JOM Collection of Papers

Three members of our team, Dr. Drelich, Dr. Sikora-Jasinska and Dr. Mostaed, have served as guest editors to the JOM journal and prepared a collection of quality papers on Biodegradable Materials for Medical Applications II.
To mitigate the long-term side effects associated with current corrosion-resistant implants, a new generation of bioabsorbable medical devices is currently being developed and have already been approved in some markets (e.g. Europe). Implants made of biodegradable materials are absorbed and excreted by the body after completing their temporary mechanical, scaffolding and biointegration functions. Biochemical and mechanical attributes of all classes of materials including metals, ceramics and polymers have been broadly explored by scientific and industrial research and development laboratories for various clinical applications over the last two decades. The second (bi-annual) international symposium ‘Biodegradable Materials for Medical Applications’ took place during the 2020 TMS Meeting in San Diego and addressed the emerging multi-disciplinary field of biodegradable materials and implants, involving materials scientists and engineers working with biologists, bioengineers and medical personnel. The symposium had four oral sessions with four keynote presentations, seven invited talks and eighteen regular presentations, and a poster session with eleven posters. Papers presented covered a broad range of topics related to materials selection, development, processing, and testing, material surface treatments and modifications, in-vitro/in-vivo performance assessment and evaluation for biodegradable-based implants including vascular, orthopedic, tissue engineering, and other applications, presented by representatives from Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Poland, Singapore, Slovenia, and the USA. Nearly two dozen selected quality papers were submitted for publication into three journals, including JOM (this issue), Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A (to be published in Volume 51), and Surface Innovations (to be published in Volume 8). Although the papers from the first symposium in this series were not published, last year the April 2019 issue of JOM (vol. 71, no. 4) offered five papers on characterization of biodegradable medical materials.