Stem Cell in Medicine

Prof. Higuchi is a distinguished Professor in National Central University, a guest researcher in RIKEN (Japan) and National Research Center for Child Health and Development (Tokyo), and a visiting professor in King Saud University (Saudi Arabia) and Wenzhou Medical University (China). He received his Ph.D. in Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1985. He was a Professor in Seikei University (Tokyo) from 1993 to 2007. He received Sofue Memorial Award from Society of Fiber Science, Japan in 1994, Seikei Academic Award from Seikei Alumni Association in 2003, and Nanotechnology Outstanding Contribution Award, National Science Council, Taiwan in 2013, Future Tech Breakthrough Award in 2019, Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan. He also received Outstanding Scientific Award, Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society, Asia Pacific region (TERMIS-AP) in 2021. He is a fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC, England), a fellow of Taiwan Chemical Engineering Society, and a fellow of American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering (AIMBE, USA). He is interested in the development of materials for stem cell culture and differentiation. He established purification method of hematopoietic stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells from umbilical cord blood and adipose tissue, respectively by filtration method through polymeric porous membranes. He is also developing biomaterials for stem cell culture and differentiation. He emphasized the important function of cell culture biomaterials, which guide differentiation fate of human pluripotent stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells into specific lineage of the cells. He developed ECM-derived peptide-immobilized hydrogels having adjustable elasticity for culture and differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells. He is now developing universal (hypoimmunogenic) human pluripotent stem cells on specific ECM-coated surface. He is an advisory board of Journal of Materials Chemistry B (RSC), an Editor of Open Physics, Editorial Board of Laboratory Investigation, Editorial Board of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, and Associate Editor of IET Nanobiotechnology.

Dr Yinghong Zhou is a Senior Research Fellow leading the Translational ImmunoEngineering for Regenerative Dentistry research team at the School of Dentistry, University of Queensland. Dr Zhou obtained her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 2013. Dr Zhou seeks to understand the mechanisms for bone repair and regeneration, with a particular interest in stem cell-based therapy and biomaterial application. She has been awarded a prestigious NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (2016-2020) to investigate cell signalling cues involved in periodontal tissue regeneration, an Endeavour Research Fellowship (2017) for a collaborative project on cell transformation at Texas A&M University College of Dentistry, and a BridgeTech Program Fellowship (2021) to advance research towards commercialisation. Dr Zhou was appointed as the Coordinator of the Australia–China Centre for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (ACCTERM) in 2013, then Deputy Director in 2016 and has worked in the role since.

Prof. Shih-Hwa Chiou is a physician-scientist, the Director of Department of Medical Research in Taipei Veterans General Hospital, and distinguished Chair Professor in the Institute of Pharmacology and the Institute of Clinical Medicine & Genomic Center, of National Yang-Ming University in Taiwan. He had been trained in the Department of Molecular Biochemistry of The Boston Children Hospital of Harvard Medical School and the Department of Molecular Biochemistry of The Scripps Research Institute in USA as a visiting Researcher. He won the Young Investigator Award, in the Annual Meeting of Society of Molecular Imaging (Germany) and the Achievement Award of the Society of Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (Australia). He was invited to be a Chairman & Keynote speaker at the Cancer Stem Cell Section in 69th Annual Meeting, Japan Cancer Association (JCA) in Japan. Currently, he devotes in using iPSC-derived 3D organoid as disease models for researches in genetic-mutation diseases, drug screening, and nanomedicine-based genomic editing technology in personalized medicine.