Society for Biological Engineering Schedules Third International Conference on Biomolecular Engineering - AIChE Press Release

Society for Biological Engineering Schedules Third International Conference on Biomolecular Engineering

October 19, 2010

NEW YORK, October 19, 2010 – With researchers focused on finding new ways to use biology at the molecular level to help diagnose and treat disease, the Society for Biological Engineering (SBE) of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers has organized its Third International Conference on Biomolecular Engineering. The conference, which will run January 16th to 19th at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Francisco, California, is designed to stimulate efforts to better engineer healthcare solutions across the molecular, cellular and higher scales of biological complexity.  

Co-chaired by Kurt Deshayes of Genentech and Jeff Varner of Cornell University, the conference, will present advances in the engineering of proteins, biomolecular probes, combinatorial approaches to metabolic pathway engineering, and computational tools for engineering biomolecules. Papers will also cover synthetic biology; genomic, proteomic and metabolomic approaches to modifying cellular processes, as well as better analyses of molecular and cellular function and improvements in understanding of intracellular and intercellular networks.

Keynote speakers are:

  • Frances Arnold of the California Institute of Technology and a co-founder of Gevo, Inc., an expert in the evolutionary design of biological systems
  • Vishva Dixit, vice president of early discovery research at Genentech, where he leads effort to study the biochemistry components of signaling pathways that go awry in disease
  • Leroy Hood, president and co-founder of the Institute for Systems Biology, famed for the invention of the automated DNA sequencer, which revolutionized genomics and provided the foundation for modern molecular biology
  • Roger Tsien of the University of California, San Diego, and the recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of Green Fluorescent Protein   
 
“Continuing improvements in healthcare will increasingly require biologists and engineers to work together,” says Miriam Cortes-Caminero, SBE’s executive director. She added: “Our first two biomolecular engineering conferences showed us how much this work promises, not only for healthcare, but also for the environment through its application to things like biofuels to supplement or replace fossil fuel sources.”
 
Beyond its series of biomolecular engineering conferences, SBE has organized conference on stem cell engineering, bioengineering and nanotechnology, and accelerating biopharmaceutical development. It has also brought together a consortium of companies to pursue research to better determine Chinese hamster ovary genetic data, which is important to biological products. Additionally, SBE has launched an initiative to web-enable laboratory experiment to provide high-quality lab experiences to undergraduates, regardless of their school and location.  

About SBE:

Established in 2004, the Society for Biological Engineering is a technological community for engineers and applied scientists integrating biology with engineering. Members of SBE come from a broad spectrum of industries and disciplines and share in SBE’s mission of realizing the benefits of bioprocessing, biomedical and biomolecular applications. http://bio.aiche.org.

About AIChE:

AIChE is a professional society of more than 40,000 chemical engineers in 92 countries. Its members work in corporations, universities and government using their knowledge of chemical processes to develop safe and useful products for the benefit of society. Through its varied programs, AIChE continues to be a focal point for information exchange on the frontier of chemical engineering research in such areas as nanotechnology, sustainability, hydrogen fuels, biological and environmental engineering, and chemical plant safety and security. More information about AIChE is available at www.aiche.org.