2025 Conference Program

Monday 27th of October 2025
Breakout 1 Forest	9am - 12.30pm	Workshop 1	“Integrating Risk Assessment and Safety Management into High Containment Operations”
Breakout 2 Marine	9.30am - 12.30pm	Workshop 2	"Building resilient biosafety training programs: strategies for the modern biosafety professional"
Breakout 1 Forest	1.00pm - 4.30pm	Workshop 3	"Risk-based approach to biosafety and biosecurity "
Breakout 2 Marine	1.00pm - 4.30pm	Workshop 4	"Practical IBC inspections"

More information on the workshops can be found on the 2025 Pre-Conference Workshops page


Tuesday 28 October 2025
9.00am	Registrations Open
10.00am	Morning Tea, exhibition,
10.30am	Welcome to Country
	Presidents Welcome – Dr Richard Spence, ABSANZ President
10.45am	Session One: Tony Della-Porta Oration Dr Michael Imperiale \| Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emeritus
	University of Michigan
	"Thinking About Pathogen Research at the Intersection of Biotechnology and AI"
	Q&A
11.45 am	Platinum Sponsor Address
	Philippe Lardy \| Trespa
12.00pm	Lunch, exhibition,
1.00pm	Session Two: Professor Raina MacIntyre\| NHMRC Leadership 3 Fellow and Professor of Global Biosecurity
	The Kirby Institute "Key issues in biosafety"

	Q&A
	Session Three:
2.00pm	Allison Treloar \| Principal Member of Technical Staff
	Sandia National Laboratories’ Global Chemical and Biological Security Group
	"Hidden Figures: Cybersecurity, Disinformation, and New Risks to the Laboratory"
	Q&A
3.00pm	Afternoon tea, exhibition,
	Session Four: Regulatory adaptation
3.30pm	Professor Stuart Blacksell \| University of Oxford/MORU
	“Global Biosafety Governance in Action: Updates from WHO Technical Advisory Groups on Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Responsible Life Sciences”
	Dr Carl Ramage \| Rautaki Solutions Pty Ltd
	“Balancing innovation, safety, and trust: Regulatory pathways for emerging food technologies in Australasia”
	Sandhya Dhawan \| Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU)\| 2025 Neil Walls Scholarship
	“Modelling the risk of inadvertent laboratory-origin outbreaks”
	Q&A
4.30pm	ABSANZ AGM
5.00pm	Welcome Drinks, exhibition,
7.00pm	Conclusion Day 1

Wednesday 29 October 2025
8.30am	Registrations Open
8.50am	Welcome, morning notices
9.00am	Session Five: Professor Cynthia Whitchurch \| Research Director
	Biofilm Biology cluster, SCELSE \| School of Biological Sciences, NTU " Understanding and Exploiting Microbial Lifestyles" Q&A
10.00am	Morning tea, exhibition,
	Session Six: Facility Design
10.30am	Dr Bernadette Bradley\| Curtain University
	" Future labs for people with disability, neurodivergence and enhanced ability"
	Bettina Bartos \| BLP & Kiri Collins \| Children’s Cancer Institute Australia
	" Transforming cancer research through the reimagined laboratory" Professor Stuart Blacksell \| University of Oxford/MORU “Sustainable Containment: Renovating Thailand’s FMD BSL-3 Lab with Renewable Energy Solutions” Peter Boase \| Jacobs
	“Embracing modularisation in science and research”
	Lien Bui \| Labworks Architecture
	“Designing Containment Facilities in an Evolving Regulatory Landscape”
	Q&A
12.00pm	Lunch, exhibition,
	Session Seven:
1.00pm	Associate Professor Paul Gardner\| Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry
	University of Otago "Designing Better* Pathogens with AI"
	Q&A
	Session Eight: Operationalising biorisk management
2.00pm	Letitia Clark\| Flinders University
	“New building design and transitions- The challenge of new research builds from a biosafety perspective” Dr Ann Cornish \| VIDRL “Biorisk management systems in the Australian regulatory landscape" Simone Benvenuti & Amy Papas \| HDR “Data-Driven Design Meets Human-Centered Planning: Blending technology and collaboration to future-proof laboratory environments”
	Q&A
3.00pm	Afternoon tea, exhibition,
	Session Nine:
3.30pm	Stephen Coulter\| Coulter Advisory
	“Future Proofing Biosafety”
3.45pm	Discussion Panel \| Consistency and Compliance in a Risk Assessed Framework
	Brad George \| Wood
	Stephen Coulter \| Coulter Advisory Mike Cover \| Comteq Colin Sakinofsky \| L2D


5.00pm	Conclusion
7.00pm	Conference Dinner\| Novotel, Sydney Olympic Park

Thursday 30 October 2025
8.30am	Registrations Open
8.50am	Welcome, Morning Notices
	Session Ten:
9.00am	Dr Gail Cross \| Investigator
	"Setting up a Respiratory Challenge model in Australia – what it takes." Doherty Clinical Trials Q&A
10.00am	Morning tea, exhibition,
10.30am	Session 11: Equipment and decontamination developments Andrew Hill \| CSIRO
	“Heat me baby one more time – at 56C for 30min”
	Jake Balzan\| CSIRO ACDP “Movement and maintenance of large equipment safely within a high biocontainment facility”
	Gregor Riese\| Giantcorp “Can Class II Biological Safety Cabinet designs be improved to reduce laboratory-associated infections?" Avrill Aspland\| University of Sydney “The Critical Aspects of Flow Cytometry Capabilities and Aerosol Containment Testing”
	Dr Leesa Bruggink \| VIDRL
	“Poliovirus GAPIV requirements and the efficacy of commercial disinfectants against poliovirus”
	Q&A
12.00pm	Lunch, exhibition,
	Session Twelve: Disruptors and challenges to operations
1.00pm	Suzanne Manley \| Wood
	"Single use technology - a crucial challenge" Dr Tom Sobey \| UNSW Medicine and Health "Disruption: Digitisation of lab processes"
	Q&A
1.40pm	Afternoon Tea, exhibition
2.10pm 2.40pm	Session Thirteen: Associate Professor Luke Houghton \| Griffith University "Thinking with Machines: How we can augment what we do with AI" Discussion Panel \| Opportunities and Risks of AI

4.00pm	Conclusion of Conference

While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the conference program, the conference committee reserves the right to make changes to the program, speakers, and sessions. Any such changes will be communicated as soon as possible and will not result in a refund. We appreciate your understanding and flexibility.

We’re excited to confirm two tour options for the 2025 Conference. Tour 1 – UTS Facility Tour will give delegates access to several cutting-edge research facilities at the University of Technology Sydney, including the Biomanufacturing Immersion Facility and Biologics Innovation Facility. Tour 2 – Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS) will offer a unique insight into marine science research on the stunning Sydney Harbour foreshore at Chowder Bay. We are also working to secure one additional tour option and hope to announce details shortly, giving delegates even more opportunity to explore Australia’s world-class science and research environments.

Further details can be found on the Site tour page 2025 Site Tours