Saturday, September 7, 2024
9/7/2024
Project Summary/Abstract The emerging, interdisciplinary field of bioinspired materials focuses on developing a fundamental understanding of the synthesis, self-assembly, hierarchical organization, and function of naturally occurring materials and uses this understanding to develop artificial materials for a broad range of applications, including the delivery of therapeutics, tissue engineering, and living materials. Many of these topics are of significant interest to NIBIB. The Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Bioinspired Materials, which will take place June 16-21, 2024 at the Les Diablerets Conference Center in Les Diablerets, Switzerland, seeks to capture the excitement of this burgeoning field with a cutting-edge scientific program and a diverse roster of invited speakers and discussion leaders that includes distinguished experts and novices to the field, in the unique format of a Gordon Conference that guarantees an intimate cross-fertilization of ideas. The conference is intended to focus on unpublished data, define new directions in the discipline, and create a cohesive community by promoting interactions between early-stage investigators and established senior investigators. More than half of the program of the 2024 GRC on Bioinspired Materials meeting is devoted to the development and application of novel materials that focus on applications to human health. In the preliminary program, 36% of the confirmed speakers are women, 20% are early-stage investigators, and we estimate that 28% belong to UM groups. The aims of the conference are to: 1) Provide a platform for the exchange of cutting-edge work on Bioinspired Materials and their applications, including therapeutics, tissue engineering, and living materials; 2) Bring together a diverse group of speakers that include widely acknowledged thought leaders and early-stage investigators; 3) Promote cross-disciplinary fertilization of new ideas in the format of a GRC, which is a unique mixture of formal oral presentations, in-depth discussions, and informal networking in an intimate setting; 4) Create a sense of community by promoting interactions between young scientists and early-stage investigators with prominent senior investigators through oral and poster sessions, and through informal interactions such as social activities during the afternoons and evenings; 5) Nurture future researchers of the field by offering a Gordon Research Seminar (GRS), which will precede the GRC (June 15-16, 2024) and will offer students and postdocs with comparable levels of education and experience the opportunity to gather, present and discuss their research findings; 6) Encourage inclusion and diversity in the bioinspired materials community through an inclusive conference, as well as a Power Hour – a unique platform found at GRCs - devoted to discussing strategies for the advancement of women and members of underrepresented minority groups in bioinspired materials science. The support requested from NIH will be used to cover portions of the international travel and registration of US graduate students, postdocs, early-stage investigators, women, and members of underrepresented minority groups to participate in the GRC and GRS.
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