Biographical note

Giuseppe Orlando, MD, PhD, Marie Curie Fellow, is an Associate Professor and a kidney and pancreas transplant surgeon scientist at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, in Winston Salem, USA. His research aims at developing platforms for the bioengineering and regeneration of transplantable organs, and at developing therapies to enhance the innate ability of the human body to repair itself after damage. His literature output aims at bridging organ transplantation to regenerative medicine. Giuseppe Remuzzi, MD, FRCP, is Director of Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research IRCCS and Chiara Fama Professor of Nephrology and the University of Milan. From 1996 until 2013, he was Director of the public-private Department of Immunology and Transplant Medicine (a collaboration between the Ospedali Riuniti of Bergamo and the Mario Negri Institute) and from 1999 until 2018, he was also the Head of the Division of Nephrology and Dialysis. From 2011 until 2015, he was Director of the Department of Medicine of the Azienda Ospedaliera Papa Giovanni XXIII (formerly the Ospedali Riuniti) of Bergamo. In June 2015, he was nominated Chiara Fama Professor of Nephrology at the University of Milan. Prof. Remuzzi was President of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) for the biennium 2013-2015. From 2019, he has been the Vice President of the Italian Institute for Planetary Health (IIPH). He has been a member of the Consiglio Superiore di Sanità since February 2019. Prof. Remuzzi’s main research interests include the causes of glomerulonephritis and the mechanisms of progression of kidney diseases. He has also conducted many studies in the field of transplant rejection. In recognition of his achievements, he received many national and international awards, among them the ISN Jean Hamburger Award in 2005 during the World Congress of Nephrology in Singapore, the John P. Peters Award (American Society of Nephrology 2007, San Francisco), the ISN AMGEN Award (World Congress of Nephrology: WCN 2011, Vancouver), the International Award "Luis Hernando" (Iñigo Alvarez de Toledo Renal Foundation FRIAT: Madrid, Spain) and the “Lennox K. Black International Prize for Excellence in Medicine” (Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia). ). Prof. Remuzzi was honored by the Italian President of the Republic with the title of Cavaliere di Gran Croce in 2022. Prof. Remuzzi is the author of more than a thousand publications in international medical journals and has written 24 books. Professor Williams has had 48 years experience in biomaterials, medical device and tissue engineering, working mostly at the University of Liverpool, UK where he was ultimately Professor of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, Director of the UK Centre for Tissue Engineering and Senior Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University. During his career he has published over 30 books and 400 papers: his latest book, Essential Biomaterials Science, was published by Cambridge University Press in June 2014. He was Editor-in-Chief of Biomaterials, the world’s leading journal in this field between 2000 and 2014. He has received the major awards from the US, European and Indian societies of biomaterials including the Founders Award of the US Society for Biomaterials in 2007, and received the prestigious Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal in 2012. In 1999 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and is a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, all in recognition of his contributions to engineering in medicine. He was global President of the Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine International Society from 2013-2015. He was a scientific advisor to several divisions of the European Commission during the 1990s and wrote several opinions on which European actions were taken. He has, over the last 20 years, given evidence in several major product liability and patent legal cases in the USA, Europe and Australia. Professor Williams left the University of Liverpool in 2007. While retaining the title of Emeritus Professor at Liverpool, he is currently Professor and Director of International Affairs, Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine, North Carolina, USA. In addition, he is a Visiting Professor in the Christiaan Barnard Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Cape Town, South Africa, a Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, and a Guest Professor, at Tsinghua University, Beijing, and Advisory Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. He is Visiting Chair Professor of Biomedical Materials, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan. In Cape Town, along with Professor Peter Zilla, the current Chris Barnard Professor of Surgery, he has formed a company that will produce low cost but high technology medical devices that can be used with minimally invasive procedures to treat young adults in sub-Sarah Africa, who are suffering from rheumatic heart disease but currently have no therapies available to them.