Christiane Pauli-Magnus has been Co-Head of the Department of Clinical Research at the University Hospital and the University of Basel since 2014 and President of the Swiss Clinical Trial Organization since 2017. Since 2020, she has been a member of the Swiss Science Council, which advises the Swiss government on topics relating to the continuous improvement of education, research and innovation in Switzerland.

She studied medicine in Heidelberg and later in Würzburg, Germany, where she obtained her doctorate in 1996 after spending semesters abroad in France and Chile. After her clinical training, she spent 2000-2001 as a research fellow at the University of California in San Francisco, where she conducted research into the pharmacogenetics of drug transport processes in the intestine and at the blood-brain barrier. She then moved to the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland,  as a senior physician for clinical pharmacology and toxicology, where she qualified as a professor in 2004. In 2006, she took over the establishment and later the management of the Clinical Trial Unit at the University Hospital Basel, which she still heads today.

She is a specialist in general internal medicine and clinical pharmacology and Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Basel. In addition to her role as Head of Department, she has worked as a consultant in rheumatology.

Qun Chen, Ph.D., CEO of the Central Research Institute (CRI) of UIH Group, Distinguished Professor of ShanghaiTech University, Adjunct Professor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, graduated from Fudan University in 1982 (B.S.) and China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE) in 1985 (M.S.). After serving 2 years at CIAE (1985-1987) as a junior scientist, he went to the United States in 1987 for further education. Dr. Chen received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Kentucky in 1993 and continued his academic career in the field of medical imaging as a postdoctoral fellow at the University (1993-1995). After that, he served on the faculty of Harvard University (1996-2000), Northwestern University (2000-2003) and New York University (2003-2011). In January 2011, he joined a group of entrepreneurs to found the company United Imaging Healthcare (UIH) and has been with the company since. Dr. Chen is a well-recognized scientist in the field of MRI. The CRI team led by him has been committed to the exploration of cutting-edge medical imaging technology, including the research & development of state-of-the-art fast imaging methods, high-definition PET/MR systems, and novel algorithms for medical image applications.

Dr. Lianshan Zhang holds the position of Board Member and Vice Director of Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals. Hengrui is widely recognized as the domestic leader in pharmaceutical R&D innovation in China. In 2010, Dr. Zhang joined Hengrui and takes responsibility for the R&D strategy and management of dozens of NMEs across the globe. Prior to Hengrui, he was engaged in the discovery and development of peptide/protein therapeutics for the treatment of metabolic diseases in Eli Lilly and Marcadia Biotech. Dr. Zhang obtained his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at the University of Tubingen, and conducted his post-doctoral research at Vanderbilt University.

Ying LEI received her B.S. degree in cell biology and genetics from Peking University in China, and her Ph.D. degree in cellular and molecular biology from Colorado State University in the US under the joint guidance of Professor Deborah Roess and Professor B. George Barisas. In 2005, she got her postdoctoral training in Dr. Helen Hobbs laboratory of the McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development, Southwestern Medical Center, University of Texas. After returning to China in 2008, she conducted drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases at GlaxoSmithKline Shanghai R&D Center. Currently, she is the associate director of the Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies (SIAIS), ShanghaiTech University, and the research director of Shanghai Clinical Research and Trial Center.

Stefan Sulzer is the Managing Director of the Swiss Center for Design and Health – SCDH. In 2018, the Bern University of Applied Sciences and the State of Bern entrusted Stefan Sulzer to help build a national technology competence center for design and health. Since its inception in 2019 as a public-private partnership, the SCDH’s focus lies on research-based projects, bringing together interdisciplinary academic research and the private sector in order to foster sustainable knowledge and technology transfer into the spheres of science, industry and society as a whole. Today, the SCDH employs 25 people with a wide range of skills and expertise. Together, they develop proven design solutions and standards that promote health. With his background in art and teaching at different universities and academies, Stefan aims to establish the SCDH as one of the pioneering organizations in the interface of design and health. As a leader he firmly believes that any organization’s success is contingent on its people. Fostering a diverse and inclusive culture that facilitates an environment where people can thrive and perform according to the best of their abilities is paramount for a lasting impact of the SCDH.

Dr. Minou Afzali is Head of Research at the Swiss Centre for Design and Health — Switzerland’s national Competence Centre at the interface between People, Healthcare, Design and Architecture. Prior to that, she was Deputy Head of the Institute of Design Research and Professor of Social Design at Bern Academy of Applied Sciences. Minou was also the coordinator of an interdisciplinary research group at the Bern University of Applied Sciences including experts from the fields of design, architecture, nursing, medical informatics and economics.

Minou holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Bern where she wrote her dissertation on the role of design in culture-specific nursing homes in Switzerland.

Ze Xiong is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Wireless and Smart Bioelectronics (WiSe) Lab in the School of Biomedical Engineering at ShanghaiTech University. He received his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from The University of Hong Kong in 2017. After that, he worked as a Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore from 2018 to 2022. His research focuses on the development and application of wireless and smart bioelectronics to endow clinical and personalized healthcare procedures with digital intelligence. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers in journals such as Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology, Science Advances, Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, etc., which have been highlighted by media outlets such as Reuters, Scientific American, AAAS, AIChE, People’s Daily, XinhuaNet, and ChinaDaily, etc. He holds 5 patents (2 PCT and 1 US patent) and contributed to 1 book chapter. He has served as a reviewer for impactful journals like Science Advances, Advanced Materials, and Advanced Science, etc. He was awarded the Shanghai Overseas High-Level Talent, 2023 Emerging Investigator of China (Outstanding Achievement Award), MINE 2023 Young Scientist Award, Swissnex Fellow, etc.

Dr. Fredrick Johnson Joseph is the Founder and CEO of SurgeonsLab AG, a MedTech company based out of Switzerland University Hospital Bern. Fredrick pursued his doctorate, master’s, and bachelor’s in Medizintechnik from Switzerland, Germany, and India, respectively. He did his executive Business studies at Harvard Business and Medical Schools, Boston, USA. He specializes in the area of image-guided surgery. His earlier works include developing core technology, the Medical Science cycle, and Product-Market and translational medicine. He has nearly twelve years of working experience in medical devices, surgical intervention, imaging, and MedTech entrepreneurship.

He currently focuses on microsurgical procedure planning for brain surgery with his company. He aims to bring the device as a standard of care for pre-operative planning and training in Hospitals worldwide. He holds 4 international Patents and 16 International peer-reviewed papers. He won 6 global innovation prizes from the USA, Germany, Singapore, and Switzerland. He was awarded over 3.5 million US dollars of research and innovation grant funds only during the last years.

Dr. Wuwei Ren is a MedTech innovator. Now he is an Assistant Professor at ShanghaiTech University, and heads the Molecular Imaging and Biophotonics Laboratory focusing on next-generation optical imaging tools for early-stage diagnostics, drug development, and image-guided surgery. He earned his PhD degree from ETH Zurich in Switzerland. He also received BRIDGE Fellowship and VentureKick Award for his entrepreneurship.

Dr. Yan Nie serves as the Deputy Director of International Affairs at ShanghaiTech University since 2021. His team assists the university in developing and maintaining academic partnerships with renowned institutions worldwide, facilitating student and faculty exchanges, joint research projects, international conferences, etc.

He earned a BS in Physics from Fudan University in China and completed an MS in Biological Physics at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden. In 2012, he received his PhD in Molecular Biology jointly from EMBL and the Université Grenoble Alpes (France). Following this, he served as a bridging postdoc at EMBL Grenoble (France) before moving to the MPI of Molecular Physiology (Germany) as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2015, he joined ShanghaiTech University as a Research Associate Professor and Co-PI, working under the guidance of Prof. Roger D. Kornberg (2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry).

Dr. Nie has published over 20 papers in leading journals such as Molecular Cell (co-corresponding author) and Nature Methods (co-first author). He has been honored with the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds PhD Fellowship (2009-2011), the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad (2009), the 2016 Shanghai Young Eastern Scholarship, and funding from the Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, among other recognitions.