On April 4-5, 2016, about 75 representatives of government, industry and academic organizations met in Washington, D.C., for the National Materials and Manufacturing Board meeting. Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute Executive Director Ben Wang helped organize the focus session on the grand challenges associated with bio-manufacturing cell therapies and possible solutions in order to move current research forward. Dr. Wang, also the Gwaltney Chair in Manufacturing Systems and a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is a member of the Board.

“Our purpose for the meeting was to inform government, academic and industry stakeholders on the latest developments in this field,” said Dr. Wang. “Session topics addressed three of the major challenge areas: scalable cell manufacturing, manufacturing for regenerative medicine, and bioprinting.”

Dr. Wang indicated outcomes of the workshop included informing national policy and sharing information on federal programs and independent research and development.

Also from Georgia Tech, Krishnendu Roy presented “Manufacturing Cells for Cell-Therapy, Regenerative Medicine and Bioprinting: Findings and Recommendations of The NIS/AMTech Roadmap.” Dr. Roy directs the Marcus Center for Cell-Therapy Characterization and Manufacturing (MC3M), and also the Center for ImmunoEngineering. He is also the Robert A. Milton Chair and professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

The NMMB is the principal forum at the U.S. National Academies for issues related to innovative materials and advanced manufacturing, and has oversight responsibility for National Research Council activities in these technology areas.