REGENERATIVE MEDICINE TODAY AND TOMORROW CV SPEAKERS
Dr. Semino was graduated as MS in Genetics and Molecular Biologist from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1990 and obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1994 from the same university. Then he was appointed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology s Center for Cancer Research (1994-1998), where he was a Merck-MIT Post-Doctoral fellow and received two awards for his research work. From 1998-2000 he worked as Senior Scientist at Phylonix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a young company that is currently developing advanced whole animal models for Pharmacogenomic analysis of Carcinogenesis-. As a Principal Investigator at the Company he was granted for several Phase I NIH SBIR grants, one Phase II NIH SBIR Grant and one Phase I NSF Grant. Then, he was appointed Research Scientist at the Center for Biomedical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 2000-2008 where he investigated stem cell differentiation into functional tissues in 3-dimensional environments - such as peptide hydrogels- where he was granted for a NIH BRP grant. His studies involved the use of Neuronal Stem Cells (NSCs) and Liver Stem Cells (LSCs) from adult animals to perform in vitro differentiation and function. At this time at MIY he founded with other scientist the company 3D-Matrix, which provides biomaterial solutions for BioMedicine. From 2007-2010 was appointed Visiting professor at the Center for Regenerative Medicine Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany, where he developed platforms to obtain cartilage tissue from adult biopsies. He is currently Associated Professor since 2007 at the Department of Bioengineering, IQS-School of Engineering, Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses and is Head of the Tissue Engineering Laboratory. He was granted with grants from EU, Switzerland and Spanish National grants. His main research is focus in the development of bioengineering approaches to assist regeneration in mammal tissues and organs. HJ. Meisel s primary focus in spine surgery and research is for the last 20 years in degenerative spinal diseases. Starting as inventor and designer of spinal implants for the intervertable space in cervical and lumbar in arthroplasty and fixation he developed 1997 the first biological disc repair transplantation system with autologus chondrocytes. He served as a PI for the first randomized clinical trial to study this regenerative approach (EuroDisc) after running all preclinical evaluations at Emory Spine Center, Atlanta. Together with his Atlanta group they continued the preclinical and clinical work in disc regeneration with adiposed derived mesenchymal stem cells. As a founding member HJ. Meisel helped to start the ETP Platform Nanomedicine for the European Commission and founded with over 30 research groups over Europe Regenerate EEIG the European Network for Regenerative Medicine in Europe. From 2003 to 2006 HJ. Meisel supported AOSpine Europe to develop a new teaching and course platform as a deputy on the neurosurgical side. (Intervertable Disc Course Davos, 2005; Strasbourg Course 2006; Cervical Course Palma de Mallorca, 2006). In 2005 HJ. Meisel co-founded the Translation Center for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Leipzig and serve there as an Executive Board member for the preclinical affairs mentoring since the beginning 4 major spinal projects with the focus in regenerative disc repair and biomaterials financed by the German Ministry of Research (BMBF). In 2007 HJ. He was appointed by the Vreije University of Amsterdam to become a visiting professor in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery for the coordination of international research projects and the development of the European Master Degree in Regenerative Medicine. Currently there is running the EU COST project Namabio From nano to macro biomaterials (design, processing, characterization, modelling) and applications to stem cells regenerative orthopaedic and dental medicine including 250 members in nanomaterial research and clinical application (EU application Plexus repair).
Dr. Juan C. Chachques is the Director of Cardiac Research at the Alain Carpentier Foundation (Paris, France), and cardiac surgeon, director of the Cardiac Bioassist Unit, at Pompidou Hospital (University of Paris). He graduated with an MD from the Faculty of Medicine of Rosario, Argentina. He obtained MS and PhD at Paris University, France. After clinical and surgical cardiologic training in Broussais Hospital of Paris, he gained expertise in experimental and clinical procedures for the treatment of heart failure. He developed Cardiac Bioassist surgical techniques, e.g. latissimus dorsi dynamic cardiomyoplasty, dynamic aortomyoplasty, atriomyoplasty. More recently he developed cell-based and tissue engineered procedures for myocardial support and regeneration, i.e. cellular cardiomyoplasty and bioartificial myocardium. He is a clinician and surgical scientist with expertise in myocardial diseases. He pursues his research interests in the integrative electrophysiology and cellular biology, the goal is to use in-vitro and in-vivo functional electrostimulation for cardiomyogenic stem-cell conditionning in order to create a dynamic cell based cardiac support. He is the founder and president of the Cardiac Bioassist Association. His further clinical research focuses on e-medecine and in the development of clinical trials for heart failure patients, e.g. the MAGNUM Trial: Myocardial Assistance by Grafting a New Upgraded bioartificial Myocardium. He is the French partner of the RECATABI European Research project (Regeneration of Cardiac Tissue Assisted by Bioactive Implants). Gustavo Tiscornia received his BS in Biological Science from the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina), and his PhD in Genetics and Molecular Medicine from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) in mechanisms of pathogenesis of Myotonic Disptrophy, one of the most common muscular degenerative diseases. He was a postdoctoral fellow with Dr Inder Verma s at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where he received the Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health and worked on gene therapy vectors, particularly on later generation lentiviral vectors capable of silencing expression of target genes by RNA interference; he was among the first to use this technique to generate transgenic knockdown mice. He then moved to Europe, joining the Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona (Spain) as a Ramon y Cajal Investigator, where he developed an induced pluripotent stem cell model of Gaucher s Disease. He is currently Professor at the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine at the University of Algarve (Portugal) where he continues research on Gaucher s Disease using induced pluripotent stem cells and cell reprograming and transdifferentiation. Dr. Antoni Baye-Genis. Stem cell therapy is a promising field in cardiovascular diseases. So far most studies have shown safety of the therapy, but with limited efficacy in terms of increase in ejection fraction. A recent approach to deliver cells is using scaffolds, the so called "tissue engineering" approach. Different constructs and models are currently under evaluation in this exciting field, mostly in small rodents. We and others already have interesting experiences in the porcine model (the one with highest resemblance to human cardiovascular system) pre-clinical model. Translation to the clinic is not fantasy.
Dr. Mercedes Balcells-Camps Ph.D is a Research Scientist at MIT s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science and Associate Professor in Bioengineering at Institut Químic de Sarrià in Barcelona. In parallel to her research, she co-founded and co-directs the MIT-Spain Program. Dr. Balcells-Camps earned a Masters of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Institut Químic de Sarrià (1995) and in Chemistry from Ramon Llull University (1996), and a PhD in Macromolecular Chemistry from RWTH Aachen in 1999 as a fellow from La Caixa Foundation and the German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD). She was awarded the Borchers Prize to the best PhD thesis in her discipline for her studies on protein adsorption processes on biomaterials. In June 1999 she joined the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center as a postdoctoral fellow and carried out pioneer work in tissue engineering of vessel-like structures. Dr. Balcells-Camps research focuses in the study of the combined effects of complex flow alterations and local molecular interventions on endothelium injury and repair. Her studies have led to numerous original articles and abstracts in high impact international journals and conferences. Dr. Balcells-Camps has recently been awarded the Cross of the Civil Merit Order by the Spanish government for her significant contribution in promoting educational and research collaborations between Spain and the US. Eduard Montanya, MD, PhD, is Senior Professor of Medicine at the University of Barcelona, Head of the Diabetes Section of the Endocrinology Department of Bellvitge University Hospital, and Head of the Diabetes and Metabolism Research Group at Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL). His research has focussed on the cell biology of pancreatic islet cells with a particular interest on the function, damage and regeneration of beta cells, and on cell therapy of diabetes and islet cell transplantation. He has acted as scientific reviewer for the European Commission, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD), and the Spanish Agency for the Evaluation of Projects (ANEP) among several national and international research institutions, as well as the main international journals in the field of diabetes. He was the recipient of a Fulbright Grant for a postdoctoral fellowship at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School, and has received the Research Award of the Spanish Diabetes Society, and the Jane Kugel Award of JDRF. He has been the Chair of the Islet Study Group of the Spanish Diabetes Association, and Vice-President and President of the Catalan Diabetes Association. He is the current President of the Diabetes Advisory Board of the Catalan Government.
José Manuel García Aznar (DOB 04.01.1970) received his BSc in Mechanical Engineering in 1995 from the Universidad de Zaragoza (Zaragoza, Spain) and his PhD degree in Computational Mechanics in 1999 from the same university, both summa cum laude. In 2001, he worked for 6 months as a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Science and Technology in Medicine (University of Keele, United Kingdom), working on computational simulation of tissue differentiation in bone fracture healing. He currently is Full Professor in Structural Mechanics at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Universidad de Zaragoza. He was recently (2012) awarded an ERC Starting Grant. He is the author of 70 ISI indexed journal papers (h-index 10, excluding self-citations), 20 book chapters and 80 contributions to international conferences. His research interests focus on the mathematical modelling of mechanics of hard tissues, mechanobiology of skeletal tissue regeneration and tissue engineering, tissue growth and development and cell mechanics. Prof. García-Aznar is member of the European Society of Biomechanics (ESB) and has been a Council Member (2004-2012) and Vice-President (2008-2012) of the ESB. Alvaro Mata was born in San José, Costa Rica and holds a Bachelor s Degree from the University of Kansas, a Masters Degree from the University of Strathclyde, and a Doctor of Engineering Degree from Cleveland State University. During his doctorate he worked at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation under the direction of Prof. Shuvo Roy followed by a Postdoctoral Fellowship working with Prof. Samuel I. Stupp at Northwestern University in Chicago on hierarchical self-assembling materials for stem cell stimulation and regenerative medicine. From 2008-2013 he was Head of the Nanotechnology Platform at Parc Científic Barcelona in Spain. He is now Associate Professor in the School of Engineering and Materials Science and Associate Director for Strategic Partnerships of the Institute of Bioengineering at Queen Mary, University of London. He is the holder of an ERC Starting Grant and was previously awarded the Clodomiro Picado Twight Technology Award in 2005, the Baxter Early Career Award in Bioengineering in 2006, and the Ramón y Cajal Award in 2009. His research focuses on developing hierarchical biomimetic materials based on static and dynamic self-assembling systems as well as topdown and bottom-up nanofabrication
Prof Dr Salvador Borrós Degree Dr Chemical Engineering of IQS (1993) Chemical Engineering of IQS (1987) MBA IQS(1993) Bachelor in Materials Characterization (Universitat de Barcelona (1993) Full Professor, 2004- Industrial Engineering Department interim head (2009-2011) Member of the IQS s Bioengineering Department Director of Grup d Enginyeria de Materials GEMAT, Group member of Tecnio, Network of technology transfer of ACCIO10 (Generalitat de Catalunya. Research consolidated group SGR2009, Generalitat de Catalunya. Founder member of the Center of Technology in Cultural Heritage Conservation (CETEC- Patrimoni) IP of 8 European projects IP of more than 25 Industrial projects 90 papers in peer review journal 14 patents 4 Spin-offs created Research lines Polymeric Materials with industrial applications: Design of high performance adhesives Vulcanization chemistry Composites with controlled viscoelasticity Surface modification of fillers using cold plasma Functional Materials: New methods to obtain polymeric thin films (icvd) New materials for Rapid Manufacturing New proton conductive polymers Biomaterials: Stimuli sensitive polymeric nanoparticles for drug delivery through body barriers. Design of biomimetic surfaces with both chemical and mechanical signaling. Smart surfaces.. Design and rapid manufacturing fabrication of scaffolds for bone and cartilage regeneration.. Use of Materials science for Cultural Heritage Conservation.