Dr Niu Yiming from the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences (ICMS), University of Macau (UM), recently received an Excellent Oral Presentation Award, for his academic presentation titled ‘Designing Macrophage-Regulatory Glucomannan Biomaterials for Bone Regeneration’ at the 2019 Chinese Biomaterials Congress and International Symposium on Advanced Biomaterials.
During the event, Niu discussed the development of a natural carbohydrate biomaterial scaffold with a structure mimicking the native bone tissue, adding that this scaffold demonstrates an excellent effect in repairing rat cranial defects. According to Niu, the polysaccharide material can activate the host immune cells at the defective site, and these cells secrete an array of ‘cytokines’ (small-molecule proteins) to recruit bone progenitor cells (which can ‘become’ bone cells) and induce them to function. The research team led by Niu will continue to conduct experiments to understand the molecular mechanism underlying the interaction between the polysaccharide molecules and the host immune cells.
Niu is a young scholar nurtured by UM. He obtained his PhD degree from the ICMS and the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine after passing a thesis defense in June. Niu is currently working with his PhD supervisor Wang Chunming on a research project concerning the use of bioactive materials on immune cells.
The Chinese Biomaterials Congress and International Symposium on Advanced Biomaterials is a biennial authoritative national conference in the fields of biomaterials and regenerative medicine. This year’s event was the largest in its history and attracted more than 20 academicians from China and the United States, over 40 world-renowned experts, more than 100 Changjiang Scholars, distinguished young scholars, members of the Thousand Experts Programme, as well as 5,000 industry practitioners.
Source: Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences
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