Call for Papers

Please contact the symposium organizers with questions.

Biohybrid systems combine biological and artificial units to enable advancements in sensing, robotic, energy, and biomedical applications. The symposium will address biohybrid devices where biological components such as cells, tissues and even organisms are vital for the device operation. The symposium will also explore biohybrid materials that consist of biological and artificial components. Bioelectronics, photonics, and nanotechnology give handles for coupling with biological entities, while functional materials design and engineering and synthetic biology facilitate bidirectional communication at the biotic/abiotic interface. A key focus will be sensors and actuators where microorganisms, cells or tissues are actively involved in signal transduction or actuation, such as living electrodes and soft robots. Plants also present numerous opportunities for technological integration as they are sun-powered machines with hierarchical structures, sense and sample their surroundings, and possess rich biocatalytic properties. Therefore, we will give particular emphasis on plant-based biohybrid systems for sensing, energy, and robotics applications. Beyond natural organization, additive manufacturing enables programmed patterning of microorganisms and cells and their amalgamation with functional materials resulting in complex 3D structures that can self-heal, regenerate and adapt to environmental cues. Furthermore, the rich biocatalytic activity of the in-vivo environment can be harnessed for the integration of functional components into natural materials that are either harvested or remain within the biological environment. The symposium will cover a diverse range of biohybrid systems to bring together experts that, even though they do not target the same application, all work towards advancing the integration of biological components in technology. In this way we expect cross-fertilization of knowledge and expertise resulting in more sophisticated biohybrid systems. The symposium will focus on both understanding the fundamental processes that govern the coupling between biology and technology, and materials and device engineering for improving the biotic- abiotic communication. Challenges such as long-term operation, scale up and high performance will be addressed.

Topics will include:

• Electronic/optical/electrochemical coupling with cells and microorganisms
• Plant micro- and nanobionics
• Plant biohybrid systems
• Microorganisms and cells engineering for biosensing and energy applications
• Bio(electro)catalysis, Bio fabrication
• 3D-4D engineered living materials and devices
• Cell-based biohybrids systems for biomedical applications

Invited Speakers (tentative):

• Maria Rosa Antognazza (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy)
• Marie-Eve Aubin-Tam (Delft University of Technology, Netherlands)
• Damiano Barone (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)
• Bianxiao Cui (Stanford University, USA)
• Zhuojun Dai (Henzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)
• Susan Daniel (Cornell Unversity, USA)
• Chiara Daraio (California Institute of Technology, USA)
• Matteo Grattieri (Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Italy)
• Tedrick Thomas Salim Lew (National University of Singapore, Singapore)
• Jia Liu (Harvard University, USA)
• Ben Maoz (Tel Aviv University, Israel)
• Barbara Mazzolai (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy)
• Anna Maria Pappa (Khalifa University, United Arab Emirates)
• Christine Selhuber-Unkel (Heidelberg University, Germany)
• Orit Shefi (Bar-Ilan University, Israel)
• Brian Timko (Tufts University, USA)
• Sihong Wang (The University of Chicago, USA)
• Taylor Ware (Texas A&M University, USA)
• Shu Yang (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
• Xuanhe Zhao (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)

Symposium Organizers