On May 29 and 30th, the Department of Chemical Engineering and BioWorks Waterloo hosted a conference titled Biochemical and Biological Engineering & Synthetic Biology. Conference participants from universities in Ontario and Quebec gathered to immerse themselves in the latest research in this field.

Professor Christian Euler was a presenter at the conference, introducing his research on Next-Generation Biomanufacturing Feedstocks for a circular economy. His research aims to create new feedstocks that could enable the direct conversion of CO2 to chemical products such as functional biopolymers.

Professor Elisabeth Prince presented her research on Biomimetic hydrogels for the growth and initiation of patient-derived breast tumour organoids (PDOs).  Prince has designed miniaturized tumours derived from primary patient tumour tissue. Prince, Director of the Prince Polymer Materials Lab has developed novel Biomimetic nanofibrillar hydrogels that can serve as a defined and reproducible platform for the initiation and growth of breast cancer PDOs.

The conference has been held for around 30 years and was formerly known as the CSChE Quebec-Ontario Biotechnology Meeting. The last time it was held at the University of Waterloo was in 2016. The pandemic halted the series. This year's organizers Professors Valerie Ward and Marc Aucoin wanted to reignite the event, which allows graduate students to have a platform to present their novel research.

“Events like this are important for the cross-pollination of ideas and for gaining knowledge about ongoing research in our field which fosters collaboration,” says Ward.

Aucoin pointed out that it is important for researchers to meet as a community to build a network of Biochemical and Biological Engineering & Synthetic Biology researchers within our university, Canada and around the world.