Cell Engineering and Regeneration

Dr. Gimble is Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of LaCell LLC and Obatala Sciences Inc. For over 30 years, Dr. Gimble’s laboratory has focused on stromal/stem cells isolated from bone marrow and adipose tissue as a model system for differentiation, hematopoiesis, metabolism, and regenerative medicine. Over this period, he has held faculty appointments (full time or adjunct) at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Baylor College of Medicine, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Duke University Medical Center, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans, and Tulane University Center for Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine. In addition, Dr. Gimble spent 4 years in the Research Triangle Park, NC, at Zen-Bio, Inc., a biotechnology company supplying human primary adipose-derived cells to the research community (1999–2000), and at Artecel Sciences, a tissue engineering company that he co-founded and helped lead as Chief Scientific Officer (2000–2003). 

Dr. Darja Marolt Presen completed her doctoral studies at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and was a visiting Ph.D. student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, USA. She trained as a postdoctoral scientist at Columbia University, New York, USA, and was leading the bone regeneration group at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute, New York, USA. She is currently the principal investigator of the bone bioengineering and regeneration group at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Experimental and Clinical Traumatology in Vienna, Austria. Her research in bone tissue engineering and regeneration was supported by fellowships and grants from the Republic of Slovenia, New York Stem Cell Foundation, FFG Austria, and European Commission (Horizon 2020).

Richard O. C. Oreffo is Professor of Musculoskeletal Science and Co-founder/Director of the Centre for Human Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration at the University of Southampton. He leads a multidisciplinary research group focused on developing strategies to repair bone and cartilage, with translation a key personal driver. To achieve these goals, he has brought together and developed teams of clinicians/life scientists over the last 20 years and trained 47 M.D./Ph.D. students to completion, to date. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed paper including breakthrough publications on skeletal stem cells and nanotopography, bone regeneration, as well as epigenetics and holds 6 patents. Richard is Founder, Director, and CSO of Renovos Biologics Limited, a Fellow of the Institute of Biology, and in 2015 was awarded a Doctor of Science degree by the University of Oxford and elected a Fellow of International Orthopaedic Research (FIOR) in 2019.

Susanne Wolbank is Head of the Stem Cell Biology Lab and, since 2019, Deputy Director at the Ludwig Boltzmann for experimental and clinical traumatology, Vienna, Austria. She is a biotechnologist (University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna) and held a postdoc position at the Clinical Research Center, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, on in vitro and in vivo characterization of human embryonic stem cells. She now combines her technological background with her basics knowledge on stem cells to investigate cellular aspects of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Her main research interest lies in stem cells from human “waste materials” such as perinatal tissues or adipose tissue. Her work has focused on optimizing these therapeutically relevant cells from isolation to improving the mode of application by activation via shockwave, cell-free application, combination with suitable biomaterials, and characterizing these cells including their interaction with other regenerative cell types. She is the current General Secretary of the International Placenta Stem Cell Society (IPLASS).

Heinz Redl Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Clinical and Experimental Traumatology.

Heinz Redl has a background in biochemistry with almost 40 years’ experience in trauma and regenerative medicine research. He was Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Experimental and Clinical Traumatology within the main trauma research center of AUVA (1998–2019) representing 7 trauma and 4 rehabilitation centers and holds the position of Associated Professor at the Technical University Vienna, Institute for Chemical Engineering, plus adjunct Professor at the University of Texas, Medical Branch at Galveston and at the Medical University of Vienna. He coordinates the Austrian Cluster for Tissue Regeneration since 2006, which includes 28 work groups from academia with multiple research targets and 12 spin-off groups. To further enhance industry cooperation, he founded the company Trauma Care Consult in 1998, which specializes in preclinical research and assists product registration at FDA and EMA. In 2014 he co-founded the spin-off company Liporegena and in 2017 MorphoMed. Prof. Redl organized many conferences in the field of regenerative medicine such as the World Congress for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (TERMIS 2012) and many annual workshops (Winterschool Radstadt and Wiggers Bernhard series). He holds positions in several societies, such as Past-Chair of TERMIS-EU, and he was awarded “International Fellow of Tissue Engineering & Tissue Regeneration” in 2015. He is Editor in Chief of the updatable book series Springer/TERMIS “Tissue Engineering and Regeneration.” His expertise includes experience in different fields of tissue regeneration, being a co-developer of the fibrin sealant system (>40 years), developing surgical devices in current clinical use, and several collaboration projects with major industry partners.