Announcements

The articles listed below have been selected by the Editorial Office of Biomimetics (ISSN: 2313-7673) as the cover articles for Issues 7–12 of Volume 9. These papers showcase the latest research developments within the journal’s scope, and we hope they will inspire new ideas and directions for scholars and authors working in these fields. For full access to all articles in Volume 9, please visit https://www.mdpi.com/2313-7673/9.

	“Biomimetic Approaches in Scaffold-Based Blood Vessel Tissue Engineering” by Elisabetta Rosellini, Cristiana Giordano, Lorenzo Guidi and Maria Grazia Cascone Biomimetics 2024, 9(7), 377; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics9070377 Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2313-7673/9/7/377 Cover story: Aorto-coronary bypass, the most common surgery for coronary artery disease, faces challenges due to limitations in autologous tissue availability and the shortcomings of synthetic grafts. Consequently, there is a growing interest in tissue engineering approaches to developing vascular substitutes. This review provides an updated overview of vascular tissue engineering, emphasizing the design of scaffolds and dynamic culture conditions through a biomimetic approach. Although there is still a gap between benchtop innovation and clinical translation, the use of biomimicry to replicate the structure–function relationships of the arterial wall has shown promising results. Thus, a multifaceted biomimetic approach could be key to ensuring the successful translation of vascular tissue engineering into clinical practice.
	“Fabrication and Characterization of Graphene–Mesoporous Carbon–Nickel–Poly(Vinyl Alcohol)-Coated Mandrel-Coiled TCPFLNR Artificial Muscle” by Pawandeep Singh Matharu, Yuyang Song, Umesh Gandhi and Yonas Tadesse Biomimetics 2024, 9(8), 458;  https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics9080458 Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2313-7673/9/8/458 Cover story: The study explores enhancing mandrel-coiled twisted and coiled polymer fibers with a nichrome heater (TCPFLNR) by coating them with a graphene-mesoporous Carbon–Nickel–Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) solution. The one-pot synthesis involved graphene, Ni nanoparticles, mesoporous carbon, and PVA. The coated TCPFLNR, after annealing, showed improved thermal conductivity and actuation. Experiments on 60 mm actuators revealed significant improvements in actuation displacement (18% to 36%) and strain (20% to 42%) under various loads with a 2.16 W input. The nanomaterial coating enhances reliability, enabling over 75,000 actuation cycles and reducing power consumption from 6% to 9%. This research paves the way for optimizing electrothermally operated TCP actuators.
	“How Multifunctioning Joints Produce Highly Agile Limbs in Animals with Lessons for Robotics” by Stuart C. Burgess Biomimetics 2024, 9(9), 529; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics9090529 Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2313-7673/9/9/529 Cover story: This study reviews how multifunctioning joints produce highly agile limbs in animals and, in doing so, offers lessons for robotics. Multifunctioning joints lead to a high degree of compactness, which then leads to a host of benefits such as low mass, low moment of inertia and low drag. This study presents three case studies—the human wrist joint, knee joint and foot joints—in order to identify how multifunctioning is achieved. A key finding is that multifunctioning is achieved through various means: multiple degrees of freedom, multifunctioning parts, over-actuation and reconfiguration. Muscle also makes an important contribution to animal agility by performing multiple functions including providing shape and protection. This study reviews the field’s progress in achieving multifunctioning in robot joints particularly for the wrist, knee and foot.
	“A Microfluidic Design for Quantitative Measurements of Shear Stress-Dependent Adhesion and Motion of Dictyostelium discoideum Cells” by Sepideh Fakhari, Clémence Belleannée, Steve J. Charrette and Jesse Greener Biomimetics 2024, 9(11), 657; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics9110657 Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2313-7673/9/11/657 Cover story: The mechanical aspects of cell adhesion and motility are under intensive investigation due to their crucial relation to the behavior of many natural and synthetic cellular biosystems. To move this field forward, new platforms to study cellular adhesion are required. Amoebae are excellent model microorganisms for further biomimetic development. To move this field forward, this work proposes and tests a new microfluidic platform coupled with time-lapse video microscopy to study cell adhesion and motility under highly controlled shear forces. The detachment and movement of the adhesion-competent and adhesion-deficient mutant strains were analysed. In addition to validating the tool’s functionality, it revealed the effect of cell density on adhesion properties, which we attributed to a never-before-reported hydrodynamic shielding effect.

We are pleased to announce that MDPI will be exhibiting at the 10th World Congress of Biomechanics 2026, taking place from 11 to 15 July 2026 in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

The 10th World Congress of Biomechanics is one of the premier global gatherings in the field of biomechanics, bringing together leading researchers, engineers, clinicians, and industry experts to share knowledge and explore the latest scientific and technological advances.

With a diverse and forward-looking scientific program, the congress will highlight cutting-edge research across areas such as musculoskeletal biomechanics, injury prevention, rehabilitation engineering, biomedical devices, tissue engineering, human movement science, and emerging innovations, including artificial intelligence and data-driven approaches in biomechanics.

Why visit MDPI’s booth?
Join us at MDPI’s booth to discover how we are advancing open science by supporting rapid, transparent, and accessible research dissemination.

• Learn more about MDPI’s open access publishing model and commitment to advancing open science;
• Explore journals covering biomechanics, biomedical engineering, and clinical sciences;
• Connect with the MDPI editorial team to discuss publishing opportunities and collaborations;
• Pick up conference materials and MDPI giveaways.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Biomechanics;
• Biomimetics;
• Muscles;
• Prosthesis;
• Sports;
• Applied Bioscience;
• Biophysica;
• Bioengineering;
• Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology;
• Robotics.

If you are planning to attend the 10th World Congress of Biomechanics, we would be delighted to meet you in person. Visit us at booth 41 to speak with our team and learn how MDPI can support the visibility and impact of your research.

We look forward to welcoming you in Vancouver!

MDPI will be attending the 2026 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, ICUAS 2026, from 15 to 18 June 2026 in Corfu, Greece. We welcome researchers from diverse backgrounds to visit our booth and share their latest ideas with us.

Organized by the ICUAS Association, Inc., ICUAS 2026 will offer unique opportunities to meet, interact, and shape the future of unmanned aviation worldwide, bringing together technical, regulatory, and legal communities.

ICUAS 2026 centers around a wide spectrum of topics, with emphasis given to:

• Soft aerial robots;
• Cooperative aerial manipulation;
• Bio-inspired aerial robots;
• Aerial robot aerodynamics;
• Multi-mode unmanned platforms;
• Reconfigurable UAVs;
• Multi-mode unmanned platforms;
• Learning-based perception;
• Navigation and control;
• Online autonomy;
• Real-time applications;
• Human factors and ethical AI for aerial robots;
• Regulations, policies, and safety.

In addition to the technical sessions, a twofold objective is:

• Industry and company participation for attendees to find out about the current state of technology and of commercially available products for civil and public domain applications;
• Understanding technical requirements and standards that are prerequisites to UAS full utilization and integration into the national airspace.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Drones;
• Aerospace;
• Standards;
• Telecom;
• Robotics;
• Safety;
• Electronics;
• Biomimetics;
• Applied Mechanics;
• Journal of Imaging;
• Actuators;
• Signals;
• Sensors;
• Inventions;
• Automation;
• Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks;
• Technologies;
• IoT.

We welcome you to visit the MDPI booth in Corfu at the Divani Corfu Palace. Our representatives are excited to meet you in person and will address any questions you may have. For further details about the conference, please visit the following website: https://uasconferences.com/2026_icuas/.

The editorial team would like to congratulate the winners of the Biomimetics 2024 Best Paper Award, chosen by a selection committee chaired by the journal’s Associate Editor, Dr. Marc Weissburg. All papers published in 2024 in Biomimetics (ISSN: 2313-7673) were considered for the award. After a thorough evaluation of the papers’ originality and significance, citations, and downloads, two winners were selected.

Prize:

• One research article and one review will be selected;
• Each winner will receive CHF 500, a certificate, and a voucher to waive the Article Processing Charges (APCs) for one submission to the journal (subject to peer review), valid for one year.

Article:
“Bioinspired Design and Experimental Validation of an Aquatic Snake Robot”
by Giovanni Bianchi, Luca Lanzetti, Daniele Mariana and Simone Cinquemani
Biomimetics 2024, 9(2), 87; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics9020087
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2313-7673/9/2/87

Review:
“Transforming Object Design and Creation: Biomaterials and Contemporary Manufacturing Leading the Way”
by Antreas Kantaros, Theodore Ganetsos and Florian Ion Tiberiu Petrescu
Biomimetics 2024, 9(1), 48; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics9010048
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2313-7673/9/1/48

Please join us in congratulating the winners of the Biomimetics Best Paper Award. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our authors for their continued support.

Biomimetics Editorial Office

We are delighted to announce the winner of the Biomimetics 2026 Travel Award. This award is presented every year to encourage junior scientists to present their latest research at academic conferences in the field of materials science, mechanical engineering, nanotechnology, and biomedicine, helping to grow their profile.

Please join us in congratulating the following winner:
Name: Jianhui Liu (Harvard University, USA)
Conference: 75th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting (Interdisciplinary)
Presentation title: “Nature-Inspired Hybrid Materials for Biomedical Innovation”

We extend our warmest congratulations to the winner. Biomimetics (ISSN: 2313-7673) is proud to support their research dissemination and looks forward to the impact of their presented work. We also thank all applicants for their high-quality submissions.

Biomimetics Editorial Office

Conference: 2026 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems
Date: 24–27 May 2026
Location: Shanghai, China

The IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) is the flagship conference of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society and the world’s premier forum for researchers in the active fields of theory, design and implementation of circuits and systems.

ISCAS 2026 is driven by the theme “Circuits and Systems for Intelligent Society”, catalyzing transformative innovation at the intersection of circuits, systems, and artificial intelligence to faster the development of a smart and sustainable society.

The symposium highlights a wide range of innovation themes, including artificial intelligence and deep learning, smart systems for automotive, brain innovation neurotechnologies, intelligent cyber security systems, food security and climate change, ultra-low-power circuits and systems.

MDPI will be attending this event as an exhibitor, welcoming researchers from diverse backgrounds to visit and share their latest ideas.

The following open access journals will be represented at this conference:

• Electronics;
• JLPEA;
• ASI;
• Micromachines;
• Analog;
• Biomimetics;
• Chips;
• Hardware;
• JETA;
• Microelectronics;
• Semiconductors and Heterogeneous Integration;
• Signals.

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Biomimetics 2025 Outstanding Reviewer Award. The Editorial Board and editorial team of Biomimetics (ISSN: 2313-7673) would like to acknowledge the time and effort dedicated by reviewers in evaluating manuscripts submitted to this journal, which has maintained Biomimetics’ reputation for high quality and quick turnaround.

Winners:

• Fiaz Hussain, from Gachon University, Republic of Korea;
• Jingfeng Yang, from Shenzhen Polytechnic University, China;
• Nikolaos P. Theodorakatos, from National Technical University of Athens, Greece;
• Guangchao Wan, from College of Engineering and Computer Science, United States.

Prize:

• CHF 500;
• A certificate;
• A voucher to waive the Article Processing Charges (APCs) for one submission to the journal (subject to peer review), valid for one year.

Biomimetics Editorial Office

We are honored to announce that Prof. Dr. William Gerwick will serve as the Chair of the 2026 Tu Youyou Award Committee.

A world-renowned authority in marine natural products chemistry and pharmacology, Professor Gerwick is a Distinguished Professor at both the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). His pioneering work at the intersection of ocean sciences and drug discovery makes him a fitting leader for an award centered on transformative medicinal breakthroughs.

Under Professor Gerwick’s stewardship, the 2026 Tu Youyou Award Committee will focus on recognizing innovative and impactful research in natural products chemistry and medicinal chemistry, particularly work with the potential to drive meaningful advances in both scientific understanding and human health.

To provide further insight into his perspectives, we include below an interview with Professor Gerwick, in which he reflects on his scientific journey, his views on the field, and his vision for the Tu Youyou Award.

A Conversation with the Chair

1. Could you please introduce yourself and your research journey?

My research focuses on the natural products of marine algae and cyanobacteria, their application in medicine, their biosynthesis using genomic approaches, and innovative methods in the structure elucidation of natural products.

I received my BS degree from the University of California at Davis, my PhD from the University of California at San Diego, and conducted postdoctoral work at the University of Connecticut. After a couple of years in a junior faculty position at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Puerto Rico, I spent 21 years as Professor of Pharmacy at Oregon State University. In 2005, I returned to my PhD institution at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UC San Diego, where I am currently a Distinguished Professor of Oceanography and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Throughout my career, I have been dedicated to advancing the field through both leadership and mentorship. I have served as president of the American Society of Pharmacognosy, chaired and co-chaired several major research conferences, and served as an associate editor for the Journal of Natural Products. I am a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and of the American Society of Pharmacognosy. I have trained over 100 doctoral and postdoctoral students, and my research group has published nearly 500 papers and more than 25 patents on topics in the natural product sciences and medicinal chemistry.

2. What motivated you to accept the role of Chair of the 2026 Tu Youyou Award Committee?

Of course, I am a huge supporter of all awards that are given in recognition of excellent scientific research, and especially so in the natural products sciences and medicinal chemistry. However, this award is truly special in that it recognizes scientific excellence as well as impact, and is given in the name of an individual, Tu Youyou, who clearly had many challenges along the path to reach the pinnacle of her success. Not only was she the first Chinese person to win a Nobel prize in this area, but she was also the first Chinese woman to receive a Nobel prize, and this was achieved without graduate education in China or elsewhere. It’s a true testament to what can be achieved by hard work, determination, and vision. To read the history of her extraordinary approach to discovering novel antimalarial compounds from Traditional Chinese Medicine is truly inspirational. It is, therefore, the inspiration provided by the extraordinary life and career of Tu Youyou that motivated me to accept the Chair of the Award Committee for 2026.

3. How do you view the role of natural products chemistry and medicinal chemistry in today’s scientific landscape, and what major advances over the past decade have shaped this field?

A quite remarkable integration of fields is currently transforming natural products science and medicinal chemistry. In natural products, we are seeing integration of different omics methods, from metabolites to proteins to nucleic acids. Sophisticated biological and pharmacological approaches are driving the discovery of exquisitely potent and selective natural products. Advances are being made to integrate molecular-level recognition of natural products with chemical ecological studies, and sophisticated methods of structure determination using Artificial Intelligence or pioneering new tools such as microED are being applied with increasing frequency. High-level synthetic methodologies, such as protecting group-free synthetic routes, are enhancing medicinal chemistry, accelerating the identification of lead molecules with attractive pharmaceutical properties at an increasing pace.

4. How do you consider the balance between fundamental discovery (e.g., new molecules or mechanisms) and practical impact (e.g., therapeutic applications)?

Many individuals are excellent scientists and mentors, and have essential roles in developing our culture that values science and the scientific method. It should also be pointed out that not all scientific discoveries are going to have a broad societal impact, but they are nevertheless critical to the overall body and structure of science. But it is a truly remarkable individual who makes a key scientific discovery, recognizes its potential value to society in general, and then has the skills and determination to bring it forward as a useful product. That was the type of person the Tu Youyou is, and that is the type of person who is honored by the prize in her name.

5. What do you see as the key challenges or opportunities currently facing the field?

We are on the crux of an amazing revolution in many of the sciences, including natural products and medicinal chemistry; the purposeful application of Artificial Intelligence to solving many of the difficulties involved in the search for new pharmaceuticals from Nature. AI is transforming how we select organisms for study, what pharmaceutical targets to go after, rapidly resolving the chemical structures of new compounds, identifying efficient routes to their chemical synthesis, understanding their molecular mechanisms of action, and finally, designing their clinical application. The role of people in these pursuits is changing. Increasingly, the human role will be providing overall vision: what can we do? What should we do? And it is important to remember that AI is providing hypotheses, not truth. Scientists with expert domain knowledge will be critical for discerning the correctness of hypotheses put forth by AI. Altogether, advances in technology, expanding knowledge, and the appropriate use of AI methods are preparing society to be able to address emerging diseases, such as pandemics, as well as conditions that are not effectively treated by currently existing therapeutics.

6. How do you expect the Tu Youyou Award to contribute to the advancement of natural product chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and human health over the coming years?

The Tu Youyou Award is potentially transformative for the broad fields of natural products science and medicinal chemistry as it brings a significantly increased level of visibility to these topics and their contributions to human health. It will be crucial to have excellent communication to news agencies, social media and other communication outlets so that the general public is informed and educated on the high impact of these natural product/medicinal chemistry contributions. This will bring increased funding, attract promising students, and generally enrich the interface of these fields with the health sector.

7. What message would you like to convey to the research community and the public during this open nomination phase?

This prize gives broad societal visibility to the role that natural products have had in shaping a majority of our current medicines, as well as understanding the life forms with whom we share the planet. Further, it recognizes a woman scientist working under sub-optimal conditions who could persevere and make discoveries of global impact. The prize and what it represents, therefore, inspires current and future generations to engage in the study of Nature and its relationship to Human Health, to overcome adversity, and to aspire to making one’s life impactful.

About the Tu Youyou Award

Established in 2016, the Tu Youyou Award seeks to honor those who excel in the fields of natural products chemistry and medicinal chemistry. This award offers a total prize of CHF 100,000, which will be equally divided among the winners if there is more than one, with each recipient receiving an award medal and a certificate.

The 2026 Tu Youyou Award is open for nominations until 31 October 2026. We encourage all eligible candidates to participate in this prestigious recognition, as this award not only honors individual achievement but also encourages further scientific exchange, exploration and discovery in critical areas of medicine.

If you are interested in participating, please visit the Tu Youyou Award website for more information on the nomination requirements.

Our portfolio of journals available for publishing up-to-date research in immediate open access format has been further expanded. In the first quarter of 2026, nine new journals released their inaugural issues and three transferred journals released their first issue as part of MDPI, covering the subjects of clinical medicine, chemistry, computer science & mathematics, engineering, environment & ecology, and social sciences & psychology.

We extend our gratitude to the Editors-in-Chief, Associate Editors, and Editorial Board Members who will shape the future course of these brand-new journals. Each journal is dedicated to upholding strong editorial standards through a thorough peer review process, ensuring impactful open access scholarship.

Please feel free to browse and discover more about the new journals below.

We would like to thank everyone who has supported the development of open access publishing. If you would like to create a new journal, you are welcome to send an application here or contact the New Journal Committee (newjournal-committee@mdpi.com).