BioTUNE researchers organize a Symposium on “Cell-instructive materials and surfaces”

Bio-Tune researchers Prof. B. Su (UoB), Prof. M.P. Ginebra (UPC) and Dr. C. Mas-Moruno (UPC) organized the symposium “Cell-instructive materials and surfaces” within the 2020 Materials Science and Engineering Conference.

The symposium was divided in 3 sessions, covering cell instructive and antibacterial surfaces from different perspectives.

The first session, chaired by Prof. B. Su (Univ. of Bristol), started with the inspiring keynote lecture of Prof. X. Liu (Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences), who discussed the antibacterial effects of producing alkaline microenvironments on titanium implants. The following two talks were given by Mr. M. Ishak (University of Bristol) and Mr. D. Müller (Saarland University), and explored the development of antibacterial topographies in polymers and metals, respectively.

The second session, chaired by Dr. Mas-Moruno, was opened with an outstanding keynote lecture by Dr. E. Vrana (Spartha Medical), which focused on biomaterials risk assessment, personalized medicine and antibacterial coatings. The topic of surface functionalization was further covered by Dr. J. Buxadera-Palomero (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya), who reported the development of cell adhesive and antimicrobial peptidic coatings. Finally, Dr. A. Joshi (University of Bremen) presented promising data on fibrinogen nanofibers to support wound healing.

The symposium was closed with a third session, chaired by Prof. M.P. Ginebra. The first talked followed on the interesting topic of platelet interaction with fibrinogen scaffolds by Dr. I Schoen (RCSI Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland) and the second one by Mr. T. van der Boon (University of Groningen), who presented an encouraging high-throughput screening platform to assess biomaterial-induced fibrosis.

The lectures can be viewed on demand via the re-live function of the Conference Platform, until 10th October 2020.