Share Human-based tissue models are emerging as new tools to understand human development, for regenerative therapy as well as disease modeling or drug discovery. In past years we have witnessed development of novel human based multicellular systems from various type of stem cells via using self-organization capacity of cells. These cellular systems were named organoids, gastruloids, synthetic embryos based on the similarities to their in vivo counterparts. The 7th International Conference on Stem Cell Engineering 2019 will bring together interdisciplinary group of scientists to discuss basics to translational aspects of these human based models as well as emerging computational and engineering technologies that can be employed to achieve the fullest potential of such cellular systems. The conference will be held on December 11-13, 2019 in Barcelona Spain. Keynote Speaker Ricard Sole, ICREA-Complex Systems Lab UPF-IBE Emma Rawkins, Gurdon Institute Guest Speaker Mark Post, Maastricht University Invited Speakers Susana M. Chuva de Sousa Lopes, Leiden University Medical Center Ben Cosgrove, Cornell University Tara Deans, University of Utah Jianping Fu, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Eri Hashino, Indiana University School of Medicine Zhisong He, ETH Zurich Todd McDevitt, University of California, San Francisco Nicolas Rivron, Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) Jason Spence, University of Michigan Jordi Guiu, University of Copenhagen Marta Shahbazi, University of Cambridge Shoji Takeuchi, The University of Tokyo Session Topics Organoids Synthetic Embryo and early developmental engineering Technologies - computational, genetics, material, imaging, microfluidics Novel appplications Conference Chairs Miki Ebisuya, EMBL Barcelona Mo Ebrahimkhani, Arizona State University/Mayo Clinic Organizing Committee Susana M. Chuva de Sousa Lopes, Leiden University Medical Center Eri Hashino, Indiana University School of Medicine Matthias Lutolf, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) Nuria Montserrat, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) Vikas Trivedi, EMBL Barcelona Peter Zandstra, University of British Columbia Featured Speakers Jianping Fu Dr. Fu is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His group integrates micro/nanoengineering, single-cell technologies, and systems and synthetic biology methods with new discoveries of mechanobiology, epigenetics, and stem cell biology for advancing understandings of human development and cancer biology. Dr. Fu is the recipient of the American Heart Association Scientist Development Award (2012), the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2012), the UM Mechanical Engineering Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award (2014), the...Read more Jordi Guiu Jordi Guiu did his PhD in Anna Bigas laboratory (IMIM and Pompeu Fabra University-Barcelona) were he focused on the genetic circuitry that controls the establishment of hematopoietic stem cells during development. Then he joined Kim B. Jensen lab (Copenhagen University) as a postdoc, were he obtained a Marie Curie fellowship. His current research is focused on the specification of intestinal stem cells during development using fate mapping technologies, state of the art imaging, biophysical modeling and a plethora of sequencing techniques. The first part of this work has been recently...Read more Eri Hashino Eri Hashino, Ph.D. is the Ruth C. Holton Professor and the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Indiana University School of Medicine. She also serves as the Founding Director of the 3D Stem Cell Biology Research Group. Dr. Hashino’s laboratory recently established a novel 3D stem cell culture system to recapitulate embryonic inner ear development in vitro from human pluripotent stem cells. Using this model system along with genome editing technology and single-cell genomics, she and her colleagues are studying how...Read more Susana M. Chuva de Sousa Lopes Susana M. Chuva de Sousa Lopes, PhD is Associate Professor in the Dept. of Anatomy and Embryology at the Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden the Netherlands. She was appointed Guest Professor at the Dept. Reproductive Medicine, University Ghent, Belgium in 2013. Her group focuses on investigating the developmental trajectories of human organs and tissues, with a particular interest for the germline and urogenital organs. Based on the transcriptional profiles of over a hundred different human (fetal) organs, including the kidney and gonads, her group has developed a mathematical...Read more Todd McDevitt Todd McDevitt, PhD is a Senior Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, a Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and Director of the Bioengineering Graduate Program at UCSF. The primary objective of Dr. McDevitt’s research is to engineer stem cell technologies capable of directing differentiation and morphogenesis more effectively in order to create new models of development and disease, novel drug screening platforms, and regenerative medicine therapies. The McDevitt laboratory has been a leader in the development of novel 3D suspension culture platforms for stem cell morphogenesis and scalable biomanufacturing.Read more Mark Post Dr Mark Post, MD/PhD, has had several appointments as assistant professor at Utrecht University, Harvard University, as associate professor at Dartmouth college, and as full professor at Eindhoven University of Technology and Maastricht University. He currently holds the chair of the Physiology Department at Maastricht University. He is visiting professor at Harvard, University of Modena and faculty at Singularity University. His main research interest is the engineering of tissues for medical applications and for food. The medical applications focus on the construction of blood vessels...Read more Nicolas Rivron Nicolas Rivron is a stem cell biologist and a tissue engineer. He leads the laboratory for synthetic mammalian development at the IMBA in Vienna. His laboratory created the blastoid system, the first model of the pre-implantation conceptus generated solely from stem cells. His laboratory also develops microsystem screening platforms and computational technologies to systematically induce, modulate, and analyze self-organization in vitro.Read more Marta Shahbazi Marta Shahbazi will start as a junior group leader at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in February 2020, focusing on how epithelial tissue shape regulates stem cell identity during development and regeneration. Marta did her PhD at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) under the supervision of Mirna Perez-Moreno, working on the basic mechanisms that preserve the shape and integrity of epidermal stem cells. For her post-doctoral training she joined the laboratory of Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz at the University of Cambridge to study the morphogenesis of the embryo at the...Read more
Jianping Fu Dr. Fu is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His group integrates micro/nanoengineering, single-cell technologies, and systems and synthetic biology methods with new discoveries of mechanobiology, epigenetics, and stem cell biology for advancing understandings of human development and cancer biology. Dr. Fu is the recipient of the American Heart Association Scientist Development Award (2012), the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2012), the UM Mechanical Engineering Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award (2014), the...Read more
Jordi Guiu Jordi Guiu did his PhD in Anna Bigas laboratory (IMIM and Pompeu Fabra University-Barcelona) were he focused on the genetic circuitry that controls the establishment of hematopoietic stem cells during development. Then he joined Kim B. Jensen lab (Copenhagen University) as a postdoc, were he obtained a Marie Curie fellowship. His current research is focused on the specification of intestinal stem cells during development using fate mapping technologies, state of the art imaging, biophysical modeling and a plethora of sequencing techniques. The first part of this work has been recently...Read more
Eri Hashino Eri Hashino, Ph.D. is the Ruth C. Holton Professor and the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Indiana University School of Medicine. She also serves as the Founding Director of the 3D Stem Cell Biology Research Group. Dr. Hashino’s laboratory recently established a novel 3D stem cell culture system to recapitulate embryonic inner ear development in vitro from human pluripotent stem cells. Using this model system along with genome editing technology and single-cell genomics, she and her colleagues are studying how...Read more
Susana M. Chuva de Sousa Lopes Susana M. Chuva de Sousa Lopes, PhD is Associate Professor in the Dept. of Anatomy and Embryology at the Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden the Netherlands. She was appointed Guest Professor at the Dept. Reproductive Medicine, University Ghent, Belgium in 2013. Her group focuses on investigating the developmental trajectories of human organs and tissues, with a particular interest for the germline and urogenital organs. Based on the transcriptional profiles of over a hundred different human (fetal) organs, including the kidney and gonads, her group has developed a mathematical...Read more
Todd McDevitt Todd McDevitt, PhD is a Senior Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, a Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and Director of the Bioengineering Graduate Program at UCSF. The primary objective of Dr. McDevitt’s research is to engineer stem cell technologies capable of directing differentiation and morphogenesis more effectively in order to create new models of development and disease, novel drug screening platforms, and regenerative medicine therapies. The McDevitt laboratory has been a leader in the development of novel 3D suspension culture platforms for stem cell morphogenesis and scalable biomanufacturing.Read more
Mark Post Dr Mark Post, MD/PhD, has had several appointments as assistant professor at Utrecht University, Harvard University, as associate professor at Dartmouth college, and as full professor at Eindhoven University of Technology and Maastricht University. He currently holds the chair of the Physiology Department at Maastricht University. He is visiting professor at Harvard, University of Modena and faculty at Singularity University. His main research interest is the engineering of tissues for medical applications and for food. The medical applications focus on the construction of blood vessels...Read more
Nicolas Rivron Nicolas Rivron is a stem cell biologist and a tissue engineer. He leads the laboratory for synthetic mammalian development at the IMBA in Vienna. His laboratory created the blastoid system, the first model of the pre-implantation conceptus generated solely from stem cells. His laboratory also develops microsystem screening platforms and computational technologies to systematically induce, modulate, and analyze self-organization in vitro.Read more
Marta Shahbazi Marta Shahbazi will start as a junior group leader at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in February 2020, focusing on how epithelial tissue shape regulates stem cell identity during development and regeneration. Marta did her PhD at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) under the supervision of Mirna Perez-Moreno, working on the basic mechanisms that preserve the shape and integrity of epidermal stem cells. For her post-doctoral training she joined the laboratory of Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz at the University of Cambridge to study the morphogenesis of the embryo at the...Read more