Events

Events provide an excellent opportunity to share important research, form new collaborations and strengthen existing ones. CBNS delivered another series of successful events during 2019. Here are some of the highlights.

CBNS Annual Research Workshop

The 2019 CBNS Annual Research Workshop took place at the RACV Healesville Country Club in Victoria from 27 to 29 November 2019. With lovely weather and eager brains, this year’s workshop was a huge success. Over 100 delegates shared their research achievements and challenges they faced during 2019. Each CBNS node presented updates on their current work, the life at their respective nodes and discussed future research opportunities. Furthermore, a special mentoring event enabled CBNS members to ask probing questions and engage in discussions with experienced and successful scientists from inside and outside academia. There was the opportunity to talk with other members or CIs about ideas and potentially start new collaborations towards new career paths. We recognised members for the most significant publication of 2019, the best poster presentation as well as the winner of the Science by Design Competition. The workshop also included recognition of the 2019 CBNS Student Travel Award and the inaugural Bio-Nano Travel Grant winners (see page 51 for details). A joint meeting of the CBNS Education Committee, the Outreach Sub-Committee and the Industry Partners Program Committee facilitated discussions and feedback for events, training and activities that could take place during 2020. All committees’ programs and activities during 2019 were positively received by members at the workshop. This has resulted in a range of beneficial activities that not only build the capacity of CBNS members but also provide a platform to demonstrate the centre’s important work to the public.

International Nanomedicine Conference

The CBNS was once again the co-host with UNSW of the Australian Centre for Nanomedicine’s International Nanomedicine Conference. This was the 10th annual conference to be held, with a change of venue to Pier One, Sydney Harbour. The conference brought together Australian nanomedicine researchers from medicine, chemistry, engineering and sociology, with international experts. A feature each year is the opening plenary talk delivered by the CBNS Visiting Professor. In 2019, Professor Chunying Chen of the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology in China presented on the Crown and the Scepter: Roles of the Protein Corona in Nanomedicine. In addition to the talks and poster sessions, the conference is a confluence of national and international expertise and most CBNS researchers attended. The CBNS Scientific Advisory Board meets during this event, with expert input and advice from the plenary speakers each year.

Professor Chunying Chen with colleagues

2019 Visiting Professor: Chunying Chen

Our annual Visiting Professor Program brings outstanding international scientists to Australia to advance bio-nano science. In 2019, Professor Chunying Chen, Principal Investigator at the Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology in China visited Australia. Professor Chen works as as a group and project leader at the China Nanosafety lab. Professor Chen has been awarded the National Award for Innovation and Outstanding Service to the Standard authorised by Standardization Administration of the People’s Republic of China in 2011, the Second Prize of Beijing Science and Technology (ranked second) in 2008, the Second Prize of the National Natural Science Award (ranked second) in 2012. Professor Chen visited Australia in two short trips; in June 2019, for the International Nanomedicine Conference and a visit to UNSW. She returned in November attending the CBNS Annual Research Workshop where she delivered a research presentation and met with CIs, ECRs and students. As part of the Visiting Professor program, Professor Chen participated in the CBNS Scientific Advisory Board. The Visiting Professor in 2020 will be Associate Professor David Tai Leong from the National University of Singapore. Twice in 2019, CBNS organised a joint workshop for members of ARC Centres to develop confidence and practical skills for interviews with the media, public speaking and the general public. It was designed to help ECRs and students to acquire the skills to get their research message across a wide range of audiences. A special feature of the workshop was the collaboration of very different research fields simulating interviews on their respective research in mixed working groups. The learnt skills are also valuable in preparing for job interviews, fellowship applications, delivering presentations or even writing articles. The workshops were a huge success for all Centres with new collaborations forming and interdisciplinary networks developing. Our first 2019 workshop, held in late February, included CBNS, the Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS), and the Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEX). A great success with 100% of participants in the workshop agreed they achieved their goals. Expanding further, our August workshop incorporated The Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) and Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology (CQC2T).

Media presentation workshop

ARC Joint Media and Presentation Training

Frontiers in Bio-Nano Science

After a successful Frontiers in Bio-Nano Science (FBNS) Symposium in 2018, CBNS and BLiSS held the early to mid-career researcher (EMCR) event in October 2019 at The Precinct in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. FBNS was created to support final year PhD students and EMCRs in crossdisciplinary networking and provide a unique environment for attendees to discuss big picture ideas in research and industry and gain insight on how to translate their ideas and research outcomes into innovation and market. The interactive program allows for attendee participation and frequent engaging discussions. Two plenary speakers provided unique viewpoints from two different backgrounds. The first plenary session was an inspiring talk by Queensland Chief Entrepreneur, Ms Leanne Kemp about challenges associated with translating cutting-edge technologies to applications and achieving entrepreneurship skills. The second plenary featured Professor Alan Rowan, Director of The Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechology (AIBN) based at UQ and Chair of the CBNS Scientific Advisory Board, an expert leader in research and academia. An experienced committee facilitated two informative oral presentation sessions with eight presentations from selected CBNS Members around two themes: “Not so Basic Science”, and “Collaboration is Key”. The presentations were followed by panel questions, discussion and engagement of new ideas. Six poster presentations took place during the lunch break allowing attendees to learn about further research and network with speakers and other FBNS delegates. The next part of the event was an engaging and interactive panel discussion on “Benchtop to the market place” which fostered positive discussion and involvement with EMCRs. The five expert panellists from varying backgrounds in academia, industry, business and start-up included: • Professor Maree Smith AC; Director,

Centre for Integrated Preclinical Drug

Development (CIPDD), School of

Biomedical Sciences, UQ • Dr Peter Devin; Chief Executive Office,

Uniseed • Mr Angus Forster; Chief Development and Operation Officer, Vaxxas Pty Ltd • Dr Carrie Hilyard; Chair, Fitgenes

Australia Ltd-Deputy Chair, Mater

Research Institute • Dr Doug Horton; Principal at

Spruson and Ferguson-Director of IP management, UniQuest

One of the highlights of the day was “Spark Tank”, where five speakers each delivered a five-minute business pitch of their innovative research ideas, which were judged by three experts from academia, a venture capital firm and research commercialisation.

At the end of the formal program, participants had the opportunity to apply their knowledge from the day and network with seven innovators categorised in four groups: • Professor Michael Good (Academia) • Mr Tim Macuga & Ms Madeleine

Kersting Flynn (Communication) • Professor Darren Martin & Ms Sonja

Plompen (Commercialisation and industry) • Mr Douglas Bent & Dr Ben Finnin (Industry-sponsors) The overall symposium was very well received by delegates, invited speakers, panellists, innovators and sponsors with highly positive feedback from various groups. The different format allowed the event to be more relaxed and resulted in more engaging scientific conversations. Organising FBNS 2019 provided an opportunity for active CBNS members to achieve and improve their event management and team-work skills through responsibilities for designing and planning the program, inviting speakers, coordinating a workshop for oral presenters, securing sponsorship prior to the event and facilitating the symposium on the event day. The event would not have been possible without the hard work of: Chairs and Coordinators Dr Sohinee Sarkar – Chair (BLiSS) Dr Pradeep Rajasekhar – Program Co-Chair (Monash) Ms Ava Faridi – Communications Co-Chair (Monash) Mr Nicholas Westra Van Holthe – Operations Co-Chair (UQ) Ms Samantha Snowden-Finch – Lead Coordinator (CBNS) Ms Anne Meyer – Lead Coordinator (CBNS) Committee Members Ms Salma Ahmed Dr Aleksandr Dr Dewan Akhter Kakinen Dr Craig Bell Ms May Lai Ms Caterina Brighi Dr Meike Leiske Ms Bruna Ms Ayaat Cambraia Garms Mahmoud Dr Changkui Fu Dr Azadeh Nilghaz Ms Anna Gemmell Dr Paulina Ramírez Dr Zil E Huma García Dr Manasi Dr Kristel Tjandra Jambhrunkar Ms Adil Usman Ms Cindy Xiao We thank the sponsors for supporting the event, travel bursaries and prizes.