Shuichi Takayama

Professor, GRA Eminent Scholar, Price Gilbert, Jr. Chair in Regenerative Engineering and Medicine, Georgia Tech

Prof. Shuichi Takayama’s research interests (B.S. & M.S. from the University of Tokyo, Ph.D. from the Scripps Research Institute) started with organic synthesis of enzyme inhibitors.  Subsequently he pursued postdoctoral studies in bioengineered microsystems at Harvard University as a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Fellow with goal of developing microsystems to perform bioevaluations of the inhibitor molecules he synthesized. He spent 17 years at the University of Michigan in the Biomedical Engineering Department and Macromolecular Science and Engineering Program, then moved to the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory School of Medicine in the summer of 2017. He is an associate editor of Integrative Biology and on the board of several other journals. Awards and honors include the NSF CAREER award, Pioneers of Miniaturization Prize, and AIMBE Fellow.

Robert Barrett

Assistant professor, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

The research of Robert Barrett, PhD, focuses on learning about the intestinal epithelium both in healthy individuals and those suffering from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The Barrett Lab uses human intestinal organoid tissue derived from induced pluripotent stem cells to assess how genetics and environmental factors can influence the functioning of this epithelium. These studies may ultimately lead to new insights into the pathogenesis of IBD.

Cisca Wijmenga

Lodewijk Sandkuijl Professor of Human Genetics, University Medical center Groningen, the Netherlands.

Professor Wijmenga’s research is aimed at unraveling the causal genetic factors of some hereditary diseases. How does variation in hereditary material lead to disease and how can we use such knowledge to prevent or treat diseases? Prof. Wijmenga’s PhD research focused on a relatively simple genetic disorder that is inherited according to Mendelian laws. In 1995, she was one of the first to take up the challenge to search for the genetic factors determining more complex disorders. Prof. Wijmenga’s group adopted a hypothesis-generating, genome-wide approach, and was able to make great progress on elucidating the genetic factors for celiac disease, intracranial aneurysms, type 2 diabetes and celiac disease. The team is now working on systems genetics approaches towards understanding complex diseases.

Roeland Merks

Professor of Mathematical Biology, Leiden University, the Netherlands.

Professor Merks is a biologist by training and works at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI). He is also a professor at the Mathematical Institute (MI) in Leiden. In 2011, he received a Vidi grant for the mathematical modelling of interactions between cells via the extracellular matrix during blood vessel growth. In 2018, he received a Vici grant to study which factors determine the switch between an irregular tumour network and a regular and healthy blood vessel network, by combining theoretical and experimental biological research.

Cecilia Sahlgren 

Professor of Cell Biology, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

Cecilia Sahlgren is Professor of Cell Biology at Åbo Akademi University in Turku, Finland  and part-time Associate Professor at the TU/e department of Biomechanical Engineering. The research carried our in her lab, the “Cell Fate Lab”, is focused on the fundamental molecular mechanisms, that guide cell fate and cell organization in stem cell differentiation, tissue formation and in disease such as cancer. Coordination of cells through molecular cell signaling pathways is crucial for the formation of functional tissues and signaling is often deregulated in diseases such as cancer, allowing cells to acquire abnormal functions and pathological remodeling of tissue architecture. The physical, mechanical and chemical stimuli of the microenvironment also influence cell signaling and cell fate decisions during development and disease progression. , Together with colleagues in microfabrication we utilize phenotypic 3D screening platforms and Organ-on-Chip technologies to elucidate the complex interplay between the cell fate machinery and the microenvironment.  The knowledge provides design criteria for material-based medical technologies to control cell fate in regenerative and cancer therapies.

The Cell Fate Lab tries to find answers to 3 key questions:

• How are signaling mechanisms making cell fate decisions based on input from cell autonomous mechanisms and the environment?
• How does these mechanisms influence stem cell differentiation and how do deregulated mechanisms link to disease?
• How can cell signaling be modulated for therapeutical purposes in order to control cell fate in cancer and regenerative therapy?

Mihai Adrian Ionescu

Adrian M. Ionescu is Full Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland. He received the B.S./M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, Romania and the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble, France, in 1989 and 1997, respectively. He has held staff and/or visiting positions at LETI-CEA, Grenoble, France and INP Grenoble, France and Stanford University, USA, in 1998 and 1999.
Dr. Ionescu has published more than 400 articles in international journals and conferences. He received many Best Paper Awards in international conferences, the Annual Award of the Technical Section of the Romanian Academy of Sciences in 1994 and the Blondel Medal in 2009 for remarkable contributions to the progress in engineering sciences in the domain of electronics. He is the 2013 recipient of the IBM Faculty Award in Engineering. He served the IEDM and VLSI conference technical committees and was the Technical Program Committee (Co)Chair of ESSDERC in 2006 and 2013.
He is director of the Laboratory of Micro/Nanoelectronic Devices (NANOLAB). He is appointed as national representative of Switzerland for the European Nanoelectronics Initiative Advisory Council (ENIAC) and member of the Scientific Committee of CATRENE. Dr. Ionescu is the European Chapter Chair of the ITRS Emerging Research Devices Working Group.