World leaders in academia and industry share their latest advances in bioengineering, discuss current trends in innovation, and network with their peers
(LOS ANGELES) – The Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) hosted their second annual Terasaki Innovation Summit on March 27-29, 2024, at the UCLA Meyer & Renee Luskin Center in Los Angeles. This year’s program focused on future directions in human and planetary health, as well as the latest trends in biomedical innovation and translation.
The session on human health covered a wide variety of topics and included presentations on biofabrication of organotypic structures, bioengineering at the micro and nanoscale using printing cellular machines for personalized diagnotics, a Microphysiological Analysis Platform (MAP) for neurological diseases, and a keynote presentation by Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, University Professor at Columbia University, who gave an engaging presentation on her translational work with engineered human tissues.
There were also panel discussions on digital drug discovery, regenerative medicine innovations, and patient-derived avatars, as well as a lively panel debate which sought to answer the question, “Will Gene Therapy Replace Tissue Engineering in the Treatment of Organ Failure in the Next Decade?”
The session finished with keynote presentations in innovation by Frances Arnold, Ph.D., Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Nobel Laureate, California Institute of Technology, and Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of the Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering and the Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Professor, University of Connecticut. These distinguished scientists presented some of their many biomedical innovations and inventions which they produced throughout their illustrious careers.
The final sessions focused on the future of planetary health and convergent sciences, with innovation keynote and panel discussions of such far-ranging topics as plant-based biodegradeable plastics, creating the future of food, progressing from basic discoveries to clinical trials, current issues in blood compatibility, accelerating translation, synthetics as alternatives to biologics, and the importance of patents.
In addition to all the educational sessions, there were plenty of opportunities to mingle and network amongst all the participants, and the social events were capped by a gala dinner in which the institute presented their 2024 Paul Terasaki Distinguished Scientist Innovation Award to Nicholas Peppas, Ph.D., a pioneering scientist in biomedical engineering who has made outstanding contributions to the field. He delivered a keynote presentation, “Advanced Materials for Molecular and Cellular Recognition” on the final day of the summit.
Two other awardees were honored at the gala dinner; the institute was pleased to present their 2024 Hisako Terasaki Young Innovator Awards to two very highly accomplished young scientists, Amir Manbachi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University and Ritu Raman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The 2024 Terasaki Innovation Summit was a great success, and the institute would like to express their gratitude to our excellent speakers, to all the participants, and to the TIBI staff members who made it all happen.
Check out our event photo albums here.
In the near future, TIBI will be presenting “Sessions from the Summit,” a series of recorded presentations from its 2024 Terasaki Innovation Summit.