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Georg Schütte

State Secretary / Federal Ministry of Education and Research;
Berlin, Germany


Since December 2009, Georg Schuette has been State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Before that, Georg Schütte had been Secretary General of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn since 2004, an organization which enables foreign scientists to spend research periods in Germany. From 2001 to 2003, he worked as Executive Director of the German-American Fulbright Commission in Berlin. During this period, he was also a member of the EU Commission’s expert group on “Benchmarking Human Resources”.

Günther Wess

Scientific Director / Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health;
Munich, Germany


Günther Wess has been President & CEO of Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health since 2005. He joined Hoechst AG in 1982, where he held several global research responsibilities as head of R&D Germany. Starting in 1998, he became head of R&D France and of Europe in 2002 resp. 2003 at Aventis. At Sanofi Aventis, he was head of R&D Germany, and member of the company’s Discovering Board. Prof. Wess studied chemistry at Johann von Goethe University, Frankfurt, earning his PhD 1982 before conducting post-doctorate studies at Harvard University 1985/1986. His research covered several disease areas. 1999, he gained his habilitation in pharmaceutical chemistry at Gutenberg University, Mainz. He taught at University Frankfurt as honorary professor until 2008 and currently conducts courses on R&D management and case studies in drug discovery at the Technical University of Munich. Prof. Wess is member of acatech (National Academy of Science and Engineering). As of January 2013, he serves as Vice President of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres and Coordinator of the Helmholtz Research Field Health.

Axel Radlach Pries

Dekan / Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin & Vorstandsmitglied / BIH
Berlin, Germany


Axel Radlach Pries studied medicine at the University of Cologne (doctoral thesis, 1980 ‘summa cum laude’). 1998 he became full professor at the Free University Berlin and 2001 head of the Charité Institute for Physiology. His scientific interests include microcirculation, tumour vasculature, blood rheology, vascular adaptation, and angiogenesis. He was general secretary of the European Society for Microcirculation and chaired the International Liaison Committee for Microcirculation. In the European Society of Cardiology he was chair of the Working Group for Coronary Pathophysiology and Microcirculation and of the Council for Basic Cardiovascular Science. His awards include the Malpighi Award of the ESM and the Silver Medal of the ESC. Since 2015, he is dean of the Charité University Medicine Berlin.

Megan Frisk

Associate Editor / Science Translational
Medicine;

Washington, D.C., United States

Megan Frisk is an Associate Editor of Science’s new journal Science Translational Medicine. Prior to this position, she was the Editor of Trends in Biotechnology, a Cell Press review journal, where she handled all monthly content. Megan received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from The University of Wisconsin, where she studied biomolecular self-assembly and developed microfluidic sensors for detecting botulinum toxin. Her postdoctoral research focused on combining fluidics and surface chemistry for enumeration and characterization of circulating tumor cells, ultimately as a tool for clinical cancer management.

Hans-Dieter Volk

Director / BCRT & Director / Institute Medical Immunology at Charité – Universitätsmedizin;
Berlin, Germany


Hans-Dieter Volk has been director of the BCRT since its establishment in 2006. In addition, he is head of the Institute of Medical Immunology at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin since 1994, and the Department of Immunology of the Labor Berlin-Charité Vivantes GmbH since 2011. His translational research work focuses on the development of biomarkers, transplantation immunology, the immunopathogenesis of virus infections of the herpes group of viruses, and the role of inhibitory cytokines and regulatory T cells.

Georg N. Duda

Co-Chairman / BCRT & Director / Julius Wolff Institute for Biomechanics and Musculoskeletal Regeneration, Charité – Universitätsmedizin;
Berlin, Germany


Georg Duda is an engineer and one of the three founding directors of the BCRT. Since 2008, he is also Director of the Julius Wolff Institute for Biomechanics and Musculoskeletal Regeneration at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Georg Duda and his team are working on the development of implants for joint replacement and fracture repair. More recently, he has expanded his research portfolio to include studies on the understanding of cellular aging and mechanotransduction as well as on inflammation as key element of the regenerative cascade in bone and muscle healing.

Mohamed Abou-El-Enein

Head / Clinical Development Platform, Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies, BCRT;
Berlin, Germany


Dr. Mohamed Abou-El-Enein has been the head of the clinical development platform at Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT), Charité University Hospital since January 2015. The platform is responsible for transforming the research findings of the scientists into clinical applications. He serves as a Teaching Assistant in clinical research at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Instructor in Translational Medicine and Regulatory Science at the Berlin-Brandenburg School for Regenerative Therapies (BSRT). Dr. Abou-El-Enein earned his medical degree from Mansoura Faculty of Medicine and has specialized training in Health Care Quality Management at the American University in Cairo (AUC). He received a master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Biotechnologies from Strasbourg University, a Clinical Research Certificate from Harvard Medical School and a Doctoral Degree in Economics Research for Cellular Therapies, summa cum laude, from Charité University Hospital. His primary research interests focus on the development and clinical translation of cell and gene therapies where he has succeeded to bring numerous advanced therapies into early phase clinical trials.

Rudi Balling

Director / Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB),
University of Luxembourg;
Belvaux, Luxembourg


Rudi Balling is the Director of the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine in Luxembourg. He is a developmental biologist and geneticist. He studied nutrition at the Universities of Bonn and Washington State University, USA and received his PhD in Human Nutrition from the University of Aachen, Germany. After completing research posts at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute in Toronto, Göttingen and Freiburg, he became director of the Institute of Mammalian Genetics at the GSF in Munich (1993-2000) and of the Helmholtz Centre of Infection Research in Braunschweig (2001-2009). During this time Rudi Balling has coordinated the German Human Genome Project (1996-2000), the European ESFRI-Project EATRIS (European Advanced Translational Medicine Research Infrastructure) (2008-2010) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Grand Challenges Consortium on the development of Vaccine Animal Models (2005-2009). In 2009, he founded the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), an interdisciplinary Research Centre at the University of Luxembourg dedicated to the analysis of neurodegenerative diseases through computational and system biology oriented approaches. Professor Balling is member of several Scientific Advisory Boards, amongst others the Excellence Cluster „Inflammation at Interfaces“ at the University of Kiel (since 2013, elected chairman since 2014), the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences Advisory Council (since 2013) and the Institute of Molecular Genetics (IMG), Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (since 2013).

Robert C. Bast

Vice President for Translational Research /
MD Anderson Cancer Center, The University of Texas;
Houston, United States


Dr. Bast is Vice President for Translational Research at the UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. His office facilitates translation of new strategies, drugs and devices from the laboratory to the clinic, as well as the movement of human material and data from the clinic to laboratory. He had received his education at Wesleyan University, Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins Hospital, the National Cancer Institute, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Before joining the M.D. Anderson faculty in 1994 he had served on the faculties of Harvard Medical School and Duke University Medical Center where he was Director of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Bast had discovered the CA125 biomarker for ovarian cancer that has contributed to the care of hundreds of thousands of women with ovarian cancer world-wide and promises to provide a critical component of the first effective strategy for early detection of ovarian cancer. His laboratory is developing a better screening strategy for ovarian cancer, more effective treatment with paclitaxel and methods to eliminate dormant autophagic cancer cells. Dr. Bast continues to care for patients with ovarian and breast cancer.

Jeffrey Bluestone

Global Head / UCSF School of Medicine;
San Francisco, United States


Jeffrey A. Bluestone, PhD, is the A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professor of Metabolism and Endocrinology and Director of the Hormone Research Institute at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Bluestone is one of the leading immunologists in the field of T-cell activation, co-stimulation, and immune tolerance research that has led to the development of multiple pro-tolerogenic immunotherapies including: CTLA4Ig (the first FDA-approved drug targeting T-cell co-stimulation to treat autoimmune disease and organ transplantation), a novel anti-human CD3 antibody being developed to treat Type 1 Diabetes (T1D), and the first CTLA-4 antagonist drugs approved for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. His recent research has focused on the critical role of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in autoimmune diseases such as T1D and Multiple Sclerosis, which has been exploited as a cell-based therapy to treat T1D and organ transplantation. Dr. Bluestone is an academic leader on a national and international scale. He was the founder and first Director of the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN), the largest NIH-funded multicenter clinical immunology research program, testing novel immunotherapies in transplantation, autoimmunity, and asthma/allergy; Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost at the University of California San Francisco and the former Director of the UCSF Diabetes Center. Finally, Dr. Bluestone has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed publications and has received numerous awards for his work including election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine and the recipient of both Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Gerold & Kayla Grodsky Basic Science Award and the Mary Tyler Moore & Robert Levine Excellence in Clinical Research Award.

Barbara Casadei

Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Oxford; Oxford, United Kingdom

Stefanie Dimmeler

Director / Institute of Cardiovascular Regeneration,
Goethe-University Frankfurt;
Frankfurt, Germany


Stefanie Dimmeler is born at the 18.07.1967 in Ravensburg, Germany. Dr. Dimmeler received her under-graduate, graduate, and Ph.D. degree from the University of Konstanz in Konstanz (Germany). She then completed a fellowship in Experimental Surgery at the University of Cologne and in Molecular Cardiology at the University of Frankfurt (Germany). She is Professor of Experimental Medicine (since 2001) and Director of the In¬stitute of Cardiovascular Regeneration, Center for Molecular Medicine at the University of Frankfurt since 2008.
She is author of more than 300 peer-reviewed papers, published in highly qualified journals. Her global impact factor (IF) is higher than 1000 and her h-index is 115. In the last years, she has been invited as a speaker in more than 300 national and international meetings and seminars and has presented various keynote lectures. She received several awards including the Award of the German Heart Foundation in 1998, the Frankel-Award of the Ger¬man Cardiac Society in 2000, the Alfred Krupp Award 2002, the Leibniz Award 2005, the Award of the Jung Foundation 2007 and the FEBS award 2006. She presented the prestigious George E. Brown Memorial Lecture at the Scientific Sessions of the AHA in 2005, the Basic Science Lecture of the European Society of Cardiology in 2006. She received the Science4life award, the GlaxoSmithKline Award and 2014 the Madrid Award for Stem Cell Therapy. As well she was among the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher 2014. She is editor of “EMBO Molecular Medicine” and associated editor of “Circulation Research” and the “European Heart Journal”.

She is spokesperson of the “Excellence Cluster Cardio-Pulmonary System” (ECCPS), a translational research centre in the field of vas¬cular and parenchymal heart and lung diseases, funded by the DFG, and vice chairperson of two collaborative research networks (SFB834, LOEWE Centre for “Cell- and Gene Therapy”). She received an Advanced Grant by the European Research Community (ERC).

Her group elucidates the basic mechanisms underlying cardiovascular disease and vessel growth with the aim to develop new cellular and pharmacological therapies for improving the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Ongoing research focuses on epigenetic mechanisms that control cardiovascular repair, specifically the function of histone modifying enzymes and non-coding RNAs.

Ulrich Dirnagl

Director / Department Experimental Neurology, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Berlin, Germany


The research of Ulrich Dirnagl is focused on stroke, cerebral blood flow regulation, and brain imaging. In preclinical models as well as clinical trials he and his coworkers and collaborators explore mechanisms by which brain ischemia leads to cell death, and develops novel methods to intercept mechanisms of damage in acute brain damage, as well as to foster regeneration and repair of the lesions. He is particulary interested in how the brain protects itself (‘endogenous neuroprotection’), and how the brain interacts with other systems of the body after it has been injured. Closely linked to his interest in stroke pathophysiology is his interest in the coupling of regional blood flow to neuronal acitivity, the mechanism underlying functional brain imaging with MR and PET. Beyond imaging structure and function of the CNS he and his team are developing, validating and using techniques that allow the non-invasive imaging of brain biochemistry and molecular signaling. To this end they use optical, MR, and nuclear medicine approaches in mouse and man. To improve the predictiveness of preclinical translational research he is actively promoting the introduction of quality standards for experimental design and reporting, as well as international collaboration in large, phase III-type preclinical trials. At the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin Ulrich Dirnagl serves as Director of the Department of Experimental Neurology, Chief Executive Director of the Center for Stroke Research Berlin, Clinical program coordinator of the Excellence Cluter NeuroCure and the Berlin partner site of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), as well as Program Director of the International Graduate Program Medical Neuroscience.

Volkmar Falk

Chairman / Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin DHZB & Director / Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery;
Berlin, Deutschland


Professor Volkmar Falk is medical director and director of the DHZB Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery of the Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin and Chair of the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Charité Berlin.
After successfully completing his preliminary studies and his doctorate at the University of Bonn he began his basic surgical training at the University in Göttingen and completed his residency at the Department of Cardiac Surgery of the Herzzentrum Leipzig. From 1998 to 2003 he held the position of a senior surgeon there, with an interruption of his clinical work for one year as a research fellow at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California. In 2001 he completed his “Habilitation” (German post-doctoral university teaching qualification) and in 2003 he became a senior consultant. From 2009-2014 Falk was appointed professor and director of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the University Hospital in Zurich. In 2014 he was appointed Professor and Chair of the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Charite Berlin and became the medical director and director of the DHZB Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery of the Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin.
His main areas of clinical and academic research are in the field of endoscopic, robotic and minimally invasive cardiac surgery and image guided transcatheter therapies. He was co-founder of the Innovation Center for Computer Assisted Surgery (ICCAS) at the University of Leipzig funded by the German Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF). During his time in Zürich he established numerous collaborations with the ETH Zurich and among other projects initiated the “Zurich Heart” Project, an interdisciplinary project at the interface of medical engineering and surgery for the development of mechanical circulatory assist systems. He is currently PI of the project which received intense funding over the last 3 years.
Falk is the author or coauthor of over 450 scientific publications (listred in Pubmed, Hirsh-Index 49) and serves in various functions (Board member, president, Committees) in numerous international professional societies (EACTS, ESC, DGTHG, SGHC, ISMICS and others). He is on the editorial board of a number of journals in the field, among the the European Heart Journal (IF 14,5). Recently he has served on a number of International Guideline-Committees and is Coauthour of the current ESC ESC/EACTS Guidelines on myocardfial revascularization, valvular heart disease and heart failure.

Holger Gerhardt

Gruppenleiter / Integrative Vaskuläre Biologie, Max-Delbrück-Centrum für Molekulare Medizin;
Berlin, Deutschland

Holger Gerhardt completed his PhD in Cell Biology year 2000 in Tuebingen, Germany. During his post-doctoral research with Christer Betsholtz at Gothenburg University, Dr. Gerhardt conceptualized the endothelial tip and stalk cells; a discovery that kick?started his work on endothelial guidance and vascular patterning. In 2004, he became a group leader at the London Research Institute?Cancer Research. He is an EMBO Young Investigator and recipient of the prestigious Lister Prize, Walter Fleming Medal, Judah Folkman Award of the North American Vascular Biology organization and Hooke Medal of the British Society of Cell Biology. Since 2010, Dr. Gerhardt heads the Vascular Patterning Laboratory at the VIB, Belgium. Since 2014, Dr. Gerhardt is a research group leader at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine and Professor of Experimental Cardiovascular Research at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. He further holds professorships at the Berlin Institute of Health and at the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research.

David W. Grainger

Department of Pharmaceutics and Bioengineering, University of Utah;
Salt Lake City, Vereinigte Staaten


David Grainger is Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry and also member of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Utah. His research is focused on diverse aspects of materials in medicine, including new diagnostic devices, medical device infections, drug delivery systems, and physiological interactions with nanotechnology in vivo.

Ernst Hafen

Deputy Head / Institute for Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zürich;
Zürich, Schweiz


Ernst Hafen, PhD, is a Professor of Systems Genetics at ETH Zurich and former President of ETH. In addition to over 30 years of academic research, he has founded and advised several biotechnology companies. He endeavors to assist scientific discovery and its efficient translation into products that help society and the economy. As a trained geneticist, Ernst Hafen has a strong interest in human genetics and personalized medicine. He posits that an individual’s control over his or her personal health data will be a key asset for better and more effective health care. In 2012 he acted as a founding member of the Association Data and Health (DatenundGesundheit.ch) whose aim it is to discuss legal, ethical and societal issues about digital self determination and the control over the secondary use of personal (health) data and to find commercial models permitting owners, not third parties, to benefit from their personal data assets.

Edward C. Holmes

President / Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, Distinguished Emeritus Professor University of California;
San Diego, CA, Vereinigte Staaten


Dr. Holmes was appointed a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator at Duke University School of Medicine in 1974 and later became the James B. Wyngaarden Professors of Medicine. He was recruited to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1991 as the Chair of the Department of Medicine and the Frank Wister Thomas Professor of Medicine and Genetics. In 1997 he became the Joseph Grant Professor in the School of Medicine, the Senior Associate Dean for Research, Vice President of Translational Medicine and Clinical Research, and Special Counsel to the President of the University on Biomedical Research at Stanford University. In January 1999 Dr. Holmes returned to Duke University as the Dean of the School of Medicine and Walter Kempner Professor in Medicine and Genetics. Dr. Holmes was appointed Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences and Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego in the fall of 2000 and served in this role until October 2006. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the University of California, Vice Chancellor/Dean of Health Sciences Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, and CEO/President of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Holmes became the Executive Deputy Chairman of the Biomedical Research Council and the Executive Chairman of the National Medical Research Council in Singapore in October 2006; he is currently a Senior Fellow in A*STAR and Advisor to the National Research Council of Singapore. He also holds an appointment as the Lien Ying Chow Professor of Medicine at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.

Robert Kerbel

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Sunnybrook Research Institute;
Toronto, Kanada


Dr. Robert Kerbel received his PhD in immunology in 1972 from the Dept. of Immunology & Microbiology, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, after which he undertook postdoctoral training in London at the Institute for Cancer Research in tumor biology and immunology. He started his independent research program in 1975 in tumor immunology and metastasis at Queen's, and was appointed Director of the Cancer Biology Program in the Dept. of Pathology in 1981. In 1985 he was recruited as Director of Cancer Biology Research at Mt. Sinai Hospital, Toronto. He then moved to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre to assume the same position from 1991 until 2001. Dr. Kerbel held a Canada Research Chair in Tumor Biology, Angiogenesis & Antiangiogenic Therapy (2001-2015), and is a professor in the Dept. of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto, and Senior Scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute. His main research interests have been devising new cancer treatment strategies having improved efficacy and reduced toxicity. This culminated in his studies of combinatorial low-dose ‘metronomic’ chemotherapy with antiangiogenic drugs. Some of his findings are now being evaluated in ongoing or completed (positive) phase III clinical trials, particularly in breast and colorectal cancer. Other contributions include development of improved preclinical investigational therapeutic models in mice involving early stage or advanced metastatic disease (which were used for his metronomic chemotherapy and antiangiogenic drug studies), linking the fields of angiogenesis and oncogenes, uncovering mechanisms by which antiangiogenic drugs increase chemotherapy efficacy and alter malignant tumor progression, and elucidating mechanisms of acquired antiangiogenic drug resistance. He has published 404 papers, given 845 invited lectures around the world. Given his extensive experience in experimental therapeutics and translational oncology, Dr. Kerbel is widely sought after as a consultant or Scientific Advisory Board member in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, as well as in academia. With respect to the latter, he is and has been an editorial board member of numerous international scientific journals. Currently these include Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, EMBO Molecular Medicine, and the International Journal of Cancer. Among the awards he has received include the 2004 Canadian Cancer Society Robert Noble Award for Excellence in Cancer Research, the Breast Cancer Research Award from the European Institute of Oncology in 2008, a Man of Distinction Honor by the Israel Cancer Research Fund in 2011, and the Colin Thomson Memorial Medal for achievements in cancer research from Worldwide Cancer Research (formerly known as the Association for International Cancer Research) in 2013.

Steven Kern

Deputy Director / Quantitative Sciences, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation;
San Francisco, United States


Steven E. Kern, PhD is Deputy Director of Quantitative Sciences at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Quantitative Sciences group is focused on quantitative analysis to support program strategies for therapeutic projects that the foundation funds.
Prior to this, he was Global Head of Pharmacology Modeling at Novartis Pharma AG based in Basel Switzerland where he lead a team focused on providing model based drug development support to therapeutics in many disease conditions across all stages of drug development. He joined Novartis in 2010 from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah where he was Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics, Anesthesiology, and Bioengineering, and served as co-investigator for their NIH funded Pediatric Pharmacology Research Unit. He has designed, conducted, and served as a principal investigator for clinical pharmacology studies in adults and children that spanned the population from preterm infants to elderly adults.

Heyo K. Kroemer

Dekan / Medizinische Fakultät,
Universitätsmedizin Göttingen;
Göttingen, Deutschland


Prof. Dr. Heyo K. Kroemer is professor of Pharmacology. Since September 2012, he has served as Dean and Chairman of Research and Teaching as well as Speaker of the Managing Board of the University Medical Center Göttingen.
Previously he was professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Ernst Moritz Arndt-University of Greifswald. From 2000 to 2012 he was dean of the medical faculty and since 2011 scientific director of the Medical Center of the University of Greifswald.
Prof. Kroemer completed his PhD at the Dr. Margarete Fischer-Bosch-Institute of Clinical Pharmacology in Stuttgart. After several research stays abroad, e.g. at the Biocenter of University of Basel and at the Department of Clinical Pharmacology of the Vanderbildt University in Nashville, he obtained his habilitation to teach Pharmacology and Toxicology at Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen.

Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren

Dekan / Karolinska Institutet;
Stockholm, Schweden


Professor Ljunggren earned his medical and doctoral degrees at Karolinska Institutet and did his post doc at MIT, Cambridge, MA. In 2001, he was appointed Professor of Infection Medicine. The same year, he became Director of the Center for Infectious Medicine (CIM), a Strategic Research Center within infection medicine at Karolinska Institutet. He has authored >250 articles within the fields of immunology, infectious diseases and cancer. His work has been cited >17.500 times, and he has an h-index of 65 (Web of Science).
Immune reactions mediated by NK cells have been a long-standing research focus of Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren. Starting off from simple model systems, studying NK cells in the mouse at a time when little was known about their molecular specificity and function, he and his collaborators has taken this field towards a detailed understanding of their molecular specificity and function. In recent years, he has gone on to explore the same cells in healthy humans and in several human disease contexts. His research group is now also using NK cells in therapeutic settings in the context of malignant diseases of hematopoietic origin.
Professor Ljunggren has been member of the organizing or scientific committees of numerous international conferences. He has had multiple national and international assignments, involving external research evaluations and participation in international advisory boards. He has been the member of the editorial board of several leading international journals within the field of immunology. Since 2008, he is a member of the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, which awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Marc D. McKee

Dean of Research / Faculties of Dentistry and Medicine, McGill University;
Montreal, Kanada

David J. Mooney

Core Faculty Member / Wyss Institute for
Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard
University;
Boston, Vereinigte Staaten


David J. Mooney is the Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. His research is focused on the mechanisms that enable cells to receive and react to chemical and mechanical signals, such as cell adhesion molecules and cyclic strains. His current projects focus on therapeutic angiogenesis, regeneration of musculoskeletal tissues, and cancer therapies.

Jackson Orem

Direktor / Uganda Cancer Institute;
Kampala, Uganda

Abhay Pandit

Director / Centre for Research in Medical Devices (CÚRAM), National University of Ireland;
Galway, Irland


Abhay Pandit, PhD, Established Professor of Biomaterials at the National University of Ireland, Galway, is Director of the Centre for Research in Medical Devices (CÚRAM), a multi-disciplinary academic-industry-clinician translational research centre. His research interests’ focus on the development of next generation targeted controlled-drug-release reservoir delivery vehicles which facilitate spatiotemporal localised sustained delivery of multiple biomolecules to target injury mechanisms at the molecular and cellular levels. These macromolecular complexes form functional interfaces between implanted devices and biological systems to endow the former with bio-responsiveness and/or biological function. He has published over 194 papers in peer reviewed journals. He is a Fellow of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative International Society and a International Fellow in Biomaterials Science and Engineering.

Glenn D. Prestwich

Presidential Professor / Medicinal Chemistry & Presidential Special Assistant / Faculty Entrepreneurism, University of Utah;
Salt Lake City, Vereinigte Staaten


Glenn D. Prestwich is Presidential Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Presidential Special Assistant for Faculty Entrepreneurism at the University of Utah. He created and directs the Entrepreneurial Faculty Scholars program at Utah. His research includes phospholipids in cell signaling, synthetic matrices for regenerative medicine, and anti-inflammatory glycosaminoglycans. He co-founded nine companies, including Echelon Biosciences, Glycosan BioSystems, Sentrx Animal Care, GlycoMira Therapeutics, Metallosensors, and Deuteria Agrochemicals. In 2013, he was inducted as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Other honors include the Utah Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology for 2006, the 2008 Volwiler Research Award of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the 2010 University of Utah Distinguished Scholarly and Creative Research Award, and the 2014 U of Utah Distinguished Innovation and Impact Award. During 38 years as a faculty member, he has over 650 publications and patents (H-index 82) and has trained over 125 postgraduate scientists. He is also a pilot, a first tenor of the Utah Symphony Chorus, an advocate for chamber music.

Klaus Romero

Director / Clinical Pharmacology, Critical Path Institute;
Tucson, Vereinigte Staaten


Dr. Klaus Romero is a clinical pharmacologist and epidemiologist by training with 15 years combined experience in academic clinical research. He is a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology, the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology, as well as a founding member of the International Society of Pharmacometrics. He has conducted research on endemic channels for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug-related gastropathy, antibiotic-related dysglycemia, drug-induced QT prolongation, pharmacoepidemiology and patient education. Dr. Romero has been with C-Path since January of 2008, where he has helped lead clinical pharmacology, pharmacoepidemiology and modeling and simulation projects for the Coalition Against Major Diseases, the Polycystic Kidney Disease Outcomes Consortium and the Critical Path to TB Drug Regimens Consortium, achieving major milestones such as the first regulatory endorsement by FDA and EMA of a clinical trial simulation tool for mild and moderate Alzheimer’s Disease. He is fluid in English, Spanish, German and Portuguese, and has published in the areas of clinical pharmacology, pharmacometrics, cardiovascular drug safety and pharmacoepidemiology.

Ronenn Roubenoff

Head / Global Translational Medicine, Musculoskeletal Diseases,
Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research;
Basel, Schweiz


Dr. Roubenoff received his MD from Northwestern University, and trained in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was Chief Resident in Medicine. He completed concurrent fellowships in Rheumatology and in Clinical Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins, receiving a Master of Health Science degree. He then trained in Nutrition at Tufts University with Irwin Rosenberg, MD, and in Immunology with Charles Dinarello, MD. He was Chief of the Nutrition, Exercise Physiology, and Sarcopenia (NEPS) Laboratory from 1997 to 2002, and Director of Human Studies from 2001 to 2002, both at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Medicine and Nutrition at Tufts. Dr. Roubenoff moved to the biotech/pharma industry in 2002, as Senior Director of Molecular Medicine at Millennium Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, MA, where he directed research on biomarkers and personalized medicine. In From 2007 to 2009, he was Sr. Director, Immunology Research and Development, at Biogen Idec, where he led the Translational Medicine and Early Development efforts for the Immunology group. In September, 2009, Dr. Roubenoff was appointed Global Head of Musculoskeletal Translational Medicine at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, heading early development for muscle wasting, tendon healing, cartilage repair, and other musculoskeletal disorders.

Martina Schüßler-Lenz

Clinical Assessor / Paul-Ehrlich-Institut;
Langen, Deutschland


Dr. Martina Schüßler-Lenz is a physician. She completed her clinical training in Mainz and Berlin, and worked as a postdoctoral fellow in tumor biology and immunology in New York (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) and Barcelona. She was responsible for several clinical drug development projects of anticancer agents in the pharmaceutical industry. She joined the Paul Ehrlich Institute in Germany in 2005, and is a senior clinical assessor for Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products. Since March 2014 she is the Vice-Chair of the Committee for Advanced Therapies (CAT) at the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Andre Terzic

Director / Center for Regenerative Medicine,
Mayo Clinic;
Rochester, United States


Andre Terzic, M.D., Ph.D., has pioneered regenerative medicine at Mayo Clinic. He has authored more than 450 publications, advancing diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for heart failure. His works include team-science efforts in the discovery of genes for dilated cardiomyopathy and atrial fibrillation. He led efforts in the development of next-generation regenerative solutions, including first-in-class products for heart repair. His scientific manuscripts have been cited more than 10,000 times.

Dr. Terzic is Michael S. and Mary Sue Shannon Director, Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Medicine, and Marriott Family Professor in Cardiovascular Diseases Research. He is professor of medicine and pharmacology; chair, Discovery-Translation Advisory Board; director, Marriott Heart Disease Research Program; director, National Institutes of Health Cardiovasology Program; and serves on the board of directors, Mayo Collaborative Services.

Andrew Williamson

Head of Corporate Business Development,
Head of Global Sales and Marketing at Heraeus Medical GmbH.
Since 2006 Andrew Williamson has been with Heraeus and has had a number of roles in the company, including Head of Product Management.

One key area he has been working on has been the entry of the company into the emerging field of regenerative medicine in orthopaedics. Since 2014 the company has made number of equity investments in regenerative medicine companies and taken licenses in technologies from stem cells to specialised scaffolds.

Prior to 2006, he was in private practice and worked for a SE Asian healthcare provider. He also has completed his post graduate studies in Corporate Finance.