Abstract: The convergence of semiconductors, synthetic biology, and medicine is redefining the landscape of health technologies. Advances in solid-state platforms are driving new capabilities in genomics, cell and gene therapy, and single-cell biology, while innovations in DNA synthesis are creating novel opportunities for engineered diagnostics and therapeutics. In parallel, progress in disposable diagnostic devices is expanding access to rapid, low-cost testing, and ingestible and implantable systems are transforming how therapies are monitored and delivered inside the body. By integrating circuit and system innovations with synthetic biology and biomedical platforms, this workshop highlights how emerging technologies are converging to accelerate personalized medicine, expand access to global healthcare, and chart the future of precision diagnostics and therapies.
Register here: https://ieee.webex.com/weblink/register/r6e4fd66a836298b3238fe7a848331b79
Agenda:
11:00-11:05am Workshop Introduction
Dr. Rabia Yazicigil
Affiliation: Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering of Boston University
11:05-11:45am Leveraging chip technologies and AI to make biology foundation models possible
Dr. Peter Peumans
Affiliation: CTO Health & Senior VP at IMEC
11:45am-12:25pm: A 384-Site Chip Platform with Individual Site Precision Temperature Control
Dr. Phillip Nadeau
Affiliation: Senior R&D Manager, Analog Devices Incorporation
12:25-1:10pm: Infectious Disease Diagnostic Development: Trends and Challenges
Dr. Debkishore Mitra
Affiliation: Independent Consultant, Co-founder Lucira Health
1:10-1:50pm Engineering for Extremes: diagnostics and therapeutics for the GI tract
Prof. Giovanni Traverso
Affiliation: Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of MIT, Gastroenterologist in the Division of Gastroenterology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Harvard Medical School
1:50pm-2:00pm Discussion and Q&A
Rabia Tugce Yazicigil
Bio: Rabia Tugce Yazicigil is an Associate Professor of ECE Department at Boston University and a Network Faculty at Sabanci University. She was a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT and received her Ph.D. degree from Columbia University in 2016. Her research interests lie at the interface of integrated circuits, bio-sensing, signal processing, security, and wireless communications to innovate system- level solutions for future energy constrained applications. She has received numerous awards, including the NSF CAREER Award (2024), Early Career Excellence in Research Award for the Boston University College of Engineering (2024), the Catalyst Foundation Award (2021), Boston University ENG Dean Catalyst Award (2021), and “Electrical Engineering Collaborative Research Award” for her Ph.D. research (2016). Dr. Yazicigil is an active member of the Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS) Women-in-Circuits committee and is a member of the 2015 MIT EECS Rising Stars cohort. She was selected as an IEEE SSCS and CASS Distinguished Lecturer for the 2024-2026 term and elected to the IEEE SSCS AdCom as a Member-at-Large in 2024. She was selected as a member of the 2024 National Academy of Engineering (NAE) US Frontiers of Engineering (USFOE) cohort. She serves as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems-I (TCAS-I) and the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Artificial Intelligence (TCASAI). Additionally, she is the Workshop Co-Chair of the IEEE ESSERC 2024, and a Technical Program Committee member of the IEEE ISSCC and RFIC.
Peter Peumans
Abstract: We find ourselves potentially at an inflection point where biology foundation models will be competent for the design and preclinical assessment of novel drugs, for the automation of advanced therapy manufacturing, and for predicting the future of a patient using a digital twin. These foundation models will need both massive high quality datasets that digitize the relevant (multi-) omic landscapes, and massive bespoke compute resources. I will discuss how at imec, we are leveraging mature manufaturing platforms to develop and manufacture a new generation of life science tools to generate the datasets that will feed competent biology foundation models. I will also describe our efforts to facilitate the anticipated compute workloads.
Bio: Dr. Peumans holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton University, and a bachelor’s and master’s degree in engineering from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He is currently responsible for imec’s health strategy with a keen interest in how to leverage machine intelligence for deeper insights into biology. Prior to joining imec, Dr. Peumans was a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University where his work focused on large area electronics, solar energy conversion and biomedical electronics. He is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award and a Belgian-American Educational Foundation honorary fellowship. His peer-reviewed papers have been cited over 24,000 times and he holds more than 60 patents.
Phillip Nadeau
Abstract: Semiconductor technology could enable new tools in Life Sciences by bringing new modalities with unprecedented precision to biological systems. In this talk, I will share an example from our group — a chip platform for thermally controlled biochemistry. The platform comprises postprocessed thermally isolated heated reaction sites atop an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) using proportional-integral-differential (PID) feedback temperature control. The 384 sites can be individually programmed over 25◦C–125◦C, with thermal crosstalk below the ±0.12◦C precision. Double-strand deoxyribonucleic-acid (DNA) purification via selective melting is demonstrated, with 70% retention of perfectly matched sequences, while 55% of those with two mismatched base-pairs are removed. This work could open new opportunities in the life sciences by delivering precise temperature control across a large ensemble of independently programmed sites.
Bio: Phillip Nadeau (Member, IEEE) received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo, ON, Canada, in 2009, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA, in 2011 and 2016, respectively.
He has been with Analog Devices in Boston, MA, USA since 2017, where he now leads the Bioelectronic Platforms Group focusing on innovative CMOS and post-CMOS technologies for biology, including DNA sequencing, DNA synthesis, and single-cell biology.
Dr. Nadeau serves on the Technical Program Committee of the IEEE VLSI Symposium (2021-present) and on the Student Research Preview Committee at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC, 2021-present). His awards include the Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship in 2014, the MIT EECS Teaching Award in 2012, and the Governor General of Canada’s Academic Medal in 2009.
Debkishore Mitra
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the acceleration of several trends in healthcare. One such trend is the movement of infectious disease diagnostic testing closer to the patient. The pandemic saw the authorization of several at-home testing modalities including the first at-home molecular diagnostic test. This talk will cover the current landscape and trends in infectious disease testing, key technical challenges facing more distributed testing modalities and an overview of the diagnostic product development process.
Bio: Debkishore (Deb) Mitra co-founded and served as the Chief Technology Officer for Lucira Health. He led the technical team that developed the first ever at-home molecular test for COVID-19 and COVID-19/Flu. He completed his PhD in Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco. He has an extensive background in bioengineering, infectious disease biology, assay development, and the development of microfluidic platforms and systems. His interests lie in the commercialization of tools and technologies at the interface of healthcare and bioengineering systems.
Giovanni Traverso
Abstract: The gastrointestinal (GI) tract presents one of the most extreme interfaces in the human body characterized by dynamic mechanical forces, variable chemical environments, and complex cellular populations that challenge both disease diagnosis and therapeutic intervention. This lecture will present a cross-disciplinary overview of recent advances in engineering diagnostic and therapeutic technologies uniquely tailored to the GI tract. Topics will include the development of novel ingestible and implantable devices for real-time biosensing and drug delivery, innovative materials science enabling next-generation adherence and control, and robotic and electroceutical approaches for closed-loop intervention across extreme GI environments. The presentation will highlight translational pathways from fundamental engineering, through in vivo validation, to clinical application, emphasizing translational case studies on improving medication adherence, early detection of disease, and new modalities for macromolecule and nucleic acid delivery. Together, these innovations are poised to transform the prevention, detection, and treatment of GI disorders in both resource-rich and resource-limited settings, reshaping the future of gastrointestinal medicine.
Bio: Prof. Giovanni Traverso is the Director of the Laboratory for Translational Engineering at MIT, an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, an Associate Physician in Gastroenterology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute. He earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Cambridge and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University, where he pioneered non-invasive cancer detection methods. His postdoctoral research at MIT focused on advanced drug delivery and gastrointestinal sensing. His current work drives the development of next-generation drug delivery systems and ingestible devices for physiological monitoring.