CRAFT Research Symposium

Dr. José Luis García-Cordero, Institute of Human Biology, Roche

Advanced Microfluidic Platforms for Scalable Organoid Culture

José leads the Microtechnologies group at Roche’s Institute of Human Biology (IHB) since August 2021. His group develops innovative technologies that automate and enhance the throughput of in vitro model systems. The team’s work in microengineering, advanced materials, biosensors, and instrumentation has produced nearly a dozen patents to date. He also established the infrastructure and facilities for microfluidic device prototyping at IHB. Prior to joining Roche, José was an Associate Professor at Cinvestav (Mexico) and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Mayo Clinic (USA), following a postdoctoral fellowship at EPFL (Switzerland).

Prof. Athina E. Markaki, University of Cambridge

Bioengineered Vascular Networks and Grafts

Athina Markaki is a University Professor in the Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge, where she leads the Materials Engineering and Material-Tissue Interaction Group. She earned her diploma in Materials Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and her PhD from the University of Cambridge. After completing post-doctoral positions at Cambridge and MIT, along with a year in industry, she was appointed to a lectureship in the Engineering Department. She is the recipient of the 2017 Rosetrees Trust Interdisciplinary Award, a European Research Council Starting Grant (2010), an Advanced EPSRC Fellowship (2005), the 2004 De Montford Award at “SET for Britain,” the Young Scientist Prize in 2003 at the 5th Euromech Solid Mechanics Conference (ESMC-5), and awards from the State Scholarships Foundation, the Evgenidio Foundation, and the Technical Chamber of Greece.

Prof. Sarah Hedtrich, University of British Columbia

Human (disease) models to Tackle Inflammatory and Genetic Diseases of Human Epithelia

Prof. Hedtrich obtained her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Freie Universität Berlin in 2009. During her postdoc, she moved to the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and Tufts University in Boston, USA. She held one of the prestigious Johanna-Quandt-Professorships at the Berlin Institute of Health @ Charité in Berlin and serves now as a recently appointed Tier I Canada Research Chair in Human Disease Modeling at the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. Her research centers around inflammatory and genetic diseases of human epithelia with a focus on skin and lungs and bioengineering of complex, human disease models which are leveraged to develop personalized next-generation therapies. She co-/authored over 95 peer-reviewed journal articles in high-impact journals including the ACS Nano, Small, Nature Reviews Bioengineering, and EMBO Molecular Medicine.

Prof. Andrew J. deMello, ETH Zurich

Microfluidics for Blood-Based Diagnostics

Andrew is currently Professor of Biochemical Engineering and Deputy Chair in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at ETH Zurich. Prior to his arrival in Zurich, he was Professor of Chemical Nanosciences and Head of the Nanostructured Materials and Devices Section in the Chemistry Department at Imperial College London. He obtained a 1st Class Degree in Chemistry and PhD in Molecular Photophysics from Imperial College London in 1995 and subsequently held a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests cover a broad range of activities in the general area of microfluidics and nanoscale science. Andrew has given over 400 invited lectures at conferences and universities in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia (including 100 plenary or keynote lectures), has published 425 papers in refereed journals, and co-authored two books. He is currently an Associate Editor for ACS Sensors and sits on the Editorial Boards of Advanced Materials Technologies, Chem and The Journal of Flow Chemistry. He is also co- founder of two spin out companies that commercialize microfluidic technologies. Science originating from the deMello group has been recognized through multiple awards, including the 2002 SAC Silver Medal (Royal Society of Chemistry), the 2009 Clifford Paterson Medal (Royal Society), the 2009 Corday Morgan Medal (Royal Society of Chemistry), the 2012 Pioneers of Miniaturization Lectureship (Royal Society of Chemistry), the 2020 Advances in Measurement Science Lectureship Award (American Chemical Society), the 2021 Simon-Widmer Award (Swiss Chemical Society) and a 2021 Mendel Lectureship (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic).

Prof. Elliot Chaikof, Harvard University

Microfluidics and Thrombosis

Dr. Chaikof’s research interests lie at the interface of medicine, chemistry, materials science, and engineering, with applications in drug discovery, cell-based therapies, and tissue engineering. He has been engaged in multiple research consortia, including serving as the Emory University Principal Investigator of the NSF sponsored Georgia Tech/Emory Engineering Research Center (ERC) for the Engineering of Living Tissues and as Principal Investigator of NIH Common Fund Programs in Glycoscience and Somatic Cell Genome Editing (SCGE). Within the National Academy of Medicine, Dr. Chaikof recently served as Chair of Section 1 (Engineering Sciences), founding Co-Chair of the Health and Technology Interest Group (IG18), and was a member of the Committee on Emerging Science, Technology, and Innovation (CESTI). Within the National Academies, Dr. Chaikof served as Co-Chair of the Committee on Biomedical Engineering Materials and Applications (BEMA) and served on the Standing Committee of Biotechnology and National Security Needs. He currently serves as a member of the National Materials and Manufacturing Board (NMMB) and the Committee on National Security Implications of Transdisciplinary Biotechnology in support of the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology of the U.S. Government. Among other awards, Dr. Chaikof is the recipient of the Class of 2020 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award from Harvard Medical School.