Vishwakarma, Ajaykumar
Dr Ajay Vishwakarma is a researcher in the fields of stem cell bio-engineering, biomaterials, tissue engineering, cancer immunology and immuno-engineering; working with Division of Engineering in Medicine, Department of Medicine, at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School and an affiliate at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr Vishwakarma earned a Doctors degree in Dental Surgery at Maharashtra University of Health Sciences and Masters degree in Tissue Engineering at Cardiff University, UK where he primarily studied signaling pathways involved in musculoskeletal repair and regeneration. He continued mesenchymal stem cell and tissue-engineering research during his fellowship in the Khademhosseini laboratory at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, USA. Currently he is pursuing a PhD in Cancer Biology with training in Cancer Immunology at the Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa in Prof. Weizhou Zhang's Laboratory, Department of Pathology, Holden Cancer Center wherein he is studying how regulatory T cells impact cancer progression and metastasis in humanized cancer models.
He was a recipient of a stem cell training fellowship from CCMB, a CSIR Indian institute, a graduate research fellowship by National Blood Foundation and National Cancer Institute government grant agencies. In addition to the long-term academic interest; he is committed to translating next generation cell-based therapies and has held key industrial positions in Europe and Asia. He is a co-founder of OCTE Technologies, a biotech start-up utilizing cell and tissue engineering technology platform to solve medical problems.
Ramalingam, Murugan
Murugan Ramalingam, PhD, FNS, FIoN, FRSC is Professor at the Centre for Stem Cell Research (a unit of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine-Bengaluru), Christian Medical College Campus, India. Concurrently he is Adjunct Professor at the Tohoku University, Japan. Prior to joining the CSCR, he worked as Associate Professor of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering at the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Faculté de Chirurgie Dentaire, Université de Strasbourg (France) and at the WPI Advanced Institute for Materials Research (Japan) as Assistant Professor. He has also worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), under the U.S. National Academies Associateship program. He received his Ph.D. in Biomaterials from the University of Madras. He has also undergone training in Ethical and Policy issues on Stem Cells from Harvard University (USA), and in Operations Management from the University of Illinois-Chicago (USA). His current research interests are focused on the development of multiphase biomedical materials, through conventional to nanotechnology to biomimetic approaches, microfabrication, cell patterning, stem cell differentiation, tissue engineering and drug delivery. He is the author of over 275 publications, including peer-reviewed journal papers, conference proceedings, book chapters, authored books, edited books, and patents relevant to biomaterials, stem cells, and tissue engineering. His current h-index is 30 with ~6500 citations. He also serves as a board member of several international scientific and research committees in various public and private bodies and grant reviewer of various international funding agencies. He serves on the editorial boards of multiple biomaterials, stem cells and tissue engineering-related journals, including as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, the Journal of Bionanoscience and the Stem Cell Research and Therapy. He is a recipient of several prestigious fellowships and awards, including CSIR Fellowship (India), SMF Fellowship (Singapore), NRC National Academies Fellowship (USA), Nationale Professeur des Universités (France), Fellow of Institute of Nanotechnology (UK) and Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (UK).
Shi, Songtao
Songtao Shi, D.D.S., Ph.D., is Professor at the University of Southern California Ostrow School of Dentistry. Dr. Shi received his D.D.S. degree and certificate in Pediatric Dentistry from the Peking University School of Stomatology and Ph.D. in Craniofacial Biology from the University of Southern California. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Southern California, he served as a Principal Investigator and Clinical Fellow for nine years at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. His research program focuses on understanding mechanism of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-associated diseases, developing new experimental disease models, and exploring feasibility of translating these bench discoveries to clinical therapies.
His group and his collaborators were the first to identify dental pulp stem cells, baby tooth stem cells, periodontal ligament stem cells, root apical papilla stem cells, tendon stem cells, gingiva stem cells, sclera MSCs, and benign tumor MSCs from keloid and ossifying fibroma. In translational study, Dr. Shi's team has used these stem cells to regenerate a variety of tissues, including dentin, pulp, periodontal ligament, tendon, bone, bio-root. Dr. Shi and his collaborators were the first to use MSCs to treat systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), periodontitis, bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw-like disease (BRONJ) in animal models and patients. Additionally, Dr. Shi and his collaborators were the first to generate BRONJ, osteoradionecrosis, keloid, and ossifying fibroma diseases in mouse and swine models. To understand mechanisms of MSC-based therapies, Dr. Shi's team revealed that MSC mediated bone regeneration was regulated by recipient T cell, which is the pioneer study showing association between cell-based tissue engineering and immune response. Additionally, Dr. Shi and his collaborators discovered that MSC-mediated immunotherapy in human and mouse model is associated the interplay between the donor cells and recipient T cells via Fas/FasL pathway. Recently, Dr. Shi's team first time showed that MSCs contribute to orofacial benign tumor development via an epigenetic regulation network.
Dr. Shi has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles in a variety of high-impact scientific journals, of which he served as the corresponding author in Nat Medicine, Cell Stem Cell, Lancet, J Clin Invest, Nat Biotechnol, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, Cell Research, Blood, J Bone Miner Res, Stem Cells, PLoS ONE, and J Dent Res. Dr. Shi's research is supported by NIH grants and funding from California Institute of Regenerative Medicine.
Dr. Shi has served on several local and national committees and boards including Scientific Editor for the PLoS ONE and Associate Editor for Oral Diseases. He is recipient of the 2013 IADR Distinguished Scientist Award for Pulp Biology & Regeneration. He is on the editorial board of Stem Cell Research & Therapy, the editorial board of World Journal of Stem Cells, and the editorial board of Chinese Journal of Dental Research. Dr. Shi is Changjing Scholar in the Fourth Military Medical University, Distinguished Visiting Professor in Tongji University, Visiting Professor in XiangYa School of Medicine & Stomatology, Central South University (CSU), and distinguished visiting professor in Dankook University, Korea.
