The workshops will provide an in-depth educational experience on topics relating to biomaterials with a significant amount of time dedicated to discussion and questions and answers. Each workshop requires separate registration, the fees for which are detailed on the registration form.

• What Fits You Best, Academia or Industry, and How Do You Get There?
• Vascularization and Innervation of Tissue Engineered Constructs
• Microscopy: Basic Principles and Applications for Biomaterial Analysis

What Fits You Best, Academia or Industry, and How Do You Get There?
(Biomaterials Education SIG)
To enhance the professional development of graduate students as well as provide knowledge about academia and industry through invited speakers, this workshop will be divided into three sections. In the first section we will have invited speakers who have started in academia and switched to industry, and vice versa. The intent is that students will be more informed when it comes time to choose either pathway. The second section will focus on how to develop a budget for a research program featuring invited speakers from both academia and industry to address the differences in this process. The last section will focus on sharpening students’ interviewing skills and ultimately making them more confident and comfortable during their first interview.

Vascularization and Innervation of Tissue Engineered Constructs
(Tissue Engineering SIG)
Tissue engineering of thick tissues or whole organ engineering remains a significant clinical need. The latest research has demonstrated that every tissue, with the exception of cartilage, has both a blood supply and is innervated, including bone, heart valves, and skin. Vascularization and neural ingrowth are important in healing, tissue regeneration, and tissue and organ function. The engineering of replacement tissues or organs will require complex systems to be integrated into or generated after implantation. Two of the important challenges will be to provide: 1) a stable blood supply to the implanted construct, and 2) neural integration with the host tissues. Although angiogenesis and neural regeneration are active areas clinically, bringing these complex systems together with other cells or tissues and biomaterial scaffolds to create an integrated, fully functional tissue engineered product that is vascularized and innervated still remains a major barrier to thick tissue and organ engineering.

Microscopy: Basic Principles and Applications for Biomaterial Analysis
(Implant Pathology SIG)
The applications of microscopic principles and analysis of biomedical devices (materials) is fundamental in understanding device/tissue interactions and remodeling and regeneration at the tissue, cell, and molecular levels. At each level, there are core areas of physiology, engineering, biology, and modeling that can be discovered by the application of various microscopic techniques. A basic understanding of microscopic principles and optical tools enables the researcher to apply these in the studies of biomaterial surfaces and microstructure, which would provide data to further elucidate mechanisms of biocompatibility. This workshop will provide an overview of the different microscopes useful for biomaterial analysis.