Mischa Zelzer recently attended the
Gordon Research Conference on Biointerface Science which was held at Les Diablerets, Switzerland. It was a chance to catch up on the latest research in this field as well as present the group's recent discovery
(published in Chem Comm, 2016) that the way gels form can be influenced by the surface of the vessel they are formed in.
This discovery is important as gels have a variety of uses in fields as diverse as regenerative medicine and catalysis due to their ability to self heal, mimic biological functions and form very precise nano-structures. Therefore, understanding their formation is important in order to fully harness their capabilities.
The conference had a wide variety of internationally leading speakers and as is always the case with GRC, there was plenty of time to network and socialise between the presentations. Les Diablerets itself is a pretty little alpine village where the weather is pretty cool for summer (10-15°C) but with stunning mountain views. It was certainly a very vibrant meeting with a wide breath of topics within the biointerface science research community.
