Keynote Speakers

Jon Cooper, Professor Jonathan Cooper has pioneered technologies in biosensors (1980s), protein and DNA microarrays (1990s) and Lab-on-a-Chip and Bionanotechnology (2000s). He has published ca. 200 research papers, is the founder of Mode Diagnostics (producing home diagnostics for bowel cancer), and of ClydeBiosciences (developing toxicity tests). In his recent research, he has focused upon using phononics in the field of medical diagnostics. In one example, using phononics, he has created frequency dependent acoustic lenses and mirrors with phononic crystals to enable generic platforms for low cost diagnostics. Jon was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2004. He was appointed to the Wolfson Chair in Biomedical Engineering in 2009 and was awarded a Royal Society Merit Award in 2010.
Ali Khademhosseini, Professor Ali Khademhosseini is an associate professor affiliated with the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Wyss Institute and Harvard Medical School. He also directs a satellite laboratory at the WPI-AIMR at Tohoku University. He has authored over 200 papers in peer reviewed journals and numerous other works. He has received over 30 major awards including the United States Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the Pioneers of Miniaturization award and the Technology Review Magazine TR35 award. He received his Ph.D. in bioengineering from MIT, and MASc and BASc degrees from University of Toronto both in chemical engineering.
Elisabeth Verpoorte, Chair of Analytical Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Analysis E.M.J. (Sabeth) Verpoorte has more than 30 years of research experience in the microfluidics or lab-on-a-chip field. Her introduction to this technology came in 1990, after her PhD with D. Jed Harrison at the University of Alberta, when she started as a postdoctoral researcher to the pioneering µTAS group headed by Professor Andreas Manz at Ciba Ltd., Basel, Switzerland. In 2003, Sabeth made a strategic switch to assume a Chair in the Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy, making a foray into a new research environment dominated by cells, tissue and drug development. Projects have involved the development of organ-on-a-chip systems to study drug metabolism (liver chip, gut chip), diagnose endothelial dysfunction and monitor liver tissue function. Efforts have also concentrated on continuous-flow particle separation strategies, paper microfluidics, as well as miniaturized analytical instrumentation (paper spray ionization, multidimensional chromatography). The acquisition of interdisciplinary projects involving scientists from the life sciences, chemistry, and physics disciplines continues to be a driving force in her research. In 2022, Verpoorte was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Tampere University (Finland) for her work on lab-on-a-chip and organ-on-a-chip research as well as for long-standing interdisciplinary collaborations. A second honorary doctorate from Lund University (Sweden) followed in May of 2024 for outstanding research production within the lab-on-a-chip and microfluidics field, and for being a female role model as, in various ways, she has pursued the issue of female representation in scientific contexts.