PD Dr. Dr. E. Ada Cavalcanti-Adam leads the group of "Growth Factor Mechanobiology" at the Max Planck Institute of Medical Research in Heidelberg. Her research focus is on unraveling the molecular mechanisms that coordinate signaling coming from biochemical and biomechanical cues present in the cell environment. She and her team work on mimicking the physico-chemical properties of the extracellular matrix to study forces in cell adhesion and migration. They use nano- and micro-fabrication tools combined with the development of surface functionalization approaches to achieve a spatio-temporal control over receptor-mediated cell-surface interactions. By applying biophysical methods, ranging from single molecule experiments to single cell and multicellular systems, they study how forces are generated and integrated in cells. PD Dr. Dr. E. Ada Cavalcanti-Adam and her research group are conducting three research programs based on the following subjects: 1. Development of material functionalization tools for cell biology applications, 2. Cell surface receptor mechanics and crosstalk and 3. Biophysics of cell signaling and mechanotransduction

Dr. William Cawthorn works at the university of Edinburgh and studies the function of bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT), including the role of increased BMAT during caloricrestriction. Because caloric restriction is known for various health benefits, Dr Cawthorn is investigating how BMAT impacts metabolic homeostasis, hematopoiesis,cardiovascular function and skeletal health using preclinical models, imaging and clinical sample analysis. He is also using machine learning tp analyse BMAT in large-scale humanMRI data from the UK Biobank, with the aim of identifying genetic and pathophysiological determinants of BMAT formation, and how BMAT impacts human health.

The Haas group develops and applies novel multimodal single-cell and spatially-resolved technologies to study the complex etiology of hematological cancers and their interaction with the immune system. Another key objective of the research group is the development of next-generation precision diagnostic and prognostic technologies, based on high-content single-cell multi-omics technologies. These newly developed technologies aim at enabling early disease detection, highly precise, personalized treatment decisions and, ultimately, therapeutic intervention before disease onset.

PD Dr. Vera Hintze is the leader of the Functional biomaterials group at the Max Bergmann Center for Biomaterials in Dresden, Germany. She and her lab developed artificial extracellular matrix to control cellular behavior for an active support of bone and skin tissue regeneration. Additionally, Prof. Dr. Hintze focuses on how glycosaminoglycans influence mediator proteins, such as growth factors

Peter Friedl is the head of the Cell Dynamcis Laboratory and the imaging section at the David H. Koch Center in Houston, Texas, while he also holds the chair for Microscopical Imaging of the Cell, including the Core Facility of Microscopy at the Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences in Nijmegen. His research focuses on the visualization of cell-matrix interactions and dynamic cell patterning during immune cell interactions and tumor invasion using 3D extracellular matrix-based cell culture models and advanced In vivo-imaging procedures such as multiphoton microscopy. Recently, Professor Friedl and his group moved into generating in vitro and in vivo bone constructs to analyze metastatic bone invasion and therapy responses.

Professor Dr. Hartmut Geiger, Director of the Institute for Molecular Medicine in Ulm. His lab focuses on stem cells, especially hematopoietic and intestinal stem cells and aging of stem cells. They work on unraveling intrinsic changes in stem cells upon aging as well as how the niche is affecting stem cell behaviour. Furthermore, they investigate the involvement of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in an aging immune system and the causes and consequences of HSC transformation. Another main topics of their research is how clonality and heterogeneity are achieved in stem cells

Rainer Haag, is Professor of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry at Freie Universität Berlin. Since 2021, he has been spokesperson of the Collaborative Research Center SFB 1449 "Dynamic Hydrogels at Biological Interfaces". His research focuses on biodegradable and multivalent macromolecules, supramolecular architectures, nanotransporters for drug delivery, and sustainable polymer syntheses. In start-up-oriented teaching, he won the 2014 teaching award at Freie Universität Berlin with his project "Translation of Project Ideas." Together with the company Dendropharm, he received the Innovation Award Berlin-Brandenburg in 2016. Since 2019, he has been an elected member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech). In 2022, he was awarded the ERC Advanced Grant. His scientific achievements are documented by >580 peer-reviewed publications and 40 patent applications.

Dr. Daniel Kelly is the Professor of Tissue Engineering in Trinity College Dublin and one of the founding Principal Investigators of the Advanced Materials and Bioengineering Research (AMBER) centre based in Trinity College Dublin. His research focuses on developing novel tissue engineering and 3D bioprinting strategies to regenerate damaged and diseased musculoskeletal tissues. Professor Kelly and his research group have demonstrated that adult stem cells isolated from synovial joints can be used to tissue engineer functional cartilage grafts, especially when combined with bioreactors to mechanically stimulate these cells. They have demonstrated that it is possible to engineer zonal tissues such as articular cartilage by recapitulating the gradients in regulatory signals that during development and skeletal maturation are believed to drive spatial changes in stem cell differentiation and tissue organization. Realising this required undertaking a series of fundamental studies to understand how chondrogenesis, hypertrophy and endochondral ossification is regulated by altered levels of oxygen and mechanical cues. They have demonstrated how complex tissues, such as the bone-cartilage interface, can be regenerated by designing tissue engineering strategies that recapitulate aspects of the normal long bone developmental process. More recently they have have utilised emerging biofabrication and bioprinting strategies to engineer structurally organised articular cartilage and stem cell laden constructs capable of supporting endochondral bone regeneration. They have also bioprinted implants containing spatiotemporally defined patterns of growth factors and demonstrated that printed constructs containing a gradient of VEGF, coupled with spatially defined BMP-2 localization and release kinetics, accelerated large bone defect healing with little heterotopic bone formation.

Dr. Michelle McDonald is the leader of the Bone Microenvironment group at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia. She and her lab developed a novel intravital imaging methodology to visualize osteoclast dynamics in live mice, thereby not only advancing the understanding of osteoclast biology but also bone cell regulation of tumor cell behavior. Additionally, Dr. McDonald focuses on how to repurpose therapeutic agents that are known to modulate bone cell activity to prevent tumor growth through regulating the bone microenvironment.

Prof. Dr. Pompe received his PhD from the Max-Planck-Institute for Colloids and Interfaces in Golm-Potsdam in 2000. After being a postdoc and group leader at the Max-Bergmann Center of Biomaterials at the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden until 2011, he became a Professor for Biophysical Chemistry at the Institute of Biochemistry at Universität Leipzig. Prof. Pompe's main research interests are bioengineering of biomimetic materials based on synthetic and naturally derived polymers including application of these materials to answer biomedical questions on microenvironmental cues in cell fate decisions. Currently, those biomaterials approaches are adapted in his group to engineer microenvironments of microbial systems. Furthermore, new biosensing systems for anthropogenic analytes are developed based on biomimetic principles and biomaterials engineering. These research activities are documented in over 90 peer-reviewed articles,14 book chapters and 9 patents.

Prof. Erica L. Scheller: As the head of the Neuroskeletal Biology Laboratory, part of the Musculoskeletal Research Center and Division of Bone and Mineral Diseases at Washington University (St. Louis, USA), Prof. Scheller focuses on the relationships between the nervous system and the skeleton. Prof. Scheller and her lab have a direct interest in understanding how neural signals contribute to skeletal homeostasis, and how perturbations to this system contribute to bone loss, impaired healing, and skeletal pain.

Prof. Schett is head of the Department of Rheumatology & Immunology at the Universitätsklinikum Erlangen and was appointed Vice President Research of the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany) in 2021. By leading the DFG collaborative research centre 1181 “Checkpoints for Resolution of Inflammation” and being awarded the ERC-Synergy grant “4D+ nanoSCOPE Advancing osteoporosis medicine by observing bone microstructure and remodelling using a four-dimensional nanoscope”, Prof. Schett’s scientific work includes a broad spectrum of clinical and immunological issues with a particular interest in the molecular processes of immune-inflammatory diseases.

Prof. Dr. Tuckermann is the head of the Institute of Comparative Molecular Endocrinology at Ulm University. Together with his team, Prof. Tuckermann focuses on osteoporosis and diabetes, representing common diseases with a high prevalence in the aging population. Prof. Tuckermann and his lab aim to decipher the endocrine control of immune and stromal cell crosstalk of these pathologies, particularly questioning how the resolution of inflammation can be fine-tuned to alleviate the diseases and to enable tissue integrity repair