At MatriChem, we do our best to stay up to date with the current state of the tissue engineering field. One way we do that is by attending the highest quality scientific conferences organized worldwide. This is why we are eagerly counting down the days to BICO’s partnership conference which will take place in the middle of November, 11th and 12th to be exact. We strongly recommend this event to anyone interested in the fields of bioprinting, genomics, diagnostics and drug discovery.

The annually organized conference gathers scientists and leaders which provide expert advice on the common challenges encountered in these fields. At last year’s conference, for instance, we were thrilled by a panel discussion on the future of biomaterials featuring Itedale Namro Redwan, Prof. Orlando Rojas, Prof. David Williams, and Prof. Abraham Joy, in which we appreciated the discussion on two specific topics: 1. The complexity of the concept of biocompatibility; and 2. The sustainability aspect of tissue engineering.

We took note of the concern Prof. Williams has expressed on numerous occasions of the lax use of the word biocompatible even in the technical literature. In a Leading opinion published in 2014 in the journal Biomaterials, pointedly titled “There is no such thing as a biocompatible material”, he stressed that a material needs to be considered in the context of both the material and the biological host within which it is placed. Thus, he suggested that the word biocompatible ought to be replaced by the phrase intrinsically biocompatible system which obviates the complexity of the concept and enables a more disciplined approach towards the problem of determining biocompatibility of a material within an organ of an organism.

On the other hand, we were glad to witness a discussion on the sustainability of the biomaterials which are being developed today for the tissue engineering products of the future. In particular, Professor Rojas has dedicated his career on studying the properties of the sustainable biomaterial cellulose which can be sourced not only from plants but also from bacteria and Tunicates. A search in the Dimensions database makes it clear that the interest in cellulose in the bioprinting field has grown exponentially since 2010 when there were only 7 publications containing both of the words Bioprinting and Cellulose while this year, there are more than 1600. Given that cellulose is only one candidate being considered as a sustainable alternative to animal-derived biopolymers, this development seems very encouraging.

This year, we are looking forward to the discussion on a future without animal testing and the related topic of the advances in tissue engineering. Hope to see you there!