Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Mamatha Bhat

Hepatologist, Co-Lead of Transplant AI initiative, Ajmera Transplant Centre, University Health Network
Associate Professor/Director, Clinician-Scientist Training Program, Dept of Medicine, University of Toronto
Partnerships & Engagement Lead, Temerty Center for AI Research & Education in Medicine
Faculty Affiliate, Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence

Raja Kandaswamy

Sutherland-Butterfield Professor in Immunology and Transplantation
Vice-Chief, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery
Director, Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Programs
Director, Multi-Organ Transplant Fellowship Program
Medical Director, Solid Organ Transplant Unit, UMMC
University of Minnesota

Riccardo Levato

Associate Professor
Biofabrication Technologies and Translational Bioengineering and Biomaterials
Regenerative Medicine Center Utrecht
University Medical Center Utrecht,
Department of Clinical Sciences
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Utrecht University

A.M. James Shapiro

Canada Research Chair in Transplantation Surgery and Regenerative Medicine
University of Alberta

Hao Yin

Vice President, Shanghai Changzheng Hospital
Chief Director, Organ Transplant Center, Shanghai Changzheng Hospital
President of the Asian Pancreas and Islet Transplantation Association (APITA)
Deputy Chair, Pancreas-Islet-Small Intestine Transplantation Group, Chinese Society of Organ Transplantation, Chinese Medical Association
Founder of Asia’s leading Islet transplantation center, PI of the world’s first autologous stem cell-derived islet transplantation
Chief Scientist of both the National Science and Technology Major Project / the National Key Research and Development Program of China
Published more than 50 papers in prestigious academic journals such as Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Nature Metabolism, Advanced Science, and Cell Discovery.

Plenary Speakers

Kevan C. Herold

Dr. Herold was trained as an Endocrinologist and Immunologist. After his training he went to the Hagedorn Research Laboratory in Denmark, and then he joined the faculty at The University of Chicago. He moved to New York to Columbia and in 2006 to Yale University. He has built a program in translational immunology applying mechanistic discoveries to treat autoimmune diseases, including Type 1 diabetes (T1D). He brought teplizumab, the first drug approved by the FDA to treat the underlying cause of T1D from mice to humans. He showed that brief treatment with teplizumab, which is a humanized FcR non-binding anti-CD3 mAb could reduce beta cell killing without continuous immune suppression and improved clinical outcomes in patients with T1D. He led studies leading to approval of the drug in the US and Europe. It is the first drug to prevent any autoimmune disease. His studies bridge immunology, cell biology and metabolism and identified relationships between immune and endocrine cells. He identified how beta cells adapt to and survive immune attack and developed an assay to measure their death in vivo. He described autoimmune diabetes induced by anti-PD-1/L1 checkpoint inhibitors in patients with cancers, and its mechanisms. He identified mechanisms that can prevent killing of beta cells by inflammatory mediators. This work is leading to the development of replacement beta cells for patients with diabetes. He is the former Chair of NIDDK TrialNet, the premier network for testing therapies to prevent T1D. He was awarded the Watanabe prize in 2025.