BioInterface 2012 starts today at University College Dublin, Ireland

BioInterface 2012, a major international medical device conference by the US-based Surfaces in Biomaterials Foundation, starts today at University College Dublin, Ireland and runs until Thursday 25 October.

A major international medical device conference by the US-based Surfaces in Biomaterials Foundation starts today at University College Dublin and runs until Thursday 25 October.

Over 200 delegates are attending the annual BioInterface conference including noteworthy academic, clinical and industry speakers from around the globe.

This is the first time that the BioInterface conference is being held outside of the United States since it was first established in 1990.

The interface between the human body and a medical device is critical to the device's performance. The aim of the 2012 BioInterface conference, which has a strong applied focus, is to enable representatives from industrial, academic, clinical and regulatory communities to gather together to discuss recent advances in biomaterials research and innovation which can improve the performance of medical devices.

Among the broad range of topics that will be covered during the next 3-days are surface modification of devices, biomaterials, wound healing, drug delivery systems, plasma medicine and regulatory issues.

According to Dan Hook, Principal Scientist, Bausch & Lomb and President of the Surfaces in Biomaterials Foundation, "We are delighted that BioInterface 2012 is taking place at University College Dublin as it is a University at the forefront of cutting-edge research and innovation in biomaterials and surface engineering and it is a University which has strong commercial links with the medical industry in Ireland."

He added, "Among the reasons for selecting Ireland as the location for our 2012 conference, the first ever to be held outside the US in our 22-year history, is the large concentration of medical device companies in the country and Ireland boasts the highest per capita medical technology personnel in Europe with nine of the top ten global companies having manufacturing plants in Ireland."

Representatives from companies such as DePuy, Medtronic, EnBio, Bausch & Lomb SurModics, BASF and Boston Scientific, amongst others, will be attending or presenting during the conference.

In addition leading academic researchers from universities such as University of Utah, University of Sydney, Utrecht University, University of Washington, University of Liverpool, Nanyang Technological University along with researchers from UCD, UCC and NUI Galway will be presenting their latest research findings.

Dr Denis Dowling, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, a member of the conference organising committee said, "We are delighted that the Surfaces in Biomaterials Foundation chose to host its first ever conference outside of America in Ireland and specifically at University College Dublin. This demonstrates the key role that Ireland and universities such as UCD, play in the global medical device industry."

During this year's conference the prestigious Excellence in Surface Science Award will be presented to Professor Marcus Textor.

This annual award honours an outstanding researcher for significant contributions to surface science at the biointerface or an entrepreneur for practical application of surface science in the development of medical devices.

The 2012 award is being presented to Professor Textor, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), in recognition of his outstanding research into tailoring the surface properties of medical implant devices.

In addition a student award will be presented to recognise excellence in student research. The award winner will be selected from student poster presentations held during the conference.

John O'Donoghue, CEO, EnBio Ltd, which is headquartered at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs, along with Dr Dowling, are the Irish representatives on the BioInterface 2012 programme committee.

The BioInterface 2012 conference is taking place in the UCD O'Reilly Hall, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4.