I am pleased to announce M. Roy Wilson, president of Wayne State University, is the recipient of the 2015 Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D., Lifetime Research Award. Dr. Wilson received his M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School and his Master of Science in epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health. Dr. Wilson is an accomplished researcher focused on glaucoma and blindness in West Africa, the Caribbean, and urban communities in the United States. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Ophthalmological Society, and the Glaucoma Research Society.

Dr. Wilson received the award during the opening ceremonies of the National Medical Association’s 113th Annual Convention and Scientific Assembly, held at Detroit’s Cobo Center. The Laurencin Lifetime Research Award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated more than 20 years of consistent, long-lasting contributions to benefit African-Americans, reducing health disparities through recognized research and inquiry. Dr. Wilson’s extraordinary career has been dedicated to improving the health status of minority populations in his role as a master physician and surgeon.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the W. Montague Cobb/NMA Health Institute, I thank Dr. Wilson for his many efforts and resulting accomplishments.

I had the honor to be invited to Girona, Spain where I gave the opening keynote speech for the 2015 Gordon Research Conference. This year’s theme was “Regenerative Engineering and Functional Materials Integration,” a new area our institute has pioneered. It featured multidisciplinary presentations by bioengineers, chemists, and clinical scientists on emerging topics in immunology and stem cells, as well as basic and translational aspects of biomaterials science. It was great seeing the extraordinary research being performed by researchers around the world. The conference was chaired by Professor Edward Botchwey of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech. Ed was one of my graduate students at Drexel who moved with me to be a professor at the University of Virginia. It’s always great seeing my students who are now noted professors in academia all over the world.

I am happy to announce that Springer Publishing has officially launched the international journal, Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine in partnership with the newly formed Regenerative Engineering Society. The new journal will cover the convergence of multiple fields including tissue generation, advanced materials science, stem cell research, the physical sciences, and developmental biology. The senior editorial team includes managing editor, Lakshmi S. Nair, MPhil, PhD, and assistant managing editor, Tao Jiang, PhD, MBA, both of the University of Connecticut; and news and views editor, Ali Khademhosseini, PhD, of Harvard University. Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine is currently seeking submissions. For information and online submission instructions, please visit the submissions page.

On April 16th, the journal hosted a Meet-the-Editors event at the 2015 Society for Biomaterials Meeting and Exhibition in Charlotte, NC. I am excited to be working with Springer and the editorial team on this new journal.

The Institute for Regenerative Engineering has published the landmark book Bone Graft Substitutes and Bone Regenerative Engineering. The book provides a well-rounded and articulate summary of the present status of using allogeneic, xenogenic, and synthetic bone graft substitutes to reconstruct bone tissues. To reflect on the importance of the concept of convergence, Bone Graft Substitutes and Bone Regenerative Engineering captures the excitement of the new field we call Regenerative Engineering. The chapters of the book are written by the leading researchers in academia, surgeons, industry leaders and regulatory specialists. We believe this new book, following the very successful first edition entitled Bone Graft Substitutes, will be of value to people who work in all fields involving bone. I thank Dr. Tao Jiang, my co-editor, for his time and effort in working with me. In addition, the publication of this book would be impossible without the assistance from numerous people at ASTM International. Finally, I also want to thank the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation for their tremendous support in all our efforts to define the new field of Regenerative Engineering.

On April 9, I gave a plenary lecture as part of the Institute for Medical Engineering & Science (IMES) Distinguished Speaker Series at MIT. My talk highlighted the importance of convergence research as illustrated by some of our recent work in the Institute for Regenerative Engineering.

Regenerative engineering is defined as taking tissue engineering a step further by integrating it with advanced materials science, stem cell science, and areas of developmental biology. I discussed the new research direction in the regeneration of musculoskeletal tissues through the regenerative engineering approach.

It was wonderful visiting MIT and seeing the changes that have occurred since I received my Ph.D. there. I appreciated the warm hospitality provided by IMES.

On February 7th and 8th, I participated in the 2015 Musculoskeletal Development and Regeneration Conference in Cancun, Mexico. My speech, “Regenerative Engineering: The Theory and Practice of a Next Generation Field,” highlighted the future of regenerative engineering in musculoskeletal repair and regeneration. I discussed the challenge of musculoskeletal tissue engineering and several of the latest inventions developed by the Institute for Regenerative Engineering here at UConn Health including a bioengineered matrix for the regeneration of torn anterior cruciate ligaments. I want to thank the organizers for including me as part of this for those working on the frontiers of science in both academia and corporate industry.

I am very happy to announce the launch of a new journal entitled Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine. It will be published quarterly beginning in later 2015.

Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine is an international journal covering the convergence of tissue engineering, advanced materials science, stem cell research, the physical sciences, and areas of developmental biology. This convergence brings exciting opportunities to translate bench-top research into bedside methods, allowing the possibility of moving beyond maintaining or repairing tissues to regenerating them. The journal also features sections on instructive biomaterials, stimuli-responsive biomaterials, micro- and nano-patterning for regenerative engineering, elastomeric biomaterials, hydrogels for tissue engineering, and rapid prototyping and bioprinting approaches.

We are fortunate to be developing an editorial board of recognized experts in their fields to help with the peer-review process. As editor-in-chief, I want to thank everyone involved for their efforts during the past months in ensuring the journal’s successful launch.

On September 8th and 9th last year, I served as an invited speaker at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Frontiers in Bioengineering Symposium. This year, the symposium drew more than 200 participants and 30 top scientists/engineers from across the country who presented their forward-looking research in bioengineering. In my talk, “Regenerative Engineering: Theory and Practice,” I discussed the new research direction in the regeneration of musculoskeletal tissues through the regenerative engineering approach. I am grateful to both the organizing committee and the university for inviting me to speak.