A report on the International Conference on Bioengineering Solutions for Healthcare, Food, Energy, and Environment (BSHFEE-2021) Jodhpur, India; April 9-10, 2021

The International Conference on Bioengineering Solutions for Healthcare, Food, Energy, and Environment was held during April 9-10, 2021, at Jodhpur. The event was jointly organized by the Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur and the Biotech Research Society of India (BRSI). The event took place in an online mode through the Webex platform.

The conference organizing committee included Prof Santanu Chaudhury, Director, IIT Jodhpur as the conference Patron, Professor Ashok Pandey, Distinguished Scientist, CSIR-IITR, Lucknow as the conference Chair and Dr. Meenu Chhabra, Associate Professor, IIT Jodhpur as the convener.

The conference proceedings included three plenary, four Keynote, eleven invited, and seventy-one contributory speakers. There were more than 100 delegates who attended the conference in an online mode. It was the first BRSI event in the Western part of India (Jodhpur, India). The meeting had delegates from Japan, France, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Australia, and various parts of India.

The conference commenced on April 9, 2021, at 09.00 h IST at the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur. Dr. Meenu Chhabra welcomed the delegates and invited Prof Ashok Pandey, Conference Chair, to formally inaugurate the conference and release the e-proceedings. Prof. Pandey welcomed the delegates and inaugurated the event. Prof. Santanu Chaudhury gave the Director’s address and welcomed the delegates. He discussed the promise and scope of bioengineering, especially during the COVID era. He also thanked BRSI for supporting the conduct of the event that enabled knowledge sharing. Prof. Ashok Pandey, in his address, discussed the conference theme and gave compelling examples of bioengineering solutions for Energy and the environment. He also emphasized the importance of such events that enable collaborations and impactful scientific achievements. Prof. Sunil K Khare, Vice president, BRSI, apprised the delegates about a brief history of BRSI and welcomed the delegates on his behalf and behalf of the president BRSI. Over 250 online participants attended the 30 minutes inauguration session. Professor T. P Singh, former president of BRSI, gave a plenary address on oral Iodide as a tool against COVID-19 infection and discussed the underlying role of Innate immune system enzymes.

The conference’s scientific program involved four sessions with the following themes, namely Bioengineering Solutions for Healthcare, Food, Energy, and environment spread in a sequence over the two days.

The first session was on Bioengineering Solutions for healthcare. The session began with the keynote address by Prof. Saroj Mishra on the production of human serum albumin in Pichia pastoris. This was followed by fascinating insights on the theme by Dr. Sunil Kaul, Dr. Renu Wadhwa, and Dr. Mitali Mukherji. The second session was on Bioengineering Solutions for food and environment wherein keynote speaker Prof. Christobal N Aguilar spoke on Innovative trends in food fermentation. This was followed by exciting talks by Prof. Fabrizio Adani and Prof. K. K Dubey.

The session on Bioengineering solutions for Energy began with the keynote talk by Prof. S Venkata Mohan, who discussed the role of bioelectrochemical systems in energy generation and water treatment. The session hosted insightful talks by Dr. Thallada Bhaskar and Dr. Binod Parmeswaran. The sessions on oral contributory presentations began as three parallel sessions, namely Bioengineering solutions for food & Energy, Industry and environment. The sessions involved engaging presentations by researchers on different aspects of the themes.

The conference session on day 2, April 10 began at 9:00 AM IST with a plenary talk by Prof. Sumantra Chattarji on Autism and its underlying causes. Dr. V Nagaraja delivered the second plenary talk on therapeutic leads against drug-resistant tuberculosis pathogen. The invited talk session on Bioengineering solutions for the environment began with the Keynote by Prof. Sang Jun Sim. He discussed the metabolic engineering of algae for Carbon capture and bioenergy recovery. Prof. Wenshan Guo, Prof. Sang Hyoun Kim, and Prof. Christian Larroche further enlightened the audience about the area’s critical developments. The oral presentations on Bioengineering solutions for healthcare began after that and involved some thought-provoking talks. The parallel oral-presentation sessions on 9th and 10th April 2021 were evaluated by the independent set of juries for selecting BEST ORAL PRESENTATIONS under different scientific themes. The Centre for Energy and Environmental Sustainability- India sponsored four awards comprising a certificate and a book published by Elsevier.

The closing session was held on 10th April 2021 at 13.15 h IST, in which Dr. Binod Parmeswaran announced the Best Paper Awards. This was followed by closing remarks by Conference Chair Professor Ashok Pandey, who congratulated the award winners and thanked all the presenters for their wholehearted participation. He also thanked IIT Jodhpur for hosting the event in an online mode. Dr. Meenu Chhabra gave closing remarks by thanking the conference chair for allowing IIT Jodhpur to host a prestigious conference and for his guidance, all the participants, congratulating all the winners and thanking all organizers, session moderators, conference sponsors, and student volunteers.

Following journals were selected out to bring special issues based on the papers presented in BSHFEE-2021.
Bioresource Technology (Elsevier)
Bioresource Technology Reports (Elsevier)
Bioengineered (Taylor & Francis)
Environment Technology & Innovation (Elsevier)
Indian Journal of Experimental Biology (CSIR-NISCAIR)
Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering (CSIR-NEERI)
Microbial Cell Factories (BMC)
System Microbiology and Biomanufacturing (Springer Nature)

The details of the winners are as below (name of the winner is shown in bold letters).