Prof. Joachim Kohn
Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA
President, International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering
Opening Lecture: Biomaterials Research in Anticipation of Future Global Health Emergencies
Plenary Lecture: Novel Carriers Used in Topical Drug Delivery Systems (Bożena Michniak-Kohn & Joachim Kohn)
Joachim Kohn, PhD, FBSE is a national leader in the field of biomaterials science. As founding director of the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials(NJCBM)for 22 years and as Head of the Laboratory for Biomaterials Research at Rutgers, Prof. Kohn has made seminal contributions to the design and commercialization of new biomaterials for regenerative medicine, tissue engineering and drug delivery. He pioneered the use of combinatorial and computational methods for the optimization of polymer properties for use in medical implants (including a coronary stent and an antimicrobial device to prevent infections in pacemaker patients). These implants are being used by over one million patients and are currently approved in 46 countries.As a translational scientist, Prof Kohn has 78 issued US Patents on novel biomaterials and seven companies have licensed his technologies. He is the scientific founder of three spin-off companies. Dr. Kohn retired from Rutgers in 2020 and remains active in research, entrepreneurship and the biomaterials community. He was elected President of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering in 2020.
Selected Recent Honors and Awards
- 2022 Recipient of the Award for Distinguished Contribution in Advancement of Biomaterials Science, given by the Japanese Society for Biomaterials
- 2022 Recipient of the International Award by the European Society for Biomaterials
- 2020 Recipient of the National Award in Applied Polymer Science by the American Chemical Society
- 2019 Recipient of the 2019 Society for Biomaterials Founders Award for life-time achievements in biomaterials science
- 2018 Recipient of the 2018 Healthcare Heroes Award for outstanding contributions to the advancement of biomaterials-based therapies
- 2017 Recipient of the 2017 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award for best patent in biomaterials in New Jersey presented by the Research and Development Council of New Jersey
- 2013 Inducted as Fellow of the USA National Academy of Inventors
Prof. Aldo Boccaccini
Institute of Biomaterials
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
91058 Erlangen
Germany
Plenary Lecture: Ion Releasing Bioactive Materials: Overview of Well-Known and Less Common Ions with Biological Activity for Tissue Regeneration
Aldo R. Boccaccini is a Professor of Materials Science (Biomaterials) and Head of the Institute of Biomaterials at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. He is a visiting professor at Imperial College London, UK. Boccaccini has an Engineering degree from Instituto Balseiro, Argentina (1987) and a Doctorate in Engineering Sciences (Dr.-Ing.) from RWTH Aachen University, Germany (1994). He had post-doctoral appointments at the School of Metallurgy and Materials, University of Birmingham, UK (1994-1996), and at the Institute for Mechanics and Materials, University of California, San Diego, USA (1996-1997). He completed the Habilitation in Materials Technology at Ilmenau University of Technology, Germany in 2001. The research activities of Prof. Boccaccini are in the field of ceramics, glasses and composites for biomedical, functional and/or structural applications with a focus on bioactive materials, scaffolds for tissue engineering, biofabrication and antibacterial coatings. He has been a visiting professor at different universities around the world and has given more than 150 presentations at international conferences (as keynote, invited and plenary speaker). Boccaccini has published more than 1000 scientific papers and 25 book chapters. He has co-edited 8 books. His work has been cited more than 61,000 times (h-index = 107, Scopus®, h-index = 123, Google Scholar®) and he was included in the “Highly Cited Researchers” lists in 2014 and 2018 (Clarivate Analytics). He has been the editor-in-chief of the journal Materials Letters since 2010. Boccaccini is a Fellow of four major materials science/technology learning societies, namely: American Ceramic Society, Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (UK), European Ceramic Society, and Society of Glass Technology (UK). Prof. Boccaccini has received multiple awards and honors, including the Materials Prize of the German Materials Society (2015), the Turner Award of International Commission on Glass (2016) and Friedberg Lecture Award (2016) of American Ceramic Society. Boccaccini is also an elected member of the World Academy of Ceramics, the National Academy of Engineering and Applied Sciences of Germany (acatech) and fellow of the European Academy of Sciences (EurAsc). He was conferred the degree of Honorary Doctor of Philosophy at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Turku, Finland. He is the scientific coordinator of the Network of Argentinean Scientists in Germany. Boccaccini currently serves as vice-president of the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS). He has been a member of the Council of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB) since 2015. He is currently the vice-president of ESB.
Prof. Werner E. G. Müller
ERC Advanced Grant Investigator
Institute for Physiological Chemistry
University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University
Germany
Plenary Lecture: Physiological Inorganic Polymer - Polyphosphate: the Key Driver of Bio-medical Regeneration Processes
Werner E.G. Müller is a professor at the University Medical Center of Mainz. The main focus of his research work is the enzyme-catalyzed formation of regeneratively active biomolecules, in particular inorganic (bio)materials. His current research interest is in the development of “smart” (nano)biomaterials for bone, cartilage and chronic wound healing. Recently, his group focuses on the mechanism of the antiviral action of polyphosphate, including its effect on SARS-CoV-2. The last ground groundbreaking finding was their discovery that polyphosphate is the key morphogenetic polymer, driving any regeneration process in the human body. Before this the group isolated for the first time the Herpes simplex virus DNA polymerase together with Prof. D. Falke (University Medical Center of Mainz), and brought a first antiviral drug against this enzyme to the market. Furthermore, he and his group disclosed the key enzymes of bone formation and biosilica biomineralization. For his work in the field of inorganic biomaterials and their medical applications, he received the ERC Advanced Investigator Grant and three ERC-PoC Grants. His achievements in transferring scientific results for the benefit of society have been acknowledged with the highest social award in Germany (Federal Cross of Merit, First class).
Research fields ● Molecular mechanism of biomineralization processes; ● Development of novel applications of the enzymes/proteins involved in biomineral formation in nanobiotechnology and nanomedicine; ● Regenerative Medicine: Development of novel strategies for bone and cartilage repair, wound healing, and 3D printing of tissue/scaffold materials/implants; ● Antiviral compounds (HIV-1 and other viruses), HIV-1 Tat-TAR interaction and interferon 2-5A system. Project coordination Coordinator of numerous international (EU) and national projects, among them the German Center of Excellence “BIOTECmarin”, the EU FP7 projects “BlueGenics” and “Bio-Scaffolds” as well as the ERC Advanced Investigator grant project “BIOSILICA” and 3 ERC Proof-of-Concept projects “Si-Bone-PoC”, “MorphoVES-PoC” und “ArthroDUR“. Honors, awards Several awards, including Max-Bürger Award (1980), Institute Ruder Boškovic-Medal in Gold Zagreb (1986), Kani-Medal of the Foundation for Promotion of Cancer Res. Tokyo (1986), Res. Award from "International Human Frontier Science Program" (1996), Spiridion Brusina Medal from the Croatian Society of Geneticists (2005), Friendship Award, the P.R. China's highest award for foreign experts (2012). 2010 Honorary Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; 2012 Guest professor at Tsinghua Univ. Beijing; 2013 President of IMBA (Intern. Marine Biotechnology Ass.); 2018 Doctor honoris causa (Dr. h.c.; University of Pula, Croatia). Member of Academies: Croatian Academy of Science and Arts (1996), Belarus Medical Academy (1998), Akademie gemeinnütziger Wissenschaften/Erfurt [Senat] (1990). Publications: >1200 peer reviewed publications [Hirsch index: 89 (ISI Web of Knowledge); 109 (Google)].
Prof. Gary L. Bowlin
Professor & Herbert Herff Chair of Excellence
Director, Tissue Template Engineering and Regeneration Laboratory
Fellow, National Academy of Inventors and AIMBE
Department of Biomedical Engineering
The University of Memphis
Joint Univ. of Memphis-UTHSC-Memphis Biomedical Engineering Program
Keynote Lecture: Mechanical Characterization of Near Field Electrospun Wind Angles for Bioresorbable Vascular Grafts
Gary L. Bowlin is a Professor and Herbert Herff Chair of Excellence at The University of Memphis in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Bowlin’s collaborative and pioneering research focuses on the application of electrospun templates for tissue regenerative applications. Dr. Bowlin’s laboratory has published extensively with over 155 peer-reviewed manuscripts. Google Scholar data shows his group’s published works have been cited over 23,200 times (H-index of 66). Dr. Bowlin has been granted 17 U.S. Patents and over 250 foreign patents. These patents have helped to start five different companies and several commercially available and regulatory agencies cleared products. The latest company, Sweetbio, Inc., is Memphis based and commercializing a honey-based wound healing dressing, APIS®. He is a Fellow in the National Academy of Inventors and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. In addition, he is the Inaugural and current President of the International Society for Biomedical Polymers and Polymeric Biomaterials and Treasurer for the International Society for Applied Cardiovascular Biology.
