Tissue Engineering and Development Biology

Keystone Symposia, Silverthorne CO

Investigators

Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): [unreadable] This proposal is to request support for a Keystone Symposia meeting entitled "Tissue Engineering and Development Biology", which will be held in Snowbird, Utah from April 12-17, 2007. Our overall goal is to identify the scientific and technological needs that are common for the fields of developmental biology and tissue engineering and thereby help guide the scientific inquiry in the two fields. We believe that the proposed Keystone conference is essential to start 'filling the gap' between fundamental concepts in biology and engineering. It is becoming essential to utilize the knowledge base from [unreadable] developmental biology to guide the design of tissue engineering systems, as well as to utilize engineered tissues as controllable biological models for studies of development, remodeling and disease. In a more general sense, we feel that this is the right time to step back and critically rethink the field of tissue engineering, and to establish more efficient interactions between the biologists and engineers. In composing the scientific program, we attempted to identify those individuals who are not only involved in cutting edge research in developmental biology or engineering, but who also work at least in part at the interface between the two disciplines. Also, we selected one unifying theme [unreadable] for each of the four days, and designed the two sessions (morning and evening) such that each theme is addressed from the standpoints of biology and engineering. In addition, we propose two workshops that will also help integrate the approaches: one focused on what developmental biology can offer to tissue engineering (e.g., sound biological principles), and the other focused on what tissue engineering can offer to developmental biology (e.g., advanced tools for in vitro studies). Lastly, the three of us [unreadable] were inspired to propose this conference after a wonderful experience we had at the recent NIH-sponsored workshop that gathered leading tissue engineers and a few developmental biologists. We felt that this is the time for an interactive and inspiring meeting of "biology and engineering". [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]