Marc FerrerDirector, 3D Tissue Model Laboratory, NIH/NCATS Marc Ferrer is currently the director of the 3D tissue model laboratory at NCATS. He graduated with a BSc degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Barcelona, Spain, in 1989, and received his Ph.D. degree in Biological Chemistry from the University of Minnesota, in 1994. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University from 1995-1999, where he used structure-based chemical approaches for the development of anti-HIV small molecules. He joined the Department of Automated Biotechnology at the Merck Research Laboratories in 1999, where he became Director of Assay Development and High Throughput Screening. In 2010, he joined the NIH Chemical Genomics Center where he worked with investigators in the academic community to implement high throughput screening and medicinal chemistry programs for the discovery of small molecule probes to study protein function in vitro and in animal models of diseases. In the last four years, he has led the implementation of a 3D Tissue Model Laboratory at NCATS, a multidisciplinary group that uses 3D tissue biofabrication techniques, including 3D Bioprinting, to create assay models of human live tissues in multi-well plate format for drug discovery. Dr. Ferrer has co-authored more than 120 peer-reviewed scientific publications. |
David L. KaplanStern Family Endowed Professor of Engineering, Professor & Chair -- Dept of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University David Kaplan holds an Endowed Chair, the Stern Family Professor of Engineering, at Tufts University. He is Professor & Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and also holds faculty appointments in the School of Medicine, the School of Dental Medicine, Department of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. His research focus is on biopolymer engineering to understand structure-function relationships, with emphasis on studies related to self-assembly, biomaterials engineering and functional tissue engineering/regenerative medicine. He has published over 600 peer reviewed papers and edited eight books. He directs the NIH P41 Tissue Engineering Resource Center (TERC) that involves Tufts University and Columbia University. He serves of the editorial boards of numerous journals and is Associate Editor for the ACS journal Biomacromolecules. He has received a number of awards for teaching, was Elected Fellow American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and received the Columbus Discovery Medal and Society for Biomaterials Clemson Award for contributions to the literature. |
Noah MalmstadtProfessor, Mork Family Dept. of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, University of Southern California Noah Malmstadt is Professor at the University of Southern California. He received a BS in Chemical Engineering from Caltech and a PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Washington. Following postdoctoral work at UCLA, he joined the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at USC in 2007. Malmstadt is the recipient of a 2012 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award. His research focuses on microfluidic strategies to facilitate material fabrication and biophysical analysis. He has pioneered the integration of ionic liquids as solvents in droplet microreactors and the application of microfluidic systems to synthesizing biomimetic cell membranes. Microfluidic analytical techniques he has developed include methods for measuring the permeability of cell membranes to druglike molecules and techniques for measuring ionic currents through membrane proteins. |
Ibrahim OzbolatHartz Family Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Penn State University Ibrahim Tarik Ozbolat is a Hartz Family Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Biomedical Engineering and Neurosurgery, and a member of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State University. Dr. Ozbolat’s main area of research is in the field of 3D Bioprinting. He has been working on several aspects of bioprinting such as bioprinting processes, bioink materials, bioprinters and post-bioprinting tissue maturation for manufacturing of more than a dozen tissues and organs. Dr. Ozbolat is a leading scientist with over 120 publications, including a sole-authored book in his domain. Due to his notable contributions to the field of bioprinting, he has received several prestigious international and national awards including 2014 NSF CAREER Award, 2014 SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, 2014 ASME Chao and Trigger Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, 2014 ASME Tau Pi Sigma Gold Medal, 2015 IIE Dr. Hamid K. Eldin Outstanding Early Career Industrial Engineer in Academia Award, 2015 International Outstanding Young Researcher in Freeform and Additive Manufacturing Award and 2017 Hartz Family Career Development Professorship at Penn State. |
Stephanie WillerthProfessor and Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering, University of Victoria and CEO – Axolotl Biosciences Dr. Willerth, a Full Professor in Biomedical Engineering, holds a Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Victoria where she has dual appointments in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Division of Medical Sciences. She also holds an appointment with the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. She serves as the Acting Director of the Centre for Biomedical Research and the Biomedical Engineering undergraduate program at the University of Victoria. She is an active member of the steering committee of the B.C. Regenerative Medicine Initiative and the Stem Cell Network. She also serves as a staff scientist at Creative Destruction Lab. She also was the President of the Canadian Biomaterials Society– serving a three-year term as President-Elect then President and Past President from 2017-2019. She recently founded the start-up company - Axolotl Biosciences. |
Joyce WongProfessor of Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering, Boston University Dr. Joyce Y. Wong is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering at Boston University. She is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). Her research is in the area of developing biomaterials for the early detection and treatment of disease. Her current projects include pediatric bioengineered blood vessel patches, ultrasound contrast agents to detect and treat abdominal surgical adhesions, and biomaterials for reproductive health. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications, 11 pending or issued patents, a graduate of the NSF Innovation-CORPS program, and has mentored over 100 trainees. In 2017 she received the Charles DeLisi Distinguished Lecture and Award, the highest honor in Boston University’s College of Engineering. She is on the editorial board of several journals and in 2017 was a Volume Organizer for the Materials Research Society Bulletin. She is an Associate Editor of the journal Drug Delivery and Translational Research. In 2014, as the Inaugural Director of a Boston University Provost Initiative promoting women in STEM at all levels, she launched ARROWS (Advance, Recruit, Retain & Organize Women in STEM). In 2018, she received the Advocate of the Year AWARD from BU GWISE (Graduate Women in Science and Engineering). In 2019, she led the BU team in receiving an AAAS SEA (STEM Equity Achievement) Change Bronze Award. She most recently became Director of Outreach for BU’s NASA-funded SHIELD DRIVE Science Center. She is currently Chair of College of Fellows for AIMBE. In 2020, she received the Clemson Award for Basic Research from the Society for Biomaterials. |
Wai Yee YeongProfessor, School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University Prof Yeong Wai Yee is Professor of Mechanical Engineering in School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She serves as Program Director in HP-NTU Digital Manufacturing Corp Lab and Singapore Centre for 3D Printing. Her research focuses on bioprinting and 3D printing. She has accrued multiple intellectual properties and has secured more than $10 million research grants. Prof Yeong Wai Yee has been named the winner of the inaugural TCT Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award in 2019. She was named as one of the women in the Singapore 100 Women in Tech (SG100WIT) List in 2021 and awarded the highly prestigious NRF Investigatorship 2022. |
