The Materials Research Society (MRS) and the Society For Biomaterials (SFB) are excited to announce a new collaboration in delivering education to our members.  SFB & MRS will present a new webinar each  Tuesday in October at 11:00 am ET.  The exciting lineup of topics and speakers are listed below:

October 5: 3D Printing for Medical Applications: 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing and solid freeform fabrication, is an approach involving additive layer-by-layer fabrication of a three-dimensional structure through selective joining of material; processing of the structure is directed by a computer-aided design (CAD) model. Unlike conventional methods, 3D printing techniques may enable the development of structures with well-defined small-scale features and multiple functions. This MRS/SFB joint webinar aims to address recent 3D printing for medical applications with a focus on recent advances in biomaterials for 3D printing and recent efforts to translate 3D printing technology. In particular, efforts to characterize 3D printed materials via in vitro and in vivo methods will also be considered. The processing of radiographic images and the development of computer models will also be discussed. We anticipate that this workshop will facilitate future research activities, including industry-university collaborations, involving 3D printing of biomaterials for use in medicine, surgery, and dentistry.  Speakers will include:

• Moderator: Roger Narayan, North Carolina State University
• Dietmar W. Hutmacher, Queensland University of Technology
• Jinah Jang, Pohang University of Science and Technology
• James Yoo, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine
• Scott Hollister, Georgia Institute of Technology

October 12: Translational Bioelectronics: Bioelectronics describes the interfacing of engineered electronic systems with biological tissues, or alternatively electronic devices that take on bio-inspired functionality. With improvements and innovation in both active and passive materials, bioelectronic systems are poised to make significant advances in diagnostics and therapeutics as well as robotics and prosthetics. With advances in materials, devices, and systems, considerations for implementation takes on added importance. The push for clinical and commercial translation, especially from early state concepts and prototypes requires special consideration, limitations, and barriers. This MRS/SFB joint seminar aims to highlight established and up-and-coming concepts in bioelectronics across a number of application areas. This workshop will highlight barriers and considerations for translation, and to showcase examples of early stage clinical implementation and commercialization. Speakers will include:

• Moderator: Jonathan Rivnay, Northwestern University
• Dion Khodagholy, Columbia Univeristy
• Tracy Cui, University of Pittsburgh
• Roozbeh Ghaffari, Northwestern University
• Vickie Webster-Wood, Carnegie Mellon University

October 19: Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Biomaterials Design and Development: Machine Learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) have been transformative in areas of chemistry and materials in which large datasets have or can be generated. However, when data is scarce and expensive, as is the case for biomaterials design, computational modeling has been limited. Computer-aided design of biomaterials often relies on ab initio modeling (e.g., molecular dynamics), which require no data but cannot predict complex properties such as biomaterial mechanics, optical properties, or in vitro or in vivo behavior or efficacy. Thus, human intuition coupled with experimental trial and error is often state-of-the-art for design of new biomaterials. These conventional approaches to develop biomaterials are expensive and laborious and have significantly slowed the translation of new biomedical devices into clinical practice. To address this hurdle, innovative approaches include the use of ML and AI design with a long-term goal of a (bio)materials genome.  This webinar will overview the broader field of ML and AI and how advances in computational power coupled with big data analysis and innovations in machine learning, modeling, and simulation are enabling artificial intelligence to revolutionize biomaterials design and development.

• Moderator: Danielle Benoit, University of Rochester
• Moderator: Andrew White, University of Rochester
• Payal Das, AI Science, Thomas J. Watson Research Center, IBM Research
• Tomohiro Hayashi, Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Andrew White, University of Rochester
• Adam Gormley, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

October 26: Biomaterials Science and Engineering to Address Unmet Needs in Women’s Health: Women’s health continues to be an important and understudied area of research. Materials scientists and engineers have a long history of working with medical practitioners to solve problems related to human health and have the potential role to create solutions specific to women’s health issues. This MRS/SFB joint webinar aims to address recent materials developments in women’s health, and the need for biomaterials approaches and collaborations in this broad area will be discussed. Specifically, this joint webinar will provide an overview of opportunities for materials scientists and engineers to characterize materials, design model tissue systems, and apply computational methods in order to understand normal tissue as well as disease progression in women’s health. This includes topics such as biomaterials for replicating gynecological cancer, biomaterials and computational modeling approaches for building placental models, and biomaterials for building models of the endometrium. This perspective will encourage and inspire future researchers, while engaging current researchers to think about redirecting their skills and efforts to addressing unmet needs in women’s health. Speakers will include:

• Moderator: Joyce Wong, Boston University
• Kaitlin Fogg, Oregon State University
• Linda Griffith, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Michelle Oyen, East Carolina University

Registration for all four webinars is only $150 for SFB and MRS Members!  (Half price for student members!)  You can also register for each webinar separately for $50.  For more information, or to register for one webinar, or the entire series, please click here.

Please note: These workshop sessions are designed to be interactive with our attendees.  As such, we are not recording the sessions. 

Please contact SFB Headquarters staff (info@biomaterials.org) with any questions.