Schedule
Technical program will be announced soon.
Keynote Speakers
Design, Analysis, and Prototype of Signal Processing Circuits for Molecular Communication Systems
Prof. Yansha Deng, King’s College London, UK
Abstract:Molecular communication (MC) is an emerging interdisciplinary field that explores the exchange of information using chemical molecules, mimicking the communication processes found in biological systems. MC research holds immense potential in emerging applications, such as medicine and biosensing, where traditional electromagnetic-based communications would be either unsafe or impractical. While MC theory has had major developments in recent years, more practical aspects in designing components capable of MC functionalities remain less explored. In this talk, we present recent advances in the design, analysis, and prototyping of signal processing circuits tailored for MC systems. We explore two complementary approaches: microfluidic circuits based on chemical reactions and synthetic biology circuits employing engineered genetic networks. We demonstrate modular microfluidic architectures capable of implementing fundamental communication functions such as modulation and demodulation. We also introduce the experimental Microfluidic Molecular Communication (MIMIC) platform, which enables real-time processing, long-distance transmission, and adaptive communication via chemical reactions. Furthermore, we showcase a genetically engineered multicellular system that realizes concentration shift keying through spatially distributed logic gates. Together, these experimental platforms lay the groundwork for future intelligent biological systems and scalable molecular networks.
Bio: Dr Yansha Deng is a Professor in the Department of Engineering at King’s College London, London, United Kingdom since 2025. She received her Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Queen Mary University of London, U.K., in 2015. From 2015 to 2017, she was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with King’s College London, U.K. She has secured more than £4 million of research funding as the principal investigator and has received the ERC Starting Grant and EPSRC NIA award. She has published 120+ journal papers and 60+ IEEE/ACM conference papers. Her research interests include molecular communication and machine learning for 5G/6G wireless networks. She was a recipient of the Best Paper Awards from ICC 2016 and GLOBECOM 2017 as the first author, and the IEEE Communications Society Best Young Researcher Award for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa Region 2021. She has been the Senior Editor of IEEE Communications Letters since 2020, the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Communications since 2017, the Associate Editor of IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials since 2022, the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Machine Learning in Communications and Networking since 2022, the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological and Multi-scale Communications since 2019, the Associate Editor of IEEE Open Journal of Communications Society since 2019 and the Vertical Area Editor of IEEE Internet of Things Magazine since 2021.
Building synthetic versions of living cells: The role of engineered inter and intra-cellular communication pathways
Prof. Yuval Elani, Imperial College London, UK
Abstract: Synthetic cells (SynCells) are bio‑inspired micromachines built from molecular components, designed to mimic the form and function of living cells. They are emerging as powerful tools—both as simplified models for understanding biology and as programmable microdevices with exciting potential in industrial and clinical biotechnology.
Yet despite their promise, today’s SynCells remain behaviourally limited. This is largely because they lack as well as robust mechanisms for communication within a cell (between compartments) and between cells (with neighbouring synthetic or living cells). Without these communication pathways, SynCells cannot exhibit the rich, emergent behaviours characteristic of natural cellular communities. In this talk, I will describe our recent efforts to overcome these barriers. We employ microfluidic assembly lines to build SynCells with diverse architectures and finely tuned communication channels—both intercellular and intracellular. These advances allow us to engineer a new generation of SynCells with biomimetic, stimulus‑responsive behaviours. For example, we create synthetic cells that detect external cues such as temperature, light, and magnetic fields, and initiate controlled biochemical responses. We also engineer SynCells capable of quorum sensing, enabling collective decision‑making. Together, these developments bring us closer to synthetic cellular systems capable of cooperation, coordination, and emergent function.Bio: Prof. Yuval Elani is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Reader (Associate Professor) in Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. He previously held EPSRC and Imperial Research Fellowships in Chemistry at Imperial and studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. He is a leading expert in synthetic cells, microfluidics, BioHybrids, synthetic biology, lipid nanoparticle design, and membrane engineering. Since earning his PhD in 2015, he has secured numerous large-scale grants to conduct both frontier and applied research in these areas and has developed a broad portfolio of collaborations with clinicians and industry (Syngenta, GSK, P&G,AstraZeneca, Neobe). He has won multiple prizes and medals for his research breakthroughs, including the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee Roscoe Medal, Rita & John Cornforth Medal, Felix Franks Medal for Biotechnology, IChemE Nicklin Medal, and the RSC Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize. His work has been recognised by the World Economic Forum, which selected him to be part of their Young Scientist Community (50 under 40 worldwide) as well as by the Lister Institute for Preventive Medicine, where he is a Fellow. He is co-director of the Membrane Biophysics Platform and co-founder and member of the executive of fabriCELL. He sits on various executive boards, including the Institute of Chemical Biology and its CDT, the Imperial Centre for Engineering Biology, and the Leverhulme Centre for Cellular Bionics