The NIH’s Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) held a two-day symposium titled “Reparative Medicine: Growing Tissues and Organs” during June 25-26, 2001, at the Natcher Conference Center.   The conference was the fourth in a series of annual BECON symposia on emerging bioengineering topics.    Reparative medicine represents a critical and highly-visible frontier in biomedical and clinical research, and is a field marked by recent unprecedented scientific advances and optimism.   NIH Co-chairs for the symposium were Dr. Christine Kelley of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Dr. Lore Anne McNicol of the National Eye Institute.  Extramural Co-chairs were Dr. Helene Sage of the University of Washington and Dr. Robert Nerem of Georgia Tech.

This symposium attracted about 500 scientists, engineers, and clinicians with interests in tissue engineering and reparative medicine.  Specific goals of the meeting were to develop a vision for reparative medicine, to identify the challenges and opportunities in the field, to generate short- and long-term research needs and strategic goals, and to recommend actions to address the research needs and achieve the goals.   The meeting also provided a forum for communication between the biomedical and allied discipline communities, helped investigators identify possible collaborators for future research, and educated the community in the state of the science.

The conference consisted of a keynote address, five plenary talks, ten topical breakout sessions, posters, and vendor exhibits.  The keynote address was titled “Repair and Replacement: From Lab Bench to Market” and was given by Dr. Gail Naughton of Advanced Tissue Sciences, Inc.  Five plenary presentations on tissue engineering topics encompassed such areas as tissue repair and replacement, biomaterials and scaffolds for tissue repair, sources of cells for repair, in vitro systems for tissue engineering, host response, and functional assessment.  Breakout sessions addressed these topics and others including angiogenesis and vascular modeling, molecular signaling, bioreactors and bioprocessing, immune response, genetic approaches to tissue repair, and storage and translational issues.  A report summarizing the proceedings and recommendations is currently available at http://www.becon1.nih.gov/becon_2001_final_report.pdf.

On June 26, Dr. Wendy Baldwin, Deputy Director for Extramural Research at the NIH, was recognized for her leadership and dedication as Chair of the BECON since its establishment in 1997.  A crystal vase engraved with the BECON logo and commemorative text was presented to Dr. Baldwin by Dr. John Watson, Director of the Clinical and Molecular Medicine Program in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. 

This year’s symposium was notable because it was the last one coordinated by the BECON as it currently exists.  On October 1, administration of the Consortium was formally assumed by the new National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the NIH.   Present plans are to continue the BECON symposia which are aimed at providing input from the scientific community for the NIH to use in developing effective bioengineering research programs and facilitating communication among the allied disciplines and biomedical communities.