Dr. Stephanie M. Willerth, conference chair and the 2017-18 President of the Canadian Biomaterials Society (CBS), along with her organizing committee hosted the 34th Annual Meeting of CBS at the University of Victoria during May 16th through 19th. The meeting consisted of a 4-day event attended by 135 people: 90 students, 5 researchers, 25 professors, 15 post-docs, and industry partners. During this meeting, the latest advances on research in the field of Biomaterials and Tissue engineering in Canada were shared and discussed. The event was supported by CBS and external industry funding; Aspect Biosystems as the Gold Sponsor, Rheolution as Silver sponsor, and STEMCELL Technologies and CellScale as Bronze sponsors. The organizing committee consisted of Dr. Willerth and Dr. Akbari from the University of Victoria, Dr. Kastrup and Dr. Yadav from the University of British Columbia, and Dr. Nima Khadem Mohtaram from the University of Waterloo.
The organizing committee, hosted high profile keynote speakers such as Dr. Mooney from Harvard University, Dr. Zhen Gu from North Carolina State University, Dr. Whitehead from Carnegie Mellon University and Dr. Saha form the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Cutting edge topics such as biomaterials and stem cells, drug delivery, CRISPR technology, wound healing, among others were discussed in depth. Furthermore, with the goal of expanding the attendees interest, several workshops were offered such as an entrepreneurship clinic, “the clinician-scientist perspective”, and a session on 3D printing hosted by Aspect Biosystems. In addition to scientific events, the meeting held social activities including a welcome reception at the local campus pub Felicitas, a poster session where students shared their exciting research, and conference banquet. In addition, the student hosting committee held a trainee activity at the LURE Restaurant & Bar located right across the Inner Harbor of beautiful Victoria downtown. The attendees had the opportunity to meet and greet colleagues from all across Canada in the field of Biomaterials. Awards for best oral presentations were given to Laura McKiel, Niloufar Khosravi, Tobias Fuhrmann, Jayesh Kukkarni, Somiraa Said, Charmainne Cruje, Kevin De France, and Jennifer Chan. Poster awards were given to Nancy Khuu (1st place), Chanel La (2nd place), Maxime-Alexndre Ferko (3rd place), and Sara Mohajeri (4th place.) Christopher Lee and Bindu Thapa received honorable mentions for their poster presentations.
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Elections for CBS President and Board of Directors were held during the meeting, where Nima Khadem Mohtaram (a UVic alumni) was chosen as President Elect. The next CBS annual meeting (CBS2019) will be held in Quebec City and organized by Diego Mantovani (University of Laval).
By Laura De la Vega