MINATEC in figures

The brown-bag lunches provided at the Midi MINATEC lunch talks no longer come with bottled water. The new measure came into force on September 20 and will eliminate 7,000 single-use plastic bottles per year! While this may seem tiny on a planetary scale, every little bit helps. To raise awareness of this environmentally-responsible initiative, 1,000 reusable glass water bottles with neoprene sleeves emblazoned with the MINATEC name will gradually be given out to attendees and—of course—speakers. As you are probably… More information

Researchers at IRIG joined forces with a team from Dijon to develop olfactory biosensors capable of fixing and recognizing the aromatic compounds in cheese (hexanoic acid), wine (hexanal), and raspberries (ß-ionone). The researchers designed and tested several genetic variants of proteins from the rat olfactory system for the biosensors. Although their research is still at the proof-of-concept stage, it does bode well for future developments. The biosensors developed offer the advantages of a very low detection threshold, high selectivity, and… More information

Graphene 2020—next year’s incarnation of Europe’s leading conference on 2D materials—will take place from June 2 to 5 in Grenoble. The event is expected to bring 800 participants, mainly from research and industry, to the MINATEC campus and Europole congress center. Three winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics will give plenary talks: Klaus von Klitzing (1985), Albert Fert (2007), and Andre Geim (2010). This exceptional event is being orchestrated by a local organizing committee with members representing the CNRS,… More information

A team of engineering students from Grenoble headed to Boston in late November compete in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. The team, which included four students from Grenoble Institute of Technology-Phelma, entered their invention, the Neurodrop teardrop test kit for Parkinson’s disease, into the contest. Neurodrop was nominated for track awards in three categories: Best Diagnostic Project, Best Composite Part, and Best Software Tool. It was also one of 163 projects out of a total of 340 to… More information