The Queen Mary Centre for Undergraduate Research (QMCUR) recently hosted an innovative three-day event titled “Undergraduate Research Forum: Engineers Meet Gene Editors”. This interdisciplinary gathering brought together outstanding undergraduate students from Queen Mary’s School of Engineering and Materials Science and the University of Westminster’s extracurricular program “Gene Editors of the Future”, led by Dr Kalpana Surendranath. “Gene Editors of the Future” has been the longest and largest-running vertically integrated extracurricular CRISPR initiative, since 2020.

The forum featured a robust program of 35 presentations, alongside a panel discussion and poster session. Participants shared novel research findings across engineering, materials science, pedagogy, and life sciences, and engaged in stimulating exchanges, seeking connections for future research and collaborations. The event highlighted cutting-edge applications of “Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats” (CRISPR) gene editing technique in disease research and therapeutics, as well as novel trends in research-focused education and the application of engineering principles across the fields of healthcare, transportation, materials science, and environmental science, underscoring the extraordinary capabilities of the participating students.

The event offered invaluable networking opportunities in a pleasant collaborative atmosphere that fostered a deeper synergy between the two institutions, leaving an indelible mark on all attendees.

This groundbreaking forum underscored QMCUR’s dedication to identifying and promoting cross-disciplinary research and spotlighted the immense potential of undergraduate-led research, inspiring future research activities, collaborations, and innovations.

Dr Kalpana Surendranath commented: “I am incredibly proud of all 35 teams who engaged in this collaborative event and of the synergy achieved at the launch of this first-of-its-kind forum. We are grateful for the energy and enthusiasm of QMCUR and look forward to the impactful outcomes this collaboration will bring”.