Mumbai: Darwin, an International Conference and One of India’s Biggest Evolutionary Movements in Biology, introduces its third edition with a lineup of various events. An initiative of Somaiya Vidyavihar, the international conference is organised by Bioriidl, an extension of Research Innovation Incubation Design Laboratory (riidl), a not for profit organisation under Somaiya Trust. The virtual conference will be held from 2nd December 2021 to 5th December 2021. All the bio-enthusiasts can register to be a part of the revolutionary conference at thedarwin.in. This year’s theme is ‘Cutting Edge Biology’. The last date for registration is 20th November 2021.
Darwin, an international conference, aims to promote Open Science by bridging the gap between researchers and DIY Bio-enthusiasts. The conference is conducted at no costs to sensitize and financially support the Bio-community by providing scholarships and project funds to sustain Biolabs as well as Biohackers while promoting research culture globally. Darwin facilitated publishing of 9 research papers among the 43 paper presentations amidst the pandemic in 2020 in African Journal of Biological Sciences. Over the past 2 years, Darwin has created an impact by training over 2000 bio-enthusiasts on a range of hands-on workshops participating from across 29 countries while funding 5 research projects among the 47 Biohacking presentations and building an online community of over 10,000 bio-enthusiasts with a network of collaborating with over 35 DIY Biolabs and research based organizations across the globe.
Covering a wide range of biological interests, in 2020, Darwin hosted its first virtual conference with renowned scientists, a panel of industry experts sharing on global research topics, virtual workshops, virtual tours of various labs and Research Symposium – a paper presentation competition. The four-day conference strove to encourage problem-solving through imagination, innovation, science and research. Post the conference, in 2020, Darwin announced several Working Groups that will work towards a specific research cause for a year and present their work in the next conference as Conference Proceedings.
This year, adding to the events line-up, Darwin would be conducting Regional Conference across the globe to reach out & promote the DIY Bio culture in different timezones along with the Conference Proceedings by the Working Groups.
Renowned researchers and industry experts will be sharing their research during the Darwin conference including Dr. Anna Dumitriu, Resident Artist, University of Oxford; Dr. Oron Catts, Co-founder and Director, SymbioticA; Dr. Jennifer Willet, Director, INCUBATOR art lab; Dr. Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer, Stowers Institute; Dr. Surendra Chavan, CEO, Founder and Board Director, Rubhu Biologics Inc; Dr. Mary C. Dasso, Acting Scientific Director, Division of Intramural Research, NICHD; Dr. Howard Kaufman, Chief Medical Officer, Ankyra Therapeutics and Clinical .Associate, Massachusetts General Hospital; Dr. Praveen Tipirneni, President and CEO, Morphic Therapeutic Inc.
To enlighten the attendees, three panel discussions are scheduled on the themes Cell Biology, Medical Biology and Bioart over the four-day conference.
Few of the panelists include:
For Redesigning the Future of Science with BioArt:
Panelists: Dr. Paul Vanouse, Founding Director, The Coalesce Center for Biological Art; Dr. Ionat Zurr, Chair of the Fine Arts Discipline, School of Design at The University of Western Australia; Dr. Stacy Switzer, Curator and Executive Director of Fathomers; Dr. Nathan Walworth, Adjunct Scientist, J. Craig Venter Institute; Dr. Suzanne Anker, Chair, Fine Arts Department School Of Visual Arts NYC.Aging: A curable disease or an inevitable process?
Panelists: Dr. Nir Barzilai, Director, Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Dr. Alexandra Stolzing, Professor for Biogerontological Engineering, VP Research at SENS Research Foundation; Dr. S. Jay Olshansky, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at Lapetus Solutions Inc.
Bhavna Pandya, Innovation Catalyst, riidl & Head, Bioriidl says, “At Bioriidl, we are curating the best resources & forging partnerships while inviting global researchers to share about their research work for the benefit of the bio-community. Conferences like Darwin can provide a platform for the students, researchers & academicians who can think outside the boundaries of synthetic biology to design solutions which can tackle global issues while enabling people to believe in open science, community-driven innovations & entrepreneurship.”
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