Abstract
It is with great pride and enthusiasm that we present this special issue dedicated to honoring the achievements of Prof. James Kirkpatrick in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Prof. Kirkpatrick is Emeritus Professor and Former Chair of Pathology at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. Prof. Kirkpatrick was born and educated in science and medicine in Northern Ireland (University of Belfast). From 1993 to 2015, he was University Professor and Chairman of Pathology at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. Earlier academic appointments were at the University of Ulm, the University of Manchester, and the RWTH University Aachen. During his academic career, he has had a significant impact on the progress and visibility of the tissue engineering field both nationally and internationally. His principal research focus was on biomaterials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. He was especially interested in vascularization and nanomedicine, developing human coculture systems in three-dimensional (3D) to study cellular crosstalk in hard and soft tissue regeneration, as well as barrier systems (air–blood in the lung and the blood–brain barrier) to study mechanisms of transport of nanoparticles. His academic legacy includes the supervision of >100 doctoral students and the (co-) authoring >550 publications in peer-reviewed journals. He has been the former president of both the German Society for Biomaterials (GSB) and the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB). He was also one of the Founding Fellows of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS). He has served on various Scientific Advisory Boards, such as the DWI—Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials in Aachen, Centers of Excellence, and companies in biomaterials and regenerative medicine across Europe. His achievements have been recognized by the ESB, GSB, and TERMIS-Europe by awarding him with the George Winter Award (2008), an honorary membership of the GSB, and the TERMIS-EU Career Achievement Award (2014). In addition to his academic excellence, Prof. James Kirkpatrick has been a supportive force and role model for many scientists with his friendly and motivating personality.
The contributions in this special issue focus on the scientific interest of Prof. James Kirkpatrick in the fields of biomaterials, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. The articles herein of his former collaborators and colleagues have been selected to highlight the diversity and richness of Prof. Kirkpatrick’s research interest and interaction with many scientists and will be published in two issues of Tissue Engineering Part C.
In the first part of the special issue, a total of three articles are published. These provide (i) an overview of 3D in vitro methods as used in dental implant research, (ii) an investigation on how specific physicochemical surface properties of silicon-substituted hydroxyapatite influence angiogenesis using a coculture methodology of primary human osteoblasts and human dermal endothelial cells, and (iii) data demonstrating the efficacy of the high-throughput formation of preosteoblast spheroids for therapeutic target identification and drug discovery.
The second part of the special issue comprises four articles. These cover (i) original research on the effect of tenogenic mesenchymal stromal cells in tendon healing in an in vivo rabbit model, (ii) a treatise related to terminology and definitions used for in vitro (test tube or petri dish) and ex vivo (living tissue outside its host environment) models that can assist the tissue engineering and regenerative medicine community toward unambiguous clarity, (iii) an overview of novel cellular therapies to achieve earlier and more robust healing and improved physical function of complex bone fractures and bone defects, and (iv) the use of hyaluronic acid hydrogel-based platforms as in vitro tumor models.
The Guest Editors sincerely hope that this special issue with its content showcases the importance of the research field of Prof. James Kirkpatrick, inspires researchers to attain new research questions, and leads to new innovations to aid fundamental understanding and patient treatment in the years to come.