Advanced Multifunctional Biomaterials for Neuroprosthetic Interfaces (Revision) in San Francisco, CA, on April 21-25, 2014
This proposal seeks support primarily for students and young investigators from US institutions to attend the Advanced Multifunctional Biomaterials for Neuroprosthetic Interfaces Symposium that will be held at the 2014 Materials Research Society meeting, San Francisco, CA, April 21-25, 2014. The main theme of this interdisciplinary symposium is the study and application of biomaterials that interface with biological systems, especially neural cells and tissues. Session topics will highlight the latest efforts to achieve safe and effective strategies to communicate with neurons. As such, the scientific content and timing of the symposium are both appropriate. The list of confirmed invited speakers includes prominent investigators in their respective areas of research.
Neural prostheses are critical in treating or assisting people with disabilities of neural function. In spite of recent advances in neural interface technology, engineering stable and reliable electronic-neural tissue interfaces for long-term functionality remains a critical issue. The challenge for material science is to design and develop advanced multifunctional biomaterials to safely integrate with neural tissue with minimal biological response. Furthermore, the implant should match the mechanical properties of surrounding tissue to prevent injury due to micromotion and allow for adequate exchange of nutrients and waste so that the surrounding tissue remains healthy. This symposium will focus on the latest advances in biomaterials to control/engineer neuron-electronic interfaces to produce stable and functional implants with greater longevity than what is possible today.
The 2014 MRS Spring Meeting was held in San Francisco at the Moscone West Convention Center, San Francisco Marriott Marquis and The Westin San Francisco Market Street. The MRS Spring Meeting has grown considerably in recent years, and this meeting looked to be the largest yet. The scientific sessions include many emergent areas of materials research as well as some well-established ones. 57 symposia was organized into five topical area: Materials for Energy, Soft Materials and Biomaterials (the location of Symposium AA), Electronic and Photonic Materials, Nanomaterials, General Materials Science, Theory and Characterization. To complement the scientific sessions, the symposium tutorials provided detailed introductions to particularly exciting areas of research, while the exhibit showcased products of interest to the materials community. There was broad participation of the international scientific community from different counties and industry. Specially, there was successful participation of undergraduate and graduate students and young scientists in all meeting, in particular, in our symposium (Advanced Multifunctional Biomaterials for Neuroprosthetic Interfaces). Symposium AA was well announced by national mailings and personal networking as well as by MRS community and media. The objective of our symposium (Symposium AA) was to include both invited and contributed speakers in all aspects of innovative biomaterials for neural interfaces and technologies to achieve the most effective and safest strategies to communicate with central and peripheral nervous systems. Papers were solicited in biomaterials for axon guidance, multifunctional neural materials, tissue response to the implanted neural electrodes, materials for drug delivery to the nervous system, neural prostheses, and physical, chemical and electrical properties of electrode tissue interface. We identified MRS meeting as a suitable conference for this kind of symposium since leading materials researchers around the world attend this conference. Our symposium was very unique in introducing biomaterials for neural interfaces to the community of materials researchers. We were able to attract not only material scientists but also neurobiologists and neurosurgeons who have been working in the area of neural prosthetic devices and neural interfaces. We requested $12,785 from NSF to support the symposium. We used the $12,785 to help defer the travel expenses for 20 new or young investigators (graduate students, post-docs and assistant professors). Funds were distributed as a check from MRS at the meeting site. Minorities and underrepresented groups were highly encouraged to submit abstracts for acceptance to a talk or a poster. The meeting organizers selected the most meritous abstracts from the pool, and awarded them a travel reimbursement, sponsored by the NSF. No NSF funds were used toward reimbursements the invited speakers.
