The fabrication of a suitable scaffold for organ and/or tissue regeneration is a crucial starting point for an effective tissue engineering approach. For this aim, an accurate morphological, biochemical, and mechanical replication of the tissue-specific extracellular matrix (ECM) to be regenerated can effectively contribute to elicit a positive cell response, tissue formation, and, therefore, proper host integration after implantation. To further enhance this function, several technical strategies can be usefully planned, including innovative fabrication techniques, surface modification, incorporation of specific fillers, and/or addition of drugs or growth factors to be subsequently released to speed up the autologous tissue regeneration. In this regard, many experimental approaches have been published so far, and maybe it is time to open a discussion on the results that can lead to an advanced clinical treatment.

We invite investigators to submit original research and review articles, mainly focusing on the next research directions and suggesting “ideas for the future,” to actually contribute to the development of this research area. The presentation of fabrication techniques that can finely reproduce the natural ECM of the treated anatomical district, the detailed investigation of the cell-scaffold interaction, and the evaluation of novel tissue guided by the substrate should be focused on in this special issue. Moreover, in order to present the state of the art and, most importantly, to furnish a perspective, but realistic, scenario of the potential of this topic, we are particularly interested in articles describing preclinical and early clinical trials. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Fabrication techniques to produce ad hoc natural-derived and/or synthetic ECM-like scaffolds
• Innovative approaches for a detailed characterization of tissue-specific scaffold properties
• Influence of the substrate in dictating the cell response
• Smart strategies to reproduce biomechanical and biochemical cues of the natural ECM
• In vivo assessment to reliably move from bench to bedside

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/bmri/tissue.engineering/scaf/ according to the following timetable: