Initiative is an international collaborative framework to develop scientific solutions that address critical challenges in drug delivery, diagnostics and bioengineering through multi-scale modeling
Accelrys has announced its Nanobiology Initiative's first member organisation, Italy's University of Trieste.
The Accelrys NanoBiology Initiative is an international collaborative framework to develop the scientific solutions that address critical challenges in drug delivery, diagnostics and bioengineering through multi-scale modelling.
A leader in the computational analysis of nanomaterials for cancer detection, the University of Trieste will join Accelrys scientists, Initiative members, and technical advisors at the NanoBiology Initiative's inaugural meeting being held on 25 September at the Sheraton Commander in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
"The Accelrys NanoBiology Initiative was expressly designed to engage the world's foremost scientists across academia, government and industry to identify the immediate needs in effective next-generation nanomaterials design for medical applications and to develop the modeling, simulation and data management solutions that address those needs," said Mark Emkjer, CEO and president of Accelrys.
"An invaluable addition to the Initiative, the University of Trieste, is the first of many member organisations that will guide the development of - and ultimately be among the earliest to benefit from - Accelrys's resulting portfolio of nanobiology solutions".
"The rapid convergence of nanotechnology and biotechnology has generated a need for design tools that can incorporate sufficiently detailed models of the nanoscale molecular phenomena with the larger-scale interaction and performance integral to their inclusion in biomedical devices," said Sabrina Pricl, professor in the University of Trieste's department of chemical, environmental and raw materials engineering.
"Currently, there is no unique software available that performs that multi-scale task, a critical need that I look forward to help solving through our participation in the Accelrys NanoBiology Initiative".
The NanoBiology Initiative's first meeting will explore how multi-scale modeling will enable the design of material properties and other factors critical to biomedical research and development.
Attendees will gain the opportunity to collaborate with their peers in guiding the Initiative, learn directly from Accelrys's team of technical experts, try Accelrys's newly developed software for nanotechnology and nanobiology firsthand, and hear about the latest in nanomaterials computational design from biomedical luminaries including:.
Institute Professor Robert Langer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology - delivering an overview of cutting-edge advances in drug delivery and tissue engineering, two particularly promising application areas for computational modeling and simulation.
Professor Mauro Ferrari, University of Texas Health Science Center - discussing the role of multi-scale modeling in effectively advancing nanotechnology for medicine.
Professor Sabrina Pricl, University of Trieste - presenting specific opportunities and critical success factors for taking nanomaterials from computation through real world biomedical application.
Topics include: drug design and resistance prediction.
Selena Chan, senior staff scientist and manager of applications development at Intel, will discuss combining nanotechnology with biology and medicine.
Reinier Akkermans, Accelrys - covering challenges and emerging solutions for the multi-scale simulation of soft nanomaterials and nanostructures including membranes and polymeric nanoparticles.
Michael Doyle, Accelrys - introducing Accelrys's Pipeline Pilot environment and how its capabilities for data management and modeling make it a powerful tool for multi-scale modeling and data analysis in nanobiology.