ASBMR 2025 Annual Meeting Keynote Lecturers
Here's a sneak peek at the ASBMR 2025 Annual Meeting invited speakers. We hope to see you in Seattle!
Gerald D. Aurbach Lecturer
Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, Ph.D.
Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic is a bioengineer appointed University Professor, the highest academic rank at Columbia University, as the first engineer in the history of Columbia to receive this distinction. She is also the Mikati Foundation Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Sciences, and Professor of Dental Medicine. She directs the Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, the NIH Tissue Engineering Resource Center, and Columbia’s Center for Dental and Craniofacial Research. The focus of her lab is on engineering functional human tissues for use in regenerative medicine and patient-specific “organs-on-chip” models of disease. She is broadly published (over 480 journal articles) and highly cited, has mentored over 250 graduate students, postdocs, clinical fellows and junior faculty, and founded five biotech companies. In addition to 65 awards and recognitions, she was elected to the Academia Europaea, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors, the Royal Society of Canada Academy of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Read more about her experience here: https://www.bme.columbia.edu/faculty/gordana-vunjak-novakovic.
Louis V. Avioli Lecturer
José Luis Millán, Ph.D.
After receiving his early training in clinical chemistry/biochemistry at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dr. Millán first joined the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation (LJCRF) in 1977, the predecessor of Sanford Burnham Prebys, as a trainee in clinical enzymology. He completed his PhD studies in Medical Biochemistry at the University of Umeå, Sweden and after post-doctoral stints in Copenhagen and LJCRF he was appointed to the faculty at SBP in 1986. He served as Professor of Medical Genetics in the Department of Medical Biosciences at his alma mater, Umeå University, Sweden, from 1995-2000. He was appointed Sanford Investigator at the Sanford Children’s Health Research Center at Sanford Burnham Prebys in 2008. Learn more about his research here: https://sbpdiscovery.org/scientists/jose-luis-millan-phd/.