Professor Paul Sharpe is the Dickinson Professor of Craniofacial Biology at Kings College London. He graduated with a degree in biology from York University (1977) and a PhD in biochemistry from Sheffield University (1981). Following postdocs in Sheffield, Wisconsin and Cambridge he became lecturer in molecular embryology at the University of Manchester in 1987 where he established a research group working on the molecular control of tooth development. Following promotion to Reader in 1991 he was recruited to his present Chair at the Dental Institute of Guy's Hospital (later to merge with Kings College), where he established a new basic research department, the Department of Craniofacial… Development and Stem Cell Biology. The department, of which he remains head, now consists of 13 academic research groups with over 80 research staff. From 2002-2008 he was Director of Research for the Dental Institute. His main research interests are the molecular control of tooth development, dental stem cell biology and tooth bioengineering. He has published over 270 research papers including articles in Nature, Science, PNAS and Cell press. He has supervised over 40 PhD students and receives funding from the MRC. He is a member of the MRC Centre for Transplantation and Biomedical Research Centre. In 2004 he was awarded the Craniofacial Biology Research Award by the International Association for Dental Research in recognition of his contribution to the understanding of how teeth develop and in 2006 his paper "Stem cell-based tissue engineering of teeth" received the William J Gies award for best publication is Biomaterials and Bioengineering from the same organisation. He is on the editorial boards of several journals including J. Dent. Res. and J. Clin. Perio.
Dr. Murugan Ramalingam is Associate Professor at the Centre for Stem Cell Research (a unit of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine-Bengaluru), Christian Medical College Campus, India. Concurrently he is Adjunct Associate Professor at the Tohoku University, Japan. Prior to joining the CSCR, he was Associate Professor of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering at the Institut National de la Sant� et de la Recherche M�dicale, Facult� de Chirurgie Dentaire, Universit� de Strasbourg, France. He has worked at the WPI Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Japan, as an Assistant Professor. He has also worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology… (NIST) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), under the U.S. National Academies Associateship program. He received his Ph.D. in Biomaterials from the University of Madras. He has also undergone training in Ethical and Policy issues on Stem Cells from Harvard University, USA, and in Operations Management from the University of Illinois-Chicago. His current research interests are focused on the development of multiphase biomedical materials, through conventional to nanotechnology to biomimetic approaches, microfabrication, cell patterning, stem cell differentiation, tissue engineering and drug delivery. He is the author of over 190 publications, including peer-reviewed journal papers, conference proceedings, book chapters, authored books, edited books, and patents relevant to biomaterials, stem cells, and tissue engineering. His current h-index is 22. He has organized several international conferences and chaired Biomaterials, Nanobiotechnology, Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering sessions. He also serves as a board member of several international scientific and research committees in various public and private bodies and grant reviewer of various international funding agencies. He serves on the editorial boards of multiple biomaterials and tissue engineering-related journals, including as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, the Journal of Bionanoscience and the American Journal of Stem Cell Research. He is a recipient of several prestigious fellowships and awards, including CSIR Fellowship (India), SMF Fellowship (Singapore), NRC National Academies Fellowship (USA), Nationale Professeur des Universit�s (France), Fellow of Institute of Nanotechnology (UK) and Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (UK).