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NIGHT LAB II | ENGINEERED EVOLUTION
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With Night Lab II, we are shifting from “building around us” to “building within us”. The segment explores how synthetic biology and neuroscience are merging to augment human capability and perception.
What if materials become a bridge between biology and computation? How do we redesign the body and the mind? What happens when evolution moves from the natural world into the design studio?
The session focuses on the emerging territory where electronic skin meets neural interfaces, where conductive biomaterials become implantable bioelectronics, and where brain-computer interfaces begin to blur the line between prosthetics and perception itself. Materials become the medium of cognition.
Biography
Dr. Simiao Niu is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers University and one of the most cited young researchers in his field, with over 37,000 citations and four consecutive years on the Clarivate Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher list. His research sits at the intersection of living biology and flexible electronics — developing skin-integrated, wireless, battery-free devices that don't just monitor the body but actively intervene in it.
Before academia, Niu worked as a hardware engineer on the health sensing team at Apple, where he helped develop the ECGmodule for the Apple Watch Series 6, 7, 8, and Ultra — a technology now on hundreds of millions of wrists. That experience seeded a larger question: if a wearable could read the heart, could it also heal the skin? Back in the lab, heco-developed two landmark platforms. The first is a wireless smart bandage, published in Nature Biotechnology, that harvests radiofrequency energy from the air to electrically stimulate cell migration and accelerate wound healing while simultaneously monitoring the healing process in real time. The second is ABLE— Active Bio integrated Living Electronics — a skin-like patch combining flexible circuits, a tissue-mimicking hydrogel, and living bacteria that naturally reside on healthy human skin, which secrete anti-inflammatory compounds directly into psoriasis lesions while sensors track the body's response. Published in Science in 2024, ABLE is described as a living drug —the first device where the therapy itself is biological, not pharmaceutical.
Named to the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Asia Pacific list and a Research.com Rising Star of Science, Niu represents a new generation of biomedical engineers who move fluently between industrial product development and frontier research — and whose work asks, concretely and urgently, what the body becomes when electronics dissolve into it.
About the Next Frontiers Symposium
New Spaces. Creative Thinking. Shared Futures
A forward-looking, trans-Atlantic symposium exploring the future of culture, science, technology, and sustainable design where tomorrow’s ideas take shape. Part I of the symposium took place on May 7 & 8, 2026 and Part II will take place in fall of 2026.
DELIVERING THE NEXT FRONTIERS
How do we get from here to there?
Part II of the Next Frontiers symposium examines how discoveries and innovations are translated into tangible outcomes. From quantum computing and AI to synthetic biology, regenerative materials, neuroscience, and sports science, this three-part series explores the practical frontiers of human potential and technological advancement.
Across sessions, leading experts from the United States and Germany will highlight emerging applications, cutting-edge research, and forward-looking strategies that transform ideas into products, technologies, and experiences, demonstrating how the next frontiers are not just imagined, but delivered. At its core, the series is a story about collaboration: between disciplines, between nations, and between the human and the non-human world.
Next Frontiers II unfolds across three Night Labs, each building on the last:
Night Lab I begins with matter itself — the raw stuff of the built world — and asks what happens when materials become computational and eventually alive. Night Lab II moves inward, to the body and the brain, exploring how synthetic biology and neuroscience are redrawing the boundary between organism and machine. Night Lab III pushes outward into human performance, asking how data, biology, and technology are redefining the limits of what the body and mind can achieve. Together, the three sessions trace a single arc: from the materials we build with, to the bodies we inhabit, to the performance we are capable of.
Each Night Lab follows the same format: part salon, part laboratory, part performance.
With Night Lab II, we are shifting from “building around us” to “building within us”. The segment explores how synthetic biology and neuroscience are merging to augment human capability and perception.
What if materials become a bridge between biology and computation? How do we redesign the body and the mind? What happens when evolution moves from the natural world into the design studio?
The session focuses on the emerging territory where electronic skin meets neural interfaces, where conductive biomaterials become implantable bioelectronics, and where brain-computer interfaces begin to blur the line between prosthetics and perception itself. Materials become the medium of cognition.
Biography
Dr. Simiao Niu is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers University and one of the most cited young researchers in his field, with over 37,000 citations and four consecutive years on the Clarivate Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher list. His research sits at the intersection of living biology and flexible electronics — developing skin-integrated, wireless, battery-free devices that don't just monitor the body but actively intervene in it.
Before academia, Niu worked as a hardware engineer on the health sensing team at Apple, where he helped develop the ECGmodule for the Apple Watch Series 6, 7, 8, and Ultra — a technology now on hundreds of millions of wrists. That experience seeded a larger question: if a wearable could read the heart, could it also heal the skin? Back in the lab, heco-developed two landmark platforms. The first is a wireless smart bandage, published in Nature Biotechnology, that harvests radiofrequency energy from the air to electrically stimulate cell migration and accelerate wound healing while simultaneously monitoring the healing process in real time. The second is ABLE— Active Bio integrated Living Electronics — a skin-like patch combining flexible circuits, a tissue-mimicking hydrogel, and living bacteria that naturally reside on healthy human skin, which secrete anti-inflammatory compounds directly into psoriasis lesions while sensors track the body's response. Published in Science in 2024, ABLE is described as a living drug —the first device where the therapy itself is biological, not pharmaceutical.
Named to the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Asia Pacific list and a Research.com Rising Star of Science, Niu represents a new generation of biomedical engineers who move fluently between industrial product development and frontier research — and whose work asks, concretely and urgently, what the body becomes when electronics dissolve into it.
About the Next Frontiers Symposium
New Spaces. Creative Thinking. Shared Futures
A forward-looking, trans-Atlantic symposium exploring the future of culture, science, technology, and sustainable design where tomorrow’s ideas take shape. Part I of the symposium took place on May 7 & 8, 2026 and Part II will take place in fall of 2026.
DELIVERING THE NEXT FRONTIERS
How do we get from here to there?
Part II of the Next Frontiers symposium examines how discoveries and innovations are translated into tangible outcomes. From quantum computing and AI to synthetic biology, regenerative materials, neuroscience, and sports science, this three-part series explores the practical frontiers of human potential and technological advancement.
Across sessions, leading experts from the United States and Germany will highlight emerging applications, cutting-edge research, and forward-looking strategies that transform ideas into products, technologies, and experiences, demonstrating how the next frontiers are not just imagined, but delivered. At its core, the series is a story about collaboration: between disciplines, between nations, and between the human and the non-human world.
Next Frontiers II unfolds across three Night Labs, each building on the last:
Night Lab I begins with matter itself — the raw stuff of the built world — and asks what happens when materials become computational and eventually alive. Night Lab II moves inward, to the body and the brain, exploring how synthetic biology and neuroscience are redrawing the boundary between organism and machine. Night Lab III pushes outward into human performance, asking how data, biology, and technology are redefining the limits of what the body and mind can achieve. Together, the three sessions trace a single arc: from the materials we build with, to the bodies we inhabit, to the performance we are capable of.
Each Night Lab follows the same format: part salon, part laboratory, part performance.
With Night Lab II, we are shifting from “building around us” to “building within us”. The segment explores how synthetic biology and neuroscience are merging to augment human capability and perception.
What if materials become a bridge between biology and computation? How do we redesign the body and the mind? What happens when evolution moves from the natural world into the design studio?
The session focuses on the emerging territory where electronic skin meets neural interfaces, where conductive biomaterials become implantable bioelectronics, and where brain-computer interfaces begin to blur the line between prosthetics and perception itself. Materials become the medium of cognition.
Biography
Dr. Simiao Niu is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers University and one of the most cited young researchers in his field, with over 37,000 citations and four consecutive years on the Clarivate Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher list. His research sits at the intersection of living biology and flexible electronics — developing skin-integrated, wireless, battery-free devices that don't just monitor the body but actively intervene in it.
Before academia, Niu worked as a hardware engineer on the health sensing team at Apple, where he helped develop the ECGmodule for the Apple Watch Series 6, 7, 8, and Ultra — a technology now on hundreds of millions of wrists. That experience seeded a larger question: if a wearable could read the heart, could it also heal the skin? Back in the lab, heco-developed two landmark platforms. The first is a wireless smart bandage, published in Nature Biotechnology, that harvests radiofrequency energy from the air to electrically stimulate cell migration and accelerate wound healing while simultaneously monitoring the healing process in real time. The second is ABLE— Active Bio integrated Living Electronics — a skin-like patch combining flexible circuits, a tissue-mimicking hydrogel, and living bacteria that naturally reside on healthy human skin, which secrete anti-inflammatory compounds directly into psoriasis lesions while sensors track the body's response. Published in Science in 2024, ABLE is described as a living drug —the first device where the therapy itself is biological, not pharmaceutical.
Named to the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Asia Pacific list and a Research.com Rising Star of Science, Niu represents a new generation of biomedical engineers who move fluently between industrial product development and frontier research — and whose work asks, concretely and urgently, what the body becomes when electronics dissolve into it.
About the Next Frontiers Symposium
New Spaces. Creative Thinking. Shared Futures
A forward-looking, trans-Atlantic symposium exploring the future of culture, science, technology, and sustainable design where tomorrow’s ideas take shape. Part I of the symposium took place on May 7 & 8, 2026 and Part II will take place in fall of 2026.
DELIVERING THE NEXT FRONTIERS
How do we get from here to there?
Part II of the Next Frontiers symposium examines how discoveries and innovations are translated into tangible outcomes. From quantum computing and AI to synthetic biology, regenerative materials, neuroscience, and sports science, this three-part series explores the practical frontiers of human potential and technological advancement.
Across sessions, leading experts from the United States and Germany will highlight emerging applications, cutting-edge research, and forward-looking strategies that transform ideas into products, technologies, and experiences, demonstrating how the next frontiers are not just imagined, but delivered. At its core, the series is a story about collaboration: between disciplines, between nations, and between the human and the non-human world.
Next Frontiers II unfolds across three Night Labs, each building on the last:
Night Lab I begins with matter itself — the raw stuff of the built world — and asks what happens when materials become computational and eventually alive. Night Lab II moves inward, to the body and the brain, exploring how synthetic biology and neuroscience are redrawing the boundary between organism and machine. Night Lab III pushes outward into human performance, asking how data, biology, and technology are redefining the limits of what the body and mind can achieve. Together, the three sessions trace a single arc: from the materials we build with, to the bodies we inhabit, to the performance we are capable of.
Each Night Lab follows the same format: part salon, part laboratory, part performance.