Bioimaging in Tissue Engineering and Regeneration : Advanced Microscopy and Preclinical Imaging

Prof Dr Andreas Walter studied physics and biophysics at the University of Heidelberg and in Sankt Petersburg on a Baden-Wuerttemberg Scholarship. He spent his research career developing and applying various imaging techniques for life sciences, including fluorescence, super-resolution, cryo-light, transmission electron and scanning electron microscopy, and correlative soft x-ray tomography. After his tenure as a guest scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) to study chromatin organization with fluorescence microscopy-based methods, he did his PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt on method development in electron microscopy. He finished his studies with distinction (summa cum laude). Prof Dr Walter received a DFG (German Research Association) Fellowship and a fellowship of the German Scholars Organization to continue his research in imaging at the University of California San Francisco and at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to correlate soft x-ray tomography and cryo-light microscopy. From 2016 till 2022, Prof Dr Walter worked as the Director of Austrian BioImaging where he coordinated more than 35 facilities and research groups for preclinical and biological imaging to develop and establish novel multimodal imaging pipelines. In 2022, Prof Dr Walter was appointed professor of Biophotonics and Bioimaging at Aalen University, Germany, where his group aims at developing novel correlative microscopy solutions to facilitate imaging across scales in life sciences (www.hs-aalen.de/zot-walter-lab). He also holds an MBA degree in Management of Research Infrastructures from the University of Milano-Bicocca. Up to 2024, Prof Dr Walter has published more than 35 peer-reviewed articles, and has been cited more than 1000 times on microscopy development to tackle a variety of biomedical research questions.

Paul Slezak leads a research group on soft tissue regeneration and local hemostasis at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Traumatology in Vienna, Austria. He graduated in 2009 at the Medical University of Vienna and has a wide research interest, spanning from the development of new therapies for soft tissue regeneration to designing next generation hemostats in the clinical field. He is member of the steering board of the Correlated Multimodal Imaging Node Austria (CMI) and Co-Lead at the newly founded Josef Ressel Centre for Materials Engineering in Soft Tissue Regeneration. Dr. Slezak is (co-)author of 54 peer-reviewed publications with an h-index of 24 and is the CEO of a Spin Off company which aims to bring experimental therapies and methods to the clinical field.

Ralph Müller is a Professor of Biomechanics at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. He received his doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering from ETH Zurich. The research he is currently pursuing employs state-of-the-art biomechanical testing and simulation techniques as well as novel bioimaging and visualization strategies for musculoskeletal tissues. His approaches are now often used for precise phenotypic characterization in mammalian genetics, mechanobiology as well as tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. He is a prolific author of over 500 peer-reviewed publications and has received numerous awards. He is an elected fellow of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW), the European Alliance for Medical and Biological Engineering and Science (EAMBES), and the World Council of Biomechanics (WCB).

Prof. Greet Kerckhofs obtained her PhD in Engineering in 2009 (KU Leuven). Since 2017, she is full time Professor at the UCLouvain and 10% Professor at the KU Leuven. Her research group (ContrasTTeam - www.contrast-team.be) focusses on the optimization and application of contrast-enhanced microfocus computed tomography (CECT) imaging of biological tissues, hereby setting the stage for a new era of X-ray-based 3D histology. Furthermore, the group is pioneering in 4D-CECT, combining CECT imaging with in-situ loading. Prof. Kerckhofs is (co-)author of 95 peer-reviewed publications, more than 170 conference contributions and 3 book chapters. She has an h-index of 29 and more than 5000 citations.

Baubak Bajoghli earned his PhD in Biology and Genetics from the University of Vienna in 2007. He then undertook postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, focusing on cell and developmental biology, evolutionary biology, and immunology. This was followed by a prestigious EMBL-Marie Curie Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral (EIPOD) Fellowship at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg. Appointed as a tenured Principal Investigator at the University Hospital in Tübingen, Dr Bajoghli led a research group dedicated to translational research. His team employed multidisciplinary strategies, integrating advanced imaging technologies, mathematical modelling, and computational approaches, to explore the mechanisms of T-cell development in the thymus under both physiological and pathological conditions. Since 2022, Dr Bajoghli has served as the Managing Director of Austrian BioImaging/CMI, an association for cutting-edge biological and preclinical imaging technologies.