Annual Meeting of the German Society for Biomaterials, Aachen, 29.09. - 01.10.2016

The Annual Meeting of the German Society for Biomaterials was held from 29 September to 1 October 2016 in the newly constructed Professor Pirlet Lecture Hall Building at RWTH Aachen University. More than 200 registered participants took the opportunity to learn about research work from DGBM members in 109 oral contributions and 57 poster contributions. The presentation of the papers included a total of 14 oral sessions running in parallel in two lecture halls. In addition, there were two poster sessions. Two lecture sessions were organized by our sister society, the Dutch Society for Biomaterials. The papers covered biomaterials, stem cells and tissue engineering, cell-material interaction, nanoscience, and clinical applications. The topics of the sessions and the names of the presenters can be found in the attached overview. Each session was introduced by an invited plenary lecture by an internationally renowned English-speaking speaker. The invitations were possible thanks to the generous support of the German Research Foundation (four speakers), the Stem Cell Network NRW and the European Society for Biomaterials (one speaker each). The lectures met with a very positive response throughout, as they recognizably represented the state of the art in research. The presentations from among the DGBM members were judged by the session chairs and the best presentations from each session were invited for submission of scientific articles for publication in the open access journal "BioNanoscience" (de Gruyter-Verlag), the official organ of the DGBM. Submissions can be made until the end of February, and the articles go through the regular peer review process, but are free of charge for the submitters. The posters were presented in two poster sessions. Prizes were awarded to the best posters. The DGBM promotional awards for the two best PhD theses were also presented at the awards ceremony. A new board of directors was elected at the DGBM general meeting. A conference dinner was held in the Couven Hall of the RWTH Aachen University. On the day before the conference, a workshop on "Biofabrication" was held in the rooms of the Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Engineering, the University Hospital of RWTH Aachen University, and in the ELab of RWTH Aachen University. A total of 24 young scientists heard short overview lectures on the topic and performed hands-on exercises on 3D printing of cell-loaded hydrogels using commercial as well as in-house developed 3D printing systems. The 2016 annual meeting of the DGBM was a varied, high-ranking and well-attended event, which was successful not least due to the financial support of the German Research Foundation. The organizational handling was carried out in a proven manner by Conventus Congressmanagement & Marketing GmbH.