Jay T. Groves received his B.S. degree in
Physics and Chemistry from Tufts
University, and then went on to complete
his Ph.D. in Biophysics with Professors
Steven Boxer and Harden McConnell at
Stanford University. He then spent a year
as a visiting scholar at Academia Sinica in
Taipei, Taiwan before becoming the
Division Director's Fellow in the Physical
Biosciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory. In 2001 he joined the
Chemistry Department at UC Berkeley as
an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to
Over the last twenty years, there has been
a staggering rate of development in optical
imaging technology. This has been largely
driven by the consumer electronics
industry, but the benefits to basic science
have been tremendous. Single molecule
imaging is now routine, and was even
recognized by awarding the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry for 2014 to W. E. Moerner, Eric
Betzig, and Stefan Hell. Single molecule
imaging continues to expose the molecular
level inner workings of living cells at
DAY 01
Jay T. GROVES
Professor Department of ChemistryUC Berkeley, USA
Molecular Imaging: From single molecule studies in living cells to handheld diagnostics
Biography
Associate Professor in 2007 and Professor
in 2010. In 2008 Professor Groves was
appointed as a Howard Hughes Medical
Institute Investigator. He has received the
Burroughs Wellcome Career Award in the
Biomedical Sciences (2000), the Searle
Scholars Award (2002), the MIT TR100
(2003), the Beckman Young Investigator
Award (2004), and the NSF CAREER Award
(2005). He has served as an Associate
Editor of the Annual Reviews of Physical
Chemistry since 2006.
progressively higher levels of precision. In
this talk, I will present recent developments
in the scientific laboratory on single
molecule studies in living cells, and
discuss how these advances in basic
science are enabling new opportunities for
clinical diagnostics well outside of the
laboratory setting.
Johannes Reisert studied Physics at
Siegen University (Germany) but soon
headed to Cambridge University (U.K.) to
pursue a Ph. D. in the Department of
Physiology. Thrown into a field Johannes
had never heard of before by his Ph.D.
supervisor Dr. H. R. Matthews, he began to
study how mouse and frog olfactory
receptor neurons (ORNs) code for odorant
stimulation, as well as investigating Ca2+
homeostasis mechanisms in ORNs and
The task of our senses is to explore, detect
and transform pertinent information in our
environment into electrical nerve signals to
guide behavioral decisions. For odorants,
this task is accomplished by olfactory
receptor neurons (ORNs) in the nasal cavity
that perceive volatile molecules carried by
the inhaled air and encode odorous
information into, ultimately, action
potentials that are conveyed to the
olfactory bulb in the brain. Odorant
DAY 01
Johannes REISERT
Associate Member Monell Chemical Senses CenterPhiladelphia, USA
How olfactory receptor neurons interpret our odorous world
Biography
how these contribute to odor adaptation.
After a quick detour via Germany to work
with Dr. S. Frings at Juelich, Johannes
joined the laboratory of Dr. K.-W. Yau at
Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine in Baltimore to focus on Cl-
homeostasis mechanisms as well as
single molecule detection in ORNs. In
2005 he joined the faculty of the Monell
Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia.
molecules bind to odorant receptors
located on ORNs, which is the first step in a
protein signaling cascade that leads to
gating of ion channels and cellular
depolarization. This presentation will
explore how ORNs and their signaling
components cope and make sense of the
vast variety of odorant molecules to
transduce them reliably (or not) into a time-
and concentration dependent output.
Dr Nic Lindley is a senior research director who has spent his entire professional life looking at how to understand and exploit microbial biodiversity as a source of innovation for industrial biotechnology applications. He has worked in the UK and in France, where he managed one of the most renowned public biotechnology research institute, before moving to Singapore to develop the new A*Star Biotransformation Innovation Platform and initiate research on how to translate the
Consumers are increasingly skeptical as to chemically synthesized flavor compounds but are also becoming increasingly interested in improving the taste and the nutritional content of their processed food. In addition the shift towards healthy foods is requiring additional efforts to make these products tasty. One of the challenges facing the food industry is to find alternative sources of existing, but also new molecules as natural flavours. Traditionally these compounds were often extracted from natural plant materials but these sources are often difficult to master both in quantity and quality of the desired molecules, as well as sometimes requiring extensive processing to remove other taste components which impart negative flavours to final products. The Biotransformation Innovation Platform at AStar is developing cell factory approaches to generate microbial strains able to synthesize high concentrations of specific flavour compounds. In order to exploit these high performance systems, we have to be able to screen and identify the right
DAY 01
Nic LINDLEY
Strategic Director A*STAR Biotransformation Innovation Platform, Singapore
Taste receptors as part of a screening process to discover new flavour molecules
Biography
academic scientific excellence into validated and innovative manufacturing, notably as regards high value-added flavours and fragrances for the food and consumer care sectors. He has worked extensively throughout his career with major biotechnology companies throughout the world and pioneered the metabolic engineering aspects associated with the cell factory concept (using microbial cells as a basis for complex synthetic reactions).
molecules. To facilitate this we have developed a taste receptor platform with two complimentary components. A high throughput screening system based on high efficiency cell transfection which allows us to couple any taste receptor variant to an artificial signaling pathway, and to thereby rapidly test its functional characteristics. The experimental setup allows us, for example to test receptor polymorphism and thereby determine how different variants of a given receptor associated with specific populations respond differently to key taste molecules. This experimental setup is associated to an in silico ligand binding modelling platform using structural understanding of the receptor’s biochemical affinity for taste molecules, to design ideal taste molecules and focus testing on the experimental screening platform in a given chemical space, thereby increasing the probability of finding new molecules. Some of the key technology factors involved in developing this taste receptor platform will be presented.
Dr. Toko is a Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University, and was a dean for 2008-2011. He is now a Director of Research and Development Center for Taste and Odor Sensing, Kyushu University. He proposed a concept "to measure taste" about 30 years ago and succeeded in developing the taste sensor using lipid membranes, i.e. the electronic tongue first in the world. At present, over 400 taste sensor machines are used in food and pharmaceutical
Five years ago, IBM announced five innovations (Next 5 in 5), which are related to our five senses and will change our lives. Digital taste buds will help us to eat smarter, and computers have a sense of smell. In a similar way, four years ago, Google imagined a splendid world where we can record, transfer and realize smell anywhere and always.
Biochemical sensors which play the role of gustatory (taste) and olfactory (smell) senses have made rapid progress, and are named electronic tongues (e-tongues) and noses (e-noses), respectively. A taste sensor, which is a kind of e-tongue, has a property of global selectivity that implies a potential to decompose taste into five basic taste qualities (sourness, sweetness, bitterness, saltiness, umami) and quantify them; it was commercialized about 25 years ago [1-3]. It comprises several kinds of electrodes, on which a lipid/polymer membrane is pasted, and can discriminate, identify and quantify the taste. Generally speaking, e-tongues are designed to measure liquid samples using multiple sensor arrays with the low selectivity and high cross-selectivity instead of high selectivity to each chemical substance [4-6]. Each sensor electrode of the taste sensor is not specific to each chemical
DAY 01
Kiyoshi TOKO
Distinguished Professor Department of Electronics Graduate School of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Graduate School of Systems Life Sciences
Director Research and Development Center for Taste and Odor Sensing Kyushu University, Japan
Biochemical Sensors for Taste and Smell
Biography
companies all over the world. He also succeeded in developing an electronic dog nose, the sensitivity of which is superior to dogs. He has directed and continues several government research projects in food, nanotechnology, and integrated sensing technology using biosensors and the taste/odor sensor. Due to these results, he won many prizes such as Prize for Science and Technology (MEXT) and Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon. His research results are frequently on air in TV broadcast.
substance but to each taste quality in principle. The taste sensor has been applied to many kinds of foods such as coffee, tea, meat, rice, beer, milk, and wine, and has also been used to measure the taste of amino acids and medicines. It can provide a scale of taste, and can be utilized to produce new foods and medicines or control/monitor their qualities.
E-noses are biochemical sensors to detect smell, and then various types of materials and methods are reported: oxidized semiconductor, conductive polymer, transistor, quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), surface acoustic wave (SAW) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Among them, an “electronic dog nose” [7] based on SPR and an antigen–antibody interaction was developed. The detecting surface is chemically modified by a self-assembled monolayer containing oligo(ethylene glycol) and a surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP). As a result, TNT was detected at 5.7 pg/mL (ppt) using the optimized surface made by SI-ATRP and TNT–Ab by indirect competitive assay. In the near future, there will appear smart phones mounting the above kinds of e-tongues and e-noses.
Yanxia HOU has completed her Ph.D. in
Analytical Chemistry from Ecole Centrale
de Lyon (France). Then she spent a year as
postdoc at University of California San
Francisco/Touro University California
working on design of a biosensor to screen
small drug molecules against HIV. After,
she spent almost two years for a 2nd
postdoc at CEA-Leti in France, where she
worked on surface engineering of MEMS
and NEMS for electronic nose applications.
She is a permanent researcher at French
National Centre for Scientific Research
(CNRS) since 2008 in a joint laboratory
SyMMES (UGA-CEA-CNRS, UMR 5819)
located at Grenoble. In 2012, she
Nowadays, the development of novel
sensors that are able to provide reliable,
inexpensive and rapid analysis is driven by
the ever-expanding monitoring needs in
different domains, such as environment
monitoring (air/water quality control), the
detection of pollution or leaks of hazardous
materials, food safety and quality control,
and non-invasive medical diagnostics, etc.
Traditional techniques such as gas
chromatography and mass spectroscopy,
though accurate and reliable, are often
time-consuming and laborious to perform.
In this context, the electronic noses (eNs)
and electronic tongues (eTs) have emerged
as promising alternatives. They are
engineered to mimic the mammalian
DAY 01
Yanxia HOU-BROUTIN
Researcher Institut Nanoscienceset Cryogénie, CEA-Grenoble, CNRS, France
Optoelectronic Noses & Tongues for Imaging Smell & Taste
Biography
participated in the creation of a start-up
company Aryballe Technologies (Grenoble,
France) for the development of a universal
and portable optoelectronic nose. She is
also scientific advisor of the company. Her
major research areas are multiplexed
assays (biosensors and biochips) for
biomedical applications and electronic
tongues/noses for analysis of pure
proteins and complex mixtures in liquid or
in gas (VOCs) with potential applications in
diverse domains such as quality control of
food and beverages, food safety,
environmental monitoring, health-related
innovative technologies, etc.
olfactory system, consisting of an array of
low-selective sensors with
cross-sensitivity to different species in
complex mixtures and using advanced
mathematical procedures for signal
processing based on pattern recognition
and/or multivariate analysis. In this talk, I
will present recent developments in our
laboratory on the optoelectronic tongues
and noses based on an optical detection
system such as surface plasmon
resonance imaging. The obtained eTs and
eNs are capable of generating temporal
response with vivid 3D images as
“fingerprints” for the differentiation and
identificaton of the samples in liquid and in
gas.
Dr. Cho is a graduate of Stanford University where he
earned an M.S. in Materials Science and
Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering
under the guidance of Professor Curtis W. Frank.
During his doctoral studies, Dr. Cho first gained an
interest in research at the interface of molecular
virology and biomaterials. The principal goal of his
thesis work was to develop lab-on-a-chip
technologies for analysis of viral protein interactions
with lipid membranes.
Dr. Cho then continued his postdoctoral training in
Professor Jeffrey S. Glenn’s group in the Division of
Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Stanford
University School of Medicine. He applied these
engineering technologies to combat the Hepatitis C
virus (HCV), which affects over 150 million people
worldwide. His work has led to significant advances
for treating HCV, including new drugs currently in
preclinical or clinical trials. In addition, Dr. Cho has
DAY 01
Namjoon CHO
Associate Professor School of Materials Science and Engineering College of Engineering Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Emerging Approaches to Fabricate Supported Lipid Bilayers: Moving Beyond Vesicles
Biography
pioneered a novel approach to liver tissue
engineering that has enabled an improved artificial
organ system for studying liver disease.
His passion for translational and regenerative
medicine has been recognized by several
prestigious international honors and awards from
the American Liver Foundation, Beckman
Foundation, and leading global universities and
companies including Chalmers University of
Technology and Roche Ltd. In 2011, Dr. Cho was
named an NRF Fellow by the Singapore National
Research Foundation, and was also appointed to a
Nanyang Associate Professorship. In addition to his
academic duties, Dr. Cho is the founder of
infollutionZERO, a global nonprofit organization
committed to building a green digital world for
future generations by eradicating infollution
(information + pollution) from the digital world.
Controlled self-assembly of model lipid membranes
at solid-liquid interfaces opens the door to a wide
range of applications across membrane biophysics,
biotechnology and medicine. Recently, we developed
the solvent-assisted lipid bilayer (SALB) method to
form supported lipid bilayers at interfaces. A key
feature of the SALB method is that the supported
bilayers form in an energetically favored scenario,
enabling bilayer fabrication on formerly intractable
surfaces like gold. Moreover, the process does not
require pre-formed precursor vesicles allowing for
arbitrary compositions. Aided by lipid-substrate
interactions, surface-adsorbed lipids in organic
solvent are rapidly converted into lamellar phase,
supported bilayer islands upon addition of aqueous
buffer solution. Lipid species in the aqueous solution
may attach to the bilayer islands and subsequently
rupture to form a contiguous, supported lipid bilayer.
Owing to the technically minimal requirements of
solvent-assisted lipid self-assembly, we have also
developed on-chip lipid microfluidics that take
advantage of the SALB method to form miniaturized
biomembranes with a rich complexity of components
reminiscent of natural cell membranes and that can
be utilized on a variety of substrates with different
atomic compositions and nanostructure
morphologies. In addition to the SALB method,
additional innovations have enabled streamlined
fabrication of supported lipid bilayers in fully
aqueous conditions by utilizing mixtures of
phospholipids with minimal preparation
requirements. In turn, all these capabilities should
further enable academic investigations related to
membrane biophysics and pharmaceutical drug
development efforts towards high-throughput lipid
membrane functional assays.
Prof. Jalali is the Northrop-Grumman
Endowed Chair and Professor of Electrical
Engineering at UCLA with joint
appointments in Biomedical Engineering,
California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI)
and Department of Surgery at the UCLA
School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D.
in Applied Physics from Columbia
This talk will describe two breakthrough
imaging modalities created at UCLA. The
first known as FIRE is the world’s fastest
fluorescent imaging modality with
applications blood analysis and brain
mapping. It labels fluorescence emission
from each pixel with a different radio
frequency (RF) tag and employs digital
wireless communication techniques to
create images. The startup company
DAY 01
Bahram JALALI
Professor and Northrop Grumman Opto-Electronic Chair
Department of Electrical Engineering
UCLA, USA Radio frequency multiplexed and time-stretch imaging techniques for cancer detection
Biography
University in 1989 and was with Bell
Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey
until 1992 before joining UCLA. He is a
Fellow of IEEE, the Optical Society of
America (OSA), the American Physical
Society (APS) and SPIE. He was the
Founder and CEO of Cognet Microsystems,
a company acquired by Intel in 2001.
commercializing this technology was
recently acquired by BD Biosciences
(NASDAQ:BDX). The second technique
called time stretch imaging is the fastest
quantitative phase imaging modality. The
Artificial Intelligence (AI) augmented time
stretch microscope introduced in early
2016 has achieved label-free classification
of cancer cells in blood with record
accuracy and is rapidly gaining popularity.
Prof Luke P. Lee is a Tan Chin Tuan
Centennial Professor, Director of the
Biomedical Institute for Global Health
Research & Technology (BIGHEART), and
Associate President (International
Research and Innovation) at NUS.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of
Chemistry and the American Institute of
Medical and Biological Engineering.
Portable, low-cost, and quantitative nucleic
acid detection is desirable for point-of-care
diagnostics; however, current molecular
diagnostics often requires time-consuming
multiple steps and costly equipment. We
have developed smart mobile molecular
diagnostics system that leverages efficient
and dependable blood sampling,
automated sample preparation with digital
plasma separation, ultrafast photonic PCR
on chip, rapid optical detection of
multi-analyte nucleic acids and proteins,
and user-friendly systems integration with
wireless communication. The system
DAY 01
Luke P. LEE
Founding Director BIGHEART at NUSSingapore
Professor Departments of Bioengineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Biophysics Graduate Program, Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center, UC Berkeley, USA
Smart Mobile Molecular Diagnostics System with Ultrafast Photonic PCR on Chip
Biography
Lee has over 350 peer-reviewed
publications and over 60 international
patents filed. He is a world-renowned
pioneer in nanobiophotonics, plasmonic
resonant energy transfer (PRET),
optofluidics, rapid photonic PCR,
microfluidics for quantitative life sciences,
and integrated molecular diagnostics
systems (iMDx).
includes a hand-held automated device
with an adaptive sample control module,
an optical signal transduction module, and
an interface to a smartphone making this a
reliable and field-applicable system for
point-of-care and on-demand diagnostics.
We envision that autonomous mobile
molecular diagnostic systems hold the
potential to breakthrough the number of
problems brought into the field of medical
diagnosis today and provide promising
foundations for future preventive
personalized medicine.
Dr. Dan Fletcher is the Chatterjee Professor
of Engineering Biological Systems at UC
Berkeley, where he also serves as Chair of
the Bioengineering Department and Chief
Technologist of the Blum Center for
Developing Economies. Dr. Fletcher
received a B.S. from Princeton University, a
D.Phil. from Oxford University as a Rhodes
Scholar, and a Ph.D. from Stanford
University as an NSF Graduate Research
Fellow. His bioengineering and biophysics
Light microscopy remains a critical tool for
disease diagnosis throughout the world.
Direct imaging of pathogens in blood,
sputum, and stool samples can provide a
rapid and definitive diagnosis of a broad
range of diseases, and specific labeling of
molecular components produced by or
induced by pathogens can provide further
information that directs treatment.
However, microscopy also requires skilled
technicians and equipment not routinely
available outside of centralized clinical
facilities. In recent years, mobile phones
have shown great potential to improve
DAY 01
Daniel FLETCHER
Professor and Chair Department of Bioengineering UC Berkeley, USA
Mobile phones as medical devices: Diagnosis of neglected diseases and beyond
Biography
research has been recognized with an NSF
CAREER Award, a Tech Award from the
San Jose Tech Museum, and a “Best of
What's New” designation by Popular
Science magazine. He served as a White
House Fellow in the Office of Science and
Technology Policy, is an elected Fellow of
the American Institute for Medical and
Biological Engineering, and was named
one of Foreign Policy's 100 Leading Global
Thinkers.
healthcare. As one example, the camera of
mobile phones can be converted into a
light microscope with sufficient resolution
to identify causative agents of disease and
detect molecular signatures. These mobile
phone microscopes, combined with the
continuously increasing computational
power of mobile phones, opens the
possibility of creating rapid point-of-care
diagnostic devices. This talk with describe
ongoing work that combines mobile phone
microscopy with both hardware and
software automation to expand access to
disease diagnosis.
DAY 02
Russell GRUEN
Executive DirectorNTU Institute for Health Technologies,
Professor of Surgery Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Saving lives through sensing: How new diagnostics will transform the care of severely injured
Biography
qualifications in health policy, medical ethics and business management from Harvard. He has over 180 publications spanning observational studies and clinical trials, systematic reviews, health policy and professional ethics, and many in journals such as The Lancet, JAMA and New England Journal of Medicine. He has received Australia’s premier clinician scientist awards, including the Practitioner Fellowship of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, and the John Mitchell Crouch Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. From 2009-2015, as Director of Australia’s National Trauma Research Institute, his leadership responsibilities included large clinical trials and Australia’s National Trauma Registry, a binational trauma care program in India, the Lancet Commission in Global Surgery, and the WHO’s Global Alliance for Care of the Injured.
treatment protocols for the reception and
resuscitation of all seriously injured
patients. Given that not all patients exhibit
these changes, but that those that do can
deteriorate very rapidly, the need for early
and personalised treatments has become
apparent. Central to this mission is a new
generation of portable rapid diagnostic
tests that can be applied in the field and
guide early life-saving care.
Prof Gruen leads interdisciplinary health technology research at NTU, bringing together science and engineering expertise to focus on solving clinical problems. As a practising surgeon and clinician scientist, he is expert in health systems, ranging from biological processes and functional anatomy through to the organisation and delivery of health services. His clinical career of 25 years includes over a decade as trauma surgeon in Australia’s busiest trauma centres, and his trauma research interests span innovations for injury prevention, the control of bleeding, management of traumatic brain injury, and how trauma systems are best organised to provide time-critical care and promote long-term recovery. His work is interdisciplinary and highly translational, with strong emphasis on what works best for patients.
In addition to his clinical qualifications and PhD, Gruen has postdoctorate
Serious injuries sustained through falls,
interpersonal violence, road traffic and
workplace accidents, are a leading cause
of death and disability globally. In some
patients, tissue damage and haemorrhagic
shock cause a harmful cascade of
physiological changes that are apparent
within minutes of injury, lead to profound
coagulopathy, and are often fatal. Current
practices rely heavily on hospital-based
diagnostic tests, and on standardised
DAY 02
Hua ZHANG
Professor School of Materials Science and Engineering Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Synthesis of Novel Two-Dimensional Nanomaterials for Sensing Applications
Biography
Dr. Hua Zhang obtained his B.S. and M.S.
degrees at Nanjing University in China in
1992 and 1995, respectively, and
completed his Ph.D. with Prof. Zhongfan
Liu at Peking University in China in July
1998. He joined Prof. Frans C. De
Schryver's group at Katholieke Universiteit
Leuven (KULeuven) in Belgium as a
Research Associate in January 1999. Then
he moved to Prof. Chad A. Mirkin's group at
Northwestern University as a Postdoctoral
Fellow in July 2001. He started to work at
NanoInk Inc. (USA) as a Research
Scientist/Chemist in August 2003. After
that, he worked as a Senior Research
Scientist at the Institute of Bioengineering
and Nanotechnology in Singapore from
November 2005 to July 2006. Then he
joined the School of Materials Science and
Engineering in Nanyang Technological
University (NTU) as an Assistant Professor.
On Sept. 1, 2013, he was promoted to Full
Professor. Until now, he has filed 68 patent
applications and 400+ papers with total
citation of over 36,100 and H-index of 91.
graphene-based composites, single- or
few-layer metal dichalcogenide
nanosheets and hybrid nanomaterials, 2D
metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), etc.
Then I will demonstrate their applications
in chemical and bio-sensors.
In this talk, I will summarize the recent
research on synthesis, characterization
and applications of two-dimensional (2D)
nanomaterials in my group. I will introduce
the synthesis and characterization of novel
low-dimensional nanomaterials, such as
DAY 02
Hung-Jen WU
Assistant Professor Department of Chemical EngineeringTexas A&M University, USA
A new device to probe complex multivalent
interactions on cellular surfaces
Biography
Dr. Hung-Jen Wu is an Assistant Professor
of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M
University. He received his B.S. and M.S. in
Chemical Engineering from the National
Cheng-Kung University, Taiwan. He
completed his Ph.D. in Chemical
Engineering from Texas A&M University in
2006; then, he worked as a Postdoctoral
Fellow at the University of California,
Berkeley under Dr. Jay Groves's
supervision. After that, Dr. Wu worked in
the Nanomedicine Department at the
Houston Methodist Hospital Research
Institute, and was involved in developing
diagnostic tools for infectious diseases. Dr.
Wu joined Texas A&M University in the Fall
of 2013. Dr. Wu has received Kaneka
Junior Faculty Award in 2016. Dr. Wu's
research primarily focuses on the
development of quantitative tools for
diagnosis of diseases, including cancer
and infectious diseases.
lead to significant enhancement of protein
binding. I will first describe the influences
of multivalency and membrane dynamics
on lectin-glycolipid recognition. I will also
present a new sensing platform to
efficiently screen glycolipid receptor
candidates potentially involved in
hetero-multivalent lectin binding. Our
technology can conduct the multivalent
analysis in a highly accessible, flexible, and
inexpensive manner; thus, it will assist
scientists in understanding fundamental
principles of biological molecule
recognition, such as toxins, bacteria, and
virus, leading to new drug designs for
therapeutic purposes.
Proteins, bacteria, and virus often bind to
cell membranes via multivalent
interactions, leading to higher binding
avidity and specificity. Quantitative analysis
of analyte retention on cellular membranes
is essential in determining the rate of the
biochemical reactions and pathogenicity.
However, existing ligand-receptor binding
assays often fail to adequately describe
this essential process. We have developed
a plasmonic nanocube sensor coupled with
complex reaction analysis that enables us
to quantitatively explore multivalent protein
binding on cellular surfaces. We recently
observed that hetero-multivalency (a
protein simultaneously binding to two or
more different types of receptors) could
DAY 02
Shabbir M. MOOCHHALA
Distinguish Member of the Technical Staff Defence Medical & Environmental Research Institute DSO National Laboratories Singapore
Centre Director Centre for Molecular Diagnostics School of Applied Sciences Temasek Polytechnic Singapore
Biography
Dr Shabbir Moochhala concurrently holds joint
appointment as Centre Director, Centre for Molecular
Diagnostics, School of Applied Sciences at Temasek
Polytechnic as well as Distinguished Member of
Technical Staff at DSO National Laboratories. In
addition he is currently Adjunct Associate Professor
at Department of Pharmacology, Yong Loo Lin School
of Medicine, and National University of Singapore
and at School of Material Science & Engineering,
Nanyang Technological University. He has won both
local and international awards, including Sandoz
Grant for Gerontology (international)and European
Commission Grant (international) and is well
recognized both nationally and internationally in the
field of biomarker discovery, hemorrhagic shock,
neurotrauma, wound healing, gasobiology and
advance drug delivery systems. In 1997 he was
awarded the title of Charted Biologist (C BIOL) and
appointed to the membership to the Institute of
Biologist (M I Biol) in the United Kingdom. He has
also been invited to give seminars to Pre University
students and principals of secondary schools. Since
2001 till date he held 50 projects as PI/co-PI in
collaboration with various institutes in the areas of
combat care, human performance and drug delivery
systems. He has published more than 200 papers
(13 invited review papers); mostly in tier1-2 leading
cited international journals and has presented more
than 200 conference papers in local and
international conferences. He has written 9 chapters
for books and has filed three patents jointly with
other inventors from NUS & A*STAR Institutes. He is
often invited to peer review numerous scientific
paper for various local and internationally
accredited journals such as Lancet, Neurosurgery,
Journal of Clinical Investigation, European Journal
of Clinical Investigation, British Journal of
Pharmacology, Critical Care Medicine, Journal of
Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Life
Sciences, Singapore Medical Journal and Annals,
Academy of Medicine (Singapore). He is currently
Chairman, DSO ACUC (Institutional Animal Care and
Usage Committee), member of DSO IRB
(Institutional Review Board) and NHG DSRB-Domain
C IRB and Temasek Polytechnic IRB committees.
Novel Approaches for Detection of Exhaled
Gaseous Markersmarkers in exhaled breath. Most of these techniques
involve expensive instrumentation, high operational
cost, and long and tedious assay protocols.
Therefore, there is a strong demand for a facile and
point of care exhaled breath assay. This study
emphasizes on development of a sensitive and low
cost exhaled breath assay device for clinical
applications. Electrical, optical and microgravimetric
platforms are utilized in this study to identify and
quantify various bio-markers in the exhaled breath.
Heme-based receptors, organic recognition
molecules, polymeric materials are utilized for assay
of NOx, H2S, COx in exhaled breath. Their
multiplexed detection enabled finger print assay of
the various bio-markers in the exhaled breath.
Animal model studies (e.g. urban smoke inhalation
injury) have been carried out to validate the
developed sensor system. Subsequently, a prototype
for portable exhaled breath devices is illustrated
using the developed sensor system.
Gaseous markers in exhaled breath have been
associated with various diseases depending on their
in vivo levels .Detection of such exhaled gaseous
markers such as NOx (nitric oxide), H2S (hydrogen
sulphide), COx(carbon monoxide) is feasible and
could provide a non-invasive method for early
detection , continuous monitoring and management
of lung injury/diseases caused by battlefield trauma
and infectious/chronic illness. Currently, clinical
measurement of nitric oxide NOx in exhaled air is
proving to be a reliable marker of lung inflammation
and oxidative stress. However, current detector
systems are expensive, bench top system and only
detect a single analyte. Recently, several other
volatile gases, such as carbon monoxide COx and
H2S have been detected and correlated with various
types of pulmonary injury/disease. Unfortunately,
only a limited number of analytical techniques such
as chemi-luminescence, chromatography, and
spectrophotometry have been used for measuring
DAY 02
Mark PHONG
Asia Director Advanced Research Labs and Business Development L'Oréal Research & Innovation, Singapore
Fragrances and scents are a key to creating an augmented consumer experience in cosmetic products
Biography
Mark Phong currently holds multiple roles within the
research division of L’Oreal, where he is the Asia R&I
Director of the Advanced Research Labs and
Business Development. The L’Oreal Asia Advanced
Research labs are located in Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai,
Singapore and Bangalore, usually as part of large
R&I Hubs or as standalone satellite centers. The
Advanced Research labs of L’Oreal are responsible
for the development of new cosmetics actives for all
categories of products in the L’Oreal portfolio. The
Advanced Research labs are also responsible for
cutting edge scientific research in biology,
chemistry, material sciences, biotechnology and
biophysics to advance our knowledge of skin and
hair properties in order to better understand the
specific needs of our diverse world-wide
consumers. He also heads the Asia-Pacific Business
Development and Strategic Foresight group, that is
responsible for identifying, sourcing and negotiating
the setup of new innovative external R&D
collaborations with organizations of all sizes (from
startups to other MNCs). Before L’Oreal, Mark has
extensive experience in the biotechnology and
Pharmaceutical industry, having worked in the past
as the VP of R&D at Curiox Biosystems, a successful
Singapore based Startup Company and as a Group
Leader with the American Pharmaceutical company
Eli Lilly & Co based in their Singapore Research
Center (Lilly Singapore Center for Drug Discovery).
Mark graduated with a double degree in
Bioengineering and Economics from the University
of Pennsylvania in the USA, followed by a PhD in
Pharmacology from the National University of
Singapore and finally an MBA from INSEAD in
France/Singapore.
molecules used in fragrance are able to elicit stress
reducing responses by activating specific olfactory
receptors in both the limbic nervous system as well
as the cerebral cortex. In addition to the well
appreciated role of scent molecules in driving
emotional responses, research has also shown that
certain fragrance molecules are also effective in
driving physiological responses in skin health,
including activating cell signaling pathways linked to
increased wound repair and keratinocyte
proliferation leading to potential benefits in skin
renewal. Such effects of fragrance modulation on
neural signaling pathways have been published
since the 1990s showing the link between olfactory
sensing and skin health including publications by the
Shiseido research labs on the
neuro-immuno-cutaneous-endocrine system. Much
of the impact of fragrance on cutaneous health
through these signaling pathways are linked to
modulation of systemic stress response including
levels of stress molecules such as DHEA, cortisol &
substance-P. Fragrances with the ability of triggering
physiologically positive effects in skin such as
wound repair and keratinocyte proliferation increase
the overall value perception of a top skin care
cosmetic product.
The cosmetics & personal care industry invests a
large amount of time, money and effort in creating
the ideal sensorial experience with their product. For
top cosmetics companies such as the L’Oreal Group,
a consumer centric design of products take into
consideration everything from the formula,
packaging, dispensing and deposition of a cosmetic
product onto the skin and hair, in line with
consumer’s expectations. Key elements considered
in the design of a formula include elements such as
the texture, smell (fragrance), and color. These
properties are key in eliciting emotional responses
from consumers and imparting feelings of
performance, exclusivity and luxury when the
product is used. Developing strong positive
emotional connections between a cosmetic product
and the customer has been proven by consumer
research to increase brand loyalty and repeat
purchase of a product.
Creating a fragrance that cues performance, and
elicits the right level of emotional response is among
the most difficult tasks in formula development. The
scientific basis of fragrance preferences, the likes
and dislikes in smell is an ever increasingly
important research topic and is key towards
developing winning cosmetic products. For example,
research studies have shown than certain olfactory
DAY 02
Gaurav SAINI
Principal Scientist / Senior Perfumer Flavors & Fragrances GCO Procter & Gamble Singapore Innovation Center, Singapore
Emerging challenges and opportunities in
fragrance design : An industry perspective
Biography
I am originally from India with a Bachelor in
Technology, Chemical Engineering from IIT
Bombay; followed with a Diploma in
Creative Perfumery at the P&G Perfumery
School. Over the last 25 years, I have had
the pleasure of working on several Procter
& Gamble businesses in different parts of
the world including India, Japan, US,
Belgium and now Singapore. Several
cleaning products brands such as Ariel,
Bold, Lenor, Downy, Joy, Wella Sebastien,
Fairy, Ambipur and Febreze have
fragrances designed by me. I have
partnered with P&G technologists to
design and bring fragrance delivery
systems/ technologies to market; which
deliver irresistible scent experiences
during product usage. I have had the
privilege of partnering closely with Flavors
& Fragrances industry spread all over the
world, including the big multinationals, the
niche naturals growers etc.
greater delight to the user and accelerate
the innovation cycle?. Going forward, what
are the new to world problems worth
solving using olfactive/ sensory science in
the next 10-20 years?
This talk discusses the challenges,
opportunities and the evolving role of the
perfumer in the fragrance industry. What
present challenges do perfumers have to
overcome while designing novel
fragrances? What are the new emerging
opportunities that allow perfumers and the
industry to improve fragrance design, bring
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Self Assembly of Protein‐Polymer Conjugate towards Nanocapsules, Proteinosome: A Sensing PlatformAmit Kumar KHAN, Bo LIEDBERG
Interdisciplinary Graduate School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Unconventional Platforms for Detection of Growth Hormone Doping in SportsAntareep SHARMA, Kok On LEE, Bo LIEDBERG, Alfred TOK
Interdisciplinary Graduate School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Novel Approaches of Biomolecular Sensing: A Special Focus on Optical Sensors, Electronic Sensing and Point of Care Immunoassays Antareep SHARMA, Dorin HARPAZ, Kehan YE, Bo LIEDBERG, Robert MARKS, Alfred TOK
Interdisciplinary Graduate School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Visualizing Gene Expression in Live Cells with Versatile NanosensorsDavid YEO, Christian WIRAJA, Limin TAY, Chenjie XU
School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
‘Stack‐Pad’ a Novel Quantitative & Multiplex Point‐of‐Care Test (POCT) BiosensorDorin HARPAZ, Evgeni ELTZOV, Tim AXELROD, Luka FAJS, Supriya KUMAR, Raymond C.S. SEET, Alfred I.Y. TOK, Robert S. MARKS
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Single Molecule Sensing of Protein DynamicsFrank VOLLMERLiving Systems Institute, University of Exeter
Development of a colorimetric assay for detection of matrix metalloproteinasesGarima GOYAL, Peng CHEN, Mrksich MILAN, Bo LIEDBERG
Interdisciplinary Graduate School/NTU‐Northwestern Institute for Nanomedicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Improving sensitivity of bacterial assays by optimizing peptide substrate for membrane proteases using a bottom‐up proteomic approachGaurav SINSINBAR, Gudlur SUSHANTH, Kevin METCALF, Mrksich MILAN, Nallani MADHAVAN, Bo LIEDBERG
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Lab on Paper using Conjugated Polymers for Sensing ApplicationsGopal AMMANATH, Meng YU, Yildiz CHE, Umit Hakan Palaniappan ALAGAPPAN, Bo LIEDBERG
Interdisciplinary Graduate School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Enabling biocompatible electronics for sensing applicationsJieun KO, Luong T. H. NGUYEN, Abhijith SURENDRAN, Kee Woei NG, Wei Lin LEONG
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
An Auto‐Regeneratable Electrochemical Aptasensor for Continuous Monitoring of Biomolecules Enabled by Ion Concentration PolarizationLin JIN, Sun TAO, Dinh‐Tuan PHAN, Chia‐Hung CHEN
School of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore
Diffraction limited sub‐wavelength imaging with a scattering lens for biomedical applications Manish VERMA, Quan LIU
School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Photonic Technology based Sensor for Biomedical ApplicationsMayur Kumar CHHIPA, SRIMANNARAYANA, K.
Electronics And Communication, K L University, Guntur, A.P, India
E2—The First Nonviral Protein Nanocage as Pickering EmulsifierMridul SARKER, Sierin LIM
School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Detection of Cancer Biomarkers Utilizing Gold Nanoparticles and Reduced Graphene OxidePeng CHEN, Bo LIEDBERG
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
High Shear Stresses under Exercise Condition Destroy Circulating Tumor Cells in a Microfluidic SystemSagar REGMI, Afu FU, Sierin LIM, Kathy Qian LUO
School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Identification of ATP‐competitive PAK4 inhibitors by biophysical assayHongyan SONG, Wui Siew TAN
Materials Processing and Characterisation Department, A*STAR, Institute of Materials Research and Engineering
Highly Sensitive, Label‐Free Detection of 2,4‐Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid using an Optofluidic ChipXueling FENG, Gong ZHANG, Lip Ket CHIN, Ai Qun LIU, Bo LIEDBERG
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Metasurface‐based structured illumination for super‐resolution imagingZhengji XU, Ting YU, Yu LUO, Dao‐Hua ZHANG, Qilong TAN, Shuang ZHANG
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Multi‐Responsive Fluorescence Sensing Based on a Donor‐Acceptor‐Donor Molecule for Highly Sensitive Detection of Water and CyanideCangjie YANG, Xiaochen WANG, Zhigang XU, Mingfeng WANG
School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Sustained and Cost Effective Silver Substrate for Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Based Biosensing Jian JU, Quan LIU
School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore