From Robert Hooke’s hazy observations to today’s single cell sequences and super-resolution images, cells have been a central focus of biological investigation. On Friday, April 21, the Institute for NanoBioTechnology’s 16^th Nano-Bio Symposium on Cell Programming explored breakthroughs in our ability to understand and program cells. This year marks the return of the Institute’s full in-person symposium since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the morning lectures, 10 guest speakers from across the Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Cartesian Therapeutics, IQVIA Cell and Gene Therapy Center, and Sana Biotechnology spoke to attendees about the growing diversity of cell fate and cell state in multicellular organisms. Keynote speaker, Steve Harr, president and CEO of Sana Biotechnology, as well as the other speakers in academia and industry, discussed the complexities of creating engineered cells using genetic, transcriptomic, and metabolic tools, as well as how they are using these methods in health care.

“The kind of collaboration going into this important work—between engineers, biologists, clinicians, and translational scientists, between the schools of Medicine, Engineering, Public Health, Arts and Sciences, and the APL—as well as those in other universities and industry–allows us to play to each other’s strengths to design innovative solutions. That’s why I’m confident that new collaborations and research advances will surely result from our time here together today,” said T.E. Schlesinger, the Benjamin T. Rome Dean at the Whiting School of Engineering.

In the afternoon, the Institute hosted a networking reception and poster competition, which featured research by undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows across the INBT and Johns Hopkins. With the help of volunteer judges, over 45 people competed for five cash prizes, which were sponsored by the INBT and Tom and Lois Fekete. Tom Fekete is the former INBT director of corporate partnerships and retired in 2018 after ten years at the INBT and he has been generously sponsoring the undergraduate award since 2019. He was also in attendance to present the award and serve as a poster judge for the postdoctoral fellow competitors.

The symposium’s theme was also an unveiling of a new research area for the INBT. INBT’s leadership, Hai-Quan Mao, director and professor of materials science and engineering, and Sashank Reddy, associate director and associate professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery, hope to keep use the momentum from the symposium to increase research collaborations and push the frontiers of the cell programming research field.

Best Undergraduate Poster
Bobby Ni
Immune Kinetics & Characterization of a Composite for Tissue Remodeling

Best Graduate Posters
Tracy Chung
Comparing Barrier Dysfunction in Response to Chronic and Acute Oxidative Stress in Tissue Engineered Blood-Brain Barrier Microvessels

Sixuan Li
Uncovering Nucleic Acid Payload and Size of Lipid Nanoparticles via A High-throughput Single Nanoparticle Analyzer

Best Postdoctoral Fellow
Willem Buys
Feeder- and Xeno-Free Tankyrase/PARP Inhibitor-Regulated Naive Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells with Improved Functionality

People’s Choice Poster
Isabella Vegas
Human Naïve Stem Cells Express Master Pioneer Factors DUX4 and CPHXL