Florida Association for Nanotechnology

        The past couple years have been years of unprecedented calamity for mankind globally, with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, that has affected millions globally killing hundreds of thousands of individuals, and the death toll from COVID-19 continues to increase. Some have suggested that the Pandemic might continue in a certain form until 2024. There is a dire need to innovate nano-biotech-based methods and approaches for the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. A pandemic problem such as COVID-19 requires global collaboration and network and to this end the Florida Association of Nanotechnology has created a Global Nanobiotechnology Consortium (GNC).

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   Conference goals align with one of the focus areas of biomedical engineering is defined as “Design and validation of systems that integrate living and non-living components for improved understanding, diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of disease or injury”. The conference is motivated by the need for the development of nanobiotechnologies for current COVID-19 pandemic and such pandemics in the future.

   Nanobiotechnology with a very interdisciplinary nature brings scientists from medicine to physics, material science to molecular biology, and biomedical engineering together to find solutions for challenging problems that humankind is facing with transdisciplinary approaches. It is widely believed that research into the methods of engineering nanoparticles and mechanisms of nanoparticle-mediated detection of disease cells and molecules in vitro and in vivo will be the “holy grail” of disease detection, imaging, and efficient management in the 21st century. This conference is timely in view of the current pandemic and such pandemics in the future. The role of nanotechnology has been clearly illustrated in the novel methods of diagnosis, vaccines, and treatments, which have been developed against COVID-19. To name a few examples some of the vaccines (e.g., Moderna RNA vaccine) and therapies (e.g., Remdesvir) involve nanotech-based biomedical systems. Here at the USF, the 3D printed SWAB and the electronic nose are two examples of biomedical engineering system applications to COVID-19 pandemic solutions.

    The conference will feature symposia addressing advances in nanoelectronics, nanobiotechnology, biosensing, nano-diagnostics, nanoimaging, and other innovative areas of research and their applications in medicine, and pharmacy, especially as it applies to the current pandemic and such pandemics in the future. It will also provide opportunities to network with researchers from other academic institutions and the broader nanotechnology and nano pharma industry. This year the conference will host a poster session for all to submit abstracts and present their current research.

 

The goals are:

• Promote collaborative and interdisciplinary research,

• Help to create multidisciplinary education and research projects including novel approaches for translational research,

• Host presentations by experts in creating international collaborations, start-ups for nanotech business, production scale-up, and

• Provide new insights into nanomedicine applications for nanoscientists, clinicians and engineers in the areas of drug delivery, diagnostic testing for the pandemic and related diseases.

 

Chairs

Shyam (Sam) S. Mohapatra (Co-chair)
Director of Div of Translational Medicine and Ctr Research & Education in Nano-bioengineering, Morsani College of Medicine, The University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
 

Mustafa Culha (Co-chair)
Sabanci University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM) and Dept of Internal Medicine, Morsani College of Medicine, The University of South Florida, Tampa, FL


Advisory Committee
 

• M.N.V. Ravi Kumar, University of Alabama 

• Ratnesh Lal, University of California-San Diego, USA  

• Subhra Mohapatra, University of South Florida, USA

• Fazilet Vardar Sukan, Sabanci University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM), Istanbul, Turkey

• Donald Martin, Universite Grenoble Alpes, France

• Robert Marks, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

•  Rawil Fakhrullin, Kazan Federal University, Republic of Tatarstan (RF)

• Monica Ryff Moreira Vianna, Federal University of Rio Grande, Brazil

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Local Organizing Committee
 

• Dmitry Voronin, Chair of Local Organizing Committee, USF Dept. of Physics

• Diane Allen-Gipson, USF Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences

•  Kirpal Bisht, USF Dept. of Chemistry

• Robert Frisina, USF Dept. of Medical Engineering

• Subhra Mohapatra, USF Dept. of Molecular Medicine

• Danielle Gamboni, USF TCOP Graduate Programs Assistant Director

• Rachel Umstead, USF TCOP Graduate Programs Office Manager

• Peter Radulovic, USF NANO & Engineering Biology President

• Yara Suleiman, USF NANO President-elect

• Jaydeep Hapaliya, USF NANO Vice President-elect

• Ali Aljassabi, USF NANO Treasurer