Like the other Nature titles, Nature Biomedical Engineering has no external editorial board. Instead, all editorial decisions are made by a dedicated team of professional editors, with relevant research and editorial backgrounds.
Chief editor: Rita Strack, Springer Nature, USA
Rita Strack obtained her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Chicago. While there, she worked with Benjamin Glick and Robert Keenan to engineer improved variants of the red fluorescent protein DsRed, and also studied the chemical mechanism of chromophore formation in DsRed. She continued her research as a postdoctoral fellow in Samie Jaffrey's laboratory at Weill Cornell Medical College, where she developed fluorescent reporters for live-cell imaging of RNA such as Spinach2. Rita was a senior editor at Nature Methods starting in November 2014 and she was appointed as Chief editor at Nature Biomedical Engineering in August, 2025. She can be contacted at rita.strack@us.nature.com.
Filipe Almeida, Senior Editor, PhD, Springer Nature, Germany
Filipe studied the influence of the biomechanics of the tumor microenvironment at The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, and most recently developed composite biomaterials for the delivery of anticancer drugs at NOVA University of Lisbon. Previously, at Queen Mary University of London, where he obtained his PhD in 2015, he studied how skin cells respond to their microenvironment by using advanced microfabricated biomaterials, and developed micropatterned surfaces for high-content drug screening. Filipe’s interests span mechanobiology, biomechanics, cellular imaging, tissue engineering, nanotheranostics and cancer therapies. Filipe joined Nature Biomedical Engineering in November 2021. He can be contacted at filipe.almeida@nature.com (presubmission enquiries should however be submitted via the manuscript tracking system).
Valeria Caprettini, Senior Editor, PhD, Springer Nature, UK
Valeria developed nanotechnology for tissue engineering at King’s College London by leveraging nanofabrication, physics and materials science. Previously, at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genoa, Italy, where she obtained her PhD in bioengineering in 2017, she conceived and devised a microfluidic device for the spatiotemporally controlled poration of cells for the delivery of drugs, for extracellular and intracellular electrical recordings, and for spectroscopic analyses. She specialized in phenomena at interfaces between cell surfaces and nanostructures. Her expertise encompasses biomaterials, biosensing, bioimaging, drug delivery and tissue engineering. Valeria joined Nature Biomedical Engineering in August 2022. She can be contacted at valeria.caprettini@nature.com.
Alessandra Griffo, Associate Editor, PhD, Springer Nature, Germany
Alessandra developed RNA origami nanostructures for biomedical applications at the Max Planck Institute of Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany. Previously, at the Experimental Physics Department of University of Saarland, Germany, she investigated unconventional secretory pathways of peripheral proteins. In 2019 Alessandra obtained a PhD in Biotechnology at Aalto University in Finland, where she developed biomimetic protein-based materials. Alessandra’s interests span biomechanics and biosensing, nucleic acid therapeutics and biomedical devices. Alessandra joined Nature Biomedical Engineering in June 2024. She can be contacted at alessandra.griffo@nature.com(presubmission enquiries should however be submitted via the manuscript tracking system).
Jennifer Haskell, Associate Editor, PhD, Springer Nature, UK
Jennifer worked on the use of spectroscopy for the detection and management of breast cancer at the University of Exeter, where she also obtained her PhD in January 2024. She assessed different Raman spectroscopy techniques for diagnostic potential, and worked towards the development of a prototype non-invasive screening-type device. She also used a high-wavenumber Raman probe to measure water content for the assessment of breast tumour margins, and Raman microscopy to assess the effectiveness of chemotherapy. Her interests include bioimaging and biosensing, cancer diagnosis and treatment, and biomedical devices. Jennifer joined Nature Biomedical Engineering in September 2024. She can be contacted at Jennifer.haskell@nature.com (presubmission enquiries should however be submitted via the manuscript tracking system).
Sadra Bakhshandeh, Consulting Editor, PhD, Springer Nature, Germany
Sadra has been trained in mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering, and has conducted his PhD training in biomaterials and medical biotechnology at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany. Sadra started at Springer Nature in 2022 and is a senior editor at Nature Reviews Bioengineering, where he handles the topics of biomaterials, neurotechnologies, nanomedicine, biosensors and bioengineering. In May 2025, Sadra took on an expanded role as Consulting Editor for Nature Biomedical Engineering. Sadra is based in Berlin, Germany. He can be contacted at sadra.bakhshandeh@nature.com (presubmission enquiries should however be submitted via the manuscript tracking system).
The Research Cross-Journal Editorial Team supports the Nature-branded research journals, with a focus on handling primary research manuscripts.
The Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team handles Research Briefing articles for the Nature-branded research journals.
