Symposium Schedule

Tuesday 4 July

Lunch and Registration

Breakout area

Symposium Opening

Welcome

BioFutures Interdisciplinary Research Theme (IDRT) Leads:

Dr Meng Zhang, Associate Professor in Microbial Biotechnology, Department of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University. 

Professor Gary Black, Professor of Protein Biochemistry, Department of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University. 

Can wearables be designed to provide real-time, continuous data for reliable healthcare monitoring?

Chair: Professor Richard Yongqing Fu, Professor in Smart Materials and Microsystems, Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University.

E-Textile Wearables: Towards Digital Health

Professor Henry Yi LI, Professor and Chair of Textile Science and Engineering, Department of Materials, University of Manchester, UK. 

Plenty of room under the skin: A wearable's perspective

Professor Sheng Xu, Associate Professor, Department of NanoEngineering, University of California San Diego, USA.

Coffee break

Breakout area

An ocular sensor embedded contact lens monitoring intraocular pressure fluctuations

Dr Hamdi Torun, Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering, Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University

Flexible and Wearable Acoustic Wave Technologies

Professor Richard Yongqing Fu, Professor in Smart Materials and Microsystems, Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University

Using Breath Analysis Techniques and Wearable Sensors to Detect Supersaturated Nitrogen in the Bloodstream

Dr Bethany Orme, Senior Research Assistant in Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University

Flexible and wearable surface acoustic waves for enhanced drug transdermal delivery

Jikai Zhang, PhD candidate, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University

Advancing Wearable Transdermal Therapeutic Delivery: EpiMoto Powerpatch

Dr Duygu Uner Bahar, Research Fellow in Physics, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University

Drinks and Poster session

Breakout area

Wednesday 5 July AM

Registration and refreshments

Breakout area.

Can we grow everything?

Chair: Dr Meng Zhang, Associate Professor in Microbial Biotechnology, Department of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University. 

09:00-09:45 

How to grow the infrastructure for a human settlement on the Moon or Mars

Professor Lynn Rothschild, Adjunct Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Brown University, USA

From biocement to cultured meat: frameworks to generate renewable materials with Bacillus subtilis

Dr Ilana Kolodkin, Adjunct Professor of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Faculty of Agricultural, Food & Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Coffee break

Breakout area

Manufacturing of future living materials and the functionalisation of bacterial cellulose through engineering biology

Dr Katie Gilmour, Senior Research Assistant in Biosciences, Department of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University

Self-Powered, Compostable Skins for Electronic Devices

Sequoia Fischer, Synthetic Biologist, Electric Skin

Bio-Futures for Transplanetary Habitats

Monika Lipińska and Paula Nerlich, PhD candidates, The Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Newcastle University

Living Construction

Professor Martyn Dade-Robertson, Professor of Emerging Technology, Co-Director of the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Newcastle University

Architecture as a Living Organism: A Mycelium Landscape Element 

Taylor Rayne and Katerina Suchankova, Myceelab, UMPRUM (Academy of Arts Architecture & Design), Prague, Czech Republic.  

Wednesday 5 July PM

Lunch (and registration for new attendees)

Breakout area

Can waste biovalorisation help generate clean growth?

Chair: Professor Gary Black, Professor of Protein Biochemistry, Department of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University. 

The development of biorefining strategy for the conversion of waste materials into value added products

Professor Chenyu Du, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Sciences, Huddersfield University, UK

Sustainable chemicals from waste using engineered microorganisms: merging synthetic biology and synthetic chemistry

Dr Stephen Wallace, Senior Lecturer in Biotechnology, Centre for Engineering Biology, University of Edinburgh, UK

Coffee break

Breakout area

Reconciling sustainable chemical production from CO2 with feasible techno-economics

Dr Rajesh Bommareddy, Assistant Professor of Metabolic Engineering and Fermentation Technology, Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Northumbria University, UK.

15:30-15:45

Engineered Biofilms for Small Scale CO2 Capture in Brewing

Dr Jonathan Lee, Senior Lecturer, Chemical Engineering, Newcastle University

15:45-16:00

Using novel thermophiles for the conversion of plastic waste into value-added products

Dr Jose Muñoz, Assistant Professor of Industrial Biocatalysis, Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Northumbria University, UK.

16:00-16:15

Engineering non-model organisms for waste biovalorisation

Dr Paul James, Assistant Professor of Engineering Biology, Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Northumbria University, UK.

Developing chassis strains for the sustainable bioconversion of lignocellulose

Dr Amias Alstrom-Moore, Senior Research Assistant, Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Northumbria University, UK.

Drinks and poster session

Breakout area

Thursday 6 July AM

Refreshments and registration

Breakout area

Biological Interface Materials

Chairs:

Professor Matthew Unthank, Professor in Polymer Chemistry, Department of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University

Dr Yunhong Jiang, Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University

Designing Antimicrobial Biomaterials and Therapeutics in the Era of the Superbug

Professor Raechelle D’Sa, Professor in Antimicrobial Biomaterials, University of Liverpool, UK. 

3D printing and Biofabrication for Healthcare and Sustainability

Professor Shery Huang, Professor of Bioengineering, Cambridge University, UK.

Coffee Break

Breakout area

Nanostructured deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as a filler in piezoelectric polymers for the design of sustainable bio-engineered energy harvesters

Dr Ojodomo Achadu, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, School of Health & Life Sciences, Teeside University

Putting microbial photosynthetic biocomposites to work: Addressing greenhouse gas and nutrient pollution

Dr Gary Caldwell, Senior Lecturer in Applied Marine Biology, Newcastle University

Mechanical performance of bio compatible Ti3Au thin films grown on glass and Ti6Al4V substrates

Dr Cecil Cherian Lukose, Scientific Officer in Electrical Engineering, Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University

Engineering the interface between electric microbes and materials to produce energy and chemicals from waste

Dr Shafeer Kalathil, Assistant Professor in BioSciences, Department of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University

Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Nanoparticles for Norovirus Detection

Dr Jake McClements, NUAcT Fellow: Ageing and Health, School of Engineering, Newcastle University

Thursday 6 July PM

Lunch (and registration for new attendees)

Breakout area

Can AI design life?

Chair: Dr Matthew Bashton, Assistant Professor in Computational Biology and Genomics, Department of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University

Learning to read and write protein evolution

Brian Hie, Stanford Science Fellow, Biochemistry, Stanford Medicine, Stanford University, USA. Visiting Researcher Meta AI.

Decoding the language of life

Professor Burkhard Rost, Professor of Bioinformatics,TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology (CIT), Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany; Rostlab - Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.

Coffee break

Breakout area

The Alignment Problem 

Niya Stoimenova, PhD Candidate, DEUS, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Netherland

Explainable Colon cancer stages prediction with multimodal biodata through attention-based Deep Neural Network.

Olalekan Ogundipe, PhD candidate, Department of Computing and Information Sciences, Northumbria University

Cambridge University Press

Introducing Research Directions: Biotechnology Design – a question led journal

Mónica Moniz, Publisher & Programme Manager for Research Directions, Cambridge University Press & Assessment.

Poster Prize Presentation

BioFutures Team & Cambridge University Press

Drinks and poster session

Breakout area

Friday 7 July

Refreshments and registration

Breakout area

Design Education for BioFutures

Chair: Professor Martyn Dade-Robertson, Professor of Emerging Technology, Co-Director of the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Newcastle University

Biodesign: A Narrative, A Future

Daniel Grushkin, Executive Director, Biodesign Challenge, USA

Biodesign Education: A Path to Addressing Wicked Problems

Professor Giovanna Danies Turano, Associate Professor, Department of Design, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia

Coffee break

Breakout area

ECOMESH

Karishma Tuladhar and Simeng Sun, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

Sustainable Futures: Critical Making as an enabler for Biodesign education

Sam Edens and Ista Boszhard, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences

Industry Perspectives on BioFutures

Chairs: Dr Meng Zhang & Professor Gary Black, Northumbria University.

Introduction

Professor Gary Black, Northumbria

Importance of Biomanufacturing in Consumer Goods

Dr Linsey Fuller, Group Scientist, Newcastle Innovation Centre, Procter & Gamble      

Bio-fabricated Textiles : designing new localised value chains and circular systems

Aurélie Fontan, Fashion Designer, & Ashley Granter, Product Designer, Mykkö

Symposium closing

Round up and next steps

Dr Meng Zhang & Professor Gary Black, Northumbria University.

Lunch and collect posters

Breakout area