Winter seminar shed light on interactions between cells and materials

Winter is coming so Department of Biomatrials decided to bring some light into the growing darkness in the  form of an exciting scientific seminar.



Our annual winter seminar took place on a surprisingly sunny day on Thursday 12th November at Oslo Congress Centre. We had an exciting scientific programme which focussed mainly on the events taking place at biomaterial surfaces, particularly at nanoscale, upon their implantation into the body.

After the official part of the seminar, the scientific discussion continued in a more relaxed atmosphere over a fantastic dinner. 
 


Professor Gary Drobny from University of Washington introduced us to the complex world of solid state NMR spectroscopy and how this method can be used to study protein-mineral interactions.

 

Our dear friend Jiří Vondrášek from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic was feeling mighty pleased to join us at our seminar and gave us an excellent talk on ameloblastin.

 

From proteins to bacteria: Jessica Lönn- Stensrud told us about the race between cells and bacteria to lay claim on implant surfaces in the body. Guess how much bacteria you'll get by the time it takes for one bone cell to duplicate? THIS much!

 

Jack C. Leo from Department of Biosciences continued where Jessica left off and introduced us to the stealthy ways bacteria adhere to surfaces.

 

After Jack's presentation on bacterial adhesion, Alejandro Barrantes from Department of Biomaterials introduced us to strategies on how to prevent the bacteria from adhering to implant surfaces and how to make scientists happy.

 

That takes us back to proteins: protein adsorption on surfaces is essentially what determines how a material will interact with living tissues as pointed out by Rune Hartvig from Department of Biomaterials. But someone should maybe tell Rune that pointing is much easier if you actually have the a real pointer in your hand, not an imaginary one...

 

Sjur Reppe from Oslo University Hospital talked about global multiomics analyses of blood and bone biopsies from osteoporotic and healthy women.

 

Tor Paaske Utheim from Institute of Oral Biology explained how stem cells from oral tissues can be used in regenerating of cornea of the eye.  

 

Giuseppe Cama from University of Ghent gave us a presentation on chitosan-coating of 3D-printed polymeric bone scaffold materials to reduce biofilm formation and to form calcium phosphate minerals on the scaffold surface.

 

Stephanie Santos from Abalonyx AS discussed the potential applications of novel graphene-based materials in biomedical and healtcare applications.  

 

After the seminar, scientific discussion continued over a nice dinner during which new scientific ideas and research collaborations were formed.



All photos © Jonas Wengenroth

 

Tags: Biomaterials, seminar, nanobiomaterials, NFR, NANO2021
Published Nov. 20, 2015 2:40 PM - Last modified Mar. 19, 2024 11:16 AM