Dr Matthay did his undergraduate studies at Harvard (MA, USA) and received his medical training at the School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania (PA, USA). He was an intern and resident in Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado Medical Center (CO, USA) and performed fellowships at the Pulmonary Division and the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF. He is currently a Professor of Medicine and Anesthesia at the School of Medicine, UCSF. He has received many awards including the Edward Livingston Trudeau Medal, of the American Thoracic Society and a Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award from UCSF.

Dr Matthay has studied the pathogenesis and resolution of ARDS, with an emphasis on translational work and patient-based research, including clinical trials. His more recent research has focused on the biology and potential clinical use of allogeneic bone marrow-derived MSCs for ARDS. Dr Matthay will discuss the ongoing challenge of treating patients with severe ARDS from COVID-19. He will discuss the management of COVID-19 ARDS in the current era and the possible new treatments including MSCs that are being tested in his Phase IIB efficacy trial now supported by National Institutes of Health (MD, USA) and the Department of Defense (VA, USA).

Dr Buller is an Associate Scientist in the Department of Neurology at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit and he serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Oakland University and as a consultant at NeurExo Sciences, developing therapeutics using exosomes. He also served as Chief Scientific Officer at Forever Labs (MI, USA). Dr Buller has been pivotal in demonstrating the role of exosomes in the delivery of microRNAs to treat stroke and traumatic brain injury. In this webinar, he will discuss his investigation into the use of MSC exosomes to treat ARDS in COVID-19 patients.