Program Director: Semahat S. Demir, Ph.D.
This project will support travel of graduate students, post-docs, and young faculty to attend the symposium on Engineering Biomaterials for Regenerative Medicine at the Fall Materials Research Society national meeting in Boston, MA, November 30-December 4, 2009. The intellectual merit is based on the critical importance of understanding the design of materials for inclusion into tissue engineering approaches. This symposium will cover recent advances in the development of materials for use as engineered biomaterials in regenerative medicine. The symposium can be divided into five specific focus areas: (1) bio-inspired scaffold design; (2) stem cell/material interactions; (3) advanced scaffold design; (4) nanotechnology (including particles and fibers), and (5) new technology. Although there have been a few very successful symposia held at MRS meetings and Gordon Research Conferences in this area, it is important to routinely update the field on progress to help motivate sophisticated material development.
The broader impact of the proposed support lies in recruiting a larger number of graduate students, postdoc researchers and young faculty to attend the conference. The primary goal of the symposium is to bring the most recent development in the field of materials for regenerative medicine to the broader audience. A total of 11 internationally renowned speakers have been invited and confirmed to present their latest research findings at the MRS meeting. The funding support from NSF Biomedical Engineering (BME) Program will be used to provide travel awards to support graduate students, post-doc researchers and young faculty to attend the proposed symposium. Priority will be given to graduate students who will attend their first national meeting, young faculty who will give oral presentations, and those who belong to the underrepresented groups. Three co-organizers of this symposium are female and are strongly committed to recruit and promote women and minority students to attend the meeting.
