STEAM & ICCE: A sublime combination!

The 6th International Conference on Cellular Engineering (6th ICCE) was held from August 20th to 22nd 2003 at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. Historically, cellular engineering conferences run under the auspices of the International Federation of Medical & Biological Engineering (IFMBE) have brought together researchers from the life sciences, physical sciences and engineering to further our understanding of cellular and tissue function. The 2003 conference, which was held as a satellite to the World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, built on the tradition of previous ICCE meetings by facilitating interchange between the many disciplines represented within this field.

There were multiple highlights of the meeting. The Sydney Tissue Engineering and Matrix Group (STEAM) held a pre-conference workshop on cellular mechanics featuring international speakers Professors Gerald Pollack and Dan Bader and Dr Vivek Mudera. Chaired by Richard Appleyard the Director of Biomechanics at St George Hospital, University of New South Wales, the STEAM 6 workshop was attended by approximately 60 delegates who enjoyed the diverse range of topics covered. Professor Pollack spoke on his seminal works on mechanisms of muscle contraction, where we learned that the magic number is 2.7 nm (referring to the step-size his team measured in actin-myosin filament translation). Professor Bader's presentation showed how the engineering approach can be used to develop beautifully controlled devices for biomechanical conditioning of cells and tissue constructs. Dr Mudera highlighted the synergy between cytokine signalling and mechanical stimuli. Drinks afterwards in the exhibitors area were well attended by both STEAM delegates as well as delegates arriving for 6th ICCE.

ICCE sessions commenced on Thursday morning with an excellent opening presentation on bioinformatics by Professor Susan Wilson from the Australian National University in Canberra. Professor Wilson spoke to the power of techniques such as gene array analysis, but included appropriate cautionary notes that point to the need for care in quantitative analysis and choice of statistical methods. Professor Paul Simmons followed with a plenary presentation about his exciting work with the team at Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute on the clinical use of adult mesenchymal stem cells for critical bone defects. A third plenary on development of vascularized tissue in vivo by Professor Wayne Morrison from the Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery illustrated the potential for the model developed by his research team to be used as a tool for clinical tissue engineering.

The combination of science and clinical therapies remained the theme for plenary sessions on Day 2. Professor Silviu Itescu (Columbia University, New York) spoke on clinical application of angioblasts for myocardial neovascularisation. This was followed by a presentation by Professor Ranieri Cancedda (Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro, Italy) on regeneration of bone tissue using osteoprogenitor cells which followed the progression from work at the bench right through to the bed-side with implantation in humans with bone defects. Professor Derek Hart from the Mater Medical Research Institute, in Brisbane, Australia spoke eloquently on his powerful work with dendritic cells for treatment of cancer.

Two special sessions were held during ICCE, the first on Day 1 focussed on industry perspectives on cell and tissue-based products and the second on Day 2 was a panel discussion on challenges for the future of cellular and tissue engineering. The industry symposium sponsored by NSW Department of State and Regional Development was an excellent session highlighting many of the issues that will be faced in development of cell and tissue based products. Although many issues were discussed by speakers including Miles Prince, Stephen Livesey, Chris Juttner and Geoff Symonds, the over-riding conclusion was that these are the products that constitute the future of regenerative medicine. The panel session chaired by Professor Bob Nerem from Georgia Institute of Technology and with panel members Julie Campbell, Stephen Livesey, Andrea Mathews and Dominic Wall discussed many of the issues that impact on this rapidly growing field including government regulation, ethics, business development, education and on the whole ended on an upbeat note, particularly since it was followed by the announcements of International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE) young investigator prize winners Jayne Foster and Michael O'Connor (joint first prize) and Anand Ramakrishnan, Michelle Verkerk, Grace Li and Masayasu Mie (highly commended).

General sessions were incredibly varied with topics ranging from basic biophysical modelling of cell function, highlighting among others the research of Professor Gerhard Artmann's group from the University of Applied Sciences in Aachen, Germany, to applied research topics on vascular engineering, bone and cartilage engineering and cellular therapies.

6th ICCE was well attended by over 120 delegates from USA, Europe, Asia and Australia. The distinguished international and national speakers as well as all of the participants from both Australia and around the world made this a meeting to remember. The meeting was co-hosted by the University of New South Wales, Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering and the Institution of Engineers Australia. Corporate sponsors included for STEAM 6, Bio-Rad and BD Biosciences and for 6th ICCE, BD Biosciences, Medos Company Pty Ltd and Thermo Electron Corporation. The next conference (7th ICCE) will be held in Korea in 2005 directed by Professor Hwal Suh, of the International Cellular Engineering Working Group.