This award by the Biomaterials program in the Division of Materials Research in support of the 2013 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting titled "Design of Cell Instructive Materials" is cofunded by the Biomedical Engineering program in the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems. This Materials Research Society Symposium will focus on applying basic science and engineering principles that advances in designing cell instructive materials with emphasis on materials to study mechanotransduction, the response of cells to materials, drug and gene delivery, and spatial and temporal regulation of signals. The planned sessions will provide a cutting-edge scientific program and discussion forum that focus on specific fundamental and applied science and engineering challenges that, when overcome, will facilitate the translation of biomaterials and tissue engineering sciences to biomedical applications.
The program serves to educate biomaterials and tissue engineering communities in the highly relevant field of developmental biology and to stimulate discussion in current approaches from materials research, engineering and biological perspectives. The symposium has not only excellent geographical diversity, but also includes many women, young investigators, and industrial researchers among the invited speakers and discussion leaders. Participants will have the opportunity to interact with leading scientists throughout the conference, and will be able to present their own work. The planned poster session by students and junior faculty members is expected to be effective means to convey scientific information as well as to develop important synergies and interactions with professional colleagues.
The microenvironment plays a crucial role in normal development by guiding stem-cell fate and tissue organization but also contributes to pathological processes such as tumor progression and metastasis. The need for interdisciplinary approaches for deconstructing the cellular microenvironment is becoming more widely recognized with materials scientists and enginees to advance our understanding of complex biological systems. Thus, there is tremenedous opportunity for materials scientists and engineers to develop new cell instructive materials to advance biological understanding, provide tools for biological studies, and guide new therapeutic strategies, goals that are directly related to the scientific interest of the Biomaterials (BMAT) section of the National Science Foundation. This symposium provided a highly interactive program to promote the sharing of ideas, development of new collaborations, and provide the perspective of researchers from both biological and engineering communities to develop and refine strategies going forward. Several exciting new developments within the biomaterials field were communicated at the symposium. In the first session, several speakers presented recent findings that cells simultaneously respond to nanoscale cues and mechanical cues with non-linear responses. These cues were found to be especially important in studies of mesenchymal stem cell differentiation. The Cell Instructive Materials for Vascularization session was also very well received. The speakers discuss their latest research on how to design materials for vascularization. One of the landmark sessions of this symposium was the biomaterials for immune modulation section. Immunology is a new hot topic for biomaterials researchers. The speakers were able to show educate the audience on immunology while at the same time show how biomaterials can contribute to this field. More traditional topics such as Biomaterials for Drug and Gene delivery were also discussed. This session was one of our largest with 16 contributed talks. The advances described in our symposium will ultimately find their use in medical applications. As such, this symposium also provided contributions to the growing fields of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. In order for the promise of regenerative medicine to be realized, efficient and reproducible cell transplantation strategies must be developed. It is highly likely that these transplantation strategies will involve the use of engineered biomaterials to improve cell viability, guide cell development, promote cell organization, and initiate cell engraftment. Therefore, efforts such as this symposium to facilitate knowledge transfer among experts and trainees in the field of biomaterials science will serve to catalyze new therapeutic strategies in regenerative medicine.
