The 4th International Conference on Engineered Living Materials (ELMs) will be organized on September 18 – 20, 2024, in Saarbrücken (Germany). Please follow the conference website for updated information on the speaker's list, registration, and abstract submission!
Natural living materials grow following information stored in their genetic code. They also undergo continuous and autonomous re-modeling in response to external factors and adapt their performance to new solicitations. Such properties are desirable in many technical materials, but they are difficult to realize with non-living matter. The Fourth International Conference on Engineered Living Materials (ELMs) will gather the communities of material science, synthetic biology, biotechnology, and biophysics interested in programming and creating materials with life-like capabilities.
Engineered Living Materials open new avenues for resource-efficient fabrication of high-performance materials, and envision materials with unprecedented property combinations like integrated multifunctionality, adaptability, resilience, or evolvability. But how can materials be designed to allow sustained cellular survival and function? How can synthetic biology tools be interfaced with materials? How can processing technologies be made compatible with living cells? Which parameters and methods are required to characterize the dynamic behavior of ELMs? What are the requirements for the standardized scale-up of ELM production? What are the potential risks and mitigation strategies for the responsible application of ELMs in the future? New answers to these fundamental questions and many examples of new and functional ELMs are expected.
The program will also contain representatives from industry, regulatory agencies, and funding bodies to discuss the technical and environmental benefits and expected challenges of a functional marriage of non-living matter and living organisms.
Invited Speakers
- Caroline Ajo-Franklin, Rice University, Houston, USA
- Joshua Atkinson, Princeton University, USA
- Nico Bruns, Technical University of Darmstadt, DE
- Shengqiang Cai, University of California San Diego, USA
- Knut Drescher, Basel University, CH
- Matthew Fields, State University, Montana, USA
- Luca Giomi, Leiden University, NL
- Christopher Hernandez, University of California San Francisco, USA
- Chelsea Heveran, State University, Montana, USA
- Neal S. Joshi, Northeastern University, Boston, USA
- Sara Molinari, University of Maryland, USA
- Raúl Muñoz, University of Valladolid, ES
- Lorenzo Pasotti, University of Pavia, IT
- Manuel Salmerón-Sánchez, University of Glasgow, UK
- Avi Schroeder, Technion, IL
- Seunghyun Sim, University of California Irvine, USA
- Cheemeng Tan, University of California Davis, USA
- Silvia Vignolini, Max-Planck-Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Golm, DE
- Taylor Ware, Texas A&M, USA
- Ziyi Yu, Nanjing Tech University, CN
- Jenny Zhang, University of Cambridge, UK
- Zhuojun Dai, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT), CN
Looking forward to welcoming you in Saarbrücken!
Organizing Committee
- Aránzazu del Campo
- Wilfried Weber
- Shrikrishnan Sankaran
INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials