ICBBS 2018

Keynote Speaker

Keynote Speaker I

Prof. Dong-Qing Wei
Shanghai Jiaotong University, China

Prof. Dong-Qing Wei is a professor of bioinformatics in the Department of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, College of Life Science and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiaotong University and editor-in-Chief of Interdisciplinary Sciences- Computational Life Sciences. Prof. Wei’s research is in the general field of bioinformatics with more than 250 journal papers, 9 monographs with 5000 SCI citations and an H factor of 45. Prof. Wei is best known for contributions to the development of molecular simulation tools and statistical models with applications to a wide range of chemical, physical and biological systems, from electrolytes, to polar liquids, to ferroelectric liquid crystals, to combined Quantum Mechanical/Molecular Mechanical (QM/MM) systems, to membrane proteins and protein-ligand and protein-protein complexes applied to computer aided drug design.

Keynote Speaker II

Prof. Yuan-Ting Zhang
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Prof. Yuan-Ting Zhang is currently the Chair Professor of Biomedical Engineering at City University of Hong Kong. He was the Sensing System Architect in Health Technology at Apple Inc., California, USA in 2015. He was the founding Director of the Key Lab for Health Informatics of Chinese Academy Sciences (2007-2018). Professor Zhang dedicated his service to the Chinese University of Hong Kong from 1994 to 2015 in the Department of Electronic Engineering, where he served as the first Head of the Division of Biomedical Engineering and the founding Director of the Joint Research Center for Biomedical Engineering. Prof. Zhang was the Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine. He served as Vice Preside of IEEE EMBS, Technical Program Chair of EMBC’98, and Conference Chair of EMBC’05.Prof. Zhang is currently the Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Reviews in Biomedical Engineering, Chair of 2018 Gordon Research Conference on Advanced Health Informatics, Chair of the Working Group for the development of IEEE 1708 Standard on Wearable Cuffless Blood Pressure Measuring Devices, and Chair of 2016-2018 IEEE Award Committee in Biomedical Engineering. Prof. Zhang's research interests include cardiovascular health informatics, unobtrusive sensing and wearable devices, neural muscular modeling and pHealth technologies. He was selected on the 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 lists of China’s Most Cited Researchers by Elsevier. He won a number of international awards including IEEE-EMBS best journal paper awards, IEEE-EMBS Outstanding Service Award, IEEE-SA 2014 Emerging Technology Award. Prof. Zhang is elected to be IAMBE Fellow, IEEE Fellow and AIMBE Fellow for his contributions to the development of wearable and m-Health technologies.

Speech Title: "Cardiovascular Health Engineering: MINDS Design for Wearable and Flexible Sensing Systems"

Abstract: This talk will outline some of our research work in health engineering which attempts a convergence approach to integrate technologies across multiple scales in the biological hierarchy from molecular, cell, organ to system for the prediction of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The presentation will focus on the development of unobtrusive wearable 'MINDS' technology for cuffless blood pressure estimation and its integration with nano-biomarker detection, medical imaging and machine learning for the early prediction of acute CVDs. Using the atherosclerotic plaque assessment as an example, this talk will also attempt to illustrate that the health convergence approach should allow the practice of 8- P’s medicine that is predictive, preventive, precise, pervasive, personalized, participatory, preemptive, and patient-centralized.

Invited Speaker I

Prof. Xi Xie
Sun Yat-Sen University, China

Dr. Xi Xie got his Ph.D degree in 2014 at Stanford University in Prof. Nick Melosh’s lab, and got postdoctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Prof. Robert Langer and Prof. Dan Anderson’s lab from 2014-2016. In 2016, he was awarded with National Thousand Youth Talents Plan (China), and has been working as Professor in School of Electronic and Information Technology at Sun Yat-Sen University, and as adjunct professor in The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University. Dr. Xie’s lab has been working on nanodevices and nanomaterials for biomedical application, flexible electronics and bioelectronics, wearable electronics, and biomedical engineering. He has published many papers on high impact journals such as ACS Nano and Nano Letters as first author or corresponding author.

Speech Title: "Nanoneedle Array-based Biomedical Devices for Drug Delivery Applications"

Abstract: Introduction of biomolecules across the cell membrane with high efficiency is a challenging yet critical technique in biomedicine. Vertically nanoneedle arrays have been recently reported to offer new opportunities to access a cells' interior by directly breaching the cell membrane, yet microscopic understanding of how and when the nanowires penetrate cell membranes is still lacking. First, to elucidate the possible penetration mechanisms, a continuum elastic cell mechanics model is presented to address how penetration occurs, and explore the characteristics that affect penetration. Our results reveal that cell penetration is likely to occur only for a limited time window during cell adhesion. The penetration effects of nanoneedle geometry and cell properties are systematically evaluated. Nanoneedle cell penetration efficiency is low, and were unable to achieve efficient DNA plasmid transfection. A nanoneedle-electroporation platform was developed to achieve highly efficient molecular delivery and high transfection yields with excellent uniformity and cell viability. Cellular engulfment of the nanoneedles provides an intimate contact, significantly reducing the necessary electroporation voltage and increasing homogeneity over a large area. Biomolecule delivery is achieved by diffusion through the nanoneedles and enhanced by electrophoresis during pulsing. The system was demonstrated to offer excellent spatial, temporal, and dose control for delivery, as well as providing high-yield co-transfection and sequential transfection.

Invited Speaker II

Prof. Alexander Suvoror
Institute of Experimental Medicine, St. Petersburg, Russia

Alexander Suvoror focus on the study of microbiological molecular biology, genetic and diversity of microbial communities, medicine for human rehabilitation, and the development of probiotics and some vaccine. The honors are listed below: President stipend for advanced scientists, Honorable diploma from the Scientific committee of Russian Duma, First prize of the Presidium of Russian Medical Academy for achievements in Medical science, Stipend for advanced scientists of Russia, one of the 100 best inventions of Russia, and so on. More than 180 papers and 7 monographs were published. 21 patents were granted. Prof. Alexander Suvoror also serves as the Director of the Department of Fundamental medicine and medical technologies of Saint-Petersburg State University, the Senior Researcher/General Manager of Russian Avena Technology Co.,Ltd., the chairman of the 18th International Conference on Intestinal Biology, the consultant on WHO streptococcal disease, the member of European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases(ESCMI) and the Bureau of the International Society for Microbial Ecology(SOMED), and the director of the St. Petersburg Microbiology Society.

Speech Title: "Microecological Aspects of Antibiotic Induced Dysbiosis and Autoprobiotics"

Abstract: Microecology is an important factor influencing the human health. Personified microbiota being established at the early age provides the metabolic and immunological balance of the organism. This natural balance can be broken under the influence of different factors including the usage of antibiotics. The major medical problem is how deep did the deformation of microbiota profile occurred in the organism and how to restore the original microbiological balance. We suggested that the usage of the indigenous bacteria for restoration of the natural microbiota conformation is a best way of returning microbiota back to normal. This approach called “autoprobiotics” is based on selection and growing of bacterial clones belonging to each individual and providing him his own bacteria grown outside of the body. This approach with the use of indigenous enterococci and lactobacilli was successfully tested in patients with gastrointestinal pathologies.
In present study we analyzed different bacterial species or their combination selecting for the best autoprobiotics. Design of the study included, analyzing of microbiota of the animals (Wistar rats), selecting their bacteria on the artificial growth media, feeding the rats with antibiotics for three days with the following treatment of the animals with different indigenous bacteria. It was determined that different species of autoprobiotics are providing a species characteristic changes in microbiota composition, however they were dramatically different from the metagenome after treatment with antibiotics. Specifics on the usage of different kinds of autoprobiotics tested are discussed.