Neal R. Pellis, senior scientist in the Space Life Science Directorate at the NASA Johnson Space Center, has been added to the list of plenary speakers at ASME’s First Global Congress on NanoEngineering for Medicine and Biology (NEMB 2010), to be held from Feb. 7-10 in Houston.

Early-bird registration is still available for the event, which will be ASME’s first conference dedicated to the nanoengineering with a focus on health and medicine. Attendees who sign up by Jan. 25 will save up to $100 on their registration fees.
Pellis’ presentation, “Using Microgravity as a Tool in Research and Technology,” is one of 10 plenary sessions that will be offered at NEMB 2010. The mission of Pellis’ department at the Space Center, the Space Life Science Directorate, is to optimize human health and productivity for space exploration. During his talk, Pellis will discuss how the microgravity available on spacecraft results in environmental changes that can offer unique opportunities in physics and biological research, and provide an environment for significant technological developments.

Other plenary sessions to be given during NEMB 2010 will be given by such luminaries in the field as Mauro Ferrari, the conference chair and director of nanomedicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center; Andrew C. von Eschenbach, commissioner for the U.S. Food & Drug Administration; Yuliang Zhao, professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Rebecca Richards-Kortum, the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University; and Michael A. Teitell, chief of  Pediatric and Neonatal Pathology and co-director of the Cancer Cell Biology Program Area at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Also presenting plenary presentations will be Fazle Hussain, director of the Institute of Fluid Dynamics and Turbulence at the University of Houston; Nicholas A. Peppas, chair of the department of chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin; Paolo Dario, professor of biomedical robotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy; Eiji Osawa of the NanoCarbon Research Institute at Shinshu University, Ueda, Japan; Albert van den Berg, director of the BIOS Lab on a Chip Group at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.

In addition, a special plenary session — the Distinguished Scientists Panel Featuring the Nobel Laureates — will feature Robert F. Curl, Jr., from Rice University’s chemistry department, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996 for the discovery of fullerenes, and Ferid Murad, of the University of Texas Medical School and the University of Texas Health Science Center, who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1998 for discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.

The conference’s technical tracks will cover areas including nanoengineering for medical diagnostics, imaging, and medical therapeutics; nano- and micro-fluidics for medical diagnostics and therapeutics; nanoengineering for regenerative medicine; and manufacturing and materials for nanomedicine. Other technical tracks will focus on multi-scale modeling in biological systems; biological nanomechanics; bio-nanorobotics; and nanomedicine in space.

Before Jan. 25, registration is $595 for ASME members, $695 for nonmembers, $150 for ASME student members, and $250 for nonmember students. Registration will cost $100 more for all attendees after Jan. 25. One-day registration is also available.

For more information on the First Global Congress on NanoEngineering for Medicine and Biology, visit www.asmeconferences.org/NEMB2010.