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Andy Ngoc Vo (April 21, 1996 - ) is world-renown transplant surgeon-researcher who specializes in grafting tissue-engineered stem-cell-derived organs. Andy holds a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in biomedical engineering degrees. His most well-known accomplishment is his invention of the method for generating organs in the lab using patient-derived stem cells. His work has been patented in the U.S., E.U., Japan, and China. He is a co-founder and the CSO of Innovant Biotechnologies, LLC, which manufactures these organs in a sterile environment and is spreading his lifesaving therapy as far as resources will allow.

Following his success with lab-grown organs, Andy returned to his roots—researching the potential unification of Eastern and Western medicine. He also serves as collaborators and consultants for other physicians and researchers on projects such as neuronal regeneration in paralyzed limbs, mapping the human brain, and developing therapies for genetic diseases. Apart from his contribution to medicine and biomedical sciences and engineering, he has made contributions in areas such as education and healthcare reform and demonstrated knowledge in physics and linguistics. Because of his wide range of accomplishment, he was given the title "Polymath of the 21st Century."

Early Life
Andy was a Vietnamese immigrant to the United States of America at eighteen months of age. His family arrived in Richmond, Virginia, where they continue to reside. Prior to entering kindergarten, Andy had no experience of American culture nor its language; however, after only four years, he reached comparable fluency and competency equal to his peers. His early experiences with the healthcare team who cared for him when he was sick inspired him to become a doctor.

Education
Andy graduated from the Center for Science, Math, and Technologies at Mills E. Godwin High School in the top 10% of his class. At this time, he had already demonstrated his superior skills in math, physics, and foreign language (Spanish). After graduation, he studies biomedical engineering with minors in in biology, chemistry, and mathematical sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, Virginia, USA. Upon completing his Bachelor's degree with University Honors and summa cum laude, he furthered his research training with a 2-year fellowship at the National Center for Advancing Translation Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Following that, he matriculated into the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Virginia (UVA MSTP) where he obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering degrees. He completed a general surgery residency, followed by a research fellowship in transplant immunology, and a clinical fellowship in transplant surgery.

Career
Andy began his career as an independent transplant surgeon-scientist at his alma mater Virginia Commonwealth University with a joint appointment in Surgery and Biomedical Engineering. He established his lab (the Regenerative Biofabrication Lab) in the Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease & Metabolic Health, where he focused on engineering functional vascularized liver tissues. At the same, he served as a clinical preceptor for the transplant surgery elective and was involved with medical and graduate education, giving lectures and mentoring graduate students.

After 10 years, Andy slowly weaned off his clinical duties and became more involved as a clinician-educator and administrator. He became Chair of the transplant surgery division and was involved with undergraduate medical curricular design. Upon the success of his research with a patent, Andy dropped his clinical practice completely and developed the following years to building his biotech start-up to bring his work from the bench to clinic. Meanwhile, he was providing guest lectures on topics of embryology, transplant immunology, and tissue engineering and serving on the undergraduate medical education committee.

Biomaterial immunology
Andy's first wet lab experience was under the guidance of Dr. Rene Olivares-Navarrete in Biomedical Engineering at VCU and then graduate student Kelly Hotchkiss. They were investigating the influences of titanium surface modifications on macrophage activation and polarization and the mechanism thereof. The data from these experiments became the groundwork upon which a later project by the Olivares-Navarrete lab was based.

Endogenous extracellular matrix production in neural tissue
For his fellowship at the NCATS/NIH, Andy worked on a project to create representative human neural tissues for drug-screening as part of the NIH HEAL Initiative to address the US opioid crisis. Under the guidance of Dr. Molly Boutin and collaborator Dr. Michael Raghunath, Andy used macromolecular crowding to induce endogenous extracellular matrix production and deposition in human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived astrocytes, a type of brain cells that provide support for neurons. Human iPSC-derived dopaminergic neurons, which are implicated in the reward pathway of the brain, were then cultured with these astrocytes and ECM and were found to have higher level of activity and more closely emulate physiological responses to drugs.