WORKSHOP: 2016 GRS/GRC on Biomineralization

Gordon Research Conferences, East Greenwich RI

Investigators

Abstract

Nontechnical: This award by the Biomaterials program in the Division of Materials Research to Northwestern University is in support of the participants' travel and/or registration to attend and present recent scientific development by US-based researchers for the 2016 GRS/GRC on "Biomineralization" to be held at PGA Catalunya Business and Convention Centre, Girona, Spain from August 14 to 19, 2016. This award is cofounded by the Global Venture Funds in the Office of International Science and Engineering. This conference is committed in bringing young and senior scientists together, and to discuss their current research and builds informal networks with their peers fostering collaborations and interactions between scientists from different countries and fields that may lead to a lifetime of collaboration and scientific achievement. To fulfill these scientific goals and broader impacts, the organizers have invited a significant number of early career faculty and postdoctoral scientists as well as senior scientists to speak at the meeting. The proposed travel and registration stipends will be used to bring early career scientists from the US, and to encourage the participation of young faculty members at the meeting. Exposing a diverse mix of scientists to this kind of intensive interactive meeting will be an excellent way to stimulate broader participation in cutting edge international projects. Technical: This Gordon Research Conference will bring together a multidisciplinary group of scientists, and would provide a stimulating platform to discuss the latest ideas and recent advances on how (and why) organisms synthesize biomineralized tissues, and on how one may apply these insights in areas as diverse as materials research, biotechnology, regenerative medicine, and address environmental issues. The meeting is expected to assemble a group of best and brightest scientists investigating biomineralization across all domains of life, from nanoparticles made by bacteria to meso-structured assemblies and live tissues in plants and vertebrates. The conference will particularly highlight the use of novel high-resolution techniques and the synergetic use of modeling and experiments. The goal of this workshop is to bring together top class pure and applied scientists with the aim of interfacing multiple disciplines (physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, etc.) to understand the fundamentals of biomineralization, and develop applications based on these novel concepts. These interactions at this conference will be critical in generatng an understanding of how particular materials should be designed to be "symbiotic" with biological entities and how to get similarity in functioning of biomaterials with their living counterparts.