Nanotech 2006 in Montreux

The 10th Annual European Conference on Micro & Nanoscale Technologies for the Biosciences

The conference held its 10th meeting on 14th–16th November, 2006. The traditional venue at the Montreux Palace Hotel conference centre gathered delegates and presenters with common goals for podium and poster presentations.

For its 10th anniversary, the program was reformulated in order to give more visibility to poster presentations—authors could address the audience for 3 minutes with three overheads prior to the poster session. This feature proved to be an excellent enhancement of the scientific program and provided an appropriate distribution of delegates within the poster area.

The conference gathered scientists, students, and exhibitors from 21 countries. In addition to the scientific program, an exhibition featured major European Centres of Excellence and start-up companies entering the market with novel micro and nano technology based solutions, e.g.: High speed ELISA assays using disposable electrochemical polymer chips (DiagnoSwiss, Monthey), Digital Holographic Microscopy (Lyncée Tec, Lausanne), Cell encapsulation and drug delivery using nanoparticles (Medipol, Lausanne).

Thirty six podium presentations and 44 posters were included. The opening lecture by Demetri Psaltis (Caltech USA and EPFL Switzerland) on optofluidics gave an overview of how adaptive optical circuits that integrate optical and fluidic devices conduct to dye lasers on a chip. Major topics were introduced by keynote speakers:

• Point of care detection (Larry Kricka, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, USA)

• Micro and nanofluidics, and single cell analysis (Alexandra Ros, University of Bielefeld, Germany)

• Highly parallel cell culture in nanodrops (Hywel Morgan, University of Southampton, UK)

• Application of shear driven flow principle to muticomponent separation with low dispersion (Gert Desmet, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium)

Three awards were presented to authors for outstanding contributions to the field of micro and nano technologies for the biosciences:

• Nanotech award: Christell Prinz (Lund University, Sweden). Podium presentation: Guiding nerve cells using nanowires.

• Lab on a Chip award: Dominik Greif (University of Bielefeld, Germany). Poster presentation: Native UV laser induced fluorescence detection for single cell analysis in microfluidic devices.

• Lab on a Chip award: Tang Tong Boon (University of Edinburgh, UK). Poster presentation: Implementation of a wireless power transfer and communications system for an implementable drug delivery system.

Nanotech 2007 will take place once again in Switzerland at the Montreux Palace Hotel, from Wedenesday 14th November to Friday 16th November.

Alain Donzel, PhD

Nanotech-Montreux Conference Organizer

Scitec-Research

Av. de Provence 18-20

CH 1007 Lausanne

Switzerland

E-mail: adonzel@scitec-research.com

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