North Carolina State University’s student chapter held their 3nd Annual Biomaterials Day on October 25th, 2019 at the James B. Hunt Jr. Library at North Carolina State University. The purpose of the event was to connect groups from all disciplines so they may collaborate on advances in biomaterials, as well as provoke inspiration and ideas, which could be used in both healthcare and medical applications. NCSU had a great turn out with 123 people registered for the event, which consisted of more than 90 undergraduate students, post-grads, post-docs, faculty members, invited speakers, clinicians and industry sponsors.
The welcome address was given by Dr. David Hinks, Dean of the Wilson College of Textiles at NC State University. Unlike the previous year, this year’s event had three invited speakers rather than four. This was done in order to allow for greater student participation during the oral presentation sessions.
The first invited speaker, Dr. Joel Collier from Duke University, spoke about supramolecular immunomodulators during the session “Biomaterials for Medical and Pharmacological Applications.” He was followed by three presentations from graduate students and postdoctoral scholars from the Biomedical Engineering department at NC State and the Division of Pharmacology at UNC Chapel Hill.
Dr. Joel Collier gives a presentation about supramolecular immunomodulators.
The second session, entitled “3D Printing and Manufactured Materials,” was headlined by Dr. Shay Soker from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, who spoke about his work in developing 3D printed organoids for regenerative medicine applications. Dr. Soker’s presentation was followed by three graduate student presentations from students in the Wilson College of Textiles, the Fitts Department of Industrial Science and Engineering, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at NC State. At lunch, students were given time to network with other attendees who work in different departments or at different institutions, as well as time to meet with representatives from ATEX Technologies.
Dr. Shay Soker gives a presentation about 3D printing for clinical and research applications.
Dr. Kevin Ramer, a senior scientist at Biogen, gave the third invited talk of the day during the session “Development and Commercialization of New Technologies.” Dr. Ramer spoke about his work at Biogen in developing methods of using electrical capacitance to measure quantities of mammalian cells when developing cell-based technologies in biomanufacturing. His talk was followed by three oral presentations from graduate students in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at NC State and UNC Chapel Hill.
This year, Biomaterials Day attracted 23 student presenters. There were nine oral presentations and 14 poster presentations. Closing remarks were given by Dr. Martin W. King. Awards for best oral presentations were given to Jasmine King from the Division of Pharmacology at UNC, Andreea Badileanu from Biomedical Engineering at NC State, and Fan Zhang from the Wilson College of Textiles at NC State. Awards for best poster presentations were given to Ariana Frey and Kimberly Nellenbach from Biomedical Engineering at NC State and to Karl Schuchard from the Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at NC State.
1st place oral presentation winner Fan Zhang gives a talk about her work in developing a novel vascular graft.
Poster presenters share their research with judges and attendees during the poster session.
Monica Deshpande presents her poster about her work in developing craniofacial skeletal muscle regeneration.
To read more, see pictures and abstracts, and review the event’s program, please check their website