**Meet the editor**

Dr. Dan Simionescu is the Harriet and Jerry Dempsey Professor of Bioengineering and Director of the Biocompatibility and Tissue Regeneration Laboratories at the Clemson University, Clemson, SC. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed papers in highly ranked journals such as *Circulation*, *Cardiovascular Pathology*, *American Journal of Pathology*, *Tissue Engineering*, and

*Biomaterials* and has more than 160 peer-reviewed conference proceedings presented worldwide. Dr. Simionescu's general research interests include vascular biology, pathology, and regeneration using scaffolds and stem cells. His current interest is preclinical validation of translational tissue engineering approaches and is being generously funded by the NIH and the biomedical industry for his efforts in the field of cardiovascular biology, pathology, and regenerative medicine.

Dr. Agneta Simionescu received her PhD degree in Biochemistry/Cell Biology for the study of matrix remodeling in cardiac diseases. Agneta has research interests in translational tissue engineering, angiogenesis, remodeling, and mechanotransduction. She was the first to show that matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are involved in degeneration of implanted cardiovascular biomaterials

and that matrix-derived degradation products (matrikines) induce pathologic osteogenic activation of cardiovascular cells. She has also shown that stabilization of biomaterials and scaffolds with mild and reversible cross-linking agents might counteract these effects. In recent years, she has developed a passion for investigating the effects of diabetes on cardiovascular tissue engineering, including diabetes-related alterations of biomaterials and scaffolds, stem cell differentiation, matrix remodeling, and microvascular network formation in vitro and in vivo models of diabetes.
