Leading Biomolecular Engineers Meet Locally

Headshot of Associate Professor Hal Alper wearing a dark suit with a red tie sitting in front of a dark gray backdrop.Leading experts in biomolecular engineering recently attended the 5th International Conference on Biomolecular Engineering (ICBE) at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines near Austin, Texas.

This event was co-chaired by Hal Alper, associate professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering at UT Austin, and Mattheos Koffas, professor from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Nearly 140 scientists and engineers from more than 65 universities and companies worldwide attended the unique, interdisciplinary conference that highlighted breakthroughs in areas such as biofuels, cancer therapeutics, synthetic biology, and cellular engineering.  A series of plenary, invited, and contributed talks was complemented by a poster session displaying nearly 70 posters.  Major conference sponsors included Conagen, Manus Biosynthesis, and Merck.

Leading research efforts from the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering were showcased through 10 posters and three talks including:

“Pathway Engineering Meets Evolution: Improving pentose catabolism via a blended approach”
—Presented by Hal Alper

“A Forward Systems Approach to Identify Regulatory Networks for Strain Engineering (REFINE)”
—Presented by Lydia Contreras

“Engineering and Preclinical Development of a Human Enzyme for Cancer Therapy Via the Depletion of the Serum L-Cysteine Pool”
—Presented by Everett Stone of the Georgiou Lab

The biennial conference was hosted by the American Institute of Chemical Engineering’s Society for Biological Engineering.

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