Prof. João F. Mano
João F. Mano is a Full Professor at the Chemistry Department of University of Aveiro, Portugal. He combines advanced biomaterials and cells towards multidisciplinary concepts in the field of regenerative and personalized medicine. Specifically, he utilizes biomimetic and nano/micro-technology approaches to develop polymer-based biomaterials for the creation of biomedical devices with enhanced structural and multi-functional properties. He also engineers microenvironments to regulate cell behavior and organization, with the goal of clinically applying these technologies in advanced therapies or in the bioengineering of disease models. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Materials Today Bio (Elsevier). He has been coordinating multiple research projects, including 2 Advanced Grants and 3 Proof-of-Concept Grants from the European Research Council. He received different honours, including two honoris causa doctorates (Univ. of Lorraine and Univ. Utrecht), the George Winter Award 2020 from the ESB and he was elected fellow FEurASc, FBSE and FAIMBE.
Prof. Sandra Van Vlierberghe
Prof. Sandra Van Vlierberghe is Research Professor at Ghent University (Polymer Chemistry & Biomaterials Group, UGent, Belgium), where she leads a research group focusing on the interaction between polymers and light. She specializes in light-based additive manufacturing of photo-responsive (bio)polymers serving biomedical applications. She also holds a guest professorship at Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Her work focuses on chemical design, synthesis and processing of photo-crosslinkable polymers through advanced 3D-printing techniques such as two-photon polymerization, digital light projection, and volumetric printing. She has authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications, edited three books, and is promoter of 22 PhD students (in addition to 25 defended PhD’s).
Prof. Van Vlierberghe has received several international distinctions, including the Jean Leray Award (2017) from the European Society for Biomaterials and the TERMIS-EU Mid Term Career Award (2025). She is co-founder (shareholder) and scientific advisor in two spin-off companies: 4Tissue which is focusing on the translation of an injectable biomaterial serving breast reconstruction from in vivo animal testing towards first in-human trials; BIO INX is commercializing inks (polymer-based formulations) for 3D-printing purposes.
Prof. Rodrigo Moreno
Prof. Rodrigo Moreno has a PhD degree in Chemistry from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (1988). Research Professor of CSIC from 2004, he is the leader of the Synthesis and Colloidal Processing Group at ICV. He is member of the Spanish Ceramic Society, President of the Spanish Society of Materials, Academician of the World Academy of Ceramics (WAC), and Fellow of the American and of the European Ceramic Societies. He is also Board member of the WAC and of the JECS Trust. He has participated in more than 60 proyects (one half as Principal Researcher). He has 9 patents, 2 books, 10 book chapters, and 350 papers in ISI, with >11750 citations, h-index of 53 and i10 index of 274. He pronounced 100 Invited conferences and suprevised 22 PhD theses. He is Senior Editor of the Journal of the European Ceramic Society, and Editor of Materials, European Journal of Materials, and Material-ES.
Prof. Carmen Alvarez-Lorenzo
Prof. Carmen Alvarez-Lorenzo is Head of the Institute of Materials (iMATUS) at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), and Coordinator of the I+DFarma Group and Grupo C035 (IDIS). With 30 years of multidisciplinary research bridging pharmaceutical technology, biology, materials science and medicine—including work at MIT and in extensive industrial collaborations—she pioneered stimuli-responsive, bioinspired drug-delivery networks and advanced drug-eluting medical devices, 3D-printed personalized medicines and tissue scaffolds. She has authored over 400 peer-reviewed papers, 20 patents and more than 470 conference abstracts, ranking among the World Top 2 % Highly Cited Researchers and Spain’s Top 100 scientists in Materials Science and Chemistry. She has led major national and EU projects and supervised 30+ PhDs. She serves on international grant panels and editorial boards, as Editor for Int. J. Pharm. and Int. J. Pharm. X, and has received numerous honors including AIMBE Fellow, the Ángeles Alvariño Medal, the Leonardo Grant, and is a member of the Royal Academies of Science and Pharmacy of Galicia.
Dr. Tiziano Serra
Tiziano Serra is Focus Area leader at the AO Research Institute Davos, and assistant professor at the MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine (Maastricht University). He holds a MSc in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Salento, a cum laudePh.D. in 3D printing for tissue engineering from the Technical University of Catalonia and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at University College London. Currently, his team focuses on Fields-based Biofabrication (FAB) approaches, leveraging hydrodynamic waves, magnetic fields, light, and stimuli-responsive materials for modelling and regeneration. Dr Serra is the inventor of a sound-based bioassembly technology, licensed in 2020 to mimiX Biotherapeutics, a successful Swiss start-up that he co-founded and served as Chief Scientific Officer till July 2022. His technology has been selected as part of the “Technology Outlook 2023” by the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences.
Dr. Rúben Pereira
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and Biomaterials at the Department of Molecular Biology at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS) of the University of Porto. He holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences, an MSc in Product Design and Engineering, and a BSc in Biomechanics.
His research focuses on the design of cell-instructive hydrogels and bioinks for the bioprinting of cell microenvironments and in vitro tissue models for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. Specifically, he combines engineered biomaterials, human cells and bioprinting technology, to create biomimetic models to understand cell-matrix interactions in healthy and diseased tissues. In 2025, he was awarded a Starting Grant from the European Research Council to advance the development of programmable living biomaterials for fibrosis research.
Dr. Sandra Camarero-Espinosa
Dr Camarero-Espinosa is an Ikerbasque Associate Professor, Ramón y Cajal Fellow and Group Leader at POLYMAT where she stablished the BioSmarTE group in 2021. Her research revolves around the regeneration of complex tissues through the design of smart implantable scaffolds and the development of cellular models of disease. This passes through the design of stimuli responsive systems, the exploitation of techniques such as 3D/4D (bio)printing and the understanding of stem cell biological processes and their interactions with biomaterials.
Sandra obtained her PhD degree in 2015 in Polymer Chemistry and Bioengineering from the Adolphe Merkle Institute (Fribourg, Switzerland) and spent 2 years as postdoc at the AIBN Institute (Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland) in Australia (2015-2016) and another 3 years at MERLN institute at Maastricht University (The Netherlands, 2017-2020) where she focused her studies on the fabrication of 3D printed scaffolds for the regeneration of complex tissues. Sandra has co-authored > 40 publications and has supervised 9 PhD students and 2 postdocs. She has been recognized with prices for an Outstanding PhD thesis (Swiss Chemical Society), as Future Faculty Scholar (American Chemical Society) and is an elected member of the Young Academy of Europe.
Dr. Mónica Echeverry-Rendón
Bioengineering, MSc. Biology. PhD Materials Engineering, University of Antioquia
PhD Medical Science – University of Groningen
Dr. Mónica Echeverry-Rendón is a bioengineer with over 16 years of experience in the design, fabrication, and validation of materials and devices for biomedical applications. Her multidisciplinary training, which integrates materials engineering, biology, and medicine, has enabled her to lead research across diverse areas such as degradable implants for bone repair, stents for aneurysms, nanoparticles for tropical diseases, scaffolds for osteochondral tissue regeneration, and electronic devices for brain tumor treatment. Her expertise spans the entire biomaterials development pipeline, from conceptual design to biological validation, using in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo models. This comprehensive perspective has been enriched by an extensive international trajectory at leading institutions in Colombia, Argentina, the United States, Spain, the Netherlands, and China, supported by eight international fellowships. Since 2024, she has led the BCD (Biometals, Coatings & Devices) research group at IMDEA Materials Institute. She began her career at IMDEA as a Juan de la Cierva-Formación postdoctoral fellow (2020) and was recently awarded funding through the prestigious “César Nombela” talent attraction program (2023) by the Community of Madrid. Throughout her career, she has served as principal investigator on four research projects. She is a co-author of 45 scientific publications, with more than 1040 citations, and a co-inventor of a patent on magnesium nanoparticles for the treatment of leishmaniasis. In addition, she plays an active role in training the next generation of scientists, having supervised undergraduate projects, master’s theses, and doctoral candidates. Recognized for her commitment to science communication, she actively participates in outreach initiatives through educational activities, science fairs, and collaborations with the media. In 2021, she was awarded the Ada Byron Prize for Women in Technology (Colombia) in recognition of her outstanding scientific and technological contributions.