Silvia Cainarca | Axxam

Silvia has more than 20 years of experience in the drug discovery field and a strong background in cellular and molecular biology. She has followed discovery programs from assay setup and compound testing to Hit-to-Lead validation, with a focus on compound characterization during the optimization process in the Discovery Biology Unit as Principal Scientist. Her main areas of expertise include the development of functional cell-based assays using relevant cell types, the management of Hit-to-Lead programs, and the coordination of assay development activities alongside functional and epigenetic screening using iPSC-derived cells. She is the project leader for grants financed by the European Community and national and international funding bodies. She also serves as Principal Investigator in important collaborations with international clients and partners in the field of iPSC-derived cells.

Paola Ochetta | BiomimX

Paola Occhetta is CEO and co-founder of BiomimX S.r.l., a Politecnico di Milano spin-off developing human-relevant, mechanically active organ-on-chip platforms for drug discovery, safety assessment, disease modelling, and advanced therapies. She has over 15 years of experience in microfluidics, tissue engineering, 3D cell culture, and organ-on-chip technologies, with particular expertise in cardiac safety, disease modelling, and regulatory adoption of advanced in vitro models. She coordinates multidisciplinary collaborations with pharmaceutical companies, CROs, academic institutions, technology partners, and regulatory stakeholders. She is actively involved in European and national research and innovation projects, including Horizon Europe projects ERC, EIC Pathfinder and MSCA. She is also involved in the standardization and regulatory adoption of organ-on-chip technologies through her activities within ISO 276 and the Industrial Alliance for Microphysiological Systems. She is Associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano, where she leads research activities focused on organ-on-chip and AI technologies integration. She has authored more than 45 peer-reviewed scientific publications and is inventor of two patents.

Giancarlo Forte | King’s College London

Giancarlo Forte is a Senior Lecturer in Cardiac Mechanobiology at the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Centre of Excellence at the School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine and Sciences (SCMMS), King’s College London, United Kingdom. He is member of the Medical Research Council / British Heart Foundation (MRC/BHF) Centre of Excellence for Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics (RE-ACT) at KCL. Additionally he serves as a member of the Executive Board of the School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine and Sciences at KCL where he is Cross-cutting Theme Lead - Basic Cardiovascular and Metabolic investigations. He sits in numerous PhD boards in Italy, Czech Republic and UK, is the Vice Chair of the scientific board of the Czech Science Foundation (p303, GACR) and is a member of the Working Groups on ‘Disease Models/iPS Cells/Organoids’, European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT) and on Cellular Biology of the Heart of the European Society for Cardiology (ESC). Forte lab focuses mainly on pathological mechanosensing and contributed knowledge on pathological mechanosensing by identifying the positive loop by which Yes Associated Protein (YAP) reinforces focal adhesion assembly in breast cancer cells (Nardone et al., Nat Commun 2017) and by disclosing the molecular basis of force-regulated mRNA alternative splicing in the failing human heart (Martino et al., Sci Transl Med 2022). Additionally, they unveiled the role of YAP mechanosensor in perpetuating adverse ventricular ECM remodelling in the failing human heart (Perestrelo et al., Circ Res 2021) and in tumour chemoresistance against nanodrugs (Cassani et al., Adv Sci 2024; Cassani et al., Nano Letters 2025).

Giulio Ciucci | Cardiovascular Biology Laboratory at ICGEB

Giulio Ciucci is a postdoctoral researcher in the Cardiovascular Biology Laboratory at ICGEB Trieste, where he studies mechanotransduction in cardiomyocytes, microvasculature and cancer cells using engineered tissues. He earned his PhD from the University of Trento, developing a system to modulate mechanical loading in engineered heart tissues and a 3D cryoinjury model of myocardial infarction. He subsequently joined the Disease Biophysics Group at Harvard SEAS, where he developed engineered microvasculature based on anisotropic nanofiber scaffolds for the vascularization of cardiac tissues.