Albert W. Cheng, a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Institute of Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, obtained his Ph.D. from the Computational and Systems Biology Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before joining the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2024, he was a faculty member at the Jackson Laboratory and at Arizona State University. Cheng lab develops CRISPR/Cas technologies for gene, epigenetic and RNA editing as well as nucleic acid imaging and sensing.

Alex Zhang, PhD, is the co-founder and president of Zephyrm Biotechnologies, a start-up company that is dedicated to the development of pluripotent stem cell derived therapeutic products. Prior to starting Zephyrm, Alex was the Head of China R&D and Chief Scientific Officer of Asia-Pacific R&D Hub of Sanofi, where he oversaw R&D activities across the AP region. He is also a professor of neurobiology at Capital Medical University (Beijing), where he leads various research projects in the field of regenerative medicine. Alex holds a BS from University of Science and Technology of China and earned his Ph.D. from Northwestern University. His postdoctoral training was at Stanford University.

Prof. Dinnyes has been working on embryology, cloning and stem cell biology since 1985. He was a Fulbright Scholar in the National Zoo, Washington D.C., and worked at leading institutions in US, Belgium, Japan, New Zealand, China, UK. In 2000 joined the Dolly cloning team” team in Roslin Institute, UK as team leader. In Hungary he produced the first cloned mice and rabbit. He is full professor at University of Szeged and at the Hungarian Agricultural and Life Sciences University. Since 2005 as founder and CEO, he is leading BioTalentum Ltd focusing on human pluripotent stem cell research for biomedical, toxicology and pharma purposes and regenerative medicine. He was a Wellcome Trust International Senior Research Fellow and obtained more than 40 EU FP6/7/Horizon2020/Horizon Europe grants to Hungary, scientifically coordinating 15 of them. He has received the “Denis Gabor Innovation Award”, member of the Academia Europaea and Honorary Professor of Sichuan University, China. His current work includes hiPSC-based rare diseases modelling and ASO therapy projects, in vitro disease modelling and toxicology using 2D and 3D new approach methodologies (NAMs). In 2024 he has started an IPCEI Med4Cure project for clinical translation of hiPSC-based Type-1 diabetes regenerative therapy.

Andreas Kurtz,Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBMT), Berlin, Germany Charité Universit?tsmedizin Berlin, Berlin Instiutes of Health Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT). Dr. Kurtz received his Diploma in Genetics from Martin-Luther University in Halle/Germany and his PhD in Cell Biology from the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Germany. He worked as Assistant Professor at Georgetown and Harvard Universities before becoming Director of the German Stem Cell Authority in 2003. He is founding PI of the Berlin Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT) in Berlin and heads its Stem Cell Research Lab until now; from 2009 to 2016 he joined the faculty of Seoul National University to establish a teaching program in cell biotechnology. In 2020, he joined Fraunhofer IBMT to further data related research and application in the stem cell field. His research concerns stem cell therapy and stem cell database development. He coordinates the European Stem Cell Registry (https://hPSCreg.eu) since 2010. From 2017-2021 he was member of the European Group of Ethics in Science and New Technologies at the European Commission.

Baoyang Hu is a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese academy of Sciences (IOZ/CAS), known for his work in stem cell based neural regeneration and transplantation. He is the executive director of the Innovation Academy for Stem Cell and Regeneration of CAS, the deputy director of State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, and the executive dean of Medical School at the University of the CAS (UCAS).

Dr. Hu’s research interests focus on human brain development, neural differentiation and neural degenerative diseases. He pioneered the neural differentiation of subtype specific neurons from hESCs and discovered the variable neural differentiation potency of human iPSCs (PNAS, 2010). Using hESC and neural differentiation as tool, his team discovered that SIRT6 represses H19 for proper development in primates, and knockout of SIRT6 cause development retardation of monkeys (Nature, 2018). He and his colleagues initiated the first clinical trial of treating Parkinson's disease using hESC-differentiated DA neuronal progenitors.

He has published more than 40 papers in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science, and Cell Stem Cells, and was granted 2 US patents. He serves as director of CSSCR and the Chinese Society of Cell Biology.

Charles Hunt，Charles’s scientific background lies within the fields of cryobiology, cell and tissue banking. In 1978 he joined the MRC Medical Cryobiology Group at Cambridge University undertaking research on the cryopreservation of kidney, cornea, pancreatic islets, and arteries. In 1992, he helped found the East Anglia Tissue Bank; the first therapeutic tissue bank within the UK National Blood Service, where he was responsible for establishing the heart valve, stem cell, skin and amniotic membrane banking services. In 2003, he helped established the UK Stem Cell Bank; becoming its Operations Manager with responsibility for the ab initio development of the Bank’s cleanrooms, liquid nitrogen storage facilities, quality management system and banking processes to ensure compliants with UK regulatory requirements. He remained there until retiring in 2017. Currently, he is an independent consultant on cryopreservation and biobanking; most recently contributing to the 5th Edition of ISBER Best Practices: Recommendations for Repositories. He is a member of the working group developing an ISO standard for cryopreservation, a trustee of the Society for Low Temperature Biology and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Cryobiology.

Dr Danial Roshandel is a Research Fellow at the Lions Eye Institute and an Adjunct Research Fellow at The University of Western Australia (UWA) in Perth, Western Australia. He holds an MD and an Ophthalmology Diploma from Iran, as well as a PhD in Vision Science from UWA. His research focuses on stem cell therapy, particularly induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), for ocular surface regeneration and inherited corneal blindness. He has contributed to the development of preclinical models and biobanking infrastructure to support translational research in genetic corneal diseases. With extensive clinical experience in ocular surface reconstruction and stem cell transplantation, Dr Roshandel is dedicated to bridging laboratory innovations with clinical practice to advance personalised and accessible therapies for patients with vision loss, particularly those with inherited corneal disorders and limbal stem cell deficiency.

David Pamies is the Head of the Stem Cell and Organoid Facility at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne. He leads the development of advanced human iPSC-derived models, including 3D brain microphysiological systems, to investigate human diseases and assess chemical hazards. Alongside facility leadership, he conducts independent research focused on iPSC-derived human-based assays for applications in regulatory toxicology.  Dr. Pamies plays a central role in international initiatives aimed at improving reproducibility, regulatory readiness, and human relevance in biomedical research. He has contributed significantly to the establishment of quality standards in cell culture practices. As former coordinator and scientific committee member of the Good Cell Culture Practice (GCCP) 2.0 initiative, he co-authored several key guidance documents and scientific publications addressing the challenges of standardization and reproducibility in complex in vitro models, including organoids and microphysiological systems. In addition, Dr. Pamies has contributed in the PRO-MaP (Promoting Reusable and Open Methods and Protocols) initiative, which aims to improve the transparency and reproducibility of life sciences research by promoting the reporting of detailed, structured, and open methods and reusable step-by-step protocols. Dr. Pamies also serves as a consultant for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Swissmedic, providing expert advice on the application of stem cell-based models in regulatory toxicology and drug development.

Professor Zeng received her MD/PhD degrees and her postdoctoral training from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine.  She is currently professor and director of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Institute of Medical Genetics, and director of the Key Lab of Embryo Molecular Biology National Health Commission, China.  A Changjiang Scholar and a chief scientist of the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program), she also serves as secretary-general of the International Stem Cell Foundation (ISCF) and a member of the scientific board of the Genetics Policy Institute.  Prof. Zeng’s research interests include human genetics and developmental biology, particularly diagnosis and treatment of common genetic diseases, stem cell biology, and preimplantation development.  Prof. Zeng has published in top scientific journals such as Nature, PNAS, Haematologica, Development, and has been recognized with many scientific awards, such as the First Young Woman Scientist Award by the Third World Organization of Women in Science (TWOWS), the 10th China Youth Science and Technology Award, the 5th C.C. Tan Bioscience Innovation Award, and the second prize of the National Prize for Natural Sciences, China.

Fuchou Tang is a full professor at BIOPIC, College of Life Sciences, Peking University. He is also Associate Director of Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics (ICG). His lab focuses on the epigenetic regulation of gene expression network during human early embryonic development and germline development as well as in cancer (Cell, 2013, 2015, 2020; Nature, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019; Science, 2015, 2018; Cell Stem Cell, 2014, 2017a, 2017b, 2017c, 2018; Nature Genetics, 2018; Nature Cell Biology, 2018a, 2018b; GUT, 2020; Cancer Cell, 2020). His lab pioneered the single cell sequencing field and has systematically developed a serial of single cell functional genomic sequencing technologies (the first single-cell DNA methylome sequencing technology (scRRBS, 2013), the first single-cell triple omics (Transcriptome, DNA methylome, Genome copy number variations) sequencing technology (scTrio-seq, 2016), the first third-generation sequencing platform-based high-precision single cell RNA-seq (SCAN-seq, 2020), the first third-generation sequencing platform-based single cell genome sequencing (SMOOTH-seq, 2021) in the world). His work has been cited for more than 11,000 times. He has been invited to give presentations at AGBT, ISSCR, ICHG, Gordon Conference, HCA. He organized the Cold Spring Harbor Asia conference of Frontiers in Single Cell Genomics in 2016, 2018, and 2020.

Glyn Stacey has a background in microbiology and cancer research. From 2003, he was the founding Director for the UK Stem Cell Bank for human embryonic stem cells. Glyn’s work has covered safety and quality issues in cell therapy, cells used for manufacturing purposes, development of novel cell-based assays genetic reference materials. Over more than 30 years, Glyn has maintained a strong interest in improvement of cryopreservation methods and biobanking of various biological materials. He has been the Chair for the Society for Low Temperature Biology (www.sltb.info). Glyn has also been a PI for a number of UK and EC funded research consortia and was a leading PI for the EBiSC European iPSC bank project. He serves as numerous SAB members for EU research programmes, a special advisor on cell substrates for WHO, an advisor on OECD initiatives. In the last 20 years his work has focused on stem cell applications including coordinating technical workshops, developing pluripotent stem cells for cell-based medicines and initiating the International Stem Cell Banking Initiative (www.iscbi.org) with members in 28 countries. His main role today is as a special expert supported by CAS PIFI program, where he advises the National Stem Cell Resource Center, on development of their research and clinical studies.

Professor Poptani is the Chair of the Centre for Preclinical Imaging (CPI) with a research focus on developing cutting-edge non-invasive imaging biomarkers for assessing early treatment response in cancer. Lately, his research has also focused on the development of high-resolution imaging methods to tract the fate and disposition of stem cells in animal models. His work is highly translational in nature and his group has been credited with identifying several markers for diagnosis or early treatment response which are currently used in the clinic. He completed his PhD in 1995 India, and after couple postdoc positions, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor in 2001 and Associate Professor in 2006 at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. He joined the University of Liverpool in December 2014. He has published over 150 peer reviewed papers, and several book chapters and review articles. In 2021, he was awarded the Senior Fellowship from the International society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) for his significant contributions to the field. He currently serves as the Chair of the British and Irish chapter of ISMRM. His research has been funded by various grants including funding from the UKRI as well as UK based charities such as the Wellcome trust and the North West Cancer Research. As the academic lead of the CPI, which is a shared resource facility within the University, Professor Poptani has been developing cutting-edge multi-modal preclinical imaging methods for the benefit of students and staff interested in the use of imaging towards achieving their academic and research goals.

Jack Mosher is the Scientific Advisor of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR). Originally joining the ISSCR in 2015, Jack provides scientific support and leadership across educational, policy, and scientific initiatives. Most recently, he worked closely with the Standards Initiative Task Force in the development of the Standards for Human Stem Cell Use in Research. Jack has a PhD in Neurobiology from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr Sean Morrison. Prior to joining the ISSCR, Jack was research faculty at the University of Michigan.

Jianjun Wang is currently a full professor in the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (TIPCCAS). He received his Ph.D degree at Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research and University of Mainz (Germany) in 2006. After the postdoctoral research, he became a project leader at Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research in 2007. His current research is focused on the molecular level understanding of ice formation and its applications such as cryopreservation of cells, organs and tissues, and anti-icing coatings with ultra-low ice adhesion; and he has papers published in peer review journals, such as Nature, Nature Materials, JACS, PNAS, and Science Advances. In 2019, he undertakes the Distinct Young Scholar Project of NSFC. In 2022, He was awarded the first prize in natural science by the Beijing Municipal Government. He is also a recipient of the 2022 CCF Award for Overseas Outstanding Contribution.

Dr. Xi received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering at Beijing Institute of Technology in 1996, M.S degree in Cell biology at Tsinghua University in 2000, and Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering at UCLA in 2004. He jointed Peking University since 2005. Dr. Xi currently serves in five scientific societies, including vice director of Organoid and Organ Chip, and vice director of  Diagnosis Branch of China Medicinal Biotech Association and vice director of Gene Diagnosis Branch of China Medicinal Biotech Association. He serves as peer reviewer for Science, JACS and so on. He received “New Century Excellent Talents in University” in 2009. Dr. Xi’s current research interests include precision oncology, cell microarray, genome editing, or miRNA in cancers. Up to now, he already published over 90 peer-reviewed SCI papers in top journals, including Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature cell biology, Nature Materials, PNAS, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., and so on. 

Jonathan is currently a Research Director at the A*STAR Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology where he also serves as the Division Director for the Cell Biology and Therapies research. Concurrently, he is an Associate Professor (Adjunct) at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS Faculty of Science and NUS Graduate School of Integrative Sciences and Engineering. Jonathan is the Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Innovation Officer for two Biotech start-ups, which focus on development of high quality stem cells and alternative proteins, respectively. His research focuses on dissecting the mechanisms regulating cell fate changes, and developing novel tools for the use of stem cells in clinical cell based therapies.

Martin Pera was amongst a small group of researchers who pioneered the isolation and characterization of pluripotent stem cells from human germ cell tumours, studies that provided an important framework for the development of human embryonic stem cells. His laboratory at Monash University was the second in the world to isolate embryonic stem cells from the human blastocyst, and the first to describe their differentiation into somatic cells (precursors of the central nervous system). Currently his lab studies the regulation of self-renewal and pluripotency, heterogeneity in pluripotent stem cell populations, and neural specification of pluripotent stem cells. His work on neural differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells led to the development of a new treatment for macular degeneration, a common form of blindness, which is now in clinical trial in Israel. He has provided extensive advice to state, national and international regulatory authorities on the scientific background to stem cell research, and has delivered hundreds of commentaries for print and electronic media on stem cell research, ethics, and regulatory policy. At the Jackson Laboratory Pera will continue work on the regulation of pluripotency, and will study the genetic basis of individual differences in the response of the central nervous system to injury.

Masa (Dr. Masahiro KINO-OKA) is the processor in Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Osaka since 2009, being the leader in the field of manufacturing for cellular therapy products. He has also established the Research Base for Cell Manufacturability since 2021, performing the developments of cell manufacturing system, guidelines for regulation (by PMDA) with standard (by ISO TC198/WG9 and TC276/WG4) as well as human resources, inviting many companies to gather and make up the core consortium for social implementation.

Dr. Mingyao Liu received his Ph.D. Degree in Cell Biology from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1992. From 1993-1998, he did his postdoctoral trainings in Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) with Prof. King-Wai Yau and Melvin I Simon, respectively. In 1999, he was recruited to the Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University as an assistant professor, then promoted to associated professor in 2003 and full professor with tenure in 2007. In 2007, Dr. Liu was recruited as the director of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, then appointed as the dean of School of Life Sciences and the director of Shanghai Key Laboratory of Regulatory Biology, East China Normal University in 2012. Together with his colleagues, Dr. Liu established the laboratory for cell signaling and innovative drug discovery. 

Dr. Liu’s lab has been focused on the study of G-protein coupled receptors and their signaling pathways, especially orphan GPCRs and their biological functions. He has published more than 120 articles on leading scientific journals, including Science, Nature, PNAS, Cell, JNCI, Cancer Research, etc. His papers have been cited for more than 4000 times.

Prof. Ren He Xu is a Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, and the President of the Macau Society for Stem Cell Research. His team has generated mesenchymal stem cells from human embryonic stem cells via trophoblasts (T-MSCs). Characterized by their unlimited sources and stable quality, T-MSCs have been approved as an IND by the U.S. FDA for clinical trials in multiple sclerosis. He is also conducting investigator-initiated trials to assess the therapeutic effects of T-MSCs on graft-versus-host disease, osteoarthritis, and diabetic foot ulcer, supported by Key R&D Projects from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Macau Science and Technology Development Fund. Prof. Xu has published over 100 papers with many in top-tier journals such as Nature Biotechnology, Nature Methods, Cell Stem Cell, and PNAS, which have collectively received over 10,000 citations. He holds 16 patents from China and abroad.

Shusen Wang, Doctor of Surgery, Researcher, Chief Physician, PhD Supervisor

Member of the Expert Committee of the China Organ Donation Administrative Center，Deputy Head of the Organ Regeneration and Engineering Group of the Organ Transplantation Branch of the Chinese Medical Association，Standing Committee Member of the Transplantation Technology Branch of the China Medicinal Biotechnology Association，Editorial Board Member of Chinese Journal of Organ Transplantation，Editorial Board Member of Practical Journal of Organ Transplantation (Electronic Version). Led the team to complete clinical innovations such as the world's first islet transplantation derived from chemically reprogrammed induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), the world's first islet transplantation after pediatric liver transplantation, and the first islet transplantation with omental biological scaffold in China. Took the lead in formulating the "Clinical Technical Operation Specifications for Islet Transplantation", the "Technical Operation Specifications for Clinical Islet Preparation in China", and the "Human Islet Standards". Presided over multiple projects of the National Key R & D Program and general projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. As the first author or corresponding author (including co-authorship), published more than 50 papers in journals such as Cell, Nature Medicine, and Diabetes. Representative research achievements were selected as the Best Papers of Cell in 2024, the Science - and - Technology Highlights in National Health and Wellness in 2024, and the Top Ten Advances in China's Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology in 2024.

Dr. Shugo Tohyama is a Professor of Clinical Regenerative Medicine at Fujita Medical Innovation Center (FMiC), Fujita Health University in Tokyo, and a Project Leader at Kanagawa Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (KISTEC) in Kanagawa. He graduated from Keio University School of Medicine, and got his M.D. in 2006. After completing the residency program, he has started the basic researches using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as a graduate student at the Department of Cardiology, Keio University School of Medicine since 2008, and finished his Ph.D. in 2013. Then, he had a position as a Ph.D. research fellow in Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He was promoted to a professor at FMiC in 2024. He specializes in cardiology and regenerative medicine and is also involved in basic and translational research focused on cardiac regenerative medicine. While many challenges need to be overcome to realize regenerative medicine, he has been working to solve them with his creative approach based on the metabolic mechanism of iPSCs. His innovative and groundbreaking work in purifying differentiated cardiomyocytes (CMs) from iPSCs by a very simple method of exposure to a special culture medium has had an enormous impact on the field. Since his method is cheaper and simpler than the conventional method, it has become a standard protocol for the production of purified CMs from iPSCs in many laboratories worldwide. In fact, a sponsor-initiated clinical trial to transplant human iPSC-derived CMs (iPSC-CMs) produced by his technology into patients with severe heart failure has begun, and has attracted much attention. Dr. Tohyama also focuses on drug discovery and disease modeling. He has developed mature human engineered heart tissue (hEHT) and has recently succeeded in developing in vitro disease models using hEHTs. His innovative technology will further advance this field.

Su-Chun Zhang, MD, PhD, is professor and director of the Center for Neurologic Diseases at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute. Prior to that, he was Provost Chair professor and director of the Program in Neuroscience & Behavioral Disorders at Duke-NUS Medical School as well as Steenbock Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Zhang has developed technology to guide human stem cells to functionally specialized nerve cell types that are impaired in neurological and psychiatric conditions as well as stem cell-based platforms for studying and testing drugs for neurological diseases. In parallel, he is developing cell therapy for neurological diseases like Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury and stroke. Dr. Zhang is a founding member of the WiCell Institute and scientific founder of BrainXell, Inc and BrainXell Therapeutics, Inc.

https://sbpdiscovery.org/scientists/su-chun-zhang-md-phd/

Tongbiao Zhao, Professor/Principal Investigator of Stem Cell and Immunology at the Institute for Stem Cell and Regeneration, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Dr. Zhao’s researches aim to address some bottlenecks restricting clinical development of stem cells. His team has defined the immunogenicity of mouse and human induced pluripotent stem cells (Nature 2011, Cell Stem Cell 2015, Cell Discovery 2015); established oxidative phosphorylation and high autophagic flux are intrinsic characters for pluripotent stem cells to maintain their identity (Protein & Cell 2022, Autophagy 2016, Cell Death Differ 2017, Nature Commu 2019, Bio Rev 2019, Protein & Cell 2020); developed the first stem cell standard in ISO/TC276 (ISO/TC276 FDIS 24063). Dr. Zhao serves as a committee expert at the International Organization of Standards ISO/TC276, a steering committee member of International Society for Stem Cell Research, the director of Standard Committee of Chinese Society for Cell Biology, and a committee member of Chinese Society for Stem Cell Research. His team will continue work on the transplantation immunology for stem cells, and will work on a serial of stem cell standards both nationally and internationally.

Tim Woodfield is Professor of Regenerative Medicine, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery & Musculoskeletal Medicine at University of Otago Christchurch and Director of the University of Otago Centre for Bioengineering & Nanomedicine. His research involves development of photo-crosslinkable bioinks and bioresins, 3D Bioprinting, spheroid bioassembly and additive manufacturing of medical devices applied to orthopaedics/regenerative medicine. He has >155 publications (h-index: 55) and obtained >$28M in research funding. He has been awarded a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship (Royal Society of New Zealand Te Ap?rangi), Research Excellence Award (Australasian Society for Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering - ASBTE), University of Otago Research Gold Medal, and is a Fellow in Biomaterials Science & Engineering (FBSE).

Prof Woodfield is President of the International Society for Biofabrication, and former President of the ASBTE. He is a member of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society Asia Pacific Council (TERMIS-AP) and is an Executive Editorial Board member for Biofabrication journal, as well as Editorial Board Member for Advanced Healthcare Materials, APL Bioengineering and Associate Editor for Frontiers in Bioengineering & Biotechnology.

Uwe Marx has a background in medicine and biochemistry. He pioneered the development of human multi-organ hollow fibre bioreactors in the 1990s at the Charite' Berlin and the Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig.  Since 2007 he has pioneered the development of human microphysiological multi-organ chip systems. Uwe Marx is the founder and CSO of TissUse, a spin-off from the Technische Universitat Berlin in 2010, where his team established the first commercially valid HUMIMIC  multi-organ chip platform including autologous iPSC-based four-organ chips. Uwe Marx has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and several book chapters. He developed the theoretical background of the organismoid theory (doi:10.3389/fmed.2021.728866) and hosted the three workshops of the MPS stakeholder community in 2015 (doi.org/10.14573/altex.1603161), 2019 (doi:10.14573/altex.2001241) and 2023 (doi.org/10.14573/altex.2410112) as well as the 2nd MPS World Summit in Berlin. More than 160 granted patents protect the results of his development work worldwide. As a German entrepreneur, he is co-founder of ProBioGen AG and VITA 34 AG. In 2021, Uwe Marx received the prestigious Russell & Burch Award of the Humane Society of the United States of America. Since 2022 he is Honorary Professor for Medical Biotechnology at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany.

Xingchao Geng is the director of the National Center for Safety Evaluation of Drugs (NCSED), National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), China. He is concurrently serves as the chairman of the Drug Safety Evaluation Professional Committee of the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association, advisory and review expert of the Center for Drug Evaluation, national GLP inspector, et al. He has been engaged in drug safety evaluation research for more than 20 years, and has undertaken and completed more than 200 preclinical safety evaluations of new drugs. He has presided over and participated in the research of 15 projects such as the Significant New Drugs Development of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. The research results received the first prize of the National Science and Technology Award, the first prize of the Science and Technology Award of the Chinese Association of Chinese Medicine, the second prize of the Science and Technology Award of the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association, and the second prize of the Beijing Science and Technology Award. During his work, he went to Huntingdon Life Sciences in the UK, the FDA National Center for Toxicology Research (NCTR), the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI), the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). He has published more than 100 academic papers and participated in the editing of 10 monographs.

Xiuwu Bian, M.D. & Ph.D., is a professor of pathology and the member of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is the director of the Institute of Pathology and Southwest Cancer Center, Southwest Hospital, Chongqing, China. He is now the vice-president of Chinese Society for Stem Cell Research and the president of Chinese Association of Pathologists. His research interests cover stem cell variation, cancer stem cells and tumor microenvironment. Dr. Bian has been devoted to characterization of various cancer stem cells (CSCs) from human cancer, identification of CSC plasticity and heterogeneity, and the interaction of CSCs with tumor microenvironment. He found that CSCs contribute to angiogenesis through production of angiogenic factors and trans-differentiation into endothelia and pericytes, thus generated new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for precision medicine. He also established a biobank for CSCs and COVID-19 tissues.

Professor Yeong Wai Yee is Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. She is currently the Chair for the school after serving as Associate Chair (Students) at MAE from 2018-2023.

Professor Yeong Wai Yee received her Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) and PhD degrees from NTU in 2003 and 2007, respectively. Prior to joining NTU, she worked in the industry for manufacturing of biomedical devices. She joined the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NTU in 2013. She was promoted to an Associate Professor with Tenure in 2018 and subsequently full professor in 2022. She serves as the Program Director for 2 researchlabs in NTU, namely Singapore Centre for 3D Printing since 2014 and HP-NTU Digital Manufacturing Corp Lab since 2018.

Professor Yeong’s research work focuses on 3D bioprinting, as well as 3D printing of functional materials. She has attracted more than SGD$15M in research grants and published more than 180 papers. She has been recognized with multiple awards including Top 50 Asia Women Tech Leaders 2024, NRF Investigatorship Class of 2022, Singapore 100 Women in Tech (SG100WIT) 2021 and the Inaugural TCT Woman in 3D Printing Award 2019.

She is listed in the Top 2% Scientists Worldwide in a study from Stanford University since 2021, and named Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher 2022 & 2024, representing the top 0.1% of most influential scientists who have been most frequently cited by their peers. In 2025, she is ranked #1 in 3D printing (highly ranked scholar - prior 5 years) by ScholarGPS.

Professor Yeong is also the founding editor of International Journal of AI for Materials and Design, and the Associate Editor for journals International Journal of Bioprinting, and Virtual & Physical Prototyping. She also serves on international grant panels, such as the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant and Science Foundation Ireland program.

Dr. Wang obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Mechanics from Peking University, Beijing, P.R. China, in 1992 and 1996, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of California, San Diego in 2002. He is currently a fellow of American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE), and Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). His research is on cellular and molecular engineering for live cell imaging and controllable cell-based therapy.

Yongguang Yang is an immunology expert and professor at Jilin University. He currently serves as Vice Chair of the Jilin University Academic Committee, Director of the Academic Ethics and Style Construction Committee, Dean of the Bethune Medical Transformation and Innovation Institute, and Dean of the Translational Medicine Research Institute at the First Hospital of Jilin University. He also holds the title of Professor Emeritus at Columbia University. Additionally, he is a member of the National Stem Cell Clinical Trial Filing Committee, Standing Director of the Chinese Society for Immunology, and Chairman of the Jilin Provincial Society for Stem Cell Research.

With a long-standing research focus on transplantation immunology and humanized animal models, he developed a strategy to inhibit xenotransplant immune rejection through CD47 gene editing and established a series of humanized animal models. His work has been published in over 200 research papers in related fields.

Zlatibor Velickovic is the Facility Director of Cell & Tissue Therapies WA (CTTWA) at Royal Perth Hospital in Western Australia. Zlatibor earned his BSc (Hons I) in Molecular Biology and Physiology from the University of Belgrade in Serbia and his PhD in Immunogenetics from the University of Otago in New Zealand. Zlatibor began his scientific career in Australia at the Australian Red Cross Blood Service (ARCBS) in Sydney in 2001. During his time at ARCBS, he managed the TGA-accredited molecular testing laboratory for matching transplant patients and donors, gaining extensive GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) experience. In 2012, he helped set up and validate the GMP facility at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital using his GMP expertise. He implemented cell processing procedures to manufacture clinical-grade Immune effector cell therapies and established a state-wide cell processing service for commercial CAR T-cell products. Zlatibor has implemented and managed several Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMP) projects for partners and established regulatory-compliant production and formulation processes for industry-sponsored ATMP clinical trials. In his current role, Zlatibor directs a FACT, TGA, OGTR, and NATA-accredited GMP facility for the manufacture of ATMPs. Zlatibor has successfully led several in-house process development projects for ATMP manufacturing in collaboration with local and national partners. He has also established regulatory-compliant ATMP manufacturing and formulation processes for clinical trials both investigator-led and sponsored by the industry. From 2022 to 2024, he served as the vice president of the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy (ISCT) for the Australia and New Zealand region. Additionally, he holds the position of Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia.