Dong-Wook Han
(Pusan National University, Korea, Republic of)

Prof. Dong-Wook Han obtained his PhD degree from the graduate program of biomedical engineering at Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea in 2004. After undertaking a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, Japan from 2005 to 2007, he joined the faculty of Pusan National University (PNU), where he began his academic career, and is currently a full professor in the Department of Cogno-Mechatronics Engineering at PNU. Since 2008, Prof. Han has authored or co-authored over 180 scientific publications and joined several book chapters, and holds more than 20 international and domestic patents. His research interest concerns ‘BT-NT convergence’, especially tissue engineering and biomedical imaging with smart nanobiomaterials, development of artificial tissues, organs and medical devices by 3D printing, and assessment of nanomaterials toxicity (nanotoxicity).

Jin-Woo Oh
(Pusan National University, Korea, Republic of)

2021- present : Professor, Department of Nanoenergy Engineering, Pusan National Univ.
2018 - present : Director, Institute of BIT convergence Technology
2017 - present : Director, Center for Phage Meta-Materials (Future Materials Discovery Business)

Professor Oh, a specialist in the realm of functional biomaterials and electronic noses, possesses a profound understanding and abundant experience in the creation of functional biomaterials utilizing M13 bacteriophage. He is delving into the possibilities of chemical and genetic alterations of M13 bacteriophages, with an emphasis on cultivating new roles as intricate gas receptors.

His extensive expertise in the design and fabrication of gas detection systems underscores his proficiency in the electronic noses field. In this domain, the focus is on the development of gas receptors using M13 bacteriophages, and the exploration of their potential applications in diverse areas such as environmental monitoring, disease diagnosis, and food safety. Moreover, he is dedicated to proposing future research trajectories in the electronic noses field and unveiling new opportunities in the biomaterials sector.



2016 - 2021 : Associate professor, Department of Nanoenergy Engineering, Pusan National Univ.
2012 - 2016 : Assistant professor, Department of Nanoenergy Engineering, Pusan National Univ.
2010 - 2012 : Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Bioengineering, UC Berkeley, USA
2009 - 2010 : Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Chemicalgineering, Hanyang Univ.
2005 - 2009 : Ph. D. Physical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Hanyang Univ.
2003 - 2005 : M.S., Physical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Hanyang Univ.
1999 - 2003 : B.S., Department of Chemistry, Hanyang Univ.

Grant Scull
(The Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State University, USA)

I am a 5th year PhD Candidate at the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State University.My research focuses on applying novel colloidal therapies to common tissue associated injuries and ailments.

Michael Gelinsky
(Dresden University of Technology, Germany)

Michael Gelinsky, FBSE, is professor and head of the Centre for Translational Bone, Joint and Soft Tissue Research at the Faculty of Medicine of the Technical University of Dresden, Germany (https://tu-dresden.de/med/tfo). He is currently the President of the German Society for Biomaterials (DGBM) and member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Biofabriction (ISBF).

Andrés J. García
(Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)

Andrés J. García is the Executive Director of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and Regents’ Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. García’s research program integrates innovative engineering, materials science, and cell biology concepts and technologies to create cell-instructive biomaterials for regenerative medicine and generate new knowledge in mechanobiology. This cross-disciplinary effort has resulted in new biomaterial platforms that elicit targeted cellular responses and tissue repair in various biomedical applications, innovative technologies to study and exploit cell adhesive interactions, and new mechanistic insights into the interplay of mechanics and cell biology. In addition, his research has generated intellectual property and licensing agreements with start-up and multi-national companies. He is a co-founder of 3 start-up companies (CellectCell, CorAmi Therapeutics, iTolerance). He has received several distinctions, including the NSF CAREER Award; the Young Investigator Award, the Clemson Award for Basic Science, and the Founders Award from the Society for Biomaterials; the International Award from the European Society for Biomaterials; and Georgia Tech’s Outstanding Interdisciplinary Activities Award and the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award. He is an elected Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering (by the International Union of Societies of Biomaterials Science and Engineering), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He served as President for the Society for Biomaterials in 2018-2019. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Inventors.

Michael Gelinsky
(Dresden University of Technology, Germany)

Michael Gelinsky, FBSE, is professor and head of the Centre for Translational Bone, Joint and Soft Tissue Research at the Faculty of Medicine of the Technical University of Dresden, Germany (https://tu-dresden.de/med/tfo). He is currently the President of the German Society for Biomaterials (DGBM) and member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Biofabriction (ISBF).

Amir Sheikhi
(Penn State University, USA)

Dr. Amir Sheikhi founded the Bio-Soft Materials Laboratory (B-SMaL) at Penn State in August 2019 to tackle some of the quintessential challenges of the 21st century in biomedicine and the environment by designing novel bio-based soft material platforms via micro- and nanoengineering techniques. Amir’s lab consists of 10 graduate students, 1 postdoctoral fellow, and more than 15 undergraduate researchers, supported by $3+ M of funding, including NIH R01 and R56 grants. Amir’s research has been featured in more than 70 publications, 50 seminars, and 14 reports of invention/patent applications with recognition by over 40 news media outlets. He is the recipient of several major awards, including the AIChE’s 35 Under 35, The 2022 ACS Unilever Award for Outstanding Young Investigator in Colloid & Surfactant Science, The John C. Chen Young Professional Leadership Scholarship, UNIFOR Global Research Fellowship. Recently, Amir was named as one of the 9 emerging leaders in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering worldwide, featured on the cover of the Inaugural “Futures” Issue of Bioengineering & Translational Medicine journal. Amir earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at McGill University and continued to complete two years of postdoctoral research on Colloids and Macromolecules at McGill Chemistry. Before joining Penn State, Amir was a postdoctoral fellow in Engineering in Medicine/Bioengineering at Harvard Medical School and UCLA working with Ali Khademhosseini. Amir is currently an Associate Editor of Bioengineering & Translational Medicine and is on the editorial board of Biomaterials and Bioactive Materials.

Daniel L. Alge
(Texas A&M University, USA)

Dr. Daniel Alge earned a B.S. in Biosystems Engineering from Clemson University in 2006 and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue University in 2010. He was a postdoctoral fellow in Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder from 2010 to 2014. He joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University as an Assistant Professor in 2014 and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2020. Dr. Alge’s research focuses on hydrogel biomaterials for applications in regenerative engineering, medical devices, and living systems. He is recognized for pioneering research on poly(ethylene glycol) immunogenicity as well as significant contributions to the development of granular hydrogels for biomedical applications. Dr. Alge is an active member of the Society for Biomaterials and previously served as the chair of the Engineering Cells and Their Microenvironments special interest group (2021-2023) and vice-chair of the Biomaterials Education special interest group (2021-2023). He is also an associate editor of the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A.

Amir Sheikhi
(Penn State University, USA)

Dr. Amir Sheikhi founded the Bio-Soft Materials Laboratory (B-SMaL) at Penn State in August 2019 to tackle some of the quintessential challenges of the 21st century in biomedicine and the environment by designing novel bio-based soft material platforms via micro- and nanoengineering techniques. Amir’s lab consists of 10 graduate students, 1 postdoctoral fellow, and more than 15 undergraduate researchers, supported by $3+ M of funding, including NIH R01 and R56 grants. Amir’s research has been featured in more than 70 publications, 50 seminars, and 14 reports of invention/patent applications with recognition by over 40 news media outlets. He is the recipient of several major awards, including the AIChE’s 35 Under 35, The 2022 ACS Unilever Award for Outstanding Young Investigator in Colloid & Surfactant Science, The John C. Chen Young Professional Leadership Scholarship, UNIFOR Global Research Fellowship. Recently, Amir was named as one of the 9 emerging leaders in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering worldwide, featured on the cover of the Inaugural “Futures” Issue of Bioengineering & Translational Medicine journal. Amir earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at McGill University and continued to complete two years of postdoctoral research on Colloids and Macromolecules at McGill Chemistry. Before joining Penn State, Amir was a postdoctoral fellow in Engineering in Medicine/Bioengineering at Harvard Medical School and UCLA working with Ali Khademhosseini. Amir is currently an Associate Editor of Bioengineering & Translational Medicine and is on the editorial board of Biomaterials and Bioactive Materials.

Yiting Lei
(The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, China)

Yiting Lei is currently serving in orthopedic department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. His research focuses on the design and application of biomaterials for bone and joint diseases. Up to now, he has published papers as the first author/corresponding author in prominent international journals such as Science Advances, Advanced Functional Materials, Nano Today, Bioactive Materials, Military Medical Research, Journal of Nanobiotechnology, and International Journal of Bioprinting. Additionally, he serves as a member of the editorial board for BMC Biomedical Engineering and holds positions as a youth editor for journals such as Exploration, VIEW, Interdisciplinary Medicine, etc.

Kristopher A. Kilian
(University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia)

Professor Kris Kilian received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry from the University of Washington in 1999 and 2003 respectively, and his PhD in Chemistry at the University of New South Wales in 2007. Kris was a NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago (2008-2010), Assistant Professor (2011-2017) and Associate Professor (2017-2018) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before joining UNSW Sydney in 2018. Kris is a recipient of the Cornforth Medal from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (2008), the NIH Ruth L. Kirchstein National Research Service Award (2008), the National Science Foundation’s CAREER award (2015), a Young Innovator of Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering (2017), the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (2018), the Deans award for Excellence in Research (2020) and a Eureka Prize Finalist for Innovative Use of Technology (2023). His research interests include the design and development of model extracellular matrices and dynamic biomaterials for cell and tissue engineering.

Junmin Lee
(POSTECH, Korea, Republic of)

Dr. Junmin Lee is currently an Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at The Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH). Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Lee worked with Dr. Ali Khademhosseini as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, Los-Angeles (UCLA) as well as Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation. He received his Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the supervision of Dr. Kristopher A. Kilian. Dr. Lee’s research focuses on developing engineering approaches to solve biological problems related to healthcare engineering. To address limitations of existing biomedical strategies including lack of suitable materials with high levels of complexities/dynamics in the body, our lab focuses on developing/designing smart biomaterial systems for potential applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Furthermore, Dr. Lee’s lab tries to understand human body/tissue systems as well as biomaterial-cell interfaces for smart healthcare engineering. He has published more than 90 peer-reviewed journal papers. His papers have been cited ~4,800 times in total (H-index: 41) and have been highlighted in many newspapers.

Eben Alsberg
(University of Illinois Chicago, USA)

Eben Alsberg holds the Richard and Loan Hill Chair Professorship in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Orthopaedic Surgery, Pharmacology and Regenerative Medicine, and Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he serves as Director of the Alsberg Stem Cell and Engineered Novel Therapeutics (ASCENT) Laboratory. He was previously a professor at Case Western Reserve University in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Orthopaedic Surgery from 2005-2018. He received his B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering and also in Mechanical Engineering and Material Science, cum laude, from Duke University in 1994. He then went to graduate school at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he received an M.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering (1998), an M.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering (1998), and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering (2002). Following his graduate studies, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Vascular Biology Program at Harvard Medical School.

His laboratory focuses on engineering functional biologic replacements to repair damaged or diseased tissues in the body. Complex signals implicated in tissue morphogenesis, repair, and homeostasis are used as inspiration for the development of innovative biomaterials for tissue regeneration. Through the precise temporal and spatial presentation of soluble bioactive factors, mechanical forces, and biomaterial physical and biochemical properties, his lab aspires to create microenvironments that regulate cell gene expression and new tissue formation. He has co-authored >155 peer reviewed papers and book chapters, and his work has been recognized with the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society Senior Scientist Award, the Biovalley Young Investigator Award from the Tissue Engineering Society International, the Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging Award, the Crain’s Cleveland Business Forty Under 40 Award, the Technion Lady Davis Fellowship, a Visiting Professorship at Kyung Hee University, and election as fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (TERM), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). His research has been funded by the NIH, DOD, NSF, the Ellison Medical Foundation, the Coulter Foundation, the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, the State of Ohio and the AO Foundation. Alsberg has ~35 patents issued or pending in the field of tissue engineering. He has given >160 invited lectures around the world and is active in many professional societies.

Jeroen Leijten
(University of Twente, Netherlands)

Jeroen Leijten is a tenured Associate Professor at University of Twente, the Netherlands. He earned his MSc in Biomedical Sciences at Leiden University in 2007, and his PhD in Tissue Engineering with Prof. Blitterswijk at University of Twente in 2012, where he continued to work as a postdoc for an additional year with Prof. Karperien. Then, he conducted postdoctoral research work in KU Leuven (Belgium) and Harvard-MIT (USA), before accepting a tenure track position at the University of Twente. His lab focuses on developing novel microtechnologies with a particular interest in microfluidics, micromaterials, and on-demand tunable biomaterials, which he leverages to create 3D spatiotemporal microenvironments to control (stem) cell behavior. More recently, he has used this novel technology to advance the 3D bioprinting applications. Prof. Leijten is author of numerous papers in high-ranked journals including Cell Stem Cell, Nature Communications, Advanced materials, Small, and PNAS, and has valorized and licensed five patents to distinct companies. He currently leads two large international consortia including a Pathfinder. He received numerous recognitions, including an ERC Starting Grant, and the Veni and Vidi awards from the Dutch Research Council, as well as multiple early-career and presentation awards/honors. Those include the ‘Best engineering idea of 2018’ by the Dutch Academy of Engineers, the Jean Leray Award by the European Society for Biomaterials (2020), and the Robert Brown Early Career Principal Investigator Award by TERMIS-EU (2020)

Thomas Jay Webster
(Interstellar Therapeutics, USA)

Thomas J. Webster’s (H index: 123; Google Scholar) degrees are in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh (B.S., 1995; USA) and in biomedical engineering from RPI (Ph.D., 2000; USA). He has served as a professor at Purdue (2000-2005), Brown (2005-2012), and Northeastern (2012-2021; serving as Chemical Engineering Department Chair from 2012 - 2019) Universities and has formed over a dozen companies who have numerous FDA approved medical products currently improving human health. He is currently helping those companies and serves as a professor at Hebei University of Technology, Saveetha University, Vellore Institute of Technology, UFPI, and others. Dr. Webster has numerous awards including: 2020, World Top 2% Scientist by Citations (PLOS); 2020, SCOPUS Highly Cited Research (Top 1% Materials Science and Mixed Fields); 2021, Clarivate Top 0.1% Most Influential Researchers (Pharmacology and Toxicology); 2022, Best Materials Science Scientist by Citations (Research.com); and is a fellow of over 8 societies. Prof. Webster is a former President of the U.S. Society For Biomaterials and has over 1,350 publications to his credit with over 53,000 citations. He was recently nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2023).

Y. Shrike Zhang
(Harvard Medical School, USA)

Dr. Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate Bioengineer in the Division of Engineering in Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is directing the Laboratory of Engineered Living Systems (www.shrikezhang.com), where the research is focused on innovating medical engineering technologies, including 3D bioprinting, organs-on-chips, microfluidics, and bioanalysis, to recreate functional tissues and their biomimetic models, for applications in regenerative medicine and personalized medicine. Dr. Zhang is an author of >300 peer-reviewed publications (>50 covers; citations ~30,000, h-index = 86). His scientific contributions have been recognized by >45 awards.

Thomas Jay Webster
(Interstellar Therapeutics, USA)

Thomas J. Webster’s (H index: 123; Google Scholar) degrees are in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh (B.S., 1995; USA) and in biomedical engineering from RPI (Ph.D., 2000; USA). He has served as a professor at Purdue (2000-2005), Brown (2005-2012), and Northeastern (2012-2021; serving as Chemical Engineering Department Chair from 2012 - 2019) Universities and has formed over a dozen companies who have numerous FDA approved medical products currently improving human health. He is currently helping those companies and serves as a professor at Hebei University of Technology, Saveetha University, Vellore Institute of Technology, UFPI, and others. Dr. Webster has numerous awards including: 2020, World Top 2% Scientist by Citations (PLOS); 2020, SCOPUS Highly Cited Research (Top 1% Materials Science and Mixed Fields); 2021, Clarivate Top 0.1% Most Influential Researchers (Pharmacology and Toxicology); 2022, Best Materials Science Scientist by Citations (Research.com); and is a fellow of over 8 societies. Prof. Webster is a former President of the U.S. Society For Biomaterials and has over 1,350 publications to his credit with over 53,000 citations. He was recently nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2023).

Junmin Lee
(POSTECH, Korea, Republic of)

Dr. Junmin Lee is currently an Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at The Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH). Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Lee worked with Dr. Ali Khademhosseini as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, Los-Angeles (UCLA) as well as Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation. He received his Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the supervision of Dr. Kristopher A. Kilian. Dr. Lee’s research focuses on developing engineering approaches to solve biological problems related to healthcare engineering. To address limitations of existing biomedical strategies including lack of suitable materials with high levels of complexities/dynamics in the body, our lab focuses on developing/designing smart biomaterial systems for potential applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Furthermore, Dr. Lee’s lab tries to understand human body/tissue systems as well as biomaterial-cell interfaces for smart healthcare engineering. He has published more than 90 peer-reviewed journal papers. His papers have been cited ~4,800 times in total (H-index: 41) and have been highlighted in many newspapers.

Jeroen Leijten
(University of Twente, Netherlands)

Jeroen Leijten is a tenured Associate Professor at University of Twente, the Netherlands. He earned his MSc in Biomedical Sciences at Leiden University in 2007, and his PhD in Tissue Engineering with Prof. Blitterswijk at University of Twente in 2012, where he continued to work as a postdoc for an additional year with Prof. Karperien. Then, he conducted postdoctoral research work in KU Leuven (Belgium) and Harvard-MIT (USA), before accepting a tenure track position at the University of Twente. His lab focuses on developing novel microtechnologies with a particular interest in microfluidics, micromaterials, and on-demand tunable biomaterials, which he leverages to create 3D spatiotemporal microenvironments to control (stem) cell behavior. More recently, he has used this novel technology to advance the 3D bioprinting applications. Prof. Leijten is author of numerous papers in high-ranked journals including Cell Stem Cell, Nature Communications, Advanced materials, Small, and PNAS, and has valorized and licensed five patents to distinct companies. He currently leads two large international consortia including a Pathfinder. He received numerous recognitions, including an ERC Starting Grant, and the Veni and Vidi awards from the Dutch Research Council, as well as multiple early-career and presentation awards/honors. Those include the ‘Best engineering idea of 2018’ by the Dutch Academy of Engineers, the Jean Leray Award by the European Society for Biomaterials (2020), and the Robert Brown Early Career Principal Investigator Award by TERMIS-EU (2020)

Tim Woodfield
(University of Otago, New Zealand)

Prof. Tim B. F. Woodfield, Ph.D. is Professor of Regenerative Medicine in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery & Musculoskeletal Medicine at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He leads the Christchurch Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering (CReaTE) Group and is Director of the University of Otago Centre for Bioengineering & Nanomedicine. His research platform involves development of novel bioinks and bioresins, biofabrication, spheroid bioassembly and additive manufacturing of medical devices applied to regenerative medicine of cartilage and bone, advanced 3D in vitro tissue culture models, and high throughput screening.
He has published over 150 peer reviewed journal articles, book chapters and published conference proceedings and has received a number of awards and fellowships including a prestigious Rutherford Discovery Fellowship from the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apärangi and the University of Otago Research Gold Medal. He received the 2020 Research Excellence Award from the Australasian Society for Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering (ASBTE), and was awarded Fellow, Biomaterials Science & Engineering (FBSE) in 2020 by the International Union of Societies in Biomaterials Science and Engineering (IUSBSE).
He has attracted over NZ$28 million in competitive research funding as a Principal or Associate Investigator through grants from the Ministry of Business Innovation & Employment, Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apärangi, New Zealand Health Research Council, AO Foundation, as well as the European Commission (EU-FP7).
He is the current President of the International Society for Biofabrication (ISBF) and former President of the Australasian Society for Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering (ASBTE). He sits on the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society Asia Pacific (TERMIS-AP) Council and on the Executive Editorial Board for Biofabrication. He is also an Editorial Board Member for Advanced Healthcare Materials and APL Bioengineering and Associate Editor for Frontiers in Bioengineering & Biotechnology.

Jouha Min
(University of Michigan Ann Arbor, USA)

Jouha Min is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Dr. Min holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University, as well as MS and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from MIT. Her academic background also includes postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where she gained invaluable experience in the biotech industry.

Dr. Min's research group is dedicated to developing cutting-edge biomaterials and biosensors that are grounded in fundamental chemical engineering principles, with the goal of creating robust engineering solutions to significant health problems such as cancer and life-threatening infectious diseases. For some of the ongoing efforts, the Min group has recently received the Discovery Award from the UM Rogel Cancer Center and the V Scholar award from the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

carmine onofrillo
(The University of Melbourne, Australia)

Dr. Carmine Onofrillo is a Research Fellow at the department of surgery, faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Science of the University of Melbourne. His research activity range over regenerative medicine, tissue engineering and disease modelling. He received his academic education from the University of Bologna (Italy), awarding a bachelor's degree in biology, a master's degree in molecular biology and a PhD in oncology and experimental pathology. During his PhD, He spent one year in the laboratory of Metabolism and Cancer of the IDIBELL research institute in Barcelona (Spain). He then obtained a research fellow position at the department of experimental, diagnostic and specialty medicine (DIMES) of the University of Bologna at St. Orsola Polyclinic to study the relationship between ribosome biogenesis and cell cycle regulation in cancer. He moved to Melbourne (Australia) to work in the tissue engineering field. Dr. Onofrillo is part of the Regenerative Engineering and Modelling of Osteochondral Diseases (REMOD) Group, a multidisciplinary research team based at the Aikenhead centre for medical discoveries (ACMD) at St. Vincent's Hospital of Melbourne. The research team aims to develop a therapeutic biomedical implant to regenerate human cartilage tissue after injuries and to model osteochondral diseases such as osteosarcoma. During his academic education, he acquired technical skills to perform cell isolation, cell culture, cell differentiation, genetic engineering, molecular analysis, advanced imaging, animal modelling and 3D bioprinting. He sustains national and international collaborations with the Osteoarticular Regeneration laboratory of Rizzoli orthopaedic institute of Bologna (Italy), Swinbourne and RMIT University and University of Wollongong. Dr. Onofrillo successfully obtained paramount funding for his research activity such as an MDHS Dean's innovation grant, an Early Career Research grant and Seeding grants from the the University of Melbourne and Research Endowment funds from the St. Vincent's Hospital of Melbourne. He is an established teacher, supervisor and technical trainer of PhD, Honours and Master students. Dr. Onofrillo is also part of Axcelda, a commercial body with the aim to develop clinical biomedical devices and therapies for cartilage regeneration.

Changyou Gao
(Zhejiang University, China)

Changyou Gao graduated from Department of Chemistry, Jilin University to get his Bachelor degree (1990), Master degree (1993) and Ph.D of Polymer Chemistry and Physics (1996). From 1996 to 1998, he worked in Department of Polymer Science and Engineering of Zhejiang University as a postdoctor fellowship. He was a DAAD and visiting scholar in Germany (1999). He is a Cheung Kong Scholar of Ministry of Education of China, a winner for the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China, a fellow of the international federation of biomaterial science and engineering societies, the American Institute of Medicinal and Biological Engineering, Royal Society of Chemistry, and Chinese Society of Biomaterials. He is now serving as an associate president of Chinese Society of Biomaterials, and an associate editor of Biomaterials Advances and Progress in Materials Science. His research interests include self-adaptive biomaterials, immuno-modulation biomaterials, anti-bacterial biomaterials and their applications in tissue repair and regeneration. He has published more than 500 papers with an H-index of 78.

J. Miguel Oliveira
(3B's Research Group - University of Minho, Portugal)

J. Miguel Oliveira BSc, Ph.D. (Portuguese, M, 46 years old) is a Principal Investigator with Habilitation at the 3B's Research Group, member of the PT Government Associate Laboratory ICVS/3B’s (https://3bs.uminho.pt/people/94) and Institute 3Bs (I3Bs), University of Minho (Portugal). He is the Vice President of I3Bs, President Elect of the Scientific Council of I3Bs, and Director of Pre-Clinical Research at the FIFA MEDICAL CENTER, Estádio do Dragão, Porto, PT since Feb. 2013. Currently, he is a Lecturer in Doctoral Program in Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells (TERM&SC) at UMinho, PT (since Dec. 2013). Over the years he has focused his work on the field of biomaterials for tissue engineering, nanomedicine, stem cells, and cell/drug delivery. He also set up a new research line within the ICVS/3B’s on 3D in vitro models for cancer research. As a result of his proficiency, he has published so far more than 400 scientific contributions in scientific journals with the referee. Miguel Oliveira has approved 22 patents (filled & submitted), published 10 books (plus 2 in preparation), 12 special issues/topic collections in scientific journals, and more than 130 book chapters in books with international circulation. He has participated in more than 700 communications in national/international conferences and has been invited/keynote speaker in more than 90 plenary sessions and seminars. He has an h-index of 70, i10 of 252 and received more than 17800 citations. He has been awarded several prizes including the prestigious “Investigador FCT 2012 and Investigador FCT 2015” attributed by FCT (Portugal), and Jean Leray Award 2015 from European Society for Biomaterials for Young Scientists for Outstanding Contributions within the field of Biomaterials. He is very active on the elaboration and scientific coordination of several PT and international funded projects. In addition, he is member of the National Ethics Committee for Clinical Research from Serviço Nacional de Saúde (SNS) (PORTUGAL). He is the Editor-in-chief of the In vitro Models Journal (Springer Nature). He is one of the Editors of the Book Series on Biomaterials, Bioengineering and Sustainability (Springer). He also integrates the advisory /editorial board of the Journal Bio-Design and Manufacturing, Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine, Materials (MDPI), International Journal of Tissue Engineering, Journal of Composites and Biodegradable Polymers, Journal ISRN Biomaterials, The Journal of Experimental Orthopaedics, Journal “Recent Patents on Corrosion Science”, and has several editorial roles in Frontiers. He is referee in more than 50 international journals. In 2020-21, he was listed among the TOP50 worldwide experts in tissue engineering and cartilage by EXPERTSCAPE (https://expertscape.com/ex/tissue+engineering), and has been listed in the World TOP2% most cited researchers (2021 and 2022).

Gabriella Lindberg
(University of Oregon, USA)

Gabriella Lindberg completed her master’s degree in biotechnology at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and her PhD in Bioengineering the University of Otago in New Zealand. She started her lab at the University of Oregon in 2022, with a key interest in designing 3D-models to bridge the gap between engineered and native musculoskeletal tissues. A major focus includes using human cells and tissues to account for patient needs. Working at the interface of biology, chemistry, and technology, she is specifically exploring regenerative hydrogels to promote tissue repair following knee injuries under inflammatory conditions. Her lab furthermore leverages smart chemical and biological toolkits for biofabrication, laying the groundwork for more robust and physiological representative tissue constructs in vitro.

Her published papers have been cited more than 1300 times and her research has been successfully commercialized. Her work has furthermore won her several international awards, including the International Society of Biofabrication young investigator award, the Consortium for Medical Device Technologies, and the Medical Technologies Centre of Research Excellence awards.

Maurice N. Collins
(School of Engineering, University of Limerick, Ireland)

Professor Maurice N. Collins is a Materials Scientist and Professor in the School of Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Limerick. He has successfully led the H2020 funded LIBRE consortium and is WP lead in three European consortia (VIBES, Biouptake and CUBIC). At national level, He is a member of two SFI centres, FI in AMBER and challenge lead in BiOrbic. He Co-leads the SFI Challenge project “Traceless”, is a PI in NXTGENWOOD and is involved in three industrially funded projects and mentors Marie Curie and IRC Fellows. He sits on several editorial boards in his field and is an expert evaluator for several agencies including European Research Council (consolidator panel) for materials engineering, EPSRC (UK), Polish Academy of Science, Israeli Ministry of Science, National Research and Development Agency (Chile), A*STAR MTC Investigator Research Grant/Young Investigator Research Grant (Singapore), H2020 and Horizon Europe. He has been elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Institute of Materials. He is ranked in the top 2% of scientist globally by Standford. He currently supervises 6 postdocs and 11 PhD students. His mentees have been awarded the IRC postdoc award, best Chinese PhD student abroad award , Crossland Award, Fullbright Award and young researcher of the year in sustainable materials award etc. Prof. Collins has a distinguished track record of research achievements in Materials Science with multiple best paper awards, commercialisation awards, granted patents, licensing agreements and invited talks throughout the globe. He has a strong publication record with over 8k citations and h – index of 52.

Changyou Gao
(Zhejiang University, China)

Changyou Gao graduated from Department of Chemistry, Jilin University to get his Bachelor degree (1990), Master degree (1993) and Ph.D of Polymer Chemistry and Physics (1996). From 1996 to 1998, he worked in Department of Polymer Science and Engineering of Zhejiang University as a postdoctor fellowship. He was a DAAD and visiting scholar in Germany (1999). He is a Cheung Kong Scholar of Ministry of Education of China, a winner for the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China, a fellow of the international federation of biomaterial science and engineering societies, the American Institute of Medicinal and Biological Engineering, Royal Society of Chemistry, and Chinese Society of Biomaterials. He is now serving as an associate president of Chinese Society of Biomaterials, and an associate editor of Biomaterials Advances and Progress in Materials Science. His research interests include self-adaptive biomaterials, immuno-modulation biomaterials, anti-bacterial biomaterials and their applications in tissue repair and regeneration. He has published more than 500 papers with an H-index of 78.

Lilith M. Caballero Aguilar
(Melbourne University, Australia)

Lilith Caballero Aguilar is a biomedical engineer with expertise in biomaterials, polymers, pharmacology, and medical devices. She holds a BSc in Physics Engineering from Yucatan University in Mexico, an MSc in Biomedical Engineering from KU Leuven in Belgium, and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Swinburne University in Australia.

Currently, she is a Research Fellow at Melbourne University, working on engineering biomaterials to develop new therapies and drug delivery systems for various diseases and injuries through her engineering research including pancreatic cancer, and articular cartilage.

Aleksandr Ovsianikov
(TU Wien, Austria)

Prof. Aleksandr Ovsianikov is a head of the research group 3D Printing and Biofabrication at the TU Wien (Vienna, Austria). He is a member of the Austrian Cluster for Tissue Regeneration (http://www.tissue-regeneration.at), Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS), European Society of Biomaterials (ESB) and International Society for Biofabrication (ISBF).
Dr. Ovsianikov has background in laser physics and material processing with femtosecond lasers. His research is dealing with the use of additive manufacturing technologies and bioprinting for tissue engineering and regeneration. A particular focus of his current research is the development of multiphoton lithography technologies for engineering of biomimetic 3D cell culture matrices, realization of novel tissue engineering scaffolds and microfluidic applications. Dr. Ovsianikov was awarded a prestigious Starting Grant in 2012 and a Consolidator Grant in 2017 from the European Research Council (ERC) for projects aimed at these topics (http://amt.tuwien.ac.at/Ovsianikov).
Since 2004 Dr. Ovsianikov delivered multiple invited and keynote lectures, and has contributed to over 100 publications. Together with Prof. Mironov and Prof. Yoo he is an editor of a living book project “3D Printing and Biofabrication” published by Springer in cooperation with TERMIS.
Dr. Ovsianikov is also a co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) a TU Wien spin-off UpNano GbmH (https://www.upnano.at), aimed a commercialization of high-resolution 3D printing and Bioprinting, which received multiple awards, including the Austrian Startup of the year 2019.

Jeroen Leijten
(University of Twente, Netherlands)

Jeroen Leijten is a tenured Associate Professor at University of Twente, the Netherlands. He earned his MSc in Biomedical Sciences at Leiden University in 2007, and his PhD in Tissue Engineering with Prof. Blitterswijk at University of Twente in 2012, where he continued to work as a postdoc for an additional year with Prof. Karperien. Then, he conducted postdoctoral research work in KU Leuven (Belgium) and Harvard-MIT (USA), before accepting a tenure track position at the University of Twente. His lab focuses on developing novel microtechnologies with a particular interest in microfluidics, micromaterials, and on-demand tunable biomaterials, which he leverages to create 3D spatiotemporal microenvironments to control (stem) cell behavior. More recently, he has used this novel technology to advance the 3D bioprinting applications. Prof. Leijten is author of numerous papers in high-ranked journals including Cell Stem Cell, Nature Communications, Advanced materials, Small, and PNAS, and has valorized and licensed five patents to distinct companies. He currently leads two large international consortia including a Pathfinder. He received numerous recognitions, including an ERC Starting Grant, and the Veni and Vidi awards from the Dutch Research Council, as well as multiple early-career and presentation awards/honors. Those include the ‘Best engineering idea of 2018’ by the Dutch Academy of Engineers, the Jean Leray Award by the European Society for Biomaterials (2020), and the Robert Brown Early Career Principal Investigator Award by TERMIS-EU (2020)

Mark Skylar-Scott
(Stanford University, USA)

Mark Skylar-Scott is an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford, a member of the Basic Science and Engineering Initiative at the Children’s Heart Center and a Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator. Mark Skylar-Scott received his B.A. and M.Eng. degrees in Engineering at the University of Cambridge in 2007. For his doctoral thesis under the guidance of Prof. M. Fatih Yanik at MIT, he developed multiphoton photopatterning techniques to print full length proteins on 2D surfaces and in 3D scaffolds to probe and direct neural and vascular growth. For his postdoctoral research at Harvard and the Wyss Institute with Prof. Jennifer Lewis, he performed 3D bioprinting of thick and vascularized tissues, and created new high-throughput multimaterial multinozzle 3D printing systems. In 2022, he received the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award towards his goals to develop new 3D printing hardware, wetware, and software to accelerate cardiovascular tissue engineering towards thick, vascularized, and functionally therapeutic organs.

Junmin Lee
(Postech, Korea, Republic of)

Dr. Junmin Lee is currently an Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at The Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH). Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Lee worked with Dr. Ali Khademhosseini as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, Los-Angeles (UCLA) as well as Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation. He received his Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the supervision of Dr. Kristopher A. Kilian. Dr. Lee’s research focuses on developing engineering approaches to solve biological problems related to healthcare engineering. To address limitations of existing biomedical strategies including lack of suitable materials with high levels of complexities/dynamics in the body, our lab focuses on developing/designing smart biomaterial systems for potential applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Furthermore, Dr. Lee’s lab tries to understand human body/tissue systems as well as biomaterial-cell interfaces for smart healthcare engineering. He has published more than 90 peer-reviewed journal papers. His papers have been cited ~4,800 times in total (H-index: 41) and have been highlighted in many newspapers.

Su-Hwan Kim
(Dong-A University, Korea, Republic of)

EDUCATION
Ph. D, School of Chemical And Biological Engineering, Interdisciplinary Program for Bioengineering, Seoul National University 09/2013 – 08/2018
Dissertation: Nature-Inspired Tissue Adhesive Biomaterials for Tissue Engineering
Advisor: Prof. Nathaniel S. Hwang

B.S, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Korea University
03/2008 – 02/2013
Advisor : Prof. Sang-Hoon Lee

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Assistant Professor, Multiscale Tissue Engineering Laboratory
Department of Chemical Engineering, Dong-A University
03/2021 – present

Postdoctoral Fellow, Disease Biophysics Group
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University
09/2019 – 02/2021
Advisor: Prof. Kevin Kit Parker

Postdoctoral Fellow, Biomimetic Materials and Stem Cell Engineering Laboratory
09/2018 – 08/2019
School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Seoul National University
Advisor: Prof. Nathaniel S. Hwang

Claudia Garrido
(Charite, Germany)

I am an Ecuadorian young scientist passionate for cell-matrix interactions. I studied chemistry in my home country and started my research on the development of pectin biomaterials derived from fruit waste. After finishing my bachelor degree, I perused my masters in Toxicology in Potsdam University (Germany); the focus was reactive oxygen species in enzyme metabolism. Combining the my background in biomaterials and toxicology, I started my PhD in biochemistry in a collaboration between Charite Universitat Medizine and Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Berlin (Germany). The research involves comprehensive understanding of cell-matrix interactions in the context of osteogenesis.

Mariana Ionita
(National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, Romania)

Dr. Mariana Ionita- Professor (female-45 years) was educated at top level universities (Politecnico di Milano, Technical University of Denmark, Universitadegli Studi di Milano) and gained her PhD in Chemistry in 2008 from Univerisity Politehnica of Bucharest and in Bioengineering in 2008 from Politecnico di Milano. She has carried out very active research mirrored by over 85 published peer reviewed papers (ISI) has over 2500 citations and h-index 26. As a result of her research activity she also published 4 book chapters and is the editor of a book all of them related to biomedical field. She has co-ordinated 12 scientific grants/project and participated as PI in more than 10 national and international grants (FP6-NMP3-CT-2005-013644, FP6-MEST-CT-2004-504465 and FP5 HPMT-CT-2001-00314). Her research interests are related to i. computer aided material design and characterisation; ii. graphene based biomaterials for bone regeneration; iii. design of optical and electrochemical biosensors, iv. new inks for 3D printing for bone regeneration. In the framework of the coordinated research projects she started a pioneering work (in Romania) and one of the few worldwide in the field of graphene based biomaterials and hBMSC bone-forming potential, developed novel osteogenic potency assay biosensor using graphenic nanomaterials exploring both electrochemical and optical approaches. She was appointed member of the National Council of Scientific Research Materials Science Commissions, editor of Advances in Polymer/Graphene Composite for Bio-Applications – Coatings and From Epitaxial to Graphene for Electronics and Biomedical Aplications- Frontiers and member of editorial board of Composite Part B Engineering (2018- 2021). She has been lecturing frequently at national and international meetings, in the last 12 years more than 100 presentations at national and international meetings with plenary lectures, symposia presentation.

Alireza Sohrabi
(The University of Texas at Austin, USA)

Dr. Sohrabi earned his B.Sc degree in polymer science and engineering from University of AmirKabir in Iran. To continue his education, he moved to Netherlands where he earned his M.Sc. in chemical engineering with Cum laude degree from University of Twente. In 2014, he joined department of bioengineering at UCLA working under Prof. Stephanie Seidlits mentorship. He earned his PhD degree in bioengineering in 2021. Alireza started his postdoctoral research in the same lab in June 2021 and later moved to University of Texas at Austin to continue his research. Alireza’s main research involves engineering biomaterial to study how tumor microenvironment affects glioblastoma cancer. Currently, he is working on the evolution of tumor microenvironment after radiation therapy.

Kristopher A. Kilian
(UNSW Sydney (Australia), Australia)

Professor Kris Kilian received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry from the University of Washington in 1999 and 2003 respectively, and his PhD in Chemistry at the University of New South Wales in 2007. Kris was a NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago (2008-2010), Assistant Professor (2011-2017) and Associate Professor (2017-2018) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before joining UNSW Sydney in 2018. Kris is a recipient of the Cornforth Medal from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (2008), the NIH Ruth L. Kirchstein National Research Service Award (2008), the National Science Foundation’s CAREER award (2015), a Young Innovator of Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering (2017), the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (2018), the Deans award for Excellence in Research (2020) and a Eureka Prize Finalist for Innovative Use of Technology (2023). His research interests include the design and development of model extracellular matrices and dynamic biomaterials for cell and tissue engineering.

Alireza Sohrabi
(The University of Texas at Austin, USA)

Dr. Sohrabi earned his B.Sc degree in polymer science and engineering from University of AmirKabir in Iran. To continue his education, he moved to Netherlands where he earned his M.Sc. in chemical engineering with Cum laude degree from University of Twente. In 2014, he joined department of bioengineering at UCLA working under Prof. Stephanie Seidlits mentorship. He earned his PhD degree in bioengineering in 2021. Alireza started his postdoctoral research in the same lab in June 2021 and later moved to University of Texas at Austin to continue his research. Alireza’s main research involves engineering biomaterial to study how tumor microenvironment affects glioblastoma cancer. Currently, he is working on the evolution of tumor microenvironment after radiation therapy.

Yongtao Wang
(The Sixth People's Hospital of Nantong, China)

Dr. Wang Yongtao received his Ph.D. from the University of Tsukuba, and engaged in scientific research at National Institute for Materials Science of Japan, and then worked in Shanghai University, China. He mainly engaged in the use of new intelligent biomaterial preparation technology and micro-nano fine processing technology, to study the mechanism of cell morphogenesis on the origin of cell nanomechanics, and to explore the molecular mechanism mediated by cell nanomechanics for tumor immunotherapy. Dr. Wang published more than 20 papers, including Advanced Science, Biomaterials, Acta Biomaterialia and so on. Dr. Wang served as the editorial board of American Journal of Nano Research and Applications. 1 authorized national invention patent of China.

Ovijit Chaudhuri
(Stanford University, USA)

Dr. Ovijit Chaudhuri is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. He earned a B.S. in engineering physics with a minor in mathematics at UC Berkeley. Then, he obtained his Ph.D. in bioengineering at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco, studying force generation and mechanics of actin cytoskeletal networks with Prof. Daniel Fletcher. From there, he went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, studying cell mechanotransduction and developing engineered biomaterials for 3D culture with Prof. David Mooney. He joined Stanford in 2013, and his research interests are in cell biophysics and mechanotransduction. His honors include an NSF CAREER award, a National Cancer Institute MERIT award, an American Cancer Society research scholar award, and a DARPA young faculty award,. His group’s research has been supported by the NIH, the NSF, the American Cancer Society, DARPA, and Stanford’s Bio-X Institute. More information about his group’s work can be found at http://chaudhurilab.stanford.edu.

Fan Yang
(Stanford University, USA)

Fan Yang is an Associate Professor with tenure at Stanford University with joint appointments in the Departments of Bioengineering and Orthopaedic Surgery, and Director of Stanford Stem Cells and Biomaterials Engineering Laboratory. Her research seeks to develop hydrogels with unique design at micro- and nano- scales to modulate stem cell differentiation, tissue regeneration and immunomodulation, with applications focus on musculoskeletal diseases. Her lab also harnesses biomaterials to create 3D cancer models with in vivo-mimicking phenotype and drug responses. Such 3D models could enable discovering novel druggable targets that would otherwise be missed using conventional 2D culture, and enable high-throughput drug screening with reduced cost and time than animal models. Prior to joining Stanford, Dr. Yang received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT under Prof. Robert Langer. In recognition of her innovation, she has been recognized by numerous awards including Fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, MIT TR35 Global list honoree, National Science Foundation CAREER award, Young Investigator Award from Society for Biomaterials, Biomaterials Science Lectureship Award, Young Investigator award from Alliance for Cancer and Gene Therapy, Ellen Weaver Award by the Association for Women in Science, Baxter Faculty Scholar Award, the McCormick Faculty Award, Stanford Asian American Faculty Award, and the Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Research Award.

Andrew Holle
(National University of Singapore / Mechanobiology Institute, Singapore)

Andrew Holle received a Bachelor of Science, Engineering (B.S.E) from Arizona State University, where he worked in labs of Dr. Christine Pauken and Dr. Deirdre Meldrum. He then received his Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego, where he worked in Dr. Adam Engler’s Stem Cell Biology and Bioengineering group. There, he identified the mechanosensitive role of the focal adhesion protein vinculin in substrate stiffness-induced stem cell differentiation. Looking to explore the commonalities between stem cell and cancer mechanobiology, he then joined Prof. Joachim Spatz’s Cellular Biophysics group at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research (Stuttgart, Germany). There, he used photolithography and microfluidics to build microchannel assays to better characterize cancer cell invasion and migration in confinement. His Confinement Mechanobiology lab at the Mechanobiology Institute and in the NUS Biomedical Engineering department focuses on the role of confinement in mechanobiology, with an emphasis on novel strategies for controlling stem cell differentiation.

Bethany Almeida
(Clarkson University, USA)

Dr. Bethany Almeida is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Clarkson University. Dr. Almeida’s research focuses on engineering advanced, functional biomaterials to modulate stem cell behavior with applications in tissue engineering/regenerative medicine, wound healing, and immunoengineering. Dr. Almeida is also passionate about science communication and K-12 outreach. Dr. Almeida is the recipient of several national and university honors and awards, including a 2020 BMES Career Development Award and being named a 2020 Rising Star in Engineering in Health by Columbia University. Prior to joining Clarkson University, Dr. Almeida was an American Society for Engineering Education Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Bio/molecular Science and Engineering at the US Naval Research Laboratory. She received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Brown University in 2019 and her Bachelor’s of Science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2013 with majors in Biomedical Engineering and Professional Writing.

Juan Gnecco
(Tufts University, USA)

Dr. Juan Gnecco is Colombian-American scientist and an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University. He is the principal investigator of the Laboratory of Reproductive Engineering and an associate principal investigator in the Mother Infant Research Institute (MIRI) at Tufts Medical Center. His overarching research vision lies at the interface of women’s health and engineering to understand the immune-endocrine mechanisms driving both reproductive physiology and disease pathogenesis. As a trained reproductive biologist with extensive experience in bioengineering, he merges interdisciplinary approaches to dissect the complex and dynamic nature of the female reproductive tract. Dr. Gnecco first obtained a B.S. in Biotechnology from Rutgers University followed by a Ph.D in Cellular and Molecular Pathology from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). He then conducted his post-doctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he led efforts to transform the human clinical relevance of 3-dimensional (3D) reproductive tract models. He has been awarded three rounds of funding from Gates Foundation (2018-present) for his work building phenotypic screening models of the female reproductive tract. He is the consortium lead for the World Endometriosis Research Foundation (WERF) consortium to unify experimental organoid models, and was selected as a Rising Star in Engineering and Health by Columbia University (2020)

Jonathan M. Grasman
(New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA)

Jonathan Grasman, PhD is an assistant professor in the department of biomedical engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology. Professor Grasman received his bachelor’s degree with high honors from the University of Pittsburgh and his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. His doctoral research with Dr. George Pins focused on developing novel methods to design tunable structural and biochemical properties of fibrin microthreads in the context of skeletal muscle regeneration as an NRSA predoctoral fellow. He was subsequently an NRSA postdoctoral fellow in the biomedical engineering department at Tufts University, where he worked with Dr. David Kaplan on developing tissue systems to study the co-development of vascular and neural networks. His research interests include tissue engineering and biomaterials development and customization, particularly focused in skeletal muscle tissues and the study of innervation and vascularization.

Lesley Chow
(Lehigh University, USA)

Dr. Lesley Chow is an Associate Professor jointly appointed in the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and Bioengineering (BIOE) at Lehigh University. She joined Lehigh following her postdoctoral training at Imperial College London in Materials and BIOE and received her B.S. in MSE from the University of Florida and her Ph.D. in MSE from Northwestern University. She currently leads the Modular Biomaterials Laboratory, which focuses on developing molecular building blocks to construct implantable, multicomponent materials for functional tissue regeneration. She has received several awards for her scholarship, teaching, and service, including the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, American Chemical Society (ACS) Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) Young Investigator Award, Rossin Award for Interdisciplinary Research Excellence, Rossin Award for Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity, and the Early-Career Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award (ECURMA) by the Engineering Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR).

Jonathan M. Grasman
(New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA)

Jonathan Grasman, PhD is an assistant professor in the department of biomedical engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology. Professor Grasman received his bachelor’s degree with high honors from the University of Pittsburgh and his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. His doctoral research with Dr. George Pins focused on developing novel methods to design tunable structural and biochemical properties of fibrin microthreads in the context of skeletal muscle regeneration as an NRSA predoctoral fellow. He was subsequently an NRSA postdoctoral fellow in the biomedical engineering department at Tufts University, where he worked with Dr. David Kaplan on developing tissue systems to study the co-development of vascular and neural networks. His research interests include tissue engineering and biomaterials development and customization, particularly focused in skeletal muscle tissues and the study of innervation and vascularization.

Lucas Lemarié
(CNRS UMR 5305 - LBTI, France)

Currently in the process of carrying out a PhD, focused on the formation of organoids from induced pluripotent stem cells, differentiated by viscoelastic properties of the surrounding environnement (hydrogels inclusion)

Janne T. Koivisto
(Tampere University, Finland)

Post doctoral research fellow and hydrogel expert focusing on development of characterization methods for hydrogels and use of hydrogels in 3D cell culture application, such as disease modeling as well as clinical tissue engineering. Aiming for deeper understanding of hydrogel mechanics and cellular mechanotransduction (how cells sense their environment and how that affects cell behavior). I enjoy multidisciplinary research and working at the interface between materials engineering and biomedical applications and always facinated by biology.

Mikael Martino
(Monash University, Australia)

Associate Professor Mikaël Martino obtained his PhD in Biotechnology and Bioengineering from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland) in 2011. During his PhD thesis and subsequent postdoc in Jeffrey Hubbell’s laboratory, Mikaël primarily focused on how the extracellular matrix regulates the activities of stem cells and pro-regenerative growth factors. Notably, he developed cutting-edge growth factor and cytokine delivery systems for applications in regenerative medicine. Subsequently, Mikaël received competitive fellowships from the Swiss National Science Foundation to conduct independent research. In 2012, he became a researcher at the Immunology Frontier Research Center in the laboratory of Shizuo Akira at Osaka University, Japan. During his time there, Mikaël concentrated on how the immune system influences tissue regeneration and revealed how stem cell-based regenerative strategies are influenced by inflammatory signals. Mikaël was then recruited to the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University in mid-2016 as part of the EMBL Australia initiative. In 2022, he received the Viertel Senior Medical Researcher Fellowship, and his lab is currently working at the intersection of bioengineering and immunology to design novel regenerative strategies. Specifically, his laboratory is focused on controlling immune cells to promote repair and regeneration in various tissues and organs, including skin, bone, muscle, and the heart. Mikaël also co-founded two start-up companies in Switzerland and Australia aiming to create therapeutics for muscle regeneration and heart repair after myocardial infarction.

Longguang Tang
(Zhejiang University, China)

Dr. Tang is currently a professor from Zhejiang University; Associtate Editor of Nano Transmed. His research focused on biomaterials, drug delivery, and targeted protein degradation for the theranostics of cancer, stroke, asthma and other diseases. He has published more than 50 SCI papers in the journal such as Nat. Mater., Adv. Mater., Nat. Comm., Adv. Funct. Mater., J. Nucl.Med., J. Am. Chem. Soc, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., and Biomaterials. 7 patents have been authorized; He was awarded the Alavi-Mandell Award by the American Society for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

Jay Patel
(Emory University, USA)

Dr. Jay Patel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Orthopaedics at Emory and a Health Science Specialist at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. Dr. Patel joined the faculty at Emory in September 2020, and his program focuses on the repair and regeneration of musculoskeletal tissues (e.g., cartilage, meniscus), with an emphasis on using micro-scale findings to drive macro-scale therapies. His lab uses a combination of biomechanics, biomaterials, mechano-biology, in vitro systems, and functional in vivo models to motivate, design, develop, and evaluate novel treatments and therapeutics for musculoskeletal injuries. Dr. Patel received his Bachelor’s in Bioengineering from Rice University and his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University. While at Rutgers, his research focused on a novel meniscus replacement scaffold, evaluating it in long-term large-animal models and human cadaveric biomechanical simulations. Dr. Patel then pursued his postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, working on a variety of cartilage tissue engineering and mechano-biology projects. Dr. Patel has published over 30 manuscripts, many in leading orthopaedic and tissue engineering journals, and has presented at numerous international conference meetings. Furthermore, he has won several prestigious awards, including the Excellence in Research Award (2018) from the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine and the Cum Laude Award (2019) from the International Cartilage Repair Society. Moreover, both his graduate and postdoctoral work resulted in pending patent applications, and the formation of startup companies with active small-business funding, demonstrating his ultimate goal of translating these approaches to the clinic. Currently, Dr. Patel has a Career Development Award through the Department of Veterans Affairs, and is actively expanding his program to interface between basic science, engineering, and the clinic.

Gabrielle Hamner
(The Pennsylvania State University, USA)

Gabi Hamner was born & raised in the state of West Virginia. She graduated from West Virginia University in 2016 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a certificate in Biomedical Engineering. Upon graduation, she worked for Stockmeier Urethanes, USA for 2 years as a Research & Development Engineer. While at Stockmeier, she worked on a patent for a Highly Filled Urethane. After, she worked in a Biochemistry & Ophthalmology research lab at WVU for another 2 years under the advising of Dr. Saravanan Kolandaivelu. Dr. Kolandaivelu's lab focused on mutations of a photoreceptor protein, PRCD. She began graduate school at Penn State in 2020 in pursuit of a PhD and has been working with Dr. Justin Brown since. Gabi's thesis work entails the development and characterization of electrospun silk-based scaffolds for enthesis repair.

Yin Xiao
(School of Medicine and Dentistry, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Australia)

Prof. Yin Xiao is a distinguished professor of dentistry, oral health, and medicine at Griffith University, an adjunct professor of medical engineering at the Queensland University of Technology, and an honorary professor at the University of Queensland. He was a dental specialist (BDSc 1986 and MDSc 1991 from Wuhan University) and a research scientist (PhD 2000 from the University of Queensland). He is the Founder and the Director of the Australia-China Centre for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (ACCTERM), established in 2013, and the Joint Research Centre of Functional Biomaterials for Tissue and Organ Replacement. His work predominantly focuses on bone, biomaterials, stem cells, dentistry, and tissue regeneration. He has authored more than 360 journal papers, three books, and 23 book chapters. His H index is 86 (GS), and his work has been cited more than 31,000 times. He was named one of the top 250 researchers in Australia and the field leader in Biomedical Technology in 2019 and 2021 by Australian Research Magazine. He is an awardee of Outstanding Scientist by the TERMIS-AP Society (2022) and one of the world’s top 2% scientists in the AD Scientific Index.

Young-Kwon Seo
(Dongguk University, Korea, Republic of)

• Professor Seo Young-kwon is work for department of biomedical engineering in dongguk university.
• The main research fields are tissue engineering, biomaterials, cell therapy, bioreactors, and electroceuticals.
• Our Lab are conducting research on skin, cornea, hair, bone, cartilage, nerves, ligaments, and tendon regeneration with biomaterial, cells and electroceuticals, also, it have been developed considering the biodegradability, biocompatibility, and mechanical properties of artificial tissues.
• Electroceuticals, which is a combination of electronic and pharmaceutical, is an electronic device that stimulates organs, tissues, and nerves with electromagnetic field, ultrasound and vibratrional signals to produce therapeutic effects.

Dasmawati Mohamad
(Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia)

Assoc. Prof. Ts. Dr. Dasmawati Mohamad obtained her Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering from University of Birmingham in 1998 and MSc Polymer Science and Technology from UMIST in 2002. Dr Dasmawati was awarded PhD (Biomaterials) degree from University of Manchester, United Kingdom, in 2005. Since then, she has joined School of Dental Sciences, USM as a lecturer and currently as an Associate Professor. Her research interest is in development of antibacterial nanocomposite tooth-coloured restorative materials and 3D printable alloplastic implant for craniofacial reconstruction. She has won several medals in innovation exhibitions locally and internationally featuring her latest innovation products. To date, she has graduated 25 postgraduate students (9 PhD & 16 MSc) and published 78 research articles in various indexed journal with H index of 18. She has secured several national and university research fundings pertaining to her research expertise. She is also currently serves as a Vice President for Malaysian Biomaterials Society and Editor in Chief of Archives of Orofacial Sciences, a SCOPUS indexed journal. Recently, she has been appointed as board members in Asian Biomaterials Federation (ABF) and also in Asian Network Dental Materials Society (ANDeMS).

Jinfeng Liao
(Sichuan University, China)

She is committed to the research of new nanomaterials and hydrogel composite scaffolds in tumor treatment, bone tissue repair engineering, and cartilage tissue repair engineering. Constructed composite scaffolds such as biphasic biomimetic hydrogel, self-healing hydrogel, porous microsphere hybrid hydrogel and other composite scaffolds for hard tissue repair; designed gold nanorod composite nanoparticles, magnetic nanogels, graphene hydrogel, etc. in tumor photothermal therapy or tumor postoperative treatment research. Researches on the treatment of complex diseases such as bone tumors with hybrid hydrogels based on gold nanorods have been carried out.
As the corresponding author and the first author, she published more than 60 papers in internationally renowned SCI journals such as Bone Res., Bioactive Mater., ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, Int. J. Oral Sci., Carbohydr. Ploym. J. Bionanotechnol., Nanoscale, etc. She won the 2016 "Xiangjiang Scholar" Award. The double innovation project team led by her won the first prize of the 2018 "National College Students Fundamental Medical Innovation Forum and Experimental Design Competition". Meanwhile, she was awarded the excellent instructor of innovation and entrepreneurship for college students of West China College of Stomatology.
She presided 3 general projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and 1 youth science fund, 1 project of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology, 1 international cooperation project of the Chengdu Municipal Science and Technology Bureau and 1 innovation spark project of Sichuan University, etc., and accepted 2 Chinese invention patents items, participated in the compilation of 2 English books. At the same time, it has established extensive cooperation with many universities at home and abroad.

Takuya Matsumoto
(Okayama University, Japan)

Prof. Matsumoto graduated from Faculty of Dentistry, Osaka University and got DDS on 1997. Then he started dental biomaterials research and got PhD on 2002 from Osaka University. He is known as one of the leading designers of new dental-related biomaterials. His research approach is studying the hard tissue development with materials science perspective, and designing new materials based on the newly acquired understandings. Consequently, he has reported a three-dimensional in vitro model system that reproduce bone development from cell aggregates, developed technology for early bone regeneration/reconstruction, and has developed solid adhesives that has never existed before. Relating to these works, he has so far published more than 100 original papers (H index = 39) and submitted more than 15 patents relating to this field. He has received many important awards including Society Award and Young Investigator Award of Japanese Society for Biomaterials and Japanese Society for Dental Materials and Devices. Based on these achievements, he is currently active as a leader in Dental biomaterials, including executive director of the Japanese Society for Biomaterials and the Japanese Society for Dental Science and Technology, and director of the Japanese Association for Dental Research.

Kent Leach
(University of California Davis, USA)

J. Kent Leach is the Lawrence J. Ellison Endowed Professor of Musculoskeletal Research and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Davis. His research interests are focused on developing cell-instructive biomaterials for tissue engineering of replacement tissues and cultivated meat, applying transport principles for growth of engineered tissues and modeling cancer, and translation from the bench to the clinic. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, the official journal of the Society for Biomaterials (SFB). He was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) in 2017 and as a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society in 2018. He is the Program Director of one of eight NIH-funded predoctoral training grants focused on musculoskeletal health nationally. He has received multiple teaching and mentorship awards at UC Davis, and he holds various leadership roles in his scientific communities including the Board of Directors of BMES and within the Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS).

Kent Leach
(University of California Davis, USA)

J. Kent Leach is the Lawrence J. Ellison Endowed Professor of Musculoskeletal Research and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Davis. His research interests are focused on developing cell-instructive biomaterials for tissue engineering of replacement tissues and cultivated meat, applying transport principles for growth of engineered tissues and modeling cancer, and translation from the bench to the clinic. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, the official journal of the Society for Biomaterials (SFB). He was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) in 2017 and as a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society in 2018. He is the Program Director of one of eight NIH-funded predoctoral training grants focused on musculoskeletal health nationally. He has received multiple teaching and mentorship awards at UC Davis, and he holds various leadership roles in his scientific communities including the Board of Directors of BMES and within the Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS).

Thanaphum (Noom) Osathanon
(Chulalongkorn University, Thailand)

Professor Osathanon earned his bachelor’s degree in Doctor of Dental Surgery from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and further graduated study in the Doctor of Philosophy in Oral Biology Program from the University of Washington, USA. Currently, Professor Osathanon is an Associate Dean in Research Affairs, Faculty of Dentistry, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He published more than 120 publications in the international database and is also an editorial board member of the International Dental Journal, Scientific Reports, and BMC Oral Health.

He currently is a Director of CU Dental Innovation Center at the Faculty of Dentistry, Chulalongkorn University and completed the “University Holding Company Directorship Certificate Program”. Prog Osathanon serves on the Board of Directors in company that Chulalongkorn University is a major shareholder; CU Dent Enterprise Co.Ltd.

Hiroshi Egusa
(Tohoku University, Japan)

Professor Hiroshi Egusa received his DDS and PhD from Hiroshima University, and worked in the University of Hong Kong and UCLA as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2004, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor in Osaka University and as a full Professor in Tohoku University Graduate School of Dentistry in 2014. He has received the IADR Distinguished Scientist (Young Investigator) Award; First place in the IADR Edward Hatton Award; and the First place of the IADR Arthur Frechette Award.

Jeong-Kui Ku
(Jeonbuk National University, Korea, Republic of)

Professor Dr. Jeong-Kui Ku (DDS, PhD, FIBCSOMS) graduated from School of Dentistry and Graduate School, Gangneong-Wonju National University in 2013 (D.D.S.) and was awarded MsD & Ph.D degree (Medicine; Tissue engineering) from University of Ulsan (Head & Mentor: Prof. Bu-Kyu Lee) in 2018 & 2020, and Fellow of International Board for Certifications of Specialist in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Fellowship (FIBSCOMS) in 2019.

He is currently Associate Professor (Full time faculty) in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Dentistry and Institute of Oral Bioscience, Research Institute of Clinical Medicine of Jeonbuk National University, Biomedical Research Institute of Jeonbuk National University Hospital, Jeonbuk National University, and has more than 80 scientific papers published, among them 30 published in SCIE journals.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1192-7066
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jeong-Kui-Ku

Associate Editor of Journal of Dental Implant Research
Section Editor of Journal of Korean Association of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
Military director of the Korean Association of Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons
Insurance director of the Korean Cleft Lip and Palate Association
Director of Korean Association of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
Editor of the Korean Academy of Implant Dentistry

Luis García-Fernández
(Centro de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Red (CIBER-BBN), Spain)

Dr. Luis García-Fernández (Ph.D.-chemistry), now is a Senior Researcher in the Biomaterials Group of the Polymer Science and Technology Institute (Spanish National Research Council). He got his B.Sc. in Chemical engineering and Science Doctor’s degree (Ph.D) at University Complutense of Madrid. He got the European Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Doctoral Award from the European Society of Biomaterials (ESB) in 2011 and the Best Paper 2012 Award from the Journal Materials Science: Materials in Medicine in 2012. Dr. Luis García-Fernández spent several years at Max-Planck institute for polymer research in Mainz (Germany) were he developed different research lines: Catechol derivatives for antibacterial coatings, torrent frog-inspired adhesives and Study of cell behavior by QCM-D
Currently Dr. Luis García-Fernández' researches focus on the development of novel scaffolds for osteochondral regeneration and new nanoparticles for cancer treatment.

Akiko Obata
(Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan)

Akiko Obata’s research is focused on glasses, ceramics and their composites/hybrids with biodegradable polymers for bone tissue regeneration, including the study of interactions between these materials and cells. Her research group has developed fibrous materials with nonwoven and cotton-wool structures and controllable releasing ability of inorganic ions (Si, Ca, Mg etc.) for enhanced cell function.

Céline Saint Olive
(NORAKER, France)

Céline Saint Olive is CEO of NORAKER since 2015, a private company based in France that develops, manufactures and commercializes bioactive glass based implants for orthopedic, spine, cranio-maxillo-facial and dental inidcations. The products are registered and commercialized in more than 40 countries, showing the interest of such technology for bone regeneration.
She has 2 master’s degree in Physics and Bioengineering from the “Grande Ecole” of Paris, ESPCI. She worked from 2005 to 2012 for L’Oréal in Paris and Shanghai, in R&I Labs to evaluate new hair care products. Since 2014, she is a scientific advisor for a French Family Office and board member of several French Health Tech startups.
She received several awards for leading NORAKER and her commitment in the local ecosystems of health-tech startups (“BFM” awards 2019, “Le Tout Lyon” award 2020“, Le progres” awards 2021).

Haffsah Iqbal
(Imperial college london, United Kingdom)

Current Position:
Research Assistant, (Prof. Julian R Jones' research group) Department of Materials, Imperial College London. My current research project is based on new material fabrication through photopolymerization and photo printing with SLA/DLP printer scaffold fabrication for bone regeneration application.

Education
PHD | 2018-2023 | IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON
Supervisor: Prof. Julian R Jones
Co-Supervisor: Professor Theoni K. Georgiou

MS | 2011-2013 | GCU LAHORE PAKISTAN (3.74/4): DISTINCTION
Major: Forensic Chemistry
Minor: Analytical Chemistry
Project: Development and Validation of Illicit Drug Assay with HPLC-PDA

BS (HONS.) | 2006-2010 | GCU LAHORE PAKISTAN (3.21/4): DISTINCTION
Major: Chemistry
Minor: Applied Mathematics
Project: Synthesis and Characterization of Valine Derivatives

Previous projects

1. Synthesis and Characterization of Valine Derivatives. (UG project)

2. Development and Validation of Illicit Drug Assay with HPLC-PDA. (MS project)

3. Developing polymer-based Nerve Guidance Conduits for peripheral nerve repair, which are biocompatible and biodegradable (with supervision from previous PAK-UK Fellow Dr. A. Khan).

4. Synthesis of ceramic/polymer-based scaffolds using freeze-drying method (HEC Funded)

5. Isolation of silk fibroin from Bombyx Mori. (IRCBM Funded)

6. Electrospun fibers of silk fibroin-based polymer. (IRCBM Funded)

7. Extraction of biodegradable biomaterial material from natural sources. (IRCBM Funded)

8. Development of novel degradable materials capable of inducing a vascularized healing response. (HEC Funded)

9. Polycaprolactone-based biodegradable copolymers of various architecture for incorporation into 3D printed hybrid bone scaffolds. (PhD project)

Jingwen Liu
(University College London, United Kingdom)

I started PhD study at University College London in October 2021. My project is exploring the efficacy of hybrid biomaterial for cartilage replacement (implants) in human joints, using micro-CT techniques supervised by Prof. Peter Lee and Prof Julian Jones.

Ngan Huang
(Stanford University, USA)

Ngan F. Huang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford University and Research Career Scientist at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. Dr. Huang completed her BS in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by a PhD in bioengineering from the University of California Berkeley & University of California San Francisco Joint Program in Bioengineering. Prior to joining the faculty, she was a postdoctoral scholar in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University. Her laboratory investigates the interactions between stem cells and extracellular matrix microenvironment for engineering cardiovascular tissues to treat cardiovascular and musculoskeletal diseases. Recent research focuses on the role of microgravity for drug screening of engineered muscle tissue. Dr. Huang has authored over 90 publications and patents, including those in Nat Med, PNAS, and Circ Res. She has received numerous honors, including a NIH K99/R00 Career Development Award, Fellow of the American Heart Association, a Young Investigator award from the Society for Vascular Medicine, a Young Investigator Award from the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society-Americas, and a Rising Star award at the Cell & Molecular Bioengineering conference. She recently received the Society for Biomaterials Mid-Career award and the Alan Hirsch Mid-Career Award in Vascular Medicine from the American Heart Association. She has active or completed projects funded by the NIH, NSF, AHA, Department of Defense, California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, and Department of Veteran Affairs.

Yi Hong
(University of Texas at Arlington, USA)

Dr. Yi Hong is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). He achieved his PhD in Material Science and Engineering in 2005 at Zhejiang University. Before joining the UTA in 2012, Dr. Hong worked as a postdoc and later as a Research Assistant Professor in the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine in the University of Pittsburgh. His research focuses on developing functional and bioactive soft biomaterials and translational research for tissue repair and regeneration applications, especially for cardiovascular disease treatment, and women and children healthcare. He has published over 100 peer-review papers in the field of biomaterials and applied/issued 12 patents as well as over 160 conference abstracts. He received many awards, such as AHA Beginning Grant-in-Aid award (2014), NSF CAREER award (2016), College of Engineering Outstanding Early Career Award (2018), Junior Investigator Award from BMES ABioM-SIG (2018), CAB Mid-CAREER Award (2020), College of Engineering Excellence in Research Award (2020), University’s Outstanding Research Award (2021), and recent AHA Established Investigator Award (2022). He was elected as a Fellow of American Heart Association (AHA), American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), and a Senior Member of National Academy of Inventors.

Carlijn Bouten
(Eindoven University of Technology, Netherlands)

Carlijn Bouten is full professor of Cell-Matrix Interactions in Cardiovascular Regeneration and heads the research group 'Soft Tissue Engineering & Mechanobiology' at the department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology. Her research group investigates the interplay between living cells and the mechanobiological cues originating from the extracellular environment under conditions of tissue growth, adaptation, degeneration and regeneration. The group uses ‘living’ model systems at different length scales (cell, cell-matrix, engineered tissue, native tissue) to quantify these aspects, preferably in real-time. The obtained knowledge is applied in engineering approaches to regenerate living tissues, in particular for the human heart. A prominent example is the development of a synthetic, biodegradable heart valve prosthesis that seduces the body to create a new, living heart valve at the site of implantation. Bouten performs her multidisciplinary research in close collaboration with material scientists, life scientists, clinicians, and medtech spin-offs. She leads several national and international public-private-patient research consortia in the field of Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering.

Prof. Bouten is recipient of the prestigious Aspasia (2002) and VICI (2003) career development awards of the Dutch Science Foundation. Since 2017, she leads the Dutch national gravitation program “Materials-Driven Regeneration” and in 2022 Bouten received an ERC-Advanced grant from the Eurpean Research Council for her research on restoring cardiac tissue organization. Prof. Bouten serves on several professional organizations and boards, including the board of the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development, and is president of the international Heart Valve Society. Bouten is elected member of AcademiaNet for Outstanding Female Scientists and Scholars in Europe. She was member of the Young Academy of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW, 2005-2010) and later (2017) elected as lifetime member of the Academy. She (co)authored over 200 publications on ISI journals and 16 book chapters on biomedical and tissue engineering.

Ngan Huang
(Stanford University, USA)

Ngan F. Huang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford University and Research Career Scientist at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. Dr. Huang completed her BS in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by a PhD in bioengineering from the University of California Berkeley & University of California San Francisco Joint Program in Bioengineering. Prior to joining the faculty, she was a postdoctoral scholar in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University. Her laboratory investigates the interactions between stem cells and extracellular matrix microenvironment for engineering cardiovascular tissues to treat cardiovascular and musculoskeletal diseases. Recent research focuses on the role of microgravity for drug screening of engineered muscle tissue. Dr. Huang has authored over 90 publications and patents, including those in Nat Med, PNAS, and Circ Res. She has received numerous honors, including a NIH K99/R00 Career Development Award, Fellow of the American Heart Association, a Young Investigator award from the Society for Vascular Medicine, a Young Investigator Award from the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society-Americas, and a Rising Star award at the Cell & Molecular Bioengineering conference. She recently received the Society for Biomaterials Mid-Career award and the Alan Hirsch Mid-Career Award in Vascular Medicine from the American Heart Association. She has active or completed projects funded by the NIH, NSF, AHA, Department of Defense, California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, and Department of Veteran Affairs.

Guohao Dai
(Northeastern University, USA)

Dr. Dai is currently a Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Northeastern University. Dr. Dai received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Peking University, Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from MIT’s HST Program (Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology). He completed his Post-doctoral training in Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School. Current research in his lab focuses on the 3-D bioprinting technology, stem cells and vascular bioengineering, and are funded by major grants from NSF, NIH, DoD, NASA and American Heart Association. Dr. Dai received the Scientist Development Award from American Heart Association, NSF Career Award, Rising Star Award from Biomedical Engineering Society, Institute’s Faculty Career Award (RPI), and College of Engineering Faculty Fellow (Northeastern). He is the elected Fellow of American Heart Association (FAHA), and Fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). He has served as the Chair of BMES’s Cellular Molecular Bioengineering Society, and now serves on BMES Board of Directors.

Kevin E. Healy
(Department of Bioengineering, University of California-Berkeley, USA)

Kevin E. Healy, Ph.D. is the Jan Fandrianto and Selfia Halim Distinguished Professor in Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley in the Departments of Bioengineering, and Materials Science and Engineering. He is a thought leader and innovator working at the interface between stem cells and materials science to develop dynamic engineered systems to explore both fundamental biological phenomena and new applications in translational medicine. His group currently conducts research in the areas of: bioinspired stem cell microenvironments to control stem cell lineage specification and self-organization into microtissues or organoids; bioinspired systems for regenerative medicine; biological interfaces; and, microphysiological systems for drug development, gene editing, and drug toxicity screening. Professor Healy is an elected Fellow of AIMBE, AAAS, FBSE, BMES, and has received an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Award. He is a named inventor on numerous issued United States and international patents relating to biomaterials, therapeutics, stem cells, and medical devices, and has founded several companies to develop these systems for applications in biotechnology and regenerative medicine.

Francisco Fernandes
(Sorbonne University, France)

Prof. Francisco M. Fernandes obtained a degree in Applied Chemistry and a MSci in Environmental Sciences from the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal. He has then joined Prof. Ruiz-Hitzky’s group at the Materials Science Institute of Madrid (CSIC) to pursue a PhD in Applied Physical Chemistry, focusing on the interface between biopolymers and clay minerals in bionanocomposite materials. In 2011, he integrated the Laboratory of Condensed Matter Chemistry (LCMCP) at Sorbonne Université as a post-doctoral fellow, under the guidance of Dr. N. Nassif, where he developed collagen-based materials by spray drying.
Prof. Fernandes was appointed assistant professor in 2013 Sorbonne Université (Materials & Biology team at the LCMCP), and passed his Habilitation in 2022. In 2016 he held a position of Visiting Lecturer at the Department of Physics at King’s College London. His current research interests revolve around the transformation of “classical” materials fabrication techniques into biofabrication techniques. In particular, he has developed a recognized expertise on ice templating applied to biological entities—from biomolecules up to living cells. Francisco has authored over 40 research papers, 8 book chapters and is the co-inventor of 7 international patents. Since 2023 he is member of the editorial advidory board of Advanced Biology.

Ji-Ung Park
(Seoul National University College of Medicine, Korea, Republic of)

Dr. Ju-Ung Park is an associate professor of Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in Seoul National University College of Medicine and Seoul National University-Boramae Hospital. He received his Ph.D.(2018) in Seoul National University College of Medicine. His research work is focusing on the chronic wound healing and biomaterials.

Su Ryon Shin
(Harvard Medical School, USA)

Su Ryon Shin, PhD, received a doctoral degree from Hanyang University, South Korea. In 2010, she joined the staff at the Brigham and Harvard Medical School (HMS) as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Division of Engineering in Medicine. Shin was promoted to instructor at HMS in 2014 and became affiliated with the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Today, Shin is an Assistant professor of medicine at the Brigham and HMS. Her interdisciplinary approach has earned her a growing international reputation for her work in nanomaterials science, regenerative medicine, and biomedical engineering. Her research focuses on developing micro- and nano-technologies to control cellular behavior, with particular emphasis on developing micro-scale biomaterials and engineering systems for various biomedical applications. Also, Dr. Shin has been developing and testing of integrated organs-on-chip systems with built-in biosensors. During her research period at the Brigham, Dr. Shin has been extremely prolific in her work, which has resulted in several funded grants by National Institutes of Health (NIH), American Heart Association (AHA), Air Force Office of Sponsored Research, Toyota Motor Corporation, and the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute of the U.S. Department of Defense, etc. In addition, she has published over 148 papers in peer-reviewed journals such as Nature Protocol, PNAS, Science Advanced, Advanced Materials, ACS Nano, Angewandte Chemie, etc. Her H index, which is a measure of scientific productivity, is already at 67. In just a few years she has been cited over 19,500 times. Her work has also attracted funding through the BWH Stepping Strong Innovator Awards and Innovation Evergreen Award.

Su Ryon Shin
(Harvard Medical School, USA)

Su Ryon Shin, PhD, received a doctoral degree from Hanyang University, South Korea. In 2010, she joined the staff at the Brigham and Harvard Medical School (HMS) as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Division of Engineering in Medicine. Shin was promoted to instructor at HMS in 2014 and became affiliated with the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Today, Shin is an Assistant professor of medicine at the Brigham and HMS. Her interdisciplinary approach has earned her a growing international reputation for her work in nanomaterials science, regenerative medicine, and biomedical engineering. Her research focuses on developing micro- and nano-technologies to control cellular behavior, with particular emphasis on developing micro-scale biomaterials and engineering systems for various biomedical applications. Also, Dr. Shin has been developing and testing of integrated organs-on-chip systems with built-in biosensors. During her research period at the Brigham, Dr. Shin has been extremely prolific in her work, which has resulted in several funded grants by National Institutes of Health (NIH), American Heart Association (AHA), Air Force Office of Sponsored Research, Toyota Motor Corporation, and the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute of the U.S. Department of Defense, etc. In addition, she has published over 148 papers in peer-reviewed journals such as Nature Protocol, PNAS, Science Advanced, Advanced Materials, ACS Nano, Angewandte Chemie, etc. Her H index, which is a measure of scientific productivity, is already at 67. In just a few years she has been cited over 19,500 times. Her work has also attracted funding through the BWH Stepping Strong Innovator Awards and Innovation Evergreen Award.

Khoon Lim
(University of Sydney, Australia)

Associate Professor Khoon Lim is currently an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and the Director of the Light Activated Biomaterials research group at the University of Sydney, Australia. Khoon is a biomedical engineer with specialization in polymer chemistry. He completed a concurrent degree - Bachelors (Hons 1) in Chemical Engineering and Masters in Biomedical Engineering, followed by a PhD in Biomedical Engineering (graduated 2014) from the University of New South Wales. He then went to join the Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Musculoskeletal Medicine at the University of Otago Christchurch in New Zealand for a postdoctoral fellowship, where he established the Light Activated Biomaterials (LAB) research group in 2019. In 2022, he joined the University of Sydney. His research focus is on adopting a class of polymers known as hydrogels as tissue engineering matrices for a variety of applications. His has developed a number of research technology platform, primarily using photo-polymerizable hydrogel bioinks for 3D bioprinting of functional tissues and also delivery of bioactive molecules to promote tissue regeneration. He has generated multiple high impact journal publications (Chemical Reviews, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials), and raised a total of >$7.8 Million research grant funding with $5.4 Million as lead Chief-Investigator. He is currently the President of the Australasian Society for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, Board of Directors of the International Society for Biofabrication, and Executive Board Member of the Medical Technologies Translator Programme (New Zealand). He has won >20 competitive national/international awards and included in the World’s Top 2% Scientist List by Stanford University for 2022 and 2023. His research has also led to commercialisation of biomaterials licensed to a US-based company and commercial contracts with industry partners. He currently sits on the editorial board of Biomaterials Science, Tissue Engineering, Biofabrication, International Journal of Bioprinting, Macromolecular Bioscience, Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express and Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine.
His research has also generated a number of intellectual property and patent applications, including a full utility patent now granted in China, Australia, America and Europe, where he’s the lead inventor. He is also involved in a number of collaborative projects involving national and international collaborators (Germany, Netherlands, Australia, China and Scotland). He is the current President of the Australasian Society for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, Board Member of the International Society for Biofabrication, and Executive Board Member of the New Zealand Medical Technology Research Acceleration Programme. He also serves on a number of editorial boards including RSC Biomaterials Science, Biofabrication, Macromolecular Bioscience, International Journal of Bioprinting, Tissue Engineering: Part B, Biomedical Physics and Engineering Express and Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine.

Yoshihiro Sowa
(Jichi Medical University, Japan)

2003-2005 Medical intern (Rotation), Departments of Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine
2006-2007 Fellow, Department of Kyoto Second Red Cross Blood Center, Kyoto, Japan
2007-2008 Hyogo Cancer Center, Japan
2016 Senior Lecturer/ Chief Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, Departments of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine
2018.8 Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (Taipei)
2019.11-12 St. Vincent Hospital (Melbourne)
2022-2023 Senior Lecturer/ Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon Departments of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Kyoto University, Appointed Associate Professor/ Departments of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Sciences
2023-Current
Associate Professor/ Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon
Departments of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Jichi Medical University

Janin Reifenrath
(Hannover Medical School, Germany)

Head of work group "Biodegradable and bioactive orthopedic implants" located at the Lower Saxony Centre for Biomedical Technology, Implant Research and Development (NIFE) in Hannover; Orthopedic Department at Hannover Medical School
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9273-8739

Xiang Zeng
(Sun-Yat-Sen University, China)

Xiang Zeng, MD. PhD., focuses on basic and translational study of biomaterial/ tissue engineering-based CNS injury repair, and registered national stem cell clinical trial. He published over 40 papers and received 4 national and provincial awards. He also serves as committee member for a group of professional associations, associate editors for Nanotechnology Section of Frontiers journals, academic consultant/reviewer for NSFC and provincial S&T departments of China and Medical Research Council of UKRI, and reviewer for over 20 international journals.

Xiang Zeng
(Sun-Yat-Sen University, China)

Xiang Zeng, MD. PhD., focuses on basic and translational study of biomaterial/ tissue engineering-based CNS injury repair, and registered national stem cell clinical trial. He published over 40 papers and received 4 national and provincial awards. He also serves as committee member for a group of professional associations, associate editors for Nanotechnology Section of Frontiers journals, academic consultant/reviewer for NSFC and provincial S&T departments of China and Medical Research Council of UKRI, and reviewer for over 20 international journals.

Letao Yang
(Tongji University, China)

Dr. Letao Yang is currently a professor at the School of Life Science and Technologies and Tongji Hospital of Tongji University, and also a PI at the Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Spine and Spinal Cord Injury and Regeneration. He received his Bachelor degree from Nankai University, PhD degree from Rutgers University, with a postdoc training at the department of Biomedical Engineering of Columbia University. His main research interest has been focused on developing nanotechnology-based tools for advancing stem cell engineering, especially for neurological applications. Through his training at Rutgers and Columbia, he has published over 40 papers in high-profile journals, with 14 being the first/co-first or corresponding authors, including Advanced Materials, Nature Communications, Science Advances, ACS Nano, Nano Letters, and an H-index of 20. From his research efforts, he has successfully developed manganese dioxide-based bioscaffold system for stem cell therapy, a dynamic interference lithography tool for high throughput screening of stem cell-nano interface with Dr. KiBum Lee, and an oral delivery formulation for modulating enteric neuron activities. He has received several awards including the high-level young talent plan which is the most prestigious award for early-stage scientists in China. He has also been awarded with Rutgers TechAdvance award with Dr. KiBum Lee and Columbia TRx award with Dr. Kam Leong, along with a few other individual graduate awards. Currently Dr. Yang serves as the junior editor for several rising journals including Exploration, View, BMEmat, and Brain-x. He is also a board member and the assistant director for the spinal cord biomaterial study group in Chinese Association of Research Hospitals.

Kyle Lampe
(University of Virginia, USA)

Kyle is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Virginia, with additional appointments in Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience. He was an American Society of Engineering Education “20 under 40” list of faculty for his mentoring, teaching, and research. He received a career development award as part of the inaugural class of Translational Health Institute of Virginia (THRIV) scholars at UVA. He trained as a NIH NRSA postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University in the department of Materials Science and Engineering. Kyle completed his Ph.D. and B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder and the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Rolla, MO), respectively. The Lampe Group is a proud supporter of students from first generation, low income, or rural families. The Lampe Group investigates biomaterials for tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and drug delivery within the central nervous system. Our group’s mission is to create a supportive environment for science and engineering trainees to study neural regeneration via integration of cell and material function.

Wei Qiao
(The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China)

Dr QIAO Wei is currently Clinical Assistant Professor and Research Assistant Dean at the Faculty of Dentistry, the University of Hong Kong. He also serves as an early career editorial board member for Bioactive Materials. He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Oral Implantology from Sun Yat-sen University and then received his research training at the University of Hong Kong and Johns Hopkins University. He is passionate about investigating the interplay between host immune cells and peripheral sensory nerves during tissue regeneration. He is also interested in the development of biomaterials that can interact with the host tissue to establish a microenvironment conducive to infection eradication, inflammation resolution, and wound healing. His first-authored works have been published in prestigious journals such as Nature Communications, Advanced Science, Biomaterials, and Journal of Dental Research. He is the recipient of IADR Star Fellowship, IADR Lion Research Award, and World Biomaterials Congress trainee award.

LUIGI AMBROSIO
(National Research Council of Italy, Italy)

Luigi Ambrosio is Emeritus Research Director of the Institute of Polymer, Composites & Biomaterials, National Research Council, Naples, Italy. He received the doctoral degree in Chemical Engineering (1982) from University of Naples "Federico II'. Qualified Full Professor in Bioengineering and in Materials Science and Technology.
Director of Institute of Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials, National Research Council, Naples, Italy (Dec. 2018- Aug.2022).
Director of Institute of Composites and Biomedical Materials, National Research Council, Naples, Italy (2008-2012).
President of the European Society of Biomaterials (2007-2013), Past President (2013-2017), Honorary Member (since 2018).
Director of Chemical Sciences & Materials Technology Department, National Research Council, Rome, Italy (2011-2017).
Member of the High Level Group on Key Enabling Technologies, European Commission (2010-2015). Member of the International Advisor Board of Sichuan University and Co-Director of MPBRC, SCU-CNR Joint Research Centre. (since 2016).
He is recipient of the "G. Winter Award" of the European Society for Biomaterials (March 2015), China-Italy Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Contribution Award from China-Italy Technology Transfer Centre, Nov. 2017, Beijing, China. Co-Chair of the Working group on “Advanced Materials, Nanomaterials and Biophysics”, Italy-USA Cooperation on Science and Technology. (Since 2014).
He has been nominated Fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2001), Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering (2004) and Fellow of the European Alliance for Medical and Biomedical Engineering & Science (2018) and Member of the European Academy of Science (2019).
Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine (since 2017).
Research interests include design and characterisation of polymers and composites for medical applications and tissue engineering, structural properties of natural tissue, properties and processing of polymers and composites and nanostructures, hydrogels and biodegradable polymers, additive technologies.
Publications include over 380 papers on international scientific journals and book (>24000 citations, h-index >87), 27 patents, over 190 invited lectures and over 500 presentations at international and national conferences.

Fergal O'Brien
(RCSI, Ireland)

Prof. Fergal O’Brien is a leading innovator in the development of advanced biomaterials for regenerative medicine. Since his faculty appointment in RCSI in 2003, he has published almost 300 journal articles, supervised over 50 doctoral students to completion, filed over 20 patents/disclosures and translated a number regenerative technologies for bone and cartilage repair to the clinic through spin-out formation and licensing to industry. He has presented over 100 invited talks and has a current h-index of 88 (Jan 2023). He is currently a member of the World Council of Biomechanics and Past President of the Section of Bioengineering of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland. In addition he is an editorial board member of 10 journals and was Co-chair of the World Congress of Biomechanics which brought over 4000 delegates to Ireland in 2018. 18 alumni from his currently have senior academic appointments, heading their own research groups in the US, UK, China, Bahrain, Netherlands and Ireland. He is a recipient of three prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Awards including an ongoing €3 million ERC Advanced Grant – commonly seen as the most prestigious funding award in Europe. Other accolades include a Fulbright Scholarship (2001), New Investigator Recognition Award by the Orthopaedic Research Society (2002), Science Foundation Ireland, President of Ireland Young Researcher Award (€1.1. million, 2004), Engineers Ireland Chartered Engineer of the Year (2005), Anatomical Society New Fellow of the Year (2014), Silver Medal from the Bioengineering Section of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland 2018), Fellowship of Engineers Ireland (2013) and the European Alliance for Medical & Biological Engineering Science (2016) and the Irish Academy of Engineering (2022). In 2018, he was elected as a member of the Royal Irish Academy, the highest academic honour in Ireland. He was the recipient of the Science Foundation Ireland Industry Partnership Award in 2020 and Knowledge Transfer Ireland Commercialisation Impact award in 2021, the 2023 Marshall R. Urist, MD Award from the Orthopaedic Research Society for his for his sustained contribution to musculoskeletal tissue regeneration and Fellowship of Irish Academy of Engineering (also 2023).

Research Interests
His research focuses on the development of natural polymer scaffold-based therapeutics for tissue engineering with target applications in bone, cartilage, cardiovascular, corneal, respiratory and neural tissues. A major focus of ongoing research has been to functionalise these scaffolds for use as delivery systems for biomolecules with a particular interest in the delivery of gene therapeutics. His group also focusses on the use of these scaffolds as advanced 3D pathophysiology in vitro systems for drug development and for studying cellular crosstalk in co-cultures and understanding disease states in cancer, angiogenesis, immunology and infection. In addition, he has a major interest in studying the response of living cells to mechanical stimuli (mechanobiology) and using biophysical stimuli to regulate stem cell differentiation.

Julie Liu
(Purdue University, USA)

Prof. Liu is an associate professor of chemical engineering and biomedical engineering at Purdue University. She is currently the co-director for the Purdue Engineering Initiative in Engineering-Medicine and is a Purdue University Faculty Scholar. Prof. Liu received her B.S.E. in chemical engineering from Princeton University. She was awarded a Whitaker Graduate Fellowship for her doctoral research at the California Institute of Technology. She received an NIH postdoctoral fellowship for her research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She has won numerous awards for mentoring, including the 2021 Purdue College of Engineering Faculty Excellence Award for Graduate Mentorship and the 2022 AIChE Women in Chemical Engineering Mentorship Excellence Award for Academia. Her research interests include biomimetic materials, tissue engineering, stem cell differentiation, and surgical adhesives.

Michelle Oyen
(Washington University in St. Louis, USA)

Michelle L. Oyen is the inaugural Director of the new Center for Women’s Health Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. She is based in the department of Biomedical Engineering. Prior to her current appointment, she was on the faculty at the University of Cambridge (2006–18) in the UK and then briefly at East Carolina University (2018–21). Michelle has degrees in Materials Science and Engineering (BS), Engineering Mechanics (MS), and a PhD in Biophysical Sciences. Her research primarily concerns problems in tissue biomechanics and biomimetic materials. She has researched engineering approaches to pregnancy and women’s health for over twenty years, particularly in methods to prevent, diagnose, and intervene in preterm birth. Current research projects include multi-scale modeling of placenta function, microstructural fracture models for amniotic sac rupture, and physical properties of the healthy and pathological uterus.

Kaitlin Fogg
(Oregon State University, USA)

Dr. Kaitlin Fogg is an Assistant Professor of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering at Oregon State University, where her research is focused on gynecological disease modeling. She completed her B.S. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Davis in 2016, with a research emphasis on tissue engineering. Following her doctoral studies, Dr. Fogg returned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a postdoctoral fellowship, where she used in vitro models of disease and statistical modeling techniques to unravel the intricate interactions between the immune system and ovarian cancer.

Her contributions to the field have earned her prestigious recognitions, including a pre-doctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association, a Scientific Scholar award from the Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research, and recognition as a Shooting Star at the 2018 Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Conference. Currently, Dr. Fogg's research focuses on engineering complex models of gynecological diseases that are specifically designed for high throughput drug screening. These models serve as a valuable platform for studying signaling dynamics, identifying potential therapeutic targets, and enabling the rapid evaluation of innovating treatment approaches. This research is supported by an NIGMS R35, an NIEHS R01, and an industry partnership with Hewlett-Packard (HP). Additionally, Dr. Fogg is in the seed stage of establishing a biotech company whose mission is to build an expansive library of advanced drug screening platforms tailored specifically for gynecological diseases.

Min Wang
(Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China)

Min Wang earned his BSc (1985) and PhD (1991) degrees in Materials Science and Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, and University of London, U.K., respectively. Dr.Wang is a tenured professor at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) since 2008. He has also been a Guest Professor or Adjunct Professor of several universities in mainland China (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhejiang University, Tianjin University, Southwest Jiaotong University, South China University of Technology, etc.). As Programme Director, he led HKU’s interfaculty Medical Engineering Programme in 2013-2018. He is now an elected member of HKU’s Senate. Prior to joining HKU in 2003, Dr.Wang conducted research and teaching in universities in the UK (1991-1997), Singapore (1997-2002) and Hong Kong (2002-2003). For his achievements and contributions, he is elected a fellow of professional societies in the UK, Hong Kong, USA and internationally (FIMMM, 2001; FIMechE, 2007; FHKIE, 2010; FBSE, 2011; FAIMBE, 2012; WAC Academician, 2013; FRSC, 2020). His research interests include biomedical materials, tissue engineering, controlled release, and bionanotechnology. He has authored a large number of publications in peer-reviewed journals, books and conference proceedings. He has given many conference presentations, including over 190 invited talks at international conferences. He and his team have won many awards at international conferences. He has been developing new biomaterials using the composite/hybridization approach since 1991 and has been conducting tissue engineering research since 1999. The seminal research on bioactive bone analogue materials for bone substitution conducted in London by him and his colleagues in the 1990s were widely reported by the press (The Times in the UK, Chinese Science News in China, etc.). He is a leading researcher internationally on biomedical composite research and his work on biomedical composites has been widely cited by researchers in many countries. Dr.Wang and co-workers have also investigated various fabrication technologies for tissue engineering scaffolds, including freeze-drying, electrospinning and 3D printing, and the scaffolds developed are used to regenerate tissues such as bone, osteochondral tissue, blood vessel, peripheral nerve and gastrointestinal tract. His group also develops new materials and mechanisms for 4D printing in tissue engineering. He has authored chapters on 3D printing for authoritative books. Dr.Wang has been the Series Editor of Springer Series in Biomaterials Science and Engineering (http://www.springer.com/series/10955) books since 2012 and Editor or Associate Editor of journals (Progress in Materials Science, Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing, IET Nanobiotechnology, etc.). He served/serves in the Editorial Board of more than 20 international journals, including Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine, Composites Science and Technology, Biomedical Materials, Biomaterials Research, and Journal of Orthopaedic Translation. Dr.Wang has served as Chair/Co-Chair and/or Organizer/Co-Organizer of 29 international conferences/symposia/workshops, including symposium/workshop in four World Biomaterials Congresses. Dr.Wang was/is an elected Council Member of Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, Chinese Society for Biomaterials (CSBM), Asian Biomaterials Federation, World Association for Chinese Biomedical Engineers (WACBE), and International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE). Currently, he is also an elected member of the Steering Committee and Treasurer of IUS-BSE’s International College of Fellows.

Seung-Yup Ku
(Seoul University, Korea, Republic of)

Professor Seung-Yup Ku is a reproductive endocrinology and infertility expert and has a strong motive for translation research of reproductive bioengineering. He has been serving as Professor and chairman at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Seoul National University Hospital, and as PI of several reproductive translational research projects including stem cell and tissue engineering since 2002. He has been an active member of numerous societies including ASRM and SRI since 2008. He is now serving as President of the Korean Society of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine and Vice President of the Korean Society of Osteoporosis.
He has published over 150 papers in the peer-reviewed journals listed by Pubmed and has been conducting a dozen government-supported research grant projects. Two US patents were registered and 12 domestic and PCT patents were applied and/or registered. His achievements have been recognized by several awards including the TERMIS-AP Outstanding Scientist Award and the Republic of Korea President Medal of Honor.
Professor Ku’s current clinical and translational research theme includes reproductive endocrinology, infertility, stem cell biology, and reproductive bioengineering.

Martin W. King
(North Carolina State University, USA)

Martin King joined the Wilson College of Textiles, North Carolina State University, as Professor of Biotextiles and Textile Technology in September 2000 following more than 30 years of experience working in industry, higher education, the healthcare and government sectors in Canada and Europe. After graduating in Polymer Technology from UMIST, Manchester, England, and receiving his PhD in Biomedical Engineering (Génie biologique) from l’Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France, he has worked as a product development engineer for Hoechst-Celanese in Canada and at the British Ministry of Technology developing novel carbon fibers for the reinforcement of plastic components in Rolls-Royce jet engines.
For over 40 years Martin King has pioneered research at the intersection of biomaterials, fiber and polymer science and textile engineering. Since 1972 he has been a faculty member at the University of Manitoba, Canada where he coined the term “Biotextiles” to refer to fiber-based implantable medical devices. During his academic career he has been a consultant with all the major medical device companies in the USA, and has been invited to establish biomedical textile laboratories in various countries around the globe. In 1981-83 he helped establish the Quebec Biomaterials Institute in le Département de Chirurgie (Department of Surgery) at Université Laval, Québec, Canada. Then in 2000 he was recruited to establish the first ever undergraduate university program in “Medical Textiles” at the Wilson College of Textiles at North Carolina State University. In 2005 he was appointed as the “Chaired Professor of Medical Textiles”, and the only non-Chinese faculty member, at Donghua University, Shanghai, China. More recently his unique expertise has been recognized in Ecuador and Pakistan where he has been invited to establish new university curricula and laboratory facilities for biomedical textile teaching and research.

Martin W. King
(North Carolina State University, USA)

Martin King joined the Wilson College of Textiles, North Carolina State University, as Professor of Biotextiles and Textile Technology in September 2000 following more than 30 years of experience working in industry, higher education, the healthcare and government sectors in Canada and Europe. After graduating in Polymer Technology from UMIST, Manchester, England, and receiving his PhD in Biomedical Engineering (Génie biologique) from l’Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France, he has worked as a product development engineer for Hoechst-Celanese in Canada and at the British Ministry of Technology developing novel carbon fibers for the reinforcement of plastic components in Rolls-Royce jet engines.
For over 40 years Martin King has pioneered research at the intersection of biomaterials, fiber and polymer science and textile engineering. Since 1972 he has been a faculty member at the University of Manitoba, Canada where he coined the term “Biotextiles” to refer to fiber-based implantable medical devices. During his academic career he has been a consultant with all the major medical device companies in the USA, and has been invited to establish biomedical textile laboratories in various countries around the globe. In 1981-83 he helped establish the Quebec Biomaterials Institute in le Département de Chirurgie (Department of Surgery) at Université Laval, Québec, Canada. Then in 2000 he was recruited to establish the first ever undergraduate university program in “Medical Textiles” at the Wilson College of Textiles at North Carolina State University. In 2005 he was appointed as the “Chaired Professor of Medical Textiles”, and the only non-Chinese faculty member, at Donghua University, Shanghai, China. More recently his unique expertise has been recognized in Ecuador and Pakistan where he has been invited to establish new university curricula and laboratory facilities for biomedical textile teaching and research.

Ze Zhang
(CHU de Quebec, Universite Laval, Canada)

Dr. Ze Zhang received his B.Eng. and M.Eng. in 1982 and 1984 from Chengdu University of Science & Technology (now Sichuan University) and then a PhD degree in Experimental Medicine from Université Laval in 1993. After a postdoctoral training in Japan he returned to the Saint-François d’Assise Hospital Research Center in Quebec City in 1995 and later became a professor in the Department of Surgery Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval and a researcher in the Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec – Université Laval. His research interests include electrically conductive biomaterials, polymeric materials in cardiovascular implants, cellular activities in electrical field, in vitro and in vivo evaluation of biomaterials, etc. Dr. Zhang’s research has been funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), le Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ), and by industrial partners. He has more than one hundred fifty journal publications, co-edited “Conductive Polymers: Electrical Interactions in Cell Biology and Medicine” and several book chapters.

Nicolas L'Heureux
(Université de Bordeaux, France)

Nicolas L’Heureux holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry, a M.Sc. in Immunology and Microbiology, and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the Laval University in Quebec City. He was a post-doctoral fellow of the American Heart Association at the Bioengineering Department at University of California, San Diego. In 2000, he co-founded Cytograft Tissue Engineering, Inc. (San Francisco) where he held the position of Chief Scientific Officer for 15 years. In 2015, he returned to academia at the French National Institute of Health (Inserm), in the Laboratory for the Bioengineering of Tissues (BioTis – Unité 1026), embedded at the University of Bordeaux, where is currently Unit Director.

Dr. L’Heureux has been an early believer in the possibility of developing completely biological tissue engineering approaches to produce constructs with physiological biomechanical properties. At a time when synthetic scaffolds were seen as a defining part of any tissue engineered construct, he demonstrated that the cell-assembled extracellular matrix (CAM), produced by normal human cells in vitro, can be used to create completely biological, living, autologous and human tissues that display remarkable mechanical strength without the need for any exogenous scaffolding. During his years at Cytograft Tissue Engineering, Dr. L’Heureux has sought to accelerate the translation of this technology to the clinic. This effort has led to the first clinical use of tissue-engineered blood vessels under arterial pressure and demonstration on long-term durability. Clinical data have also shown the possibility of using allogeneic CAM. Current efforts focus on the development of textile-based approaches to assemble CAM yarn into blood vessels and other constructs for therapeutic applications.

He was the recipient of a chair from the Excellence Initiative of Université de Bordeaux (IdEx). He has recently been/is funded by the Fédération Française de Cardiologie, the Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the Fondation de la Recherche Médicale, an ERC Advanced, and an ERC POC grant among others. He recently co-founded Biovalve Therapeutics, a startup which received a 2023 I-Lab national innovation award.

Sanasam Yaiphabi
(Manipur University, India)

Currently pursuing PhD in the Department of Biochemistry, Manipur University, Canchipur, Imphal, Manipur, India. I have completed my graduation from Jyoti Nivas College, Bengaluru, India in 2016 and Master in Biochemistry from Manipur University with Governor's Gold Medal for First Class First in MSc.(Biochemistry), 2018. I have attended and presented papers in national seminars and conferences as part of my PhD journey. Life Member of the professional society - Indian Science Congress, Kolkata. My aim is to work hard with enthusiasm, to achieve excellent output in every work of the research area, for the satisfaction of my superiors as well as public, positively.

Guoping GUAN
(Donghua University, China)

Dr. Guan holds both his bachelor's and master's degrees from Southwest University, specializing in Veterinary Medicine and Cell Biology respectively. In 2009, he achieved his Ph.D. from Soochow University, focusing his research on silk fibroin-based biomaterials. Following his doctoral studies, Dr. Guan embarked on a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Donghua University, ultimately transitioning to a faculty position which he has held to date. His unique blend of educational backgrounds has instilled in him a profound interest in the realm of biomedical textile materials.
Dr. Guan is a stalwart in the integration of diverse disciplines, devoting himself to talent nurturing, fostering innovation, and advancing entrepreneurship education and research across biology, medicine, textile science and engineering, materials science and engineering, and beyond. His remarkable contributions are evident in his extensive publication record, boasting over 100 research papers and more than 30 authorized invention patents, seven of which have been successfully commercialized by various companies.
As Editor-in-Chief or Co-Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Guan has authored or contributed to three esteemed books, including the first and second editions of "Biomedical Textiles" and "Tests and Evaluation of Biomedical Textiles." His aspirations extend beyond the classroom and laboratory, envisioning a future where he can cultivate a new generation of industry leaders with international perspectives and competitive edge in the field of biomedical textile materials. He aims to develop innovative medical devices that enhance human life and health, establish robust international collaborations, and embark on joint research projects that push the boundaries of scientific knowledge.

Hyung-Seop Han
(Center for Biomaterials/ Korea Insitute of Science and Technology, Korea, Republic of)

Hyung-Seop Han presently holds the position of Principal Research Scientist at the Center for Biomaterials, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). He successfully earned his Ph.D. degree in Musculoskeletal Sciences from the University of Oxford, UK, in 2019, during which he was affiliated with the Clarendon Scholars program. Dr. Han's research primarily revolves around translational studies, with recent accomplishments including the successful transition of medical hologram technology and condensation electrical stimulation systems to the private sector.

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.

Diego Mantovani
(Department of Mining, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering/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.

Yufeng Zheng
(School of Materials Science and Engineering/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.

Seung-Kyun Kang
(Materials Science and Engineering/Seoul National University, Korea, Republic of)

Seung‑Kyun Kang is an associate professor working in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Seoul National University (SNU), Republic of Korea, since 2022. He was an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at SNU from 2019 to 2022, and in the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Republic of Korea, from 2017 to 2019. Kang obtained his BS and PhD degrees in materials science and engineering from SNU in 2006 and 2012, respectively. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2012 to 2016 and at Northwestern University from 2016 to 2017. Kang can be reached by email at kskg7227@snu.ac.kr.

Zhentao Yu
(Jinan University, China)

Dr.ZhentaoYu, began to work in 1987, then have been working in North west Institute for Nonferrous Metal research for 27 years. And then moved to work in Jinan University since 2019. Held the post as assistant engineer, engineer, senior engineer, and senior engineer with Prof. grade mainly on novel light metal materials, process and surface modification etc., including alloy designing, melting and process, microstructure and properties, and also engineering application research etc. Have taken charge of and taken part in more than 40 scientific projects of international, national or other grade, received 13 awards of national or ministry grade, and have applied for100 national invention patents of China, and also have published 7 books and more than 260 papers since 1998. Recently undertaking the R & D novel biomedical Ti, Mg, Zn alloys materials, surface modification, metal-base composite, advanced manufacture (3D printing) and their products. In 2020, He has been duly elected Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE) from International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering (IUSBSE). In 2023, He has been duly elected first Fellow of the Chinese Society for Biomaterials .He have been the executive member of the council of Chinese Society for Biomaterials and other 10 memberships.

Dewei Zhao
(Affliated Zhongshan Hospital of Dalian University, China)

Biodegradable metallic materials

Jangho Kim
(Chonnam National University, Korea, Republic of)

Dr. Jangho Kim is a Professor of Convergence Biosystems Engineering at Chonnam National University. He also serves as a Director of BK21 FOUR Center for IT-Bio Convergence System Agriculture and a founder and CEO in NANOBIOSYSTEM, CO., LTD. He received the Ph.D. degrees in biosystems engineering from Seoul National University, South Korea. He also worked as a Research in the Thin Film & Charged Particles Research Laboratory at Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include 1) micro/nanofabrication & biologically inspired engineering systems, 2) mechanobiology & tissue engineering, and 3) bio/agricultural nanotechnology. He has authored and co-authored more than 145 peer-reviewed journal publications and 25 issued or pending patents. He is an Associate Editor of Journal of Biosystems Engineering (Springer Nature), Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology (Frontiers), and IEEE Transactions on NanoBioscience (IEEE), and serves as a member of the editorial boards of several journals. Among the awards he has received are Young Scientist Award (Korean and Japan Society for Biomaterials), Tissue Engineering Young Investigator (Tissue Engineering Parts A, B, & C), Young Plenary Speaker (TERMIS-AP conference), Samsung HumanTech Paper Award (Samsung Electronics), Keynote Speaker (TERM STEM 2014), Promising Young Scientist (Bioengineering Division, Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers), Excellent Young Professor Award (Chonnam National University), and Outstanding Reviewer (Biomaterials, Elsevier).

Shaoyang Bi
(Tianjin University, China)

Bi Shaoyang, a doctoral student in the Department of Mechanics at Tianjin University, China. The research field is about numerical simulatioon of the orthodontic process, the constitutive models and material parameter identification of the periodontal ligament.

Chaojing Li
(Donghua University, China)

Dr. Chaojing Li is an Associate Professor at the College of Textiles, Donghua University. She received her PhD degree in Biomedical Textile and Technology from Donghua University. She is mainly engaged in the construction of textile-based biomedical materials and their structure-induced regeneration mechanism. She has published more than 40 SCI papers in Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Healthcare Materials, and other academic journals, and applied for more than 20 national invention patents.

Eben Alsberg
(Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Pharmacology and Regenerative Medicine, and Orthopaedic Surgery / University of Illinois Chicago, USA)

Eben Alsberg holds the Richard and Loan Hill Chair Professorship in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Orthopaedic Surgery, Pharmacology and Regenerative Medicine, and Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he serves as Director of the Alsberg Stem Cell and Engineered Novel Therapeutics (ASCENT) Laboratory. He was previously a professor at Case Western Reserve University in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Orthopaedic Surgery from 2005-2018. He received his B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering and also in Mechanical Engineering and Material Science, cum laude, from Duke University in 1994. He then went to graduate school at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he received an M.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering (1998), an M.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering (1998), and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering (2002). Following his graduate studies, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Vascular Biology Program at Harvard Medical School.

His laboratory focuses on engineering functional biologic replacements to repair damaged or diseased tissues in the body. Complex signals implicated in tissue morphogenesis, repair, and homeostasis are used as inspiration for the development of innovative biomaterials for tissue regeneration. Through the precise temporal and spatial presentation of soluble bioactive factors, mechanical forces, and biomaterial physical and biochemical properties, his lab aspires to create microenvironments that regulate cell gene expression and new tissue formation. He has co-authored >155 peer reviewed papers and book chapters, and his work has been recognized with the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society Senior Scientist Award, the Biovalley Young Investigator Award from the Tissue Engineering Society International, the Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging Award, the Crain’s Cleveland Business Forty Under 40 Award, the Technion Lady Davis Fellowship, a Visiting Professorship at Kyung Hee University, and election as fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (TERM), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). His research has been funded by the NIH, DOD, NSF, the Ellison Medical Foundation, the Coulter Foundation, the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, the State of Ohio and the AO Foundation. Alsberg has ~35 patents issued or pending in the field of tissue engineering. He has given >160 invited lectures around the world and is active in many professional societies.

Wei Sun
(State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, China)

Dr. Sun Wei, a young researcher at State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University. He obtained his Ph.D. from Tongji University in 2019 under the supervision of Professor Wu Guangming. He joined Donghua University in October 2019 and his main research areas include the design and construction of functional conductive elastic materials, and 3D printing of biomaterials for medical applications. He has published a total of 25 SCI papers, with 15 papers as the first author/corresponding author in international academic journals such as ACS Nano, Theranostics, J. Mater. Chem. A, Adv. Electron. Mater., etc. One of his papers has been highly cited according to ESI. He has filed 7 invention patents in China, 5 of which have been granted. He is the principal investigator for 1 National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Young Scientist Fund, 2 sub-projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology's key research and development program, and 1 collaborative project with industry.

Chuan Yin
(Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine, China)

Yin Chuan, Doctor of Clinical Medicine from Peking University. He has held various positions such as surgical resident, orthopedic attending physician, medical device R&D engineer, and CEO of a medical technology company. In 2021, he founded Beijing Surface Medical Technology Co., Ltd., completing the entrepreneurial process from 0 to 1 and has completed angel round financing.
Beijing Surface Medical Technology Co., Ltd. is dedicated to accelerating the post-operative recovery of orthopedic patients, with the integration of medical and engineering being its most distinctive feature. The core team consists of founding members from Peking University, Peking University Third Hospital, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Qilu Hospital of Shandong University.
Currently, Beijing Surface Medical Technology has developed five product lines, including a light-functionalized irradiator for spinal surgery implants, MAO calcium phosphate and vancomycin coatings, and vancomycin hydrogel. For instance, the light-functionalized irradiator for spinal surgery implants, based on immediate intraoperative surface modification technology, can effectively reduce the bone healing and recovery time post-surgery, and minimize the complications arising from prolonged bed rest, demonstrating high clinical and social value. Currently, the product has successfully completed pre-clinical trials and obtained global invention patents.

Michael Davis
(Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)

Dr. Davis is a Professor and Associate Chair in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also the Director of the Children's Heart Research and Outcomes Center at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Dr. Davis's research focuses on cellular and biomaterial approaches to adult and pediatric cardiac repair.

Soah Lee
(Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, Republic of)

Dr. Lee is an Assistant Professor in the School of Pharmacy at Sungkyunkwan University. Her unique educational background and research training make her an outstanding interdisciplinary tissue engineer who can bridge the gap between biomaterials engineering, iPSC biology, and developmental biology. The ultimate goal of her research is to develop an in vitro microphysiological system that can revolutionize the drug development process by replacing conventional non-human disease-irrelevant models. To achieve this goal, she was dedicated to developing biomimetic biomaterials, studying biomaterial-cell interaction, and elucidating molecular mechanisms underlying cardiomyocyte proliferation and differentiation during her training, which led to 30+ peer-reviewed articles including high impact journals like Cell Stem Cell, Circulation, and Biomaterials. At SKKU, she is expanding her research horizon by developing disease-relevant high-throughput drug screening platform utilizing iPSC technology as well as bioprinting technology. Her excellence in research has been recognized by multiple awards including AHA 2022 BCVS Young Investigator Poster Awards and Manuscript Winner of 2016 Young Investigator Award of the Society for Biomaterials. Soah has also been a well-funded researcher supported by Stanford Bio-X, Stanford Child Health Research Institute, NIH in US, and Ministry of Education, Health and Wellfare, as well as Samsung in South Korea.

Daniel Heath
(University of Melbourne, Australia)

Dr Heath is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Melbourne, Australia. His lab focuses on biomaterials and tissue engineering research for a variety of applications, with specific focus on blood-contacting biomaterials, environments for MSC expansion, and antimicrobial nanomaterials.

Martin W. King
(North Carolina State University, USA)

Martin King joined the Wilson College of Textiles, North Carolina State University, as Professor of Biotextiles and Textile Technology in September 2000 following more than 30 years of experience working in industry, higher education, the healthcare and government sectors in Canada and Europe. After graduating in Polymer Technology from UMIST, Manchester, England, and receiving his PhD in Biomedical Engineering (Génie biologique) from l’Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France, he has worked as a product development engineer for Hoechst-Celanese in Canada and at the British Ministry of Technology developing novel carbon fibers for the reinforcement of plastic components in Rolls-Royce jet engines.
For over 40 years Martin King has pioneered research at the intersection of biomaterials, fiber and polymer science and textile engineering. Since 1972 he has been a faculty member at the University of Manitoba, Canada where he coined the term “Biotextiles” to refer to fiber-based implantable medical devices. During his academic career he has been a consultant with all the major medical device companies in the USA, and has been invited to establish biomedical textile laboratories in various countries around the globe. In 1981-83 he helped establish the Quebec Biomaterials Institute in le Département de Chirurgie (Department of Surgery) at Université Laval, Québec, Canada. Then in 2000 he was recruited to establish the first ever undergraduate university program in “Medical Textiles” at the Wilson College of Textiles at North Carolina State University. In 2005 he was appointed as the “Chaired Professor of Medical Textiles”, and the only non-Chinese faculty member, at Donghua University, Shanghai, China. More recently his unique expertise has been recognized in Ecuador and Pakistan where he has been invited to establish new university curricula and laboratory facilities for biomedical textile teaching and research.

Seeram Ramakrishna
(National University of Singapore, Singapore)

Professor Seeram Ramakrishna is a world-renowned scholar of cross-field at the National University of Singapore, which is ranked among the top 8 universities in the world. He is named among the World’s Most Influential Minds (Thomson Reuters); Top 1% Highly Cited Researchers in the world (Clarivate Analytics); and among the top 25 scientists in Nanoscience & Nanotechnology (Ioannidis | Stanford University c-score). His publications to date have an H-index of 186 and over 172,176 citations. He is advocating intelligent | living | sustainable biomedical materials. He is the Biomaterials Section Editor of Elsevier journal Current Research in Biomedical Engineering, and editorial board member of Elsevier Journal Biomaterials Advances. He is an Associate Editor of eScience journal, and Advanced Fiber Materials journal. He is an editor of RSC Soft Matter Series. He is an elected Fellow of American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS); ASM International; ASME; AIMBE, USA; Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng), UK; Chinese Academy of Engineering; Indian National Academy of Engineering, Singapore Academy of Engineering. He is an elected Fellow of International Union of Societies of Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE).

Fan Zhang
(University of Washington, USA)

Fan Zhang (she/her/hers) is a postdoctoral scholar at UW in the Department of Bioengineering. Fan received her Ph.D. degree in Fiber and Polymer Science under the direction of Dr. Martin King at North Carolina State University, engineering immunomodulatory biomaterials for tissue-engineered vascular graft. Her work bridges several facets of regenerative medicine, including biomaterial engineering, scaffold design, regenerative immunology and vascularization. Fan’s current research focuses on understanding the mechanism underlying biomaterial-induced vascularization and the vascularization of engineered tissue and organ.

R. Helen Zha
(Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA)

Dr. Helen Zha received her B.Sc. (2007) from MIT and her Ph.D. (2013) from Northwestern University in Materials Science & Engineering. After pursuing postdoctoral research at Eindhoven University of Technology and UC Berkeley, Helen started as a tenure-track assistant professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering in 2018. Helen has received an NSF CAREER Award, published 26 peer-reviewed journal articles to date, and currently sits on the Scientific Advisory Board of Materials Innovation Initiative.

Yoon Ki Joung
(Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Korea, Republic of)

I am a scientist studying polymeric biomaterials and their surface functionalization and biointerfacial modulation.

Sung-Hwan Choi
(Yonsei University College of Dentistry, Korea, Republic of)

Prof. Sung-Hwan Choi's laboratory team engages in multi-disciplinary translational research, primarily concentrating on the development and testing of long-term biofouling-resistant polymers for biomedical applications. Leveraging previous expertise in material characterization, in vivo efficacy analysis (medium-size dog model) (ACS Nano 2021), and microbiological characterization, including metagenomic analysis of microbiota. Furthermore, Dr. Choi possesses broad experience in the biomaterial characterization of glass-based composites for dental tissue remineralization (Bioactive Materials, 2022) and metagenomic functional analysis of surface polymer interaction (Biomaterials 2023).

Shaoyi Jiang
(Cornell University, USA)

Shaoyi Jiang joined the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell as the Robert Langer ’70 Family and Friends Professor in June 2020. Before Cornell, he was the Boeing-Roundhill Professor of Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering and an adjunct professor of Bioengineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. He received his Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University in 1993. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley between 1993 and 1994 and a research fellow at California Institute of Technology between 1994 and 1996 both in chemistry. He is currently a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), an executive editor for Langmuir and an associate editor for Science Advances. He received the Braskem Award for Excellence in Materials Engineering and Science, AIChE (2017). His research focuses on biomaterials, particularly highly biocompatible and environmentally benign zwitterionic-based materials for biomedical and engineering applications.

César Rodriguez-Emmenegger
(DWI – Leibniz-Institut für Interaktive Materialien, Germany)

César Rodriguez-Emmenegger is a Research Professor at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) in Barcelona, Spain. The overarching goal of his research is to uncover design rules to develop materials capable of communicating with living matter —pathogens, cells, tissues— and directing its behavior in a self-regulated manner to enable new biomaterials, therapeutics, and medical devices. He studied Chemical Engineer at Universidad de la República, Uruguay; and a PhD in Biophysics and Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics at the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry in Prague under the mentorship of Eduard Brynda and Aldo Bologna Alles. Following a postdoctoral research at the group of Prof. C. Barner-Kowollik (Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship, 2012-2013), and research stays in Melville Laboratory in Cambridge (Prof. W.T.S. Huck, 2009), University of Pennsylvania (Prof. V. Percec, 2013, 2015) and Pasteur Institute in Lille (Prof. Lafont, 2015), César returned to Prague to start his independent group supported by a Junior Grant from GACR. He was then a Junior Group Leader at DWI-Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials in Aachen (2016 – 2022) before joining IBEC.

Sung-Hwan Choi
(Yonsei University College of Dentistry, Korea, Republic of)

Prof. Sung-Hwan Choi's laboratory team engages in multi-disciplinary translational research, primarily concentrating on the development and testing of long-term biofouling-resistant polymers for biomedical applications. Leveraging previous expertise in material characterization, in vivo efficacy analysis (medium-size dog model) (ACS Nano 2021), and microbiological characterization, including metagenomic analysis of microbiota. Furthermore, Dr. Choi possesses broad experience in the biomaterial characterization of glass-based composites for dental tissue remineralization (Bioactive Materials, 2022) and metagenomic functional analysis of surface polymer interaction (Biomaterials 2023).

Hak Soo Choi　
(Harvard Medical School, USA)

Dr. Hak Soo Choi is a Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Bioengineering & Nanomedicine Program at Mass General Hospital. He received his Ph.D. in Nanomedicine from Japan Advanced Science and Technology in 2004 and pursued postdoctoral training in the fields of Gene and Drug Delivery, as well as Molecular Imaging at Harvard. Since 2008, Dr. Choi’s research laboratory has been dedicated to the development of theranostic agents for tissue-specific targeting, imaging, and therapy. His innovative work focuses on diagnosing and treating human cancer by visualizing target tissues via “Structure-Inherent Targeting,” while minimizing nonspecific uptake in normal background tissues. Dr. Choi’s expertise in nanomedicine and molecular imaging holds great promise for advancing the field of cancer diagnostics and therapeutics.

Heemin Kang
(Korea University, Korea, Republic of)

Heemin Kang received his M.S. at Stanford University and Ph.D. at UC San Diego. Currently, he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (joint: College of Medicine) and the Director of the Dynamic Nanobioengineering Laboratory at Korea University in Seoul. His research is focused on developing novel nanomaterials that can be remotely controllable by magnetic field, light, self-assembly, and ultrasound for stem cell therapy, immunoengineering, and cancer therapy.

Hung-Yin Lin
(National University of Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei)

Hung-Yin Lin earned his PhD from Columbia University in the City of New York in 2003. He joined National University of Kaohsiung (Taiwan) in 2005, and is currently distinguished professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers, and been elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and Royal Society of Biology (FRSB) in 2015 and 2023, respectively. His expertise is in the field of translational biomedical engineering, and he is now an Associate Editor of Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology.

Kunwoo Lee
(GenEdit, USA)

Dr. Kunwoo Lee is the CEO and Co-Founder of GenEdit, pioneering transformative gene editing and delivery technologies for genetic medicine. He is the inventor of dozens of delivery technologies and gene editing. A graduate of UC Berkeley's Department of Bioengineering, he has been recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 and a Siebel Scholar for his groundbreaking contributions to the field.

Kunwoo Lee
(GenEdit, USA)

Dr. Kunwoo Lee is the CEO and Co-Founder of GenEdit, pioneering transformative gene editing and delivery technologies for genetic medicine. He is the inventor of dozens of delivery technologies and gene editing. A graduate of UC Berkeley's Department of Bioengineering, he has been recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 and a Siebel Scholar for his groundbreaking contributions to the field.

Jordan J. Green
(Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA)

Dr. Jordan J. Green is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Ophthalmology, Neurosurgery, Oncology, Materials Science & Engineering, and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is the Vice Chair for Research and Translation in Biomedical Engineering and is the former Director of the Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Program at JHU. Dr. Green is also the founding Associate Director of the Translational Tissue Engineering Center and the founding Associate Director of Translational Immunoengineering Center at JHU. Dr. Green received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering and in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2003 and completed his Ph.D. in Biological Engineering from MIT. Subsequently, Dr. Green was a postdoctoral associate at MIT from 2007-2008. Dr. Green was the founding CEO of the biotech company AsclepiX Therapeutics and currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors. He also co-founded and/or serves on the board of five other biotechnology companies. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the Biomedical Engineering Society, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and the Controlled Release Society. He is also an Associate Editor at Science Advances and a standing member of the NIH Drug and Biologic Therapeutic Delivery (DBTD) study section. His work has resulted in the publication of over 175 scientific papers, 86 issued or pending patents, and 130 invited talks, and he has received numerous awards including the AIChE Colburn Award, the BMES Rita Schaffer Award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, Popular Science’s Brilliant Ten, and was a National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leader Scholar in Health & Medicine. Dr. Green and his lab are innovating biomaterials, gene therapies, immunotherapies, and cell therapies to advance medicine.

Michael Keogh
(RCSI Bahrain, Bahrain)

Michael B. Keogh is Associate Professor in Human Biology in the School of Medicine and the Director of the research laboratories at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland-Medical University Bahrain.
Prof. Michael leads a regenerative medicine research group (TERG Bahrain) with focuses on developing gene activated biomaterials to treat soft tissue wound healing. This research is an affiliation with the well-established TERG group at RCSI Dublin but focuses more specifically on developing collagen based biomaterials with pro-angiogenic, pro-neurogenic and rejuvenating properties to stimulate primary and stem cells for the treatment of chronic wounds such as diabetic foot ulcerations.
Prof. Michael is a member of the council for the Arabian Scientific Council Stem Cell research (GCC region) and is a Member of the National Clinical trials committee Bahrain. He was also scientific advisor with the National Health regulatory body (NHRA) to develop regulations for Stem cell clinical trials in the Kingdom of Bahrain (2017/2018)

Hyuk Sang Yoo
(Kangwon National University, Korea, Republic of)

He received a B.S. degree (1996), a M.S. degree (1998), and a Ph.D. degree (2002, Advisor: Professor Tae Gwan Park) at Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. After a post-doctoral fellow at Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Johns Hopkins University (2004, Advisor: Professor Kam W. Leong), he joined the Kangwon National University as an assistant professor (2005). He is now a tenured professor of Biomedical Materials Engineering. He was also a visiting scholar for the Johns Hopkins University (2005) and the Northwestern University (2010). His research is focused on nano-biomaterials for drug delivery and tissue engineering employing multifunctional nanofibers and nanoparticles.

Sing Yian Chew
(Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

Dr. Sing Yian CHEW is a Professor at the School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine and the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She is known for her contributions in designing biomimetic scaffolds to understand and control cell fate. Dr. Chew’s most significant contribution is in the field of scaffold-mediated delivery of gene-silencing and biomimicking physical signals for neural tissue regeneration and remyelination. Specifically, her lab engineers bio-functional platforms for long-term delivery of biologics. These scaffolding constructs may be used for understanding and directing neural tissue regeneration after traumatic injuries, stem cell fate and host-implant integration. Since joining NTU, Dr. Chew has continued to embark on scientific learning and exchanges by serving as visiting scholar/professor at Johns Hopkins University, University of Edinburgh, INSERM (U698 and U791); University of Paris 13; University of Nantes; Jinan University in Guangzhou, China; Wyss Institute at Harvard. She is an Associate Editor at ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. She also serves as the editorial board member of Biomaterials, Experimental Neurology, Tissue Engineering, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, Part A, Drug Delivery and Translational Research, Journal of Tissue Engineering.

Hyuk Sang Yoo
(Kangwon National University, Korea, Republic of)

He received a B.S. degree (1996), a M.S. degree (1998), and a Ph.D. degree (2002, Advisor: Professor Tae Gwan Park) at Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. After a post-doctoral fellow at Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Johns Hopkins University (2004, Advisor: Professor Kam W. Leong), he joined the Kangwon National University as an assistant professor (2005). He is now a tenured professor of Biomedical Materials Engineering. He was also a visiting scholar for the Johns Hopkins University (2005) and the Northwestern University (2010). His research is focused on nano-biomaterials for drug delivery and tissue engineering employing multifunctional nanofibers and nanoparticles.

Jianjun Cheng
(Westlake University, China)

Jianjun Cheng obtained a B.S. degree in Chemistry at Nankai University in 1993, a M.S. degree in Chemistry at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1996, and a Ph.D. degree in Materials Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2001 with Professor Timothy Deming. He was a Senior Scientist at Insert Therapeutics, Inc. from 2001 to 2004, and a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at MIT with Professor Robert Langer from 2004 to 2005. He joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in 2005, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2011 and Full Professor in 2015 (distinguished promotion). In 2016, he was appointed as Hans Thurnauer Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at UIUC. He joined the Westlake University as Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Dean of School of Engineering in August, 2021.

Cheng is the co-inventor of 41 issued patents and co-authored over 200 publications. Cheng is Editor-in-Chief of Biomaterials Science, Royal Society of Chemistry, UK. He is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2015), a Fellow of American Chemical Society-Division of Polymer Chemistry (2015), a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (2016), and a Fellow of National Academy of Inventors (2020). He was selected as the New Cornerstone Investigator in October, 2023.

Pamela Nylund
(AO Research Institute, Switzerland)

Pamela Nylund was born in Finland on December 27,1991. She graduated from
Åbo Akademi (Turku, Finland) in 2017. During the course of her undergraduate studies, she
undertook her first research experience in the organic chemistry group under the supervision of
Prof. Leif Kronholm. The project focused on identifying and quantifying amoxicillin and
sulfamethizole and their oxidation products by LC-MS (liquid chromatography-mass
spectrometry). She completed her M.Sc. research detailing the synthesis and application of
triazolylidene iridium(III) Cp* complexes in C–H activation and C–C bond formation under
the supervision of Prof. Martin Albrecht in 2017 (Universität Bern, Switzerland).

In 2017, she did a short industrial internship in Mirka Ltd. (Finland) during which she
developed a new analysis method for the abrasives, using an X-ray diffractometer. In 2018 she
returned to Switzerland to commence her Ph.D. studies under the supervision of Prof. Martin
Albrecht. Her Ph.D. research involved the development of new first row transition metal
complexes with imidazolylidene and triazolylidene ligands and their application in various
catalytic applications. Results arising from her Ph.D. work has been presented at national and
international conferences and symposia, including the 2021 EuCOMC (online meeting), the
2021 SCS Fall Meeting, the 2019 ISOC (Camerino, Italy) and the 2019 NoNoMeCat
Symposium 2019 (Basel, Switzerland).

After obtaining her degree in 2022 she joined the biomedical materials group in the AO Research Institute in Davos, Switzerland. There she is currently working on a development project of a hydrogel intended for antimicrobial delivery to fracture wounds presenting high risk of infection. Her work consists of characterization of the gel, bringing the gel to maturity for production for pre-clinical and clinical trials. A great part of the work also consists of collaboration with regulatory consultants and university hospitals in preparation of clinical trials.