Transplant surgeon scientist at Wake Forest School of Medicine, specializing in kidney and pancreas transplantation, bioengineering and regeneration. Counselor of CTRMS and IPITA. Past chair of the AST regenerative medicine COPO. Member of the GI committee of ISCT. Member of the advisory board of SERAXIS, INC.

Dr. Tomei is the Miami Engineering Career Development Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Microbiology and Immunology, and Surgery, and the director of the Islet Immunoengineering Laboratory at the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She holds a MS in Materials Engineering from the Politecnico of Milan (Italy) and a PhD in Bioengineering and Biotechnology from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland).

Dr. Tomei is applying her unique background in bioengineering and immunology to develop novel immunoengineering platforms to prevent rejection after islet transplantation and to promote antigen-specific tolerance for a cure of type-1 diabetes.

Dr. Tomei has secured and successfully administered grants from the NIH, JDRF, Johnson & Johnson, Semma Therapeutics and Sernova Corp. She serves as a standing member for the NIH BMBI study section and as a member of the CIRM grant working group. She is a CTRMS councilor and member of the IPITA education committee. She was awarded the Marc S. Goodman Prize to an Outstanding Young Scientist, the JDRF career development award, the Eliahu I. Jury Early Career Research Award, the Johnson A. Edosomwan Researcher of the Year Award, the CMBE Young Innovator, and the Alexander Orr Excellence in Teaching Award.

Professor, Department of Surgery;
Deputy Director, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine (MIRM);
Director, Center for Pre-Clinical Tissue Engineering; McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine (MIRM)

In 1976, Dr. Badylak received his D.V.M. from Purdue University. He then obtained an M.S. in Clinical Pathology from Purdue University in 1978, a PhD in Anatomic Pathology from Purdue University in 1981 and graduated with highest honors with a MD from Indiana University Medical School in 1985.

Dr. Badylak practiced veterinary medicine at a mixed animal practice in Glenwood, Illinois and in Hobart, Indiana. Dr. Badylak began his academic career at Purdue University as an Assistant Research Scholar at the Hillenbrand Biomedical Engineering Center in 1983, and subsequently held a variety of positions including Postdoctoral Research Associate (1985), Associate Research Scholar (1988) and served as the Director of the Hillenbrand Biomedical Engineering Center from 1993-1998. Dr. Badylak served as the Head Team Physician for the Athletic Department for 16 years (1985-2001). Prior to his move to Pittsburgh, Dr. Badylak served as Senior Research Scientist within the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. Dr. Badylak holds over 60 U.S. patents, 300 patents worldwide, has authored more than 350 scientific publications and 40 book chapters. He has served as the Chair of the Study Section for the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and as chair of the Bioengineering, Technology, and Surgical Sciences (BTSS) Study Section at NIH. Dr. Badylak is now a member of the College of Scientific Reviewers for NIH. Dr. Badylak has either chaired or been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board to several major medical device companies.

Dr. Badylak is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, a charter member of the Tissue Engineering Society International, and past president of the Tissue Engineering Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS). He is also a member of the Society for Biomaterials. Dr. Badylak is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Immunology and Regenerative Medicine and serves on the editorial board of several other journals. He has received many awards, including the Sigma Xi Scientific Society 2002 Research Award, the Pittsburgh Business Times Hero in Health Care Innovation & Research for 2005, the 2005 and 2008 Carnegie Science Center Award for Excellence, the 2005 Clemson Award from the Society for Biomaterials, and the Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award in 2008.

Dr. Badylak’s major research interests include: 1.) Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine; 2.) Biomaterials and Biomaterial/Tissue interactions; 3.) Developmental Biology and its Relationship to Regenerative Medicine; 4.) Relationship of the Innate Immune Response to Tissue Regeneration; 5.) Biomedical Engineering as it Relates to Device Development and Biomaterials; and 6.) Clinical Translation of Regenerative Medicine.

Associate Professor, Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine;
Director, Translational Transplant Research Center (TTRC)

Paolo Cravedi, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Division of Nephrology in the Department of Medicine and the Director of the Translational Transplant Research Center (TTRC). Dr. Cravedi is a scientist physician with a strong interest in kidney transplantation and autoimmune glomerular diseases. His initial studies have contributed to defining the organ allocation system currently used in many countries around the world. Dr. Cravedi was involved in the design and implementation of the first mechanistic clinical studies testing the safety/efficacy profile of B cell depletion in subjects with membranous nephropathy or focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). In 2011, Dr. Cravedi joined Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he started working on the effects of complement and erythropoietin in adaptive immune response. He is interested in implementing new technologies to study alloimmune responses and, more recently, his work has been testing the immune effects of fasting in transplantation. He serves as counselor of CTRMS.