Biomedical Technologies

Four sessions are available for abstract submissions.

Advances in Biosensing & Bioimaging

Effective understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases is inherently linked to the technologies available to clinicians, veterinarians, agronomists, and researchers. The need for enhanced biochemical approaches to study and treat diseases, driven in part by the advent of precision therapy, has inspired new biosensing approaches to perform (i) high-throughput single-cell analysis, (ii) point-of-care detection of biomolecules, viruses, microbes, and cells, (iii) large-scale analysis and processing of massive data sets, and (iv) low-volume detection of disease biomarkers. Talks in this session will encompass a wide range of biosensing strategies that have been developed toward these efforts, including the use of nanoparticles, microfluidics, peptides, proteins, DNA, RNA, 3D printing, microscopy, and spectroscopy. Bioimaging is key to studying mechanisms underlying disease development, diagnosing or following the course of a disease, facilitating drug development via biodistribution and target validation, and improving image-guided therapy and surgery. Recent advances in biomedical imaging that will be covered in this session include the development of imaging devices, new molecular probes, kinetic modeling, multimodal and multiscale imaging, and imaging-based omics technologies.

Biological Models for Disease Insight

A comprehensive understanding of diseases is essential for identifying novel therapeutics and treatment approaches. Recent years have produced novel in vitro models that better recapitulate the in vivo environment to increase the fundamental understanding of disease progression, leveraging deep chemical and biological tools. This has led to new approaches in cell culture co-culture and 3D culture that incorporate more realistic biomaterials to better represent tissue. Presentations in this session will focus on, but are not limited to, current developments in i) organ-on-a-chip, ii) biomaterials models (2D and 3D synthetic and natural materials), iii) organoids and iv) 3D printing across many tissue types that provide insight into disease pathology, as well as associated advances in analytics.

Delivery and Targeting of Therapeutics

Novel technologies enabling tissue/cell specific delivery of payloads are necessary to unlock the potential of precision medicines and expand the therapeutic index of existing interventions. This session will focus on targeted delivery strategies currently being developed in both academia and industry for modalities including viral vectors, non-viral vectors (e.g., liposomes, lipid nanoparticles, polymeric nanoparticles), and extracellular vesicles. Other relevant topics for this session include overcoming drug delivery challenges by enhancing endo-lysosomal escape/intracellular delivery, extending circulation half-life, discovery and optimization of new targeting ligands, and strategies for controlling release kinetics of the cargos.

New Technologies in Cell, Tissue & Microbiome Engineering

This session will focus on emerging technologies used to engineer cell or tissue behavior, aimed at uncovering biomedical fundamentals or exploring applications such as engineered human cell therapies, regenerative medicine, engineered probiotics, and bacterial therapies. Talks are welcome on a broad range of topics including, but not limited to, synthetic biology, biomaterial-based regenerative strategies, regulation of stem cell differentiation, receptor protein engineering, genetic circuit design, signal transduction, cell-cell communication, host-microbe interaction and evolution, and regulation of the microbiome to achieve biomedical goals.