This award by the Biomaterials program in the Division of Materials Research to Materials Research Society (MRS) provides partial funding for the 2013 Fall MRS Meeting Symposium titled "Integration of Biomaterials with Organic Electronics." This Symposium will be an integrated forum for a discussion of the most recent advances in Biomaterials, Electronic Materials and their engineering applications, and aims to integrate all three areas through interactions. In addition, this symposium will consist of oral and poster presentations with a focus on synergistic integration of biomaterials and organic materials with neural engineering and cellular phenomena to address unmet needs. The invited speakers are widely recognized as leaders in their fields and will deliver focused lectures with broad scientific appeal. Special attention will be devoted to the development of a diverse program including the participation of under-represented groups, international participation, and broad interdisciplinarity. The partial funding of this Symposium by this award will support the participation of undergraduate and graduate students at this MRS meeting.
The scientific broader impact of this symposium will be to inform investigators at all levels about the unmet needs and emerging opportunities in the areas of research at the interface between non-conventional electronics and biomedical applications. The symposium provides a forum in which materials researchers including students working in the areas of biomaterials and organic electronic materials will report on recent advances in the field. The funds requested from NSF will support the attendance of both undergraduate and graduate students, who will make oral and poster presentations at the Symposium, and will be interacting with leaders in their fields during the meeting.
symposium at the 2013 MRS Fall meeting in Boston. The main theme of this highly interdisciplinary symposium was the study the interface with biomaterials with organic electronic devices to interrogate biological systems at the cell, tissue, and organ levels. Of relevance to the NSF program, there were be sessions focused on advancing electronically active biological materials for use as functional systems for medical devices including neural interfaces. Another focus was the application the development of biomaterials for biocompatible and bioresorbable devices. These investigations were presented primarily in the context of strategies for biomaterials development in the context of organic electronic biocompatible devices. Intellectual Merit The application of flexible and non-conventional electronics using biological and synthetic materials has the potential to transform both disciplines. Flexible devices may be used to unlock mysteries of biological systems at various levels. This symposium provided a great opportunity for scientists and engineers from around the world, and from many different disciplines to share their results and insights in the field of non-conventional electronics with a specific focus on biomaterials, organic materials and their interface with biological systems. As compared to other symposia on flexible electronics, this unique effort was focused on synergistic interactions of biological and organic materials with neural engineering and cellular phenomena to address unmet needs. Funding from NSF was used to increase the affordability of the meeting for oral and poster presenters, who consist mainly of young and emerging investigators in the field with a strong focus on participation from students. Broader Impact Being able to partially support travel and to cover the costs of attending the meeting for students and young researchers allowed a wider, more representative population to attend and participate in the symposium. Student support was publicized and hence this NSF grant allowed the student attendees to become familiar with state-of-the-art in biomaterial based devices and organic bioelectronic devices. Through these means, we were able to significantly enhance accessibility to research. This symposium also informed investigators at all levels about the unmet needs and emerging opportunities in the areas of research at the interface between non-conventional electronics and biomedical engineering.
