Reflections on the 2nd International Congress on NanoBioEngineering 2020.

Abstract

Nanotechnology and biotechnology are two of the fields that have generated the most “hype” within the last 20 years regarding their potential contribution to technological developments. Nanotechnology pursues the capability to design and synthesize nanometric structures and machines in a lego-like fashion, where each building block is an individual molecule. Biotechnology has the ultimate goal of designing, constructing, and using living organisms, or parts of them, for different applications. Therefore, it is fascinating and worth exploring where these fields can benefit from one another, and the field of NanoBioEngineering emerges at the interface of these fields. Nanobioengineering sees the great potential for biotechnology to take advantage of the powerful characterization tools and sophisticated synthesis developed within the field of nanotechnology to construct nanostructures and devices that interface organic and inorganic systems. On the other hand, biotechnology offers nanobioengineering the understanding of the genetic circuitry and biochemical processes that allow life in living organisms. Additionally, the solution to achieving organization of synthesized nanobiostructures lies in studying how biological systems have mastered self-assembly to build hierarchical systems through weak intramolecular forces. The beforementioned applications and technological advances of NanoBioEngineering were exhibited at the 2nd International Congress on NanobioEngineering (CINBI2020), which took place on the virtual premises of the Centro de Investigacion en Biotecnologia y Nanotecnologia (CIByN) at the Facultad de Ciencias Quimicas in the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon in Monterrey, Mexico (24th−30th October, 2020). CINBI2020 brought together, virtually, scientists from different fields working on NanoBioEngineering and highlighted the current state of the art of seven thematic areas. More importantly, Science communication was a thematic area we decided to include, due to the times we are currently facing, where the importance of disseminating scientific thinking and scientifically validated information is critical. In this opinion, I highlight the Keynote Conferences and some of the works that were found of high relevance and which I believe have an impact on the advances of NanoBioEngineering toward the development of knowledge and technology that contribute toward the advancement of society.