International Winter School on Bioelectronics welcomed scientists from CATRIN
CATRIN had three representatives at the 7th International Winter School on Bioelectronics (BioEL2022), which took place in Austrian Kirchberg in March. The conference is regularly organized by Johannes Kepler University in Linz. One of the members of the organizing team is a long-time collaborator of CATRIN, a leading physicist and materials chemist, Niyazi Serdar Sariçiftçi.
“The International Winter School is a forum where both renowned and emerging scientists are introduced to new topics in the field of bioelectronics and have the chance to discuss them, alongside establishing new collaborations. This year, among others, one of the main issues was conductive polymer biomaterials for use in various fields of biomedicine, such as stimulation of nerve cells for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases,” said the leader of CATRIN’s research group Nanomaterials in Biomedicine, Kateřina Poláková.
At the conference, she presented scientific findings and approaches for studying the interactions of various cell types with nanomaterials suitable for biomedical applications. “We certainly have a lot to offer to the community involved in the development of new polymer materials for medical applications. In particular, our expertise in and experience of testing the cytotoxicity of newly created materials was the subject of many questions and a promise for further cooperation between Professor Sariçiftçi’s groups and CATRIN-RCPTM,” added Poláková. Along with her, Šárka Hradilová and Ivan Dědek attended the conference as well. They presented their research in the poster section.
Participation in the conference is another result of cooperation with Professor Sariçiftçi, who visited the Olomouc Research Centre repeatedly and lectured at Palacký University as part of the Rudolf Zahradník Lecture Series. He cooperated with local scientists in the field of bio-organic electronics as well as in research on biocompatibility and toxicity of nanomaterials.
