26th Conference „Biomaterials in Medicine and Veterinary Medicine", 12-15.10.2017, Rytro, Poland

26^th Annual Conference of the Polish Society for Biomaterials "Biomaterials in Medicine and Veterinary Medicine" was held on 12-15 October 2017, in Rytro, Poland. The conference was attended by a total of 90 people, both from Poland and abroad, from e.g. Greece, Denmark, UK, Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Belarus. The conference was an opportunity to exchange experiences between scientists from various research centers, as well as to establish cooperation between materials science engineers and the medical community.

During the conference, the latest research on biomaterials science was presented by 4 distinguished Plenary Lecturers:

• Prof. Maria Chatzinikolaidou: Co-Polymeric Biomaterials for Bone Tissue Engineering
• Prof. Józef Dulak: Heart Injury and Repair: Hopes and Hypes of Cell Therapies and Biomaterials
• Prof. Janusz M. Rosiak: Radiation Formation of Hydrogel Biomaterials
• Prof. Triantafillos Papadopoulos: Alternative Bioceramics for Repairing Jaw Bone Defects

There were also 27 oral presentations, including 2 given by the representatives of this year’s exhibitors: IR Tech and Arburg Plastic Freeforming, 55 poster presentations and 8 Rapid Fire presentations, part of the Best Poster Competition.

The winners of the Best Poster and Rapid Fire Competition organized under the auspices of the Young Scientists Forum of the European Society for Biomaterials were: Bartosz Mielan, Katarzyna Reczyńska, and Justyna Pawlik. All of the awarded authors received 100€ book vouchers, generously sponsored by Springer.

During this year’s conference, we celebrated the 20^th Anniversary of the Engineering of Biomaterials – journal published by the Polish Society for Biomaterials since 1997. To celebrate the anniversary the Best Paper Competition was announced – all of the manuscripts submitted earlier this year or until 31st December 2017 will take part in the competition. The corresponding author of the Best Paper will be given free registration to the 27th Conference 'Biomaterials in Medicine and Veterinary Medicine' to be held on 11-14 October 2018 in Rytro! (for details see here).

Social events were in the conference program as well. It all started with the Welcome Reception at the cottage bar “Nad potokiem”. The 20^th  Anniversary of the Engineering of Biomaterials journal was celebrated with delicious food and live music during the Conference Dinner. On Saturday morning, an adventurous trip to Grybów and Stara Baśń Castle was organized. In the evening, karaoke and disco part closed the unofficial part of the conference.

More information about the conference and the photo gallery are available here.