Silver Nanoparticle Applications In the Fabrication and Design of Medical and Biosensing Devices

Dr. Emilio I. Alarcon  was born in Santiago, Chile. In 2005, Emilio received his B.Sc. in Chemistry under the supervision of Professor Eduardo Lissi at Universidad de Santiago de Chile exploring the chemiluminiscent mechanisms of tryptophan oxidation. Short after he moved to Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile to pursue graduate studies. He received his MSc in Chemistry in 2008 and one year later the degree of PhD in Chemistry with a dissertation on Oxidation mechanisms of proteins mediated by reactive oxygen species. The same year Emilio moved to Ottawa with his family for a postdoctoral position at Tito Scaiano's laboratory where he explored the development of new bionanomaterials for the health sciences and biosensors. In 2011 he was promoted to Research Associate position that he hold until he moved to the University of Ottawa Heart Institute in July 2014. Emilio is currently the Director of the Bio-nanomaterials Chemistry and Engineering Laboratory.

Dr. May Griffith is Professor of Regenerative Medicine and Scientific Director of the Integrative Regenerative Medicine (IGEN) Centre at Linköping University (LiU), and Adjunct Professor, University of Ottawa, Canada. MG's research is in translational regenerative medicine, with special interests in biomaterials enhanced cell-based regeneration. She has successfully led the first-in-human translation into clinic of biosynthetic corneal implants that stimulated regeneration in an organ that normally does not regenerate, in a clinical trial of 10 patients. MG's biosynthetic materials have also been successfully tested in collaboration with other researchers for use in cardiovascular, skin and cartilage regeneration in animal models to date, in preparation for clinical translation. She has worked extensively with industry and her work has been published in top peer-reviewed journals, as well as profiled by the media and has earned her a number of awards.

Dr. Klas Udekwu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the 'Karolinska Institutet' (KI) in Sweden and external associate of the Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research & Education (VIIBRE) in Nashville, USA.  KU's research interests are multidisciplinary in nature, spanning molecular microbiology, microbe-dependent neurodevelopment and stress, the population biology of antibiotic therapy, and polymicrobial biofilms. He was trained in molecular biology and microbiology in Uppsala University, Sweden and later population biology in Emory University, USA, both under renowned researchers. He is currently building up his own experimental group in Stockholm, Sweden.