Transfusion medicine has seen extraordinary growth in novel approaches, especially, state-of-the-art cellular therapies, bioengineering and therapeutic manufacturing of recombinant clotting factors over the last century. The scope of this special issue encompasses all spheres of transfusion medicine. These comprise technologies that will more precisely identify blood components to increase patient safety; enhanced screening methods that will help reduce the risk of infection; genetic characterization of blood group antigens and novel cellular therapies to be tailor-fitted according to the needs of the patients. This special edition also aims to review use of specialized cell transplantation like hematopoietic progenitor cells as a replacement of bone marrow transplantation in many disorders and umbilical cord stem cell therapy in pediatric population in wide range of cancers, genetic diseases, and blood disorders. Consequently, all comprehensive reviews and research articles that describe the latest advances in transfusion medicine would assist in progressing the exchange of knowledge internationally, with a variety of clinical disciplines and their scientific societies.

The damage of tissue caused by either injury or abnormal cell apoptosis will lead to the failure of organ. Such health problems bring not only a huge medical expense to the society, but also a major life threatens to the patients.

The current clinical responses to tissue damage, such as transplantation, do not provide a long-term solution. The most promising strategy to overcome this problem is tissue engineering, which introduces the in vitro developed biological substitutes to restore, repair, or even replace the damaged tissues and organs. The most recent advancements in this field includes regenerating the functional tissue composed of cardiomyocytes to cure cardiovascular diseases, repairing the retina tissue, and artificial bone marrow.

Since the development of tissue engineering requires a lot of key knowledge from cell biology like stem cell, cell differentiation, and molecular cloning, it is worth preparing this special issue to bring together the original research and review papers, illustrating the current achievements in tissue engineering and their application of cell biology.

The pRB tumor suppressor protein is a member of a family of three closely related mammalian proteins that includes p107 and p130. Together these are often referred to as the ‘pocket proteins’ because their main sequence similarity resides in a domain which mediates interactions with viral and cellular proteins, namely the pocket domain. The function of the pRB protein has always been inactivated by the phosphorylation through cyclin dependent kinases in various human cancers. The p130 and p107 are thought to be important regulators of cell cycle progression, senescence and differentiation and recent studies have suggested that both of them are part of the novel human DREAM complex. The mechanisms and functions of these pocket proteins especially in human cancers will be discussed in this special issue, bringing together a collection of original researches and review articles addressing recent developments in cancer research and their roles as marker for anticancer therapy.

Cellular response to their different endogenous and exogenous stresses is a universal mechanism of physiological importance. Cellular stress response represents the various defense reactions that are initiated in response to damages inflicted by environmental forces on macromolecules. Examples of the macromolecular damages can range from damages caused by radiation, chemotherapy, hypoxia, oncogene activation; which will ultimately lead to activation of survival pathways to initiation of cell death, or elimination of damaged cells. The implications of cellular stress responses to cellular physiology and diseases are manifold and will be discussed in this special issue, bringing together a collection of original research and review articles addressing recent developments in the cellular stress response, the signaling pathways that mitigate its biological effects and the ensuing cell proliferation and/or survival outcomes.

The aim of this special issue is to collect novel contributions and reviews on the roles and importance of non-coding RNAs in eukaryotes and bacteria. Nowadays it is recognised that different chromosomes may contribute to a final RNA transcript, and that small RNAs are not the product of degradation but are complex structures often organised in circles to facilitate their export or transport at distance. Latest research developments show that a relevant output of the transcriptome is formed by RNAs that do not code for proteins: non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) that regulate gene expression, antisense RNAs, ncRNA mimicking the structure of other nucleic acids, such as open promoters. RNAs forming chromatin remodelling complexes; ribonucleoproteins; RNAs transport by RNA-binding proteins; RNA riboswitches; RNA decoys; circular RNAs and closed mRNAs; natural antagomiRs and miRNA sponges; ncRNA processing, maturation regulation by modification; RNA intercellular signaling and movement at distance; intron-containing tRNA genes in higher plants and Archeal tRNAs originating from two/three genes; bacterial RNAs in stress and sensing the environment.

The purpose of this special issue is to bring to the scientific community novel aspects from the RNA world that may be considered an exception to a rule; on individual RNA with a new role/activity that may be more general than expected; findings that may support hypothesis on RNAs activities that may seem too distant from the general opinion to be taken in consideration; on the roles of RNAs in cell response to stresses and to an unfavourable environment.

The significance of the special issue is to recognise RNAs as active components of many cellular processes and signalling pathways, and that these role is exerted throughout the life, from bacteria to plants to animal species.

Mammalian cells are frequently at risk of DNA damage from both endogenous and exogenous genotoxic agents. Accordingly, cells have evolved DNA damage response pathways to monitor the genomic integrity. The effective DNA repair is essential for the maintenance of genomic stability and it acts as a critical barrier to suppress cancer development. This special issue will focus on the cellular response to and the mechanism of genotoxic stress, DNA repair and its deficiency, the roles of genomic instability during cancer initiation, development, progression, and relapse or metastasis. It will also involve the issues of how to develop the novel biomarkers, which are related to DNA repair deficiency and genomic instability and can be used to diagnose cancers at early stage or predict the prognosis of cancer.

Cell survival and death are essential and complicated phenomenon. Too much of cell survival may lead to cancer and too much cell death may result in tissue degeneration. This special issue will focus on the cellular mechanisms that promote correct protein folding and maintenance of protein function leading to essential cell physiological systems. It will also discuss about the pathological effects associated with impairment of involved mechanisms in protein folding including protein quality control (PQC) systems, unfolded protein responses (UPRs) and on the mechanisms by which misfolded proteins lead to the generation of cellular oxidative stress effecting cellular processes.

Cell biology is the science of studying how cells function such as their reproduction metabolism, and their internal and external communication. Different kinds of cellular communication and signaling are existed either in physiological and pathological conditions. This special issue will cover the hot area of cell-to-cell communication through the gap junctions, paracrine factors and through membrane-secreted microvesicles/exosomes, in both physiological and pathological mechanisms.