Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine: a year in review

Abstract

It is an exciting time to be involved in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) research. Despite its relative youth, the field is expanding fast and breaking new ground in both the laboratory and clinically. In this "Year in Review," we highlight some of the high-impact advances in the field. Building upon last year's article, we have identified the recent "hot topics" and the key publications pertaining to these themes as well as ideas that have high potential to direct the field. Based on a modified methodology grounded on last year's approach, we have identified and summarized some of the most impactful publications in five main themes: (1) pluripotent stem cells: efforts and hurdles to translation, (2) tissue engineering: complex scaffolds and advanced materials, (3) directing the cell phenotype: growth factor and biomolecule presentation, (4) characterization: imaging and beyond, and (5) translation: preclinical to clinical. We have complemented our review of the research directions highlighted within these trend-setting studies with a discussion of additional articles along the same themes that have recently been published and have yet to surface in citation analyses. We conclude with a discussion of some really interesting studies that provide a glimpse of the high potential for innovation of TERM research.