Medicoat AG
Gewerbe Nord
Almuesenacherstr. 2
5506 Mägenwil

Welcome

On behalf of the Executive committee of the Swiss Society for Biomaterials, I am very honored to open this 11th General Assembly of our society in the nice premises of the company Medicoat AG, here in Mägenwil. Once again, we have the privilege to be hosted by a private company very active and innovative in the field of biomaterials. Dr Heiko Gruner will introduce himself Medicoat AG in a few minutes ; let me just express to him and his organizing team the best thanks of the SSB for their dedicated work in organizing this meeting. Let me just stress here the fact that the SSB has continuously enjoyed the support of private companies since its creation eleven years ago, not only through sponsoring and advertisements, but particularly through the active organization of our General Assemblies about every other year. I would like to take this opportunity to deeply ackowledge the support of our sponsors, which logos appear in the procceedings of this conference. On another hand, the SSB would not exist without its affiliated members, be it individuals or laboratories. I am happy to see that many members and non-members of the SSB, and espeacially joung scientists, have decided to participate to this meeting. I hope you all will enjoy the program very much ; I hope also that this meeting will be a nice opportunity for you to meet colleagues from university and industry, and establish new fruitful contacts. Finally, I would give a warm welcome to our Romanian colleagues, who are so motivated to attend our meetings, despite the long distance between Romania and Switzerland : thank you very much for coming, and enjoy your stay with us. Now it is time for me to leave the stage to Dr Heiko Gruner, and to declare open the 11th General Assembly of the SSB.

Jacques Lemaitre, President of the SSB
EPFL, Lausanne