2014 Materials Research Society (MRS) Spring Meeting: Symposium Y: Biomaterials for Biomolecule Delivery and Understanding Cell-Niche Interactions

Our symposium brought together leaders in the field of biomaterials and tissue engineering. This 3 day symosium attracted over 300 attendees, many of which are graduate students and postdoc fellows. The symposium advances our understanding of stem cell-niche interactions and facilitates the developments of novel therapy to direct stem cell fate and tissue regeneration, which are important topics in stem cell research and regeneration medicine. This symposium fosters collaborations among scientists from interdisciplinary background to help elucidate the complexity of cellular microenvironments, and employ tools from materials and engineering principles to guide stem cell fate in ways that conventional biological approaches cannot do.