Biomedical Technologies
Four different topics are being presented throughout eight sessions
New Technologies in Cell and Microbiome Engineering
Sunday, August 13 from 8 am – 12 pm PST in Foothill F
This session will focus on emerging technologies used to engineer host or microbial cells and their interactions in the context of a microbial community. Talks are welcome on a broad range of topics including, but not limited to, host cell engineering or modification to improve protein production, genetic stability, post-translational modification including glycosylation, engineered probiotics, genetic circuit design, signal transduction, cell-cell communication, host-microbe interaction, and evolution. Of particular interest are efforts in studying and designing microbiomes to achieve biomedical goals.
Delivery and Targeting of Therapeutics
Session I: Sunday, August 13 from 2 – 6 pm PST in Foothill F
Session II: Tuesday, August 15 from 8 am – 12 pm PST in Foothill F
Session III: Tuesday, August 15 from 2 – 6 pm PST in Foothill F
New technologies for delivering therapeutic constructs to specific cell types and tissues 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, nanoparticles, proteins, nucleic acids, extracellular vesicles, and small molecules. Other relevant topics for this session include enhancing endo-lysosomal escape/intracellular delivery, extending circulating half-life, design of novel delivery vehicles, discovery and optimization of targeting ligands, and strategies for controlling cargo release kinetics.
Biosensing and Diagnostics
Session I Point-of-Use: Monday, August 14 from 8 am – 12 pm PST in Foothill F
Session II Emerging Tools: Monday, August 14 from 2 – 6 pm PST in Foothill F
Session III Methods and Systems: Wednesday, August 16 from 8 am – 12 pm PST in Foothill D (hybrid)
Effective understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases are inherently linked to the technologies available to clinicians, veterinarians, agronomists, and researchers. With the advent of precision therapy, often bioanalytical and biochemical approaches to study and treat diseases are limited by the available technologies. This limitation has inspired new 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. Researchers have developed a wide range of strategies including the use of nanoparticles, microfluidics, peptides, proteins, DNA, RNA, 3D printing, microscopy, and spectroscopy. These advancements have led to selective and sensitive biosensors with excellent limits of detection and high signal-to-noise ratios that can be incorporated into high-throughput or field-ready approaches to rapidly analyze biological samples.
Probing and Imaging Living Matter
Wednesday, August 16 from 2 – 6 pm PST in Foothill D (hybrid)
Cellular bioelectricity occurs as a result of ion transport across cell membranes and tissues and represents a crucial cue in guiding cellular differentiation (e.g., stem cells), mutation (e.g., cancer cells), and migration (e.g., wound healing). Electrogenic cells (neurons and cardiomyocytes) exhibit action potentials, i.e. rapid polarization and depolarization of the cellular membrane. However, all types of cells in the human body exhibit bioelectrical properties. Being able to record bioelectrical manifestations and their variations under different conditions is important for cell monitoring, drug toxicity testing, in vitro tissue models, and fundamental scientific advancement. Recently, nanotechnology methods have been used to design devices for recording electrical signals from cells and tissues with high accuracy and low invasiveness, compared with gold-standard methods. This session aims at gathering the latest findings in the field of bioelectricity of living materials: from novel technologies for electrophysiological recording of cells and tissues to standard methods applied to new discoveries.