Next Gen Biomaterials About

This workshop was part of a new collaboration between the National Science Foundation's Division of Materials Research (DMR) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). Biomaterials have evolved from implanted ‘off the shelf’ materials, to rationally designed materials that interact with and instruct biological systems to achieve desired biological outcomes. This “next generation” of biomaterials must meet the growing demand for materials with tailored and tunable properties for numerous biological applications, including tissue engineering, integrative biology, and drug delivery. However, a major gap was identified in converting these exciting advances in materials science to feasible approaches tailored toward pressing biomedical problems, including achieving robust tissue regeneration after injury/disease, tuning localized and on-demand drug delivery, and enabling real-time biosensing.

The workshop was a forum to highlight and explore the recent developments in the field and facilitated the development of a multidisciplinary plan to bridge the gap in clinical translation. This workshop focused on four integrated science drivers integral to developing and translating next-generation biomaterials: data-driven methods for biomaterials design, synthetic biology-enabled biomaterials, smart/responsive biomaterials, and biofabrication and biointerfaces. The objectives of the workshop were to:

I. Showcase recent advances in the various science drivers’ topics of next-generation biomaterials;
II. Facilitate a dialogue between polymer scientists, chemists, bioengineers, and biologists to further the design and application of biomaterials and develop a multidisciplinary plan to bridge the gap to translation; and
III. Broaden the scope of applications of translational biomaterials to match the diversity of patient populations and participants, especially from historically marginalized groups, to drive creative and unique approaches.