International Symposium on Medical Robotics - Enter the text here that is the new abstract information for your application. This section must be no longer than 30 lines of text. SUMMARY Significance, timeliness and rationale. NIBIB’s mission is to transform through engineering the understanding of disease and its prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment. Life would not be possible without liquid crystalline (LC) order. The most celebrated example is the unique combination of flexibility and confining ability of cell membranes which is possible because lipids cooperatively aggregate into a lamellar LC phase in water. Many viruses, e.g., SARS-CoV-2, are enveloped in a lipid membrane and they may employ LC order for packing their nucleic acid cargo. Non-biological LCs have turned out to be sensitive in detecting and reporting on the presence of pathogens and toxins, making them highly interesting for autonomous bio-/chemosensors. LC formation is thus an integral component of what keeps us healthy, and they are emerging as a powerful tool for detecting disease agents. Although this connection is long known, it has until now been researched only marginally, constituting an under-explored opportunity in addressing societal needs. Today, the international LC research community is undergoing a rebirth, fully embracing these aspects. Interdisciplinary crossovers where LC science meets biological, life and pharmaceutical sciences, and engineering and materials science, play a groundbreaking role in leveraging the opportunities. Additional impact on the core fields of the NIH-NIBIB mission comes from, e.g., the exploration of LC elastomers in soft actuators or implants in the human body. Objective. Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) in Liquid Crystals, 2025: “Uniting disciplines for global challenges: Liquid crystals as active and learning materials” to take place July 6-11th 2025 (GRS July 5-6, 2025) at the Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, NH, US. The joint meetings will bring together US and international researchers at the forefront of today’s vibrant LC science, spanning its full breadth and connecting academia, industry and military labs, early career and established researchers, and harnessing every opportunity to promote scientific discussions and encourage collaboration between speakers, discussing leaders and participants. Approach. 23 prominent speakers have confirmed our invitations to present unpublished cutting-edge research. Our goal is to promote the participation of students, postdocs, and scholars at an early stage of their careers. We seek to promote scientific discussion among all participants who will fuel the future of Liquid Crystal Science in biomedical and biotechnology applications. Academic speakers are complemented by 2 industry and 2 military research lab speakers. Additionally, 5 speaker slots will be given to outstanding scientists selected from submitted poster abstracts. To further strengthen the voice of young researchers, the GRC is preceded by the GRS, catering only to students and post-docs and providing mentoring and career advice. During the GRC, young scientists will be given priority in all scientific discussions.
