Speaker

Professor Tuan (Ph.D., Rockefeller University), the immediate past Vice-Chancellor and President of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK; 2018 to 2025), is an internationally renowned biomedical scientist who specializes in musculoskeletal biology, tissue regeneration, stem cells, biomaterials, 3D bioprinting, and tissue/organ-on-a-chip technologies. He is currently the Lee Quo Wei Lee Yick Hoi Lun Professor of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at CUHK, where he founded the Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM) in 2016. A highly cited author of over 650 publications (h-index, 135), he has received multiple international recognitions, including Fellowship in the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), International Combined Orthopaedic Research Societies (ICORS) and Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS), and Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS), the latest being the 2025 Jensen Tissue Engineering Award from TERMIS. He is the founding editor of Birth Defects Research (2003-2017) and Stem Cell Research & Therapy (2009-present), and Associate Editor of Stem Cells Translational Medicine (2011-present).

Juan Valencia S. is Senior Product Marketing Manager at PharmCube, where he tracks and analyses pharmaceutical industry developments, emerging trends and competitive landscapes. With a scientific background in biochemistry, structural biology and physics, he has conducted research at leading institutions across three countries, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He carries 7 years of experience in the pharmaceutical consulting sector, delivering strategic insights on market dynamics, R&D pipelines, regulatory shifts and financial trends to diverse industry stakeholders, from emerging biotechs to Big Pharma companies.

Dr. Gabriel Wallau is a Public Health Researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, affiliated with the Department of Entomology and the Bioinformatics Core of the Aggeu Magalhães Institute (IAM) – FIOCRUZ – Pernambuco, as well as the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM). He is also a principal investigator at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany, affiliated with the Department of Arbovirology and Entomology. His research group focuses on topics such as viral discovery and evolution, comparative genomics, computational biology, and omics methodologies applied to pathogens and hosts. He leads the Research Group on Pathogen and Host Genomics and is a member of the Fiocruz Genomics Network, a Ministry of Health founded initiative posed to implement pathogen genomic surveillance in Brazil and the region.

Dr. Wuzhou Wan serves as the President of the Central Research Institute at Yunnan Baiyao Group. He holds a Ph.D. from Peking University, completed postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, and earned an EMBA from CEIBS. With a strong interdisciplinary background in chemistry, biology, and immunology, he has authored approximately 20 SCI papers published in internationally renowned journals. Between 2014 and 2022, Dr. Wan accumulated extensive industry experience working across multinational, private, and innovative pharmaceutical companies, including GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Shanghai Furen Pharmaceutical, and BoomRay, where he was engaged in new drug R&D, investment incubation, business development, and operational management.

Dr. Wang earned her Master’s degree in Anesthesiology and PhD in Pharmacology from Hebei Medical University. She has held several key academic and administrative positions, including Deputy Director of the Department of Anesthesiology at Hebei University Affiliated Hospital, Director of the Research Office, and Vice Dean of the School of Medicine at Hebei University. Currently, Dr. Wang serves as a member of the Anesthesiology Teaching Subcommittee under the National Teaching Advisory Board for Higher Education Institutions of the Ministry of Education, China. She is also a committee member of the Anesthesiology Branch of the Hebei Medical Association and a corresponding editorial board member of the Chinese Journal of Anesthesiology.

Dr. James Wang currently serves as CTO of Juventas Cell Therapy Ltd, in charge of the strategic planning and development of technology platforms. During the development of China’s 1st home-grown CAR-T product: Yuanruida (Ina-Cel) and its marketing, he was fully responsible for pharmaceutical research, clinical production, and consultation with regulatory authorities. Dr. Wang has long successful career in the field of cell therapy with a broad international perspective, he was trained in Dr. Sadelain’s team, where the world’s first breakthrough was made proving the clinical feasibility of 2nd generation CD19-CAR-T cell therapy and its safety and efficacy in treating adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (r/r ALL). He played a pioneering key role in the quality control and management of global commercialization of Novartis KYMRIAH® – the world 1st approved CAR-T cell therapy. From 2007 to 2020, he served respectively at GenScript USA, MSKCC, and Novartis, he joined Juventas on Jan 1, 2021 as CTO. Dr. Wang received his PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel in 2001. From 2002 to 2007, he engaged in postdoctoral research at Iowa State University and Cornell University.

Dr. Jianxun Wang is a Ph.D. graduate and postdoctoral researcher from the University of California, San Diego, a Second-Class Professor and doctoral supervisor at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, and Chief Scientist of Shenzhen Cell Valley Biomedicine Co., Ltd. A former student of U.S. National Academy of Sciences members Michael G. Rosenfeld and Christopher K. Glass, Dr. Wang is an epigenetics expert focused on enhancing T-cell tumor recognition and killing capabilities through epigenetic modifications, achieving breakthroughs in CAR-T therapy for solid tumors. As a senior scientist at Sorrento Therapeutics, he pioneered CAR-T cGMP development from scratch, accumulating extensive experience in industrial-scale production of cell therapies. Recognized as a world-class expert in constructing viral vectors including retroviruses and lentiviruses, Dr. Wang has established cutting-edge standards for cellular therapy production.

Dr. Wang Tong is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Tsinghua University-Peking University Joint Center for Life Sciences (CLS) and Beijing Frontier Research Center for Biological Structures. He received Ph.D. degree at Tsinghua University and has research experience as a visiting scholar at Harvard University and work experience at Microsoft Research.

His main research directions include AI-driven biomolecular dynamics simulation, machine learning force fields, molecular structure representation learning, and computer-aided drug discovery. As the primary project leader, he proposed the AI2BMD dynamics simulation program, which has brought protein dynamics to ab initio accuracy, achieving “Top Ten Advances in Chinese Bioinformatics in 2024”. He also led his team to win the championship in the first Global AI Drug Discovery Competition.

Over the past five years, he has published more than 30 papers as first author or corresponding author in journals such as Nature, Nature Machine Intelligence, Nature Communications, and Cell Research, and holds more than ten patents in China and the United States.

PhD in Microelectronics Engineering, University of Texas at Austin; MS from Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences; BS from Peking University.

With over 30 years of experience in Silicon Valley tech companies (including Intel), he specializes in AI, deep learning, large language models, NLP, and computer vision. He served as Conference Chair for IEEE ICRAE and other international conferences, holds 62 patents (China/US/EU), and has published 75 SCI papers.

Currently, he is a Professor and PhD Advisor at the Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, CAS, leading a digital TCM platform initiative. He also holds leadership roles in the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies and the Chinese Society of Biomedical Engineering.

Dr. Yangming Wang is a full Professor and Director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the College of Future Technology, Peking University, China. He is also a Principal Investigator at Beijing Advanced Center of RNA Biology (BEACON). His research interest is on RNA biology and stem cell biology. His major contribution to the field includes: systematic dissection of miRNA functions in embryonic stem cells; invention of a miRNA-inducible CRISPR platform (MICR) that can serve as miRNA reporter and cell specific genome editing tools; invention of MAPIT-seq that enables co-profiling in situ RNA binding protein interacting RNAs and transcriptome in single cells and tissues; co-developed a new approach to identify homologs of long noncoding RNAs; developed a highly reproducible and efficient organoid culture system. He currently uses multiple disciplinary engineering approaches to develop novel tools for basic and translational research of RNA and stem cells. He has published over 40 scientific journal papers on peer-reviewed journals including Nature Genetics, Nature Cell Biology, and Nature Methods et al. He is an Advisory Board member for Cell Reports and Cell Proliferation. He is also a co-founder of Xungene Therapeutics.