RME Course Instructors
Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Chief Operating Officer, RegenMed Development Organization (ReMDO)
Dr. Gary Green is assistant professor and chief workforce development officer for the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and chief workforce development officer for the RegenMed Development Organization. His academic interests include education and workforce development for regenerative medicine and related convergent technologies. Prior to joining WFIRM, Green was president of Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem, NC, a regional and national leader in biotechnology education. The National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce was established there under his leadership and he hosted visits to the College's biotechnology program by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He has presented on bioscience workforce development regionally, nationally and internationally, including White House, Department of Labor, US-EU, APEC and US-Canada workforce conferences. Green has appeared on CNN, C-SPAN and NPR addressing education and workforce development issues. He is an affiliate graduate faculty member at the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research at North Carolina State University and is co-chair of the National Industry Advisory and Leadership Council of InnovATEBio: The National Biotechnology Education Center. He also serves on the advisory board of the National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce and the board of directors of Higher Ed Works, a North Carolina educational advocacy organization. Green received his BA, MA and EdD degrees from the University of Kentucky.
Dr. Gary Green is assistant professor and chief workforce development officer for the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and chief workforce development officer for the RegenMed Development Organization. His academic interests include education and workforce development for regenerative medicine and related convergent technologies. Prior to joining WFIRM, Green was president of Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem, NC, a regional and national leader in biotechnology education. The National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce was established there under his leadership and he hosted visits to the College's biotechnology program by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He has presented on bioscience workforce development regionally, nationally and internationally, including White House, Department of Labor, US-EU, APEC and US-Canada workforce conferences. Green has appeared on CNN, C-SPAN and NPR addressing education and workforce development issues. He is an affiliate graduate faculty member at the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research at North Carolina State University and is co-chair of the National Industry Advisory and Leadership Council of InnovATEBio: The National Biotechnology Education Center. He also serves on the advisory board of the National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce and the board of directors of Higher Ed Works, a North Carolina educational advocacy organization. Green received his BA, MA and EdD degrees from the University of Kentucky.
Senior Vice President and CSO, Cook Biotech
Deputy Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health (NIH)
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine