SEEKING CONVERGENCE TO ADVANCE BIOMATERIALS INNOVATION

摘要

At the SFB Awards session during the WBC 2016 in Montreal, Canada, Cato Laurencin commented, via recorded video, on the need for CONVERGENCE in taking on the challenges in the fields of regenerative medicine. This prompted me to recall the 2014 report by the National Research Council of the National Academies, calling for convergence—the coming together and transdisciplinary integration of insights and approaches from originally distinct fields including life sciences, physical sciences, engineering— to address difficult problems. In light of the fact that two active SFB members, Cato Laurencin and Nicholas Peppas, were on the committee leading the development of the report, I was wondering how the SFB could play a proactive role as a professional society in facilitating convergence in education, research and innovation.