2026 Biomaterials in Healthcare workshop

Andrés J. García is the Executive Director of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and Regents’ Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. García’s research program integrates innovative engineering, materials science, and cell biology concepts and technologies to create cell-instructive biomaterials for regenerative medicine and generate new knowledge in mechanobiology. This cross-disciplinary effort has resulted in innovative biomaterial platforms that elicit targeted cellular responses and tissue repair, technologies to exploit cell adhesive interactions, and mechanistic insights into the interplay of mechanics and cell biology. In addition, his research has generated intellectual property and licensing agreements with start-up and multi-national companies. He is a co-founder of 3 start-up companies (CellectCell, CorAmi Therapeutics, iTolerance). He has received several distinctions, including the Young Investigator Award, the Clemson Award for Basic Science, and the Founders Award from the Society for Biomaterials; the International Award from the European Society for Biomaterials; the Biomaterials Global Impact Award; and Georgia Tech’s Outstanding Interdisciplinary Activities Award and the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award. He is an elected Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He served as President for the Society for Biomaterials in 2018-2019. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Inventors.

Manuel is, since 2016, the head of the Multiscale Modeling lab of ITQB NOVA. His lab focuses on elucidating the molecular-level details of lipid-lipid, lipid-protein, and protein-protein interactions, with recent work also covering nanomaterials and bacterial structures. Manuel employs coarse-grained, atomistic, and hybrid molecular dynamic simulations, and tackles both the construction of models and their application to biological questions. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2010 from the University of Lisbon, on the interactions of antimicrobial peptides with cellular membranes. Later, as a Marie Curie and NWO VENI Fellow, Manuel carried out postdoctoral work at the Marrink lab, University of Groningen, where he became involved in the development and application of the Martini coarse grain model.

Dr. Philippe Lavalle holds a PhD degree in Biophysics in 1998 from University of Strasbourg (France). Then he moved to the Biozentrum in Basel (Switzerland) to study antifreeze glycoproteins. He got the position of "Research Director" at Institut National de la Recherche Médicale (Inserm) in 2011. Since 2024, he is Director of the "Biomaterials and Bioengineering" lab from Inserm/CNRS/University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, France (70 people). Its expertise is in the field of materials for health and more particularly in biomaterials. His research focuses on the design of coatings, hydrogels, scaffolds based on biopolymers and with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory antiviral properties and other major biological features. Materials designed with natural components (proteins, peptides...) and using biomimicry approaches are at the heart of his research. He published more than 150 peer-reviewed-publications applied for 7 patents. His team has been involved in 7 European Projects and 6 ANR (French funding agency for research) programs. He co-funded the company SPARTHA Medical, devoted to produce antimicrobial and personalized coatings and the company ALBUPAD that designed new protein based materials as innovative drug delivery system.

Professor Jacqueline Cole holds the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Professorship in Materials Physics at the University of Cambridge, where she is Head of Molecular Engineering.
Professor Cole combines artificial intelligence with data science, computational methods and experimental research to afford a ‘design-to-device’ pipeline for data-driven materials discovery. She is particularly interested in developing energy sustainable applications using photovoltaic, optical, magnetic, and catalytic materials. Her group use a wide variety of artificial intelligence (machine learning and natural language processing methods) with data science, computational methods (e.g. density functional theory) and advanced experimental techniques (diffraction, spectroscopy, imaging). Within this scope, the group develop and maintain the ‘chemistry-aware’ text-mining tool, ChemDataExtractor, and its associated software tools that process images: ImageDataExtractor and ChemSchematicResolver. On the experimental side, the group has pioneered a range of in situ diffraction and reflectometry methods for optoelectronic and photovoltaic applications.

Rob studied Chemistry (BSc) and Physical Chemistry (PhD) at the University of Durham (UK) and joined the Department of Engineering Materials at the University of Sheffield in 1988, where he held the Chair of Material and Biomaterial Chemistry from 2001. During this period, Rob helped develop a materials-cell technology (myskin) for treating severe burns and scalds; adopted in the UK by the NHS, this technology was used over a decade in all the UK’s major burns centres. Rob also established Plasso Technology, an advanced materials for life science research company. Plasso developed technology that now underpins a range of products (PureCoatTM) sold globally for cell culture and cell therapy. 
In 2006, Rob joined the University of South Australia, where he held the positions of Director of an advanced manufacturing research institute, Dean of Research and Pro Vice Chancellor and Vice President. At the invitation of the Minister of Education he served on the Australian Research Council's College of Experts for three years.
In Australia, he successfully co-led bids for an A$110M national centre for wound management innovation and a A$60M national centre for cell therapy manufacturing. Both have resulted in successful innovations in wound care and cell therapy. These include the companies, Carina Biotechnology (www.carinabiotech.com), which is developing a novel CAR-T cell therapy for solid (cancer) tumours and Tekcyte (www.tekcyte.com), whose products include a cell-based therapy for non-healing wounds, which completed phase 1/2 clinical trials in 2024.  Rob returned to the UK as the Director of the Lancaster Material Science Institute, where he helped establish the Material Social Futures Centre for Doctoral Training, focusing on how materials’ innovations shape society (and vice versa).  This centre is training 22 PhD students.
Last year, Rob co-founded with Drs Sherry Kothrai and  Endre Szili (UniSA) Plasma-4 (www.plasma-4.com) a company that is developing novel plasma (ionised gas)-materials technology for the treatment of a range of clinical indications.  
Over his career, Rob has won over A$250M of grants and investments, including ARC Discovery, Linkage etc, CRC, and in the UK, EPSRC, Wellcome, Leverhulme, Royal Society etc. He has supervised to completion 25 PhDs and 30 post-doctoral researchers. He has published over 250 substantive peer reviewed papers.
In 2013, Rob was elected to the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.  
He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
Rob rejoined the University of Sheffield in October 2022

Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez is Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Glasgow and ICREA Research Professor at Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (IBEC). He did a PhD in Valencia and postdoctoral training in Prague (Institute for Macromolecular Chemistry) and  KU Leuven. He was visiting professor in Georgia Tech (2010) and Kyushu University (2018, 2020). He was Full Professor of Applied Physics in Valencia before relocating to Glasgow in 2013. Manuel develops advanced biomaterials for cell engineering and mechanobiology. His research includes materials that trigger the organisation of extracellular matrix proteins (Science Advances 2016); the use viscosity to control cell behaviour (PNAS 2018 & Nature Communications 2024) and interfaces that trigger the mechanical activation of growth factors (Advanced Materials 2024). Manuel holds an ERC Advanced Grant to develop the next generation of viscoelastic materials in stem cell engineering. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy for Arts and Sciences.

Liam M Grover is Professor of Biomaterials Science and Head of the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, UK.  He is a materials scientist by training and his research focusses on better understanding the interactions that occur between materials and biological environments.  By improving our understanding of these interactions, he has been able to design materials with enhanced therapeutic function.  He has filed more than thirty patents and has taken five products from concept to first in human trial, including two that are now internationally available (nasal and oral barrier sprays).  His innovations have been protected by over thirty patent filings and described in over 250 published papers that have been cited over 11k times (H-index 59).   He has raised well over £50m of research funding while at the University of Birmingham and recently established an Innovation Accelerator in Medical Technology, which was made possible by £20m of investment by the British government.  His achievements have been recognised with multiple prizes (e.g. Materials Innovation Award, the President’s award for Biomaterials) and by him being elected fellow of the Institute of Materials.  He was recently elected to the prestigious position of Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences for his outstanding contribution to Biomaterials Science.