October 25-30, 2026
Calabria, Italy
Conference Organization
Chair
Samiul Amin
University of Miami, USA
- Professor of Practice
- Director Undergraduate Program-Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering
- Director MS Program in Product Design
- Director Engineering Corporate Affiliate Program (ECAP)
- Editor-Current Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science-Cosmetics and Formulation
- Editor-Surfactants and Detergents
- Chair-Society of Cosmetic Chemists (SCC) Education Advisory Committee
Organizing Advisory Committee
Paolo Arosio, Professor ETHZ, Switzerland
Prithwiraj Maitra, SVP R&D, Abbvie/Allergan Aesthetics USA
Mike Marlowe, Director CMC R&D Boehringer Ingelheim, USA
Gustavo Luengo, Science Fellow, L'Oreal, France
Gerardo Palazzo, Professor, University of Bari, Italy
Frank Scheffold, Professor, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Anna Stradner, Professor, Lund University, Sweden
Shahid Uddin, Senior Director CMC, Immunocore, UK
About This Conference
Protein, Peptide and Exosome based products are becoming increasingly widespread across multiple industrial sectors - Biotherapeutics, Foods, and Cosmetics. Developing stable formulations with these biological complex fluids comes with its own set of challenges as complex specific and non-specific interactions both protein-protein or protein/peptide with surfactants/polymers/emulsifiers, etc. can lead to self-association, irreversible aggregate formation, and other manifestations that can negatively impact physicochemical properties and delivery. These in turn lead to issues in formulation storage stability, viscosity challenges, food texture and sensory, skin delivery, and associated issues in manufacturing and injectability.
Similar to other complex fluids, these biological complex fluids also exhibit rich interfacial and surface properties leading to structuring and interactions with air/water and solid/water interfaces. Understanding and establishing the structure-property relationships in such systems and understanding interactions in complex formulation mixtures is therefore key to designing stable new protein/peptide-based products for biopharma, foods and cosmetics.
This meeting, the fourth in this ECI series, will focus on bringing together a wide range of multi-disciplinary groups from academia and industry with a view to discussing key challenges, recent developments, key insights and future trends in understanding protein aggregation, rheology and interfacial properties with a specific focus on formulations and products encountered in the Biotherapeutics, Foods & Cosmetics industrial sectors. It is expected that this will lead to significant cross-industry learning and potential new cross-industry collaborations. Some of the key areas of focus for the meeting will be:
- Protein-Protein Interactions
- Protein/Peptide Aggregation/Self Assembly-Thermodynamics, Kinetics & Interactions
- Protein/Peptide Interactions with excipients, surfactants, polymers
- Protein Rheology & Micro-rheology in Bulk
- Protein Structuring & Rheology at Surfaces and Interfaces
- Formulation Design with Proteins/Peptides/Exosomes in Biotherapeutics, Foods and Cosmetics.
- Effective delivery of Skin peptides/Exosomes- Devices and Formulation Vehicles
- Challenges with Plant Protein based Food formulations
- AI/ML to accelerate Protein and Peptide Based Product design
- New Characterization Techniques
Session Descriptions
Protein/Peptide Self Assembly Aggregation
Proteins and peptides undergo different self-assembly and aggregation pathways that strongly influence stability, manufacturability, sensory properties, and delivery performance in biotherapeutic, food, and cosmetic formulations. These pathways arise from a combination of interactions including hydrophobic forces, electrostatics, hydrogen bonding, excipient competition, exposure to interfaces, mechanical or thermal stresses, and interactions with formulation conditions such as pH or salt that can shift association equilibria.
This session will explore recent insights into the thermodynamics, kinetics, and molecular mechanisms behind protein and peptide aggregation in biological complex fluids.
Protein/Peptides at Surfaces and Interfaces
Interfacial phenomena are key to describe the behavior of biological complex fluids where adsorption, unfolding, restructuring, and interfacial film formation influence stability, manufacturability, and delivery. Whether in an air/water or solid/water environment proteins and peptides often behave differently at interfaces than in bulk, leading to challenges such as interfacial aggregation, foaming, or undesirable texture. These interfacial behaviors can be further modulated by the presence of surfactants and polymers that compete for the interface or alter interfacial structure.
This session focuses on understanding how proteins and peptides interact with interfaces and how these interfacial properties shape product performance across biopharma, food, and cosmetic applications.
Formulation Rheology and Delivery of Proteins/Peptides/Exosomes
Formulating proteins, peptides, and exosomes presents shared challenges across different industries. These challenges include stabilizing delicate structures, managing viscosity, controlling self-association, and ensuring effective delivery whether by injection, topical deposition, or incorporation into formulation matrices. Interactions with surfactants, polymers, oils, and salts often determine rheological behavior, aggregation resistance, and overall physicochemical performance.
This session highlights advancements in formulation design, bulk and microrheology, stability enhancement, and delivery vehicles. We welcome contributions that connect molecular level interactions to macroscopic behaviors such as viscosity, flow, injectability, sensory attributes, and delivery efficiency.
AI ML Self Driving Labs to Accelerate Formulation Development and Optimization
As protein and peptide-based products become more complex, AI and ML approaches offer powerful methods to accelerate formulation design and understand high dimensional formulation spaces. Digital models and self-driving laboratory systems can enhance predictive capabilities, reduce experimental load, and uncover nonlinear structure property relationships.
This session will spotlight advances in AI driven formulation development including predictive modeling, Bayesian optimization, digital twins, automated experimental platforms, and hybrid physical and data driven approaches tailored to biological complex fluids.
Advanced Characterization of Biological Complex Fluids
Biological complex fluids such as proteins, peptides, and exosomes exhibit multiscale structure and dynamic behavior that require advanced characterization across molecular, colloidal, and macroscopic levels. Understanding these systems is essential for improving stability, guiding formulation, and enhancing delivery performance in biopharma, food, and cosmetic applications. Characterization approaches that capture the influence of formulation variables such as pH, salt, or excipients often shed new light on aggregation, interfacial structure, and rheological behavior.
This session will highlight state of the art tools and analytical frameworks that reveal structure, dynamics, and interactions in complex biological formulations.