Advanced Biomaterials in Biomedical Engineering and Drug Delivery Systems

First of all, I would like to share the great pleasure of the successful five-day symposium with every participant in the 5th Iketani Conference which was held in Kagoshima from April1S (Tuesday) to 22 (Saturday), 1995. Outstanding speakers enthusiastically presented their up-to-the-minute results. Relatively little time was allotted for each presentation to ensure asdnuch time- as possible for intensive discussions on the particular topics that had just been p esented: I was delighted to see that the lectures were of high quality, and the discu, ssionswere lively, exciting, and productive in a congenial atmosphere. We also had 92 papers in the poster -session, in which young (and relatively young) scientists made every effort to present the novel results of their research in advanced biomaterials and drug delivery systems (DDS). I believe some of the research is most promising and will become noteworthy in the twenty-first century. It was a privilege for me to deliver a lecture at the special session of the symposium. In my introductory remarks, I pointed out five key terms in multifaceted biomaterials research: materials design, concept or methodology, devices, properties demanded, and fundamentals. I am confident that innovative progress in device manufacturing for end-use, e.g., artificial organs, vascular grafts, and DDS, can be brought about only through properly designed advanced materials that exhibit the desired functionality at the interface with any living body.