RME Course Instructors

Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan

Prof. Carlos Andres Aguilar joined the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor as an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering in 2017 and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2023. He is a core member of the BioInterfaces Institute and faculty in the Cellular and Molecular Biology Program. He earned his B.S.E. in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, and his M.S.E. and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at the University of Texas – Austin, where he won the George J. Heuer, Jr. Ph.D. Endowed Graduate Fellowship and HENAAC Graduate Student Leadership Award. After completing his PhD, Professor Aguilar was a member of the technical staff in the Bioengineering Systems and Technologies Group at M.I.T. Lincoln Laboratory until 2016. Since arriving at Michigan, Professor Aguilar has instantiated an inter-disciplinary research group that centers on understanding and engineering the molecular networks governing skeletal muscle processes with a particular focus on transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of muscle stem cells.

Current projects include the analysis and manipulation of muscle stem cells after trauma and in aging and are funded by the NIH, NSF, DoD/CDMRP, DARPA and several foundations. Professor Aguilar is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, 3M Faculty Nontenured Award, American Federation for Aging Young Faculty Award and Genentech Research Award. He serves on the NIH Cellular Mechanisms in Aging and Development Study Section, was an associate scientific advisor for Science Translational Medicine, sits on the editorial board of Aging Cell and was co-chair for 2022 the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society Annual Meeting. In his free time, Professor Aguilar enjoys spending time with his family, playing soccer and watching Michigan sports.

Dr. Angeli Maun Akey, MD, FACP, ABIHM/ABOIM, ABAARM, Founding Director of North Florida Integrative Medicine

Dr. Akey is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Integrative and Holistic Medicine, and trained in Functional and Regenerative Medicine. She has been in clinical practice for thirty years. Dr. Akey is the founding medical director of North Florida Integrative Medicine, Ageless Medical Solutions, the former Palm Beach Institute of Preventive Medicine, and co-founder of FIRRIMup™ Doctors. Her interests in other healing traditions have led her to previously teach at the Florida School of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. She now specializes in both the detection of chronic disease at its earliest stage, and in the slowing or reversal of its progression. Her undergraduate experience was at the University of Florida, where she was accepted on a music and five academic scholarships. She was subsequently the youngest person ever admitted to the University of Florida College of Medicine in the Junior Honors Medical Program. She taught as Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale University where she did her internal medicine residency and served as a Chief Resident. She precepts medical students and teaches them the FIRRIMup™ approach to navigating and solving complex medical problems. She is the author of the book, Fine-Tune Your Hormone Symphony (2011) which describes the FIRRIMup™ model in detail and teaches on line at FIRRIMupDoctors.com. She has co-authored the books, Kick Covid-19 to the Curb (2020) and Fine-Tune Your Immune System (2021). She is the co-editor of the highly acclaimed Fascia, Function, and Medical Applications (2021), which was nominated for a 2021 British Medical Association award and is the first textbook on fascia geared toward medical doctors. Dr. Akey is a sought-after national and international speaker at medical conferences where she has taught and presented using this model in conferences across the US, and internationally in the Caribbean, Brazil, Poland, Spain, France and Italy. She and Dr. O'Neil-Smith have a passion to educate in the FIRRIMup™ Model and the Regenology™ Pyramid and have partnered with their company FIRRIMupDoctors.com for telemedicine consults, publishing and web-based teaching directed to both consumers and physicians. She and her family reside in her hometown of Gainesville, Florida, USA.

Professor, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Graça Almeida-Porada, M.D., Ph.D. is a Professor of Regenerative Medicine and the Director of the Fetal Research and Therapy Program at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.  Dr. Almeida-Porada’s research focuses on the development of cellular and gene delivery platforms to treat genetic and immune-mediated diseases.  

She is particularly interested in improving the outcome of stem cell transplantation and gene therapy in fetal and neonatal patients with genetic disorders, and in developing  therapies for children with immune-mediated diseases. Dr. Almeida-Porada has been a member of several NIH study sections, she serves as an Editor, or on the Editorial Boards, of several scientific journals, she is the co-editor-in-chief of Current Stem Cell Reports. She was inducted into Phi Beta Delta in 2006.

She is the co-founder of the International Fetal Transplantation and Immunology Society. Dr. Almeida-Porada holds several patents and has authored more than 200 scientific works including papers, abstracts, and book chapters.

 

 

 

Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Surgery, Daniel Hale Williams Professor, Northwestern University; Director, Center for Advanced Regenerative Engineering

Dr. Ameer is the Daniel Hale Williams professor of Biomedical Engineering and Surgery at Northwestern University. He is the founding director of the Center for Advanced Regenerative Engineering (CARE), director of the NIH-funded Regenerative Engineering Training Program (RE-Training) and Deputy Editor at Science Advances, a journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Ameer’s laboratory pioneered the development and tissue regeneration applications of citrate-based biomaterials, the core technology behind innovative bioresorbable orthopaedic tissue fixation devices CITRELOCK,TM CITREFIX,TM CITRESPLINE,TM CITRELOCK ACL,TM and CITRELOCK DUOTM which were recently cleared by the F.D.A for clinical use.

His awards include the Key to the City of Panama, the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) Clemson Award for Contributions to the Literature, the SFB Technology Innovation and Development Award, the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society-Americas the Surfaces in Biomaterials Foundation Excellence in Biomaterials Science Award, the Chinese Association for Biomaterials Global Biomaterials Leadership Award, the Bioactive Materials Lifetime Achievement Award and the Biomedical Engineering Society Athanasiou Medal for Excellence in Translational Bioengineering. He is also a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, Fellow of the AIChE, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Fellow of the Materials Research Society. In addition to his deputy editor role at Science Advances, Dr. Ameer is an Associate Editor for the Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine journal, a member of the board of directors of the Regenerative Engineering Society and past chair of the AIMBE College of Fellows.

Director, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Anthony Atala, MD is the G. Link Professor and Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and the W. Boyce Professor and Chair of the Department of Urology at Wake Forest University.  

His work focuses on growing human cells, tissues and organs. Fifteen applications of technologies developed in Dr. Atala's laboratory have been used clinically in human patients. 

Fifteen applications of technologies developed in Dr. Atala's laboratory have been used clinically in human patients. Dr. Atala was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences (now the National Academy of Medicine), to the National Academy of Inventors as a Charter Fellow and to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Dr. Atala is a recipient of the US Congress funded Christopher Columbus Foundation Award, bestowed on a living American who is currently working on a discovery that will significantly affect society; the World Technology Award in Health and Medicine, for achieving significant and lasting progress; the Edison Science/Medical Award; the Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award; the R&D Innovator of the Year Award; and the Smithsonian Ingenuity Award. Dr. Atala’s work was listed twice as Time Magazine’s top 10 medical breakthroughs of the year, and as one of 5 discoveries that will change the future of organ transplants. Dr. Atala’s work was ranked in 2019 by the Project Management Institute as one of the top 10 most impactful biotech projects from the past 50 years. Dr. Atala was named by Scientific American as one of the world’s most influential people in biotechnology, by U.S. News & World Report as one of 14 Pioneers of Medical Progress in the 21st Century, by Life Sciences Intellectual Property Review as one of 50 key influencers in the life sciences intellectual property arena, and by Nature Biotechnology as one of the top 10 translational researchers in the world. Dr. Atala has led or served several national professional and government committees, including the National Institutes of Health working group on Cells and Developmental Biology, the National Institutes of Health Bioengineering Consortium, and the National Cancer Institute’s Advisory Board. He was a Founder of the Tissue Engineering Society, the Regenerative Medicine Society, the Regenerative Medicine Foundation, the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, the Regenerative Medicine Development Organization, the Regenerative Medicine Manufacturing Society, and the Regenerative Medicine Manufacturing Consortium.

Dr. Atala works with several journals and serves in various roles, including Editor-in-Chief of: Stem Cells Translational Medicine; Therapeutic Advances in Urology; and BioPrinting. He is the editor of 25 books, has published more than 800 journal articles and has applied for or received over 250 national and international patents.

PhD, Chief Regulatory Science Affairs Program Officer, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Before joining WFIRM, Dr. Bauer was Chief of the Cellular and Tissue Therapies Branch in the Division of Cellular and Gene Therapies, in the Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies (OTAT) at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Bauer has three decades of experience in regulatory science research, regulatory oversight and policy development for regenerative medicine product development. Dr. Bauer was a member of FDA’s Senior Biomedical Research and Biomedical Product Assessment Service (SBRBPAS).

As the Chief of CTTB, Dr. Bauer supervised CBER scientific staff engaged in review of cell- and gene-based biological therapies, policy development in emerging areas of cellular therapies, and research relevant to their use in clinical trials. Dr. Bauer has extensive regulatory experience with review of hundreds of regulatory submissions from all phases of product development from IND to BLAs including many novel cell, gene and tissue engineering applications. Dr. Bauer also headed FDA’s multipotent stromal cell (MSC) research consortium that published over twenty papers illustrating challenges and improvement strategies for characterization of complex MSC-based cellular and tissue engineering products. 

Dr. Bauer received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland in 1986. From 1986 through 1991, Dr. Bauer was a scientific member of the Basel Institute for Immunology in Basel, Switzerland. His research interests include development of strategies to improve characterization of stem-cell based therapies and to enhance our understanding of how manufacturing of regenerative medicine products influences the biological properties of these complex and heterogenous products.

Assistant Professor, Biological Chemistry, UCLA

Dr. Aparna Bhaduri earned a B.S in Biochemistry and Cell Biology and a B.A in Political Science from Rice University in 2010. She completed her doctoral studies at Stanford University in Cancer Biology in 2016, where she focused on epithelial tissue differentiation and neoplasms She was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California San Francisco in the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, in the lab of Dr. Arnold Kriegstein. She has used single-cell RNA sequencing to characterize cell types in the developing cortex across cortical areas, in human and non-human primates and in glioblastoma. Because experimental manipulations of the developing human cortex will require in vitro models, she has been using similar approaches to compare cells types in organoid models and primary tissues.

Her long term interests in understanding how stem cells during cortical development give rise to the human brain, and how aspects of these developmental programs can be hijacked in cancers such as glioblastoma. In order to explore these questions, the Bhaduri Lab uses single-cell genomics, informatic analysis and organoid models.

Anna Brady-Estevez, PhD, Program Director, Translational Impacts (TIP/TI), NSF

Dr. Anna Brady-Estevez leads the nation’s 3rd largest portfolio of start-ups in Space Technology (following DOD and NASA), at the National Science Foundation’s TIP Directorate.  In this role she has recommended and managed $250M in early-stage funding across the areas of space tech, energy, sustainability, data, and a wide range of other critical and emerging technologies that have grown to over $10B in total valuation and over 10,000 jobs created.  This portfolio of start-ups has gone on to win a wide range of national, international and industry awards, and provide market leading solutions.   Anna serves as the interagency Co-chair for the LEO commercially focused working groups and co-led the establishment of the Space and Innovation Capital Formation working group.  She also serves as national Co-Chair alongside the White House OSTP for the US Digital Assets R&D Agenda.  In 2023 she was awarded the NSF Director’s award in “Leading through Innovation”.  Prior to NSF she was a Kauffman Fellow in venture capital, and worked to direct strategy and investments as Director of Strategy of multiple Fortune 200 companies; and management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.  Dr. Brady-Estevez holds a PhD from Yale University and a BS from The Johns Hopkins University.

Associate Director, MACHE at Wake Forest School of Medicine

Dr. Caban-Holt is the Associate Center Director of the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity. She has spent much of her career focused on the inclusion of underrepresented and people of color into research studies. In her current role Dr. Caban-Holt is working to create a program of research around community outreach and engagement of minoritized groups so that the successes of recruitment in special populations can be documented, shared with other researchers, and used to actualize more effective recruitment across research studies. Most recently, she has helped develop and implemented a program for increasing knowledge and awareness of Alzheimer’s disease that has reached over 200 African American caregivers of persons with dementia in three cities in North Carolina, with plans for future expansion.

Fischell Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland

Alisa Morss Clyne is a Professor in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland and the associate chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She was previously an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering at Drexel University. Dr. Clyne directs the Vascular Kinetics Laboratory, which currently investigates cardiovascular nutrient metabolism and transport in altered blood flow conditions (e.g., exercise) and altered metabolic states (e.g., diabetes). 

Dr. Clyne received her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. She worked as an engineer in the GE Aircraft Engines Technical Leadership Program for four years, concurrently earning her master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. She then received her Doctorate in Medical and Mechanical Engineering from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Dr. Clyne received the NSF CAREER award, an AHA National Scientist Development Grant and the BMES-CMBE Rising Star award. Her laboratory and educational research is funded by NSF, NIH, AHA and the Department of Education among others, and she published in diverse journals including Lab on a Chip, Journal of Biomechanics, Tissue Engineering, Biophysical Journal and Circulation Research. She is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Heart Association, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the Biomedical Engineering Society. 

Her teaching focuses on engineering applications in biological systems, and she founded several programs to enhance diversity within engineering.

 

Associate Professor, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Dr. Tracy Criswell is currently an Associate Professor at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. She received her Bachelor's of Science degree in Biology from the University of Cincinnati in 1998 (Magna Cum Laude) and her PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Case Western Reserve University in 2004.  Her thesis work focused on identifying the cellular effects of low dose ionizing radiation exposure on breast cancer.  After the completion of her PhD, Dr. Criswell joined the laboratory of Dr. Carlos Arteaga at Vanderbilt University where her research focused on the role of TGFβ signaling in breast cancer metastases.  In 2009, she joined the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine as a senior research fellow and was subsequently promoted to a faculty position in 2012.  In addition to WFIRM, Dr. Criswell has cross appointments in Integrative Physiology and Pharmacology, Molecular Medicine and Translational Science and the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Science. She currently serves as a liaison for Women in Medicine and Science (WIMS), serves on the Wake Forest Graduate School Council and is Co-Chair of the WFGS Committee on Race and Equity. She is actively involved in curriculum development at WFIRM, and is a mentor for high school, undergraduate and graduate student trainees.

Director of Site Operations, Javara

Will Combs earned a masters in Health and Exercise Science at Wake Forest University in 2014 and has recently graduated from the Wake Forest University School of Business MBA program in May. Will started his professional career as a Clinical Research Coordinator with American Health Research, a private Pulmonary Clinical Research network in Charlotte. After assuming director roles for multiple sites within the network he came back to Winston-Salem and took a position as a project manager for Clinical ink, a local clinical research data collection software company. By the end of his tenure at Clinical ink Will had taken on roles of managing operational governance multiple Clinical Research Organization customers. Will came to Javara in 2023 to manage and further the operational and strategic relationship between Javara and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in pursuit of Javara’s mission to bring Clinical Research as a Care Option at the point of patient care.

Physician-scientist and bioengineer at the BIH Center for Regenerative Therapies at Charité Berlin, Germany, and at the Charité Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology

Norman Drzeniek (pronounced JennYak) MD-PhD is a physician-scientist and bioengineer at the BIH Center for Regenerative Therapies at Charité Berlin, Germany, and at the Charité Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology. In his PhD on non-viral cell engineering, which he defended in 2023 with summa cum laude, he was mentored by Drs Hans-Dieter Volk and Manfred Gossen at Charité and by Drs Shay Soker and Vijay Gorantla at WFIRM. Currently, Norman is starting his own lab at Charité at the intersection of cell engineering and the Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, where he is involved in pioneering a clinical CAR-T cell therapy program for patients with autoimmune diseases. His lab team develops cell engineering technologies for tissue-targeted immune modulation, including IVT-mRNA and biomaterials.

Morton Goldberg Professor of Ophthalmology, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor and Interim Head, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Elisseeff is the Morton Goldberg Professor and Director of the Translational Tissue Engineering Center at Johns Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Wilmer Eye Institute with appointments in Chemical and Biological Engineering, Materials Science and Orthopedic Surgery. She was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, the National Academy of Inventors, a Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum. In 2018, she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine and in 2019 she received the NIH Directors Pioneer Award. In 2022 she was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2023 a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Jennifer received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University and a PhD in Medical Engineering from the Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Later she was a Fellow at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Pharmacology Research Associate Program, where she worked in the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. She is committed to the translation of regenerative biomaterials and has founded several companies and participates in several industry advisory boards including appointment by the governor to the State of Maryland’s Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO). 

Jennifer’s initial research efforts focused on the development of biomaterials for studying stem cells and designing regenerative medicine technologies for application in orthopedics, plastic and reconstructive surgery, and ophthalmology. Clinical results revealed the importance of the immune response in the biomaterial and regenerative medicine responses. This led to a significant shift in research efforts to biomaterials-directed regenerative immunology and leveraging the adaptive immune system to promote tissue repair. The group is now characterizing the immune and stromal environments of healing versus non-healing wounds and tumors. Biomaterials are now being applied to model and manipulate tissue environments and studying the impact of systemic and environmental factors such as aging and senescent cells, sex differences and infection/microbiome changes on tissue homeostasis and repair.

Kevin Engelbert, Manager, In Space Production Applications (InSPA) Portfolio, NASA

Mr. Engelbert serves as the Manager of NASA’s In Space Production Applications (InSPA) Portfolio, responsible for development and implementation of the Agency strategy to enable sustainable and scalable commercial manufacturing in space for Earth.  Through InSPA awards, NASA funds U.S. businesses and institutions seeking to develop and demonstrate the production of advanced materials and products, including biotechnology applications, on the International Space Station (ISS) National Lab that serve large markets on Earth.  Mr. Engelbert was instrumental in the development and release of NASA’s 2019 Strategy for Development of a Commercial low-Earth orbit (LEO) Economy and co-chairs a federal interagency working group focused on enabling the LEO Space Economy. Mr. Engelbert earned a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University in 1989 and a Master of Science in Finance from the University of Houston at Clear Lake in 2000.  

Program Manager, AR3T

Kaitlin Geran currently serves as the Research Program Manager for the Alliance for Regenerative Rehabilitation Research and Training (AR3T) and is the Executive Coordinator for the International Consortium for Regenerative Rehabilitation (ICRR). Kaitlin received her BS in Public Communications with a minor in Community and International Development from The University of Vermont. AR3T is an NIH-funded resource center that helps to develop research collaborations, provides educational opportunities, and funds pilot projects and technology development projects that will benefit the research community. The overarching goal is to support the expansion of scientific knowledge, expertise and methodologies across the domains of rehabilitation science and regenerative medicine. 

Professor, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Dr. Gorantla is a tenured professor of surgery and director of the Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation (VCA) Program at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. His clinical expertise is in hand transplantation and reconstructive transplantation with academic interests in ex vivo organ preservation, nerve regeneration, non-invasive imaging and targeted immunomodulation. The Gorantla lab focuses on a wide range of research including organ transplantation, reconstructive microsurgery, nanomedicine, regenerative pharmacology, biosensors and point of care devices, cellular therapies, regenerative medicine applications in transplantation and the relationship between the immune system and regenerative, oncogenic and autoimmune processes.

Gabor Forgacs, PhD, George H. Vineyard Professor of Bioengineering, University of Missouri; Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Fork & Good, Inc. Scientific Founder of Modern Meadow, Inc. and Organovo

Gabor Forgacs, PhD is a physicist turned tissue engineer turned innovator and entrepreneur. He received his physics training at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. His academic affiliations include the George Vineyard Chair in Biophysics at the University of Missouri-Columbia and the Chanderna-Stirkey Chair in Theoretical Physics at Clarkson University, where he also served as the Director of the Shipley Innovation Center. He is the scientific founder of Organovo, Inc., Modern Meadow, Inc. and Fork & Goode, Inc. and serves as the Chief Scientific Officer of the latter. He is a pioneer in methods of building living structures in particular by bioprinting. The technologies he has developed have been applied to drug development and testing and the engineering of biomaterials of animal origin such as leather and meat in environmentally friendly and ethically conscious manner. He holds over 100 patents and is author of over 250 publications and 5 books. Dr. Forgacs has been recognized by numerous awards. In particular, he is a member of the National Academy of Innovators and was named as one of the “100 most innovative people in business in 2010” by FastCompany.

Associate Dean for Faculty Development, Isabel C. Cameron Professor of Bioengineering, Rice University

Jane Grande-Allen is the Isabel Cameron Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University. She also serves as Associate Dean for Faculty Development in the School of Engineering. Her research group investigates the structure-function-environment relationship of soft connective tissues through bioengineering analyses of the extracellular matrix and cell mechanobiology, with a focus on cardiovascular and intestinal diseases, as described in >180 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Grande-Allen received a BA in Mathematics and Biology from Transylvania University in 1991 and a PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Washington in 1998. After postdoctoral research in Biomedical Engineering at the Cleveland Clinic, she joined Rice University in 2003 and was promoted to full professor in 2013. Dr. Grande-Allen is a Fellow of AIMBE, IAMBE, BMES, AAAS, AHA, and the Society for Experimental Mechanics. She served on the BMES Board of Directors and Executive Board from 2009-2022 and was BMES Secretary from 2020-2022. Dr. Grande-Allen also serves on the research committee for the American Heart Association.

Senior Vice President and CSO, Cook Biotech

Michael Hiles recently stepped down as the Senior Vice President for R&D and Chief Scientific Officer of Cook Biotech Inc., a medical device firm specializing in the development of extracellular matrix and resorbable biomaterial technologies for medical purposes. Cook Biotech researches, develops, and manufactures surgical implants and topical medical devices from these materials. Mike was the first employee and founder of Cook Biotech in 1995, which now has more than 250 hundred employees and has provided more than 7 million patient treatments worldwide. Prior to moving to Cook Biotech, Mike investigated these same materials for vascular grafts, ligaments, and bladder repair as an Associate Research Scholar in the Hillenbrand Biomedical Engineering Center at Purdue University. Before that, he completed his graduate education through the same Biomedical Center. He received his BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from Purdue and his Ph.D. in Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology from the Veterinary Medical School at Purdue. He has published articles on catheter-based medical instrumentation, cardiac fibrillation, pharmacological intervention in acute animal disease, biomaterials, tissue engineering, and biomechanics of soft tissues. Mike is an inventor on more than 50 issued or pending U.S. patents, serves in an advisory capacity to several industry and academic groups, lectures at multiple academic institutions, and is an Adjunct Professor in both Biomedical Engineering and Veterinary Clinical Sciences at Purdue. He lives with his wife in rural Lafayette, IN.

Deputy Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Dr. Monica Webb Hooper is Deputy Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is an internationally recognized licensed clinical health psychologist and translational behavioral scientist, with a 20+ year history of working every day to improve the health and quality of life among underserved communities. Her collaborative, community engaged science seeks to prevent or reduce the impact of chronic illnesses on populations with health disparities. Through her work, Dr. Webb Hooper has directly improved the health of thousands of racial and ethnic minority group adults and families, developing and delivering successful treatments for overcoming addictions, such as tobacco smoking, achieving personal weight management goals, reducing distress and mental health concerns (e.g., anxiety or depression) and improving partner and family relationships.

NIMHD leads and supports cutting edge science to improve minority health, reduce health disparities and promote health equity. As NIMHD Deputy Director, Dr. Webb Hooper partners with the Director on overall executive direction and scientific leadership of the institute. Dr. Webb Hooper is also highly committed to the equitable and inclusive training of the next cadre of scientists who are invested in improving population health, community health and global health. Overall, Dr. Webb Hooper is dedicated to the scientific study of minority health and racial and ethnic disparities, and interventions to reduce them. She has published over 100 articles and book chapters and has been featured in numerous editorials throughout her career. Indeed, the mantra of her work is “science and partnerships that benefit and serve communities.” Academic Influence has identified Dr. Webb Hooper as one of 25 Influential Black Psychologists from the Last 30 Years, and one of 50 most cited and searched Black anthropologists (including the social sciences, biological sciences, physical sciences and the humanities) over the past 30 years.

Chief Technology Officer, RegenMed Development Organization (ReMDO)

Dr. Hunsberger obtained his B.A. in neuroscience from Wesleyan University and his Ph.D. in neuroscience from Yale University where his work focused on the beneficial effects of exercise in treating depression. He then did his postdoctoral work at the National Institutes of Health where he was the Julius Axelrod Post Doctoral Fellow and worked in areas of mood disorders and stroke. He then was a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health Center for Regenerative Medicine where he coordinated efforts for advancing clinical translation of stem-cell technologies. He then came to Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine where he worked on various director initiatives seeking to translate regenerative medicine technologies into the clinic to treat patients. He is currently chief technology officer of a non-profit organization, RegenMed Development Organization (ReMDO) that is advancing regenerative medicine manufacturing platform technologies in pre-competitive space.

One of the programs focuses on development of a universal media to support clinical cell manufacturing. The other program focuses on development of a tunable bioink system for 3D bioprinting. He is also executive director of the Regenerative Medicine Manufacturing Society (RMMS) which is a professional society that has a vision of enabling the adoption of manufacturing platform technologies into standards, regulatory pathways and commercial products by assembling a diverse network of stakeholders. 

Executive Director, North Carolina Biotechnology Center's Piedmont Triad Office

Associate Vice President, Innovation Quarter Operations and Wake Forest School of Medicine Academic Resources

Assistant Professor, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine 

Dr. Ju received his Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of South Florida, FL. After completing his Ph.D. degree and post-doctorate training at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM), he became a faculty at WFIRM. Dr. Ju’s research focuses on various aspects of developing various biomaterials for 25 years, including 3D scaffold design, surface modification of scaffold, cell-biomaterials interaction, control release drug delivery system, 3D bioprinting and implantable medical device (e.g. implantable biosensors). Dr. Ju has been involved in multiple research projects concerning the development of engineering complex functional bioengineered tissue including in situ musculoskeletal tissue regeneration using a multi-growth factor delivery system, the development of cardiovascular tissue regeneration using the electrospun scaffold with dual micro-nanofiber architecture, and other functional tissue regenerations (e.g. bone, heart valve, trachea, corporal tissue). More recently, Dr. Ju has applied his expertise to the development of a novel biomaterial system including decellularized tissue scaffold for 3D bio-printed muscle tissue engineering applications and wound care skin graft that delivers regenerative bioactive factors (e.g. conditioned media factors) as well as the development of the universal bioreactor platform for the clinical manufacturing of a wide range of regenerative medicine products.

Associate Professor (Tenured), Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine
Deputy Director, Tissue Engineering Program; Director, Biofabrication Core
Wake Forest School of Medicine    

Sang Jin Lee, Ph.D. is currently a tenured Associate Professor at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM), Wake Forest School of Medicine. Dr. Lee received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea in 2003 and took a postdoctoral fellowship in the Laboratories for Tissue Engineering and Cellular Therapeutics at Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston and the WFIRM where he is currently a faculty member. He is also cross-appointed to the Virginia Tech-WFU Biomedical Engineering and Science. Dr. Lee has authored more than 140 scientific publications and reviews, has edited 2 textbooks, and has written 34 chapters in several books.

Dr. Lee has extensive knowledge and experience in biomaterials science, especially, biodegradable polymers and tunable hydrogels, with specific training and expertise in key research areas for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. His research team has developed various biomaterial systems that improve cellular interactions by providing appropriate environmental cues. These biomaterial systems consist of drug/protein delivery systems, nano/micro-scaled topographical features, and hybrid materials that can actively participate in functional tissue regeneration. Recently, his team is utilizing automated 3D bioprinting technology to manufacture complex, multi-cellular living tissue constructs that mimic the structure of native tissues. This can be accomplished by optimizing the formulation of biomaterials to serve as bioinks for 3D bioprinting, and by providing the biological microenvironment needed for the successful delivery of cells and biomaterials to discrete locations within the 3D structure.

Associate Director of Education and Technology Transfer, UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center; Professor, Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology

William Lowry, Ph.D., is the associate director of education and technology transfer at the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center. In this role, he oversees the center’s stem cell training program and guides center members through the licensing and patenting processes required to move discoveries made in the lab to the market. Lowry uses stem cells to study how the embryonic ectoderm splits into two distinct lineages of cell types: the neural cells that comprise the nervous system and the epidermal cells that make up the outer surface of the body including skin, hair and nails. He seeks to understand how this process can go awry, leading to intellectual disability syndromes such as autism in the case of neural cells, or a predisposition to cancers like carcinoma in the case of skin cells.

Program Director, Advanced Technologies and Surgery Branch, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

Martha is a program director in the Advanced Technologies and Surgery Branch in the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Her current portfolio includes human cell-based systems for cardiovascular regenerative medicine, smart polymer systems and biodegradable matrices, and technologies for tissue engineered blood vessels, heart valves and cardiac patches. Martha has developed and advanced targeted NHLBI investment in over a dozen research technology programs.

Professor, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Frank Marini is a professor at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, with affiliation in the Department of Cancer Biology and the Center on Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism at the Wake Forest School of Medicine. Marini earned his PhD at the University of Texas MD Anderson Hospital in 1998. His expertise includes molecular biology and microscopic imaging.

Director - Center For Biologics Evaluation And Research (CBER), Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Peter Marks received his graduate degree in cell and molecular biology and his medical degree at New York University and completed Internal Medicine residency and Hematology/Medical Oncology training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He has worked in academic settings teaching and caring for patients and in industry on drug development. He joined the FDA in 2012 as Deputy Center Director for CBER and became Center Director in 2016.

Program Director, In-Space Biomanufacturing, I.S.S. National Laboratory

Davide Marotta, Ph.D., is the Program Director for In-Space Biomanufacturing at the International Space Station National Laboratory, managed by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, Inc. (CASIS). Before joining the ISS National Laboratory in 2022, Davide worked as a scientist at the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF). During his time at NYSCF, his research was focused on developing advanced models of neurodegenerative diseases. He achieved this by using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived brain organoids from patients and exploring the effects of microgravity on the development of these disease models in space. This research likely aimed to gain insights into how neurodegenerative diseases progress under altered gravity, which could also have implications for understanding these diseases on Earth.

Davide's academic journey includes a B.Sc. in Molecular and Cell Biology and an M.Sc. in Biomedicine, both earned at the University of Palermo in Italy. He later pursued a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology at University College London (UK). Following his Ph.D., he conducted post-doctoral research at two prestigious institutions: the Institute of Cancer Research (UK), where he worked in drug discovery and cancer evolution, and Columbia University (NY), where his research centered on hematopoietic stem cells and aging. His background, along with his expertise in utilizing microgravity for studying biological processes, positions him as an accomplished and pioneering researcher in space biomanufacturing and life sciences.

Professor, Depts. of Plastic Surgery and Bioengineering; Vice Chair of Research, Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh; Founder and CSO at Swan NeuroTech, Inc.

Dr. Kacey Marra is a Professor in the Departments of Plastic Surgery (primary) and Bioengineering (secondary), as well as Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Plastic Surgery, at the University of Pittsburgh. She is also a core faculty member in the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, where she has served as a member of the Executive Committee since 2004. After earning her PhD in organic chemistry in 1996 from the University of Pittsburgh, she was a post-doctoral fellow for Elliot Chaikof at Emory University. Following four years as a research scientist at Carnegie Mellon University conducting bone tissue engineering research, she became the Director of Plastic Surgery Research at the University of Pittsburgh in 2002.

She has a publication record of over 170 peer-reviewed articles and over 600 abstracts in the areas of peripheral nerve repair, adipose stem cells, bioreactors, tissue engineering, wound healing, adipose stem cells and diabetes, as well as 12 patents. Her funding includes NIH, NSF and DoD grants in the area of regenerative medicine, (including the Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine, (AFIRM)). She was Co-Chair of the 2015 Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) World Congress, held in Boston. Dr. Marra is also Founder and CSO of Swan NeuroTech, Inc., and is planning clinical trials with her patented tissue-engineered nerve guide. Most recently, Dr. Marra has been honored with numerous awards, including the recipient of the 2023 Washington County ATHENA Leadership Award. 

Associate Professor of Biomedical Ethics, Associate Consultant II-Research, Division of Health Care Policy & Research, Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic

Dr. Zubin Master is currently an Associate Professor of Biomedical Ethics at Mayo Clinic’s Biomedical Ethics Research Program within the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences and the Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics. He is in the midst of starting a new appointment within the Department of Social Science and Health Policy at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and will be affiliated with Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine. He has previously held appointments at Albany Medical College, and worked in public service as a Senior Policy Advisor for Health Canada. He is currently a non-resident scholar of the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University and has held multiple adjunct/visiting professor appointments. Dr. Master is currently member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research’s Public Policy Committee and the Education Committee, and was one of the society’s first Goldstein Science Policy Fellows. He is Associate Editor for the journal Accountability in Research which publishes research on research integrity and has been an invited reviewer for Societal and Ethical Issues in Research special emphasis panel which reviews bioethics grants for the NIH. Dr. Master’s research interests broadly cover ethical and policy issues related to stem cells and regenerative medicine, genetics, research ethics and the responsible conduct of research. Much of Dr. Master’s research has a translational focus.

His current NIH-funded studies aim to understand how beliefs and perceptions of patients seeking experimental care are influenced by mis(dis)information and potential strategies to correct misinformation and elicit behavioral change. Dr. Master aims to develop persuasive educational interventions and to instruments to effectively measure knowledge, attitudinal, affective and behavioral changes among patients considering unproven experimental regenerative interventions. In addition to building persuasive education for patients and the public, Dr. Master also studies patient-clinician communication surrounding unproven experimental interventions with the goal of developing an interpersonal clinician-led toolkit to mitigate medical misinformation among patients and families during a clinical encounter. A final area of research interest of Dr. Master’s includes studying health disparities and equitable access to patients seeking next generation regenerative care. Dr. Master’s research has been published in over a hundred articles and he has presented his work internationally. In addition, Dr. Master has taught research ethics, ethical and policy issues of regenerative medicine and the responsible conduct of research for over 12 years.

Executive Vice President, Head of Regenerative Medicine & Neuroscience Programs, Athersys, Inc. 

Dr. Robert W. Mays was Head of Neurosciences and Executive Vice President of Regenerative Medicine at Athersys, Inc. He has over 27 years of translational neuroscience research focused on cellular therapeutic applications in Regenerative Medicine and drug discovery, with a specific focus on injuries and diseases affecting the central nervous system. Dr. Mays was the Principal Investigator of the MASTERS (MultiStem Administration for Stroke Treatment and Enhanced Recovery Study) (NCT03545607) clinical trial assessing the safety and efficacy of MultiStem in treatment of ischemic stroke. He was also the Principal Investigator of the pivotal Phase III MASTERS-2 study, which received RMAT, Fast Track and Special Protocol Assessment designations from the FDA. Dr. Mays is a member of the National Center for Regenerative Medicine, Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, the American Heart Association and is an Adjunct Professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

He has authored or co-authored over 40 peer reviewed scientific papers or reviews and is the inventor of more than 10 patents relating to the use of stem cells for treating neurological disease and pathophysiology. Dr. Mays is on the Scientific Advisory Committee for Target ALS, as well as the Mellon College of Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Mays is the Co-chair of the Neuroscience Committee for the International Society for Cellular and Gene Therapy, and previously the Board of Directors for the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation of Cleveland. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 1987 with a B.S. in Cell and Developmental Biology. In 1994, he received his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University. After doing Post-doctoral research at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel and the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Mays co-founded Athersys Inc., which focused on developing novel and proprietary best-in-class therapies designed to extend and enhance the quality of human life.

Head of Life Sciences, Americas Markets, JLL

Louis Calder Professor of Bioengineering & Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (NAE, NAM); Director of the Biomaterials Lab, Center for Excellence in Tissue Engineering, and J.W. Cox Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering, Rice University

Antonios G. Mikos is the Louis Calder Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University. His research focuses on the synthesis, processing and evaluation of new biomaterials for use as scaffolds for tissue engineering, as carriers for controlled drug delivery, as non-viral vectors for gene therapy and as platforms for disease modeling. His work has led to the development of novel orthopaedic, dental, cardiovascular, neurologic and ophthalmologic biomaterials. He is the author of over 700 publications and the inventor of 32 patents. 

He is the editor of 15 books and the author of one textbook (Biomaterials: The Intersection of Biology and Materials Science, Pearson, 2nd ed., 2023). He has been cited over 100,000 times and has an h-index of 166. Mikos is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Academia Europaea and the Academy of Athens. He has been recognized by various awards including the Jensen Tissue Engineering Award of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society-Global, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society-Americas, the Founders Award of the Society For Biomaterials, the Founders Award of the Controlled Release Society, the Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Lecturer Award of the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Biomaterials Global Impact Award, the Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal, the Excellence in Surface Science Award of the Surfaces in Biomaterials Foundation, and the International Award of the European Society for Biomaterials. He is a Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Tissue Engineering. He is Past-President of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society-Americas and the Society For Biomaterials.

Assistant Professor, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Dr. Sean Murphy received his Bachelors degree in Molecular Biology (Honors) from the University of Western Australia in 2006 and his Ph.D. in Stem Cell Therapy in 2012.  Dr. Murphy joined Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in 2012 and is currently an Associate Professor. His research focuses on developing cell and biomaterial therapies and applying tissue engineering and regenerative medicine strategies to treat disease.

Kathleen O’Neil-Smith, MD, Internal Medicine Physician

Kathleen O’Neil-Smith, MD, FAARM is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston University School of Medicine. She completed postgraduate training in pathology at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital and internal medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She has a degree in exercise physiology and has been an athlete on the national rowing team for 40 years and a coach for six years. She has worked as an office and hospital-based internist. In 2006, she shifted to Functional and Regenerative Medicine after completing a two-year fellowship at A4M. She completed a stem cell certification through A4M and a TBI certification through AMMG. Dr. O’Neil-Smith has been teaching at many Regenerative Medicine Conferences on many topics ranging from gut health to brain health, as well as peak performance. She is a founder of the International Peptide Society and the Clinical Peptide Society. Her current focus and interest is in expanding clinicians’ understanding of the largest sensory organ in the body, fascia! She has extensive personal use of IV nutritional therapy and medicinal signaling therapies (MST) such as hormones, peptides and stem cells in her private medical practice. She also treated her only son with peptides and MST’s when told he had a severe TBI and that the prognosis was slim that he would return to normal function. He recently graduated with a math degree, two years after that TBI.

She has had a direct access practice in Functional, Integrative and Regenerative Internal Medicine in Boston for over twelve years. Dr O’Neil-Smith is an international thought leader in the clinical use of MST’s and peptide therapy. She is an innovative and compassionate doctor.  Her teaching style is approachable, friendly and creative. She makes complex ideas simple, which is a testimony to her early career as a high school and college science teacher prior to going to medical school.

President and CEO, Biocom California

Joseph Panetta is President and CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of Biocom California, the state’s largest and most-experienced leader and advocate for the life science industry.  Biocom CA works on behalf of over 1,800 members to drive public policy, build an enviable network of industry leaders, create access to capital development, introduce cutting-edge STEM education programs, and create robust value-driven purchasing programs. 

Mr. Panetta works with an experienced professional staff of 85, with offices located in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Washington, D.C, and Tokyo. Together with a very engaged Board of Directors and Board of Governors, he leads initiatives that help members produce novel solutions that improve the human condition. Mr. Panetta is co-founder of the Biocom Political Action Committee; the Biocom Institute for education and workforce development; and the California Biotechnology Foundation, a joint initiative to inform legislators and the media about the life science industry in the state, of which he is Chairman.  Since 2014, Mr. Panetta has been a member of the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, which serves as the governing and oversight board for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and is responsible for providing grant funding under the $5.5 billion California Stem Cell Initiative. Mr. Panetta holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from LeMoyne College, and a Master of Public Health degree in industrial and environmental health from the University of Pittsburgh.   Mr. Panetta brings a depth of experience to his role, having worked in the life science industry at companies including Dow AgroSciences, Mycogen, Shearing AG, and Pennwalt Corp.  He also served as a senior policy analyst at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C.  Mr. Panetta joined Biocom in 1999.  

Professor, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Dr. Christopher Porada received his Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology from Colgate University in 1991 (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and his PhD in Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology from the University of Nevada in 1998 (summa cum laude), focusing on fetal gene therapy for the treatment of hematologic diseases. After completing his PhD, he conducted a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Medicine at the VA Medical Center in Reno, focusing on stem cell biology and the immune aspects of gene delivery. In 2001, he joined the Department of Animal Biotechnology at the University of Nevada, Reno as an Assistant Professor and was subsequently promoted to an Associate Professor at the same Institution.

He has authored over 125 scientific abstracts, over 60 full-length manuscripts and has written chapters in nearly a dozen books. He serves on the Editorial Board for several international journals, and is a member of several international societies. Dr. Porada regularly serves as a reviewer for NIH, NYSTEM, several other international grant agencies and over 40 international journals focused on gene therapy, gene and drug delivery, stem cell biology, cancer and stem cell transplantation. Dr. Porada joined the faculty at WFIRM in 2011.

Executive Diversity and Inclusion Officer (Chief Diversity Officer), North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

Del L. Ruff is the Executive Diversity and Inclusion Officer at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (N.C. A&T). He is an accomplished future-forward thought leader with over 20 years of experience advocating for equity in education and the workforce for all. As the Executive Diversity and Inclusion Officer, he primarily provides strategic leadership and administrative oversight for researching, developing, implementing and maintaining various practices to support the campus's success. Before his tenure at N.C. A&T, Del served as the senior director of workforce and EDI strategies with the American Institute of Architects in Washington, D.C. In this influential role, he led a team dedicated to national and international practices of equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging in architecture. His leadership was instrumental in increasing exposure to underrepresented students, supporting the 21st-century pathway to the profession and fostering a more inclusive architecture profession for architects and designers.

President, Forsyth Technical Community College

Russ has worked in the bioscience industry for over thirty - five years. Formerly he was an executive with the Burroughs Wellcome and Glaxo Wellcome companies. He was heavily involved with the commercial development of antivirals like AZT and 3TC which are mainstay treatments for HIV illness. He was CEO of the Kucera Pharmaceutical Company- a start- up bio-pharmaceutical company based in Winston-Salem. He has led a national biotechnology workforce effort for nineteen years called the National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce (NCBW). The NCBW is based in Winston-Salem is a part of North Carolina’s Community College System, Forsyth Technical Community College and is a part of the college’s division of Education to Business . The NCBW focuses on achieving best practices and skill standards for the skilled technical worker. Russ leads or co- leads several NSF ATE grant initiatives including BETA Skills WFIRM Regen Med. Workforce, Workforce Hub of InnovATEBIO and is lead for workforce on the recently awarded NSF Piedmont Triad Region Regenerative Medicine Engine Grant.

Chief Education Program Officer, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Joan’s work is focused on providing high quality educational programming within the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. In her role, she also works to increase awareness of the Institute’s leadership role within the field of biomedicine. Joan's professional background includes more than 20 years of specialized experience in administration, education, research, fund raising, collaborative team building, program development and direct care/services delivery within the university, community and non-profit, public health and education setting. Throughout her career, she has recognized the importance of education and the need to develop collaborative, multidisciplinary education and research training across formal and informal educational environments.

Professor, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Dr. Soker is a Professor of Regenerative Medicine, Biomedical Engineering and Cancer Biology and the Chief Science Program Officer at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM). Dr. Soker received his PhD from the Technion-Israel Institute for Technology, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School. He was then recruited to the Laboratory for Tissue Engineering and Cellular Therapies as Assistant Professor of Surgery at the Harvard Medical School. Research Interests: Dr. Soker’s research focuses on multiple aspects of regenerative medicine including identification of new sources of cells and scaffolds for tissue engineering, tissue neovascularization and real-time imaging technologies. Some of his research projects have been translated into clinical applications in patients including the use of cells, biomaterials and bioengineered tissues to repair muscles, skin wounds and damages urological tissues.

In parallel, Dr. Soker has been making bioengineered tissue models of human development and disease. This technology enables screening of existing drugs on a personalized basis and development of new drugs and test them on cells derived from individual patients. Based his work, a new Wake Forest Organoid Research Center (WFORCE) was recently established, on which he serves as the scientific director. Other Scientific Activities: During his scientific career, Dr. Soker won numerous prizes for his research projects and publications and had obtained funding for his research from different sources including NIH (NCI, NIBIB, etc.), DoD, the state of North Carolina, private foundations and industry. Dr. Soker is an inventor of patents in the area of regenerative medicine and regenerative medicine. Some served as the foundation for biotech companies he founded along with others at WFIRM and others have been licensed to companies. 

Director, In-Space Manufacturing, Axiom Space

As part of the In-Space Solutions team for Axiom Space, Jana is helping to create new market sectors in the commercial space economy for in-space manufacturing of biomedical and advanced material applications on the world's first commercial space station. She transitioned from pharma to lead life science research in microgravity as part of the team managing the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory (ISS-NL), then joined Space Tango where she successfully established the initial foundational partnerships that are helping to define an emerging biomedical market on orbit. Jana is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space, Regenerative Medicine Manufacturing Society member, a WOMEN In Advanced Therapies leadership mentor, National Stem Cell Foundation International Space Station Program Advisor, United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation Board of Trustees Member, and past New Organ Alliance Oversight Committee Member and co-chair of the Microgravity Enabling Technology Committee. Jana also served as co-editor of the book entitled, In-Space Manufacturing and Resources: Earth and Planetary Exploration Applications published in 2022 (Wiley, ISBN: 978-3-527-34853-4).

Dr. Doris Taylor is a revolutionary innovator, scientist, entrepreneur and global thought leader in regenerative medicine and biomanufacturing. Passionate to create cures for heart disease, which kills more people than any other disease and has an economic impact of 219 billion dollars annually, Doris lives her motto: “Build the future today – and do it with Heart”. Founder of Organamet Bio Inc., with a mission to cure heart disease and reduce healthcare costs, Taylor’s goal is to bioengineer safe, effective personalized replacement hearts that are available fairly and equitably (www.organametbio.com). In 1998 Taylor pioneered the first functional repair of an injured heart with stem cells. In 2008 she developed perfusion decellularization, recognized as one of the “Top 10 Research Advances” by the American Heart Association, which transforms un-transplantable organs into a scaffold for building new organs using stem cells. After being nominated as one of the “100 most influential people in the world” by Time magazine Taylor turned to disease prevention and is developing “cellular signatures” of heart disease and aging. Dr. Taylor proudly grew up in Mississippi, deeply impacted by ordinary people doing extraordinary things to change the world. She earned a B.S. from Mississippi University for Women (MUW) and a Ph.D. from UT Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas).

Taylor is a Fellow of the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology and European Society for Cardiology, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by MUW, and the national Distinguished Alumnus Award by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. In 2019 she was elected as a Senior member of the National Academy of Inventors and, in 2020, as a fellow to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Taylor has sat on numerous think tanks and international scientific committees including at the NIH the FDA, AABB, the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine and the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI). She sat for almost 2 decades on the jury for the Institut de France LeFoulon-Delalande Foundation Grand Prix, awarded annually to individuals making worldwide contributions to cardiovascular medicine. Dr. Taylor appears as an expert on cell therapy, women’s health, cardiac repair and organ transplantation in the public media and her work is recognized and featured in most worldwide media outlets.

Assistant Professor, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Dr. Victoria Weis is currently an Assistant Professor at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM). Dr. Weis is formally trained in gastrointestinal cell biology and pathophysiology and has expertise in disease modeling in gastrointestinal tissues. Following her Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis, she began her research career as a research technician studying the homeostasis of the stomach epithelium. In 2013, she earned her PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology from Vanderbilt University. Her thesis work focused on disease progression in gastric metaplasia to understand the pathophysiology and identify potential biomarkers.

She continued her early postdoctoral studies at Vanderbilt University supported by a competitive T32 training grant. In this work, she investigated the molecular mechanisms of diarrheal disease in the rare pediatric congenital disorder Microvillus Inclusion Disease (MVID). In 2017, Dr. Weis joined WFIRM as a senior research fellow and promoted to a faculty position in 2021. At WFIRM, she is currently investigating a stem cell-based therapy for Necrotizing Enterocolitis, a life-threatening intestinal disease in premature infants. She has recently earned a NIDDK K01 and American Gastroenterological Association Research Scholar Award for this work.

PhD, Associate Professor of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology, John Hopkins

Dr. Kenneth W. Witwer is an associate professor of molecular and comparative pathobiology and neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His research focuses on extracellular vesicles, RNA-mediated regulation, biomarker discovery, and therapeutic modulation of innate and intrinsic defenses. His group is particularly interested in neurodegenerative diseases including the HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's. Witwer has served as Secretary General and Executive Chair of Science and Meetings for the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV), the leading scientific organization in his field. He has been a scientific advisor to the US National Institutes of Health (Extracellular RNA Communication Consortium, Stage 1) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (FIFRA SAP). He is an associate editor of the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles.

Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine

Chunhui Xu, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Xu has extensive research experience on stem cells and heart cell development. Her research is focusing on heart cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), which hold promise for cell therapy, disease modeling and drug discovery. Her group has made significant contribution to the field of hPSCs. Several of their publications have been identified as a hot paper or among the most highly cited publications in the field of hPSCs. She is an inventor or co-inventor of 18 issued US patents, and her publications have been cited more than 11,700 times according to Google Scholar. Her research has been funded by NHLBI, NIAAA, NSF, CASIS, AHA and HESI/FDA. Her spaceflight experiment was called as a significant step for next-generation space research by the International Space Station National Laboratory, and also featured by CNN, NASA and Chemical & Engineering News.

Chief Operations Program Officer, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Dr. Yoo is a surgeon and researcher. He is currently a faculty member at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and is cross-appointed to the Department of Urology, Physiology and Pharmacology and Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Yoo received his Bachelor’s Degree in biology from the University of Illinois in 1984.

Professor of Regenerative Biosciences. Regenerative Bioscience Center, University of Georgia, USA

Dr. Franklin West is a leading expert in stem cell biology with a focus on stem cell reprogramming and stem cell therapies for neural injury and diseases including stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI). He has numerous publications in high profile journals including Cell and his work has been supported through grants from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and many other foundations and industry partners. His research has been featured on NPR, CNN, and FOX News. Dr. West did his BS in Biology at Morehouse College and his PhD in Stem Cell Biology at the University of Georgia, where he currently serves as a Professor of Regenerative Biosciences. Dr. West’s work at UGA has led to the production of the first live chimeric pigs from induced pluripotent stem cells and the development of novel stem cell to germ cell culture systems. Recently, his research has focused on the development of stem cell and extracellular vesicle (EV) treatments in translational swine models of stroke and traumatic brain injury. This work has led to a human clinical trial in stroke and will hopefully one day decrease long term functional deficits and mortality in stroke patients.