Miami Engineering Career Development Associate Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering
University of Miami, USA

Dr. Tomei is the Miami Engineering Career Development Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Miami. She obtained her M.S. in Materials Engineering from the Politecnico of Milan (Italy) in 2004, and her Ph.D. in Bioengineering and Biotechnology from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland) in 2008. Dr. Tomei currently directs the Islet Immunoengineering Lab at the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) where she is applying her unique background in bioengineering and immunology to develop novel immunoengineering platforms to prevent rejection after islet transplantation and to promote antigen-specific tolerance for a cure of type-1 diabetes.

Head of Department, Department of Biomedicine
University of Basel

Prof. Dr. Ivan Martin, PhD, was a postdoctoral associate at Harvard/MIT. He joined the Department of Biomedicine (DBM) at the University Hospital of Basel in 1999 as leader of the Tissue Engineering Research Group, in close coordination with the surgical units. In 2007 he was appointed Professor for Tissue Engineering at the University of Basel and from 2021 he is Director of the DBM. From 2004 to 2009 he was the first president of the European section of the Tissue Engineering Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS), and later Chair of the TERMIS Strategic Alliance Committee. In 2018 he was elected as member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences. He has been Chair of the ‘Mesenchymal stromal cell committee’ and is currently member of the ‘Orthopaedics and Musculoskeletal Committee’ of the International Society for Cellular and Gene Therapy (ISCT). He is part of the editorial boards of 6 international journals. His group includes scientists from the biological, engineering and clinical fields, dedicated to develop solid scientific basis for innovative translational strategies in regenerative surgery (H-index: 109).

Professor of Surgery and Regenerative Medicine
Surgery, Wake Forest School of Medicine

Giuseppe Orlando, MD, PhD, Marie Curie Fellow, is professor of surgery at the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston Salem, North Carolina, in the US, and an abdominal organ transplant surgeon scientist specializing in the transplantation, bioengineering and regeneration of the kidney and endocrine pancreas. He received his MD, general surgery and PhD degrees from the University of Rome, and specialized in abdominal organ transplantation, transplant immunology, regenerative medicine and tissue engineering in Paris, Brussels, Oxford and Winston Salem. He currently serves as the President of CTRMS

Julie G. Allickson, Ph.D.
Chief Technology Officer, Mayo Clinic's Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics Enterprise
Mayo Clinico, Rochester, MN
Otto Bremer Trust Director, Biomanufacturing and Product Development
Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics
Consultant, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
Associate Professor of Regenerative Medicine
American Transplant Society, TRM Advisory Council (2024-2028)
Cell Transplant and Regenerative Medicine Society, Council Member (2025-2029)

Dr. Allickson is an Associate Professor of Regenerative Medicine and serves as Chief Technology Officer at Mayo Clinic’s Center for Regenerative Medicine. She has led major scientific and clinical projects in cell therapy, biotherapeutics, and tissue engineering. Her career includes executive roles at Mayo Clinic, Wake Forest, University of Miami, and industry, demonstrating leadership in advancing regenerative medicine through research and innovation.

Professor of Surgery, University of Chicago
Co-Director, UChicago Medicine Transplantation Institute

John J. Fung, M.D., Ph.D. is the Director of the UChicago Medicine Transplantation Institute. Prior to that, he served as Chairman of the Cleveland Clinic Health System Center for Transplantation, as well as the former Chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. With over 30 years of involvement in abdominal and cellular transplantation, he is also an accomplished immunologist. Dr. Fung received his B.A. from the Johns Hopkins University in 1975, followed by a Ph.D. in Immunology in 1980 and M.D. in 1982 from the University of Chicago. He completed his surgical residency at the University of Rochester, and a transplant surgery fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh, under the guidance of Dr. Thomas Starzl. Between 1987 and 1988, he served as Director of Histocompatibility Testing at the University of Rochester. In 1989, he joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh and held the tenured position as the inaugural Thomas E. Starzl Professor in Surgery. He joined the Cleveland Clinic in 2004 as the Chairman of the Department of General Surgery and Professor of Surgery at the Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western University. He also served as the Medical Director of Allogen Laboratory, one of the largest histocompatibility laboratories in the United States and oversaw transplantation services at five Cleveland Clinic facilities globally. In 2016, he was recruited to serve as the Director of the newly created University of Chicago Medicine Transplantation Institute. Dr. Fung is a member of numerous scientific and surgical societies and served as President of the International Liver Transplantation Society from 1997-1999. He has published over 1,000 articles and book chapters and serves on the editorial board for several medical journals. He is the immediate past Editor-in-Chief for Liver Transplantation, the highest impact factor specialty transplant journal. His principal research interests are in transplantation immunology, immunosuppressive therapies, and liver related immunology. In addition, he has received numerous prestigious lay and professional awards. His research interests are in transplant immunology, liver immunity, immnosuppression, and outcomes analysis. Dr. Fung is active in community affairs and is presently the President of The Transplantation Society.

Professor, Surgery
University of Regensburg, University Hospital Regensburg

Edward Geissler is a scientist at the University of Regensburg working in different areas spanning the field of Transplantation including basic immunology and tolerance, solid organ transplantation, immunosuppressive therapies and post-transplant malignancy. He has focussed on the understanding and prevention of immunologic rejection of transplanted organs and on novel, as well as conventional, immunosuppressive therapies to prevent transplant rejection. He also has an interest in post-transplant development of cancer, and has made a strong translational research effort through clinical trials to reduce the threat of malignancies in transplant recipients. In another effort to reduce the burden of immunosuppressive drugs, he has lead an international initiative to introduce different immune cell therapies in transplant recipients, called The ONE Study. Transfer of new ideas from basic research to the transplant recipient is a central theme of his work. He is also Executive Editor and co-Editor of the TTS journals, Transplantation and Transplantation Direct, respectively.

Professor of Surgery
University of Maryland School of Medicine

Muhammad Mansoor Mohiuddin, MD/MBBS, DSc(Hon), FAST Dr. Mohiuddin currently serves as a tenured Professor of Surgery and Director of the cardiac xenotransplantation program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), Baltimore, MD. Dr Mohiuddin previously served as Chief of Transplantation of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Research Program at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute / the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He held faculty positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and Rush University, Chicago. He has been involved in Xenotransplantation Research since 1991 and started xenotransplantation research programs at the NIH, Rush University Chicago, and at UMSOM. He is Associate Editor for Transplantation and reviews manuscripts for many other journals. He is also the past president Dow Graduate Association of North America. His achievements include several NIH and non-NIH grants during his academic career. He is a member of the executive committee of the Community of Transplant Scientists (COTS) and a member of the advisory council of transplant regenerative medicine of the American Society of Transplantation (AST) Dr. Mohiuddin's career has been a testament to his pioneering spirit in Xenotransplantation. His groundbreaking contributions include demonstrating the most prolonged survival in heterotopic and orthotopic cardiac Xenotransplantation. He devised an immunosuppression regimen that significantly extended the lifespan of cardiac xenografts to nearly three years. His leadership extends to the International Xenotransplantation Association (IXA), where he now serves as President, following four years as Councilor and a liaison to foster productive dialogue between the IXA and the FDA. His extensive publication record includes over 120 papers and more than 150 abstracts, and he has been a sought-after expert speaker on Xenotransplantation on numerous occasions. Dr. Mohiuddin's unwavering dedication to Xenotransplantation culminated in two significant milestones. On January 7, 2022, he achieved the First Genetically Engineered pig-to-human cardiac Xenotransplantation, a feat that marked a new era in the field. He then led the second xenotransplantation procedure in September 2023, further solidifying his position as a leader in the field. Both surgeries were successfully conducted at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Besides other awards, Dr Mohiuddin was picked by Nature Journal as one of the “Nature’s 10” in 2022. Ten people who helped shape science in 2022..

Professor, Complex Tissue Regeneration
Maastricht University

Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Moroni received his Ph.D. cum laude in 2006 at University of Twente on 3D scaffolds for osteochondral regeneration, for which he was awarded the European doctorate award in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering from the European Society of Biomaterials (ESB).

ince 2014 he works at Maastricht University, where he is a founding member of the MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine. In 2016, he became full professor in biofabrication for regenerative medicine. Since 2019, he is chair of the Complex Tissue Regeneration department. He was vice-director of MERLN from 2019 till 2022. Since 2022, he is director of MERLN.

In 2014, he received the Jean Leray award from the ESB and an ERC starting grant. In 2016, he also received the Robert Brown Award from TERMIS. In 2017, he was elected as faculty of the Young Academy of Europe and in the top 100 Italian scientists within 40 worldwide by the European Institute of Italian Culture. In 2022, he has been elected as member of the European Academy of Science. In 2023, he received the Merck Lecture Series Awards in Material Science, He has been a very active member of the International Society for Biofabrication since 2015 (treasurer till 2018; chair of the External Affairs committee till 2022) and of TERMIS (EU council member from 2018 till 2023; char of world TERMIS 2021 conference).

His research group interests aim at developing biofabrication technologies to generate libraries of 3D scaffolds able to control cell fate, with applications spanning from skeletal to vascular, neural, and organ regeneration. From his research efforts, 3 products have already reached the market.

Professor of Surgery; Chief, Division of Transplant Surgery;
Director, Transplant Surgery Research Laboratory Transplant Surgery
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Stefan G. Tullius, MD, PhD is Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He is the Joseph E. Murray, MD Distinguished Chair in Transplant Surgery, Chief of Transplant Surgery, and Director of the Transplant Surgery Research Laboratory at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston. He is Vice President of The Transplantation Society (TTS), has served as Sr. Treasurer for TTS, and is a Vice President of the Int’l Society of Uterus Transplantation. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Transplantation and has been is an Executive Editor of ransplantation, an Associate Editor of ransplant International, and has served as Associate Editor of the American Journal of Transplantation. In addition, he leads a productive NIH-funded research laboratory and lists > 300 PubMed scientific manuscripts as well as several book chapters. He is an international speaker at scientific meetings and workshops; serves and has served on the Board of societies such as ESOT, TTS, UNOS, and the National Kidney Registry; and has chaired and co-chaired several committees including the Basic Science Committees for the TTS, AST, and ESOT.

Professor of Medicine
University of Vermont
Burlingotn

Dr. Weiss is Professor of Medicine and Affiliate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Vermont. He is also President-Elect of the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT). He has had a longstanding interest in lung repair and regeneration after injury, notably gene and cell therapy approaches for lung diseases. In particular, this has included developing novel techniques with which to investigate and enhance lung gene and cell therapies. Published work in cell therapy approaches for lung diseases has included several benchmark publications that have included the first ever trial of cell therapy for COPD and that have helped define whether exogenous cells can engraft in the lung. As such, Dr. Weiss is a translational scientist whose work spans from benchtop to clinical trials. He has also instituted a biennial meeting held at the University of Vermont, Stem Cells and Cell Therapies in Lung Biology and Diseases that is widely viewed by the NIH, FDA, and non-profit Respiratory Disease Foundations as the major meeting in the field. Dr. Weiss’ overall goal is to provide a firm scientific basis for clinical application of cell therapies in lung diseases. He has been funded by the NIH, NSF, DOD, non-profit Respiratory Disease Foundations, and by industry sources since 1995. Current work in the laboratory is focused in three major areas: 1) Bioengineering approaches for development of functional lung tissue ex vivo; 2) Immunomodulation of lung inflammation by mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs); 3) Development of cell therapy-based approaches for lung disease.