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Keynote Speakers

Keiji Iramina

Affiliation:

Department of Informatics Graduate School of Information Sciences and Electrical Engineering Kyushu University 744 Motooka Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan

TEL / FAX : +81-92-802-3581

E-mail: iramina@inf.kyushu-u.ac.jp

Biography:

Dr. Iramina was graduated from the Department of Electronics, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, in 1986. He received the MS and PhD degrees in electronic engineering in 1988 and 1991, respectively, from Kyushu University. From 1991 to 1995, he worked at the Department of Electronics, Kyushu University. In 1996, he moved to the University of Tokyo, Japan and he has been an associate professor of Institute of Biomedical Engineering, the University of Tokyo. In 2005, he moved o Kyushu University as a professor of Graduate School of Information Science an Electrical Engineering. He has been also a professor of Graduate School of Systems Life Sciences in Kyushu University.

His current research interests include functional brain imaging with multimodalities, for example, EEG (Electroencephalography), MEG (Magnetoencephalography), MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), NIRS (Near-Infrared Spectroscope) and TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation), and the development of measurement technology and the simulation of brain activation.

Dr. Iramina performed editors of many academic journals, IEEJ?MSJ and JBMS. He is Councilor of the Japan Society of Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering. He is also a board member of the Japan Biomagnetism and Bioelectromagnetics Society.

James C.H. Goh

¹ Department of Orthopedic Surgery, National University of Singapore, Singapore;
² Division of Bioengineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Scaffolds in an engineered tissue need to play the role of the extracellular matrix in natural tissues. This requires the scaffolds to possess not only adequate mechanical properties, but also to deliver necessary chemical and biological signals to the resident cells. A precise interplay between the cells, the scaffold and growth factors is essential to successfully engineer a new functional tissue. Traditionally, scaffolds were designed to mainly cater to the physical and mechanical needs of the target tissue. Achieving biomimicry of the natural ECM with synthetic scaffolds requires the scaffolds not only to mimic the ECM structure but also in function. This has resulted in a recent shift in focus from the macrostructural domain to the micro/nanostructural domain and from the structural to the functional domain. Furthermore, to ensure that the scaffold can achieve its desired aims, the biomaterial component should be biocompatible, support cell viability, proliferation and differentiation (if stem cells have been used). In addition, the biomaterial should possess adequate mechanical properties and be biodegradable, so that it is ultimately replaced by the new tissue. Synthetic polymers like PLGA, PLLA and PCL have been widely used because of their good biological compatibility, biodegradability and ease of processing and fabrication. However, synthetic polymers have several drawbacks like poor cell attachment on their surfaces and non-uniform in vivo degradation rates resulting in mechanically unstable tissues. This has led to a shift in interest in biological polymers such as collagen, alginate, chitosan and silk. Silk from the silkworm, Bombyx mori, has been used as surgical suture material for centuries. In recent years, silk has been increasingly studied as the scaffold for ligament tissue engineering. The silk fibers can be woven into a “wire-rope” scaffold, which has mechanical properties similar to the native ligament. The knitted silk mesh is another important silk-based scaffold for its excellent mechanical properties and good nutrients transport. To prevent cells from leaking out of scaffold after seeding, electrospun nanofibers or freeze-dried silk microsponges were incorporated into the macro pores of knitted scaffold. While the knitted structure held the micro pores or nanofibers together and provided the structural strength, the microporous or nanofibers structure could mimic the ligament extracellular matrix to promote cell proliferation, function, and differentiation. In vitro culture demonstrated that MSCs on scaffolds proliferated vigorously and produced abundant collagen. The transcription levels of ligament-specific genes (collagen I, collagen III, and tenascin-C) also increased significantly with time. Such scaffolds can biomimic the native ECM environment and enhance cell viability, proliferation, differentiation