Yohan FAROUZ, PhD
LinkedIn yohan.farouz_onlinecv@melix.org https://www.yohanfarouz.net
Warning: This website is under heavy maintenance.
This online resume is being updated and may not reflect my most recent edits.


# HEADLINE
I work at the interface between mini-organ engineering and data science/automation. By leveraging the potential of alternative methods to animal models in predicting drug safety and performance, my goal is to help bridge the gap between in vitro biology and real world clinical outcomes. #MicrophysiologicalSystem #3R #HumanModels #HighThroughputBiology

# INDUSTRIAL EXPERIENCES
2020
Present
Roche — Senior Scientist
Vascular Lab, investigative Safety
2018
2020
Roche — Scientist
Vascular Lab, investigative Safety

From 2D High-Throughput models to 3D Low-Throughput complex systems:
  • Team efforts on vascular 2D cytotoxicity assays for drug derisking before Entry into Human
  • Leading project to develop 2.5D and 3D models to support drug evaluation in terms of adverse angiogenesis
  • Developed new 3D vascular models

  • Lab management and digital transformation:
  • Member of the Digital Strategy core (agile) team and of the Opportunity sub-squad
  • Helping shaping the strategy for compliant, FAIR and image storage and processing
  • Created/Animating the Vascular Biology Community, breaking silos to create a collaborative environment for sharing and troubleshooting microphysiological vascular model development
  • 2018
    L'Oréal R&I — Lab leader
    Regenerative Medicine Lab, Dermis Physiology Group
    As a lab head, my responsibilities involved:
  • Strategic planning for an interdisciplinary multiscale clinical study on stem cell therapy for facial skin repair/rejuvenation

  • Lab management:
  • - People development. Recruitment/Retirements
    - Data Management and Digital transformation around Good Data Practices in the lab.
    - Coordination with platforms (Pollutants bioanalytics, Imaging, Tissue Engineering, Episkin, Bioinformatics, Biomechanics)
    - Development of techniques (tissue dissociation, FACS strategy, spheroid culture/banking, stem cell quality controls)
    2015
    2018
    L'Oréal R&I — Omics Data Scientist
    Digital Biology Lab

    Omics statistical and machine learning models for clinical data and reconstructed skin data analysis and cosmetics/drug repositioning:

  • Full Stack development from Mathematical model generation, data integration, parallel computing optimization to final data visualization (UI+UX) and documentation for further outsourcing
  • Biological interpretation of the data and Generation of actionable insights for biological/- clinical validation: Proposals for new targets in hair regeneration, skin aging | Proposals for drug repurposing | Validation strategy
  • Master student mentorship for new correlation network-based systems
  • Participation in academic chair on ML for multi-omics correlation of in vitro and ex-vivo models of skin reconstruction
  • Benchmarking commercial solutions, from deep learning-aided drug repurposing in ageing to muti-omics pathway scoring

  • Consultant in the Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering task forces


  • # ENTREPRENEURSHIP
    2017
    2018
    One Young World — Ambassador, Project leader
  • Represented L'Oréal Research & Innovation at the One Young World 2017 Summit in Bogota
  • Created and led a winner project from L'Oréal's Call to Action post OYW2017
  • Pitched the project in a Go/No-Go session with L'Oréal's CEO (Jean-Paul Agon), and got approval to enter the pilot phase
  • 2014
    Founder and Developer
  • Apps : ezPregnancy (Android + iOS) | ZotEZ2 (Android) | Aziz Lite suite (Android): ZotEZ, MendEZ, EZPaperz
  • Games (Android + iOS) : Fried Chicken | Chicken Pinball | Snake n' Bees

  • # ACADEMIC EXPERIENCES
    2011
    2015
    Université de Paris|CRI Paris — PhD student, Project leader
    Labs of Ph. Menasché (PARCC | HEGP | INSERM) and Y. Chen (IPGG | ENS Paris | PSL)
    As part of a multi-hospital translational collaboration:
  • Designed the biomaterials used as a cardiac patch in the world first clinical trial delivering hESC-derived cardiovascular progenitor cells onto the heart of patients with chronic heart failure
  • Developed QC assays for translational and rapid assessment of the biomaterials mechanical properties

  • Foundational questions after approval to start clinical trials had been granted:
  • Created microfabricated assays to question the effect of biomaterials on PSCs’ cardiovascular differentiation
  • Studied the joint effect of topography and matrix elasticity on hiPSCs’ cardiomyocyte differentiation
  • Developed pipelines and softwares for systematic assessment of cardiac organoid beating properties
  • Applied results from cardiac organoid beating properties to the design of a “single-dish" high-yield iPS differentiation strategy to cardiomyocytes. Designed transfer technique to create a clinically relevant patch from cardiac bands with highly anisotropic contractility on soft, patterned hydrogels. This closed the loop from the clinics, back to the lab, and then again to the clinics.

  • Lab 1: Microfluidics,Nanotechnology (PI: Y. CHEN) CNRS UMR 8640 - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris
    Lab 2: Cell therapy in cardiovascular diseases (PI: Ph. Menasché) INSERM U970 - HEGP
    Doctoral School: Frontières du Vivant (FdV) PhD Programme – Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinnaires
    2010
    2011
    Harvard University|Wyss Institute — Research Associate
    K. K. Parker's Lab
    Cardiac tissue engineering for integration into a heart-and-lung on a chip system
    Main techniques: soft lithography, micropatterning, cardiomyocyte culture, contractility assays by image processing, AFM, FT-IR, confocal microscopy
    2009
    2010
    Imperial College London — Research Intern
    M. Stevens' Lab
    Design of alginate-based bioactive micro-scaffolds for bone regeneration
    Main techniques: peptide/hydrogel/polymer synthesis, electrospraying, NMR, SEM, protein assays, stem cell culture
    2009
    Berkeley Lab — Research associate
    S.W. Lee's Bio-nanomaterials Lab
    Genetic engineering of M13/AAV hybrid viral vectors for gene delivery and tissue engineering scaffolds
    Main techniques: bacterial culture, viral amplification, cloning, electrophoresis
    2007
    2008
    Ecole Polytechnique — Research Team Project
    T. Gacoin’s Condensed Matter Physics Lab
    Optimization of the silanisation step in the fabrication of DNA microarrays
    Main techniques: silanisation, mesoporous/sol-gel silica, ATR-IR, colloidal Au assays


    # TEACHING EXPERIENCES
    2012
    2014
    ParisTech|Paris Descartes University — Teaching Assistant, Lecturer
    Master in Biomedical Engineering
    Creation and Teaching of the "Biomedical Modeling" course in the Biomedical Engineering Master Program

    Examples of Projects:
  • Engineered heart tissue and muscular thin film contractility assays by video analysis
  • Limb motion modeling for bio-inspired robotics
  • Modeling wave behavior of retinal neuronal networks during development
  • Monte-Carlo models of cellular locomotion
  • In silico simulations of soft matter and elasticity measurement by pipette aspiration experiments
  • 2011
    2012
    CRI Paris|Université de Paris — Teaching Assistant
    Frontiers in Life Sciences Bachelor Program
    Course: Physics and Computer Science
    Topics: Solid point mechanics, hydrostatics, fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, basic programming, 'Processing' language.
    Interdisciplinary project: The physics behind Angry Birds

    # OTHER WORK EXPERIENCES
    2008
    Yangshuo and Guilin Backstreet International Youth Hostels (Guangxi, China) — Intern
    Blue-collar internship consisting in:
    - helping the Chinese receptionists by acting as an interpreter between the English-, Spanish-, French-speaking tourists and them.
    - cleaning bedrooms
    - taking orders/serving breakfasts
    2006
    2007
    City and Regional Planning Department of Boulogne-Billancourt City Government (France) — Intern, Civil Servant
  • Financial and legal consulting for French Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts:
      - "Design, construction and maintenance of an eco-friendly automated waste collection network in the new boroughs of Boulogne-Billancourt"
      - "Design, construction and maintenance of a tramway line accross Boulogne-Billancourt"

  • Computational modeling and statistical consulting for a Regional Master Plan preparation:
      - "Statistical analysis of the displacement of the employment barycenter in the Greater Paris Area over the last 13 years. Can we model this evolution and predict future trends?"
      - Data collection and curation from online sources
      - Mathematical model implementation
      - Design of a web interface for rapid tuning of the model
      - Presentation of the results (documentation, final report) to the City Government's Director-General of Services. 

  • # EDUCATION
    2011
    2015
    Sorbonne Paris Cité | Paris Descartes | Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris — Ph.D. in Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine, with very high honors
    Stem cell and cardiomyocyte mechanobiology, Cardiac patches for heart regeneration. Biomaterial-based hiPSC differentiation-on-a-chip
    2009
    2010
    Imperial College London — M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering with Distinction
    Biomechanics, Biomaterials, Tissue Engineering
    2006
    2010
    Ecole Polytechnique — B.Eng., M.Eng. (Ingénieur Polytechnicien, X2006)
    Biology, Material Science
    2004
    2006
    Preparatory Program for French “Grandes Ecoles”
    Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry


    # ONLINE COURSES
    2020
    Machine Learning with TensorFlow on Google Cloud Platform
    Google Cloud
    Specialization 1
    2016
    Machine Learning Specialization
    University of Washington + Dato (now Turi, now part of Apple)
    Foundations: a case study approach
    Regression
    Classification
    Course was interrupted after Dato/Turi's acquisition by Apple

    # LANGUAGES/COMPUTER SKILLS
    Languages
    French: native language
    English: fluent
    Spanish: fluent
    Mandarin Chinese: basic
    German: notions
    Computer
    Advanced knowledge in web development, software development and mathematical modeling.
    Git, Java, R, Python, Google Cloud ML, Swift/iOS dev, Matlab, Android dev, Processing P55, Apex/Oracle, HTML/CSS/Javascript, PHP/MySQL, Microsoft Office, VBA...

    +Graphical Design tools:
    Prezi/Sozi, Adobe Illustrator/Inkscape, Adobe Photoshop, AutoCAD,...

    # SKILLS

    # OUTSIDE INTERESTS
    Sports
    Running (marathons), Adventure Racing (Running + Biking + Kayaking), Skiing, Skydiving
    Music
    Piano (13 years of conservatory) at the competitive level pre-professional. Composer


    # SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
    2020
    Human Retinal Microvasculature‐on‐a‐Chip for Drug Discovery
    Héloïse Ragelle, Karen Dernick, Sonia Khemais, Cordula Keppler, Lucien Cousin, Yohan Farouz, Chris Louche, Sascha Fauser, Stefan Kustermann, Mark W. Tibbitt Peter D. Westenskow
    Advanced Healthcare Materials
    2015
    Designing biomaterials for controlled cardiac stem cell differentiation and enhanced cell therapy in the treatment of congestive heart failure
    Yohan  Farouz
    PhD Manuscript
    2015
    M13 bacteriophage and Adeno-Associated Virus Hybrid for Novel Tissue Engineering Material with Gene Delivery Functions
    So Young Yoo, Hyo-Eon Jin, Dong Shin Choi, Masae Kobayashi, Yohan Farouz, Sky Wang, Seung-Wuk Lee
    Advanced Healthcare Materials
    2015
    Safety, Regulatory, and Ethical Issues of Human Studies
    Yohan Farouz,Mathilde Cossé, Nisa Renault, Philippe Menasché
    Chapter from book "Biomaterials in cardiac regeneration".
    Springer International Publishing (2015)
    2014
    Long Term Functional Benefits Of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiac Progenitors Embedded Into A Fibrin Scaffold
    Valérie Bellamy, Valérie Vanneaux, Alain Bel, Hany Nemetalla, Solène Emmanuelle Boitard, Yohan Farouz, Pierre Joanne, Marie-Cécile Perier, Estelle Robidel, Chantal Mandet, Albert Hagège, Patrick Bruneval, Jérôme Larghero, Onnik Agbulut, Philippe Menasché
    The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation published online Nov. 7, 2014
    2014
    Growing hearts in the right place: on the design of biomimetic materials for cardiac stem cell differentiation
    Yohan Farouz, Yong Chen, André Terzic, Philippe Menasché
    Stem Cells published online Dec. 24, 2014
    2014
    Towards a clinical use of human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiac progenitors: a translational experience.
    Philippe Menasché, Valérie Vanneaux, Jean-Roch Fabreguettes, Alain Bel, Lucie Tosca, Sylvie Garcia, Valérie Bellamy, Yohan Farouz, Julia Pouly, Odile Damour, Marie-Cécile Périer, Michel Desnos, Albert Hagège, Onnik Agbulut, Patrick Bruneval, Gérard Tachdjian, Jean-Hugues Trouvin, Jérôme Larghero
    European Heart Journal first published online May 16, 2014
    2013
    Micropatterning Alginate Substrates for In Vitro Cardiovascular Muscle on a Chip
    Ashutosh Agarwal*, Yohan Farouz*, Alexander Peyton Nesmith, Leila F. Deravi, Megan L. McCain, Kevin Kit Parker.*AA and YF contributed equally to this work.
    Advanced Functional Materials (2013)
    2012
    Réparer les coeurs brisés et les vaisseaux abîmés (Mending broken hearts and repairing damaged blood vessels)
    Yohan Farouz, Yong Chen, Philippe Menasché, Julia Ino, Michael Atlan, Catherine Le Visage, Didier Letourneur
    Biofutur 335, p30-33 (September 2012)

    # CONFERENCE PARTICIPATIONS
    2013
    Mechanical characterization of new clinically relevant fibrin-based hydrogels for heart repair using shear wave ultrasound elastography
    Mathieu Pieronne, Mathieu Pernot, Joevin Sourdon, Yong Chen, Alba Marcellan, Philippe Menasche, Yohan Farouz
    Oral communication at the MRS Fall Meeting 2013 (December 2013)
    2012
    Engineering Anisotropic Cardiovascular Muscle on Alginate Surfaces for in vitro Contractility Assays
    Ashutosh Agarwal, Yohan Farouz, Alexander Peyton Nesmith, Leila F. Deravi, Megan L. McCain, Kevin Kit Parker.
    Oral communication at the MRS Fall Meeting 2012 (November 2012)
    2011
    Alginate-based muscular thin films for in vitro cardiac contractility assays
    Yohan Farouz, Ashutosh Agarwal, Megan L. McCain, Kevin Kit Parker
    Poster presentation for the BMES Conference 2011 (October 2011)
    2011
    Alginate-based muscular thin films for in vitro cardiac contractility assays
    Yohan Farouz, Ashutosh Agarwal, Megan L. McCain, Kevin Kit Parker
    Oral communication for the MRS Conference 2011 (November 2011)


    # INVITED TALKS AND POSTERS
    2015
    Growing hearts in the right place: on the design of biomimetic materials for cardiac stem cell differentiation.
    Yohan Farouz, Yong Chen, Philippe Menasché
    Poster presentation at the "Integrative Biology in metabolic and cardiovascular diseases" Summer school, 2015
    2014
    Translating stem cell mechanobiology to the clinics: high-throughput mechanical characterization of clinically relevant materials for cardiac cell therapy
    Yohan Farouz, Pierre Joanne, Mathieu Pieronne, Yong Chen, Philippe Menasché
    Oral communication at the Revive Annual Consortium Meeting, 2014
    2013
    Microengineering materials to study the cardiovascular differentiation of embryonic stem cells and promote their engraftment onto the infarcted myocardium
    Yohan Farouz, Yong Chen, Philippe Menasché
    Oral Communication at the Annual Young Researchers' day of the Chemistry Department, ENS Paris, 2013
    2013
    Microengineering materials to study the cardiovascular differentiation of embryonic stem cells and promote their engraftment onto the infarcted myocardium
    Yohan Farouz, Yong Chen, Philippe Menasché
    Poster presentation at the Annual PARCC retreat, 2013

    # HONORS AND AWARDS
    2014
    2015
    Fondation pour la Recherche Medicale
    Promising young researcher scholarship
    2011
    2014
    Ecole Polytechnique
    Scholarship for doctoral research
    2011
    2014
    Ecole Doctorale Frontières du Vivant (FdV) - Programme Bettencourt
    Training and Traveling awards
    2010
    M. Sc. in Biomedical Engineering, with Distinction
    Biomechanics, Biomaterials, Tissue Engineering
    2010
    2011
    France Fulbright Scholarship (through Fondation Monahan)
    Scholarship for a 10-month research internship at Harvard University
    2009
    2010
    Edward and Eva Underwood Foundation
    Scholarship for studies at Imperial College London
    2004
    2010
    Ecole Polytechnique
    Scholarship for top French engineering students (4 years of funding)
    2004
    French Baccalauréat with very high honors

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    Yohan Farouz