Plenary Speakers

is Professor of Biomedical Materials and Regenerative Medicine and the Research Director for Biomedical Material Sciences in the Department of Materials, in the Department of Bioengineering and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London. Prof Stevens’ multidisciplinary research balances the investigation of fundamental science with the development of technology to address some of the major healthcare challenges. Her work has been instrumental in elucidating the bio-material interfaces. She has created a broad portfolio of designer biomaterials for applications in disease diagnostics and regenerative medicine. Her substantial body of work influences research groups around the world with over 30 major awards for the groups research and Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher in Cross-Field research. Prof. Stevens holds numerous leadership positions including Director of the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform "Smart Acellular Materials" Hub and Deputy Director of the EPSRC IRC in Early-Warning Sensing Systems for Infectious Diseases.

is the Tisone Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, a Distinguished Professor, and Associate Faculty Director of the BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Anseth came to CU-Boulder after earning her B.S. degree from Purdue University, her Ph.D. degree from the University of Colorado, and completing post-doctoral research at MIT as an NIH fellow. Her research interests lie at the interface between biology and polymer science where she designs new biomaterials for applications in drug delivery and regenerative medicine. Dr. Anseth’s research group has published over 350 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and she has trained more than 110 graduate students and postdoctoral associates. She is an elected member of the US National Academy Engineering, National Academy of Medicine, and National Academy of Sciences. In 2020, she received the L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award in the Life Sciences.

is Professor of Innovative Surgical Techniques at the Maastricht University Medical Center. Ever since her degree (cum laude) as a medical doctor in 1993, she has been striving to diminish the trauma that a surgeon causes when performing a procedure. In that same year she pioneered as one of the first doctors to perform a laparoscopic (key-hole) operation. Today, laparoscopic surgery is widely performed and standard segment of the routine surgical practice. Together with companies, Prof. Nicole Bouvy develops trans-oral devices to make it possible to perform non-invasive surgery. She participates in many European studies on these topics, is author on more than 200 peer reviewed articles and guidelines, and is member of the executive board of the European Association of Endoscopic Surgery.

MD, is Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Exceptional Class Professor of Ophthalmology at Sorbonne Université. He is a clinician-scientist who developed a groundbreaking neuroprotective therapeutic strategy to rescue sight and launched translational first-in-man studies with electronic retinal implants, gene and cell therapies, and optogenetics to restore vision in patients with untreatable blinding retinal degenerations. He co-authored over 660 peer-reviewed articles and 40 patents.

(HC) obtained MD and PhD degrees from Utrecht University. After a postdoc (Harvard), he started his own lab in Utrecht (1989-). He became Professor in Immunology at Utrecht University (1991), was director of Hubrecht Institute (2002-12), president of the Royal Netherlands Science Academy (2012-15) and director of Princes Máxima Hospital for Pediatric Cancer (2015-19). Research highlights: HC discovered the role of TCF in Wnt signaling, the activated Wnt pathway in colon cancer, the role of Wnt in adult stem cell biology and the Lgr5 stem cells of the intestine. Based on this, he developed organoid technology. He has (co-)authored >700 peer-reviewed papers and 12 organoid patents. Recognition: He is member of 5 international academies including the Royal Society (London) and the NAS (Washington). He received multiple prizes, e.g. the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences