Conference review

Prof. Schnettler invited us to the annual conference 2011 in Gießen. And 327 colleagues followed this call - a new record, which we in the board are of course very pleased about. The excellent conference programme certainly contributed to this great rush, which was also reflected in over 200 submitted abstracts.

It was dominated by the motto of the annual meeting "Stimulus of the Interface", in which biomaterials were also seen as an interface between the disciplines. In addition, there were the outstanding guest lectures given by Prof. Hans Marcus Textor, Professor of Surface Engineering at the ETH Zurich, Prof. David F. Williams, editor of the journal Biomaterials, the trauma surgeon Prof. Vilmos Vecsei from Vienna and Prof. William C. Costerton from Pittsburgh, one of the founders of biofilm research. From the feedback I received from colleagues, it was clear that both the choice of topics and speakers were judged to be very good. The program was packed: over 80 talks could be heard and at least as many posters could be viewed. The DGBM prizes for young scientists, which were awarded again this year, went to two winners. Dr. Christina Greulich (University Hospital Bergmannsheil, Bochum) was awarded for her work on "Influence of nano-silver on peripheral blood mononuclear cells: uptake and biological response". Equally convincing was the contribution of Dr. Andrea Tautzenberger (Institute for Trauma Surgery Research and Biomechanics, Ulm), who received the prize for her paper on "Influence of pamidronate-loaded, resorbable nanocapsules on osteoclast cultures".

The DGBM poster awards this year went to: Hanna Hartmann (Tübingen) with her poster: Chitosan/siRNA nanoparticles for biological refinement of medical implants, Susanne Stählke (Rostock) with her poster: Analysis of material interaction of osteoblasts in relation to the organization of the actin cytoskeleton and to Leonid Ionov (Dresden) with his poster: Soft micro-origami: self-folding polymer films for cell-encapsulation and release.

Thanks to Prof. Schnettler's good connections to industry, a new record was also set for the number of exhibitors: a total of 11 booths were visited.

All in all, the DGBM 2011 was a very successful event, which promoted our society in an excellent way.

Regine Willumeit, Hamburg