M.D. Robert Lanza is presently the Head of Astellas Global Regenerative Medicine, AIRM's Chief Scientific Officer, and an adjunct professor at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. He was designated one of the 100 Most Important Persons in the Global by Time magazine, and one of the Top 50 World Thinkers by Prospect magazine. His study focuses on stem cells and their potential to treat some of the world's most lethal and incapacitating diseases. He has over 30 books and hundreds of scholarly publications, including definitive references in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

He was a Fulbright Scholar who studied with Jonas Salk, the father of polio research, and Nobel Laureates Gerald Edelman and Rodney Porter. He also collaborated with BF Skinner, a psychologist, and Christiaan Barnard, a pioneer in heart transplantation, on a series of studies. Dr. Lanza attended the University of Pennsylvania for his undergraduate and medical degrees, where he was a University Scholar and a Benjamin Franklin Scholar. Lanza was a member of the team that cloned the world's first human embryo, created the first endangered species, and published the first human pluripotent stem cell findings.