Abstract
We are pleased to announce that the Journal of Tissue Engineering (JTE) has acquired its first Impact Factor of 2.683 in the June 2018 release from Clarivate Analytics. Since its launch in 2008 as one of the first open access journals in this community, JTE has continued to provide rigorously peer-reviewed and high-quality research publications in tissue engineering and related fields.
Since the advent of “Tissue Engineering” in the early 90s, our understanding and approach to engineering of tissues have progressed significantly. For example, nanotechnology in biomaterials helps us to interpret how cells and tissues interact with three-dimensional (3D) extracellular matrices. Also, additive manufacturing techniques enable 3D culture of cells and ex vivo generation of cellular constructs that mimic native tissues. Furthermore, rapidly progressing biological tools to generate stem cells and new findings of the role of stem cell in regenerative or pathological conditions has increased the potential of stem cell–based therapies.
Even with the great promise that tissue engineering can offer, we are still facing many hurdles that need to be overcome on the road to clinical applications. Our current understanding of cell–matrix interactions and the dynamic and time-dependent interplay between them will eventually help in designing tissue engineering scaffolds more relevant to the target tissues. The issue of vascularization is becoming more and more important when one aims to achieve large tissue constructs via methods such as organ printing. Also, the in vivo viability and functions of stem cells need to be improved, with closer control to improve their potential therapeutic roles. These are just some of the possible issues that the tissue engineering field faces and will approach in the future and we are already seeing these concepts being applied in the clinic.
At this formative time in the subject area, JTE will endeavor to provide high impact, novel, and innovative data on scientific approaches and look forward to sharing the key ideas and findings with this community.