Speakers

Dr. Takahashi is a Japanese ophthalmologist and stem cell researcher. She served as an assistant professor in the Kyoto University Hospital after Ph.D. graduation. She discovered the potential of stem cells as a tool for retina therapy when she moved to the Salk Institute, U.S. She joined RIKEN in 2006, her team launched a pilot clinical study using iPS cells first in human in 2013. She started a new carrier, a president of startup company; Vision Care Inc., to proceed implement clinical therapy.

Dr. Han is Emeritus Professor at Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon , Korea. He is interested in cellular reprogramming, differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), disease modeling using iPSCs and also focus on regulation of insulin secretion in hPSC-derived pancreatic islet-like organoids.

Dr. Teo is a principal investigator at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) and an assistant professor at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, using human pluripotent stem cells for disease modelling of diabetes, developing therapeutics and cell therapy. He is also a co-founder of BetaLife Pte Ltd focused on
the use of stem cell therapy for diabetes patients.

Dr. Alisa is currently an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Molecular Biosciences (MB), Mahidol University, NakhornPathom, Thailand. She worked at the Laboratoire de Thérapie Génique et Cellulaire, Service des Thérapies Innovantes, UMR_E007, Institut François Jacob, CEA de Fontenay-auxRoses, France, and Bioneer in Hørsholm, Denmark, before
becoming a faculty member at the MB.

Dr. Do is a Professor in Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biotechnology, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea. He serves as an Editorial board member for Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group) and International Journal of Stem Cells. His findings emphasize the importance of integration-free iPSCs for clinical applications. Recently, he also focuses on the formation of brain organoids and vascular organoids from human iPSCs, which will be used for disease modeling of neurological and neurovascular disorder.

Dr. LOH is a principal investigator at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), and also holds the responsibility of being the director of cell fate engineering and therapeutics unit of IMCB. He pioneered the use of human blood cells for reprogramming of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and the modeling of congenital and somatic hematologic diseases using iPSCs. He is interested in dissecting the mechanisms regulating cell fate changes and developing novel tools for deriving reprogrammed and differentiated cell types.

Dr. Wei is Professor and Director at Center for Mitochondrial Research and Medicine, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua City, Taiwan. He is interested in induced pluripotent stem cells and their derived neurons as cell models for studies of the mitochondrial disease MERRF syndrome.

Dr. Methichit is an Associate Professor at Siriraj Center for Regenerative Medicine (SiCRM), Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University,Thailand. She is interested in developing cell-based therapy for regenerative medicine and studying disease pathogenesis using patient-specific stem cells. She is also use genome engineering strategy to correct genetic mutations or enhance the functions of the cells to develop new therapeutic approaches to treat degenerative diseases, genetic diseases, infectious diseases as well as cancers.

Dr. Pierre Savatier is senior researcher at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research INSERM) and Principal Investigator at the Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute, Lyon, France. He is currently serving as Vice-President for the French Society for Stem Cell Research (FSSCR).

Dr. Aksoy is a scientist at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and Principal Investigator at the Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute, Lyon, France. She worked at the Genome Institute of Singapore in Singapore, before joining the INSERM. She is interested in molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying embryo colonization by pluripotent stem cells in primates

Dr. Nowak-Imialek is a senior scientist at the First Department of Medicine at Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University Munich in Germany. She worked before for many years at the Institute of Farm Animal Genetics of the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut located in Mariensee near to Hannover (Germany) on the derivation of embryonic stem cells and the generation of transgenic pig models. She established the first embryonic stem cell lines named "Expanded Potential Stem Cells (EPSCs)" from porcine embryos. Her research interests focus on porcine embryology and EPSCs-derived cells for testing cell therapy in the pig. Recently, she also focused on the generation of inter-species chimera using porcine embryos.

Dr. Liangxue Lai is Principal Investigator and Deputy Director of Southern China Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Guangzhou institutes of Biomedicine and Health, China. Dr. Lai’s lab is focusing on transgenic animals, animal cloning human and animal stem cells. His team made the first knock-out pigs in the world by using nuclear transfer approach.

Dr. Liu is the Principal Investigator at the Institute of Neuroscience, CAS, Shanghai, China. He is focused on important questions of reproduction, stem cells, and embryology in primate species, including somatic cell nuclear transfer and cell reprogramming, embryonic stem cell pluripotency, germ cell differentiation, spermatogonial stem cells, and reproductive endocrinology. Dr. Liu's studies will provide new potential transgenic technologies for non-human primates and new solutions for human reproductive barriers.

Dr. Sasaki is a Director of the Department of Marmoset Biology and Medicine, Central Institute for Experimental Animals (CIEA), a Senior Visiting Scientist at RIKEN Brain Science Institute (Center for Brain Science), and a Project Professor at Advanced Research Center, Keio University ofJapan, and Contract Consultant at the Reproductive Biology and Genetics core, at National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Dr. Vezoli is a researcher at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in the Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute, Lyon, France. He is currently consulting member of the Connectomics platform (SBRI, Lyon).

Dr. Chuinsiri is currently a lecturer and lead investigator in orofacial pain at the Institute of Dentistry, Suranaree University of Technology (SUT). He is also responsible for delivering care to patients with orofacial pain problems at the Oral Health Centre, Suranaree University of Technology Hospital.

Dr. Nicolas Leventoux is a researcher scientist at Dementia Pathophysiology Collaboration Unit (RIKEN Center for Brian Science). He is interested in the development and treatments for incurable neurological diseases including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson's disease (PD) based on iPS cell drug discovery.

Dr. Kalayar Aye SAW (M.B,B.S) is in her final year of Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences Program fully granted by Chiang Mai University Presidential Scholarship. She is working under the supervision of Prof. Chalermchai Pilapong and her main interest is in regenerative medicine focusing on cell reprogramming. Before starting her Ph.D. she spent a year working as medical officer in Myanmar

Dr. Phoonsuk is a junior lecturer at the Department of Anatomy, and she has the responsibility of being the Principal Investigator in the Center of Excellence for Regenerative Dentistry and the Principal Investigator in the Center of Dental Stem Cell Biology at the Faculty of Dentistry, Chulalongkorn University.

Dr. Bourillot is senior researcher at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute and Principal Investigator at the Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute, Lyon, France. He studies LIF/STAT3 signalling in mouse and human ES cells. In collaboration with Hongwei Chen, he reprogrammed human ES cells to ground-like state of pluripotency. He also studies the role of long non-coding RNAs in ground state pluripotency

Dr. Kishimoto is a researcher in Erika Sasaki's lab at the Central Institute for Experimental Medicine and Life Science. She obtained her Ph.D. in Medicine from Hiroshima University and specializes in the study of implementation using common marmoset embryos.