B-MRS announces 2019 and 2020 annual events.

I would like to suggest as plenary speaker:

Dr. Manuela Gomes
University of Minho, Portugal

Manuela E. Gomes graduated in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal in 1997, obtained the MSc in Polymer Engineering, Univ. of Minho in 2001 and the PhD in Materials Science and Engineering – Tissue Engineering/Hybrid Materials in collaboration with the Rice University (USA) in 2005. She is presently Associate Professor at the University of Minho. Manuela Gomes is one of the Vice-Directors of the 3B’s Research Group since 2011 and she is also on the Board of Directors of the Portuguese Associate Laboratory that gathers the Institute for Life and Health Sciences of the University of Minho and the 3B´s Research Group. She was a founder researcher of the 3B’s Research Group and she is responsible for the Quality Management System (ISO 9001:2008 Certified). She is a board member of the Doctoral Program on Tissue Engineering Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells of the University of Minho and co-responsible for the module on Biomaterials and Nanotechnology of the MIT-Portugal PhD Program in Bioengineering Systems. She also responsible for lecturing on biomaterials, tissue engineering and stem cells to biomedical engineering students of the Univ. of Minho. Manuela Gomes research interests have focused on bone, cartilage and more recently, tendon tissue engineering strategies, namely in the development of scaffold materials based on biodegradable natural origin polymers, stem cells sourcing and differentiation (using biochemical and physical methods); She is also interested in translational aspects of Tissue Engineering, focusing on autologous approaches and cryopreservation of tissue substitutes. Recently her research has been also focusing on magnetic approaches as means to increase the functionality of tissue engineered constructs in vitro and post implantation. Manuela has been part of numerous European and national/regional projects as PI/member, including for example the European Network of Excellence EXPERTISSUES, which originated the European Institute of Excellence in Tissue Engineering (EXPERTISSUES EEIG), leaded by 3B’s. More recently, she has been involved in the EC funded project “THE DISCOVERIS CTR” (H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-Teaming), which aims at implementing a new Center of Excellence in Regenerative and Precision Medicine at the University of Minho (in collaboration with the major Portuguese universities and the University College of London). She was awarded a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC CoG) that will start in May 2018 and more recently with a EC funded Twinning Project, in collaboration with NUI Galway (Ireland), Regensburg University (Germany) and the Mayo Clinic (USA). Manuela E. Gomes is editor 2 books and author of 36 book chapters, 175 full papers published in international refereed journals, and more than 290 communications in international Conferences. She has been invited to give 35 seminars in internationally conferences and advanced schools. She is also co-author of 7 patents (national/international). She has received several awards, including the 2013 Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society – European Chapter (TERMIS-EU) Young Investigator Award, in Istanbul, Turkey, in recognition of outstanding achievements in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine research during the early stages of the career.

Prof. Dr. Carlijn Bouten
Eindhoven University of Technology
the Netherlands
Carlijn Bouten was trained in functional anatomy and biomechanics as well as muscle physiology at
the department of Human Movement Sciences of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where she received
her MSc degree in 1991. In 1995, she obtained her PhD degree from Eindhoven University of
Technology (TU/e, the Netherlands). She performed postdoctoral research at the Université Laval
(Quebec), University of London, and at TU/e. In 1998, she was appointed assistant professor in Cellular
Biomechanics in the department of Mechanical Engineering at TU/e, where she started the laboratory
for Cell and Tissue Engineering. This is a shared research facility, currently hosting over 100 MSc
students, PhD students, technicians and PIs. The research has gained global recognition due to a
unique combination of experimental and computational modeling approaches. In 2002 Bouten
became associate professor of Tissue Engineering in the department of Biomedical Engineering at TU/e
and in 2010 she was appointed full professor of Cell-Matrix Interaction in Cardiovascular Regeneration.
She is a recipient of the Aspasia Career Development award of the Dutch Science Foundation NWO
(2002), which awarded her a VICI grant for her research on heart valve tissue engineering in 2003.
From 2005-2010 Bouten was member of The Young Academy of the Royal Netherlands Academy of
Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Since 2017, she leads the national gravitation program Materials-Driven
Regeneration. In that same year she was elected member of the KNAW.

Prof. Serena Best
St. John’s College, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Serena Best (Jaunzens) is a Professor of Materials Science and Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge. She co-directs the Cambridge Centre for Medical Materials (along with Professor Ruth Cameron). She has published around 300 journal papers, books and book chapters, she holds 9 patents in the fields of biomaterials and skeletal repair and has played a part in the spin out two companies associated with this work. She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and also the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and is Senior Vice President of the Institute. She was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2017 for services to Biomaterials Engineering.