Biomaterials, nanomedicine and tissue engineering
Scope: This section combines inter- and multidisciplinary principles across the biological, physical and chemical sciences. It focuses on the development of tools, functional substitutes and clinical strategies that repair, regenerate, preserve, or develop tissue or organ function. The section considers articles on the development of functional biomaterials, cell-assembled systems, biofabrication methods, nanomedical devices/implants, diagnostic systems, regenerative medicine therapies, drug-discovery/delivery methods, responsive systems, as well as 2D/3D tissue growth. Articles on scalability/robustness aspects and the industrial application of tissue engineering are strongly encouraged. Manuscripts focusing on stem cell biology, describing an application on a relevant clinical setting are welcome.
Medical technologies, robotics and rehabilitation engineering
Scope: This section focuses on research and development of orthopedic, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, craniofacial, neurological, urologic and other medical technologies (including medical/surgical robotics, computer assisted technologies, medical devices, e/m-health and other medical instrumentation) that improve the prevention, diagnosis, intervention and treatment of injury or disease. It also considers technical (hardware, software) and practical aspects of rehabilitation engineering (age-related rehabilitation, blast injury rehabilitation, neurorehabilitation, functional rehabilitation) from concept to clinic and papers on improving the quality of life of patients with a disability.
Biosensors and bioelectronics
Scope: This section considers articles on the theory, design, development and application on all aspects of biosensing and bioelectronics technologies. The section will consider approaches that combine biology and medicine with sensing and circuits and systems technologies on a wide variety of subjects, including lab-on-chips, microfluidic devices, biosensor interfaces, DNA chips and bioinstrumentation. Articles on implantable and wearable electronics, low-power, wireless and miniaturised imaging systems, organic semiconductors, smart sensors and neuromorphic circuits and systems are strongly encouraged.
Computational and systems biology
Scope: This section considers papers on all aspects of mathematical, computational, systems and synthetic biology and medicine that result in the improvement of patient health through integrative and multi-scale approaches, in the network and mechanism-based definition of injury and disease, or its prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Papers on high precision, interactive and personalised medicine, on digital/mobile health, on complex/big data analytics and machine learning, or on systemic and informatics approaches in a healthcare or clinical setting are encouraged.
Biomechanics
Scope: This section considers papers on all aspects of analytical and applied biomechanics at all scales of observation, that improve the diagnosis, therapy and rehabilitation of patients or that advance their kinetic performance. The topics of interests range from mechanobiology and cell biomechanics to clinical biomechanics, orthopaedic biomechanics and human kinetics. Submissions on the mechanics and wear of bones and joints, artificial prostheses, body-device interaction, musculoskeletal modelling biomechanics and solid/fluid computational approaches are strongly encouraged.
Biomedical Imaging
Scope: This section considers articles on all biomedical imaging modalities including medical imaging (MRI, CT, PET, ultrasound, x-ray, EEG/MEG), bio-imaging (microscopy, optical imaging) and neuroimaging across all scales of observation. It fosters integrative approaches that combine techniques in biology, medicine, mathematics, computation, hardware development and image processing. Articles on new methodologies or on technical perspectives involving novel imaging concepts and reconstruction methods, machine learning, sparse sampling and statistical analysis tool development are encouraged.
