Conference: GRC Bioelectronics: Probing, Manipulating and Understanding Cell-Materials Interfaces to Achieve Electrical Continuity; June 16-21, 2019; Andover, NH

Gordon Research Conferences, East Greenwich RI

Investigators

Abstract

The 2019 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) in Bioelectronics - the first GRC on this topic - establishes a community of interdisciplinary researchers. Bioelectronics is a multi-disciplinary scientific area and it includes researchers from diverse fields, such as biochemistry, molecular biology, chemistry, physics, materials sciences, medicine, electrical engineering, and synthetic biology. These areas remain poorly connected, and there is no current meeting that brings together the broad spectrum of researchers actively involved in the development of Bioelectronics technologies across a range of length scales. The 2019 GRC on Bioelectronics fosters new interdisciplinary collaborations across the physical sciences, engineering, and biological sciences and provides a forum for sharing the latest advances, communicating grand challenges, and building collaborations to develop transformative bioelectronics technologies. Research topics are multi-disciplinary, spanning both the physical sciences and biological sciences The Conference includes the participation of graduate students and postdocs. A key, unifying element in the advancement of Bioelectronics is merging biomolecules, cells, and materials across a spectrum of length scales. Fundamental questions in the field include understanding electron flow in biochemical pathways, elucidating electron transfer at interfaces between synthetic and natural systems and establishing efficient pathways for electrical and ionic communication between devices and cells using advanced materials and synthetic biology. The meeting addresses and establishes grand challenges in the field of Bioelectronics including: (1) understanding how to integrate living/organic materials with synthetic materials, including natural and synthetic light harvesting systems, (2) finding new ways to control and re-program electron transfer in biology to accomplish nanoscale synthesis in a targeted manner, (3) achieving specificity in read/write interfaces, (4) designing materials with sufficient longevity and long-term degradability, and (5) translating this knowledge to macroscopic phenomena and devices. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.