Prof. Dr. Sir Cato T. Laurencin
(University of Connecticut, USA)

Professor Sir Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D., is the University Professor and Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Connecticut. He serves as the Chief Executive Officer of The Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering.

Prof. Laurencin earned a B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, an M.D. (Magna Cum Laude) from Harvard Medical School, and a Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a practicing sports medicine and shoulder surgeon recognized among America’s Top Doctors for over 15 years and holds fellowships in multiple leading surgical and orthopaedic societies. He pioneered the field of Regenerative Engineering, integrating biomaterials science, stem cells, and nanotechnology, and has received several top scientific awards including the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award.

Prof. Dr. Dame Molly Stevens
(University of Oxford, UK)

Professor Dame Molly Stevens FREng FRS is the John Black Professor of Bionanoscience at the Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics. She is Deputy Director of the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery and a member of the Department for Engineering Science and the Institute for Biomedical Engineering.

Prof Stevens obtained her PhD at the University of Nottingham, did her postdoctoral research at MIT, and led a highly interdisciplinary research programme at Imperial College London from 2004-2023. Professor Stevens is an international leader in ground-breaking biosensing technologies, transformative regenerative medicine and advanced therapeutics approaches; has published extensively in leading journals and was named a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher in Cross-Field Research.

Prof. Dr. Louis Andrew Lyon
(Chapman University, USA.)

Prof. Andrew Lyon is an American chemist, bioengineer, and academic leader specializing in soft matter materials, particularly the design and application of microgels and hydrogels for biomedical uses such as regenerative medicine and hemostasis. Born in the US, he earned a B.A. in Chemistry from Rutgers College in 1992, followed by an M.S. in 1993 and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 1996, both from Northwestern University. Prof. Lyon joined the Georgia Institute of Technology as an assistant professor in 1999, advancing to associate professor in 2003 and full professor in 2007; In 2014, he moved to Chapman University as dean of the Schmid College of Science and Technology, a position he held until 2018, before becoming the founding dean of the Dale E. and Sarah Ann Fowler School of Engineering in 2019, serving until 2023. He currently holds professorships in both Chemistry and Electrical Engineering & Computer Science there.

Prof. Dr. Anthony Guiseppi-Elie
(Texas A&M University, USA,
President and Sr. Fellow, AIIMSEI)

Prof. Dr. Anthony Guiseppi-Elie is an international medical sciences, engineering, and innovation consultant at the American International Institute of Medical Sciences, Engineering, and Innovation. A former Vice President and Chief Academic Officer at Tri-County Technical College. He has 15 years of industrial research and product development experience and 18 years of experience as a tenured, titled, and endowed full professor at universities that include Virginia Commonwealth University, Clemson University, Texas A&M University, and Anderson University, where he was the Founding Dean of the College of Engineering. He has been associated with three startup companies and is Founder, President, and Scientific Director of ABTECH Scientific, Inc. A US citizen who was born in Trinidad and Tobago, he holds the Sc.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT, the M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Manchester (UMIST), and the B.Sc. (First Class Honors) in Applied, Analytical, and Biochemistry from the University of the West Indies (UWI).

Prof. Dr. Wei Gao
(Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, USA)

Wei Gao is a Professor of Medical Engineering and a Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego in 2014, and completed his postdoctoral training from 2014 to 2017 in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.

He is a recipient of the NSF Career Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, IAMBE Early Career Award, Sloan Research Fellowship, Pittcon Achievement Award, IEEE EMBS Early Career Achievement Award, IEEE EMBS Technical Achievement Award, IEEE Sensor Council Technical Achievement Award, MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35, and the Falling Walls Breakthrough of the Year in Engineering and Technology. He is also recognized as a World Economic Forum Young Scientist, a Highly Cited Researcher (Web of Science, since 2020).

Prof. Dr. Franz Konstantin Fuss
(University of Bayreuth, Germany)

Prof. Dr. Franz Konstantin Fuss serves as the Chair of Biomechanics at the Faculty of Engineering Science at the University of Bayreuth, where he leads cutting-edge research at the intersection of human movement science and advanced engineering. Professor Fuss holds degrees in Medicine from Vienna University and in Engineering from the University of Strathclyde. This dual expertise allows him to approach biomechanical challenges with both clinical insight and technical precision, bridging the gap between human physiology and engineered systems.

His work extensively explores the design and optimization of smart and instrumented equipment, including sports balls, climbing holds, wheelchairs, sports footwear, and protective gear such as helmets. A notable aspect of his research is the development of sensor-less sensing technologies, enabling innovative ways to capture and analyze performance data without conventional embedded sensors.

Professor Ennio Tasciotti is Head of the Human Longevity Program Laboratory at IRCCS San Raffaele. He graduated in Molecular Biology from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and earned a PhD in Molecular Medicine from the International Center for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology , a specialization in Molecular Imaging from the Molecular Biomedicine Consortium of AREA Science Park, and a second specialization in Nanomedicine from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.

Professor Tasciotti is considered a pioneer in the development of bioinspired materials and nanotechnologies for targeted drug delivery, inflammation control, and regenerative medicine.

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Prof. Stelios T. Andreadis is a SUNY Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he directs the Cell, Gene and Tissue Engineering Center and previously led the SCiRM training program. He earned his PhD from the University of Michigan and completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School in gene therapy and regenerative medicine. His research spans stem cell bioengineering, tissue regeneration, biomaterials, and gene delivery systems, with key contributions to vascular, skin, and gland tissue engineering as well as lentiviral-based gene analysis.

He co-founded Angiograft, LLC to commercialize vascular graft technologies, has secured over $20 million in research funding.

More information here.

Prof. Dana Al-Sulaiman joined KAUST in 2021 as an assistant professor of materials science andbioengineering. She is the principal investigator of the BioMAD Lab, which focuses on developing advanced materials and next-generation technologies for minimally-invasive disease diagnosis, monitoring and precision healthcare. She is a contributing faculty member in the KAUSTSmart Health Center of Excellence. Prior to KAUST, Professor Alsulaiman completed her postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Prof Patrick Doyle at MIT, where she focused on developments in the fields of encoded hydrogel biosensors and microfluidic technologies.

Throughout her academic career, Prof. Al-Sulaiman has received many prestigious international awards, among them the distinguished L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Regional Young TalentAward (2023) and the RSC Materials Horizons Emerging Investigator Award (2025).

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Prof. Dr. Carmen Mayorga is a Professor at the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences (UPC). She previously served as a Senior Scientist at the Technical University of Ostrava and led the Kralupy unit of the Centre for Advanced Functional Nanorobots at UCT Prague. She was also a research fellow at ICN2 in Barcelona, Spain, and at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research focuses on electrochemical studies of nanomaterials, including nanoparticles and two-dimensional materials, as well as the development of autonomous micro/nanomotors for sensing applications and pollutant remediation.

Prof. Mayorga has contributed to several innovative research directions, including a novel gas sensing system based on impedance phase detection, the use of bipolar electrochemistry for exfoliating layered two-dimensional materials, and the development of a magnetic rotating field setup for the precise control of magnetic micro/nanorobots.

More information here.

Dr. Selim Bozkurt
(Ulster University, UK)

Dr. Selim Bozkurt is a Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at Ulster University's School of Engineering. He holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Eindhoven University of Technology, as well as an MSc and BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Yeditepe University and Eskisehir Osmangazi University, respectively. Prior to his current role, he served as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at University College London and a Researcher at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London. His main research interests focus on in-silico medicine, digital twins, and patient-specific computational modelling.

His specific areas of expertise include the hemodynamic evaluation and optimisation of continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices, modelling of physiological systems, medical devices and biomechanical modelling for paediatric craniofacial surgeries.

Prof. Dr. Leopoldo Angrisani
(University of Napoli Federico II, Italy)

Leopoldo Angrisani is Full Professor of Electrical and Electronic Measurements with the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering of the University of Naples Federico II, Italy. He is also Chair of the Board of the Ph.D. Program ICTH - Information and Communication Technology for Health of the same University. His current research interests include the role of AI in measurement science, measurement uncertainty in AI-based measurement processes, the impact of quantum technologies on measurements, metrological characterization of advanced human–machine interfaces, measurements for IoT, Industry 4.0, and Health 4.0 applications, and cyber-physical measurement systems.

Prof. Dr. Maribel Vazquez
(Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA)

Prof. Dr. Maribel Vazquez is Professor and Principal Investigator in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and a Fellow of AIMBE and BMES. Her research integrates biomedical engineering systems, mechanistic biology, and clinical applications to advance regenerative and cell-based therapies across the nervous system. Her laboratory has pioneered microfluidic technologies that correlate cell migration with altered signaling pathways in applications involving central, visual, and peripheral nervous system repair, while also leading educational initiatives focused on health disparities in U.S. healthcare. Supported by funding from the NIH, NSF, and DoD, she has held numerous academic and professional leadership roles in biomedical engineering and translational medicine. She earned Sc.D. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University.

More information here.

Prof. Dr. Silviya Petrova Zustiak
(Saint Louis University, USA)

Silviya Petrova Zustiak is a Professor and Associate Chairin the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Saint Louis University and co-director of the SLU Institute for Drug and Biotherapeutic Innovation. She earned her B.S./M.S. in Bioelectrical Engineering from the Technical University in Sofia, Bulgaria, and her Ph.D. in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from University of Maryland, Baltimore County, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in biophysics at the National Institutes of Health. Her research focuses on hydrogel biomaterials, tissue engineering, drug delivery systems, and cell–matrix interactions, integrating engineering, materials science, and biology.

Dr. Hana Lísalová
(Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czechia)

Dr. Hana Lísalová is Head of the Laboratory of Functional Biointerfaces within the Department of Optical and Biophysical Systems, Division of Optics, at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Her research focuses on functional biointerfaces, biomimetic systems, and biological processes in native environments, with an emphasis on the development of tailor-made functional surfaces and advanced experimental methodologies. Her interdisciplinary approach integrates biomolecular physics, chemical engineering, material surface science, optics, nanotechnology, and biology to advance understanding at the interface between synthetic materials and biological systems. A major area of research is the study of interactions between biomolecules and complex biological systems and ultrathin polymer architectures exhibiting antifouling properties, enabling resistance to biofouling in real-world biological environments.

Prof. Dr. Gianluca Di Flumeri
(Sapienza University of Rome, Italy)

Prof. Dr. Gianluca Di Flumeri is a biomedical engineer and neuroscience researcher specializing in neurophysiological signal analysis and human-machine interaction. He earned his Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering and a Ph.D. cum laude in Morphogenesis and Tissue Engineering (Biophysics curriculum) from Sapienza University of Rome, where he now serves as Assistant Professor in Human Physiology. His work focuses on decoding cognitive states, such as mental workload, stress, vigilance and fatigue, through advanced biosignal analysis (EEG, ECG or PPG, skin conductance, eye-tracking). His research spans applied domains like Human Factors in aviation, industry, healthcare, but especially mobility and road safety, where it is becoming increasingly crucial to address issues of Human-Machine Interaction in vehicles with growing levels of autonomy, and the use of Brain-Computer Interfaces can help advance the state of the art through a new human-in-the-loop paradigm.

Dr. Luciano Sappia
(Scientific Advisor and Innovation Consultant, TotemXR, Catalonia, Spain)

Dr. Luciano Sappia is a Scientific Advisor and Innovation Consultant at TotemXR (Barcelona, Spain), specializing in diagnostic technologies, biosensors, and point-of-care devices. He holds a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences and a degree in Biomedical Engineering from the National University of Tucumán, Argentina. Over the course of an international research career spanning Germany, Denmark, and Spain, he has developed biosensing platforms for medical, food-safety, and environmental applications. His technical expertise encompasses biosensor design, electrochemical techniques, nanomaterials, surface plasmon resonance (SPR), impedance spectroscopy, and in vitro diagnostics (IVD). Dr. Sappia advises startups, technology centers, and research consortia on structuring R&D projects, securing innovation funding, and translating scientific findings into clinically relevant products. Combining rigorous scientific knowledge with hands-on innovation management, his work focuses on accelerating the path from laboratory research to market-ready healthcare solutions with tangible societal impact.

Dr. Claudio Parolo
(Ramón y Cajal Fellow, Universitat Rovira i Virgili and Co-founder, Global Health Innovative Solutions, Spain)

Dr. Claudio Parolo is a biotechnology researcher specializing in biosensing technologies for diagnostics and global health. He obtained his degree in Biotechnology from the University of Padova and completed his PhD at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2013. His research career has included positions at leading institutions including University College London, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, where he developed innovative diagnostic platforms including lateral flow assays, electrochemical sensors, and DNA-based biosensors for infectious diseases and biomarker monitoring. Dr. Parolo is currently a Ramón y Cajal Fellow at Universitat Rovira i Virgili and an external Associated Researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health.