Technical Exchange Meeting on Semiconductor Platforms for Synthetic Biology and Hybrid Bioelectronic Systems, July27-28,2016 at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in hybrid biology-semiconductor platforms that can leverage both natural/synthetic biological processes and semiconductor technologies, and achieve novel sensing, actuation, and signal processing functionalities far beyond conventional electronics-only devices. In such hybrid platforms, living cells and tissues can function as a "Biological Front-End", which utilizes the endogenous processes to perform biological sensing, actuation, signal processing, synthesis, and energy harvesting. In parallel, the underlying semiconductor platforms can form a "Semiconductor Back-End" for information computation, control, communication, and storage. Furthermore, real-time two-way interfacing schemes, for both information and energy, can closely couple the biology and semiconductor layers and potentially form hybrid closed-loop feedback systems. However, current research on such topics is still in its stage of infancy. Therefore, this technical exchange meeting is organized to focus on semiconductor platforms for synthetic biology and hybrid bioelectronic systems. This meeting will be one and a half day event organized at the Georgia Institute of Technology in July 2016. The hybrid biology-semiconductor systems can be employed in a broad spectrum of critical applications with ground-breaking scientific, economical, and societal impacts. These hybrid devices can offer unprecedented capabilities far beyond conventional electronics-only devices. These key applications include hazard detection, drug screening, stem cell culture, biological actuators, manufacturers, or robots, biological energy harvesting, biotic-abiotic hybrid computing systems, and studying neurons/neuron networks. The results of the proposed meeting will be widely disseminated. The proposed technical exchange meeting will also serve as a perfect outreach and education opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students. It is believed by the research community that the proposed technical exchange meeting is a timely call to action. It will develop future research agendas that enable the scientific explorations on hybrid biological/nano-electronic devices/systems and insure the Nation long-term uncontested technology leadership. Moreover, this meeting brings together leading academic and industrial scientists to discuss, debate and seek consensus on key scientific challenges on future biology-semiconductor hybrid devices/systems; this meeting will provide an excellent opportunity for intellectual pursuit and discernment of important/limiting scientific challenges. The technical exchange meeting aims to cover the following tentative topics. Topic 1. Biocompatibility studies of different semiconductor platforms/nanomaterials and state-of-the-art biocompatible packaging technologies. Topic 2. Real-time bilateral interface (sensing and actuation) with high spatiotemporal resolution between semiconductor platforms and synthetic biology. Topic 3. Synthetic biology based sensing, computation, synthesis, and energy harvesting and potential hybrid integrations with semiconductor platforms. Topic 4. Future high-impact applications of semiconductor/synthetic-biology hybrid systems. All of these topics are closely related with semiconductor platforms for synthetic biology and hybrid bioelectronics systems. Furthermore, this meeting will be an ideal forum to discuss and explore the potential high-impact applications of the hybrid biological/nano-electronic devices/systems.