CSNano organized the first BioNanoSem2020 as a platform for researchers involved in the Trans-Disciplinary Research Program (UTM-TDR) entitled Antibacterial Wound Healing Application of Bio-Inspired Green Silver Nanoparticles to present their progress work. There are 5 projects under this program with different fields involving chemistry, bioscience and halal science.
Following the success of last years event, the Second Bionanotechnology Research Seminar (BioNanoSem2021) was held again on 3rd August 2021 using a virtual platform (www.facebook.com/groups/bionanosem2021). This year, the BioNanoSem2021 was organized by the Centre for Sustainable Nanomaterials (CSNano), Ibnu Sina Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research (ISI-SIR), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in collaboration with Ceramic and Amorphous Group (CerAm), Faculty of Applied Science and Technology, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) and Green Chemistry (GChem) Research Group, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).
There are 5 event categories comprising of keynote speakers, invited speakers, oral presentation, video presentation, and poster presentation. The program was attended by 25 participants from different backgrounds (Chemistry, physics, biology, materials, medical and social science) presenting their opinion and findings relating to the bionanotechnology field. The participants also come from different local institutions, including UTM, UTHM, UiTM, IIUM, USM and UMT. The primary purpose of BioNanoSem is to learn from different fields and angles because the bionanotechnology field itself involves multi- and trans-disciplinary areas. All presentations during the event were recorded as a video, and they were uploaded in the CSNano youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR8YXTgi8i_5tIPkA0BxdzA).
From this seminar, we learnt from each other and improved our knowledge in biology and nanotechnology. Strengthening our network and collaboration at the same time completing each other in our research. BioNanoSem2021 offers 6 awards: Best Oral Presenter, Best Video Presenter, Best Poster Presenter, and Best Project Output for each category.
On 4th August 2021, after the BioNanoSem2021 event, CSNano arranged a preliminary discussion with various organizations, including National Nanotechnology Centre (NNC, MOSTI), Malaysian Biomaterials Society (MBS), Malaysian Solid State Science & Technology Society (UTM Chapter), Ceramic and Amorphous Group (CerAm, UTHM), Green Chemistry Research Group (GChem, UTM), Advanced Nano Materials (ANoMa) Research Group UMT and Advanced Optical Materials Research Group UTM in moving forward for the next BioNanoSem event. From this discussion, the 3rd BioNanoSem2022 will be held with a larger audience and wider scope. The scopes suggested may involve fundamental, applied, innovation, legality and commercialization aspects of bionanotechnology, especially at the national level.
Prepared by Assoc Prof Ts ChM Dr Nik Ahmad Nizam, Director of CSNano, UTM & Dr Siti Pauliena Mohd Bohari