We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Pankaj Vadgama has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Functional Biomaterials (JFB, ISSN: 2079-4983). Under Prof. Dr. Pankaj Vadgama’s stewardship, the Journal of Functional Biomaterials will continue to provide the best editorial services and contribute to the development of the biomaterials scientific community.

Prof. Dr. Pankaj Vadgama is an Emeritus Professor of Clinical Biochemistry at Queen Mary University of London. He is a chemical pathologist with an interest in near-patient monitoring via the use of electrochemical biosensors, particularly for diabetes and critical care. His work emphasizes polymeric barrier materials for enhanced device biocompatibility and selectivity. He has published over 200 papers and reviews. He graduated in medicine and chemistry, and he commenced his research as an MRC Training Fellow in Newcastle. He was the Head of the Departments of Medicine and Clinical Biochemistry at Manchester University, and, latterly, was the Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre (IRC) in Biomedical Materials, Queen Mary University of London.

Prof. Dr. Pankaj Vadgama is taking over from Prof. Dr. Francesco Puoci, the former Editor-in-Chief. During the twelve-year tenure of Prof. Dr. Puoci, the journal has had great success, seeing indexing in different databases and a sustained increase in publications.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Pankaj Vadgama, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views on the research area and open access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take the role as the Editor-in-Chief?

I am delighted to have the opportunity to serve as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Functional Biomaterials. After its inauguration in 2011, the journal has established itself as a full-spectrum publication accommodating work from right across the biomaterials field. Importantly, it has also given scope to new concepts that have not been classically embedded in materials science, giving space to chemistry and biology aspects, for example. Function is the all-important outcome for a materials medical intervention, and this is well signposted in the title, informing the way the journal has evolved. In the peer review and editorial decision-making, work from new and established researchers is treated alike, with equal recognition also given to ideas that may be new to biomaterials. Much of this development can be attributed to the efforts of the immediate past Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dr. Francesco Puoci, who steered the journal from its beginning, together with the various Section Editors-in-Chief and the supporting journal editorial team. This synergy has also been of importance for the success and recognition of the journal.

2. What is your vision for the journal?

My vision is to continue the evolution of the journal in a way that reflects the increasing scientific diversity of the field, providing opportunities for work irrespective of scientific pedigree. With such broadening, we would hope to widen the engagement of different research communities and, through this, to potentiate advances in the field. Ultimately, a trans-discipline approach is the greatest opportunity for delivering on global healthcare challenges, and the work of biomaterials is no exception to this. I would hope for a fluidity of both ideas and approaches, with the only absolute deliverable being that of scientific quality.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?

The field is rooted, of course, in materials science, but greater attention needs to be given to the biological context of operation, and emphasis on the biological environment and its reactivity is set to grow. The balance between materials and biological study will further shift, and from descriptive approaches, we will move to the predictive. The new norms for acceptable testing will likely shift us from experimental animal models to tissue models with similarity to the in vivo environment. Also, the blend of cells and bioartificial matrix that lie at the heart of tissue engineering will themselves provide us with functional implants that have ‘intelligence’ and an architectural complexity that will eventually mimic whole organs. The boundary between materials science and biology is essentially set to blur, and through this, disruptive technologies providing ever more elegant solutions to failed tissue and organs will emerge. Descriptive work is currently often at the heart of our research, but now, both through AI and a finer structure resolution, we will likely shift to greater predictive power and predictive modeling in biomaterials. As with drugs, the compression of the discovery process may be possible through array technology and scaleup processing. In the end, biocompatibility is a consequence of crosstalk between material and the biomatrix, and the study of this may offer us insights into biological processes more generally, equally justifiable as a domain of biomaterials research.

4. What do you think of the development of open access in the publishing field?

This new route to publication is changing the landscape of the research output and how we perceive research outputs more generally. In particular, it is opening up opportunities for new global research communities to have unfettered contact with contemporary strands of scientific advance and through this, to have the confidence and empowerment to make their own contributions. This adds to the diversity of what we all have contact with, augmenting all our abilities to advance our respective fields.

We are extremely grateful to Prof. Dr. Francesco Puoci for his hard work and support in helping the journal realize its potential, and warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Pankaj Vadgama as the new Editor-in-Chief. We look forward to his contributions and to the continued success of the Journal of Functional Biomaterials.