Keynote Speakers
Plenary Speakers
James Fawcett, Chairman - Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair
He trained in medicine at Oxford University and St. Thomas\u2019 Hospital London. His early research work was
on the formation of connections during brain development and he then became interested in using developmental
biology principles to promote repair in the adult nervous system. His main interest has been the part played
by molecules of the extracellular matrix in the inhibition of nerve fibre regeneration and in the restriction
of plasticity in the adult nervous system.
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Helen M. Blau, Ph.D., is the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Professor, the Director of the Baxter Laboratory
for Stem Cell Biology in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and a member of the new Institute of
Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. Professor Blau's research
area is in cell and developmental biology. She has had a longstanding interest in stem cell biology and cell
specialization, and is especially well known for her research demonstrating plasticity of the differentiated
state. Her muscle heterokaryon experiments proved that silent muscle genes can be activated in diverse adult
human specialized cells and that the differentiated state is dynamic, ongoing, and dictated by the balance of
regulators at any given time
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Randall Moon is Director of the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Washington,
School of Medicine in Seattle. He is also Professor of Pharmacology and the William and Marilyn Connor Chair at the
University of Washington, School of Medicine. Randall Moon is also a scientific founder of Fate Therapeutics, a
private biotech company interrogating adult stem cell biology and which applies induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)
technology to develop Stem Cell Modulators (SCMs), small molecule or biologic compounds which guide cell fate for
therapeutic purposes.
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Hans-Dieter Volk is Director of the Institute of Medical Immunology and the Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative
Therapies. Several biotech enterprises have been established from technology platforms developed at his Institute (Probiogen AG,
Jerini AG, Cellserve GmbH). Several biomarker assays developed at the institute were commercialized.
Prof Volk's research bridges the gap between basic research and clinical research. His work focuses on the implementation
of new approaches in the diagnosis and treatment of immunological diseases.
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The TERMIS Galway Debate
David Williams presents the TERMIS Galway Debate:
This House Believes that Active Biomolecules are more Important than Scaffold Materials in Tissue Engineering Products
Mark Ferguson
Professor, Manchester University UK, and CEO, Renovo Group Plc
Peter Johnson
Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer, Entegrion Inc, USA
James Kirkpatrick
Professor of Pathology and Chairman, Institute of Pathology, The Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany
Alan Russell
Director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, USA
David Williams was trained as a materials scientist at the University of Birmingham, UK (B.Sc. 1965, Ph.D. 1969, D.Sc. 1982). In 1968 he took up a faculty position in the School of Medicine at the University of Liverpool, UK, where he remained for 40 years, writing, researching and teaching on the science of biomaterials. He created the Department of Clinical Engineering in the University and was its Head for 20 years. He was granted a Personal Chair in the University in 1984, then the youngest person in the history of the University to receive such an honour. Towards the end of his career in Liverpool, he became the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (equivalent to Academic Vice-President) of the University, and then won major funding from the British Government to form, in collaboration with the University of Manchester, the UK Centre for Tissue Engineering, of which he became Director.
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Mark Ferguson is the Co-founder (with Dr Sharon O'Kane) and CEO of Renovo a Biotechnology Company spun out of the University of Manchester, which is developing novel pharmaceutical therapies to prevent scarring or accelerate healing following wounding (www.renovo.com). Following two rounds of private venture capital funding (totalling £32M) Renovo successfully completed an IPO on the Main list of the London Stock Exchange in April 2006, raising £67.5M. Renovo partnered its lead drug, Juvista for scar reduction, with Shire in a $825M plus royalties deal retaining all EU rights, where it intends to commercialise itself. Renovo has three drugs in the clinic: Juvista in PhIII, with 8 clinically and statistically significant PII efficacy trials, Juvidex, Adaprev and Prevascar in PII, and over a dozen preclinical candidates. Since the age of 28, Mark Ferguson has been Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester, where he has held a number of administrative posts including Head of Department and Dean.
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Peter Johnson is Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Entegrion, a life sciences company based in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park that commercialises technologies developed at the University of North Carolina. Prior to joining Entegrion, Peter Johnson was the Founder, President and CEO of Scintellix, a highly successful biomedical technology and decision analysis consultancy in Raleigh, North Carolina.
In addition to practicing Plastic Surgery for ten years at the University of Pittsburgh, Peter Johnson founded and was the first President of the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative. He also co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Tissue Informatics.
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James Kirkpatrick has a triple doctorate in science and medicine from the Queen's University of Belfast in Ireland and since 1993 is Professor of Pathology and Chairman of the Institute of Pathology at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. Previous appointments were in pathology at the University of Ulm, Manchester University and the RWTH Aachen. His principal research interests are in the fields of endothelial pathobiology, biomaterials in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, with special focus on the development of human cell culture techniques, especially in co-culture systems in three-dimensions. During the past years his work has involved endothelial progenitor cells for vascularization in tissue engineering strategies, as well as barrier models to study nanoparticle interactions with cellular systems.
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Alan J. Russell, PhD , Director, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine
Dr. Alan Russell (Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry, 1987, Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London) is a Distinguished University Professor of Surgery and the Founding Director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. Further, he holds positions as the Executive Director of the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative, Inc., as the Director of the National Tissue Engineering Center, as well as Professor in the Rehabilitation Science and Technology Department, Professor in the Bioengineering Department, and Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department. In addition to his appointments at the University, Dr. Russell consults for UPMC's (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) International and Commercial Services Division to drive technology and science-based synergies and partnerships.
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