This award supports the 18th International Conference on Biochemical and Molecular Engineering (BME XVIII) to be held in Beijing, China from June 16-20, 2013. The conference will bring together established researchers, young investigators, private sector scientists and engineers as well as graduate students to assess the present and chart the future of the field of biochemical and molecular engineering. The focus of the 2013 conference will be on frontiers in biological design, synthetic biology, and processing. Specific topics include foundational technologies for synthetic biology; advances in biological processing; design and engineering of microbial factories for the synthesis of fuels and chemicals; engineering at the bio-nano and bio-micro interfaces; stem-cell engineering and cell-based therapies; and engineering of next-generation biotherapeutics. In addition, there are four workshops including opportunities for international research collaborations, biotechnology development in China, the development of biosimilars, and practical applications of advances in engineering sciences in Quality-by-Design.
NSF support will help ensure the success of the meeting by partially defraying conference costs for select US academic scientists and engineers with an emphasis on underrepresented groups and graduate students. In the absence of NSF support, many US academic scientists and graduate students would not be able to attend and to benefit from interactions with the international community of biotechnology researchers.
The award from the Biotechnology, Biochemical, and Bioengineering Program of the CBET Division is co-sponsored by the Synthetic and Systems Biology Program of the Molecular and Cell Biology Division and by the Biomaterials Program of the Division of Materials Research.
The 18th International Conference on Biochemical and Molecular Engineering (BME XVIII) was successfully held in Beijing, China between June 16-20, 2013. This conference brought together established researchers, young investigators, private sector scientists and engineers as well as graduate students to assess the present and chart the future of the ever-changing field of biochemical and molecular engineering. The total number of participants was 356 from 15 countries (A1. Table 1), which made this conference the largest in the history of Biochemical Engineering Conference series. The focus of the 2013 conference was on frontiers in biological design, synthetic biology, and processing (www.engconf.org/staging/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/13AM-Fin-Prog-6-15.pdf). Specific topics included many emerging and established topics such as foundational technologies for synthetic biology; advances in biological processing; design and engineering of microbial factories for the synthesis of fuels and chemicals; engineering at the bio-nano and bio-micro interfaces; stem-cell engineering and cell-based therapies; and engineering of next-generation biotherapeutics. In addition, there were four workshops including opportunities for international research collaborations, biotechnology development in China, the development of biosimilars, and practical applications of advances in engineering sciences in Quality-by-Design. There were numerous discussions either after the technical presentations, in the poster sessions, or in the free time during the conference. BME XVIII had a profound impact on the future direction of biotechnology. NSF support helped ensure the success of this conference by partially defraying conference costs for select US academic scientists and engineers with an emphasis on underrepresented groups and graduate students. In the absence of NSF support, many US academic scientists and graduate students would not be able to attend and benefit from interactions with the international community of biotechnology researchers. Participation in the meeting enhanced and helped advertise their NSF supported work.
