Announcements

Date: 23 September 2025
Time: 11:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m
Location: The Chelsea Hotel, 33 Gerrard Street West, Toronto

MDPI is thrilled to announce our participation in the University of Toronto’s largest career fair, taking place at the St. George Downtown Campus. This exciting event brings together thousands of students, graduates, and professionals looking to connect with top employers and explore career opportunities.

We invite all attendees to visit the MDPI booth to discover how you can be part of one of the world’s leading open access academic publishers. Whether you are passionate about scientific research, editorial work, marketing, or supporting global innovation in publishing, we want to meet YOU!

What to expect at our booth:

• Learn more about MDPI’s mission and global impact;
• Explore exciting career opportunities in publishing, editorial, communications, and more;
• Network with our team and ask questions about working at MDPI.

Whether you’re just starting your career or looking to take the next step, don’t miss this opportunity to connect with MDPI. Bring your resume, your curiosity, and your questions—we look forward to seeing you there!

For additional information on the Career Fair and Open MDPI positions, please visit the following links:

• Learn more about the U of T Career Fair;
• Explore Careers with MDPI Canada.

MDPI is excited to announce its participation as an exhibitor at the 2025 TERMIS-AP Conference, taking place in Wuhan, China, from 16 to 19 October 2025.

The 2025 TERMIS-AP Conference is a remarkable academic event in the fields of Biomaterials, Stem Cells, Tissue Engineering, and Regenerative Medicine. The conference aims to explore a broad spectrum of topics in cutting-edge research, industrial translation, regulatory decision making, clinical applications, career development, and global collaboration.

2025 TERMIS-AP offers invaluable opportunities to showcase significant or groundbreaking achievements. A rich mixture of scientific programs has been planned, including the TERM Development Forum for Emerging Countries, Press Conference for Breakthrough Findings, and Summit Forum: Highway to Translation.

The following MDPI journals will be presented at the conference:

• Bioengineering;
• International Journal of Molecular Sciences;
• Journal of Functional Biomaterials;
• Biomedicines;
• Micromachines;
• Biomimetics;
• Applied Mechanics;
• International Journal of Translational Medicine.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to contact us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person at booth #C11 and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following link: https://ap2025.termis.org/.

Held by MDPI, this Author Training event empowers academic growth with the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Graduate Chapter at the University of Toronto, Canada. This event will be led by MDPI Regional Journal Relations Specialist, Kailyn Wanhella, on the topic of “How to Write Your First Journal Article and the Peer Review Process”.

Participants will gain practical guidance on essential aspects of writing academic articles, including manuscript preparation, navigating peer review, and best practices for citation.

Date: 29 August 2025
Time: 4:30 p.m. –6:30 p.m. (EDT)
Location: University of Toronto, Sidney Smith Hall, Room 2111, 100 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 3G3
Survey Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/27PHHB7

Schedule:

Speaker:

MDPI is excited to announce its participation as an exhibitor at the 34th Annual Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials, taking place in Turin, Italy, from 7 to 11 September 2025.

The motto of the ESB 2025 conference is “Biomaterials on the horizon”. The horizon opens our mind to new and at times unexpected discoveries and reminds us of the charming challenges of our research. The motto is inspired by the fast development of new sources for multifunctional materials, and groundbreaking technologies that enable new structures and devices that improve healthcare, prevent pathologies, and allow patient-oriented therapies.

With all this in mind, in an exciting and dynamic environment, participants to ESB 2025 will share and discuss traditional areas of research, such as clinical translation, regenerative medicine, in vitro models, drug delivery, and antibacterial treatments, but also emerging themes, such as biomaterial-assisted gene and cell therapy, investigations at the (bio)molecular and cell scale, as well as crosscutting topics, such as artificial intelligence in biomaterial research, ethics, the 3Rs principle, and regulatory frameworks. Particular attention will be given to the Sustainable Development Goals, in which the role of the biomaterials is increasingly relevant.

The following MDPI journals will be presented at the conference:

• Bioengineering;
• International Journal of Molecular Sciences;
• Journal of Functional Biomaterials;
• Current Issues in Molecular Biology;
• Pharmaceutics;
• Biomimetics;
• Biomedicines;
• Biomolecules;
• Prosthesis;
• Materials;
• J — Multidisciplinary Scientific Journal;
• Journal of Pharmaceutical and BioTech Industry;
• Marine Drugs;
• Nanomaterials.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to get in contact with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person at booth #21 and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following link: https://esb2025.org/.

Conference: 2025 BMES Annual Meeting
Date: 8–12 October 2025
Location: San Diego, USA

MDPI will be attending the 2025 BMES Annual Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society as an exhibitor from 8 to 12 October 2025, welcoming researchers from diverse backgrounds to visit and share their latest ideas.

The Annual Meeting is the premier gathering of biomedical engineers and allied fields, and 2025 promises to be another standout year following a record-breaking meeting in 2024. This year’s event will bring together more than 5,500 attendees, focusing on health and wellness through engineering innovation.

Join us in the beautiful coastal city of San Diego, California, for the 2025 Annual Meeting. We look forward to seeing you in San Diego in October 2025!

The following MDPI journals will be represented at the Annual Meeting:

• Biomimetics;
• Bioengineering;
• Diseases;
• Sensors;
• Biomedicines;
• Biomechanics; 
• CIMB; 
• Micromachines; 
• BioChem.

If you are planning to attend the above conference, please do not hesitate to start an online conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information, please visit https://www.bmes.org/2025/annualmeeting.

The 5th International Symposium on Frontiers in Molecular Science (ISFMS2025), organized by the International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN: 1422-0067) and MDPI, will be held from 26 to 29 August 2025 in Kyoto, Japan.

This conference will present outstanding research results that elucidate the molecular mechanisms of biological functions and regulation and will also facilitate drug design based on molecular biology, biophysical characterization, in vivo environmental homeostasis, organ interactions based on sensory systems, the physiome, and AI-assisted analysis of protein structures and functions. It aims to bring together scientists, researchers, and engineers from across the world who are working in academia, national labs, and industry to discuss the latest advances in molecular science.

Topics that will be covered include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Protein structure and function;
• Multidomain proteins;
• Drug design and drug resistance;
• Enzymes;
• Molecular biology of galectins;
• Glycobiophysics;
• NMR spectroscopy;
• Specific sensory systems;
• Brain and systemic function.

The following MDPI journals will be represented at this conference:

• International Journal of Molecular Sciences;
• Current Issues in Molecular Biology;
• Cells;
• Bioengineering;
• Biophysica;
• BioTech;
• Cancers;
• International Journal of Translational Medicine;
• Kinases and Phosphatases;
• Microorganisms;
• Molecules;
• Synbio;
• Antibiotics;
• Antioxidants;
• Applied Biosciences;
• BioMed;
• Biomedicines;
• BioMedInformatics;
• Membranes;
• Antibodies.

If you are planning to attend this conference, please feel free to reach out online and start a conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person at our booth and answering any questions you may have. For more information about this event, please click on the following link:  https://sciforum.net/event/ISFMS2025.

The following is an interview with Prof. Sellke:

1. Can you tell me a bit about your background and what your research focuses on?
I grew up in Indiana and received my medical degree (MD) at the Indiana University School of Medicine. I trained in Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery at the  Indiana University Medical Center, NE Ohio University School of Medicine, and the University of Iowa. During my time at the University of Iowa, I did research with Dr David Harrison on microvascular physiology. I then moved to Boston, to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where I became Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at BIDMC, and to Harvard Medical School in 1990, where I became the Johnson & Johnson Professor of Surgery. I moved to Brown University in 2008 to become the Karlson & Karlson Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Chief of CT Surgery. I recently stepped down from this position but continue to do research and some clinical work. My research focuses on the regulation of microcirculation in health and disease, especially in the setting of hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and diabetes. I also investigate regenerative therapies for coronary artery disease, including stem cells, growth factors, and extracellular vesicles, and novel diabetic drugs.

2. What made you decide to publish a bioengineering article? Why did you choose Bioengineering MDPI?
It has a good reputation and has excellent peer review. The journal is easy to work with.

3. What was your experience publishing with Bioengineering MDPI?
We have published many articles with MDPI and Bioengineering.

4. Was it important to you that the journal is open access? How does open access publishing advance the field of bioengineering?
Open access increases readership and exposure.

5. What do you hope that readers will get from your paper?
We work in the area of regenerative medicine, extracellular vesicles for the treatment of CV disease, and we thought the journal was a good fit for our work.

6. What critical scientific or engineering problems did your research initially aim to address?Extracellular vesicles are derived from stem cells and may be a novel way to increase myocardial function and perfusion and alter oxidative stress, and improve cell signaling. Engineering EVs is one way to optimize the effect, potentially. Nearly all regenerative treatments of CV disease have failed in the clinical setting. Understanding how diabetes, medications, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia affect these therapies is a focus of our lab. All of these illnesses increase oxidative stress in the myocardium, and this may be one of the factors causing a diminished response to all regenerative treatments.

7. What are the current bottlenecks in this field, and how did you identify your research’s breakthrough point?
Nearly all regenerative therapies, growth factors, gene therapy, cell therapy, and now extracellular vesicles work very well in otherwise normal animals such as the mouse or the pig, but nearly all therapies in patients have not worked. Understanding why myocardial regeneration is possible in mice and otherwise normal larger animals, and nearly always negative in clinical trials, is a bottleneck. Diabetes, aging, and hypertension all increase oxidative stress in the myocardium, and this may be one of the factors causing a diminished response to all regenerative treatments and why stem-cell therapies and other regenerative therapies have failed to meet expectations.

8. Which technologies or tools played pivotal roles in designing your methodology (e.g., AI, microfluidics, 3D bioprinting)?
We use physiological and clinically relevant models of human disease in rodents and especially pigs. We feel this gives us a large amount of clinically relevant information as to why, derived from normal, young animal models. We do not need the use of AI or 3D printing for our work, but it may become relevant in the future.

9. Have your experiments or theoretical models undergone significant adjustments? What motivated those changes?
We started using porcine models of hypercholesterolemia and diabetes about 25 years ago. This has been the major adjustment in our lab. We have tested many drugs and pathways in the myocardium to provide mechanisms for why therapies work or do not work.

10. Why do you think this article has been highly cited?
It provides a mechanism as to why the use of extracellular vesicles may offer some advantage in the treatment of myocardial disease.

11. Are there follow-up studies planned based on this paper’s findings?
We are continuing our studies using engineered EVs to improve efficiency.

12. Did your research involve cross-disciplinary collaboration? How did teamwork shape the outcomes?
I am a cardiovascular surgeon, and I work with molecular biologists, cardiologists, and other microvascular scientists to perform our research. It is definitely a multidisciplinary approach.

13. How did early career researchers or students contribute to this work?
We always have several postdoctoral fellows working in the lab. Indeed, the first author (Dr. Doug Harris) is a surgical resident from Harvard who intends to be a cardiovascular surgeon in the future.

14. What was the greatest technical or theoretical challenge during this research, and how did you overcome it?
There are many technical (surgical) issues with our experiments, and these can produce significant problems, but we have overcome most of these. The main issue is that we still do not fully understand why myocardial tissue regeneration has not worked well clinically.

15. Were there difficulties in data acquisition or experimental reproducibility? How were they resolved?
While there are some technical issues, reproducibility has not been a major problem as long as the experiments are carefully planned and variability is minimized.

16. Which technological directions in bioengineering deserve the most attention over the next 5 years?
We will continue to work on the use of novel medications and regenerative treatment for the management of CV disease.

17. How is AI reshaping bioengineering research in disruptive ways?
AI provides information that would otherwise be difficult to obtain in a rapid manner.

18. What learning resources would you recommend for newcomers entering this field?
Obtain a good knowledge of medicine and a medical degree so you can understand what is important and currently available clinically.

The following is an interview with Dr. Michopoulou:

1. Can you tell us a bit about your background and what your research focuses on?

First of all, I would like to thank you for this interview. I am very honored by the journal’s interest and opportunity to present myself and my research interests. I am a biologist with a PhD in molecular and cellular biology from Claude Bernard University of Lyon (Lyon 1), where I conducted my research under the supervision of Dr. Patricia Rousselle at Laboratoire de Biologie Tissulaire et Ingénierie Thérapeutique in Lyon, an expert in extracellular matrix biology. My academic and research journey spans over a decade and has centered on skin biology, wound healing, and regenerative medicine, with a focus on cell–matrix interactions and tissue engineering. During my PhD, I investigated the role of the proteoglycan transmembrane receptor syndecan-1 in keratinocyte migration and how it regulates MMP-9 expression during skin repair. We uncovered a novel mechanism involving syndecan-1 and CD44 in response to laminin 332, which provided key insights into matrix remodeling during re-epithelialization. Building on that foundation, I continued my research in postdoctoral positions at the Lab of Biochemistry of the Medical School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), including a project funded by BIOHELLENIKA SA, under the supervision of Dr. George Koliakos, where I led efforts to develop anti-psoriatic treatments and 3D bioengineered skin substitutes. My postdoctoral studies were interdisciplinary, involving work on the design and optimization of biopolymer-based scaffolds, drug delivery systems, and cell therapies, often in collaboration with chemists, more specifically, the lab of Dr. Dimitrios Bikiaris (AUTh), clinicians, and biomedical engineers.

Overall, my work bridges basic scientific and applied biomedical research, aiming to develop therapeutic strategies for skin regeneration and disease treatment.

2. What made you decide to publish a bioengineering article? Why did you choose MDPI’s Bioengineering?

I chose to publish in Bioengineering (MDPI) because the journal’s scope aligns directly with the interdisciplinary nature of my work, combining molecular and cellular biology, stem cell therapies, and skin regeneration. The open-access model also ensures broad visibility, which is especially important for rare diseases like Epidermolysis Bullosa, the focus of our article. Additionally, I had the privilege of serving as a Guest Editor for the Bioengineering Special Issue titled “Recent Advances in Skin Repair and Regeneration”, which I co-edited with Dr. Patricia Rousselle. This role gave me deeper insight into the journal’s editorial standards, peer review process, and scientific community. It also allowed me to help curate and highlight innovative research in the field, including my own contribution as a corresponding author of the article on stem cell-based approaches for treating Epidermolysis Bullosa. Therefore, I thought it was a meaningful opportunity to contribute both as an author and as part of the editorial team advancing the field.

3. What do you hope that readers will get from your paper?

With this review paper, our primary goal was to offer readers a comprehensive yet accessible overview of current and emerging stem cell therapies for Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB)—a group of rare, severe, and often life-limiting skin disorders for which there are still no approved curative treatments. We wanted to consolidate and clarify the complex landscape of therapeutic strategies, focusing on hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells, genetically corrected epidermal stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These strategies are evolving rapidly, and many clinicians or researchers outside the EB field may not be aware of their nuances, clinical trial progress, or limitations. We also emphasized the translational challenges, such as delivery methods, immune compatibility, and long-term graft viability, to give readers a realistic view of what stem cell therapies can and cannot yet achieve. Importantly, we highlighted how systemic forms of EB present unique difficulties that go beyond skin regeneration and require broader biological solutions. Finally, we hope this review will serve as a stimulus for collaboration and innovation, particularly for those working in adjacent fields like biomaterials or gene editing, to help close the gap between experimental treatments and durable, safe clinical applications.

4. Why do you think this article has been highly cited?

I’m really glad that our review has attracted attention—it tells me that it filled a genuine need in the field. When we wrote it, our goal was to provide a clear and comprehensive synthesis of the various stem cell-based therapies being developed for Epidermolysis Bullosa, especially since the field was rapidly evolving but scattered across different disciplines.

I think it’s been cited frequently because it offered a structured overview that researchers could easily use to orient their own work, trying to cover everything from hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells to gene-corrected epidermal cells and iPSCs. We thought it would be very important to include a detailed analysis of clinical trial data, which many later reviews and experimental studies may have referred back to. What I’ve found particularly rewarding is seeing that several citations come from papers proposing next-generation approaches—like biomaterials, gene editing, or extracellular vesicles—where our review helped frame the background or justify new directions. That kind of scientific dialogue and continuity is exactly what we hoped to contribute to.

5. Are there follow-up studies planned based on this paper’s findings?

Yes, I definitely hope so. When we wrote that review, I was working as a postdoctoral researcher at BIOHELLENIKA SA, a stem cell banking and biotechnology company in Thessaloniki, which is also my hometown. The company focuses on isolating and preserving stem cells from newborns and adults, and thus, it was a very productive environment for thinking about how these biological resources could be applied therapeutically, including for rare diseases like Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB). I believe there is good perspective for a future collaboration, especially around stem cell-based treatments for EB, which remains an area of unmet clinical need. The review itself identified several open questions—from how mesenchymal stem cells exert their therapeutic effects to how we can improve delivery strategies using biomaterials and gene correction. Since then, I’ve been developing ideas for follow-up research involving 3D skin equivalents, engineered scaffolds, and potentially patient-derived iPSCs. These platforms could be used to test new therapies or model disease progression in a controlled setting. I'm also very interested in integrating material science and cell biology to make these treatments more effective and targeted. So yes, let’s say the review wasn’t a final word—it was a starting point. And I hope it continues to inspire both collaborative research and translational applications.

6. How did early career researchers or students contribute to this work?

I believe that involving students and early career researchers in the conception and synthesis of projects is incredibly important—not just for the project itself, but for their own development as independent thinkers and scientists. In the case of this review, I worked closely with a junior collaborator who was just beginning to explore the field of regenerative medicine and stem cell biology. Writing a review—especially one that covers both molecular mechanisms and clinical applications—is a demanding task for someone early in their career. It requires critical reading, synthesis of diverse sources, and clear scientific writing. But, under the right supervision, it’s also one of the best opportunities to help them build essential research skills—how to assess the literature, identify knowledge gaps, and construct a narrative that moves science forward. In this project, my role was both scientific and mentorship-focused, guiding the process of outlining, researching, and refining the manuscript. I’m proud of the collaborative spirit of the paper and the fact that it became a learning experience as much as a scholarly one. Helping young scientists find their voice is one of the most rewarding parts of this kind of work.