2012 Bioinspired Materials Gordon Research Conference

描述（由申请人提供）：向NIH提交的R13提案的目的是为将于2012年6月24日至29日在美国北卡罗来纳州戴维森学院举行的首届戈登生物启发材料研究会议寻求支持。生物启发材料是一个新兴的跨学科领域，重点是发展对天然材料的合成、定向自组装和分层组织的基本理解，并利用这种理解来设计新的“生物启发”人工材料，用于各种应用。本次会议由杜克大学（Duke University）的Ashutosh Chilkoti和瑞士EPFL的Jeffrey Hubbell共同主持，源于两个共同的认识：(1)生物启发材料领域的研究呈爆炸式增长；然而(2)这一领域的研究没有一个单一的传播场所。首届生物启发材料GRC旨在通过尖端的科学计划和杰出的受邀演讲者和讨论领导者的名单来捕捉这个新兴领域的兴奋，他们将解决该领域的关键问题。该GRC的影响在于，它将促进这一新兴领域的新思想的跨学科融合，并通过促进年轻科学家、未被充分代表的少数族裔科学家和年轻教师与著名资深研究人员之间的互动，创造一个有凝聚力的社区。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of this R13 Proposal to the NIH is to seek support for the inaugural Gordon Research Conference on Bioinspired Materials to be held June 24-29, 2012 in Davidson College, North Carolina, USA. The emerging, interdisciplinary field of Bioinspired Materials focuses on developing a fundamental understanding of the synthesis, directed self-assembly and hierarchical organization of natural occurring materials, and uses this understanding to engineer new "bioinspired" artificial materials for diverse applications. This conference, co-chaired by Ashutosh Chilkoti (Duke University) and Jeffrey Hubbell (EPFL, Switzerland) was born from the twin realizations that: (1) there is an explosion of research in the field of Bioinspired Materials; and yet (2) there is no single venue for the dissemination of research in this field. The inaugural GRC on Bioinspired Materials seeks to capture the excitement of this burgeoning field by a cutting-edge scientific program and roster of distinguished invited speakers and discussion leaders who will address the key issues in the field. The impact of this GRC is that it will promote cross-disciplinary fertilization of new ideasin this emerging field and will create a cohesive community by promoting interaction between young scientists, underrepresented minority scientists, and junior faculty with prominent senior investigators. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The GRC on Bioinspired Materials will provide a forum for the discussion of "bioinspired" materials and materials systems: these are artificial materials whose design, synthesis and processing is inspired by the sophisticated materials found in Nature. Developing a better understanding of how Nature designs materials is important because it enables scientists to design new materials with unprecedented properties with applications in biomaterials, tissue engineering, and drug delivery.