Bioengineering for the Future — Panel Discussion

Moderator — Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, NYU Tandon School of Engineering

Katepalli R. Sreenivasan is Dean and President of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, the Eugene Kleiner Professor of Innovation in Mechanical Engineering (School of Engineering), and Professor of Physics (Faculty of Arts and Science) and Mathematics (Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences). He also holds an affiliate appointment in the department of biomaterials at the NYU College of Dentistry.

Dr. Sreenivasan came to NYU from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Trieste, Italy) where he was Director and Abdus Salam Professor, and the University of Maryland, where he was Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Physics, the Glenn Martin Professor of Engineering, and Director of the Institute for Physical Science and Technology. Prior to that he was the Harold W. Cheel Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Yale University, and held joint appointments in applied physics, physics, and mathematics. Dr. Sreenivasan is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. An active researcher, Dr. Sreenivasan’s research is in the areas of turbulence, cryogenic helium, and nonlinear dynamics.

Panelists

Dr. Amer Ahmad Sharif is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dubai Healthcare City Authority – Education Sector (DHCE) and the Vice Chancellor of the Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU).

Dr. Sharif leads the education sector within the Dubai Healthcare City Authority (DHCA). The sector oversees the development of the Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU).

As CEO, he has broadened the reach of MBRU, established in 2014 to advance individual and community healthcare status in the UAE. He has guided the University since inception, strengthening collaborations with international academic institutions — the Queen’s University Belfast, one of the UK’s leading research-intensive universities, and many more regionally and internationally.

Dr. Sharif has been instrumental in raising the profile of MBRU through its academic programs at the Hamdan Bin Mohammed College of Dental Medicine for dental postgraduates and the College of Medicine which welcomed its first cohort of undergraduates in 2016.

He has a Medical Degree from the College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CMHS) from the UAE University, a Master of Science (MSc) in Healthcare Management from the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (RCSI) and a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in Mapping the UAE Health System: Challenges and Recommendations from the UAE University.
Professor Lim is a Provost’s Chair Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering as well as a Principal Investigator at the Mechanobiology Institute at the National University of Singapore. His research interests include the development of nano/micro technologies for disease detection, diagnosis and therapy. He has authored more than 310 peer-reviewed papers and delivered more than 300 plenary/keynote/invited talks. He is an elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering as well as International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering. He is also an elected Council Member of the World Council of Biomechanics. He currently sits on the editorial boards of more than 12 international journals.

Professor Lim has co-founded five startups which are commercializing technologies developed in his lab. He and his team have garnered more than 60 research awards and honors including the International Precision Medicine Conference Prize (2017), Asian Scientist 100 (2016), University’s Outstanding Researcher Award & Outstanding Innovator (2014), Credit Suisse Technopreneur of the Year Award and Wall Street Journal Asian Innovation Award (Gold) (2012), TechVenture Most Disruptive Innovation Award and Asian Entrepreneurship Award (First Prize) (2012), President's Technology Award (2011) and the IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award (2010, 2016).
Dr. Guo received his BS in 1984 in Applied Mechanics from Peking University, MS in 1990, and PhD in 1994 in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from Harvard University-MIT, and postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor 1993-1996. His research interests in micromechanics of bone tissue, computational biomechanics, and mechanobiology of bone. His past honors include Young Investigator Recognition Award from the Orthopaedic Research Society, National Research Service Award from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), a CAREER award from the US NSF, Distinguished Young Scholars (Overseas) from the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He was elected as a fellow to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He was one of the founders and served as co-Editor-in-Chief of Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE). He also founded the Special Interest Group (SIG) in CMBE in the BMES and served as its founding Chair.
Kevin E. Healy, PhD is the Jan Fandrianto and Selfia Halim Distinguished Professor in Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley in the Departments of Bioengineering, and Materials Science and Engineering. He served as Chair of the Department of Bioengineering from 2011 to 2015. He is a thought leader and innovator working at the interface between stem cells and materials science to develop dynamic engineered systems to explore both fundamental biological phenomena and new applications in translational medicine. His group currently conducts research in the areas of: bioinspired stem cell microenvironments to control stem cell lineage specification and self-organization into microtissues or organs; bioinspired systems for regenerative medicine; biological interfaces; and microphysiological systems for drug toxicity screening. He is an elected Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), Fellow in Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
A leading influencer and a pioneer in the field of public education and awareness of genetic disorders, and health and wellbeing of the community of UAE and the region. Dr. Matar currently holds senior and board level positions at several public and nonprofit organizations.

As a pioneer in the field of genetic disorder studies, she played a key instrumental role in initiatives such as pre-marital screening, preventive genetic testing and new legislations at the government level in the UAE.

In 2006 she had conceptualized a national body on genetic disorder, awareness, and prevention and is the Founder & Chairperson of the UAE Genetic Diseases Association. The UAE Genetic Disease Association achieved extraordinary results such as screening of 22,281 Emirati families and more than 13,000 expat families.

Dr. Maryam Matar has world-class experience in strategic planning, public policy and advocacy and marketing and communications as well as executing grass root campaigns that is helping in a shift to focus on genetic prevention and research at the regional level in GCC.
- Invited as a keynote speaker and panelist at leading Health Innovation Medical conferences across the region.
- Invited to collaborate with Lord Darzi of Denham, Executive Chair of WISH and Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London to address The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), that brings together heads of state, ministers, senior government officials, academics and thinkers, business leaders, to stimulate implementation of practical, sustainable and innovative solutions to tackle global health challenges.
- First Emirati Woman to be entrusted as Director General, of the Community Development Authority (CDA), she led to formulate social policies and deliver social services that are in line with and contribute to the achievement of the social development objectives of Dubai Strategic Plan 2007 – 2015, launched by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum on February 3rd, 2007.
- 2015: Dr. Maryam Matar selected among the 100 most powerful Arab under 40, has been ranked 33 of the list of "100 most powerful Arab under 40" in Science launched by the magazine "Arabian Business" in April 2015.
  2014: Dr. Mariam Matar selected among the Muslim-Science Council List of Twenty Most Influential Women in Science in the World.
- First Emirati woman to bear the title Undersecretary to the Minister of Health in 2006, and designed blueprints for Primary and Public Health Care sector and implementing it.
- She launched a number of initiatives to deliver Primary Health Care services in the Northern Emirates and increase the number of PHC centers from 52 to 79 in less than one year.
- She played an active role to get the smoking ban law with major modifications of the fitness screening law.
Suzanne Gaudet is an assistant professor at the Department of Cancer Biology and the Center for Cancer Systems Biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Department Genetics at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on the quantitative understanding of how cells, in particular cancer cells, dynamically respond to cytokine signals from the immune system. She received a BSc in Biology from Université de Montréal and earned a PhD in Biochemistry from Harvard University working with Daniel Branton. She then joined Peter Sorger’s laboratory at MIT as a postdoctoral associate for the launch of an interdisciplinary research collaborative at the interface of biology, informatics and microdevice engineering and from 2003 to 2008, worked as a research scientist and scientific coordinator at the Cell Decision Processes Center at MIT and Harvard. In addition to her scientific endeavors, she is committed to promoting diversity in science through better mentorship and leadership.