Editorial

Editorial

Shining a Spotlight on Photochemistry

<i>ChemSystemsChem</i> – On the Up and Up

Editorial

On the launch of this inaugural issue of AIChE's and SBE's Bioengineering & Translational Medicine, I must express my deep gratitude to the members of our Editorial Advisory Board. Their expertise and experience provide a strong foundation supporting the broad range of bioengineering topics that will be covered in the journal. To highlight this strength, we plan to feature one of our distinguished Editorial Advisory Board members in each issue. In this inaugural issue, we are proud to feature Prof Nicholas A Peppas. Nicholas Peppas holds a Cockrell Family Regents Chaired Professorship in Engineering, Medicine and Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin, with appointments in the departments of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, in Surgery in the Dell Medical School, and in the College of Pharmacy. He received his Diploma in Engineering from the National Technical University in Athens and an Sc.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Chemical Engineering. He has also received numerous honorary doctorates, including those from the University of Ghent (Belgium), the University of Parma (Italy), the University of Ljublijana (Slovenia), the University of Athens (Greece), the University of Patras (Greece), and an honorary professorship from the Sichuan University (China). Professor Peppas' research has made a transformative impact on drug delivery, which has leaped to the forefront of science and technology. In particular, Prof Peppas' research on mathematical models and novel biomaterials has yielded not only new insights into drug release mechanisms and new technologies to control them, but has also provided a new paradigm for research conducted at the interface of medicine and engineering. His early studies on drug diffusion in polymeric systems provided the much needed quantitative tools to describe drug release,1 an equation that is now commonly known as Korsemeyer-Peppas model. This particular study established a number of key fundamental principles of drug release from porous matrices. Specifically, swellable porous matrices exhibit complex release behavior arising from swelling-induced structural changes of the matrix. This pioneering work provided numerous insights into drug release mechanisms, including dependence on drug size, the role of matrix composition, and the role of matrix swelling. Further, this study provided the vision that, if the matrix materials and additives are chosen carefully, it should be possible to control the drug release to a desired rate. The lessons learned from these studies have fueled groundbreaking fundamental as well as translational advances in the field of hydrogel-based drug delivery systems. Today, hydrogel-based drug delivery systems are used in various applications including wound dressings, contact lenses, mucosal delivery systems, topical formulations, and depot injections, among others. The impact of this paper is also clear from the fact that this equation has been cited more than 2,700 times to date. Overall, Dr Peppas' research has been cited over 84,000 times with an h-index of 140, making him one of most cited researchers in the world across all disciplines. In 1987, Prof Peppas published two seminal papers in the Journal of Controlled Release on mathematical models of solute diffusion.2, 3 These publications introduced equations to describe Fickian and non-Fickian diffusional release from nonswellable polymeric delivery systems of various geometries. These models provided a simple-to-use, yet accurate, equation to describe drug release and these two publications remain the most cited original research articles in the Journal of Controlled Release in its 30-plus year history. Responsive hydrogels represent another area where Dr Peppas' work has made a pioneering and transformative impact, especially for applications in diabetes treatment.4-8 Hydrogels that respond to pH, glucose, or other stimuli have opened new opportunities in designing materials whose key properties, especially drug release, can be dynamically tuned. pH-responsive poly(methacrylic-ethylene glycol) hydrogels that swell in response to high pH provide materials that exhibit a collapsed state in the acidic environment of the stomach and, thus, protect encapsulated insulin from the gastric enzymes. Upon exposure to high pH of the intestine, on the other hand, the same hydrogel can swell and release insulin to facilitate oral absorption. These smart hydrogels have offered an alternative to injections, which currently represents the most common mode of insulin administration to diabetic patients despite their severe limitations. Encapsulation of glucose oxidase in hydrogel adds another layer of “smartness” to gel-based systems.5 Glucose oxidase-containing gels exhibit a higher rate of swelling, thus offering insulin release that depends on local glucose concentrations. Such responsive hydrogels have been efficacious in insulin delivery, producing a strong, dose-dependent and long-lasting hypoglycemic effect in diabetic rats. In recent studies, these hydrogels have also been used to deliver macromolecules such as siRNA for the treatment of gastrointestinal inflammatory conditions.9 Professor Peppas' work has impacted many additional areas of bioengineering, including mechanisms of transport across biomembranes, analysis of tissue-polymer interactions, and transport properties of complex polymer systems. Professor Peppas has been recognized with numerous awards, including elections to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), National Academy of Medicine (NAM), National Academy of Inventors (NAI), National Academy of France, Royal Academy of Spain and the Academy of Athens. He is also an elected fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), American Association of Advancement of Science (AAAS), Society for Biomaterials (SFB), among others. Professor Peppas has been recognized by the NAE Founders Award, the Giulio Natta Medal, the Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal, AIMBE's Pierre Galletti Award, and the Maurice Marie Janot Award in Pharmaceutical Sciences, among others. His teaching accomplishments have been recognized through the Benjamin Garver Lamme Excellence in Engineering Education Award from the American Society for Engineering Education. In 2016, Prof Peppas was included in the 100 Power List by the medicinemaker, comprising the most influential individuals making medicines. AIChE and SBE have been particularly proud to recognize Prof Peppas with several of their distinguished awards, including Materials Engineering and Sciences Award (1984); Food, Pharmaceuticals, and Bioengineering Award (1992); Nanoscale Science and Engineering Award (2014), Founders Award for Outstanding Contributions to Chemical Engineering (2008); William H. Walker Award (2006); Jay Bailey Award (2006); and Institute Lecturer (2007). In 2008, Prof Peppas was listed among the “One Hundred Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era by AIChE” on the occasion of the Institute's centennial. As towering as these accomplishments and recognitions are, if we ask Prof Peppas, he would say that his proudest professional achievements are his students. To date, he has supervised more than 875 researchers, including 105 PhDs, over half of whom are now professors at various Universities. His students are advancing various frontiers of bioengineering and biotechnology in their own ways in academia as well as industry. Over the years, Prof Peppas has played a central role in advancing the cause of bioengineering in various organizations, especially in AIChE. He was director of AIChE (1999–2002); chair of the AIChE's Materials Engineering and Sciences Division (1988–1990); director of AIChE's Food, Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Division (1994–1997); and founder of AIChE's Bionanotechnology programming area. Even outside AIChE, Prof Peppas has been extremely active in various professional organizations. He was director of the BMES (2008–2011), Chair of the College of Fellows of AIMBE (2006–2007), President of the SFB (2003–2004), president of the Controlled Release Society (1987–1988), and chair of the Engineering section of AAAS (2014–2015). He is presently the President of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Sciences and Engineering (2008–2016). Among many of his editorial responsibilities, he was Associate Editor of the AIChE Journal (2009–2012). Professor Peppas' pioneering research, along with his active and inspiring leadership in various professional organizations, has advanced the visibility of drug delivery in the scientific landscape, and has inspired young professionals to follow the suit. On behalf of AIChE and SBE, I thank Prof Peppas for his strong support in the launch of Bioengineering & Translational Medicine and look forward to his continued support. Samir Mitragotri Editor-in-Chief Dept. of Chemical Engineering Center for Bioengineering University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Email: samir@engr.ucsb.edu

Recognising our community as we head towards JEB's centenary in 2023.

American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and Pharmacometrics, Office of Clinical Pharmacology, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to build a quantitative Alzheimer’s Disease Model. AAPS is seeking fellows who are interested in applying quantitative ‘learning’ approaches for solving drug development and regulatory challenges. Specifically, the incumbent will work with the FDA Pharmacometrics group (Silver Spring, MD, USA) to develop and apply Alzheimer’s Disease Model to drug development. The fellowship is for 2 years. Requirements include an earned Pharm.D., Ph.D., M.D. or other professional doctorate related to pharmaceutical sciences or statistics. Clinical and pharmaceutical scientists with a good knowledge of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic principles, an experience in mixed effects modeling including software skills (SAS, Splus, NONMEM, etc) or a statistician with a good knowledge of trial design and analyses principles with an interest in advanced innovative methods to explore clinical trial data are eligible for this fellowship. Proficiency with standard software (NONMEM, SAS or SPlus/R) is a must. This fellowship could also be a good opportunity for academicians who are willing to take 2 years of sabbatical leave. Good communication and writing skills are critical. Opportunities to learn and contribute in a dynamic team, to gain first-hand experience with regulatory aspects of Pharmacometrics, and to conduct and publish research in related areas are abundant. Candidates will need to be US permanent residents or citizens. Please forward your resume to: AAPS Attention: CRADA—Alzheimer’s Disease Model 2107 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 700 Arlington, VA 22201 crada@aaps.org www.aapspharmaceutica.com/crada Deadline for submissions: June 30, 2008

American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and Pharmacometrics, Office of Clinical Pharmacology, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to build a quantitative Alzheimer’s Disease Model. AAPS is seeking fellows who are interested in applying quantitative ‘learning’ approaches for solving drug development and regulatory challenges. Specifically, the incumbent will work with the FDA Pharmacometrics group (Silver Spring, MD, USA) to develop and apply Alzheimer’s Disease Model to drug development. The fellowship is for 2 years. Requirements include an earned Pharm.D., Ph.D., M.D. or other professional doctorate related to pharmaceutical sciences or statistics. Clinical and pharmaceutical scientists with a good knowledge of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic principles, an experience in mixed effects modeling including software skills (SAS, Splus, NONMEM, etc) or a statistician with a good knowledge of trial design and analyses principles with an interest in advanced innovative methods to explore clinical trial data are eligible for this fellowship. Proficiency with standard software (NONMEM, SAS or SPlus/R) is a must. This fellowship could also be a good opportunity for academicians who are willing to take 2 years of sabbatical leave. Good communication and writing skills are critical. Opportunities to learn and contribute in a dynamic team, to gain first-hand experience with regulatory aspects of Pharmacometrics, and to conduct and publish research in related areas are abundant. Candidates will need to be US permanent residents or citizens. Please forward your resume to: AAPS Attention: CRADA—Alzheimer’s Disease Model 2107 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 700 Arlington, VA 22201 crada@aaps.org http://www.aapspharmaceutica.com/crada Deadline for submissions: June 30, 2008

American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and Pharmacometrics, Office of Clinical Pharmacology, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to build a quantitative Alzheimer’s Disease Model. AAPS is seeking fellows who are interested in applying quantitative ‘learning’ approaches for solving drug development and regulatory challenges. Specifically, the incumbent will work with the FDA Pharmacometrics group (Silver Spring, MD, USA) to develop and apply Alzheimer’s Disease Model to drug development. The fellowship is for 2 years. Requirements include an earned Pharm.D., Ph.D., M.D. or other professional doctorate related to pharmaceutical sciences or statistics. Clinical and pharmaceutical scientists with a good knowledge of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic principles, an experience in mixed effects modeling including software skills (SAS, Splus, NONMEM, etc) or a statistician with a good knowledge of trial design and analyses principles with an interest in advanced innovative methods to explore clinical trial data are eligible for this fellowship. Proficiency with standard software (NONMEM, SAS or SPlus/R) is a must. This fellowship could also be a good opportunity for academicians who are willing to take 2 years of sabbatical leave. Good communication and writing skills are critical. Opportunities to learn and contribute in a dynamic team, to gain first-hand experience with regulatory aspects of Pharmacometrics, and to conduct and publish research in related areas are abundant. Candidates will need to be US permanent residents or citizens. Please forward your resume to: AAPS Attention: CRADA—Alzheimer’s Disease Model 2107 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 700 Arlington, VA 22201 crada@aaps.org http://www.aapspharmaceutica.com/crada Deadline for submissions: June 30, 2008

The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) covers the full range of areas of expertise associated with the resolution of concerns pertaining to drugs and drug products. This editorial highlights the initiatives, issues, and challenges that are the forefront of the pharmaceutical sciences in 2007. It also provides an overview of how these difficult questions are being addressed through the programs and events associated with the AAPS 2007 Annual Meeting that will be held at the San Diego, California, Convention Center from November 11 to 15, 2007.

As we embark on a new year, it seems appropriate to pause and assess how the journal Particle & Particle Systems Characterization (hereafter referred to as Particle) has grown since its launch as a multidisciplinary, materials-science-focused journal at the start of 2013. From the outset, we intended to cover a broad spectrum of topics in the journal, ranging from the synthesis and characterization of particles to the application of these particles in areas such as biomedicine, catalysis, environmental science, micro/nano-electromechanical applications, micro/nano-fluidics, molecular electronics, photonics, sensing, and other areas. A quick look at the word cloud (Figure 1) generated from the keywords of all articles published in 2013 and 2014 shows that we are accomplishing our initial aim of producing a multidisciplinary journal that serves various communities. Naturally, after two years of submissions to the journal we were curious to see the origin of the manuscripts that we publish. In Figure 2, we present an overview of publications per region. While citations to published papers are by no means the only measure to assess the impact of work, they can provide some indication as to the importance and urgency of the results presented in a particular field of research—assuming that authors cite work that is of high relevance to their own ongoing research endeavours. At this point, it is worth reminding readers that in order for the references to Particle to be correctly recorded (for example, in CrossRef, Pubmed, or ISI Web of Knowledge), the correct Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI) abbreviation—Part. Part. Syst. Charact.—must be used for citations. Deviations of this standard abbreviation result in incorrect bibliographic information, making it more difficult for our readers/your fellow researchers to discover your published work. Table 1 provides a list of the highest cited articles published in 2013. We are pleased with the range of topics presented, which, judging by the level of manuscript submissions to the journal and the positive feedback we receive when talking to researchers, appeals to the journal's broad readership. In the relatively short history of Particle, we have benefited greatly from the support of our Editorial Advisory Board and Executive Board members and the broader academic community. Through a number of collaborations, we have to date published three special issues (Figure 3) on Remotely Controlled Colloids, Interfaces, and Biosystems (guest editors: Gleb Sukhorukov, Igor Luzinov, and Sergiy Minko), The Basque Country regional special issue (guest editor: Luis M. Liz-Marzán), and Particles for Healthcare Applications (guest editors: Bin Liu, Xiaohu Gao, and Lanry Lin Yue Yung). One milestone of note for Particle and one of its sister journals, Advanced Optical Materials (also published first issue in Jan. 2013) was the attainment of the journal's first immediacy index, which was announced in July 2014. The immediacy index for Particle is 0.805 and that for Advanced Optical Materials is 0.867. The Immediacy Index—calculated each year by Thomson Reuters ISI—is the average number of times an article is cited in the year it is published. It indicates the topicality and urgency of work published in a scientific journal. These are excellent results that reflect the high-quality of work published in the first year of both journals. Particle and Advanced Optical Materials will obtain their first partial impact factors in June 2015. Other journals in the Advanced Materials journal family are shown in Figure 4. Our newest additions, Advanced Science and Advanced Electronic Materials, are now open for submissions. A concise overview of all the journals in the Advanced Materials family (such as journal scope, editorial board members, editorial contact details, keywords, and sample published articles) can be found here: http://www.wiley-vch.de/journals/booklets/AMjournalfamily/. In conclusion, we would like most sincerely to thank: our editorial advisory board and executive board members to whom we are indebted for their continued support; our ever-expanding database of referees, who give their time to provide their expert opinion on work, enabling us to publish manuscripts of the highest standard; and last but by no means least to our authors, who entrust their best work to our journal. The editorial team is looking forward to a continued collaboration as the journal grows in the coming years. To be alerted of articles as soon as they are published, you can follow the Early View section on our Wiley Online Library homepage (www.particle-journal.com) and/or follow us on Twitter.

Editorial

30 years of the Journal of Hepatology – The flagship journal and the crown-jewel of EASL

Letter from the Editor Christopher Gaffney, Editor 2015 has been a year of change for JLAG. After 13 years of sure-handed guidance from David Robinson, I took over as editor at the beginning of the year. In addition to getting excellent information and instruction from David, I have had the good fortune to have my landing softened with the production of two special issues directed by two excellent guest editors. Matthew Hayes guided the 14(1) issue on amenity migration and Karl Offen has collected and organized the current issue 14(3) on Mapping Latin American Geographies. Their expert knowledge and enthusiasm for pulling together rigorous scholarship, as well as their willingness to work with a neophyte editor, helped to maintain the high academic quality of JLAG during the transition period. I have also been able to count on the strong support of out-going Associate Editors Richard Hunter and Marta Herrera Angel and the continued collaboration of Book Review Editor Joseph Scarpaci. I thank the members of the International Editorial Board as well as the Publications Committee and the CLAG board for their help and encouragement over the past year. I would also like to welcome publically our new Associate Editors James Freeman of Concordia University and Jörn Seemann of Ball State University. Long-time JLAG subscribers will notice a substantial change in the layout which we hope will be easier on our collectively failing eyesight as well as provide a larger platform for photos, maps, graphics, and tables. 14(2) was the first issue to use this new format and we hope that the new look JLAG will allow for a more expressive display of the geographic tools that our authors employ in their work. The current issue is a prime example of the benefits of this format. The editorial team would appreciate any feedback as we continue to fine-tune JLAG to provide authors an engaging professional platform and our readership with cutting-edge scholarship and a high-quality product. Over the past year I have had the pleasure of communicating with hundreds of academics and professionals working in myriad geographic sub-disciplines in nearly every country in Latin America and beyond. The list of collaborators extends well beyond the editorial team, CLAG members, and contributors. In addition to the 27 articles and 18 book reviews we published this year, we have also had an increase in article submissions (and rejections), and engaged more than 50 external reviewers that contributed their expertise and opinions. The full list of reviewers can be found on the following pages – thanks to all of you on behalf of the JLAG editorial team. In the coming year, there will be even more changes to JLAG as we move to an automated submission and review platform. We will also be adding one more Associate Editor, appointing a new Book Review Editor, and expanding our back matter to include book review essays, research reports, and expert commentary. The editorial team is always open to suggestions for special issues and welcomes proposals on a rolling basis. We hope you enjoy this special issue on Mapping Latin American Geographies and look forward to seeing everyone in New Orleans in January of 2017 at the next CLAG conference. In the meantime, boa leitura! [End Page 1] Copyright © 2015 Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers

Chaos as opportunity