The 16th SFBMEC congress was held last week in Reims: Elodie and Zied attended the meeting to be aware of the last trends in extracellular matrix (ECM) research and industry and medical applications. And they were not disappointed!

The SFBMEC meeting took place in the Faculty of Medecine of Reims, France.

After a first touching lecture in memoriam of the late Ladislas Robert – a recognized researcher in the field and founder of SFTC before it became the SFBMEC – the meeting was divided into 4 parts dedicated to the structure and function of the ECM in (i) cancer, (ii) vascular aging, (iii) dermocosmetology and (iv) as a source of biomaterials (detailed programme here).

We enjoyed all sessions, but we were particularly delighted by the presentation of Ghislain OPDENAKKER from Belgium about MMP9 and the REGA-paradigm in the initiation of auto-immune processes. We also appreciated the interesting talk of Philippe GILLERY (Reims, France), who made a great review about the molecular ageing of ECM proteins (i.e. glycation and carbamylation). The whole session about dermocosmetology was of particular interest for us with talks from different companies. Finally, we enjoyed the clear presentation by Katja SCHENKE-LAYLAND from Germany about the use of Raman microspectroscopy for label-free ECM analysis, in the last (but not least!) session.

We would have liked to see more presentations about 3D systems, and about Hyaluronic Acid and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) in general, because they are – besides collagens, laminins and elastin which were largely addressed – key players in cellular behaviour in health and disease. If the organizers read us, no doubt that it will be the case in the next meeting!

Even if the topic was out-of-scope, Gérard LIGER-BELAIR (Reims, France) managed to catch our attention with his great talk about “The odyssey of a champagne bubble, from bottle to flute”… We’ll never look at a glass of champagne as we were before 🙂

We would like to thank all speakers for these outstanding three days, all participants and especially all people who came to see our poster and discuss about BIOMIMESYS® hydroscaffold in cancer research! You can still download it here. Special thanks to the scientific committe and Com&Co company for organizing the meeting, which was held in a very relaxed atmosphere. We are looking forward to attending the next one!


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