The mission of the international Microtechnologies in Medicine and Biology (MMB) conference is to advance the application of revolutionary microtechnologies to the fields of medicine and biological sciences by fostering interdisciplinary exchanges between biologists, medical researchers, chemists, physicists, and engineers. The seventh MMB conference, since its founding in 2000, will be held in Marina del Rey, California from April 10-12, 2013. MMB 2000 was the first international conference to cover microtechnologies research at the intersection of medicine, biology, and engineering and has since been imitated both in form and content by other meetings. However, MMB continues to be the premier conference in the area as measured by the success in attracting high profile speakers, facilitation of high impact technical discussions among diverse conference participants, ability to promote sustained interactions among the interdisciplinary community, and training and mentoring of young investigators. The major technical themes include microtechnology advances, biotechnology applications, tissue engineering applications, and cell/molecular biology applications. The format includes keynote lectures, flash poster oral presentations, poster sessions, networking sessions, and small group discussions with keynote speakers. For this meeting, five special research themes were selected (Personalized Medicine, Translational Research, Neuro-engineering, Immunology, and Tissue Engineering) and will be covered by five to seven internationally renowned keynote speakers. These eminent senior investigators bring a comprehensive and historical view of the field in a format that will be accessible to attendees from outside their immediate disciplines. Funding is requested to help US based young investigators to defray the costs of travel and registration to present their work at MMB-13. Part of the funding will be used to encourage person-to-person interaction between student participants and established leaders in the biomedical engineering community.
Intellectual Merit: The MMB meeting is a proven multidisciplinary forum for dissemination of the latest advances of microtechnology in biomedical engineering at all levels of training and a substrate for sharing of knowledge across interdisciplinary barriers. The small conference setting promotes open discussion of new directions, ideas, and approaches in both research and education by diverse communities that would otherwise not interact in such a venue (mixing industry and academia as well as engineers with scientists and clinicians). Multiple avenues for intellectual exchange will reinforce existing contacts and facilitate new collaborations in emerging research frontiers. It is such interactions and exchanges that will lead to microtechnologies to revolutionize the fields of medicine and biological sciences. The MMB Student Competition has proven over the years to be an effective mechanism for identifying, recognizing, and mentoring the top-tier talent among the pool of young investigators. Finalists will present their best work in the setting of an international conference. They will become role models for other young participants providing further inspiration and intellectual stimulation. MMB will provide a channel for these young investigators to be introduced to the leading figures in biomedical engineering. The competition is conducted in a friendly and supportive environment that allows top-notch students to network with fellow finalists and other students from a wide array of bioengineering disciplines. In addition, the competition and the conference in general play a crucial role in recognizing the talents of women, minorities, and disabled persons in biomedical microtechnologies. Finalists will be able to showcase their achievements following the conference in special conference issues of leading peer-reviewed journals.
Broader Impacts: The nature, types of activities, and scale of MMB'13 provide a supportive environment and rich opportunities to promote microtechnology-focused biomedical research and exchanges between cross-disciplinary groups in intimate settings. The conference has an excellent track record of bringing together researchers and educators from numerous disciplines at various stages of their careers to promote cross-disciplinary fertilization of new ideas. Thus, the conference has created a cohesive community of diverse young and senior investigators. Generally, about half of the attendees are students. The conference also attracts a number of young investigators including postdoctoral scholars and junior faculty. Thus, the emphasis on multiple exchanges and opportunities to interact with pioneers and leaders offer unique and invaluable training opportunities for these constituents and in such a manner fosters the next generation of bioengineers. Both the technical content of the conference as well as the career development opportunities will allow MMB 2013 to achieve and sustain the far reaching impact that this conference series has enjoyed over the last twelve years.
The 7th International Conference on Microtechnologies in Medicine and Biology (MMB) 2013 took place in the seaside town of Marina del Rey in California, USA on April 10-12, 2013. During the 3 day conference, participants enjoyed talks from 6 invited keynote speakers and 123 flash oral/poster presentations. The MMB conference is a biennial meeting with the primary purpose of fostering interactions between biologists and medical researchers, clinicians, chemists, physicists and engineers to enhance and strengthen the potential microtechnologies that will revolutionize the fields of medicine and biological sciences. The conference possesses a unique format where all poster presenters provide a brief 60 s oral presentation highlighting their research. This format was devised to provide training and exposure for young researchers, especially PhD students and postdocs, in the field and stimulate interdisciplinary exchanges. Therefore, MMB provides an intimate intellectual venue the facilitate discussions and collaborations to advance new research tools and technologies for medicine and biological sciences. With NSF support, the MMB conference was able to continue to support a young investigator poster competition and the participation of senior investigators who presented their work in high impact talks tot he community. Specficially, the conference made poster awards to five young investigators from institutions across the US including two women. Lab on a Chip and Royal Society of Chemistry also graciously offered a supplemental grand prize to our top presenter (consisting of a year's free subscription to the journal). The conference was also able to support the attendance and participation of three reknowned speakers, including one emerging female investigator. After the conference, three leading journals featured contributions from conference authors. The articles contained in the conference feature in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, Lab on a Chip, and Integrative Biology journals highlighted recent progress in microtechnologies with medical and biological applications.
