Sabine Szunerits
University of Lille, France
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1567-4943
An Austrian-educated native, Dr. Sabine Szunerits received her PhD from Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, in 1998. She undertook postdoctoral work at the ENS, Paris, Tufts University, Boston, ENSCPB, Bordeaux, and CEA Grenoble, France, before starting her independent research career as a professor in 2004 at the INPGrenoble. In 2009 she joined the University of Lille, notably the Institute of Electronics, Microelectronics and Nanotechnology (IEMN), as Full Professor in Chemistry. In 2010 she was appointed ‘member junior‘ at the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) for a period of 5 years for her research excellence. In 2018 she was awarded the ‘médaille d’argent du CNRS‘ for her contribution to sensors and nanomedicine for fighting bacterial and viral infections. Her research group interests focus on the use of chemistry and materials science principles to tackle unmet medical- and biosensing-related problems such as fighting viral and bacterial infections using nanomaterials, sensitive bacterial and viral sensing, or transdermal delivery of macromolecular drugs. She is also one of the co-founders of CorDial-IT, a start-up in innovative sensing technology.
Xueji Zhang
Shenzhen University, China
Dr. Xueji Zhang is vice president of Shenzhen University and Professor at the School of Biomedical Engineering, China. He received his BSc and PhD from Wuhan University in 1989 and 1994 respectively. His postdoctoral work was completed at the National Institute of Chemistry, Slovenia, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich and New Mexico State University, Last Cruces, USA, from 1995-1999. He was a research scientist, a senior scientist, a chief scientist, Vice President and Senior Vice President at World Precision Instruments, Inc., USA, until 2010, when he joined the University of Science & Technology Beijing as National Chair Professor. His research interests span the disciplines of chemistry, biology, materials and medicine, with an emphasis on studies of biosensing, biomedicine and biomaterials. His lab focuses on the development of novel biosensors, artificial intelligence sensors, tools and devices to study free radicals, cancer biomarkers, profiling changes in animals or humans associated with diseases, and exploiting this information for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. In addition, his group investigates drug delivery, new energy and natural medicines. He serves as an Editor-in-Chief of Sensors & Diagnostics and has been an editorial member of 24 international journals. He has received numerous national and international awards and honors including: Member of the Russian Academy of Engineering; Fellow of the American Institute for Medical & Bioengineering; Fellow of the Royal Chemical Society; a National Innovation Award in China; Scientist of the Year in China, and Simon Fellow of ICSC-World Lab.
The impact of his work is documented in over 180 granted patents, about 500 peer-reviewed journal papers with >26,000 citations, 8 books, and over 150 keynote/invited lectures and seminars at national and international conferences and institutions. His work is also closely tied to industry and government, for which he has licensed a few biosensing technologies and affected some government regulations.
Ilka Engelmann
University of Lille, Faculty of Medicine, France
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7489-3786
Ilka Engelmann received her degree in medicine in 2000 and her thesis degree in 2001 in Freiburg, Germany. She performed her medical specialist training in Nürnberg, Tübingen, and Hannover, Germany, and received her specialist degree in “microbiology, virology and epidemiology of infections” in 2007. She undertook postdoctoral research at the Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, France, from 2008 to 2011. From 2011 to 2022, she was associate professor of virology at the University of Lille and staff virologist at Lille University Hospital, France. Since 2022, she is associate professor of virology at Montpellier University, researcher at INSERM PCCEI and staff virologist at Montpellier University Hospital, France. She has developed a specific research interest in biomarkers and novel diagnostic methods for viral infections as well as the role of microRNAs in viral infections.
Carlos D. Garcia
Clemson University, USA
Dr. Garcia received his BS in Biochemistry and PhD in Chemistry from the National University of Cordoba (Argentina) in 1996 and 2001, respectively. From 2002 to 2004, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Mississippi State University and Colorado State University under the supervision of Dr. W. Wilson and Dr. Chuck Henry, respectively. He started his independent career at UT San Antonio, and in 2015 he joined Clemson University as Professor in Analytical Chemistry. In 2018 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. His group is focused on the study of interactions of proteins with nanostructured surfaces and their use in analytical chemistry. Additionally, they are developing microfluidic devices to monitor biologically active compounds. His research has received support from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, National Agency for Space and Aeronautics, and the Office of Naval Research.
Wei Gao
California Institute of Technology, USA
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8503-4562
Wei Gao is an Assistant Professor of Medical Engineering in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology and a Heritage Medical Research Institute (HMRI) Investigator. He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, San Diego in 2014 as a Jacobs Fellow and an HHMI International Student Research Fellow. From 2014-2017, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.
He is a recipient of a Pittsburgh Conference Achievement Award, an Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, a 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, an IEEE EMBS Early Career Achievement Award, an IEEE Sensor Council Technical Achievement Award, an MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35, and an ACS Young Investigator Award (Division of Inorganic Chemistry). He is a Highly Cited Researcher (Web of Science), a World Economic Forum Young Scientist, a member of Global Young Academy, and a National Academy of Engineering’s US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium alumnus. His research interests include wearable biosensors, digital medicine, micro/nanorobotics, bioelectronics, and nanomedicine.
Ali Yetisen
Imperial College London, UK
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-0896-267X
Dr. Yetisen is an Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, where he directs the Centre for Biochemical Sensors. He is passionate about people-centric research, entrepreneurship, and creating equal opportunities for all researchers.
Previously, he worked as a Tosteson Fellow at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital. He has served as a content expert on implant safety to the FDA. As a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, he promotes inclusive research and networking opportunities for researchers with disadvantaged backgrounds. Dr. Yetisen has co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles and delivered 80 international talks.
Quan Yuan
Hunan University, China
Dr. Quan Yuan is a full professor at Hunan University in China. She received her BS degree from Wuhan University in 2004 and PhD degree from Peking University in 2009. Later, she continued her postdoctoral research at the University of Florida. Dr. Yuan’s group focuses on developing functional nanomaterials for applications in biosensing. The practical usage of the developed nanomaterials for disease diagnosis is the ultimate goal of Dr Yuan’s group. Dr. Yuan has authored over 100 high-quality papers. She was also invited to attend many international conferences to exchange ideas with scientists on the cutting edge of materials research in China, the USA, Singapore, Poland, Australia etc. Dr. Yuan has received many academic awards including a National Science Fund award for Distinguished Young Scholars in 2019, the Periodic Table of Younger Chemists by IUPAC in 2019, and a Nano Research Young Innovators Award in 2018, among others.
Mei Tian
Fudan University, Shanghai, China
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1587-2114
Prof. Mei Tian is a Distinguished Professor of Fudan University. She has 20+ years post-MD training and practice in radiology, nuclear medicine, and molecular imaging. Prof. Tian’s group focuses on molecular imaging with a particular emphasis on human major diseases. Her current research interests include human phenomics and cross-scale, multimodality, molecular imaging of cancer and neuropsychiatric disorders. She has made innovative and original contributions to the field of medical imaging, published over 100 papers in international journals, and won scholastic awards, such as Changjiang Distinguished Professor Scholar, National Distinguished Young Scientist Grant, National Women Scientist Award, and other scientific awards from the RSNA, ASCO, et al. for her extraordinary accomplishments. Prof. Tian is selected as the Fellow of the World Molecular Imaging Society (WMIS) and was elected as the new President of the World Molecular Imaging Society (WMIS) in 2020. She is serving as the editorial consultant of the Lancet, associate editors of 4 other journals including the official journals of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine, Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine, China Society of Science and Technology.
Lisa Hall
University of Cambridge, UK
Professor Hall is head of Cambridge Analytical Biotechnology. Her work is focused on understanding how biology and synthetic biology can interface with electronic, mechanical, and optical systems and new ways to answer fundamental and applied questions concerning new measurement regimes. Lisa’s PhD from the University of London was in electrochemistry but her research has recognised that the dynamics of the whole system, from molecular signalling to transduction and data manipulation technologies, are integral to sensing and diagnostics and require an interdisciplinary approach, adopting methods from biotechnology, engineering, chemistry physics, and mathematics.
Prof. Hall has been a pioneer in education and a champion of young researchers in analytical biotechnology. Her textbook, Biosensors, was the first to target understanding of the underlying principles of Biosensors, and she received the gold medal from the RSC Analytical Division in 2005. She has been a role model for women in science: she was the first female professor and Vice President of Queens’ College Cambridge. She has also served as Head of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, the University of Cambridge.
Her service on numerous committees has been directed towards equality of opportunity and adding value to education and to promoting sensors and diagnostics. This has included the National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE) Diagnostics Advisory Committee; she was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list in 2015 for her services to Higher Education and to Sport for the Disabled, recognising her broader public service throughout her career.
Sahika Inal
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1166-1512
Sahika Inal is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering with affiliations in Electrical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). She has a B.Sc. degree in Textile Engineering from Istanbul Technical University (Turkey), an M.Sc. in Polymer Science, and a Ph.D. in Experimental Physics, both from the University of Potsdam (Germany). She completed her postdoctoral training at the Center of Microelectronics of Provence of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Étienne (France). Her expertise is in polymer science and bioelectronic devices, particularly in the photophysics of conjugated polymers, characterization of polymer films and the design of biosensors and actuators. Since 2016, Inal lab at KAUST exploits the functionalities of organic electronic materials, investigates ionic/electronic charge transport, and designs electronic devices that record/stimulate biological signals. Sahika is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and has received recognitions including ACS PMSE Young Investigator Award 2022, Beilby Medal and Prize 2022, 2022 WCC Rising Star (ACS), and shortlisted for the Nature Research Awards for Inspiring Women in Science in 2021. She is the author of 97+ publications and her work has been cited more than 7800 times.
