MicroTAS: Largest international microtechnology and life-sciences-conference taking place in Basel

Conradin Cramer, Head of the Education Department of the Canton Basel-Stadt, was the first to welcome the international guests in Basel, highlighting the importance of advances in life-science research for Basel. 
 
Organised in six plenary presentations, parallel oral sessions with keynote and short talks, and sessions with over 740 posters, the conference offered plenty of interaction and networking opportunities for early-career scientists and senior experts. In the congress hall, over 50 enterprises showcased their technological innovations and products. At the Industrial Forum, participants discussed ways on how to bring research from the bench to the bedside (Tuesday 29 October, 11:20 AM).

Highlights of the 3.5 day-long conference included plenary talks on 

• Multi-omic single cell methods by James R. Heath from the Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, USA (Monday 28 October, 8:30)
• Intelligent image-activated cell sorting and beyond by Keisuke Goda from the University of Tokyo, Japan (Monday 28 October, 13:15)
• Mini-flux nanoscopy by Nobel laureate Stefan Hell, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany (Tuesday 29 October, 8:30 AM)
• Engineering DNA devices to advance bioimaging and biosensing by Peng Yin, Harvard University, Boston, USA (Wednesday 30 October, 8:30)
• The role of innovations in moving from policy to action by Zulfiqar A. Butta from the Hospital of Sick Children, Toronto, Canada (Wednesday 30 October, 13:10)
• Single pores in quasi 2D membranes by Aleksandra Radenovic, EPFL, Lausanne (Thursday 31 October, 11:50).