Faculty Distinguished Seminar: Process Analytics for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Commercialization of Cell-based Products and Services

Not Available
2017-09-27
Hosted by: Faculty of Engineering

The distinguished lecture will consist of two parts: Part I on current research advances in the field of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (TERM), and Part II on commercialization of cell-based products and services.

Part I: Process Analytics for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (TERM) has progressed tremendously through the development of novel biomaterials, devices and cell sources that enable promising clinical therapies and pharmaceutical applications. The applications also require advanced manufacturing technologies for cell and tissue constructs with quantitative monitoring and/or control of the engineering processes. Such quantitative spatial and temporal information at tissue level involves the integration of mechanistic mechanobiology studies, microfabrication, optical imaging and machine-learning based data analytics, in addition to innovative biomaterials, devices and cell sources. I would illustrate the benefits and challenges of dealing with such quantitative spatial and temporal information in the examples of 1) developing a 3D multi-well based high throughput platform for hepatotoxicity testing of compounds; 2) developing a cholestatic drug testing platform; and 3) developing a human embryonic stem cell-based micro-pattern assay for detecting and predicting the developmental toxicity of teratogens. These platforms exhibit the inherent heterogeneity in the manufacturing process but robust performance in the applications.

Part II: Commercialization of Cell-based Products and Services
Gaps in technology commercialization are manifold and vary depending on the ecosystem in which the entrepreneurs reside, and the nature of the business intended. A few issues stand out in Asia where the risk apatite of the investors is lower and shorter term than in the west, such as readiness of the technology (manufacturability of products and QA/C for services) and the market (timing), business models (technology or business-centric), and the team composition/founder structure, as well as the management style. Amongst the few good and bad examples that will be illustrated, there are different solutions tackling these issues. Structuring and managing graduate programs to train students and postdocs who are ready to embark on such a journey will also be discussed.

About the Speaker
Dr. Hanry Yu was trained in cell biology from Duke (US) and EMBL (Germany). He ventured into Biomaterials, Tissue Engineering, Biomedical Optics, Computation and Systems Biology, and lately Mechanobiology. He chaired 3 interdisciplinary graduate programs, including one jointly with MIT where he has been a visiting professor since 2008, collaborating to develop biomedical solutions using optical imaging technologies and analytics. His labs train students for both academic and industry leadership; and have students, postdocs, and mentees as professors in leading universities; founders and senior leaders in biomedical companies. Dr. Yu is currently a tenured full professor of Physiology and Mechanobiology, National University of Singapore; and group leader of synthetic biosystems, Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, A*STAR. He frequently consults for government agencies in Singapore, China and Germany, and serves on boards and external examiners of international organisations and other universities. He is a founder of multiple high-tech companies, two won major awards and one became public company listed in Australia. Dr. Yu is currently a handling editor of Biomaterials.

Faculty Distinguished Seminar: Process Analytics for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Commercialization of Cell-based Products and Services
Date
27 September 2017
Time
3:30pm to 5:30pm
Venue
L2, Science Centre, CUHK
Speaker
Professor Hanry Yu, National University of Singapore