Plenary Lecture: Daniel Morse

Career Profile
Daniel Morse received his B.A. degree in Biochemistry from Harvard in 1963, and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1967. He conducted postdoctoral studies in Molecular Genetics at Stanford University, and then was appointed the Silas Arnold Houghton Associate Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School before joining the faculty of the University of California. He's been awarded a Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health and a Faculty Research Award from the American Cancer Society; honored as a Distinguished Faculty Scholar by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and as a Visiting Lecturer in Japan and the University of Paris; elected a Regents Fellow of the Smithsonian Institution; and elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His research interests lie in revealing the molecular mechanisms controlling the formation of remarkably strong and architecturally controlled mineralized composite materials with a precision of nanoscale fabrication synthesized by living organisms, materials that in many cases exceed the capabilities of present-day engineering. He uses gene cloning, recombinant DNA and protein analyses, gene- and protein-engineering, site-directed and combinatorial mutagenesis and biomimetic peptide synthesis in conjunction with advanced imaging technologies (including the latest developments in atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, solid-state NMR and laser-confocal immunohistochemistry) to reveal the mechanisms controlling the biosynthesis and supramolecular self-assembly of the high-performance mineralized composites of molluscan shells and pearls, the skeletons of corals, and the silica structures made by marine sponges and diatoms. He has revealed previously unanticipated mechanisms responsible for this control (in both calcium-based and silicon-based systems), and has demonstrated that the unique mechanisms that evolved in biological systems for the control of biomineralization can be harnessed for the development of environmentally benign new routes to synthesis of high-performance materials. 

NanoMedicine: Ruth Duncan

Career Profile
Ruth Duncan is Professor of Cell Biology and Drug Delivery at the Welsh School of Pharmacy, Cardiff University, UK and Director of the Centre for Polymer Therapeutics. She completed her PhD studies in 1979 at Keele University and established there the CRC's Polymer-Controlled Drug Delivery Group. In 1992 she joined Farmitalia Carlo Erba (became Pharmacia now Pfizer) in Milan as Head of New Technologies. At this time she was also the Project Team Leader for transfer of two of her own compounds into Phase I clinical trials (the first synthetic polymer-anticancer drug conjugates to be tested clinically). In 1994 she returned to The School of Pharmacy, London where she re-established an interdisciplinary research group called the Centre for Polymer Therapeutics that subsequently relocated to Cardiff in 2000. Her research has now transferred 6 polymer anticancer conjugates into clinical trial and the first 2 polymer-based gamma camera imaging agents.
She has contributed more than 250 scientific articles and patents, and has been a recipient of many awards including the Pfizer Research Award for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Young Investigator Award of the Controlled Release Society, Interdisciplinary Award of the Royal Society for Chemistry, the Millennial World Congress Pharmaceutical Scientist Award, the Berlin-Brandenberg Academy of Sciences Monika Knutzner Award for Innovative Cancer Research, was a Princess Takamatsu Cancer Foundation Lecturer in 2004 and in 2006 received the GSK International Achievement Award. She was Co-Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Drug Carriers in Biology and Medicine in 1998, and established the ongoing series of biennial International Conferences on Polymer Therapeutics: From Laboratory to Clinic. She is an elected member of the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz, in 2004 was the Science Chair of the British Pharmaceutical Conference and in 2004. She Chaired the Steering Committee of the European Science Foundation's Forward Look on Nanomedicine, and has recently Co-Chaired the European Science Foundation's first Research Conference (2006) and Summer School (2007) on Nanomedicine.


NanoGreen: Denis Fichou

Career Profile 
Denis Fichou is a Research Director at CNRS in France. He is the current Head of the Laboratory of Organic Nanostructures and Semiconductors that he founded in CEA-Saclay, close to Paris, in 2001. His lab is a joint unit between CNRS, CEA-Saclay and Pierre et Marie Curie University. D. Fichou has been appointed as Professor of Organic Chemistry in France (1981), Morocco (1982) and Japan (1986 and 1992). Technological University since 2004. He has been acting as the coordinator or partner of several research programs in France, Europe, Japan, Singapore, etc, and is a member of various scientific committees. He is also the organizer of several international conferences worldwide such as APS, SPIE, ECME, etc.

Since 1987, D. Fichou has pioneered organic semiconductors and their applications in “plastic electronics”. He is in particular the co-inventor of the 1st organic transistor on a flexible substrate in 1990 and discovered the family of semiconducting oligothiophenes. Since then, he has been developing organic semiconductors and devices. His research interests lie in tailoring supramolecular self assemblies on atomically flat surfaces and implement them as active materials in transistors and solar cells. Another research axis is the study of single crystalline organic semiconductors at the micro and nanoscale. 


Jane Macoubrie
Career Profile
Jane Macoubrie is a leading social scientist in the discipline of communication studies, studying the principles and variables that affect and construct human communication outcomes. Dr. Macoubrie is co-author, with North Carolina State University’s Michael Cobb , of the 2004 study, “Public Perceptions about Nanotechnology: Risks, Benefits and Trust.” This was the first nationally representative survey designed to gauge the American public’s perceptions about nanotechnology. It was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Her new study of informed citizen perceptions, “Nanotechnology: Public Concerns, Reasoning, and Trust in Government,” will be released in late 2005. She has studied face-to-face and Internet mediated communication processes for citizen involvement in policymaking since 1992, focusing on communication variables influencing effective processes. Her research into citizen deliberation of technology policy issues since 2001 has mostly been conducted with support from NSF. She is author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and lectures widely. Dr. Macoubrie was Assistant Professor of Public and Interpersonal Communication at North Carolina State University from 1998-2005. She received her Ph.D. (1998) and her M.A. (1994) from the University of Washington. Her B.A. degree is from Antioch University Seattle.