Gabriele Dubini was born in 1963. He received his MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering cum laude in 1988 and his PhD in Bioengineering in 1993 from Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy. In 1993 and 1994 he worked as a Research Assistant in the Cardiothoracic Unit of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London. At present he is a Professor of Bioengineering in the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering ‘Giulio Natta’ at Politecnico di Milano. Between 2003 to 2007 he was the Director of the Laboratory of Biological Structure Mechanics (LaBS) at Politecnico di Milano. From July 2008 to July 2012 he was a member of the Council of the European Society of Biomechanics (ESB) and the Secretary-General for the 2010-12 biennium. His major research activities have included the microcirculation, the virtual planning of paediatric cardiac surgery procedures, the design and characterisation of endovascular devices and microfluidic devices for biomedical applications.

Keywords: microfluidics – medical devices – fluid dynamics

Prof. Aad van der Lugt, MD

My main research topic is imaging and treatment of neurovascular disease. The first research programme focusses on imaging of atherosclerotic disease. Topics are 1) validation of US, CT and MRI by comparison with histologic sections, 2) quantification of imaging parameters with semi-automated image analysis tools, 3) serial studies evaluating the progression of atherosclerotic disease and the effect of intervention (pathophysiology), and 4) assessment of the predictive value of plaque imaging parameters for (re)current stroke (ParisK study, Rotterdam study). The second research programme focusses on treatment of acute ischemic stroke. We have proven, in the MR CLEAN Study, that intra-arterial treatment of large intracranial vessel occlusion ha a beneficial effect on functional outcome as compared to best medical treatment. Current topics are: 1) evaluation of improvements of EVT by peri-procedural medication, 2) understanding pathophysiology of disease by thrombus evaluation and serial imaging and monitoring during and after EVT, 3) automated extraction of imaging biomarkers relevant for diagnosis and prediction of outcome.

Dr. Behrooz Fereidoonnezhad

was born in Shiraz, Iran in 1987. He studied at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Shiraz University until July 2009. Following his Bachelor's degree Behrooz moved to Tehran in Iran and enrolled in the Master Program, Mechanical Engineering at the Sharif University of Technology where he received his M.Sc. degree in August 2011. In September 2012, Behrooz started his Ph.D. research in computational biomechanics at the Sharif University of Technology. In this research, Behrooz developed constitutive and computational models for mechanical and mechanobiological behavior of arterial tissue after stent deployment. During this time, he spent six months as a visiting scholar in the Institute of Biomechanics, Graz University of Technology, Austria under the supervision of Professor Gerhard A. Holzapfel. In July 2018, Behrooz began a post-doctoral research project at NUI Galway, Ireland on the IN Silico clinical trials for acute Ischemic STroke (INSIST) funded by European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.