2017 Gordon Research Conference on Biomaterials

Gordon Research Conferences, East Greenwich RI

Investigators

Abstract

Nontechnical:  This award by the Biomaterials program in the Division of Materials Research to Gordon Research Conference is in support of the participants' travel and/or registration to attend and present recent scientific findings by researchers for the 2017 Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) and Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on "Biomaterials" to be held at Holderness School, Plymouth, NH from July 23 to July 28, 2017. This award is cofounded by the Engineering of Biomedical System program in the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental & Transport Systems (Directorate for Engineering). The conference is committed in bringing together young and senior scientists in the field of biomaterials, and to discuss their current research. These interactions are expected to build informal networks with their peers in fostering collaborations and interactions between scientists from different countries and fields that may lead to a lifetime of collaborations and scientific achievements. 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. Exposing a diverse mix of scientists to this kind of intensive and interactive meeting will be an excellent way to stimulate broader participation in cutting edge Biomaterials projects.  Technical:  Biomaterials are exquisitely designed and synthesized in nature with high degree fidelity and functionality, and most of these synthetic reactions in nature are carried out at ambient conditions of temperature, pressure, pH, etc. In many cases, the bioderived materials display structure-function relationships that exceed our current ability to reproduce them by synthetic means. Nevertheless, our understanding of these designs, and how they are produced is now sufficient to encourage efforts to harness or mimic these designs and the methods used in nature. Specific science questions to be addressed in this conference include: 1) how can computational design and assessment would provide more efficient and powerful approaches to biomaterials research; 2) what are molecular strategies that can be deployed to regulate interactions; and 3) how molecularly designed structures can be designed for a range of future applications. This conference will bring together young and senior scientists in the field of biomaterials to share recent advances and new methodologies. The focus of this GRS/GRC conference will be to promote exchange of ideas between researchers in the field of biomaterials and tissue engineering by promoting the attendance of a diverse group of participants at different career stages, genders, ethnic backgrounds, and who possess a diversity of intellectual thoughts and approaches.