Sandra Van Vlierberghe
(Ghent University, Belgium)

Sandra Van Vlierberghe (10-07-1981) was granted a full-time professorship at UGent since October 1st, 2017. Her research targets to establish at UGent, “a polymer-based technological platform covering processing and functionalization aspects sufficiently versatile to potentially address a wide range of tissue engineering (TE) challenges by exploiting the unique properties of light.” Indeed, her research focusses on the development of photo-crosslinkable (bio)polymers and their processing capabilities using 3D printing techniques. She has acquired expertise related to the synthesis, the modification and the processing (through extrusion-based 3D printing, electrospinning and light-based 3D-printing (two-photon polymerization (2PP), digital light projection (DLP) and volumetric printing) of a variety of (bio)polymers including thermoplasts (e.g. polyesters) and hydrogels (e.g. proteins and polysaccharides) in the field of regenerative medicine during the past 15 years. She graduated as a Master in Chemistry with high distinction with majors in Polymer Chemistry in 2003 and received her PhD in Sciences in 2008, both at Ghent University. She authored more than 235 Web of Science Core Collection cited papers of which 195 high impact journal papers (one with an impact factor of 42.846) and 16 full papers in international conference proceedings. In addition, she also authored more than 200 conference abstracts. She has a h-index of 44 (WoS) and is promoter of 23 PhD’s (in addition to 15 defended PhD’s), she edited three books, authored 7 chapters in books of which 5 invited and was invited speaker at > 15 international conferences and keynote as well as plenary speaker at 15 international conferences. She is treasurer of the Belgian Polymer Group (BPG), she was spokesperson of the YSF which is affiliated to the ESB and she is secretary of the Belgian Society for Tissue Engineering (BSTE). She is TERMIS-EU council member since 2019 and ESB council member since 2021. She is also founding board member of GATE (Ghent Alliance for Advanced Therapies and Tissue Engineering). Since 2020, she serves on the Board of Directors of the Fernand Lazard Foundation. Sandra is also editorial board member of the Biomaterials Network, associate editor of Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine and of Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (editor-in-chief of Biofabrication section), academic guest editor of Materials, editorial advisory board member of Hydrogels and editorial board member of Biomedical Materials, Journal of Nanomedicine and Nanotechnology and Journal of Applied Biomaterials and Functional Materials. She has also been active in project reviewing and as panel member (e.g. 3 x panel member of ERC StG). In 2017, she received the Jean Leray Award from the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB). This award is established to recognize outstanding research in the field of biomaterials by scientists not older than 40 years. In 2020 and 2021, she also served on the Independent Awards Committee of ESB. She is co-founder of spin-offs BIO INX and 4Tissue Laboratory.

Insup Noh
(Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Korea, Republic of)

Insup Noh is a professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and a chief professor/founder of the Convergence Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Biomaterials of Seoul National Univ. of Science & Technology (Korea). After both receiving his MS and Ph.D. degrees in the areas of biomaterials for tissue engineering from the Univ. of Texas at Austin (1994) and working at the California Institute of Technology(Caltech, 1995-1997) as a special graduate student under J.A. Hubbell, he had done researches with E.R. Edelman in the division of Harvard-MIT Health Science and Technology as a postdoctoral researcher for local drug delivery in cardiovascular diseases(1997-1999). Professor Insup Noh’s expertise lies in the area of functional biomaterials for bone and cartilage tissue engineering by using in situ 3D bioprining technology with diverse bioinks. He served the president of the Korean Society for Biomaterials(2020) and the editor-in-chief of Biomaterials Research (2012-2019, Springer-Nature, UK) and is the president/founder of MatrixCellBio Inc., Korea, and a IUSBSE KSBM delegate.

Jasper Van Hoorick
(BIO INX, Belgium)

Jasper Van Hoorick graduated as master in Chemistry in 2014 with a major in Molecular and Macromolecular design and a minor in Industry and Management. In his master thesis he focussed on the development of materials for tissue engineering purposes for which he received the 2014 Agoria award for technological master dissertations as part of the Vlaamse Scriptieprijs. Thanks to this award he completed an executive masterclass in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Vlerick business school in 2015. In 2015 he secured funding from the FWO (Research Foundation Flanders) for a joint PhD project between the Polymer Chemistry & Biomaterials Research group (PBM) at Ghent University and Brussels Photonics (B-PHOT) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. In his PhD he focussed on the development of novel biodegradable polymer materials and their processing into membranes for ocular tissue regeneration thereby taking advantage of (high resolution) additive manufacturing using laser based multiphoton lithography 3D printing (2PP). He co-authored over 30 Web of Science Core Collection cited papers, 1 book chapter and co-edited one book. Additionally, he attended multiple international conferences to present the results he obtained during his PhD, and obtained funding for 5 international research stays in Vienna, Austria (Prof. Dr. Aleksandr Ovsianikov) to perform 2PP experiments. Finally, the work performed during his PhD also resulted in the filing of 2 patents. In 2018 he aided in consolidating FWO funding thereby aiming to further develop the corneal membranes towards (pre)clinical applications. In 2019 he completed his PhD with greatest honours for which he was awarded a Solvay award in 2020 and a Julia Polak Award in 2021. Additionally, he was a finalist in the Flemish PhD cup in 2021. After his PhD, he secured funding for a post-doc position at Ghent University towards the preparation of a spin-off company. In 2022, the spin-off company BIO INX was launched, which he leads as CEO. BIO INX focusses on the development and commercialisation of biomaterials and bio inks for 3D bioprinting with applications in regenerative medicine. It made the finals of the 2022 RSC Emerging Technologies Competition in 2022 and was elected in 2023 as UNIZO East-Flanders Start-up of the year.

Yong Woo Cho
(Hanyang University, Korea, Republic of)

Yong Woo CHO PhD is a Professor, Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University ERICA and CEO of ExoStemTech Inc, South Korea. He got BS, MS, and PhD degrees from School of Engineering, Seoul National University. He worked for KIST (Korea Institute for Science and Technology) and Purdue University as a Post Doc. Since 2006, he has been working for Hanyang University ERICA. His research interest is exosome-based therapeutics, focused on regenerative medicine using stem cell exosomes and exosome-based protein/RNA delivery systems. In 2016, he founded a bio-venture company, ExoStemTech Inc., for the clinical development of exosome therapeutics and is currently developing several exosome products for the treatment of osteoarthritis, tendinitis, lung fibrosis, Parkinson’s disease, etc.

Chris Wattengel
(Collagen Solutions, United Kingdom)

Chris Wattengel is Global Vice President of R&D for Collagen Solutions. He is a seasoned medical device industry innovator and leader with over 20 years of experience in product and business development. He has led R&D teams from concept through commercialization, and been involved with bringing over 10 product families to market.

Yufeng Zheng
(Peking University, China)

Dr. Yufeng Zheng, received his Ph.D in materials science from Harbin Institute of Technology, China in 1998. From 1998 to 2004, he was Assistant Professor (1998-2000), Associate Professor (2000-2003), Full Professor (2003-2004) at Harbin Institute of Technology, China. He has been a full professor at the Peking University in Beijing, China since 2004, and Distinguished Professor at Kumamoto University, Japan since 2017. Dr. Zheng has authored or co-authored over 700 scientific peer-reviewed articles, with the citation of over 40000 times, and a H-index of 100. Currently he serves as Editor-in-Chief of “Bioactive Materials”, Vice Editor-in-Chief of “Journal of Materials Science & Technology”, Editor of “Materials Letters”. His areas of special interest include the development of new metallic biomaterials and their medical devices (biodegradable Mg, Fe and Zn based alloys, beta-Ti alloys with low elastic modulus, bulk metallic glass, ultra-fine grained metallic materials, etc). Dr. Zheng is the Fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE) by the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering.

Diego Mantovani
(Laval University, Canada)

Professor in biomaterials, scientist in regenerative medicine, holder of the Canada Research Chair Tieur I in biomaterials and bioengineering for the innovation in surgery, Diego Mantovani is en expert in nanocoatings, biodegradable metals and 3D cell culture for advanced in vitro tests alternative to in vivo. With his team, he carried out R&D&I projects often in collaboration with companies to unravel how sciences and engineering can improve the patient quality of life of Humans, and to develop new processes for improving the clinical performances of commercial devices, as well as exploring new strategies for tomorrow's clinical therapies. Focus is on cardiac, peripheral, cerebral, dental and parenchymal tissue. The Lab is based at ULaval, in the beatiful nordic city of Quebec, labelled UNESCO treasure, in the French-living part of Canada. He was elected Fellow of the International Union of Societies of Biomaterials since 2012, of the American Society for Materials Intl since 2016, the American Institute of Medical Biological Engineering since 2019, and of the Canadian Academy of Engineering since 2020. He was executive Co-Chair of the 10th World Biomaterials Congress, held in Montréal, Canada, in 2016, May.

Frank Witte
(Berlin Charite Research Center - Dental Schoool, Germany)

Professor Witte is affiliated to the Charité Medical University Berlin in the Department of Prosthodontics and has hold for 5 years the endowed Synthes Chair for Bioactive Implants at the Charité Medical University Berlin where he has focused on biodegradable metals, its surface modification, and its immunological response. Professor Dr. Witte has gained extensive industry experience as Chief Scientist Officer and Chief Technology Officer Magnesium Technologies of biotrics bioimplants AG, where he has successfully developed and CE certified two biodegradable magnesium implant systems for oral surgery (www.novamag.info). Professor Witte is currently working at one of the largest European Notified Bodies (TüvSüd Product Service GmbH) for conformity assessment of medical products.
He also holds an Adjunct Professorship for Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, USA and is Honorary Professor at the Shenzhen Institute for Advanced Technologies in Shenzhen, China. Just recently he was awarded an Associate Professorship at University Laval, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
Prof. Witte is co-founder of the successful conference series on Biodegradable Metals (BIOMETAL, www.biodegradablemetals.org) and works on the ISO and ASTM writing groups to achieve new standards for regulatory evaluation of biodegradable metal implants. Professor Witte is associate editor and editorial board member of Bioactive Materials, Acta Biomaterialia, Journal Biomedical Materials Research Part A, Materials Science and Engineering Part B and the Journal of Orthopedic Translation. He has published more than 130 peer reviewed journal papers, including in Nature Medicine, filed more than 30 patents and is author of several book chapters.

SangIhn Han
(Center for Biomaterials, Biomedical Research Division, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Korea, Republic of)

SangIhn Han is currently a Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Biomaterials, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Seoul National University in 2019, where he worked under the supervision of Professor Taeghwan Hyeon. Dr. Han's research focuses on the synthesis of inorganic nanomaterials and their applications in soft bioelectronics, as well as the development of nanozymes for treating diseases related to reactive oxygen species.

Regine Willumeit-Romer
(Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon GmbH, Germany)

R. Willumeit-Römer started her career as physicist specialized on ribosomal structure research. After her PhD in physics she habilitated in biochemistry and moved from the ribosome towards membrane active molecules such as peptide antibiotics. This was also the link to become interested in antibacterial implant surfaces and biomaterials as such. To date, as Director of the Institute of Materials Research, Division Metallic Biomaterials she is responsible for the development of degradable Mg-based implant materials.

Orahn Preiss-Bloom
(OSSIO Ltd, Israel)

Orahn founded OSSIO® in 2014 with a passion for transformative improvement in orthopedic healing, expertise in biomaterial biomechanics, and a vision for game changing bio-integrative implants. Since then, he has served the company in leadership roles at the Executive Committee and Board levels. Previously, Orahn was Co-founder and CTO at LifeBond, a commercial-stage biosurgical device start-up which was acquired in 2019 by CR Bard, now part of BD (NYSE: BDX). Prior, he was a biomechanics researcher at IDF Institute for Military Physiology and at Columbia University Department of Orthopedic Surgery.

Philip Procter
(Uppsala University, France)

I am industry-based and a self-employed medical device consultant in France. My main activity is translating biomaterials from the laboratory to clinical use to meet unmet clinical needs.
I have co-founded two SME’s GPBio Ltd, (Ireland 2013) for developing adhesive biomaterials and Biomimetic Innovations Ltd, (Ireland 2020) which is currently commercialising OsSticR, a patented, adhesive platform technology with two multinational implant companies.
I direct research into Biomimetic injectable biomaterials, Tissue adhesives and Bone graft substitutes, primarily at UU as Adj Prof, and also at EPFL in Lausanee, Switzerland.
I am a Chartered Engineer (FIMechE, UK) and Chartered Scientist (FIPEM, UK) with a Diploma in Management and Marketing IMI Dublin (Ireland), a PhD in Biomedical Engineering, Strathclyde University, (Scotland) and a BTech. Mechanical Engineering, Brunel University London, (UK).

You-Yeon Won
(Purdue University, USA)

Dr. Won earned a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Seoul National University (1992). He received his PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota (2000), and Postdoctoral training in Applied Physics at Harvard (2001 – 2003) and in Materials Science and Engineering at MIT (2000 – 2001). Dr. Won joined the Purdue faculty as an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering in 2003, and was promoted to Full Professor in 2014. Dr. Won originally came from a background in polymer science. Dr. Won’s current research focus is applying this polymer science knowledge to developing (1) synthetic pulmonary surfactants for treatment of respiratory distress syndrome, (2) radioluminescent theranostic agents for cancer treatment, and (3) sequence-controlled aliphatic copolyesters for long-acting controlled-release drug formulations. Dr. Won founded two startup companies to commercialize these technologies.

Ester J. Kwon
(University of California San Diego, USA)

Ester J. Kwon is an associate professor of Bioengineering at the University of California San Diego. She earned her B.S. in Bioengineering and B.A. in Molecular & Cell Biology at UC Berkeley. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in Bioengineering at the University of Washington with Suzie H. Pun and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Sangeeta N. Bhatia. Dr. Kwon is a recipient of the pre- and post-doctoral NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards, the NIH Director’s New Innovator award, and the NSF CAREER Award. Her lab engineers nanomaterials as tools, diagnostics, and treatments for disorders that affect the brain. In addition to her research activities, Dr. Kwon is motivated to create an inclusive research environment through the individualized mentorship of trainees and outreach to young scientists.

Gabe Kwong
(Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)

Dr. Kwong is an Associate Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. He earned his B.S. from UC Berkeley and his Ph.D. from Caltech both in Bioengineering. His research program is centered at the interface of bioengineering, immunology and medicine. His group pioneers cell therapies and biosensors to address frontier challenges in cancer, transplantation medicine, and infectious diseases. Among his distinctions, Dr. Kwong is a recipient of the NIH Director's New Innovator and Pioneer Awards, and currently leads the $49.5 million Cancer and Organ Degradome Atlas (CODA) project, a multi-institutional research enterprise supported by ARPA-H to revolutionize multi-cancer early detection. Dr. Kwong co-founded two biotechnology companies, and holds over 35 issued or pending patents.

Ester J. Kwon
(University of California San Diego, USA)

Ester J. Kwon is an associate professor of Bioengineering at the University of California San Diego. She earned her B.S. in Bioengineering and B.A. in Molecular & Cell Biology at UC Berkeley. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in Bioengineering at the University of Washington with Suzie H. Pun and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Sangeeta N. Bhatia. Dr. Kwon is a recipient of the pre- and post-doctoral NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards, the NIH Director’s New Innovator award, and the NSF CAREER Award. Her lab engineers nanomaterials as tools, diagnostics, and treatments for disorders that affect the brain. In addition to her research activities, Dr. Kwon is motivated to create an inclusive research environment through the individualized mentorship of trainees and outreach to young scientists.

Yu Zhang
(Shandong University, China)

Prof. Yu Zhang Shandong University, Prof. Zhang obtained joint Ph.D in Electrical Engineering at Yale University and Shandong University. His research focus on novel electronic materials and devices for biosensor and optoelectronics, such as 2D materials and devices, GaN materials and devices, microfluidics. In recent 5 years, Prof. Yu Zhang has published more than 40 research papers on Small methods，advanced health materials，NPJ 2D materials and applications, nano-micro Letters etc. and applied more than 30 inventions with more than 20 granted. He services as reviewers for many scientific journals including Advanced mateirals, biomaterials, and Advanced functional materials etc.

João Carlos Varela
(KTH Royal Institute of Technology/Science for Life Laboratory, Sweden)

PhD student in Biotechnology, currently developing novel molecular diagnostic methods to use in resource-limited setting, using microfluidics and optical fibers (KTH Royal Institute of Technology/Science for Life Laboratory - SciLifeLab).

Interested in molecular diagnostics, life sciences, bioengineering, and microfluidics, with a "soft spot" for sport science and food chemistry.

Qingqing Fan
(University of New South Wales, Australia)

Qingqing Fan is a 3rd year Ph.D. candidate in the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of New South Wales under the supervision of A/Prof. Rona Chandrawati. She received her Bachelor of Biological Sciences with Dean's Honors from the University of California, Davis (USA) in 2019, and an Honors degree in Science (Microbiology) from Monash University (Australia) in 2020. Her research focuses on the development of metal-based nanomaterials for the diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. To date, her contributions to the field include the publication of 3 papers in leading journals, presenting at 4 prestigious national and international conferences, and mentoring postgraduate students. She is the Vice President of the Chemical Engineering Research Society at the University of New South Wales. Additionally, she is a founding member of the HDR Engineering Postgraduate Initiative aimed at enhancing the work and personal lives of >500 postgraduate engineering students.

Minhaz Uddin Ahmed
(Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei Darussalam)

I am an Associate Professor at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), and I am passionate about developing biosensors and diagnostic technologies with significant applications in nanobiotechnology, clinical, food and environmental chemistry. My academic background includes a Ph.D. in Chemical Materials Science from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), and I have worked as a post-doctoral fellow with renowned professors at esteemed universities worldwide, such as Duke University, Osaka University, and INRS-EMT Canada. Throughout my career, my research contributions have been widely recognized and celebrated with numerous awards and accolades, including the prestigious Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) young scientist award, the United States Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) post-doctoral fellowship and UBD Research Excellence Award 2022. I am glad to have extensive research experience and expertise in the field of biosensors and biomaterials, bioengineering and nanobiotechnology.

I am pleased to serve as a member of the Editorial Board in several reputed journals in related areas of expertise and regularly review research articles from the world’s top-ranked associated journals. I carry out research activities in several exciting areas, including Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Electroanalysis, DNA chips, and Nucleic Acid Sensors, CRISPR-Cas, Apta and Immunosensors, and Point of Care Devices. My vision is to develop high-sensitive, low-cost, point of care biosensing and diagnostics platforms that can help revolutionize healthcare and make a significant impact in the fields of food safety and environmental protection.

Insup Noh
(Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Korea, Republic of)

Insup Noh is a professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and a chief professor/founder of the Convergence Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Biomaterials of Seoul National Univ. of Science & Technology (Korea). After both receiving his MS and Ph.D. degrees in the areas of biomaterials for tissue engineering from the Univ. of Texas at Austin (1994) and working at the California Institute of Technology(Caltech, 1995-1997) as a special graduate student under J.A. Hubbell, he had done researches with E.R. Edelman in the division of Harvard-MIT Health Science and Technology as a postdoctoral researcher for local drug delivery in cardiovascular diseases(1997-1999). Professor Insup Noh’s expertise lies in the area of functional biomaterials for bone and cartilage tissue engineering by using in situ 3D bioprining technology with diverse bioinks. He served the president of the Korean Society for Biomaterials(2020) and the editor-in-chief of Biomaterials Research (2012-2019, Springer-Nature, UK) and is the president/founder of MatrixCellBio Inc., Korea, and a IUSBSE KSBM delegate.

Sandra Van Vlierberghe
(Ghent University, Belgium)

Sandra Van Vlierberghe (10-07-1981) was granted a full-time professorship at UGent since October 1st, 2017. Her research targets to establish at UGent, “a polymer-based technological platform covering processing and functionalization aspects sufficiently versatile to potentially address a wide range of tissue engineering (TE) challenges by exploiting the unique properties of light.” Indeed, her research focusses on the development of photo-crosslinkable (bio)polymers and their processing capabilities using 3D printing techniques. She has acquired expertise related to the synthesis, the modification and the processing (through extrusion-based 3D printing, electrospinning and light-based 3D-printing (two-photon polymerization (2PP), digital light projection (DLP) and volumetric printing) of a variety of (bio)polymers including thermoplasts (e.g. polyesters) and hydrogels (e.g. proteins and polysaccharides) in the field of regenerative medicine during the past 15 years. She graduated as a Master in Chemistry with high distinction with majors in Polymer Chemistry in 2003 and received her PhD in Sciences in 2008, both at Ghent University. She authored more than 235 Web of Science Core Collection cited papers of which 195 high impact journal papers (one with an impact factor of 42.846) and 16 full papers in international conference proceedings. In addition, she also authored more than 200 conference abstracts. She has a h-index of 44 (WoS) and is promoter of 23 PhD’s (in addition to 15 defended PhD’s), she edited three books, authored 7 chapters in books of which 5 invited and was invited speaker at > 15 international conferences and keynote as well as plenary speaker at 15 international conferences. She is treasurer of the Belgian Polymer Group (BPG), she was spokesperson of the YSF which is affiliated to the ESB and she is secretary of the Belgian Society for Tissue Engineering (BSTE). She is TERMIS-EU council member since 2019 and ESB council member since 2021. She is also founding board member of GATE (Ghent Alliance for Advanced Therapies and Tissue Engineering). Since 2020, she serves on the Board of Directors of the Fernand Lazard Foundation. Sandra is also editorial board member of the Biomaterials Network, associate editor of Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine and of Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (editor-in-chief of Biofabrication section), academic guest editor of Materials, editorial advisory board member of Hydrogels and editorial board member of Biomedical Materials, Journal of Nanomedicine and Nanotechnology and Journal of Applied Biomaterials and Functional Materials. She has also been active in project reviewing and as panel member (e.g. 3 x panel member of ERC StG). In 2017, she received the Jean Leray Award from the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB). This award is established to recognize outstanding research in the field of biomaterials by scientists not older than 40 years. In 2020 and 2021, she also served on the Independent Awards Committee of ESB. She is co-founder of spin-offs BIO INX and 4Tissue Laboratory.

Insup Noh
(Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Korea, Republic of)

Insup Noh is a professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and a chief professor/founder of the Convergence Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Biomaterials of Seoul National Univ. of Science & Technology (Korea). After both receiving his MS and Ph.D. degrees in the areas of biomaterials for tissue engineering from the Univ. of Texas at Austin (1994) and working at the California Institute of Technology(Caltech, 1995-1997) as a special graduate student under J.A. Hubbell, he had done researches with E.R. Edelman in the division of Harvard-MIT Health Science and Technology as a postdoctoral researcher for local drug delivery in cardiovascular diseases(1997-1999). Professor Insup Noh’s expertise lies in the area of functional biomaterials for bone and cartilage tissue engineering by using in situ 3D bioprining technology with diverse bioinks. He served the president of the Korean Society for Biomaterials(2020) and the editor-in-chief of Biomaterials Research (2012-2019, Springer-Nature, UK) and is the president/founder of MatrixCellBio Inc., Korea, and a IUSBSE KSBM delegate.

Chul-Su Yang
(Hanyang University, Korea, Republic of)

Dr. Chul-Su Yang who professor of Infection Biology Lab at Dept. of Medicinal and Life Science, Hanyang University.
Research interests as below,
1. Microbial pathogenesis and host responses. (1) Molecular and cellular pathogenesis of intracellular microbes infection especially on Mycobacteria, Listeria, Candida, Toxoplasma, Influenza infection (2) Signal transduction mechanisms in immune and inflammatory responses (3) Molecular and immunopathogenesis in neuroinflammatory diseases.
2. Host-pathogen functional interactions and its therapeutic strategies. (1) The role of ROS-generating NADPH oxidases activation and expression (2) Exploring of cell death and autophagy pathways in microbial infection (3) The role of nuclear receptors in innate immunity (4) The role of mitochondria and autophagy in innate immunity.
3. Molecular engineering of Peptide-Drug Conjugates for therapeutics. (1) Peptide and protein therapeutics (2) Pharmaceutics drug delivery and targeting

Vikas Sharma
(Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea, Republic of)

Dr. Vikas Sharma currently holds a postdoctoral fellow position within the CIMPS group at the Chemical Engineering department of Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea. He earned his Ph.D. in Biotechnology from National Institute of Technology Raipur, India, where his research focused on the production and purification of thermostable enzymes. He then served CSIR-IITR, India, as a Senior Project Associate, and was also awarded the prestigious SERB-NPDF postdoctoral fellowship by the Government of India. He has published his works in reputed journals, such as Bioresource Technology, Renewable Energy, Chemosphere and Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering. His research interests lie in developing innovative solutions for upstream and downstream processing of biopharmaceuticals utilizing microfluidics and scale-up modules.

Elaine Duncan
(Paladin Medical, Inc. & Adjunct Professor, F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering Pigman College of Engineering, University of Kentucky, USA)

Ms. Duncan enables large and small companies alike to acquire US FDA clearance and approval by guiding teams to establishing programs of Design Control and Review, teaching and establishing Quality Systems, developing protocols and reports of pre-clinical and clinical studies for new devices and planning biocompatibility testing, verification, validation and human factors studies. From her wide experience in medical device technology, encompassing implantable devices, biomaterials such as bone void fillers, textiles and magnetic materials, software and electronics and assistive device technologies, she serves as a trainer and instructor to medical device development peers and university students. Ms. Duncan has given numerous lectures, written many trade-journal articles and authored book chapters, including, three chapters in the 4th Edition of Biomaterials Science (C 2020.) Ms. Duncan has been recognized for her service to the advancement of biomaterials and medical device science throughout her years of service.

Michael J. Sailor
(University of California San Diego, USA)

Michael J. Sailor is Distinguished Professor at the University of California, San Diego, Director of the UC San Diego Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (an NSF MRSEC), and Director of the UC San Diego Institute for Materials Discovery & Design. He holds Affiliate Appointments in the UCSD Bioengineering Department, the Nanoengineering Department, and the Materials Science and Engineering program. He was trained at Harvey Mudd College (BS Chemistry), Northwestern University (PhD Chemistry), Stanford (Post-doctoral), and Caltech (Post-doctoral). He has supervised more than 160 undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students, he is the author of more than 260 peer-reviewed research publications, one book, and 39 issued patents. He has an H-Index (Google Scholar) of 100. He has founded or co-founded four companies, including Lisata Therapeutics (NASDAQ: LSTA). He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the U.S. National Academy of Inventors, and the Royal Society of Chemistry, and he serves as Associate Editor of the journal ACS Sensors.

Hyunwoo Yuk
(SanaHeal, USA)

Dr. Hyunwoo Yuk received a Ph.D. / M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2021/2016, and a B.S. from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in 2014, both in Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Yuk is currently the CTO of a medtech startup, SanaHeal, Inc., which he founded in 2021. His research focuses on the broad topics of mechanics and materials science and engineering in human–machine interfaces including robust adhesion of soft materials, hydrogel bioelectronics, and 3D printing of advanced soft materials. He is a recipient of various prestigious awards including the Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award, Forbes 30 Under 30, and MIT Technology Reviews Innovators Under 35.

Alec Smith
(University of Washington, USA)

Dr. Alec Smith is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at The University of Washington. Dr. Smith earned his Ph.D. in Tissue Engineering from University College, London (UK) in 2012 before moving to the United States to pursue a career in biomedical research. His expertise includes electrophysiology, molecular biology, and tissue engineering, with a particular focus on muscle and neuronal tissues. His work has involved the development of novel 2D and 3D culture systems for assessing nerve and muscle performance, and the analysis of physiological interactions between multiple cell types in vitro. By integrating human tissue engineering and cell culture with advanced methods for assaying electrophysiological and contractile function, he aims to develop novel platforms with which to improve the predictive capacity of current preclinical toxicity screening and disease modeling technologies. To date, Dr. Smith has authored or co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and referenced conference proceedings, as well as 5 book chapters, and his papers have been cited over 2,700 times. In addition, he has filed 3 patents (issued or pending) based on his research. Over the course of his career so far, Dr. Smith has been the recipient of a number of awards, including The UK Medical Research Council Doctoral Training Award (2007), The Jaconette L. Tietze Young Scientist Award (2017), The University of Washington’s Institute for Translational Health Science KL2 Career Development Award (2017), and the Weill Neurohub Investigator Award (2023).

Eun Je Jeon
(Cellartgen, Korea, Republic of)

Eun Je Jeon currently serves as the team leader in the Advanced Biomaterials Research and Development Department at Cellartgen Inc. in the Republic of Korea. She earned her B.S. degree from the College of Natural Sciences at Seoul Women's University in 2013 and later obtained her Ph.D. in Biotechnology from Yonsei University. In 2022, she joined Cellartgen Inc. as a Senior Researcher and was appointed team leader for Advanced Biomaterials Research and Development in 2023. She has also been selected as a Junior Researcher in the Ministry of SMEs and Startups since May 2023. Her research interests focus on utilizing functional biomaterials for tissue engineering, particularly in the areas of stem cells, reprogrammed cells, and organoids. She has published 19 peer-reviewed papers with over 754 citations and obtained more than 17 filed patents and pending patent applications. Recognized for her outstanding contributions, she received the KSBM-KOFWST Young Scientist Award from the Korean Society for Biomaterials and the WBF-Biosolution Saebyeol Women's Science Award from the Women's Bioscience Forum in 2021.

To Ngai
(Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China)

To NGAI now is Professor in the Department of chemistry, Assistant Dean (Research) of the Faculty at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). He received his B.Sc. degree with first class honours and PhD in chemistry from CUHK in 1999 and 2003 respectively. He moved to BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany) in 2003 as the postdoctoral fellow for two years. After a short postdoctoral training in the Chemistry Department at the University of Minnesota in 2005, he joined the Chemistry Department at CUHK in 2006 as a research assistant professor. He has been appointed as an assistant professor in 2008, and promoted to associate professor in 2012. In 2017, he was promoted to Professor. His current research interests center around the colloids, surface chemistry, polymers and soft matter.

Ho Cheung Anderson SHUM
(Advanced Biomedical Instrumentation Centre, Hong Kong SAR, China)

Ir Prof. Shum is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Associate Vice-President (Research and Innovation) at the University of Hong Kong, Director of the Advanced Biomedical Instrumentation Centre, and President of Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences. His research interests include biomicrofluidics, biomedical engineering, and soft matter. Prof. Shum received Gold Medal and International Special Award in 8th International Invention Innovation Competition in Canada (iCAN, 2023), Gold Medal in 48th International Exhibition of Inventions (Geneva, Switzerland, 2023), Hong Kong Engineering Science and Technology Award 2022, Croucher Senior Research Fellowship 2020, Rising Star Award by Ton Duc Thang University 2019, NSFC Excellent Young Scientist Fund 2019, Young Scientists Award in Microsystems-and-Nanoengineering-Summit 2019, IEEE Nanomed New Innovator 2018. He was selected as Fellow in HKIE (2023), IAAM (2023), RSC (2017).

Ho Cheung Anderson SHUM
(Advanced Biomedical Instrumentation Centre, Hong Kong SAR, China)

Ir Prof. Shum is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Associate Vice-President (Research and Innovation) at the University of Hong Kong, Director of the Advanced Biomedical Instrumentation Centre, and President of Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences. His research interests include biomicrofluidics, biomedical engineering, and soft matter. Prof. Shum received Gold Medal and International Special Award in 8th International Invention Innovation Competition in Canada (iCAN, 2023), Gold Medal in 48th International Exhibition of Inventions (Geneva, Switzerland, 2023), Hong Kong Engineering Science and Technology Award 2022, Croucher Senior Research Fellowship 2020, Rising Star Award by Ton Duc Thang University 2019, NSFC Excellent Young Scientist Fund 2019, Young Scientists Award in Microsystems-and-Nanoengineering-Summit 2019, IEEE Nanomed New Innovator 2018. He was selected as Fellow in HKIE (2023), IAAM (2023), RSC (2017).

Liang-Yin Chu
(Sichuan University, China)

Liang-Yin CHU is a Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and a Vice President at Sichuan University in China. He received his Ph.D. degree in 1995 from Northeastern University. He was promoted as a full professor of Chemical Engineering at Sichuan University in 1997 and became Director of the Sichuan Provincial Key Laboratory for Filtration and Separation in 2001. He was a research fellow at the University of Tokyo (1999-2001) and a visiting scholar at Harvard University (2006-2007), ESPCI Paris (2007-2008) and the University of Birmingham (2011). He has authored and co-authored more than 500 peer-reviewed journal articles, 85 patents, 7 books and 19 book chapters. He has received many honors and awards, including Natural Science Awards issued by the Ministry of Education (2003) and Sichuan Provincial Government (2015, 2020), Distinguished Young Scholar issued by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (2008), Distinguished Professor of Chang Jiang Scholars Program issued by the Ministry of Education (2009), the Hou Debang Chemical Science and Technology Award - Innovation Award issued by the Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China (2013), Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (2014), National Technological Invention Award (2018), Fellow of the Global Academy of Chinese Chemical Engineers (2021), the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Prize for Scientific and Technological Innovation (2021), the Hou Debang Chemical Science and Technology Award - Achievement Award issued by the Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China (2022), and Fellow of the Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China (2022). His teaching and research are focused on advanced functional materials, mass transfer and separations, membrane materials and processes, microfluidics, and smart controlled-release systems.

To Ngai
(Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China)

To NGAI now is Professor in the Department of chemistry, Assistant Dean (Research) of the Faculty at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). He received his B.Sc. degree with first class honours and PhD in chemistry from CUHK in 1999 and 2003 respectively. He moved to BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany) in 2003 as the postdoctoral fellow for two years. After a short postdoctoral training in the Chemistry Department at the University of Minnesota in 2005, he joined the Chemistry Department at CUHK in 2006 as a research assistant professor. He has been appointed as an assistant professor in 2008, and promoted to associate professor in 2012. In 2017, he was promoted to Professor. His current research interests center around the colloids, surface chemistry, polymers and soft matter.

Akihiro Kishimura
(Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University, Japan)

Akihiro Kishimura received his PhD degree of engineering under the supervision of Prof. T. Aida from the University of Tokyo in 2005. After his career as an assistant professor in the research group of Prof. K. Kataoka (The University of Tokyo) from 2006 to 2013, he moved to Kyushu University as an associate professor in 2013. He joined Science Council of Japan in 2016, and worked as the chair of Young Academy of Japan (2017-2020). He was also a member of the Global Young Academy (2017-2022). Since 2020, he has been appointed as an Executive Assistant to the President of Kyushu University and worked as a member of the Q-dai Science Communication Promoting Group (Q-STRING). His present research focuses on nanomedicine, and molecular system toward artificial cells by mimicking crowded environments of living system.

Naozumi Teramoto
(Chiba Institute of Technology, Japan)

Dr. Naozumi Teramoto is a Professor at Chiba Institute of Technology (CIT) in Japan. He has been working with bio-based materials since he began his career at CIT in 2000. Prof. Teramoto received his Master degree and Ph.D. in Material Chemistry from Kyoto University in Japan. He has published technical papers on biodegradable polymers and bio-based polymers from polysaccharide, trehalose, collagen, lactide and other biomass resources. From Jun. 2015 to Nov. 2015, he has been a visiting scholar at the University of Delaware in USA. Recently, he has started the researches on cytocompatible materials, stimuli-responsive polymers and reinforcement of hydrogels.