Many members of the BIOACTION consortium were at the 34th Annual Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials to present project results. The conference, which took place from September 7–11 in Turin, Italy, explored “Biomaterials on the horizon”. It brought together researchers working on everything from clinical translation to artificial intelligence applications in biomaterials.
During the conference, our consortium organized the symposium “Advanced biomaterials and tissue engineering for effective implant infection treatment.” The symposium, originally pitched by BIOACTION’s coordinator, Luigi Ambrosio, was chaired by two of our partners: Andrea Cochis from Università del Piemonte Orientale (UPO) and Giovanna Gomez d’Ayala from the Institute of Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials (IPCB) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR).
The session gathered a lot of interest, with over one hundred participants joining to hear about the “development of advanced biomaterials to prevent or treat biofilm formation, the use of stem cells and regenerative therapies to accelerate healing, and novel drug delivery systems for targeted infection control.”
During the symposium, Professor Matteo Santin from the University of Brighton delivered the keynote lecture. Further, the session included presentations from another EU project, FORCEREPAIR, demonstrating different approaches to infection control using biomaterials.
The concept of using transforming bacteria into beneficial “friends” for the production of specific proteins was the starting point for a lively conversation among attendees. In particular, there was a deep discussion with Matteo Santin, whose research focuses on bone and skin diseases, which explored the biomedical applications of this concept.
Anna Mariano from IPCB-CNR gave an oral presentation titled “Bio-hydrogels with integrated osteoinductive signals for bone regeneration.” She described ongoing work to develop hydrogels containing bioactive signals that enhance bone regeneration. These hydrogels will be combined with genetic carriers designed to transform biofilm bacteria into tissue regeneration bio-factories.
Beyond the symposium
Besides the symposium, consortium partner also presented project results. For example, Mariangela Clemente from the Istituto per i Sistemi Biologici (ISB) presented a poster on her research into Giant Janus liposomes. Additionally, Alessandra Soriente (IPCB-CNR), Lia Rimondini (UPO), and Maria Grazia Raucci (IPCB-CNR) were also present.
This conference was a great opportunity to share BIOACTION’s approach to implant infections with the international biomaterials community. Through the symposium, the project lead the discussion on what could lie on the horizon for biomaterials.