Qi Zhou, Ph.D., is a professor in life sciences, and is now the Vice President and Member of the Presidium of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He is also the president of Beijing Institute of Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine. Prof. ZHOU is CAS Member and Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS). Prof. ZHOU's research interests cover stem cell, reproductive, and developmental biology, and he is also dedicated to promoting the application of stem cells to clinical use. He has been serving as the chief scientist of several national and CAS research projects in areas of reproductive and developmental biology, and stem cells.

Baoyang Hu is a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese academy of Sciences (IOZ/CAS), known for his work in stem cell based neural regeneration and transplantation. He is the executive director of the Innovation Academy for Stem Cell and Regeneration of CAS, the deputy director of State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, and the executive dean of Medical School at the University of the CAS (UCAS).

Dr. Hu’s research interests focus on human brain development, neural differentiation and neural degenerative diseases. He pioneered the neural differentiation of subtype specific neurons from hESCs and discovered the variable neural differentiation potency of human iPSCs (PNAS, 2010). Using hESC and neural differentiation as tool, his team discovered that SIRT6 represses H19 for proper development in primates, and knockout of SIRT6 cause development retardation of monkeys (Nature, 2018). He and his colleagues initiated the first clinical trial of treating Parkinson's disease using hESC-differentiated DA neuronal progenitors.

He has published more than 40 papers in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science, and Cell Stem Cells, and was granted 2 US patents. He serves as director of CSSCR and the Chinese Society of Cell Biology.

Martin Pera was amongst a small group of researchers who pioneered the isolation and characterization of pluripotent stem cells from human germ cell tumours, studies that provided an important framework for the development of human embryonic stem cells. His laboratory at Monash University was the second in the world to isolate embryonic stem cells from the human blastocyst, and the first to describe their differentiation into somatic cells (precursors of the central nervous system). Currently his lab studies the regulation of self-renewal and pluripotency, heterogeneity in pluripotent stem cell populations, and neural specification of pluripotent stem cells. His work on neural differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells led to the development of a new treatment for macular degeneration, a common form of blindness, which is now in clinical trial in Israel. He has provided extensive advice to state, national and international regulatory authorities on the scientific background to stem cell research, and has delivered hundreds of commentaries for print and electronic media on stem cell research, ethics, and regulatory policy. At the Jackson Laboratory Pera will continue work on the regulation of pluripotency, and will study the genetic basis of individual differences in the response of the central nervous system to injury.

Andreas Kurtz,Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBMT), Berlin, Germany Charité Universit?tsmedizin Berlin, Berlin Instiutes of Health Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT). Dr. Kurtz received his Diploma in Genetics from Martin-Luther University in Halle/Germany and his PhD in Cell Biology from the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Germany. He worked as Assistant Professor at Georgetown and Harvard Universities before becoming Director of the German Stem Cell Authority in 2003. He is founding PI of the Berlin Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT) in Berlin and heads its Stem Cell Research Lab until now; from 2009 to 2016 he joined the faculty of Seoul National University to establish a teaching program in cell biotechnology. In 2020, he joined Fraunhofer IBMT to further data related research and application in the stem cell field. His research concerns stem cell therapy and stem cell database development. He coordinates the European Stem Cell Registry (https://hPSCreg.eu) since 2010. From 2017-2021 he was member of the European Group of Ethics in Science and New Technologies at the European Commission.

Prof. Weizhi Ji currently is a Member of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Professor and Director of the State Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Institute of Primate Translational Medicine, Kunming University of Science and Technology. He is now the President of Chinese Society for Stem Cell Research. Prof. Ji has been devoted to developing non-human primate disease models and to advance regenerative and developmental biology with the overarching aim to improve human health. His research has focused on the mechanisms of early embryo development regulation, stem cell pluripotency and nonhuman primate models for human neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases. His lab developed the first gene-modified rhesus and cynomolgus monkeys via Cas9/RNA-mediated gene targeting in 2014, first proved the feasibility to generate chimeric monkeys using ESCs in 2015 and succeeded in extending in vitro culture for monkey in 2019 and for human early embryos in 2020. These gives a rare opportunity to study the developmental events of gastrulation in primates and offers insights into the new discoveries of fundamental theories in embryonic development, stem cells and promotes the development of innovative treatment for neurodevelopmental disorders. His research has been published in internationally recognized journals, including Cell, Science, Nature, Cell Stem Cell, PNAS and others, among which the study of the first primates born with genomes engineered by precision gene-targeting methods published in Cell has been regarded as a milestone of animal disease model development and listed as one of the 10 technology breakthrough in 2014 by MIT Technology Review, Best Research Article of 2014 by Cell, one of the 8 Success in science of 2014 by Nature.

Xiuwu Bian, M.D. & Ph.D., is a professor of pathology and the member of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is the director of the Institute of Pathology and Southwest Cancer Center, Southwest Hospital, Chongqing, China. He is now the vice-president of Chinese Society for Stem Cell Research and the president of Chinese Association of Pathologists. His research interests cover stem cell variation, cancer stem cells and tumor microenvironment. Dr. Bian has been devoted to characterization of various cancer stem cells (CSCs) from human cancer, identification of CSC plasticity and heterogeneity, and the interaction of CSCs with tumor microenvironment. He found that CSCs contribute to angiogenesis through production of angiogenic factors and trans-differentiation into endothelia and pericytes, thus generated new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for precision medicine. He also established a biobank for CSCs and COVID-19 tissues.

Glyn Stacey has a background in microbiology and cancer research. From 2003, he was the founding Director for the UK Stem Cell Bank for human embryonic stem cells. Glyn’s work has covered safety and quality issues in cell therapy, cells used for manufacturing purposes, development of novel cell-based assays genetic reference materials. Over more than 30 years, Glyn has maintained a strong interest in improvement of cryopreservation methods and biobanking of various biological materials. He has been the Chair for the Society for Low Temperature Biology (www.sltb.info). Glyn has also been a PI for a number of UK and EC funded research consortia and was a leading PI for the EBiSC European iPSC bank project. He serves as numerous SAB members for EU research programmes, a special advisor on cell substrates for WHO, an advisor on OECD initiatives. In the last 20 years his work has focused on stem cell applications including coordinating technical workshops, developing pluripotent stem cells for cell-based medicines and initiating the International Stem Cell Banking Initiative (www.iscbi.org) with members in 28 countries. His main role today is as a special expert supported by CAS PIFI program, where he advises the National Stem Cell Resource Center, on development of their research and clinical studies.

Masayo Takahashi (M.D., Ph.D.) obtained PhD degree specializing in visual pathology at Kyoto University. She joined the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe as a team leader, focusing on the clinical application of iPS Cell on macular degeneration. Takahashi was honored for her trailblazing research that led to the first clinical trial to use iPS cell derived RPE cell sheets graft transplantation in a patient with age related macular degeneration in 2014. In 2019, she started a new career as a president of start-up company: Vision Care Inc. that collaborate with RIKEN and Kobe Eye Center with the ultimate goal of bringing stem cell therapies to patients.

Shin Kawamata studied physics at Faculty of Science of Kyoto University, Japan (1975-1981) and medicine at medical school of Kobe University, Japan (1984-1990).  He started his carrier as a medical doctor (hematology) and got PhD degree from Kyoto University (1998). He developed various human leukemia models in SCID mice in his post-doctoral period at Systemix Co., Palo Alto USA and Stanford University (1998-2001).  Shin became group leader of Regenerative Medicine Research Unit and general manager of Cell Processing Facility in Foundation for Biomedical Research and Innovation (FBRI) (2002-2014) and Director of R&D Center for Cell Therapy of FBRI (2015).  His major research field is stem cell biology and hematopoietic cell differentiation. Currently, he is the CEO of Cyto-Facto Inc, a CMO/CDMO company for MSC, iPSC derivatives and CAR T manufacturing.

Prof. Reubinoff received his M.D. degree from the Hebrew University - Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel, and completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Hadassah Medical Center. He holds a PhD degree in developmental biology from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Prof. Reubinoff serves as Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Hadassah University Medical Center, Jerusalem and is the director of the Sidney and Judy Swartz Embryonic Stem Cell Research Center of the Goldyne Savad Institute of Gene Therapy at Hadassah. He founded and serves as the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Cell Cure Neurosciences Ltd.

Prof. Nissim Benvenisty is the Herbert Cohn Chair in Cancer Research and the Director of The Azrieli Center for Stem Cells and Genetic Research at the Hebrew University. He earned his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Hebrew University, and conducted postdoctoral studies at Harvard University. Prof. Benvenisty’s research projects focus on stem cell biology, tissue engineering, human genetics, and cancer research. He published numerous original and review papers on human pluripotent stem cells, and serves on the editorial board of various stem cell related journals. He is a member of the steering committee of the International Stem Cell Initiative (ISCI), the Programme Board of the UK–Regenerative Medical Platform (MRC), and serves as the academic advisor for the International Symposia of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR). Prof. Benvenisty presents the issue of human embryonic stem cells in many international conferences, and gave testimonies before the US Senate and the European Union. He was awarded several prizes among them the Foulkes Prize (London), the Hestrin Prize, the Teva Prize, the Kaye Prize, the Milken Prize, the ACTO Award and the Katzir Prize.

Fuchou Tang is a full professor at BIOPIC, College of Life Sciences, Peking University. He is also Associate Director of Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics (ICG). His lab focuses on the epigenetic regulation of gene expression network during human early embryonic development and germline development as well as in cancer (Cell, 2013, 2015, 2020; Nature, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019; Science, 2015, 2018; Cell Stem Cell, 2014, 2017a, 2017b, 2017c, 2018; Nature Genetics, 2018; Nature Cell Biology, 2018a, 2018b; GUT, 2020; Cancer Cell, 2020). His lab pioneered the single cell sequencing field and has systematically developed a serial of single cell functional genomic sequencing technologies (the first single-cell DNA methylome sequencing technology (scRRBS, 2013), the first single-cell triple omics (Transcriptome, DNA methylome, Genome copy number variations) sequencing technology (scTrio-seq, 2016), the first third-generation sequencing platform-based high-precision single cell RNA-seq (SCAN-seq, 2020), the first third-generation sequencing platform-based single cell genome sequencing (SMOOTH-seq, 2021) in the world). His work has been cited for more than 11,000 times. He has been invited to give presentations at AGBT, ISSCR, ICHG, Gordon Conference, HCA. He organized the Cold Spring Harbor Asia conference of Frontiers in Single Cell Genomics in 2016, 2018, and 2020.

I am a Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Liverpool, UK. My research addresses the safety, efficacy and mechanisms of action of cell-based regenerative medicine therapies for the treatment of renal and neurological diseases. We develop non-invasive imaging strategies to assess the behaviour of administered cells and their effects on organ function in vivo, and use advanced microscopy and histological techniques to assess cell fate and the host tissue response. We also investigate the role of biomaterials in the regulation of stem cell behaviour.

I coordinate the H2020 RenalToolBox Network https://renaltoolbox.org/. The overarching goal of this project is to develop novel tools and technologies to assess the safety and efficacy of various types of mesenchymal stromal cells and their derived extracellular vesicles in renal disease. My group is also developing novel biomaterials for supporting the growth and differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) to specific lineages, in particular, neuronal lineages. We are also developing non-invasive imaging strategies to assess the fate and functional activity of hPSC-derived dopaminergic neuron progenitors in rodent models of Parkinson’s disease.

Dr Yoji Sato is Head of the Division of Drugs at the Japan National Institute for Health Sciences (NIHS). As a graduate student at the University of Tokyo and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cincinnati, he conducted research in cardiovascular pharmacology and successfully established various transgenic mouse models to elucidate the mechanisms of cardiac excitation-contraction coupling and heart failure. Dr Sato’s current research area is in quality assurance for new and generic drugs, but he also has extensive experience in regulatory science research on the quality and safety of cell therapy products (CTP). 

Until March 2023, he served as Head of the Cell-Based Therapeutic Products Division at the NIHS, where he led a public-private partnership initiative (MEASURE Project) in Japan to validate a variety of test methods for evaluating the tumorigenicity of CTPs in collaboration with the Committee on Nonclinical Safety Evaluation of Pluripotent Stem Cell-Based Therapeutic Products, Forum for Innovative Regenerative Medicine (FIRM-CoNCEPT). He has also contributed to the establishment of Standards for Human Stem Cell Use in Research as a member of the Standards Initiative Steering Committee of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR). 

He continues to serve on the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute’s Cell Therapy-Tracking, Circulation and Safety Committee (HESI CT-TRACS), and the ISSCR’s Clinical Best Practices Task Force on Pluripotent Stem Cells-Derived Products. He is also Vice-Chair of the Database Committee of the Japanese Society for Regenerative Medicine, which provides the National Regenerative Medicine Database (NRMD), a national patient registry system for CTP clinical and post-marketing research. In addition, he is a topic leader for ICH Q5A(R2) and a member of the Pharmaceutical Affairs and Food Sanitation Council of the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Prof. Koji Eto was originally a clinical physician of cardiovascular medicine. He started cell biology research at The Scripps Research Institute in 1999 and then developed in vitro methods to differentiate mouse embryonic stem cells (ES cells) into megakaryocytes and platelets. In 2009, he was appointed head (PI) of the Stem Cell Bank at the Center for Regenerative Medicine, The University of Tokyo, where he was responsible for recruiting donors and ethical documentation for disease-specific iPS cell banking in the Tokyo area for basic research. In 2011, he moved to CiRA and started research on the clinical translation of iPS cell-derived platelets. His lab had achieved first in human clinical trial by human iPS cell-derived platelet products for a patient suffering from platelet transfusion refractoriness by alloimmunization.

Christian Freund obtained his PhD at the Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany by studying the role of transcription factor NFκB in cardiac hypertrophy in mice. In 2006 he joined Prof. Mummery’s lab at the Hubrecht Institute, Utrecht, The Netherlands where he worked on the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into cardiomyocytes and the role of insulin in this process. In 2008 he started working on transcription factor-induced cellular reprogramming including reprogramming methods and disease modeling based on human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs).  Since 2011 he has been heading the Leiden University Medical Centre hiPSC core facility (hiPSC Hotel), Leiden, The Netherlands which has the goal to generate and genetically modify research grade hiPSC lines for academia and commercial customers. In 2021 the LUMC hiPSC Hotel joined the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW).

Dr. Thorsten Gorba is the VP of Process & Analytical Development at Aspen Neuroscience (San Diego, CA, USA). Thorsten is a developmental and molecular neuroscientist and stem cell biologist by training, who has also served as a consultant to the advanced therapies field. He has 25 years of academia, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industry experience; starting his industry career as Aventis fellow at the University of Edinburgh Institute for Stem Cell Research, followed by roles of increasing managerial responsibility at Neuren Pharmaceuticals, Living Cell technologies and Stem Cell Sciences Ltd. He most recently served as the founding Translating Center Director of the Cell and Gene Therapy Center at IQVIA, where he was responsible for its initial build and sustainable operation. Before IQVIA, Thorsten worked at StemCells, Inc. where he was tasked with leading assay design, qualification and process implementation for neural stem cell product release used in Spinal cord injury, AMD and myelination disorder clinical trials. Thorsten obtained his MSc in Biology and PhD in Developmental Neuroscience from Ruhr-University in Bochum, Germany

Ivana Barbaric completed her DPhil at the University of Oxford in 2006. She then joined Professor Peter Andrews’ group at the University of Sheffield to study the mechanisms that underlie human pluripotent stem cell fate. In 2013, Ivana was awarded a Wellcome Trust discipline hopping fellowship to engineer controlled microenvironments in order to understand mechanical and chemical cues influencing stem cell fate. She was appointed to a Group Leader position at the Centre for Stem Cell Biology, Sheffield in 2014. Her research is focused on the basic biology of human pluripotent stem cells and their applications in regenerative medicine and disease modelling. Ivana is a Board member of the British Society for Gene and Cell therapy, a member of the Steering Committee of the International Stem Cell Initiative and the ISSCR Task Force for Standards in Stem Cell Research, a member of the MRC Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board and the lead for the genetic stability of stem cells theme within the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform.

Dr. Wang has an interdisciplinary training in genetics, molecular biology, and stem cell biology. As a doctoral and post-doctoral researcher, Dr. Wang has worked on the development of a variety of genome engineering technologies, including transposon-based “Calling Card” method for determining the genome-wide binding locations of transcription factors, TALEN-mediated genome editing in human pluripotent stem cells and mice, CRISPR-mediated multiplexed genome editing in mice, and CRISPR-mediated gene activation in human cells. In 2014, he established his own lab at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing, China). Since then, Wang lab has developed Zygote Electroporation of Nuclease (ZEN) method to generate genetically modified mouse models with high throughput and efficiency, Casilio method to regulate gene transcription, as well as method to generate CAR-T cells with multiplex gene editing. As the Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Jackson Laboratory, Dr. Wang directs a small but focused research team and work closely with the Genetic Engineering Technology group, to improve the efficiency and capability of generating genetically modified mouse models.

Dr. Shuyan Wang is the Head of Process Development at Zephyrm Biotechnologies. In this role, Shuyan spearheaded Zephyrm’s effort of developing GMP manufacturing processes for therapeutic products derived from pluripotent stem cells.  Her work has supported four IND approvals in the past three years.  Prior to joining Zephyrm, Shuyan was on the faculty of Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University and her research interest was neural differentiation of stem cells and experimental therapy of degenerative diseases in animal models.  Shuyan received a medical degree from Medical University of Inner-Mongolia, a Ph.D. from Capital Medical University and had her postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Richard Wang (Ph. D., MBA) is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Neukio Biotechnology. Richard received B.S degree in Cell Biology from University of Science & Technology of China, Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from University of Maryland, Baltimore and MBA from Xavier University in Cincinnati. He obtained postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health, USA. In the last 8 years, he has been working on cell therapy research and product development. While in Fosun Kite, he led the effort to complete tech transfer, registration trial and market authorization application for Yescarta (China first CAR-T product) in less than three years, and built commercial strategy and teams for the launch.

Silvia Velasco leads the Neural Stem Cell Laboratory at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), in Melbourne, Australia. With her team, she is interested in developing pluripotent stem cell-derived 3D organoid models of the human brain to study and advance treatments for neurodevelopmental disorders. Velasco is also a principal investigator at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine (ReNEW), a recently established international collaboration between MCRI, the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, that strives to advance a new generation of effective and safe stem cell-driven therapies. Prior to establishing her independent Laboratory, Velasco worked in the group of Professor Paola Arlotta at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, USA, where she established a method for the generation of a highly reliable brain organoid model which has been instrumental to gain mechanistic insights into the cell-type specific developmental and functional defects associated with autism spectrum disorder.

Dr. Mingxia Gu obtained her medical training from Peking University Health Science Center in Beijing, China. She further pursued her academic journey through a joint-training PhD program and postdoctoral training at both Peking University and Stanford University. In 2016, Dr. Gu joined the Pediatric Cardiology department at Stanford Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (LPCH) as an Instructor. In early 2020, she transitioned to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Gu has authored over 50 manuscripts published in renowned journals such as Cell Stem Cell, European Heart Journal, and Circulation Research. She serves on the editorial board for Stem Cell Reports, and participates in study sections at National Institutes of Health (NIH) and American Heart Association (AHA). Dr. Gu has been awarded an endowed scholarship from Cincinnati Children's Hospital and has secured funding support from NIH R01, AHA, and the Single Ventricle Research Foundation.

Lucia Selfa Aspiroz is a Scientific Project Officer in the Systems Toxicology Unit at the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission in Ispra (Italy) since April 2023. Born and raised in Madrid (Spain), she studied her Bachelor’s Degree in Health Biology between Madrid and Amsterdam (Netherlands), continued her studies with a Masters in Regenerative Biology and Medicine in Dresden (Germany), and pursued a PhD in Biomedicine at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering of Catalonia in Barcelona (Spain). After graduating in 2022, she joined the European Commission to be project officer in the Unit of the Directorate General of Research and Development (DG RTD) that works with the Scientific Advice Mechanism, which is in charge of developing policy recommendations directly to the College of Commissioners based on independent scientific evidence. In her current position at JRC, she is working in different projects to promote the use on new approach methodologies (NAMs) on regulatory process and biomedical research.

Dr. Feng Guo is currently an Associated Professor of Intelligent Systems Engineering at Indiana University Bloomington(IUB). Before joining IUB in 2017 fall, he received his Ph.D. in Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State and his postdoc training at Stanford University School of Medicine. His group is developing intelligent biosystems to address the challenges in translational regenerative medicine. He is a recipient of the NIH Director's New Innovator Award, the Indiana CTSI GLUE Award, the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award at IUB, the Dean Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford School of Medicine, etc. 

Dr. Hua received his PhD degree in tumour biology from the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, and conducted research on regeneration of intestinal stem cells from radiation damage and tumour radiotherapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA, from 2009 to 2015. He was recruited to the Institute of Radiation Medicine and the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University in 2015. His current research focuses on the personalised and precise treatment of cancer patients and tissue regeneration. His lab relies on the latest stem cell organoid culture technology. Currently, 300 organoid models have been established, including normal tissue organoids and tumour organoids. Based on these models, high-throughput screening for a variety of anti-tumour drugs and normal tissue regeneration drugs was done.  

Matthias Lütolf is the founding Director of the Roche Institute for Translational Bioengineering and a Professor of Bioengineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). His research focuses on the use of cutting-edge bioengineering strategies to guide stem cell-based development to build novel organoids with improved reproducibility and physiological relevance for basic research and real-world applications in drug discovery and development.

Dr. Juan Hou has 20+ years of research experience in the field of developmental biology and respiratory research. Juan obtained her PhD in Developmental Biology from Osaka University, Japan. After this, Juan joined the Terry Fox Laboratory at the British Columbia Cancer Research Center (Vancouver, Canada) as Postdoctoral Research Fellow, continuing her study on the signaling pathway governing early embryogenesis. She then joined the Research and Development Department of STEMCELL Technologies Inc. in 2012, as a Senior Scientist and the Team Lead for Pulmonary Tissue team, overseeing the product development to support the respiratory research field, with focuses on human airway and lung epithelial cell culture in both 2D and 3D models, including air-liquid interface and organoid cultures. In 2021, Juan relocated to Shanghai, China in STEMCELL and currently oversees Organoid products from scientific support and strategic alliance perspectives. Juan authored 20+ research publications in journals such as Development, Developmental Biology, PNAS, Hepatology and PLoS One.

Dr. Yaojin Peng currently is an associate professor of biotechnology law and ethics, at the Institute of Zoology (IOZ), Beijing Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Institute for Stem Cell and Regeneration, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in Beijing, China. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in life science and a Master’s degree in Law. He finished his PhD at the Faculty of Law, Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Dr. Peng’s research focuses on legal and ethical issues in the fields of biotechnology and medicine, intellectual property law and standards, policy and management of S&T, etc. He has published several articles in top academic journals, including Nature Biotechnology, Cell Stem Cells. Moreover, Dr. Peng is an expert of National S&T Expert Bank, a member of Expert Committee of National Stem Cell Resource Bank Innovation Alliance, the deputy secretary general of the Center for Science & Technology Development and Governance, Tsinghua University, and an external researcher of the School of Law, Singapore Management University.

Rosario Isasi, J.D., M.P.H., is a Research Assistant Professor at the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She holds multiple appointments, including at the John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics and the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute.

Prof. Isasi’s research is devoted to identifying and analyzing the social, ethical and policy dimensions of novel and disruptive genetic technologies, such as gene editing and synthetic biology. She has built an international reputation as a scholar with particular expertise in the area of international comparative law and ethics regarding genomics and regenerative medicine.

Xingchao Geng is the director of the National Center for Safety Evaluation of Drugs (NCSED), National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), China. He is concurrently serves as the chairman of the Drug Safety Evaluation Professional Committee of the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association, advisory and review expert of the Center for Drug Evaluation, national GLP inspector, et al. He has been engaged in drug safety evaluation research for more than 20 years, and has undertaken and completed more than 200 preclinical safety evaluations of new drugs. He has presided over and participated in the research of 15 projects such as the Significant New Drugs Development of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. The research results received the first prize of the National Science and Technology Award, the first prize of the Science and Technology Award of the Chinese Association of Chinese Medicine, the second prize of the Science and Technology Award of the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association, and the second prize of the Beijing Science and Technology Award. During his work, he went to Huntingdon Life Sciences in the UK, the FDA National Center for Toxicology Research (NCTR), the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI), the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). He has published more than 100 academic papers and participated in the editing of 10 monographs.

Tao Na works at Cell Collection and Research Center, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control as associate research fellow. Tao is mainly engaged in the quality control and quality evaluation of mesenchymal stem cells, human pluripotent stem cells and their differentiated cells, and tissue engineering cells from various tissue sources. Tao has published more than 20 SCI peer reviewed papers and participated in the compilation of 2 monographs chapters. As an important backbone, Tao has participated in the research work of national cell quality control research projects such as "Nation's Key Strategic Research Program" of 13th and 14th Five-year Plan and "Strategic Priority Research Program" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2020, he won the 22nd CAST (China Association for Science and Technology) Qiushi outstanding young talent achievement transformation award.