On November 7, I participated in this year’s Connecticut Stem Cell Retreat hosted by the UConn Stem Cell Institute. My speech, “Delivery for the Regeneration of Musculoskeletal Tissues: The Regenerative Engineering Approach,” highlighted the future of regenerative engineering in stem cell research. I discussed two of our latest inventions: a bioengineered matrix for the regeneration of torn anterior cruciate ligaments, and a novel nanofiber-based scaffold for rotator cuff repair. Also during my talk, I introduced the idea of “convergence” which represents how biomedical research will be conducted in the future. I firmly believe areas such as regenerative engineering are good examples of convergence because they combine research in the life sciences, engineering, and physical sciences.

The Institute for Regenerative Engineering will launch Natural and Synthetic Biomedical Polymers in February, 2014. Published by Elsevier Science, this textbook summarizes the main advances in biopolymer development in the last decade. We believe it will be extremely useful for researchers in formulating their polymers with desirable physical, chemical, biological, biomechanical, and degradation properties for specific, targeted biomedical applications. I thank all the authors for their outstanding contributions. I also thank co-editors Drs. Sangamesh Kumbar and Meng Deng for all their time and effort in coordinating this.

I am very happy to announce the launch of the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (JREHD). Beginning in 2014, it will be published quarterly.

JREHD is the first journal dedicated to examining and eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities. It is also the official journal of the W. Montague Cobb/NMA Health Institute, whose mission is to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities. Published by Springer, the journal aims to report on the scholarly progress of work to understand, address, and ultimately eliminate health disparities based on race and ethnicity. The journal currently considers original articles, solicited “evolutionary” reviews presenting state-of-the-art thinking on problems centered on health disparities, and unsolicited review articles of timely interest.

The academic home office of the journal is here at the UConn Health Center. This is a tribute to the university’s dedication to eliminating health disparities. As Editor-in-Chief, I thank everyone involved for their efforts during the past months in ensuring the journal’s successful launch.

On September 21st, I was excited to stand on the TEDx stage in the University of Connecticut and give a talk on “Regenerative Engineering.” My talk highlighted the tremendous work being carried out here at the Institute for Regenerative Engineering. More specifically, I discussed our latest invention — a bioengineered matrix for the regeneration of torn anterior cruciate ligaments of the knee.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design and is a global set of conferences under the slogan “ideas worth spreading”. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. I was happy to be included in UConn’s first TEDx conference.

My talk will be added to TEDxUConn site by the end of October, please visit www.tedxuconn.com.

On August 23rd, we were honored to have Joseph W. Freeman, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers University, as the first speaker in the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Seminar Series. Dr. Freeman delivered a talk entitled “Novel Approaches to Musculoskeletal Tissue Repair, Replacement, and Regeneration.” The Sackler Seminar Series is but one of several activities funded through our center endowed by the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, Dr. Freeman earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Dr. Freeman then joined my laboratory at the University of Virginia as a postdoctoral fellow. He worked on the use of novel biomaterials in bone regeneration, the development of new scaffolds for ligament repair, the use of hydrogels for ligament repair, and the design and construction of a braiding machine for ligament graft construction.

Dr. Freeman’s areas of research interest involve developing and evaluating new implantable scaffolds for the regeneration of musculoskeletal tissues, use of molecular modeling to investigate collagen structure and function, and develop tumor engineering models.

I was pleased Dr. Freeman agreed to speak as part of the Sackler Seminar Series and enjoyed catching up with him. We look forward to bringing other innovative leaders to speak here at the Health Center.

Last month, the Journal of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering (JBT) published a special issue on nanobiomaterials for tissue engineering in North America edited by Dr. Lakshmi S. Nair, a faculty member in the Institute for Regenerative Engineering. This issue summarizes current perspectives on the use of nanobiomaterials, as well as evaluating other strategies such as stem cell technology for musculoskeletal regenerative engineering. The special issue has been published electronically by American Scientific Publishers.

In addition to editing this issue, Dr. Nair is currently co-editing the second edition of Nanotechnology and Tissue Engineering. Her current research focuses on developing regenerative biomaterials and drug/cell delivery strategy.