Engineering Life 2019 – From origins to organs

The Engineering Life conference “From origins to organs”, organized by the Center for Molecular Bioengineering (B CUBE) at TU Dresden took place from 11th to 13th of September 2019 in Dresden. The aim was to explore the origins of cellular life, how life can be assembled from the bottom up and top down, and finally how these principles are put into practice in cell biology and translated into clinical treatments for disease. 

Leading researchers from all over the world met at the Steigenberger Hotel de Sâxe reporting recent findings and discussing future developments. Special highlights were, for example, the contribution of Maya Schuldiner (Weizmann Institute) who gave the EMBO sponsored Keynote Lecture on "Functional genomics of organelles" or the talk by renowned origin of life scientist John Sutherland (MRC LMB Cambridge) on "Chemical origins of molecular biology" or the medical view by Matthias Hebrok (UC San Francisco) with "Building human islets from stem cells".

In addition to the exciting talks, there were also invigorating poster flash talks, where the speakers only had one minute to present their topic. The Academic Speed Networking session also contributed to a refreshing mix up of the attendees. As if that weren't enough, the supporting program also had a lot to offer. A steamboat trip on the Elbe and a sightseeing tour of the city on the DRESDEN-concept Tram enabled all participants to exchange professional experiences in a relaxed atmosphere.

This was the 5^th biennial Engineering Life conference and the next symposium is planned for 2021.

© Friederike Braun