Innovations in Disease Modeling 2025

Michael L. Shuler is the Eckert Professor of Engineering, Emeritus, in the Meinig Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University. He was also the director of Cornell’s Nanobiotechnology Center. Shuler holds degrees in chemical engineering (BS, Notre Dame, 1969, and Ph.D., Minnesota, 1973) and has been a faculty member at Cornell University since 1974. Shuler’s research includes the development of “Body-on-a-Chip” systems for testing pharmaceuticals for toxicity and efficacy, creating production systems for useful compounds such as paclitaxel from plant cell cultures, and constructing whole-cell models relating genome to physiology. J. Hickman and Shuler are co-founders of Hesperos, a company established to implement the “Body-on-a-Chip” system and related technology developed in Hickman’s group at the University of Central Florida. Shuler is currently the President of the company, and the technology is now being used in clinical trials. Shuler, F. Kargi, and M. DeLisa have co-authored the popular textbook Bioprocess Engineering: Basic Concepts, now in its third edition. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Notre Dame and has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Shuler is also a fellow of numerous professional societies.

Monique Verstegen conducts research in liver transplantation and stem cell biology, working in an inspiring environment that fuels her creativity and expertise in overcoming challenges and exploring the complex processes of liver regeneration. Additionally, she is passionate about mentoring and motivating young scientists to become independent researchers, an aspect of her work that she deeply values. She studied Biology at Utrecht University and earned her PhD in the characterization of hematopoietic stem cells at the Department of Hematology, Erasmus MC. Following her PhD, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the same department and later as a Marie Curie Fellow in Hannover, Germany. Upon returning to the Netherlands, she contributed to the establishment of a national biobank initiative for leukemia and conducted research on the genetics of pediatric leukemia at the Department of Pediatrics, Erasmus MC. Since 2013, Monique Verstegen has been based at the Department of Surgery, Erasmus MC, where she currently holds the position of Associate Professor. She supervises multiple PhD projects focusing on the development of liver scaffolds for tissue and organ engineering, the mechanisms of biliary epithelium regeneration after injury, and primary liver cancer research using the liver-organoid culture system.

Aurora Veteleanu is a neuroscientist at bit.bio, where she develops and characterises human iPSC-derived models of neurodegenerative disease. Her work focuses on applying deterministic cell programming to generate reproducible neuronal and glial cell types for in vitro disease modelling, including Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Aurora earned her PhD in Neuroscience from Cardiff University, where she investigated the molecular mechanisms linking genetic variation in the CLU gene to Alzheimer's disease risk at the UK Dementia Research Institute. She also conducted research at the Mayo Clinic, exploring base editing approaches to modify APOE genotypes in astrocytes. Aurora holds a First Class Honours BSc in Neuroscience from the University of Leeds.

Dr. Magdalena Renner is a molecular biologist with a focus on developing 3D organoid systems derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, such as cerebral organoids and retinal organoids. Her goal is to advance basic science and clinical translation by creating new, complex human disease models. Dr. Renner's experience in validating a new cancer drug target during her master's thesis at Boehringer Ingelheim in 2012 highlighted the need for more complex cell culture models to study human disease beyond 2D cancer drug screening. During her PhD at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) in Vienna from 2012 to 2016, Dr. Renner worked with Madeline Lancaster to develop and characterize cerebral organoids, a novel model system for human brain development. In her postdoctoral training (2016-2019) at the Novartis Postdoctoral Program in Basel, Dr. Renner developed and characterized a new method to culture light-sensitive, five-layered retinal organoids in high throughput under the supervision of Botond Roska and Florian Nigsch. Since July 2019, Dr. Renner has been leading the Human Organoid Platform at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB), Switzerland. In this collaborative role, she is involved in various projects, including further developing the retinal organoid method, conducting disease studies in retinal organoids, and supporting the use of retinal organoids for clinical translation and drug screening.

César de la Fuente is a Presidential Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he leads the Machine Biology Group. He is one of the youngest tenured professors in the history of Penn Medicine. After earning his PhD from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and completing postdoctoral research at MIT, de la Fuente focused on using machine learning and AI to drive innovations in biology and medicine. He pioneered the development of the first computer-designed antibiotic with efficacy in animal models, an achievement that marked the start of AI-driven antibiotic discovery. His lab is at the forefront of computational methods that have identified over a million new antimicrobial compounds. Notably, his team was the first to explore the human proteome for antibiotics and to discover therapeutic molecules from extinct organisms, launching the field of molecular de-extinction. These efforts have led to the identification of preclinical candidates like neanderthalin and mammuthusin. De la Fuente’s group has expanded its research by analyzing microbial genomes and metagenomes, identifying nearly one million new antibiotics. These discoveries have been made publicly available to foster global collaboration. Additionally, his lab’s exploration of human microbiomes led to the identification of new antimicrobial agents, including prevotellin-2, from Prevotella copri. Further, his lab is innovating by reprogramming venoms into antimicrobials, developing nanorobots for infection treatment, creating resistance-proof materials, and inventing rapid, low-cost diagnostic devices. A recipient of over 80 national and international awards, de la Fuente has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and named a top innovator by MIT Technology Review. He has published over 160 peer-reviewed papers and serves as an associate editor for several major scientific journals.

Dr. Naoto Watamura is a dedicated neuroscientist specializing in dementia research, with a strong academic background in life sciences and medical bioscience. He earned his PhD in Science from Waseda University, Japan, in 2018 under the mentorship of Professors Takaomi Saido and Toshio Ohshima. Prior to that, he obtained both his Master’s degree (2015) and Bachelor’s degree (2013) in the same field at Waseda University, working closely with Professor Toshio Ohshima. Currently, Dr. Watamura is a Research Fellow at the Dementia Research Institute at University College London, UK, where he focuses on advancing the understanding of neurodegenerative diseases. Additionally, he holds a position as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Proteolytic Neuroscience Laboratory, RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Japan. In October 2024, he will also join RIKEN BIO Co. Ltd. as a member, contributing to innovative developments in brain science and biotechnology.