Dr. Arun Sharma, PhD is a stem cell biologist focusing on cardiovascular biology and space biosciences. He is an associate professor at Cedars-Sinai and is affiliated with the Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute, the Smidt Heart Institute, the Cancer Institute, and the Department of Biomedical Sciences.

Research in the Sharma laboratory focuses on the applications of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) for modeling cardiovascular diseases outside of the body (in-vitro). The lab utilizes cutting-edge technologies including hiPSCs, genome editing, cardiac organ-on-chips, and 3D cardiac spheroids/organoids to understand the molecular mechanisms driving cardiovascular disease and heart development. For example, the Sharma laboratory employs hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (personalized, beating heart muscle cells) to develop novel ways to alleviate the cardiovascular damage caused by cancer drugs. The lab also studies the developmental mechanisms underlying congenital heart disease, as well as examines the impact of infections on the cardiovascular system, such as in the setting of COVID-19.

Sharma also has a unique background and interest in the space biosciences and investigates means by which stem cell biology can intersect with this emerging field. In 2016, Dr. Sharma led a project that sent human stem cell-derived heart cells to the International Space Station to study the effects of microgravity on human heart function, which was the first long-duration cell culture experiment in space. He remains an internationally-recognized leader in the space biosciences field, and his laboratory studies means of harnessing microgravity to manufacture unique biomaterials.

Sharma has published articles in leading scientific journals such as Science, Nature Biotechnology, Science Translational Medicine, Circulation Research, Nature Reviews, Stem Cell Reports, and Cell Stem Cell. His research has been featured in major news outlets such as Forbes Magazine, Newsweek, Science Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science, STAT Wunderkinds, Sartorius & Science Award in Regenerative Medicine, the American Heart Association Career Development Award, the Compelling Results Award from NASA, and the Donna and Jesse Garber Award for Cancer Research.

Chunhui Xu, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Xu has extensive research experience on stem cells and heart cell development. Her research is focusing on heart cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), which hold promise for cell therapy, disease modeling, and drug discovery. Her group has made significant contribution to the field of hPSCs. Several of their publications have been identified as a hot paper or among the most highly cited publications in the field of hPSCs. She is an inventor or co-inventor of 18 issued US patents, and her publications have been cited more than 12,000 times according to Google Scholar. Her research has been funded by NCI, NHLBI, NIAAA, NSF, CASIS, AHA, and HESI/FDA. Her spaceflight experiment was called as a significant step for next-generation space research by the International Space Station National Laboratory, and featured by CNN, NASA, and Chemical & Engineering News.

Emmanuel Urquieta, M.D., M.S., FAsMA, is the Vice Chair of Aerospace Medicine and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Central Florida – College of Medicine. In his role at UCF, he oversees the development of research, education, and partnerships in the domain of aerospace medicine. Prior to joining UCF, Dr. Urquieta served as the Chief Medical Officer at the NASA-funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health where we managed a multimillion-dollar portfolio of medical research for missions to the Moon and Mars, the commercial spaceflight program EXPAND, and analog capabilities, including partnerships with the Australian Antarctic Division. Dr. Urquieta has extensive experience providing medical care in austere and remote environments serving as a flight surgeon in Mexico City’s Police Department Helicopter Emergency Medical Services, participating in hundreds of rescue missions and aeromedical evacuations. He has volunteered in medical missions around the world. In 2017, Dr. Urquieta was selected as a crew member of the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) XI mission at NASA Johnson Space Center, spending 30 days in a capsule simulating a deep space long-duration mission. He is a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association, and an academician of the International Academy of Astronautics, and has authored and co-authored dozens of publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Dr. Urquieta holds a medical degree and specialty in emergency medicine from Anahuac University in Mexico City and an M.S. in aerospace medicine from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

Dr. Foster’s role in the Astraeus Space Institute has been to build stronger connections between the Florida Space Coast, including the rapidly expanding commercial space industry, and the University of Florida. Dr. Foster is the lead contact for the Space Edge Accelerator UF Hub, a program to help new companies learn about expanding their space biomanufacturing portfolio and building connections with space implementation partners and launch providers. Dr. Foster is also the UF site lead for the Center for Science, Technology, and Research in Space (C-STARS). C-STARS is an NSF-funded program that brings academic researchers across the State of Florida together with spaceflight providers to help industries transition to the space manufacturing sector and improve the production of unique medicines, therapeutics, and materials that can benefit the people of Earth. Dr. Foster’s long-term goal for the University of Florida Astraeus Space Institute is to serve as a centralized hub for collaborations between researchers and commercial companies providing critical access, experience, and knowledge to increase research and production capabilities in the space environment.

After receiving his PhD from the University of Utah in synthetic organic chemistry, Dr Kenneth Savin did a post doc at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center before going on to work for Eli Lilly and Co. as a senior research scientist. During his 20-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, Ken led discovery chemistry research teams, discovery operations, radiochemistry, drug disposition, chemistry development and product teams as well as being an adjunct faculty member at Butler University. During the last four years of Ken’s industrial career, he led an effort that resulted in five separate flight experiments flown on the International Space Station. After retiring from Lilly, he joined the team at the Center for the Advancement of Science In Space (CASIS) (the operators of the International Space Station National Lab) working in both Business Development, as a science lead and ultimately as the Sr. Director of In Space Production Applications. During his time at CASIS, Ken worked with a team at NASA to develop the In Space Production and Applications program that is run out of NASA as an effort to develop products in space that will benefit life on the Earth. Ken joined the Redwire team in early 2022 to be the Chief Scientific Officer at Redwire. His focus at Redwire has been on the commercialization of work performed in the labs at Redwire and in developing partnerships that will lead to better products and easier access to the value that space based products can provide.

Dr. Kristin Kopperud joined the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, Inc. (CASIS), which manages the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory, as an Operations Project Manager in June 2020. She transitioned to the role of Science Program Director of Biological Sciences in the Research and Innovation department in March 2022. Her focus areas include tissue engineering, in-space production applications and biomanufacturing, and rodent research. In this role, she works with Principal Investigators to outline their science requirements during the early stages of their projects’ lifecycles. Using skills developed in her former role in the Operations department, she is able to evaluate concepts and proposals from an operational standpoint as well as a scientific one, which helps her to refine the projects’ requirements to feasibly support biology in microgravity. She also works with the Education department to use science as a means of education and outreach and presents to the public in webinars and conferences to connect to researchers in microgravity and beyond.

Dr. Kopperud received her BS in Biotechnology and Biology from the University of Kentucky. She earned her PhD in Biological Sciences from Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, FL studying circadian rhythms in the retina of the Atlantic tarpon. While she moved to Florida to pursue a career in marine biology, she was captivated by the space culture that was inescapable on the Space Coast. During graduate school, she taught undergraduate laboratory sections of Mammalian Physiology and Biology and was recruited to serve as a Research Support Scientist for several ISS National Lab-sponsored Rodent Research missions, serving as a surrogate for the crew on the ISS. Thus began a career in the aerospace industry—and she hasn’t looked back!

Lisa M Larkin, PhD, is a Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan. She holds a joint appointment in the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Michigan. Dr. Larkin is the director of the Skeletal Tissue Engineering Laboratory at the University of Michigan and has 35 years of expertise on musculoskeletal physiology and small and large animal surgical procedures and more than 21 years’ experience specifically with ligament, tendon, muscle, and bone tissue engineering. Larkin has pioneered methods to co-culture scaffold-free tissue constructs to engineer functional tissues and their interfaces. Dr. Larkin has five patents and two pending patents for her work. She has co-authored 44 peer-reviewed journal papers on tissue engineering, 4 reviews and two book chapters specifically on tissue engineering, another 33 on the physiology of muscle. Dr. Larkin is a member of the following societies: The American Physiological Society, Society for Neuroscience, Tissue Engineering International and Regenerative Medicine Society, Biomedical Engineering Society, and Orthopaedic Research Society.

Mari Anne Snow is the CEO and co-founder of Eascra Biotech, an early-stage nanomedicine startup leveraging low Earth orbit (LEO) to accelerate the development of advanced therapeutics for the benefit of patients on Earth. Eascra is a participant in NASA's In Space Manufacturing (InSPA) Program and a recipient of the ISS National Lab® Igniting Innovation Award. The Eascra team has successfully sent samples to the ISS on Ax2, NG-20, and SpX-30, and is scheduled to continue their rapid progress with payloads on the upcoming SpX-31 and SpX-32 missions.

Dr. Maribella Domenech is a distinguished Puerto Rican scientist and full-time Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez (UPR-Mayagüez). She earned her B.S. in Industrial Biotechnology from UPR-Mayagüez (2006), followed by an M.S. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2010), and completed her postdoctoral training in Chemical Engineering at UPR-Mayagüez (2012).

For the past 12 years, Dr. Domenech has been an independent researcher and educator specializing in the development of biomaterials and cell culture platforms to model the breast tumor microenvironment and enhance the potency of therapeutic cells in manufacturing processes. She is a key member of several research leadership teams, including the NSF-Sponsored Engineering Research Center in Cell Manufacture Technologies (CMAT) and the Center for the Advancement of Wearable Technologies (CAWT).

Her work has been showcased at over 30 conferences, and she has authored more than 20 peer-reviewed journal articles along with contributing two book chapters. Dr. Domenech’s research and mentorship have been recognized with numerous awards, including the Industrial Biotechnology Alumni Role Model Award (2015–2017), the Faculty Cancer Research Award from the American Association for Cancer Research (2016), the Distinguished Engineer Faculty Award (2018), and most recently, the 2024 AACR Minority and Minority-Serving Institution Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research Award and the Research Investigator of the Year for the UPR eleven-campus system.

Notably, Dr. Domenech is the first female engineering faculty member from the UPR system to be elected as a standing member of the Cellular and Molecular Technologies Study Section at the NIH Center for Scientific Review. She is also the first scientist—and female—to send cell culture technologies to space from Puerto Rico, aboard the SpaceX-31 mission. Recently, she was recognized by Engineering Now Magazine as one of the most outstanding female engineering researchers at UPR-Mayagüez and by Ciencia Puerto Rico as one of the top 37 Puerto Rican females in STEM, earning her a place in the “Borinqueñas in STEM” exhibit at the Centro Criollo de Ciencias y Tecnología del Caribe (C3Tec).

Michael S. Roberts, PhD is the Chief Scientific Officer of the International Space Station National Laboratory, managed by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, Inc. (CASIS). Before joining CASIS in 2013, Michael worked as a principal investigator and research group lead in the NASA Advanced Life Support program at the Kennedy Space Center. Prior to arriving at NASA-KSC in 1999, Michael completed an undergraduate degree in biology at Maryville College, a doctorate in microbiology at Wesleyan University and post-doctoral research at the Center for Microbial Ecology at Michigan State University and the RIKEN Institute in Wako-shi, Japan.

Dr. Palaniappan Sethu is a Biomedical Engineer by training with a PhD from the University of Michigan where he developed new polymer based lab-on-a-chip technologies for genomic and proteomic assays. Dr. Sethu completed his postdoctoral training at the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Shriners Burns Hospital working on label-free approaches to isolate leukocyte sub-populations from whole blood. After spending the 1st 7 years of his career at the University of Louisville, he is currently a Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering within the Division of Cardiovascular Disease at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Dr. Sethu also serve as the Section Chief for Basic and Translational Sciences within the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and as the Program Director for the Engineering Education in Medicine Program within the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Sonja Schrepfer, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Surgery, founded the TSI Lab studying aging of the immune system and its effects on the stem cell niche by using spaceflight conditions. Disclosure: Sonja is scientific founder of Sana Biotechnology Inc, which she joined as SVP (Head of the Hypo-Immune Platform) in 2019 and is Acting Professor at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.