Dr. Muotri is a professor at the Departments of Pediatrics and Cellular & Molecular Medicine at UC San Diego. He is also the Director of the Sanford Stem Cell Education and Integrated Space Stem Cell Orbital Research (ISSCOR), the Director of the Archealization Center (ArchC), and Associate Director for the Center for Academic Research & Training in Antropogeny (CARTA). Dr. Muotri earned a BSc in Biological Sciences from the State University of Campinas in 1995 and a Ph.D. in Genetics in 2001 from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He moved to the Salk Institute as Pew Latin America Fellow in 2002 for postdoctoral training in the fields of neuroscience and stem cell biology. His research focuses on brain evolution and modeling neurological diseases using human induced pluripotent stem cells and brain organoids. He has received several awards, including the prestigious NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, NARSAD, Emerald Foundation Young Investigator Award, Surugadai Award, Rock Star of Innovation, NIH EUREKA Award, two Telly Awards for Excellence in Science Communication, among several others.

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. He is the director of the Center for Space Medicine Research, and the director of the CIRM Shared Resources Laboratory at Cedars-Sinai.

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) and endothelial cells (cells lining the blood vessels) to develop novel ways to assess and alleviate the cardiovascular damage caused by cancer drugs. The lab also studies the developmental mechanisms underlying congenital heart disease and vascular malformations.

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, the Igniting Innovation Award from the ISS National Laboratory, and the Donna and Jesse Garber Award for Cancer Research.

Dr. Sharma earned his bachelor's degree in biology from Duke University and his PhD in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine from Stanford University. He completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in cardiovascular genetics at Harvard Medical School. He is also an advocate for conveying science to general and scientific audiences through public speaking and social media.

Dr. Kristin Kopperud is an aerospace industry veteran with experience in operations project management and expertise in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine experiments in microgravity. Her previous position at the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, Inc. (CASIS), which manages the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory, as Science Program Director of Biological Sciences in the Research and Innovation department included focus areas in biomanufacturing, in-space production applications, and rodent research. Dr. Kopperud received BS degrees 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 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.

Meenal Datta is the Jane Schoelch DeFlorio Collegiate Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and is an assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Datta received her Ph.D. in chemical and biological engineering from Tufts University in 2018, after which she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, before starting her faculty position in 2021. Dr. Datta’s research focuses on the tumor microenvironment – which is biologically, chemically, electrically, and mechanically abnormal compared to healthy tissues – that drives disease progression and treatment resistance in incurable cancers. Dr. Datta specializes in multidisciplinary and mechanism-based preclinical approaches that reveal and reprogram abnormal tumor microenvironment.

As the director of the Tumor Immune Microenvironment & Mechanics (TIME) Lab at Notre Dame (https://timelab.nd.edu), Dr. Datta’s research explores immunomechanics and mechano-immunology in health and disease to discover novel biophysical mechanisms that can be targeted therapeutically to enhance treatment outcomes in cancer and other diseases. Dr. Datta’s lab also conducts science-in-space experiments (e.g., on the International Space Station) to test novel modeling and treatment approaches for cancer avatars in microgravity.

Dr. Datta has received numerous awards in support of her research including an NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship (2016), a single-recipient AACR postdoctoral fellowship (2019), an NIH K22 career transition award (2021), a junior faculty award from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (2022), an NIH R35 award for early-stage investigators (2023), and an AFOSR Young Investigator Program award (2025). Dr. Datta’s in-space research is supported by grants from NSF/CASIS (2024) and AFOSR Space Biosciences (2024, 2025). In 2024, Dr. Datta was awarded the Young Innovator Award in Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering from the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). In 2025, Prof. Datta was awarded the Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Award, the preeminent, single-recipient award for early career faculty from BMES, as well as the Rising Star of Mechanical Engineering Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 2026, Prof. Datta was awarded the Rising Star Junior Faculty Award from the Cell and Molecular Bioengineering Conference from BMES.

Michael Graner received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois followed by post-doctoral and research faculty work at the University of Arizona, shifting gears from the Drosophila extracellular matrix to cancer immunotherapy. He then took at faculty position at Duke University’s Tisch Brain Tumor Center, followed by his current position as Professor in Neurosurgery at the University of Colorado Denver (Anschutz Medical Campus). He is also a member of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, the MAVRC Program, and holds a Visiting Professorship Appointment at the Shenzhen Third People’s Hospital (China) and an adjunct faculty appointment at Colorado State University. Graner has a long-standing interest in cell stress responses, which led to cancer vaccine development (including one in clinical trials), which somehow led to the world of extracellular vesicles (EVs). His lab currently concentrates on signaling mechanisms involving EVs, in particular the transfer of stressed phenotypes from stressed tumor cells to unstressed ones via EVs.

Dr. Yupeng Chen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Connecticut. Holding both an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and chemistry from Brown University, Dr. Chen's long-term research interest lies in the design and development of DNA-inspired Janus base nanomaterials for regenerative engineering applications. He holds 11 US patents and 14 international patents in Janus base nanotechnology, some of which have been successfully licensed to industry partners. Dr. Chen has authored one book, 11 book chapters, and 74 peer-reviewed publications, and he and his lab have delivered 127 conference presentations and invited talks. His achievements have been recognized with the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from NSF, the discovery award from DOD, and the New Investigator Recognition Awards from the Orthopaedic Research Society. Elected as a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE) in recognition of his efforts to translate scientific breakthroughs into practical applications, Dr. Chen has secured many competitive federal research grants from agencies such as NIH, NSF, NASA, DOD, and the International Space Station (ISS) National Lab.