Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic is University Professor, as the first ever engineer to hold this highest academic rank at Columbia University. She is also the Mikati Foundation Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Medical Sciences and Dental Medicine and a faculty in the Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Center for Human Development. She directs the Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering and the NIH-funded Tissue Engineering Resource Center. The focus of her lab is on engineering human tissues for regenerative medicine and developing “organs-on-chip” models of injury and disease. She is broadly published and highly cited (top 1%), has mentored over 250 trainees, and founded with her students five biotech companies. She was elected to the Academia Europaea, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors, the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada – Academy of Science.

Dr. Jennifer H. Elisseeff is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Head of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.  Her early work focused on the development of biomaterials for studying stem cells and designing regenerative medicine technologies for application in orthopedics, plastic and reconstructive surgery, and ophthalmology. After clinical translation of regenerative biomaterial research, Dr. Elisseeff’s lab is now focused on elucidating the role of the adaptive immune system and senescence in tissue repair and how it is influenced by aging, diet, microbiome and sex differences. She was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, the National Academy of Inventors, a Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum. In 2018, she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine. In 2019 she received the NIH Directors Pioneer Award. In 2023 she was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences and in 2024 a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Jeffrey Hubbell is Vice President Life Sciences and Engineering at NYU, where is professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the Tandon School of Engineering, of Biology and Chemistry in the Faculty of Arts and Science, and Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology in the Grossman School of Medicine.In this role, Hubbell leads NYU’s cross-campus initiative in Engineering Health. He was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2010, the National Academy of Medicine in 2019, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021, and the National Academy of Sciences in 2023. With more than 400 papers and 100 issued US patents, Hubbell uses biomaterials and protein engineering approaches to investigate how immunity can be controlled to guide tolerogenic processes. In the context of inflammation, autoimmunity, and allergy, his laboratory explores how antigens, cytokines, and metabolites may be modulated to induce regulatory behavior in both the innate and adaptive immune compartments, working in models of cardiometabolic disease, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and food and environmental allergy. In the context of cancer, his laboratory examines how cytokines, chemokines, and immune stimulants can be directed to the tumor microenvironment to enhance anti-tumor immune responses. In regenerative medicine, his laboratory pursues approaches to modulate immunity to promote wound healing and resist or resolve fibrosis. 

Dr. Scott Hollister is the Patsy and Alan Dorris Chair in Pediatric Technology, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Associate Chair for Translation and Research in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  He directs the Center for 3D Medical Fabrication as well as the Tissue Engineering and Mechanics Laboratory at Georgia Tech.  Dr. Hollister’s research focuses on the computational design, 3D printing fabrication and characterization of biomaterial devices and scaffolds for tissue reconstruction.  He was co-inventor of an airway splint in both resorbable and permanent versions that to date has been implanted and saved the lives of 25 children with Tracheobronchomalacia.  This work has been featured in a number of mainstream media outlets including The Today Show, NPR, CNN, the New Yorker, the Doctors Show, CBS Morning News and USA Today.  He was awarded the 2013 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Innovation award for the airway splint together with Dr. Glenn Green.

Dr. Diane Bouis, PhD, MBA, is a vascular scientist turned business leader, currently serving as CEO of Microvascular Health Solutions and Fundraising Board Member of BioMEMS Diagnostics. She is an alternate member of the C2 oncology institutional review board (IRB) at University of Michigan, and a mentor in several biomedical/ medtech accelerator programs. Prior roles include, US Director for MedTech World, US Director for MedTech Innovator, the largest medtech accelerator in the world. Dr Bouis obtained her PhD at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands working on angiogenesis (blood vessel growth) in cancer and her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan on atherosclerosis in heart attack and stroke. She transitioned into business with an MBA from University of Michigan and has extensive experience managing startup portfolios through prior roles as Innovation Manager at the University of Michigan's Innovation Partnerships Startup Incubator and as an innovation consultant with The Inovo Group. Dr Bouis is a frequent speaker on medtech/ biotech/ health-tech innovation, investment and go to market strategy, incubators and accelerators, mentorship, leadership and growing strong teams. Besides her global roles, this native of France is a staunch supporter of her chosen Midwest startup home ecosystem and advisor to and investor in Michigan biomedical startups. She is in the early phase of building a medtech founder residency fund.

Dr. Glenn D. Prestwich is Presidential Professor of Medicinal Chemistry (Emeritus) at the University of Utah, where he created and led the Entrepreneurial Faculty Scholars program. He is Chief Science Officer of the clinical-stage company GlycoMira Therapeutics, and the Innovation and Science Advisor for HTL Biotechnology. His research included phospholipids in cell signaling, synthetic matrices for regenerative medicine, and anti-inflammatory glycosaminoglycans. He co-founded eleven companies, including  Echelon Biosciences, Glycosan BioSystems, Sentrx Animal Care, and  Maana Discoveries, and Clear Solutions Biomedical (as an expert witness), and he advises 10 biotech startups. Recent awards include: 2018 Fellow of the AAAS, a 2013 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, 2006 Utah Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology, and 2008 Volwiler Research Award of the AACP. He has over 665 publications (H-index 110), over 50 issued patents and trained over 125 postgraduate scientists. He is a pilot and he commissions new works of chamber music.

Dr. Claudia Loebel, M.D. Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania a core faculty of the Center for Precision Engineering for Health (CPE4H). She obtained her MD (2011) at the Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany and PhD (2016) at ETH Zurich (Switzerland), and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Professor Jason Burdick at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research involves the development of metabolic labeling approached and biomaterial platforms to characterize and uncover the role of nascent matrix microenvironments on cell and tissue function. The applications of this research range from guiding lung alveolar stem/progenitor cell fate through material cues to developing engineered platforms for tissue repair and therapeutic treatment. Claudia Loebel is currently serving as an Associate Editor of the Wiley Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A (JBMRA). She was awarded the 2026 Society for Biomaterials Young Investigator Award, the 2023 David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship for her work on cell-matrix interactions, the R35 MIRA Award through NIH NIGMS, the Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) through NHLBI at NIH and the Innovator Award through the American Lung Association to probe mechanisms of nascent matrix and alveolar epithelial cell dysfunction.