific coordination, these positive factors can easily become a disadvantage. From my personal experience, I can say that the Bioengineering journal combines these two factors very well, effectively allowing the simultaneous achievement of an excellent qualitative and informative impact in the sectors of interest. It should also be added that the discount and/or free-of-charge mechanism for publication fees, for example for young researchers, to those who act as reviewers or who contribute to Special Issues or feature papers, also give the opportunity for submission to research groups who may not possess many financial resources.

We warmly welcome Dr. Andrea Cataldo as the new Section Editor-in-Chief and we look forward to him leading Bioengineering to reach many more milestones.

We had the pleasure of speaking with Prof. Dr. Giovanni Improta, Editorial Board Member of Bioengineering (ISSN: 2306-5354), to discuss the recent research trends in the field and his personal career developments. We hope you enjoy the interview.

Prof. Dr. Giovanni Improta is a researcher of electronics and informatics bioengineering at the Department of Public Health of the School of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Naples "Federico II" (Naples, Italy), where he teaches the course "Healthcare Organization Models" in the master’s degree program in biomedical engineering at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of the School of Polytechnic and Basic Sciences of the aforementioned university. Additionally, he teaches the course "Toxicology and Industrial Hygiene" in the master's degree program in chemical engineering at the Department of Chemical Materials and Industrial Production Engineering of the same university.

He has an M.Sc. in both management engineering and biomedical engineering. He also has a master’s degree in finance, administration and management control, and three Ph.D. degrees: a Ph.D. in economics and management of health organizations, achieved in 2011 at the University of Naples "Federico II" with a thesis titled "The HTA (Health Technology Assessment) for the management of biomedical equipment of a Hospital Company: reallocation, donation to developing countries, conception and design of a virtual community"; a Ph.D. in bioengineering, achieved in 2014 at the University of Bologna "Alma Mater Studiorum" with a thesis titled "Symbolic Dynamics Analysis: a new methodology for fetal heart rate variability analysis"; and a Ph.D. in products and industrial processes engineering, achieved in 2017 at the University of Naples "Federico II", with a thesis titled "Dynamic Analytic Hierarchy Process: a new approach to technology assessment to support healthcare processes". He was a research fellow at the Department of Public Health of the University of Naples "Federico II" from 2010 to 2017, where he had the opportunity to participate in national and international research projects and to collaborate with companies operating in the public health and biomedical sector.

His research activities are focused on the management and optimization of health processes through the implementation of management strategies and the development of simulation models and multi-criteria decision systems as well as the analysis, processing, and management of biomedical data and signals by means of statistical approaches and machine learning algorithms. He participated in several national and international conferences, he was involved in different national and international research projects, and he is the author of more than 125 Scopus-indexed scientific publications in both peer-reviewed journals and international conference proceedings. The topics he addresses include clinical decision-making systems, Lean and Six Sigma in healthcare, health technology assessment, and biomedical data analysis. He is also the inventor of two patents on innovative solutions to improve patients’ monitoring and well-being. Moreover, he is the editor, guest editor, and reviewer for different international peer-reviewed journals.

The following is an interview with Prof. Dr. Giovanni Improta:

1. What are your research areas?
My main research activities are focused on the management and optimization of health processes through the implementation of management strategies and the development of simulation models and decision support systems as well as the analysis, processing, and management of biomedical data and signals by means of statistical approaches and machine learning algorithms. Within healthcare management and biomedical data analysis, I mostly contribute to the development of modeling tools, machine learning approaches, and statistical analysis to support clinical decision-making, the application of Lean and Six Sigma approaches to improve and optimize care processes and healthcare quality, and the use of simulation and mathematical models for health technology assessment. In this regard, I had the opportunity to contribute to these topics by authoring more than 120 Scopus-indexed scientific publications in both peer-reviewed journals and international conference proceedings.

2. What are the latest developments in your research field?
In my opinion, the main and most interesting developments regard the advancements of digitalization in the public health sector. Indeed, digital technologies have successfully transformed most sectors, with a major impact on healthcare, where massive investments in digital health technologies are bringing radical transformation to healthcare services. In this scenario, one of the main challenges is the integration of such digital technologies into assistance processes/pathways and clinical practice. The advantages that the introduction of novel biomedical engineering solutions in the public health sector can bring range from the improvement of patient‒clinician communication to the efficient design of new diagnostic‒care‒assistance pathways to the optimization of health services. Among the most innovative digital tools in the field of healthcare, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) plays a fundamental role to help clinicians in making better decisions, in more effectively managing patient data, and, not least, in creating personalized care plans. The use of artificial intelligence to support clinical decisions, in particular, is the subject of a recent patent on the development of an intelligent system for the management of polypathological patients, conceived and developed at the Department of Public Health of the “Federico II” University, to which I contributed as the inventor.

3. Can you briefly share your career development story? For example, what cases have influenced you the most?
My career has been focused on improving myself both from the personal and professional perspective. I have always tried to pursue my career’s objectives with perseverance and enthusiasm. My interest in the healthcare sector and the field of biomedical engineering is the main motivation that has boosted my career advancements and encouraged me to invest in my education and grow as a researcher in the bioengineering field. Besides my main education goals (two M.Sc. degrees and three Ph.D. degrees achieved from 2005 to 2017), I have carried out research activities at the Department of Public Health of the University of Naples "Federico II" as a research fellow from 2010 to 2017 and as a senior researcher from 2017 on, also achieving the National Academic Qualification as Associate Professor in the sector 09/G2—Bioengineering.

4. Do you have any valuable suggestions you would like to share with young students and early career researchers?
I would encourage young students and early career researchers to always invest in their education and professional growth as this is one of the most powerful tools to make their value emerge and to effectively pursue their goals. In addition, as research and innovation change and advance very fast, whatever their background is, I would warmly recommend young students to make efforts in understanding their real and profound motivation as it will always provide them with the strength and necessary determination to deal with new research topics and to face new technological, social, and health challenges.

5. What do you think of the development of Open Access in publishing?
I strongly believe in sharing and spreading research advancements with the scientific community. Therefore, I fully support and absolutely agree with Open Access in publishing as a means to foster innovation and as an incentive to learn from the most valuable and outstanding scientific approaches and outcomes in order to bring further improvements by building on solid shared knowledge.

We are thankful for Prof. Dr. Improta's time and support for Bioengineering.

We had the pleasure of speaking with Prof. Dr. Anthony Guiseppi-Elie, Editor-in-Chief of Bioengineering (ISSN: 2306-5354), to discuss the recent research trends in the field and his personal career development.

Persistence and perseverance, vim and verve.

Prof. Dr. Anthony Guiseppi-Elie is a Chief Academic Officer and serves as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Workforce Development at Tri-Country Technical College, USA. He was the Founding Dean of the College of Engineering, Vice President of Industry Relations, and University Distinguished Professor at Anderson University, South Carolina. He is the former Associate Dean of Engineering Innovation in Engineering Medicine (ENMED) at Texas A&M University (TAMU) and Houston Methodist Hospital (HMH), where he was the TEES Professor of Engineering, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. At Houston Methodist Hospital, he was a Full Affiliate Member of the Houston Methodist Research Institute and a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences and Engineering. Previously, he was Department Head of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the TEES Division of Biomedical Engineering at TAMU and directed the Bioelectronics, Biosensors and Biochips (C3B^®) Laboratories as a member of the joint EnMed Faculty Regenerative Engineering Working Group. He is the Founder, President, and Scientific Director of ABTECH Scientific, Inc., a near-patient biomedical diagnostics company, and has been associated with three start-up companies.

He holds an Sc.D. in materials science and engineering from MIT, an M.Sc. in chemical engineering (corrosion science and engineering) from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) and a B.Sc. (First Class Honors) with majors in analytical chemistry, biochemistry, and applied chemistry from the University of the West Indies (UWI). He spent 15 years in both intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial industrial research and product development at companies such as WR Grace & Co, Molecular Electronics Corporation and ABTECH Scientific, Inc., before becoming a full Professor of Chemical and Life Science Engineering (1998) and Professor of Emergency Medicine (2000) at Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia. In 2006, he joined Clemson University as the Dow Chemical Professor with appointments in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Bioengineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. In 2015, he joined TAMU and in 2020 joined Anderson University.

As a founding professor of the department of Chemical and Life Sciences Engineering, Prof. Dr. Anthony Guiseppi-Elie was instrumental in establishing the School of Engineering at VCU, serving as the first full professor of Chemical and Life Sciences Engineering, center director, and as a member of the Dean’s Cabinet (Dean Dr. Henry McGee). As a full professor at the Department of Emergency Medicine in the Medical College of Virginia (MCV-VCU), Prof. Dr. Guiseppi-Elie played a key role in recruiting the first class and led the development of an innovative curriculum at the interface of chemical engineering and the life sciences. At Clemson University, he held appointments at the departments of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Bioengineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. At Clemson, Prof. Dr. Guiseppi-Elie developed the Biomolecular Concentration, which included courses in biomolecular engineering, bionanotechnology, and biosensors and bioelectronics that served all three departments. At Texas A&M, he served as a founding member of the Working Group on Engineering-Medicine (ENMED) that worked over four years to develop a partnership with Houston Methodist Hospital and realize a program of study leading to the simultaneous earned MS in Engineering Innovation and the MD, both earned in four years of study.

Prof. Dr. Guiseppi-Elie is a 2015–2010 Fulbright Specialist Award recipient in bioengineering at the University of Tucumán, Tucumán, Argentina, the 2017 Visiting Distinguished Professor of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering at Wrocław University in Poland, the 2014–2015 Visiting Distinguished Professor of Industrial Bioelectronics at l'Ecole des mines d'Alès, France, the 2013 Avis Professor in Pharmaceutics at the University of Tennessee, a 2012–2013 IEEE-EMBS Distinguished Lecturer, and a 2012 Microsystems Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Maryland. Prof. Dr. Guiseppi-Elie is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE Fellow-2006), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC-2014), A Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (FIEEE-2016), a Lifetime Member of AIChE, and holds memberships in AAAS, ACS, MRS, AAPS, and BMES. He has previously served as Vice Chair, Co-Chair, and Secretary Treasurer of the AIMBE Industry Council and was the 2017–2018 Chair of the AIMBE College of Fellows. He is a graduate of the Academic Leadership Academy at Penn State University and serves on the External Advisory Board of the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Florida, the Board of Directors of STEAM-E, and The Council for Frontiers of Knowledge (The CFK) (Uganda).

Among Prof. Dr. Guiseppi-Elie’s many national and international appointments are as a member of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) sub-committee on “Mathematical and Physical Sciences and the Living World” (2020), an appointed member of the International Panel on “Science for Technological Innovation (sfTI)” of the National Science Challenge, New Zealand (2018–2020), an appointed member of the NSF-Lead US Delegation to a Joint USA-Russia Workshop on “Emerging Trends in Bioelectronics” Electrical, Communications and Cyber System Division and the Office of International Science and Engineering (2011), an appointed member of the National Academies Panel on “Electronics and Electrical Engineering” (2009) of the US National Research Council (2009), and an appointed member of the International Panel for “Review of Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions” of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) of Ireland.

Prof. Dr. Guiseppi-Elie has taught technical innovation, entrepreneurship, biomolecular and cellular engineering, biosensors and bioelectronics, biological transport phenomena, and nanobiotechnology. His research interests are engineered bioanalytical microsystems in the service of human health and medicine. This includes bionanotechnology, microfabrication, and 3D printing of bio- and electro-responsive hydrogels, BioMEMS, physiology-on-a-chip, ABIO-BIO interfaces, and interfacing of biology and engineering at the molecular, cellular and tissue length scales. He has published over 225 archival scientific papers (8731 citations, h-index = 48), 33 book or proceedings chapters, holds 8 USA and foreign patents, and has given in excess of 200 invited lectures/colloquia. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Bioengineering (IF = 5.046). He was named among the top 1000 Black life scientists in the USA (2020) and the top 2% of scientists worldwide (2021).

We wish to congratulate Prof. Dr. Anthony Guiseppi-Elie for being listed among the top 2% of scientists worldwide. We hope you enjoy the interview!

1. What are your research areas?
My research interests are in the fundamentals: engineering development and clinical deployment of engineered bioanalytical microsystems in the service of human health and medicine. These are measurement devices and systems intended to engender greater control in clinical decision-making, and they employ a wide range of enabling technologies, including carbonaceous nanomaterials in bionanotechnology to support direct electron transfer and biosensor development, microlithographic fabrication of implantable biochip substrates to enable multiplexed biosensing of biomarkers in hemorrhagic trauma, 3D printing of bioactive and electro-responsive hydrogels as biorecognition hosting elements in biosensors, BioMEMS, vascular physiology-on-a-chip, ABIO-BIO interfaces to support neurostimulation, and the interfacing of biology and engineering at the molecular, cellular, and tissue-length scales. Among the areas to which I have made major contributions are enzymes, antibodies, and genosensors that employ electrochemical transduction. Another area of interest has been the development of biologically responsive polymers based on the synthesis of co-polymers fashioned from inherently conductive polymers such as Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and polypyrrole with highly hydratable monomers such 2-Hydroxyethyl Methacrylate (2-HEMA) and 2-Hydroxypropyl Methacrylate (2-HPMA) and functionalized polypeptides to yield bioactive, electroconductive hydrogels. Such materials may be fashioned into responsive hydrogels that host a drug payload for sustained bio-erodible release and/or electro-stimulated burst release. Most recently, we have become interested in electromics, which is the control of gene expression under the influence of exogenously applied electric fields.

2. What are the latest developments in your research field?
The latest developments in the field of biosensors are found in multiplexed and multimodal biosensors. Multiplexed biosensors use the same principle of transduction but seek a plurality of analytes using a multiplicity of biological recognition elements immobilized on different regions of the complex transducer. Multimodal biosensors may target the same analyte but may use two or more modes of transduction. An equally important development is the use of post-processing to achieve data fusion with other sources of related bioanalytical data or with clinical expert data. The use of data fusion algorithms to achieve classification or stratification is exampled by the use of AI to fuse multi-modal biophysical and biochemical data to achieve stratification of allografts for transplantation.

Another important development is the use of electric fields to influence the expression of genes within cells and tissues. While electrobiology has been around for a very long time and molecular bioelectricity has provided important insight into electrophysiology, the application of controlled electric fields to support neo-vascularization or tissue innervation in regenerative engineering promises to be an important theme for the future.

3. Can you share your career development story? For example, what cases have influenced you the most?
The landmark discovery that some organic polymers may be inherently conductive, possessing electrical conductivities and other properties similar to that of metals, was irresistibly fascinating [H. Shirakawa, E. J. Louis, A. G. MacDiarmid, C. K. Chiang, A. J. Heeger, Synthesis of electrically conducting organic polymers: halogen derivatives of polyacetylene, (CH)_x, Journal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications, 578–580]. This, and the subsequent works that became the substance of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, came on the heels of Lehninger’s electron-transport chain of molecular bioenergetics, in which I had become immersed as an undergraduate biochemistry student. I spent my early career exploring the connections between these two streams, which led to: Guiseppi-Elie US Patent 5,312,762 5/1994 (https://patents.google.com/patent/US5312762A/en?oq=5312762) and Guiseppi-Elie et al. Nanotechnology, 2002, 13(5), 559 (https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0957-4484/13/5/303). A second source of influence has been the textbook by Alan J. Grodzinsky—Fields, Forces, and Flows in Biological Systems, ISBN 9780367864354. I have taught from and been inspired by the holistic treatment across multiple length scales found in this textbook.

4. Do you have any valuable suggestions you would like to share with young students and early career researchers?
We are each birthed into an ecosystem of ideas and approaches to the emergence of new ideas in that ecosystem. The faster we can shed the trappings of our own and embrace those of others—for example, through travel, through forays into other disciplines, or immersive associations with other cultures, or collaborations—the faster we can mature in our humanity and in our inquiry. Stick with it, but not indefinitely. Be prepared to tack left or right, taking with you lessons learned. Collaborate extensively, recognizing that with each collaboration, you must sacrifice some of yourself so that the collaboration as a whole is better than the sum of each person taken separately. Be prepared to fail; it is an equally valid condition. Dwell on your failures, but do not become paralyzed by them; they are far more informative than your successes.

5. What do you think of the development of Open Access in publishing?
I am an advocate for Open Access publishing. Open Access publishing broadens participation in the knowledge enterprises through access and availability, and so engenders greater citizen engagement with qualified knowledge sources. I joined MDPI with a proposal to establish Bioengineering in early 2013 (ISSN (electronic): 2306-5354; Publisher: MDPI AG), not long after the publishing house was founded as Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute by Dr. Shu-Kun Lin in 2010. Gold OA publishing allows peer-reviewed journal works to be accessed via the journal’s or publisher’s website. Having been in the Open Access publishing space for almost 10 years, I see that Open Access publishing continues to approach maturity, but also continues to receive some scrutiny and criticism for being a double-edged sword in both perception and practice. Open Access publishing may not yet be fully “out of the woods”, even though this model is now adopted by several major traditional scientific publishing houses, for select or new journals. This model may still be vulnerable while on the path to full maturity. Open Access journals that have benefitted from highly disciplined, deeply engaged academic editorial leadership have reaped the benefits of high Impact Factors. For example, MDPI is home to 10 journals with IF ≥ 5.000 (Clarivate, Journal Citation Reports). It is important that we continue to maintain quality and integrity while democratizing knowledge. Financial self-sufficiency and sustainability continue to be a source of concern in the Open Access space. However, subscribing to the tenets of COPE ensures a culture of publication integrity. Sustained and productive consultative relationships among publishers and Editors-in-Chief, Associate Editors, and Editorial Board Members who are credible content experts will ensure a secure future for Open Access publishing, one that balances the security of the new financial model with the aspirations of equity and integrity in scientific publishing.

The Founding Editor-in-Chief next to our booth at BMES 2022 in San Antonio, TX, USA

We are thankful for Prof. Dr. Anthony Guiseppi-Elie’s time and his ongoing support of Bioengineering.

We had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. David Caballero, author of the recently published paper “Versatile Vessel-on-a-Chip Platform for Studying Key Features of Blood Vascular Tumors” in Bioengineering (ISSN: 2306-5354). We discussed the recent research trends in the field and his personal career developments.

We hope you enjoy the interview.

1. Congratulations on your published paper. Can you provide a background about yourself and what your research areas are?
I am an experienced biophysicist with an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in nanoscience from the University of Barcelona, Spain. Currently, I am an assistant researcher at the 3B´s Research Group at the University of Minho, Portugal, a world-known institute in the field of tissue engineering. Since very early on, particularly during my postdoctoral periods at ISIS/IGBMC—Université de Strasbourg (France) and at IBEC (Spain)—and now at 3B´s, I have been very passionate about applying the concepts and principles of fundamental physics to biological problems. My experiments are typically very multidisciplinary and combine microfabrication, tissue engineering, cell biology, and biophysics. The aim is to engineer realistic in vitro environments from which we can extract useful data that can be used to improve our understanding of the mechanisms involved in the onset and progression of pathologies. For example, one of my current research interests is recreating the dynamic properties of the native habitat of cells using organ-on-a-chip technology to evaluate how mechanical forces contribute to the pathophysiology of cancer. Indeed, this research field has attracted much attention from biomedical researchers and a lot of effort is currently being invested in the mechanobiology of cancer. In my case, I am interested in understanding how cancer cells migrate through confined spaces, such as vascular walls or dense matrices, and how they respond to external forces, particularly fluid flow, boosting their invasion capability. We hope that our discoveries can improve our current knowledge in the pathophysiology of the disease and eventually contribute to developing better therapies. Altogether, the combination of (bio)physics and nanotechnology in the biological field is an exciting field of research in which we will continue to see exciting results in the coming years.

2. What made you decide to publish an article in Bioengineering?
One of the most important decisions before and after writing an article is where to submit it. Indeed, there are a bunch of excellent multi-disciplinary journals in which my research could be published. A distinctive feature of Bioengineering though is the strong offer in Special Issues. After receiving the invitation from the editor, we realized that our work perfectly fit within the proposed topic and, therefore, the publication of our article would receive higher attention boosting the impact and interest in our work. After evaluation of the pros and cons of different journals, we decided to submit our article to Bioengineering. We cannot forget the big progression of Bioengineering during the last years, making this journal a very good option for publishing work in the field of tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, biophysics, or similar fields.

3. How was your experience publishing with Bioengineering?
I was indeed surprised, not only about the speed of the peer-reviewing process, but also about its quality. Typically, the time between the submission and publication of an article is very long, being in some cases several months. Sometimes this timeframe is too long, which may jeopardize the novelty of the work or a grant application, or both. Despite the speed of the peer-reviewing, I had two tough rounds of revisions. This contributed to improving the quality of the manuscript and, as a result, increased the interest in the article by the scientific community.

4. Was it important to you that the journal is Open Access?
Nowadays, publishing in Open Access is mandatory for most national and European funding schemes. However, most of the journals have very expensive APCs, which many research groups cannot afford. There is the possibility of publishing in “green” Open Access, but, in certain cases, this option dilutes the spirit of granting easy access to the articles. Publishing in “gold” Open Access at a moderate cost allows the scientific community to have full access to the published manuscripts directly on the journal website without the need to navigate inside University repositories. Overall, this has definitely contributed to our paper reaching a larger audience.

5. What do you hope that readers will get from your paper?
After reading the paper, it will be understood better how the structural and hydrodynamic complexity of vascular tumors can be reproduced and analyzed through microfluidics technology and biophysical analysis. This type of tumor displays aberrant – tortuous – vessel architectures and highly perturbed blood flows and, therefore, in vitro organ-on-a-chip platforms capable of recapitulating these distinctive features are highly demanded by the biomedical community. The readers will realize how vascular tumors perturb blood hemodynamics, particularly through the massive formation of thrombus and blood hemorrhage, two of the main events that we reproduce within the chip. Overall, our work establishes the technological basis of a versatile microfluidic platform, that we denote tumor vessel-on-a-chip, capable of reproducing the distinctive structural and dynamic traits occurring in vascular tumors. Note finally that our system may be utilized for investigating other dynamic events characteristic of vascular-related diseases or for the screening of novel pharmacological formulations targeting thrombi formation and blood hemorrhage, among other applications.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Gary Chinga Carrasco, Dr. Andrea Cataldo, Prof. Dr. Franz Konstantin Fuss, and Dr. Elena A. Jones have been appointed respective Section Editors-in-Chief of the Sections “Nanotechnology Applications in Bioengineering”, “Biomedical Engineering and Biomaterials”, “Biosignal Processing”, and “Regenerative Engineering” in Bioengineering (ISSN: 2306-5354). We look forward to their contribution to the continued success of the journal.

For more detailed information, please visit the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/bioengineering/sections.

Bioengineering Editorial Office

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new initiative—the MDPI Special Issue Mentor Program.

This program will enable early career researchers (who must hold a Ph.D. in a related field) to experience editing a Special Issue in MDPI journals, under the mentorship of our experienced Editorial Board Members or other experienced scientists. The mentor program will provide an excellent opportunity for early career scientists to gain editorial experience, and to cultivate their ability to edit scientific research.

The mentee’s responsibilities include:

• Proposing a Special Issue title and assisting the mentor in preparing a summary (around 200–400 words) and 3–10 keywords describing the background, importance, and goal of the Issue;
• Writing a brief promotion plan for the Special Issue;
• Preparing a list of scholars who may be interested in the Issue and personally e-mailing invitations on behalf of Guest Editors;
• Writing an editorial for the online Special Issue together with the mentor.

The mentor’s responsibilities include:

• Conducting a final check before the Special Issue is published online;
• Performing editorial control of the Special Issue and quality control of the publications, both of which must be carried out in a timely manner;
• Providing suggestions to younger scholars if they have any doubts or concerns regarding submissions;
• Organizing video calls with young scholars and the Editorial Office regularly to discuss problems and improvement suggestions for the Special Issue;
• Making and submitting decisions regarding submissions with the assistance of mentees.

Certificates and awards:
After the Special Issue closes, the Editorial Office will provide official certificates for all the mentors and early career researchers.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send your Special Issue proposal to the Editorial Office of a journal you choose, and we will discuss the process (i.e., mentor collaboration, Special Issue topic feasibility analysis, etc.) in further detail. The full list of MDPI journals is as follows: https://www.mdpi.com/about/journals.

In addition to the new Special Issue Mentor Program, we will continue to welcome all Special Issue proposals focusing on hot research topics.

We had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Ngan F. Huang, Editorial Board Member of Bioengineering (ISSN: 2306-5354), to discuss the recent research trends in the field and her personal career developments. We hope you enjoy the interview.

Dr. Ngan F. Huang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Courtesy Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. She holds a co-terminous appointment as Principal Investigator at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. Dr. Huang completed her BS in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by a Ph.D. in bioengineering at the University of California Berkeley and the University of California San Francisco Joint Program in bioengineering. Prior to joining the faculty, she was a postdoctoral scholar in cardiovascular medicine at Stanford University. Her laboratory investigates the interactions between stem cells and the extracellular matrix microenvironment for engineering tissues to treat cardiovascular and musculoskeletal diseases.

Dr. Huang has authored over 90 publications and patents in journals such as Nat Med, PNAS, and Nano Lett. Her research is funded by the NIH, the NSF, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veteran Affairs, and the American Heart Association.

The following is an interview with Dr. Ngan F. Huang:

1. What are your research areas?
My laboratory aims to understand the biochemical and mechanical interactions between extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins and stem cells that regulate cardiovascular differentiation, survival, and angiogenesis, with the goal of translating these basic insights to the design of biological therapies to treat cardiovascular disease and muscle injuries. Ongoing projects include ECM-mediated effects on the endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition, spatially patterned nanofibrillar collagen scaffolds with induced pluripotent stem-cell-derived endothelial cells for the treatment of peripheral arterial disease, scaffold-mediated delivery of therapeutic smooth muscle cells for treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, and engineered muscle for the treatment of volumetric muscle loss.

2. What are the latest developments in your research field?
With recent technological advancements, there is a general push towards the use of multi-omics approaches to better understand the pathological progression of cardiovascular diseases, as well as the use of multi-omics to reveal fundamental insights into the effects of experimental therapies. I anticipate that spatial transcriptomics, spatial proteomics, single-cell RNA sequencing, and epigenomics will become widely adopted tools for researchers.

3. Can you briefly share your career development story? For example, what cases have influenced you the most?
My research career began as a high school student, when I had the experience to perform research as a summer intern. This experience motivated me to pursue a graduate degree in research. Along the way, I was fortunate to have been mentored by many influential mentors who took an interest in advancing my career. For this reason, I am grateful and have sought to do the same for my own trainees.

4. Do you have any valuable suggestions you would like to share with young students and early career researchers?
Resilience. Successful researchers do not always have smooth career development. My advice is to not be discouraged by setbacks, but to keep inching forward with resilience.

5. What do you think of the development of Open Access in publishing?
Open Access allows for the widest dissemination of findings to the global community. Overall, I think it is a good idea that moves research advances forward.

We are thankful for Dr. Huang's time and support of Bioengineering.

Prof. Dr. Christoph Herwig, a bioprocess engineer from RWTH Aachen, worked in industry in the design and commissioning of large chemical facilities prior to beginning his interdisciplinary Ph.D. studies at EPFL, Switzerland in bioprocess identification. Subsequently, he positioned himself at the interface between bioprocess development and facility design in the biopharmaceutical industry. Since 2008, he has been a full professor in biochemical engineering at the Vienna University of Technology. His research area of focus includes the development of data science methods for the integrated and efficient bioprocess development of PAT and QbD principles for biopharmaceuticals. In 2013, he founded the company Exputec, which is now part of Körber Pharma, pioneering data science software solutions for the biopharma life cycle.

The following is a short interview with Prof. Dr. Christoph Herwig:

1. What are your research areas?
Methods for efficient and scalable bioprocess development.

2. What are the latest developments in your research field?
Digital twins integrated into real-time solutions for optimized control solutions and continuous biomanufacturing.

3. Can you briefly share your career development story? For example, what cases have influenced you the most?
I have seen the biopharmaceutical industry change during my industrial career. I have also seen many decisions made around empiricism and manufacturing outcomes based on hope rather than on prediction. This is what I wanted to change from the basis: providing robust, transferable and sound scientific methods.

4. Do you have any valuable suggestions you would like to share with young students and early career researchers?
Have affinity for data. Believe that you don’t always need more experiments and data, but take time and use advanced data science methods to turn data into knowledge. Base your decisions on knowledge, and establish knowledge management in your organization.

5. What do you think of the development of open access in publishing?
It is crucial and a basis for the transparent sharing of knowledge between organizations across the world.

We are thankful for Prof. Dr. Herwig's time and support of Bioengineering.