Artificial cells, Nanomedcine & Biotechnology

The aim of this journal is to publish articles in the frontier of futuristic research and also to stimulate research in areas of urgent medical needs. In addition, it aims to fulfill the publication needs for those highly interdisciplinary areas and new areas that are not adequately covered by other available journals. In order to do this, the name has to reflect this from time to time during the 40-year history of this journal.

The original name of this journal was “Biomaterial, Medical Devices and Artificial Organs”. When the frontiers of research moved forward to immobilization biotechnology and also artificial cells (Chang 1964, 1971;Chang & Poznansky 1968) the name was changed to “Biomaterials, Artificial Cells and Immobilization Biotechnology” in 1991.

In the late 1980's there was no blood substitute to replace H.I.V. contaminated donor blood during the H.I.V. crisis. In order to stimulate this urgently needed area, the name was changed to ”Artificial Cells, Blood Substitutes and Immobilization Biotechnology” in 1994. In 2003 this field has moved beyond immobilization biotechnology and we have to update the name of the journal to ”Artificial Cells, Blood Substitutes and Biotechnology”. The addition of “blood substitutes” to this journal has helped to stimulate this area from its infancy to the present fully established form including oxygen therapeutics (Winslow 2006, Chang 2007). Although much more research and development is needed on blood substitutes and oxygen therapeutics, extensive clinical trials on polyhemoglobin (Moore et al. 2009, Jahr et al. 2008) have led to its routine clinical use in Russia and South Africa.

Since then the original idea of artificial cell (Chang 1964) has developed further to become the basis of a number of nanobiotechnological innovations in therapy and other areas of application in nanomedicine and biotechnology (Budek 2012; Chang 2007; Poncelet, Neufeld, & Gu 2012). These include artificial cells of micro and nano dimensions, nanotechnology, nanobiotechnology, nanomedicine, biotechnology, molecular biology, bioencapsulation, nanoencapsulation, nanoparticles, magnetic and other novel carriers for enzyme, gene and cell therapy, biosensors, stem cells, tissue engineering and other areas, Nonmedical uses included uses in agriculture, fermentation, aquaculture, food science, nanocomputers and other areas (Poncelet, Neufeld, & Gu 2012). Thus, to fully reflect the scope of this journal and to keep it in the frontier of research, starting in 2013 the name of this journal will become “Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine and Biotechnology”. This will truly reflects the aim and scope of this journal that covers the frontiers of interdisciplinary research and application with emphasis on basic research, applied research, and clinical and industrial applications of the following topics:

• artificial cells of micro and nano dimensions

• nanotechnology, nanobiotechnology, nanomedicine

• bioencapsulation, microencapsulation and nanoencapsulation

• microparticles and nanoparticles

• Blood substitutes and oxygen therapeutics

• enzyme therapy, gene therapy and cell therapy

• drug delivery systems including liposomes, magnetic nanoparticles etc

• biodegradable and biocompatible polymers for scaffolds and carriers

• stem cells and tissue engineering

• biosensors

• immobilized enzymes and their uses

• other biotechnological and nanobiotechnological approaches

This journal serves to bring these different, modern and futuristic approaches together for the academic, clinical and industrial communities to allow for even greater developments of this highly interdisciplinary area.