BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute and Simon Fraser University, Canada;Dr. Yasaman Maaref received her PhD in Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology from Simon Fraser University, building on a background in mechanical engineering. Her doctoral research focused on developing 2D tissue engineering approaches to improve the maturation of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) and applying these models to investigate genetic cardiac diseases. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, supported by a BCCHR Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, under the supervision of Dr. Maksymilian Prondzynski. Her research focuses on engineering advanced 3D cardiac models to enable the scalable production of mature hiPSC-CMs for disease modeling and future translational applications.

D-MAVT, ETH Zurich, Switzerland ;As a fourth-year PhD candidate in Prof. Robert Katzschmann's Soft Robotics Laboratory at ETH Zurich, Aiste Balciunaite develops skeletal muscle-based biohybrid robots by advancing biofabrication techniques, integrating sensing for closed-loop control of muscle actuation, and leveraging computational methods to inform the design of biohybrid robots. Her work on biohybrid robots was recently published in Nature Communications. She has authored various publications in Advanced Materials, Advanced Intelligent Systems, Science Advances, Advanced Functional Materials, and elsewhere. She was recognized as an IEEE RoboSoft Rising Star in 2025 and awarded the ETH ALIVE Doctoral Fellowship in 2022.

Laboratory for Innovations in MicroEngineering (LiME);Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Victoria, BC, Canada;Esfandyar Askari is a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Victoria, Canada, working with Dr. Mohsen Akbari, and a sessional instructor at UVic, where he teaches Bioprinting and 3D Printing of Human Parts. His research centres on engineered microgels for cell manufacturing and biofabrication, including thermoresponsive BrushGel microcarriers for enzyme-free cell harvesting (Advanced Healthcare Materials, 2025), grooved rod-shaped microgels that impart hierarchical anisotropy to bioprinted tissues (Biomaterials, 2026), and electroconductive soft microcarriers for skeletal muscle culture (Macromolecular Bioscience, 2026). He also develops high-throughput microfluidic microgel production and bioprinting–bioreactor platforms. He holds MSc and BSc degrees in Materials Science and Engineering, and received the L2M award in 2023.