The 42nd International Symposium on the Separation of Proteins, Peptides and Polynucleotides (ISPPP 2023) took place this year from 5 to 8 November 2023 in Vienna (Austria).

We are very happy to announce that the BRAVE’s nanoparticle analyser, BRAVE B-Curious, has been awarded second place in the category “Separation, Lab Automation & Lab Equipment”.

The Leverage of IT for Engineering and Science (LITES) conference 2023 took hybrid place on 30 Oct. – 1 Nov. 2023 in the beautiful Istanbul (Türkiye).

On 12-13 October 2023 took place, for the first time ever, the BioTech Summit Austria in Graz (Austria). The summit aimed to facilitate networking and exchange of ideas on trends in the biotech and pharmaceutical world, how to succeed as a startup and SME, funding and financing opportunities, how to navigate the regulations and the best road to clinical trials.
The event was jointly organised by BIOTECH AUSTRIA, the pioneering association of the biotechnology industry in Austria, and den life science cluster organisation Human.technology Styria (HTS) at the Medical University Graz, bringing together around 350 people, including key players of the Austrian and international biotech industry.

Our colleagues from BRAVE Analytics didn’t miss this fantastic opportunity of networking with similar companies and big players! Vitan Strasser gave a 3min pitch on OF2i technology’ benefits to biotech and pharma companies, highlighting how OF2i can improve work routines and results. Additionally, BRAVE had a booth, where Vitan Strasser and Sarah Knights where able to meet very interesting companies for further businesses.

From 26 to 28 September 2023, took place in Basel (Switzerland), The largest Swiss trade fair for international laboratory, measurement and automation technology in chemistry, the ILMAC 2023.
Around 12000 people attended the international conference.
Our colleague Vitan Strasser, from BRAVE Analytics, gave a talk on OF2i technology, highlighting several real uses cases, commenting on the benefits for the users and how OF2i technology can support global biotech and nanopollutant players as this PAT offers real-time nanoparticle characterisation, measurement of nanopollutants at ultra-low concentrations, and many more! Additionally, on their booth, Vitan was able to network with a number or interesting companies.

The 14th International Workshop on Polymer Reaction Engineering (PRE2023) took place in Potsdam from 5 to 8 September 2023 at Fraunhofer-IAP in Potsdam, Germany. Usually held every three years, this international workshop is a prestigious platform for experts to share their latest findings, as well as a knowledge pool for young professionals who want to gain a broad foundation or present their own work.

Rising energy costs and the need to base polymer production in future more and more on sustainable raw material feeds impose significant challenges to the polymer industry. Polymer reaction engineering can contribute significantly to match these challenges. Around 150 people from academia and industry participated in this 14th edition which focused on the design and intensification of polymer production processes, conditioned by both customer requirements and new technological developments such as new catalysts, process analytical technologies and novel modelling and simulation tools; additionally, current topics in the synthesis of plastics based on monomers from sustainable sources, polymer recycling and possible recycling of polymeric materials to conserve resources where part of the program.

NanoPAT participated at the event to show some of the results of our work with polymers and PATs: particle size monitoring techniques can be very useful in the emulsion polymerization field, due to the effect that the particle size and the particle size distribution has in the final applications of the latex. Our colleagues from UPV/POLYMAT Usue Olatz Aspiazu Iturbe, Shaghayegh Hamzehlou and Joserra Leiza attended the event. Usue presented a poster and gave a flash talk about the potentiality of Turbidity Spectroscopy (TUS) to online monitor the particle size of the polyacrylate latexes. The poster is related to this recent publication (DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.08.197) from UPV, POLYMAT and IRIS on how wavelength exponent based calibration curves can be successfully used to retrieve the particle size during the polymerization process using Turbidity Spectroscopy (TUS).
Why did the project have an active role in this event?:

This video provides an overview about the EU H2020 NanoPAT project. It explains why the characterisation of nanoparticles is crucial for manufacturing processes, which are the main features of conventional characterisation technologies and which novel technologies are being developed in NanoPAT to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional ones. Furthermore, the scope of the project, the 3 real-time in situ particle size characterisation (Photon Density Wave Spectroscopy (PDW), OptoFluidic Force Induction (OF2i), TUrbidity Spectrometry (TUS)), as well as the 5 case studies where the technologies will be validated are presented.

On 29 June 2023, the Spanish Technology Platforms for Innovation in Sustainable Chemistry, SusChem-Spain, and for Advanced Materials and Nanomaterials (MATERPLAT), organised this interesting event on Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design Challenges in Advanced Materials.

The International Polymer Colloids Group Conference (IPCG) is the most important meeting on Polymer Colloids organized worldwide.

The 6th Dialogue on NanoSafety with the title “The role of characterization and how it is addressed in INISS-Nano” took place on 21 June 2023 in Berlin, Germany.