Dr. Fabien Guillemot obtained his PhD in Materials Science from the National Institute for Applied Sciences (Rennes, France) in 2000. He worked from 1998 to 2005 on the development of new Titanium alloys for biomedical applications and laser surface treatments of Ti alloys. He started as Assistant Research Professor at INSERM in 2006. He then initiated the project Tissue Engineering Assisted by Laser (TEAL) which aims at developing laser-assisted technologies (namely laser-assisted bioprinting) for fabricating artificial tissues into which cells are organized into defined 3D microenvironments. He serves in the Inaugural Board of Directors for the International Society for Biofabrication (ISBF) and is member of TERMIS (Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Society), ESB (European Society for Biomaterials) and BIOMAT (French Society for Biomaterials, Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine). Dr. Guillemot is also serving as member of the Editorial Board for the international journal Biofabrication.

Gabor Forgacs is a theoretical physicist turned bioengineer turned innovator-entrepreneur.  He is the George H. Vineyard Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Missouri-Columbia, the Executive and Scientific Director of the Shipley Center for Innovation at Clarkson University and Chief Scientific Officer of Organovo, Inc. and Modern Meadows, Inc., biotech companies he cofounded. He was trained as a theoretical physicist at the Roland Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary and the Landau Institute of theoretical Physics, Moscow, USSR. He also has a degree in biology. His research interests span from topics in theoretical physics to physical mechanisms in early embryonic development. He is the co-author of the celebrated text in the field, “Biological Physics of the Developing Embryo” (Cambridge University Press, 2005). He is applying these mechanisms to building living structures of prescribed shape and functionality both in his university-affiliated laboratory and Organovo, Inc., using bioprinting, a novel tissue engineering technology he pioneered, He is the author of more than 160 peer-reviewed scientific articles and 5 books. He has been recognized by numerous awards and citations. In particular, he was named as one of the “100 most innovative people in business in 2010” by FastCompany. In addition to his scientific and business pursuits, he is actively involved in policy issues on translational research, in particular in modernizing the US university innovation and technology transfer system.

Professor Geoffrey Mitchell is a member of the Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product development at the Polytechnic Institute Leiria in Portugal and Professor of Microscopy at the University of Reading in the UK.  Professor Mitchell carried out his doctoral work at the University of Cambridge and subsequently held a post-doctoral fellowship at Cambridge and a JSPS Fellowship at Hokkaido University in Japan.  His research work bridges physics, chemistry and technology and he is a Fellow of both the Institute of Physics and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has published over 260 papers across a broad range of topics in polymers, liquid crystals and other materials and has supervised almost 50 PhD programmes. He has developed and made extensive use of x-ray and neutron scattering methods coupled to computational molecular modelling and electron microscopy techniques.

Giovanni Vozzi was graduated in Electronic Engineering, section Biomedial Engineering in 1998 at the University of Pisa. In 2002 got the PhD in Bioengineering at Polytechnical of Milan. From 2002 to 2003 he was Post-Doc working on Microfabrication of Biomimetic Actuators inside the Euopean Project BIOLOCH at the Interdepartmental Research Center “E. Piaggio” of University of Pisa. From 2003 and 2006 he was Post-Doc working on the project and realisation of polymeric structures for application in the drug controlled release and in Tissue Engineering inside the FIRB project “Development of materials and technologies finalised to drug controlled release by endovascular devices” at IMCB of CNR in Pisa.From 1/05/2006 he is Researcher of Industrial Bioengineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Pisa.  He is lecturer of Laboratory of Bioengineering and Chemical Bioengineering at I level of Biomedical Engineering, and of Mini-invasive Therapies and Design and realization of Prosthesis at II level of Biomedical Engineering  at University of Pisa. He acts as supervisors of PhD students in Materials Engineering and Biomedical Engineering and  coordinates the work of several undergraduate students and graduate fellows. He was supervisor of 80 Master Degree thesis in Biomedical Engineering. He is Board of Directors of International Society of Biofabrication, of which he was founder, of the Technical Committee on Biomanufacturing of American Society of Mechanical Engineering, of IEEE and Of National Group of Bioengineering.

BSc in Mechanical Engineering, University of Zaragoza, Spain (1995). PhD in Computational Mechanics from the University of Zaragoza; Thesis work on computational simulation of bone remodeling (1999). Post-doctorate fellow at the Center for Science and Technology in Medicine, University of Keele, United Kingdom (2001), working on computational simulation of tissue differentiation in bone fracture healing. Currently, Full Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the University of Zaragoza and Quality Director of I3A (Aragón Institute of Engineering Research). Awards: Juan C. Simo Young Investigator Award by SEMNI (2004). Council Member of the European Society of Biomechanics (ESB) (2004-), and currently Vicepresident (2008-). One of the Directors of the Board of the VPH Institute (2011-). Publications: 68 Papers in peer-reviewed journals, 16 Book chapters and 80 Contributions to international congresses.

Paulo Bártolo has a PhD on Mechanical Engineering from the University of Reading (UK). Currently he is Professor on Advanced Manufacturing Processes at the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria (IPL, Portugal), Director of the Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development at the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Professor of the Cátedra UNESCO of Biomaterials at the University of Habana (Cuba), Visiting Professor at Queensland University of Technology (Australia), Founder of the Portuguese-British Biomanufacturing Network, Member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Biofabrication, Coordinator of the Iberoamerican Network on “Biomanufacturing: materials, processes and simulation (BIOFAB)” and Associate Member of CIRP (The International Academy for Production Engineering). Paulo Bártolo has been the Chair of the International Conference on Advanced Research in Virtual and Rapid Prototyping (VRAP 2011, VRAP2009, VRAP2007, VRAP 2005 and VRAP 2003) and Co-Chair of the ECOMAS Thematic Conference on Tissue Engineering. He is Editor-in-Chief of the “Virtual & Physical Prototyping” Journal (www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/17452759.asp) and authored or co-authored more than 200 peer reviewed papers, 12 books, 65 book chapters and 12 patents.

Graduated in Metallurgical Engineering, at the University of Porto (1993), followed by PhD studies at the Universities of Porto and Bordeaux, in France (2001). Visiting Assistant Research Scientist at the School of Dentistry, University of Michigan, USA (2004). Researcher at INEB – Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica since 1994. At present, Principal Investigator at the NEWTherapies Group of INEB; Elected member of the Council of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB) and Treasurer; Auxiliary Invited Professor at Faculty of Engineering (FEUP); Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Biomaterials Network (Biomat.net), since 1998; Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biomatter (since 2010). 2006 Jean Leray Awardee, by the ESB.The main area of research is tissue engineered injectable biomaterials for bone regeneration. Other keywords of current work are: Regenerative Medicine, Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials, hydrogel functionalization, cell immobilization, angiogenesis/vascularization, intercellular crosstalking, nanomedicine, new synthesis routes. Author of over 40 publications in international refereed journals.

Pietro Favia is Associate Professor (General Chemistry) at University of Bari.He obtained is PhD in Chemical Sciences from Univ. of Bari in 1991.Pietro Favia is founder member of “Plasma Solution”, 1^st first spin-off company at the Univ. of Bari (2004 – present). He has been also responsible of several European, Italian and Regional research projects (1993-2012), Supervisor for 11 graduate students, Univ. of Bari (Chemical Sciences, Innovative Materials).He is author of more than 120 articles and reviews in ISI journals, 18 chapters on books, 15 editorials and 12 conference papers on ISI journals, Univ. of Bari (Chemistry, Material Sciences, Biotechnology).

Riccardo d´Agostino is professor of chemistry at University of Bari, he is also director of the Regional Plasma Laboratory for Industrial Development, president of spin off company Plasma Solution srl and editor in chief of Plasma Processes and Polymers (Wiley-VCH).In 1996 he received an award of Japanese Chemical Society Avogadro-Minakata. Riccardo d´Agostino has been the president of several international congresses and symposia.He is author of 260 ISI papers, 14 international patents 7 books and 6 proceedings of international congresses.