Conference review

The annual meeting of the German Society for Biomaterials, which took place from 26-28 September 2013 in Erlangen, was a special event: we celebrated the 20th anniversary since the founding of the DGBM. Therefore, in addition to another excellently selected program, there were also various honors and awards dedicated to outstanding personalities and their commitment to the DGBM. A total of 282 participants attended the conference, slightly more than one third of them were young scientists who competed for various prizes with short presentations in the Young Scientist Forum and in the poster sessions. The winner in the category "Best Short Talk" was Ms. Nadine Lang (Erlangen) with the topic"Effects of matrix stiffness and steric hindrance on cell migration in 3D". This prize was endowed with 300 €, which was donated by the first DGBM chairman, Prof. Groß. The poster prizes (also 300 € each) went to the authors Michael Meyer, Kathleen Seipel, Kathrin Leppchen-Fröhlich, Ina Prade, Alexander Felix, Roland Haseneder, Uwe Repke from Freiberg for the paper"Sterilisation of collagenous medical products using supercritical carbon dioxide" and the team Susanne Stählke, Friederike Kunz, Andreas Körtge, J. Barbara Nebe from Rostock for the"Analysis of intracellular calcium mobilization in osteoblasts on defined microstructure". Jonas Daenicke from Erlangen was awarded for the poster"Resilience of silicone breast implants - new insights by mapping the mechanical properties of implant shells".

During the general meeting, the opportunity was taken to honour long-standing members of the DGBM for their outstanding work but also for their commitment to the society: Prof. James Kirkpatrick (Mainz), Prof. Heinrich Planck (Denkendorf) and Prof. Hartmut Worch (Dresden) were appointed honorary members. A new board of directors was also elected: Prof. Nebe (Rostock) and Prof. Worch (Dresden) left the board, Prof. Jahnen-Dechent (Aachen) and Dr. Ewald (Würzburg) joined. Thus the society will be represented for the next three years by: Prof. Rammelt (Dresden) chairman, Prof. Jahnen-Dechent deputy chairman, Prof. Willumeit secretary, Dr. Ewald treasurer and Prof. Epple as member for special tasks.

In addition to exciting lectures and intensive discussions, the DGBM conference participants also enjoyed themselves in Erlangen. The social evening took place at Schloss Atzelsberg. Here the opportunity was also taken to thank the retiring board members and of course the organisers. Prof. Boccaccini, who was also in the stress of moving during the conference, and his team put together an excellent conference. After an extensive dinner with regional specialties, the dancing started. All in all, it was an all-round successful event, which once again made it clear that the DGBM is a very special professional society with close ties among its members.

Regine Willumeit, Geesthacht