We are proud to name this year’s keynote speakers for BioMedEng23….
Prof Alicia El Haj
Professor Alicia El Haj, FREng, FRSB, FEAMBES, Interdisciplinary Professor of Cell Engineering and Director of Institute of Translational Medicine joined Birmingham University, UK in September 2018. She is a leading figure in Bioengineering and Regenerative Medicine translating cross disciplinary innovative new cell based therapies to the clinic. Recent funding in EU MCSA ‘SHIFT’ will link her translational activities with research groups in Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Australia and Mongolia. She was awarded with a Royal Society Merit Award in 2014. In 2022, she was awarded an Honorary MEng from the University of Glasgow and in 2020, the IOM3 Chapman medal for her major contribution towards translation of biomedical materials into healthcare. In 2022, the Career Achievement Award from TERMIS. She has published over 250 publications with funding from EPSRC, MRC, BBSRC, Versus Arthritis, EU Commission, Innovate and an ERC Advanced Award in 2018. She is also Director of a spin out company MICA Biosystems, Ltd involved in translating innovative in vitro pharma screening tools and stem cell control platforms into clinical use. Alicia has been active in promoting women in STEM for which she was awarded the MRC Suffrage Award and the Midlands Women in Tech Award. Alicia actively engages in public events having presented ‘Remote Control Healing’ at the Café Scientifique in Royal Society London and at the ‘Next Big Thing’ at the Hay Festival UK 2017. Her research on ‘remote controlled healing’ has been highlighted on CNN ‘The Edge’ and BBC Radio Naked Scientist. She presented her research at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in 2022.
Email: a.elhaj@bham.ac.uk
Site: Professor Alicia El Haj – School of Chemical Engineering – University of Birmingham
Prof Rachel Errington
Rachel Errington is a Professor in BioMolecular Imaging at Cardiff University. She leads a multi-disciplinary R&D programme focused on biophotonics and cancer systems biology. Her research involves the design of cell based assays to search for new therapeutic targets and the parallel development of biophotonic technologies for linking multi scalar cellular events. The objective is to interrogate tumour biology and drug pharmacodynamics using multi-dimensional imaging and computational biology approaches.
Rachel received her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry at the University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff (1988) and her D.Phil from the University of Oxford (1993), studying cell movement during wound healing.
Email: ErringtonRJ@cardiff.ac.uk
Site: Professor Rachel Errington – People – Cardiff University
Prof Tony Cass
Tony is currently Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London and a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Chemistry and Royal Society of Biology. He trained originally as a chemist with degrees from the Universities of York and Oxford. His research interests are in the field of analytical biotechnology both in the use of molecular engineering and design to produce new reagents for biosensors and bioanalysis and in microfabrication for device structures. He pioneered the use of synthetic electron transfer mediators for enzyme biosensors and his work in this area led to the development of the first electronic blood glucose measuring system, commercialised by MediSense Inc. (subsequently acquired by Abbott Diagnostics), He has been awarded of the Royal Society’s Mullard Medal (along with Professor Allen Hill FRS and Dr Monika Green) and a Chemical Landmark Award (with Professor Hill and Dr Graham Davis). He is also recipient of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Sir George Stokes Award.
Most of his current research is focussed on using engineered proteins and synthetic nucleic acids for both wearable molecular sensors and for environmental analysis.
Email: t.cass@imperial.ac.uk
Site: Home – Professor Tony Cass (imperial.ac.uk)
Prof Sarah Stock
Sarah Stock Professor of Maternal and Fetal Health at the Usher Institute at the University of Edinburgh; and a Consultant and Subspecialist in Maternal and Fetal Medicine at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. She received her medical degree from Manchester University Medical School and has a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh. Her specialist and subspecialist clinical training was undertaken in Edinburgh, with periods in Glasgow, London, and Australia.
Sarah is Chief Investigator for multicentre observational cohort studies and clinical trials, and currently leads the multi-disciplinary In Utero project, a $50M Welcome Leap project that aims to reduce the number of stillbirths by 50%.
Email: Sarah.Stock@ed.ac.uk
Site: Professor Sarah Stock | The University of Edinburgh
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