Mahin Khatami was born in Tehran-Iran. She immigrated to USA in 1969 after training in Chemistry (BS) and Science Education (MS). She received her MA in Biochemistry from SUNY at Buffalo (1977) and PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Pennsylvania (UPA, 1980). Her postdoctoral trainings were in physiology at the University of Virginia, protein chemistry (proteomics) at the Fox Chase Cancer Institute and UPA. She was a Faculty of Medicine at the Department of Ophthalmology, Scheie Eye Institute, UPA, until 1992. In collaboration with a team of scientists, under the direction of John H. Rockey, MD, PhD, at UPA, she quickly earned her supervisory responsibilities on two major projects; cell and molecular biology of diabetic retinopathy/maculopathy and experimental models of acute and chronic ocular inflammatory diseases. In her junior academic career, Khatami is considered the most productive scientist in USA as she published 39 scientific articles and over 60 abstracts in conference proceedings in the first decade of her research. In 1998, at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), she was a Program Director and health Scientist administrator, involved in developing molecular concepts for utilization of patient biospecimen for large clinical trials such as Prostate-Lung-Colorectal Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trials. Dr. Khatami has lectured internationally; served as president and VP for Graduate Women In Science (GWIS) Omicron Chapter; scientific judge; Founder and President of Medical Education Technologies (HUS); consultant to pharmaceutical companies; member of professional societies and editorial activities; symposia organizer. She is Associate Editor for Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics, lecturer, author and editor. Before retiring at professor level from NCI/NIH in 2009, her position was Program Director (IMAT) and Assistant Director for Technology Program Development, Office of Technology and Industrial Relations, Office of the Director, NCI/NIH.

Charles Unsworth, Senior Lecturer obtained his PhD in Physics at the University of St. Andrews, UK in 1997. He is an Ex. Higher Scientific Officer of the Defense Evaluation Research Agency (DERA) Ministry of Defense, UK. He completed a 3 year Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Edinburgh in Radar Signal Processing and a 2 year Postdoctoral Mobility Fellow at Edinburgh University collaborating with the Royal Hospital of Sick Children, Edinburgh in Biomedical Signal Processing. He runs the ‘Advanced Signal & Image Processing Group’, at the University of Auckland specialising in Biomedical Signal Processing & Neuroengineering.

Cornelia Kasper completed her Ph.D. 1998 from Leibniz University of Hannover (Germany) and her habilitation in 2007 at the Institute for Technical Chemistry at the Leibniz University of Hannover. She was appointed as full University Professor for Biopharmaceutical Production and Technology at University of Natural Resources and Life Science (BOKU) in Vienna (Austria) at the department of biotechnology. She has published more than 60 papers in reputed journals and several book chapters and is editor within the series of Advances in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology (Springer, 3 volumes already published, 3 more in preparation. Please visit the following link for more details: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cornelia_Kasper/?ev=hdr_xprf

Cell Culture and Tissue Engineering.

Denis Barritault graduated in Math and Physics, completed his Ph.D. in biochemistry in Paris University. Post doctoral in molecular immunology at Pasteur Institute and NYU as NIH Fogarty Fellow he joined INSERM unit in Paris as developmental biologist. He made the first description and patents of FGF extracted from retina in 1979 and 82 as skin and cornea healing agent, became full professor at Paris East University in 1985, founded and directed a CNRS Laboratory on cell and tissue regeneration until 2003. He is now President of OTR3, Emeritus Professor and author in over 200 publications and 29 patents.

Zvi Nevo is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry at the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University. Prof. Nevo runs an active laboratory, directing 3 PhD students and 3 students for Master Degree, supported by grants from the Israeli Academy of Science and GIF German Israeli Binational Foundation. Prof. Nevo\\\'s field of expertise is in general developmental, maturation and aging of connective tissues in health and disease, with special emphasis on cartilage and cartilage repair with composite implants. Prof. Nevo has one hundred scientific articles, ten chapters in books and 23 patents.

Harish C Pant supervises and manages a research program dedicated to understanding the mechanisms regulating neuronal cytoskeletal phosphorylation in health and disease. For several years our focus has been on the role of the multifunctional neuronal kinase complex Cdk5/p35, in neuronal cytoskeleton phosphorylation, neuronal development, synapogenesis, and survival. Within the past few years, however, we, and other laboratories, have shown that Cdk5 is abnormally hyperactivated as a Cdk5/p25 complex in several neurodegenerative disorders which correlates with their specific brain pathologies. Serendipitously, we identified a small peptide (p5) derived from the cdk5 activator, p35, that specifically inhibited the abnormally activated Cdk5 without affecting the normal endogenous kinase. Accordingly, current and future studies are designed to (1) determine whether this peptide acts therapeutically in rescuing neurodegenerative model mice sharing the hyperactivated Cdk5-induced phenotypes of Alzheimer Disease (AD), Amyotrophic Sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and HIV-dementia. (2) if so, what is its mechanism of action in each case? And, ultimately, (3) does it qualify as a possible candidate for human therapy?

The major focus of this laboratory has been to study the mechanisms of topographic regulation of neuronal cytoskeletal proteins regulation by phosphorylation and neurodegeneration.

Simion Simon is Professor of Physics at Babes Bolyai University, Romania. He finnished his PhD studies in 1986, in the field of magnetic resonance on oxide materials and has a two years (1993,1994) postdoc stage at Nijmegen University, The Netherlands. He is the director of Interdisciplinary Research Institute in Bio- Nano- Sciences and of National Centre of Magnetic Resonance. He has published more than 100 papers in reputed journals.

M Yliperttula has completed his Ph.D. at the age of 32 years from the University of Helsinki 1993. She is heading the division of the biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics, at the Faculty of Pharmacy. She performed her post doc period at Saclay at CEA, Paris, France, has been working 10 years in drug company, and has been as a visiting scientists at Harvard Medical School at Cambridge, USA. She has published more than 70 papers in reputed journals and serving as editorial board members in few international journals.

Loboa received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Biomechanical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, respectively, from Stanford University. She is an author on over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, 6 book chapters, and approximately 175 peer-reviewed conference proceedings. She is the Associate Chair and an Associate Professor in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State University, an Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at NC State University, and the Founding Director of the Cell Mechanics Laboratory (http://www.bme.ncsu.edu/labs/cml). Dr. Loboa is a recipient of the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Award (2005), Sigma Xi Faculty Research Award (2009), UK-US Stem Cell Collaboration Development Award (2009), Stanford University Distinguished Alumni Scholar Award (2010), the NCSU Chancellor’s Innovation Award (2011), and the NCSU Faculty Scholar Award (2012).

1) Empirical and computational approaches to quantitatively determine and deliver biomimetic mechanical, electrical, and material stimuli to human stem cells for functional tissue engineering of musculoskeletal tissues
2) Nanofibrous “smart bandages” as controlled release systems for wound healing applications requiring antimicrobial, antibacterial, and/or anti-inflammatory treatment(s)

Shay Soker is a Professor of Regenerative Medicine at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative medicine. Dr. Soker received his Ph.D. from the Technion-Israel Institute for Technology and was postdoctoral trainee and an Assistant Professor at the Children’s Hospital Boston. Dr. Soker has authored more than 100 scientific publications and reviews, and has written chapters in several books.

Soker’s research integrates principles of vascular biology in regenerative medicine applications and the biology of stem and progenitors cells that are needed for tissue repair and regeneration. He also studies the biochemical properties of natural materials for tissue engineering.

Zilberman holds an appointment of Associate Professor with tenure at the Department of Biomedical Engineering of Tel Aviv University. She received her B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering (Cum Laude) and her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from the Technion in Israel. She then worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, USA. Zilberman has published more than 70 peer reviewed articles in the top biomaterials and tissue engineering journals, contributed more than 130 presentations (including invited talks and plenary lectures) and serves on the editorial board of several Biomaterials journals.

Bioresorbable polymeric biomaterials, Active implants, Controlled release of drugs and proteins from bioresorbable structures, Tissue Engineering

Sundararajan V. Madihally is an Associate Professor (with tenure), Graduate Program Coordinator at Oklahoma State University and holds Edward Joullian Chairin Engineering. He received his PhD from Wayne State University and held a research fellow position at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School/Shriners Hospital for Children. His research interests are in tissue regeneration and delivery options for therapeutic agents (oral, or transdermal). In particular, his research isfocused onin vitro functional tissue engineering by mimicking in vivo microenvironmentsand understanding the cellular behavior (stem cells, co-cultures) in three-dimensional porous structure. He uses a number of polymers to form scaffolds, delivering growth factors using nanoparticles, and bioreactor designs. He is the author of the textbook “Principles of Biomedical Engineering” and currently writing another textbook on Tissue Engineering. He has published 55 peer-reviewed articles, 30 conference proceedings and presented more than 170 times (invited and conference. He served as a member of the international editorial board of Biomaterials Journal and on the editorial board of many other open access journals. He has served as reviewer for more than 75 journals and various organizations. He has organized more than 35 sessions in national and international conferences including one in the 2004 World Biomaterials Congress. He has received numerous awards including Undergraduate Student Teacher of the Year in School of Chemical Engineering, Advisor of the Year from College of Engineering Architecture and Technology, Advisor of the year from Oklahoma State University, and Advisor of the Year from National American Institute of Chemical Engineers Organization.

Anand Ramamurthi Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering of the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland OH. In parallel he has appointments as Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, OH and at the Department of Bioengineering at Clemson University Clemson SC. He was previously a tenured Associate Professor at the Department of Bioengineering at Clemson University 2003-2010. He received his MS and PhD in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma State University Stillwater OK in 1996 and 1999 respectively and a BE Hons in Chemical Engineering from Bangalore University, India in 1994. He was an American Heart Asssociation postdoctoral fellow at the Cleveland Clinic between 199 and 2001. He has 30 peer reviewed publications to date serves on the editorial board of several journals and is a reviewer for several journals including the Int J of Pharmaceutics, J of Heart Valve Disease, J of Biomaterials Science, J of Biomechanics, Anatomical Record Biomaterials Biomacromolecules Biochemie; J of Vascular Disease Tissue Engineering, Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine and Histology and Histopathology

Tissue Engineering, Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine, Biomimetic Matrix Assembly,Elastin Pathology and Elastic Matrix Regenerative Repair, Therapies for Vascular Aneurysms, Blood-Material Compatibility, Glycosaminoglycan- Based Biomaterials, Stem Cells

Jacinto was 23 years old when he completed his degree. He has an MSc in biophysics, a specialist in cytopathology at the Federal University of Pernambuco and a Ph.D. in pathology from the University of São Paulo. He is currently an Assistant Professor, and coordinator of the cytopathology sector and of postgraduate cytopathology. He is also Head of the Laboratory of Molecular and Cytological Research at the Federal University of Pernambuco and leader of the Research Group on Chronic-Degenerative Diseases-CNPq/UFPE. He also develops cancer research (biomarkers, adhesion molecules and mechanisms metastatic) and has published several articles in scientific journals, including mechanisms of carcinogenic human Papillomavirus, and tissue morphofunctional disorders in the use of natural extracts.

Damiano Pasini is Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and cross-appointed to Biomedical Engineering at McGill University. He received a Ph.D. in applied mechanics from Bristol University (UK) in 2003. Pasini has authored over 120 journal and conference papers in the area of microarchitectured materials and laminate composites with three patents on biomedical devices. In 2011, he was a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation fellowship for contribution in the area of lattice materials. He is a member of the Centre for Bone and Periodontal Research and the McGill Institute for Advanced Materials. He also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Bionic Engineering, and the International Journal of Design and Nature.

microarchitectured materials, cellular materials in biological and artificial structures, composite structures, biomechanics, reconstructive orthopaedics, plant inspired materials, multiscale mechanics, multiobjective design optimization

Debanjan Sarkar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at University at Buffalo, State University of New York. He completed his Ph.D. from University of Akron and postdoctoral studies from Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Womens Hospital. His research focuses on biomaterial based engineering of stem cell for tissue engineering and drug delivery. He has published more than 15 papers in reputed journals, and has 5 patent applications. Additionally, he has coauthored several book chapters and presented in many conferences.