The 3rd CenBRAIN Neurotech Annual Workshop was successfully held in Shaoxing

Thrilled to share the program of our 3rd CenBRAIN Neurotech Annual Workshop (CNAW’23).CNAW’23 was successfully held from August 10th to 12th in Shaoxing city, Zhejiang Province, China.

Professor Mohamad Sawan,Founder and Director of CenBRAIN Neurotech chaired the committee of this workshop and offered a welcome message to attendees. He said, CNAW'23 is an innovative platform to foster discussions between participants from Fundamental sciences, Life sciences and Engineering. Attendees pointed out the research directions and multiples activities oriented towards brain-computer interfaces which are dedicated for closed-loop neuromodulation applications. The simplified multidisciplinary program of this workshop included 3 oral sessions and 3 panel discussions as shown below.

The workshop featured a series of presentations, focusing on topics such as "Tamm Plasmon Polariton and its Sensing Applications," "Building The Neural-Digital Highway," "Integrating Biosensors with Organoids-on-chips for Personalized Medicine," and "How Brain Signals Can Tell Cerebral Ischemia and Addiction." These discussions facilitated in-depth exchanges and exploration within these research domains.

In the presentation titled "Tamm Plasmon Polariton and its Sensing Applications," Researcher Guoguang Rong from the Advanced Neurochip Center introduced the center's latest research direction – biophotonic sensors based on Tamm plasmon polaritons. He elaborated on the benefits of Tamm plasmon polaritons, including their high sensitivity, label-free, and real-time detection capabilities. He showcased the current research progress in using Tamm plasmon polaritons for bio-sensing and discussed their applications in electromagnetic wave absorption and energy harvesting.

Jie Yang, Associate Researcher in Westlake University, presented "Building The Neural-Digital Highway," creatively likening brain-machine interfaces to a neural-digital highway. Drawing parallels between traffic systems and brain-machine interface systems, he discussed the data transmission, high throughput, and pulse-based signal processing rules within brain-machine interfaces. This novel perspective provided an innovative understanding of brain-machine interfaces and showed the center's interdisciplinary research in electronic circuits and systems.

In the report titled "Integrating Biosensors with Organoids-on-chips for Personalized Medicine," Sumin Bian, Associate Researcher in Westlake University, introduced the center's current work and future plans in the fields of biosensing and organoid-on-chip. She detailed the significant progress achieved by her bioelectronics and biosensing group in rapid infectious disease testing, high-throughput vaccine efficacy assessment, neurotransmitter detection, and organoid cultivation.

Assistant Researcher Yun-Hsuan Chen presented "How Brain Signals Can Tell Cerebral Ischemia and Addiction," introducing the center's ongoing research in brain neuroimaging. She emphasized the application of EEG-fNIRS in diagnosing and treating stroke, introduced the necessity of fNIRS technology and presented the center's future research plans in this field.

Invited experts from various institutions delivered special presentations. Researcher Shaomin Zhang from Zhejiang University's Institute of Brain-machine Interface discussed "Electrical Motor Cortex Stimulation to Improve Motor Deficits of Parkinson's Disease Mice Model." Professor Shixing Tang from Southern Medical University shared insights on "Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases: Multi-dimensional Research from Population, Clinical and Experimental Analysis." Professor Junbin Qian from Zhejiang University presented "Single-cell Sequencing and Spatial Omics." Professor Hsin-Yi Lai from Zhejiang University explored "Significance of high-mountain cryosphere in water, energy and food security, and regional stability.

The highlight of this workshop is three panel discussions, they offer novel perspectives to the field of biomedical engineering. These discussions covered a range of topics, including artificial intelligence and multimodal neuroimaging, biosensors, and organoid-on-chip. By integrating the center's various research fields, these discussions deepened both internal and external communication and collaboration.

Furthermore, the conference concluded by recognizing the Outstanding Ph.D Student and Excellent Colleagues of 2023. Professor Sawan presented certificates to Assistant Researcher Yun-Hsuan Chen, Postdoctoral Fellow Zina Fredj, Research Assistant Siyu Lin, and Ph.D Students Yankun Xu, Chuanqing Wang, and Di Wu.