Speakers
Nanomedicine today and tomorrow
Bio
Dr. Ruth Schmid
Vice President Marketing at SINTEF Industry in Trondheim, Norway
Dr. Ruth Schmid is Vice President Marketing at SINTEF Industry in Trondheim, Norway with special responsibility for the area of medical technology, including nanomedicine. SINTEF is one of Europe's largest independent non-profit research institutes. She has an undergraduate education in organic chemistry and a PhD in physical organic chemistry from ETH Zürich, Switzerland. Her present research activities include the preparation and characterisation of micro- and nanoparticles by various technologies and from a wide variety of materials (including biodegradable polymers and hybrid materials), as well as the surface modification of polymers and polymer particles by wet chemistry, to introduce tailor-made properties. Lately, focus has been on the encapsulation and immobilisation of liquids and solids from emulsions, for protection and controlled release. Another focus has been on coating of biomaterials by self-assembling methods and covalent attachment with biocompatible, biomimetic and functional coatings, e.g. for introduction of antimicrobial properties, for increased osseo-integration or for immobilisation of biological molecules. A field of special interest are the emerging fields of nanomedicine, targeted drug delivery and release, nanotechnology-based diagnostics and regenerative medicine, with special focus on applications based on particle technology and surface modification. She has special focus on applied research and product orientated solutions and has long-term experience in translation from lab to pilot scale, e.g. through the development of the Dynabeads. She has business development experience, e.g. through SINTEFs various drug delivery platforms. She is a past president of the Controlled Release Society (CRS) and the past chair of the European Technology Platform on Nanomedicine (ETPN). She is a member of the College of Fellows of AIMBE and CRS. She is author/co-author of 67 peer reviewed publications (citations 2358; h-index. 22).
Biopolymer-based tough hydrogel for additive manufacturing
Bio
Prof. Wenxin Wang
Science Foundation Ireland Principal Investigator
Wenxin Wang is Full Professor in Skin Research and Wound Healing, a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Principal Investigator at the Charles Institute of Dermatology, School of Medicine, University College Dublin (UCD), and a member of UCD Academic Council. He won the highly prestigious “Young Scientist Prize in Regenerative Medicine” in 2010 at TERMIS-EU conference, the “SFI Principal Investigator award” in 2011 and the DEBRA Award for Excellent EB Patient Service in 2014, which highlight his work ethic and achievements. Prof. Wang’s scientific interests are in the areas of biomaterials, stem cell and gene therapy for the treatments of skin wounds, cardiovascular and neural degenerative diseases. His scientific contribution and achievements have been recognized both nationally and internationally including over 200 peer-reviewed scientific journal papers (Nat. Commun., Nat. Rev. Chem., Sci. Adv., Angew. Chem., JACS, Chem. Sci. and Nano Letters etc.), 5 book chapters, 25 patents, 140 conference abstracts and presentations, and 110 invited lectures and keynote presentations. Since 2009 he has graduated 19 PhD students and mentored over 25 postdoctoral researchers. His achievements have gained the increased interest in the wider public community with publicity media activities (56 times in TV Documentary, Videos and Newspapers), for example in RTE-TV, ‘The Sunday Times’, ‘The Irish Times’, ‘Science Daily’ and ‘Chemistry World’. He has been awarded significant funding (ca. 11.3 million Euros) from different sources, e.g., SFI, Health Research Board (HRB), Irish Research Council (IRC), Enterprise Ireland (EI) and European Union (EU-FP7 & EU Horizon 2020) to support his research activities. Prof. Wang has acted as the symposium convener and chair, the member of organizing committees and the member of the conference advisory board for 31 international conferences and has been selected as an expert reviewer and panel member by 25 international research councils and funding bodies. As the founder, Prof Wang has launched 3 companies - Vornia Ltd (www.vornia.com, acquired by Ashland - a Fortune500 US company in Jan. 2018, renamed as Ashland Specialties Ireland), Blafar Ltd. (www.blafar.com), and Branca Bunús Ltd. (www.brancabunus.com). Furthermore, he has licensed 7 new technologies to 4 companies: Ashland, Amryt Biopharm, Blafar and Branca Bunús, and successfully launched and commercialized 5 newly developed technologies onto the market.
Trends in the microfluidic industry 2022
The last two years we have seen an increased interest in microfluidics from governments, investors and established industries. This was driven by the urgent need for fast and accurate diagnostic instruments for COVID testing. Besides that, there are many other applications of microfluidics that are flourishing, for instance 3D (bio)printing and Organ on chips. Parallel tot his commercial uprise the microfluidic industry started to work together to develop and promote industry wide applicable protocols and standards. This presentation will show the status of the microfluidic industry anno 2022, followed by an introduction to microfluidic standards, explaining the reasoning behind them and the need for them. Among the discussed protocols and standards will be microfluidic connections, testing and flow control.
Bio
Henne van Heeren
Funders of enablingMNT and one of funding members of the Microfluidics Association.
Henne worked as a production manager and business development manager in the industry. In 2003 he was one of the founders of enablingMNT. Currently Henne is working within enablingMNT as a consultant and market analyst in the field of microfluidics. One of his activities is assisting (start-up) organizations in the process of industrialization and commercialization. Recently he brought together several parties interested in the development of guidelines and standards for microfluidics. He is one of the founding members of the Microfluidics Association, where several companies and other organisations are working together developing industry wide applicable protocols and standards in microfluidics.
Advanced Mould Technology for Injection Moulding of Optoelectronic Parts
Miniaturized, integrated photonic devices are driving an increasing number of applications, while facing pressure to lower cost and increase flexibility. In this talk I discuss the development of diamond like carbon (DLC) injection mould inserts for optoelectronic applications. A high-resolution grating with micrometer scale features and nanometric finish for an optical encoder has been produced using ion implant masking 1 and tested for compression injection mould replication and optical performance. In addition, a new mould cavity filling sensor developed at TCD based on a fibre-optic interferometry is discussed that measures microcavity mould filling by polymers with nanometre displacement resolution.
Bio
Graham L. W. Cross
Associate Professor Physics and PI in the AMBER/CRANN, Nanomaterials Institute at Trinity College Dublin.
Graham Cross, FTCD is Associate Professor Physics and PI in the AMBER/CRANN Nanomaterials Institute at Trinity College Dublin. After his Ph.D. on atomic scale indentation at McGill U. (Montréal, Canada), Prof. Cross worked on atomic-force microscopy (AFM) based data storage for IBM Research in Zürich, Switzerland as an FCAR Fellow. At Trinity College his research highlights include fundamental studies of size effects in polymer melt processing flows 2 and discovery of macro-scale self-assembly and superlubricity in graphene 3 . He has commercialized diamond nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), spinning out a profitable start-up company (Adama Innovations Ltd.) Prof. Cross leads research collaborations in superlubricity (EIC SSLiP project) and 2D material self-assembly (SFI Pleatronics project) as well as participating in nanoscale moulding (EU FLOIM), nanowire metrology (EuroMet NanoWires) and 2D material composites (SFI AMBER II) projects.
Topic: to be confirmed
PROF.DR.IR. G.R.B.E. RÖMER (GERT-WILLEM)
University of TwenteFaculty of Engineering Technology
Chair of Laser Processing
Topic: Upon confirmation
Prof. D Jed Harrison, FRSC
Scientific Director, FPC@DCU, Dublin City University,
Fraunhofer Project Centre for Embedded Bioanalytical Systems
Manufacturing of plastic microfluidics:
Translating microfluidic devices from laboratory prototyping into scale-up production
Transforming lab research into a sustainable business is becoming a trend in the microfluidic field. However, there are various challenges during the translation process due to the gaps between academia and industry, especially from laboratory prototyping to industrial scale-up production, which is critical for potential commercialization. In this perspective, based on our experience in collaboration with stakeholders, e.g. biologists, microfluidic engineers, diagnostic specialists, and manufacturers, we aim to share our understanding of manufacturing process chain of microfluidic cartridge from concept development, laboratory prototyping, to scale-up production, where the scale-up production of commercial microfluidic cartridges is highlighted. Four suggestions from aspect of cartridge design for manufacturing, material selection, professional involvement, and standardization in order to help the scientist from laboratory to bring their innovations into pre-clinical, clinical and mass-production and improve the manufacturability of laboratory prototypes towards commercialization.
Bio
Nan Zhang, Assistant Professor, University College Dublin
Dr Nan Zhang is an Assistant Professor in Manufacturing and Design in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at University College Dublin (UCD) in Ireland. His research work covers the polymer micro/nano manufacturing, precision manufacturing of plastic microfluidic chips, manufacturing functional micro/nano structured surfaces and miniature medical devices, microfluidic systems for the synthesis of genetic nanomedicine and molecular diagnostics, and atomic and close to atomic-scale manufacturing. Dr Zhang has won 4.5Million grant in his early career, including a recent funded H2020 MSCA ITN Grant as a consortium coordinator. He have published more than 35 peer-reviewed journal papers, in Materials Today, Nano letters and International Journal of Machine Tool and Manufacture. His work was also funded by Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland-Commercialization Funding, Irish Research Council and University College Dublin etc. He was the chair of the 6th international conference on polymer replication on the nanoscale (PRN2019, PRN2022). He is also the council member of the Microfluidic Association. He is the funder of MiNAN technologies, which focuses on translating the microfluidic devices from laboratory into mass production.
