Student involvement is a critical component of TERMIS. SYIS provides a platform for the "next generation" of scientists and engineers in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine to interact. SYIS aims to further the professional and scientific development of its members. The TERMIS definition for a Student member is any individual, who is engaged as a full-time graduate or undergraduate, in a university or college program and is actively involved in research in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Young Investigators are defined as persons who are employed by an academic institution in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, who have been awarded their doctoral degree within the past 3 years and who are not holding an appointment as a faculty or academic staff in a university/research institute.
The SYIS-EU Council organizes several activities during TERMIS-EU chapter meetings and World conferences if held in the EU. Read about them below!
SYIS Presentation Awards (members only)
During the conference, SYIS assigns several awards for oral and poster presentations to students and young researchers who have demonstrated excellence in presenting their work at the conference. A pre-selection based on submitted abstracts is done beforehand. Only SYIS TERMIS members who have registered by the early-bird registration deadline are eligible for the awards.
Meet-the-mentor lunch sessions (members only)
The meet-the-mentor lunch sessions are a recurring activity during the conferences. We provide you with the opportunity to meet scientific leaders in an informal and relaxed atmosphere for fruitful chats and discussions about research interests and career paths. This is a great networking opportunity for young researchers and can open doors towards interesting future opportunities. This activity is only available for TERMIS members who have registered for the conference before the early bird registration deadline.
SYIS Co-Chairing for Scientific Sessions (priority for members)
This provides a unique opportunity for students and young investigators to co-chair a scientific session with leading scientists. Together with the other co-chairs, you will ensure smooth operations of the session, including announcing speakers, time management, and facilitating the discussion. All SYIS delegates (members and non-members) are welcome to participate, but members will be given priority in case of limited availability.
Panels and seminars (open to all conference delegates)
Each year, SYIS organizes at least two panels, seminars, or workshops during the conference. The goal is to have interactive, informal panel discussions about varying (scientific) topics that are of most interest for young scientists. These activities are open to all participants.
Recent topics discussed during SYIS seminars are “Green Lab” (2022, Krakow) and “How to start a biotech startup” (2023, Manchester).
The Career Panel is a recurring event during the conferences where we invite life sciences scientists to informally chat about their career path. This provides a unique platform to ask all your questions to people who have taken a certain career route. Previous panelists include:
2023 Manchester, UK
2022 Krakow, Poland
2021 World Conference Maastricht (online)
SYIS Social Night (members only)
Together with the local SYIS committee, the SYIS-EU Council organizes a social night to provide a unique and incredibly fun opportunity to meet friends and fellow young scientists whilst enjoying drinks and snacks. This activity is only available for TERMIS members and may be a ticketed event depending on the available venue.
Not a member yet? Join today!
Meet the hard working team behind all SYIS activities.
Lizette Utomo - SYIS-EU Chair
Lizette Utomo was trained as a technical physician the University of Twente, the Netherlands specializing in Reconstructive Medicine. In 2013, she completed her MSc degree focusing on cartilage decellularization for regenerative strategies at the dept of Otorhinolaryngology at the Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, NL in the group of Prof. Gerjo van Osch. She completed her PhD in 2018 at the dept of Orthopaedics of Erasmus MC University Medical Center under Prof. van Osch where she focused on macrophage phenotypes in degenerative joint diseases. As part of her PhD, she also worked at the Galeazzi Orthopaedic Institute in Milan, Italy in the group of dr. Matteo Moretti where she worked with microfluidic systems for osteoarthritis research. From 2018-2021 she worked as a postdoc at the dept. of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands in the group of dr. Debby Gawlitta where she worked on tissue engineering of the mandibular condyle. As part of the postdoc project, she worked at the AO Research Institute in Davos, Switzerland in the group of Prof. Martin Stoddart. As of August 2020, she joined the Regenerative Orthopedics group headed by Prof. Marianna Tryfonidou at the faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Utrecht University as senior postdoc and scientific project & research manager, where she is working on local controlled drug delivery for osteoarthritis pain management and contributes to project managing of the H2020 iPSpine project.
Sebastien Callens - SYIS-EU Chair-elect
Sebastien Callens is currently a postdoctoral research associate in the group of Prof. Molly Stevens at Imperial College London, where he works on designing and characterising cell-material interfaces for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. He was awarded a Rubicon Fellowship from the Dutch Research Council to support his work on structured biomaterials for bone tissue engineering. Sebastien has a broad and interdisciplinary engineering background, and is strongly interested in integrating theoretical, computational and experimental techniques to tackle fundamental questions in biology and advance the field of regenerative medicine. His research interests include tissue engineering, biomaterials design, biomechanics, mechanobiology, 3D printing, computational geometry, and quantitative image analysis.
After obtaining his MSc on aerospace structures and materials at Delft University of Technology in 2017, Sebastien pursued a PhD in biomaterials and tissue biomechanics at the same university, under supervision of Prof. Amir A. Zadpoor, which he obtained (cum laude) in May 2021. In 2020, he was a visiting researcher in the Bone Biomechanics Lab of Prof. Ralph Müller at ETH Zurich, supported by an IDEA League exchange grant. Over the course of his PhD, Sebastien has developed a strong passion for science communication, which led him to participate in various pitching competitions, organize workshops for children, and disseminate his science to wide audiences on various occasions and across different platforms.
Anne Metje van Genderen - SYIS-EU Secretary
Anne Metje van Genderen is working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Pharmacology department at Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences (Utrecht University, The Netherlands). Here, she is appointed within the Virtual Human Platform for Safety Assessment consortium (VHP4Safety), where she uses kidney tubuloids to model and study nephrotoxicity caused by pharmacotherapy. During her PhD, Anne Metje worked on the development of engineered vascularized proximal tubules for studying kidney (diseases), via the use of various biofabrication techniques (melt electrowriting, co-axial printing, and more). Her PhD was performed under the guidance of Prof. Roos Masereeuw, Prof. Tina Vermonden and Dr. Jitske Jansen. Additionally, supported by a personal grant, she performed part of her PhD at Harvard Medical School in the lab of Dr. Yu Shrike Zhang (Cambridge, MA, USA).
Gaëtan Roudier - SYIS-EU Treasurer
Gaëtan Roudier is currently a PhD student at the University of Bordeaux (France) in the Laboratory for the Bioengineering of Tissues, where he works under the supervision of Dr. Nicolas L’Heureux. His work is focused on the development of tissue engineered vascular grafts produced by weaving yarn of cell-assembled extracellular matrix. He graduated from the University of Bordeaux where he obtained a BSc in Biochemistry and a MSc in Biomaterials. As part of its undergraduate project, he was involved in an exchange with students from the University of Cincinnati (USA). Later, his Master thesis was done at the Trinity Center for Biomedical Engineering in Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), under the supervision of Dr. Michael Monaghan. Here, we worked on the optimization of the production of 3D electroconductive porous scaffolds for cardiac tissue engineering. Driven by the goal to translate research from lab to bedside, he also graduated from the University of Paris (France) with a MSc in Bioentrepreneurship. His Master project led him to run a program of translational research in an academic environment, SPARK Bordeaux, as part of the SPARK Global network. This aimed to support researchers with innovative projects, as a response to unmet medical needs, to get their idea to the clinic. Gaëtan is currently a member of the International Society for Applied Cardiovascular Biology (ISACB), where he is part of the Young Investigators Committee, which aims to organize symposia, webinars and other events dedicated to the young researchers community.
Gabriele Nasello - SYIS-EU Council Member
Gabriele Nasello is a postdoctoral researcher at the Skeletal Biology and Engineering Research Center of KU Leuven (Belgium), in the research group of Prof. Liesbet Geris. Here, he is characterizing the immune response to the implantation of tissue engineered bone grafts, with a specific focus on biomaterials and bioinformatics.
Gabriele is experienced in multidisciplinary and international research environments based in Europe and in the United States of America. He earnt a joint PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Zaragoza (Spain) and KU Leuven. He was an early-stage researcher of a MSCA-ITN project, during which he worked at Materialise company (Belgium), the National University of Ireland Galway (Ireland) and The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (England). Before his PhD, he joined twice the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine (USA) as a visiting researcher on tissue engineering.
Gabriele is a huge supporter of open science and he is committed to make his scientific research freely accessible to colleagues and peers.
Julia Fernández-Pérez - Communications Officer (Communications & Outreach Committee)
Julia Fernández-Pérez is a Postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Lorenzo Moroni’s lab at MERLN in Maastricht (The Netherlands). Her current project is focused on the development of scaffolds for coronary artery regeneration fabricated via additive manufacturing and angiogenic hydrogels. She received a BSc in Human Biology from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona (Spain). She did her undergraduate research project at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) at Prof. Elisabeth Engel’s lab. She graduated from the Technical University of Dresden (Germany) where she obtained her MSc in Molecular Bioengineering. Her master thesis was undertaken at the Max Bergmann Center of Biomaterials Dresden, under the supervision of Dr. Laura J Bray and Prof. Carsten Werner. She completed her PhD at the Trinity Center for Biomedical Engineering in Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) on the development of alternatives to traditional corneal transplantation using tissue engineering approaches, focusing on the use of decellularized matrices, under the supervision of Prof. Mark Ahearne. She has taken part in several science outreach activities for the promotion of science among children. An examples of this is the Transition Year Programme “Exploring Materials” organized by AMBER (Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research) targeted at 16-17 year old students before they start their two last years of high school. She has also volunteered with the Native Scientist initiative, which aims to tackle educational disadvantage and promote diversity by connecting migrant pupils and scientists.
Gianluca Cidonio - Communications Officer (Communications & Outreach Committee)
Gianluca is a PostDoctoral Researcher at the Center for Life Nano Science (CLNS) part of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT).
Gianluca graduated with honors in Biomedical Engineering from the Sapienza University of Rome (Italy). Before graduation he won a Global Exchange Fellowship to study at Temple University (Philadelphia, USA) where he worked at Suh lab on self-assembling peptides. He completed his PhD in Tissue Engineering working with Dr Jon Dawson and Prof Richard Oreffo at the University of Southampton (UK). In 2018 Gianluca won an EPSRC DP Fellowship to work on the biofabrication of bone substitutes. Gianluca is now working on novel microfluidic biofabrication approaches at IIT for the fabrication of complex tissue implants and models.
Julian Gonzalez-Rubio- Strategic Alliance Committee
Julian Gonzalez-Rubio is a PhD student in the Respiratory Tissue Engineering research group of Dr. Lena Thiebes and Dr. Christian Cornelissen, within the Department of Biohybrid & Medical Textiles (BioTex) of Prof. Stefan Jockenhoevel, at the RWTH University Aachen (Germany). His research interest focuses on the formation of blood vessels in development and regeneration, the function and pathology of the airway epithelium, and the application of these nature mechanisms to improve the tissue engineering of the respiratory system.
He is originally from Madrid (Spain) where he also conducted his Bachelor's Studies in Biotechnology at the CEU San Pablo University. He carried out his bachelor's thesis and research internship at the Institute of Polymer Science and Technology of Madrid, in the field of synthetic scaffolds for osteochondral regeneration under the supervision of Dr. Luis Rojo. He later moved to Germany to do an International Master's in Stem Cell Biology at the Ruhr University of Bochum, finishing with a master’s thesis on the 3D bioprinting of skeletal muscle constructs.
Lisanne Laagland - Strategic Alliance Committee
Lisanne Laagland, DVM, is currently a PhD student at the department of Clinical Sciences at the Utrecht University, The Netherlands in the group of Prof. Dr. Marianna Tryfonidou. Here she’s working on the iPSpine project which aims at developing an advanced therapy for intervertebral disc regeneration by using induced Pluripotent Stem Cell technology combined with smart biomaterials. Her main role in this project is optimizing the differentiation process of the induced Pluripotent Stem Cells into healthy intervertebral disc cells.
Prior to starting her PhD, she obtained her veterinary degree in 2019 Cum Laude (UU, the Netherlands). During her veterinary study she successfully completed the Master Honours Programme, which was also focused on intervertebral disc regeneration, resulting in receiving her Veterinary Research Diploma in 2016 (UU, the Netherlands). With her background in Veterinary Medicine, she aims to contribute to the ‘One Medicine’ concept whereby human and animal healthcare advance hand in hand to ensure that humans and animals benefit from equal and sustainable medical progress.
Arianna Ferrini - Leaving SYIS-EU Chair and Advisor Arianna Ferrini is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health in London, UK, where she studies disease modelling of childhood neurological disorders combining genetic and tissue engineering approaches. She holds a PhD in Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering from Imperial College London (2019). Her PhD research was carried out between the British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence at Imperial College London, UK, and The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, USA, in the groups of Professors Molly Stevens and Nadia Rosenthal. Prior to her PhD studies, she earned a BSc in Biotechnology, followed by a MSc in Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, both from the University of Florence (Italy). During and after her master studies, she participated in European mobility programs (Erasmus and Leonardo Da Vinci, respectively), which gave her the chance to be trained at Queen Mary University of London and the Babraham Institute in Cambridge and made her realize how much she enjoys collaborative research and a dynamic and international working environment. She is particularly passionate about disseminating her research and actively participates in several public engagement and science outreach activities. She is part of an association called Native Scientist, aimed at empowering immigrant communities through science while promoting STEM learning and careers. Together with her team, she was an event coordinator for the 2018 edition of Pint of Science, the biggest science outreach festival worldwide and has been and Outreach Postgraduate Ambassador for Imperial College for several years. She recently took on the role of Director of Communications for the Association of Italian Scientists in the UK. Outside the lab, she is a self-described mediocre ukulele player, an avid photographer and a writer; her first poetry collection was published a couple of years ago and she truly believes that science and poetry are more intertwined than most think. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariannaferrini/)
Podium presentations
Poster presentations
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SYIS Podium Winners
SYIS Poster Winners
RSC Biomaterials Science Winners
RSC Journal of Materials Chemistry Part B Winners
Debate Winning Team
James Britton, Meletios Nikolaos Doulgkeroglou, Emily Growney Kalaf
SYIS Podium Presentations (Sponsored by IOP Publishing)
Irene Mencia Castano- Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland MicroRNA therapeutics for improved bone repair: Effective collagen nanohydroxyapatite scaffold mediated delivery to mesenchymal stem cells and rat calvarial defects
Angela Lemke - Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Experimental and Clinical Traumatology, Vienna Austria Implantation of human amniotic membrane ameliorates recurring perineural adhesions and intraneural scarring in a rat sciatic nerve fibrosis model
SYIS Rapid Fire Presentations
SYIS Poster Presentations (Sponsored by ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering)
SYIS Winning Debate Team
Daniela Pacheco, Filippo Cipriani & Sebastião van Uden FOR the motion Will 3D-Printing or Decellularised organs rescue the donor-based organ scarcity for transplantation?
