The Sir John Walsh Research Institute hosted the 9th NZ Biomouth Conference in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery on the 9th of October. The Biomouth Group are a collaborative group of researchers from institutions across New Zealand, all of whom are interested in various aspects of human mastication, jaw mechanics, food development, dentistry, and other related areas of research. The accent of this year's conference was again on student participation, with a wonderful turnout (17 presentations) from all over New Zealand.
Our invited overseas keynote speaker was Jianshe Chen, of the School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, who spoke on Oral capability of food handling and bolus swallowing.
Special thanks to James Smith and Nicole Summerfield who put in a huge amount of behind the scenes effort to ensure the conference was a success.
The 10th Biomouth Conference is planned for Auckland in 2014.
The Biomouth Group
In November 2004, the Biomouth Research Group was established. The group includes researchers from across within New Zealand unified by their interest in various aspects of human mastication. The Biomouth Research Group includes researchers from the University of Otago, the University of Canterbury, Massey University, the University of Auckland and the Institute for Plant and Food Research.
The Biomouth Research Group aims to:
- Foster communication and collaboration between existing research groups within New Zealand that are involved or interested in mastication, jaw mechanics, food development, dentistry, and other related areas.
- Raise our profile and showcase our research locally and internationally.
- Seek collaboration with overseas laboratories.
- Actively seek research funding for collaborative Biomouth research projects.
For more information, please visit the Biomouth website at www.biomouth.org.