Synthetic Biology and Tissue Engineering

Martin Falk has completed his Ph.D from Masaryk University in Brno, CR. He is the leader of the Department of Cell Biology and Radiobiology at the Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Brno, CR). He participated in more than 30 papers that concern the role of chromatin structure in regulation of cellular processes. The research interests include DNA damage and repair, carcinogenesis, tumor cells radio-sensitization, and radiobiology.

Dr.Martin Falk has research interests in DNA damage and repair, carcinogenesis, tumor cells radio-sensitization, and radiobiology.

Dr. Mu has completed his PhD from Gunma University/Japan and postdoctoral studies at Kyoto University, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh. He is the board certified toxicologist and a researcher at the FDA. He has published more than 25 papers in reputed journals and is interested in the development of biomarkers for allergic risk assessment.

Dr.Ying MU has long time experience in the development of biomarkers for allergic risk assessment.

Professor Krams holds a Chair in Molecular Bioengineering at Imperial College, London. Prior to joining Imperial College he worked as Associate Professor in the department Bioengineering, Thoraxcentre Rotterdam, the Netherlands and as associate professor/chair in the department of Medical Physics, Free University in Amsterdam. He received his Medical Degree and Ph.D. from the Free University, Amsterdam in 1989.

Dr.Rob Krams research is focussed on the molecular mechanism underlying biomechanical stimuli. To that end he uses a combination of engineering techniques (imaging, systems biology and synthetic biology) and molecular techniques (high throughput, qPCR, life cell imaging) to study the interaction of gene expression and shear stress and wall stress on cells in culture and in whole animals.

Albert Jeltsch finished his PhD on restriction endonucleases at University Hannover in 1994. Afterwards he started working on DNA methyltransferases at Justus-Liebig University Giessen and and Jacobs University Bremen. Since 2011, he is professor of Biochemistry at the University Stuttgart. He received the Gerhard-Hess award (DFG) and BioFuture award (BMBF). Prof. Jeltsch has long standing expertise in the biochemical study of DNA and protein methyltransferases, methyl lysine reading domains and in rational and evolutionary protein design. His work has been published in >200 publications in peer reviewed journals and he is in the editorial boards of several journals.

Prof. Jeltsch has long standing expertise in the biochemical study of DNA and protein methyltransferases, methyl lysine reading domains and in rational and evolutionary protein design.

Dr. Ingy Moustafa Hashad’s work involved the study of “contribution of the p22 phox gene of NAD(P)H oxidase and eNOS gene polymorphisms in the predisposition of early onset acute myocardial infarction in Egyptian population”. She learnt several techniques through her research including, conventional PCR and SNP analysis, ELISA, electrophoresis, and spectrophotometric determinations. She finished successfully her Ph.D. in May 2012 with great appraisal from the supervisors and examiners. Later, she had the opportunity to spend three months summer research in the research lab of Prof. Wolfgang Poller, Charité Centrum für Herz-, Kreislauf- und Gefäßmedizin and another three months in the research lab of Prof. Michael Bader, Max-Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany which added to her scientific and technical knowledge and skills.

The research interests include Biochemical Markers Genetics and Cardiovascular Diseases

Arvydas tamulis has completed his Ph.D. degree of the Theoretical and Mathematical Physics in Vilnius University in 1985.He worked has a Research Fellow at the Institute of Physics of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences from 1985-1996.At Present he is working as a Senior researcher at the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy, Vilnius University. Total number of scientific publications 228: 5 chapters of books, 117 scientific articles in the refered issues (67 of them in the ISI Web of Science list with the impact factor). Science presentations in more than 100 conferences and symposia in Lithuania, Russia, Poland, England, Wales, Scotland, Germany, Japan, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Spain, France, Netherlands and USA. During 22 years of restored Lithuanian independancy have sucessfuly participated in 27 scientific projects.

Dr.Arvydas tamulis is interested in Quantum self-assembly of prebiotic kernels and minimal protocells; Quantum entangled photosynthesis in prebiotic kernels and minimal protocells; Electron density and electron spin density transfer in minimal biosystems; Quantum entangled logical gates and quantum entangled information processing in minimal biosystems; Importance of quantum entanglement in the first stages of origins of life and evolution of the biospheres; Correlations of fine tuned quantum mechanical laws with determined consequences of the emergence of life and further evolution.

Dr. Ingy Moustafa Hashad’s work involved the study of “contribution of the p22 phox gene of NAD(P)H oxidase and eNOS gene polymorphisms in the predisposition of early onset acute myocardial infarction in Egyptian population”. She learnt several techniques through her research including, conventional PCR and SNP analysis, ELISA, electrophoresis, and spectrophotometric determinations. She finished successfully her Ph.D. in May 2012 with great appraisal from the supervisors and examiners. Later, she had the opportunity to spend three months summer research in the research lab of Prof. Wolfgang Poller, Charité Centrum für Herz-, Kreislauf- und Gefäßmedizin and another three months in the research lab of Prof. Michael Bader, Max-Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany which added to her scientific and technical knowledge and skills.

Dr.Ingy Hashad is interested in Biochemical Markers, Genetics and Cardiovascular Diseases.

Davide De Lucrezia is currently the CEO of Explora Biotech Srl, a biotech dynamic company he co-founded in 2006 and adjunct professor in Bio-nanomaterial at University Ca Foscari Venezia. Until 2012 he served as operative coordinator of the LivingTech Lab at the European Centre for Living Technology (Venice, Italy). He graduated in 2004 in Biology at the University of Rome “Roma Tre” and pursued a PhD degree in biochemistry in 2009. Prior joining ECLT he has been head of the pharmacokinetics and metabolomics unit at San Raffaele Hospital in Rome. In 2001-2003 he was staff scientist at Polyphor AG (Switzerland), and research technician at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Zurich. He wrote several papers published in international peer-reviewed journals and books for both specialized and general audience and is the inventor of 1 patent. He has been involved in several European and international projects both as coordinator (THEGRAIL and NEXT projects) and WP leader (MAGISTER, ETOILE, AMCARE, DRIVE, LIAR and TOPCAPI). He also leverages his competences in IP strategic management for private investor and biotech companies at both national, European (EPO) and International (PCT)

Davide De Lucrezia main research of interest mainly focuses on System and Synthetic Biology and In vitro evolution of protein and nucleic acid, chemical synthetic biology of protein and nucleic acid.

Dr. Arkun has held visiting positions at Tennessee Eastman, DuPont and Weyerhauser companies. He has served as the North American editor of Journal of Process Control and Associate Editor of Automatica. He has been a trustee and secretary of Computer Aids in Chemical Engineering (CACHE) Corporation, and a director of Computers and Systems Technology (CAST) Division of AIChE. He is the 1986 recipient of the Donald P. Eckman Award given by the American Automatic Control Council He received TÃœBÄ°TAK (The Sientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) Science Award in 2004. He was elected to TÃœBA (Turkish Academy of Sciences) in 2006 and he is a member of the Scientific Board of TÃœBÄ°TAK.

Dr. Arkun's research interests are in process dynamics, modeling and control of chemical and biological systems. Research topics include dynamic modeling, model predictive control, large scale complex and hierarchical systems, optimization. Current application areas are copolymerization reactors, refinery operations, protein folding and systems biology.

Professor Krams holds a Chair in Molecular Bioengineering at Imperial College, London. Prior to joining Imperial College he worked as Associate Professor in the department Bioengineering, Thoraxcentre Rotterdam, the Netherlands and as associate professor/chair in the department of Medical Physics, Free University in Amsterdam. He received his Medical Degree and Ph.D. from the Free University, Amsterdam in 1989.

His research is focussed on the molecular mechanism underlying biomechanical stimuli. To that end he uses a combination of engineering techniques (imaging, systems biology and synthetic biology) and molecular techniques (high throughput, qPCR, life cell imaging) to study the interaction of gene expression and shear stress and wall stress on cells in culture and in whole animals.

Anthony C. Forster (Ph.D. Biochem., U. Adelaide; M.D., Harvard U.) researches RNA, protein synthesis and applications thereof (synthetic biology). He discovered the hammerhead catalytic RNA structure, invented external guide sequences for ribonuclease P, and created unnatural genetic codes de novo, all of which founded biotech companies. He has published in journals including Cell, Nature and Science, edited volumes of Methods and Biotechnology J., and coauthored "Synthetic Biology: A Lab Manual."

Synthetic biology, protein synthesis and drug discovery SynBio is a creative new field defined as the complex engineering of replicating systems. It encompasses next-generation technology for bioengineering and fresh approaches to global challenges such as drug discovery and biofuels. Our current projects include: 1. Improving ribosomal incorporation of unnatural amino acids for investigating translation mechanism and for applications such as directed evolution of peptidomimetic drugs. 2. Metagenomic discovery of antibiotic resistance genes in humans, and overcoming resistance by antisense bacteriophage therapy. 3. Development of chromoproteins for biosensor diagnostics. 4. Simplifying the design and assembly of large genetic pathways and systems. 5. Determining functions of ribosomal RNA modifications towards synthesis of the ribosome, self-replication and a minimal cell.

Taosheng Chen completed his Ph.D. from the University of Vermont, and postdoctoral studies from the University of Virginia. He is an Associate Member (Associate Professor) and Director of the High Throughput Bioscience Center at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Prior to joining St Jude, Taosheng was a Senior Research Investigator at Bristol-Myers Squibb, and a Research Scientist at SAIC-Frederick, National Cancer Institute. Taosheng serves on the Editorial Boards of several journals, and on NIH Grant Review Panels. He has authored more than 80 publications. His research laboratory studies the roles of nuclear receptors in therapeutic efficacy and toxic effects

His research is focussed on Regulation of PXR and CAR in drug toxicity, drug resistance and human diseases, Regulation of PAX3-FOXO1 and muscle differentiation in the development of rhabdomyosarcoma, Development of drug discovery technologies and High throughput screening (HTS) and high content screening (HCS)

Mr. Arata Katayama has completed his PhD at the age of 28 years from Tokyo Institute of Technology, and worked as postdoctoral fellow at University of California, Institute of Toxic Substances Research. Now, he teaches Sanitary Engineering for undergraduate course and Ecotoxicology for graduate course as a professor of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nagoya University. He also serves many governmental committees on environmental pollution, polychlorinated biphenyl remediation, and monitoring of environmental quality.

Design of artificial anaerobic microbial community for bioremediation

Dr. Mu has completed his PhD from Gunma University/Japan and postdoctoral studies at Kyoto University, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh. He is the board certified toxicologist and a researcher at the FDA. He has published more than 25 papers in reputed journals and is interested in the development of biomarkers for allergic risk assessment.

He is interested in the development of biomarkers for allergic risk assessment.

Dr Oscar Ces is a Reader at the Department of Chemistry and is co-chair of the Institute of Chemical Biology (ICB), director of the ICB Centre for Doctoral Training and co-director of the Membrane Biophysics Platform.

His expertise lies in soft condensed matter and membrane biophysics, artificial cells, bottom-up synthetic biology, membrane-protein interactions, biomembrane mechanics, drug-membrane interactions, single-cell analysis using microfluidic technologies and biomimetic-microfluidic systems.

Roberto Mazzoli has completed his PhD in 2003 and, since 2011, has been assistant professor in biochemistry at the University of Turin (Italy). Since 1998, he has been studying the metabolism of microorganisms aimed at industrial processes. Since 2006, his main research activity has concerned metabolic engineering of microorganisms for cellulosic consolidated biorefinery. He’s the PI of the group of Proteomics and Metabolic Engineering of Prokaryotes at DBIOS, University of Turin. He has published 21 papers in peer-reviewed international journals, 1 book chapter and 2 international patents and is serving as editorial board member or reviewer for several reputed journals.

Research focus is mainly on engineering of recombinant cellulolytic microorganisms for application in single-step fermentation (consolidated bioprocessing) of cellulosic biomass into industrially relevant products (e.g. fuels, plastic monomers). Metabolic engineering strategies used include both: i) native cellulolytic strategies, aimed at improving product formation properties in native cellulolytic microorganisms; ii) recombinant cellulolytic strategies, aimed at conferring cellulose metabolization features in microorganisms naturally producing high-value compounds (ethanol, butanol, lactic acid, etc…).

Enrica Pessione, PhD in Microbiology, studied at “Institute Pasteur”, Paris, to complete her knowledge on both systematic bacteriology and microbial immunology. She has been a researcher in Microbial Biochemistry at Turin University getting expertize in enzymology, metabolic biochemistry and microbial proteomics. Since 2004, she is associate professor in biochemistry and member of the Italian Microbial Bio-technologies Association. She focused her interest on metabolic pathways important for food safety control or for establish the probiotic potential of Lactic acid bacteria. She has published over 80 scientific articles. She is in the editorial board of Journal of Integrated Omics.

She focused her interest on metabolic pathways important for food safety control or for establish the probiotic potential of Lactic acid bacteria. She has published over 80 scientific articles. She is in the editorial board of Journal of Integrated Omics.

Dr. Brumbley completed his PhD at the University of Georgia in 1992 and postdoctoral studies at the University of California Riverside in 1993. He worked in the Australian Sugarcane Industry from 1993 to 2006 and at the University of Queensland’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology for 2006 to 2011. He is currently a tenured Associate Professor of Plant Metabolic Engineering at the University of North Texas. He has published more than 50 papers in high impact journals.

His primary research interests are in plant metabolic engineering for production of bio-based chemicals.

Vsevolod V. (Seva) Gurevich has completed his PhD in 1989 from Shemyakin Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Moscow, Russia, and postdoctoral training (1991-5) in the laboratory of Dr. J.L. Benovic, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA. He is Professor of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. He has published more than 160 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of several journals.

His works revolved around structural basis of the function of arrestin proteins. Arrestins bind activated phosphorylated G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), shutting down their signaling via G proteins (desensitization), targeting receptors for internalization, and redirecting the signaling to numerous alternative pathways,including mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases. He is focus on the structural basis and fine molecular mechanisms of arrestin interactions with GPCRs and non-receptor signaling proteins, with the ultimate goal of constructing designer arrestins that link the receptor we want to signaling pathways of our choosing. These tools will enable us to tell the cell what to do in a language it cannot disobey.

Makobetsa Khati is Head of the Emerging Health Technologies Department at CSIR Biosciences. He is also an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town. Makobetsa holds several degrees including a Master’s in Molecular Medicine from the Imperial College London, a Master of Public Health from the School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, and a Doctorate in Molecular Pathology from the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford.

His capabilities in the EHT platform currently includes molecular and cell biology, microbiology (virology and bacteriology); Resyn and aptamer technology, synthetic and systems biology, engineering as well as general management. These capabilities are currently fulfilled by the Technology Platform Manager, Laboratory Manager and systems developer.

Ravi Birla has completed his PhD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is currently with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Houston, where he also serves as Director of the Artificial Heart Laboratory. His research is in Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering and he has published over 40 peer reviewed scientific papers and also a recent textbook in the area.

Birla’s research focuses on the creation of 3D cardiovascular constructs, including bioengineering 3D cardiac patches, using stem cells to support the formation of cardiovascular tissue construct, developing cell based cardiac pumps, and developing scaffold-free technology to support 3D heart muscle formation.

Vsevolod V. (Seva) Gurevich has completed his PhD in 1989 from Shemyakin Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Moscow, Russia, and postdoctoral training (1991-5) in the laboratory of Dr. J.L. Benovic, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA. He is Professor of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. He has published more than 160 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of several journals.

His works revolved around structural basis of the function of arrestin proteins. Arrestins bind activated phosphorylated G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), shutting down their signaling via G proteins (desensitization), targeting receptors for internalization, and redirecting the signaling to numerous alternative pathways,including mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases. He is focus on the structural basis and fine molecular mechanisms of arrestin interactions with GPCRs and non-receptor signaling proteins, with the ultimate goal of constructing designer arrestins that link the receptor we want to signaling pathways of our choosing. These tools will enable us to tell the cell what to do in a language it cannot disobey.

Makobetsa Khati is Head of the Emerging Health Technologies Department at CSIR Biosciences. He is also an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town. Makobetsa holds several degrees including a Master’s in Molecular Medicine from the Imperial College London, a Master of Public Health from the School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, and a Doctorate in Molecular Pathology from the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford.

His capabilities in the EHT platform currently includes molecular and cell biology, microbiology (virology and bacteriology); Resyn and aptamer technology, synthetic and systems biology, engineering as well as general management. These capabilities are currently fulfilled by the Technology Platform Manager, Laboratory Manager and systems developer.

President/CEO of BioInformant, a stem cell market research firm. Autologous stem cell recipient. Passionate advocate for stem cell therapies.

BioInformant Worldwide, LLC, specializes in global strategic reports for the stem cell industry. We are the only market research firm that has specifically served the stem cell sector since it emerged. Our singular focus allows our team allows us to produce data that enables you to better understand your markets, competitors, and customers. BioInformant has been featured on prominent news outlets that include Nature Biotechnology, CBS News, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, Medical Ethics, MarketWatch, Center for BioNetworking, and more.

Yair Shachar-Hill is a Professor of Plant Biology in Michigan State University, United States.

Renata Silva-Mann is professor at the Universidade Federal de Sergipe (UFS), has completed his PhD at Universidade Federal de Lavras (UFLA), and attended sandwich program in Brigham Young University (BYU) and postdoctoral studies at the Wageningen University Research (WUR). She is the director of division of Biosafety at UFS. She has published more than 60 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of repute.

Ravi Birla has completed his PhD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is currently with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Houston, where he also serves as Director of the Artificial Heart Laboratory. His research is in Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering and he has published over 40 peer reviewed scientific papers and also a recent textbook in the area.

Birla’s research focuses on the creation of 3D cardiovascular constructs, including bioengineering 3D cardiac patches, using stem cells to support the formation of cardiovascular tissue construct, developing cell based cardiac pumps, and developing scaffold-free technology to support 3D heart muscle formation.

Dr. Steven Pelech is the founder, president and chief scientific officer of Kinexus, and previously the founder and president of Kinetek. His post-doctoral training was with Sir Philip Cohen at the Univ. of Dundee and Nobel laureate Dr. Edwin Krebs at the Univ. of Washington in Seattle. Since 1988, he has concurrently been on faculty at the Univ. of British Columbia (UBC) and is a full professor in the Div. of Neurology. Dr. Pelech received his B.Sc. (1979; Hon.) and Ph.D. (1982) in Biochemistry from UBC. He has authored over 220 scientific peer-reviewed publications about signal transduction. He has served on grant review panels and as a reviewer for over 30 granting agencies and as an external reviewer for over 30 scientific journals.

Proteomics, Biochemistry, Cell signalling

Krishna Dronamraju is the President and Director of the Foundation for Genetic Research in Houston which was founded by him in 1992. He was a Member of the US Presidential delegation led by President Bill Clinton to India in 2000. He has received his PhD in Genetics under the direction of the famous scientist J.B.S. Haldane, who is well known as a polymath, a founder of population genetics and as a prolific author of numerous popular scientific essays. He is the author of 20 books and 200 papers in Genetics, Biotechnology and the History of Science. Many of his books were concerned with the life and scientific work of J.B.S. Haldane. He was an Advisor to the US Government as a Member of the two National Advisory Committees in Health and Agriculture in Washington D.C. He is an Invited Professor of the University of Paris, France, Honorary Professor of the Albert Schweitzer International University, Geneva, and an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of London. He is also an Honorary Visiting Professor of Andhra University in India. He was awarded the Nayudamma Prize in Science and Technology in 1997.

Biotechnology, Genetics

Professor Desmond Fitzgerald is Professor of Molecular Medicine and UCD Vice-President for Health Affairs. He is a UCD medical graduate who trained in Cardiology and Clinical Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. He remained in the US until 1991 as Associate Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology and Director of the VA Coronary Care Unit. From 1994 to 2004, he was Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at RCSI and later Head of Research, when he led the development of the Smurfit Centre for Research and Education, the Centre for Human Proteomics and the Centre for Human Genomics. He joined UCD in 2004 as the Vice-President for Research and led the development of several major research programmes, including the Charles Institute for Dermatology, the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, and Systems Biology Ireland. He is a Fellow of the American Heart Association, the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and the European Society of Cardiology, and was elected to the Association of American Physicians in 2006. He led the ISCA programme, the national developing Ireland-China research and enterprise partnerships. He has served on several national bodies, including the Irish Medicines Board, the Health Research Board (which he chaired) and the Irish Heart Foundation, and international committees of the European Society of Cardiology, the UK National Institute for Health Research and the Merck Foundation Fellowship programme. His laboratory explores applications proteomics in exploring mechanisms of cardiovascular disease and platelet pharmacology.

Human Proteomics, Molecular Medicine

Sixue Chen has completed his PhD in 1996 from China and postdoctoral studies in Germany, Denmark, and University of Pennsylvania, USA. He is the Colonel Allen R. and Margret G. Crow Term Professor in Department of Biology, and Director of Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry at Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research of University of Florida. He has published more than 150 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of Journal of Proteomics.

Plant Biochemistry, Specialized Metabolism, Functional Genomics, Proteomics, Mass Spectrometry.

Jochen M. Schwenk is Associate Professor for Translational Proteomics at KTH - Royal Institute of Technology, head of the Biobank Profiling facility at the Science for Life Laboratory and a principal investigator within the Human Protein Atlas. He received his PhD in Biochemistry (University of Tübingen, Germany), and joined the Human Protein Atlas for his postdoctoral work. Today his research focuses on advancing high-throughput and multiplexed affinity proteomic assays by integration of novel immunoassay methods and mass spectrometry. His work is driven to discover, validate and ultimately translate body fluid biomarkers by studying disease biobanks for cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disorders

Translational Proteomics, High-Throughput Technologies

Laszlo Takacs, M.D., Ph.D. is a professor at the Department of Human Genetics, at the University of Debrecen Hungary and the CEO / CSO for Biosystems International. In the past, Dr. Takacs worked at Pfizer and Amgen in various management roles in drug R&D and translational medicine. Before his industrial experience, Dr. Takacs was the head of the Special Unit of NIAAA, National Institute of Health. He continues academic activities by teaching Medical Genome Biology at the University of Debrecen in Hungary. Dr. Takacs holds a M.D. degree in general medicine and a Ph.D. and D.Sc. in molecular sciences, he is he member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Genetics,Medical Genome Biology

Dr. Raju Ravikumar has completed his Doctor of Medicine at the age of 30 years from Bangalore University and further completed certificate course in Immunology from University of London. He is the Professor of Neuromicrobiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Bangalore, India. He received WHO fellowship to attend XII International Congress for Tropical Medicine and Malaria in Amsterdam. He was the recipient of WHO fellowship on “food safety” at Bangkok, Thailand. He has presented scientific papers in International AIDS conferences in 2004, 2006 and 2008 held in Bangkok, Toronto and Mexico respectively. He has published more than 40 scientific papers in national and international journals. He is the member of International AIDS Society, European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases ESCMID, American Society for Microbiology, Quality Council of India, Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists, Indian Association of Pathologists and Microbiologists and Indian Immunology Society.

Neuromicrobiology,Neurosciences

Hilal Arnouk, MD, PhD has received his education and post-doctorate training at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, State University of New York at Buffalo, Medical College of Georgia and University of Alabama at Birmingham and currently serving as faculty at Georgia State University. His major areas of expertise include Cancer Biology, Tumor Immunotherapy and Biomarker Discovery.

Proteomics, Biomarkers

Dr. Cheorl-Ho Kim received his Ph.D. from Department of Agricultural Chemistry, The University of Tokyo. He is a Director and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Glycobiology Unit, Department of Biological Science, Natural Science Faculty, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea.He served as a Editorial Board Member of various journals like Molecules and Cells. He acted as an Organizer, Chairman of Bomun Conference Committee, KSBMB. He acted as Secretary for International Affairs, Korean Society for Glycoscience. He is an Expert in field of glycomics and glycobiology, expecially on sphingolipid, ceramide and sialic acid-containing sphingolipids named ganglioside.

Glycobiology, Protein Receptor-glycan interaction Education

Subhra Chakraborty, received her Ph. D training at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India and did Visiting Scientist work at Yale University, USA. She is currently Professor and one of the founding faculties at National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi, India. She has been instrumental in initiating and establishing Plant Proteomics and Translational Genomics research in India and contributed significantly in the basic and applied bio-technology research. She has several publications in internationally reputed journals, patents and awards. She has been serving as an editorial board member of Frontiers in Plant Proteomics and as reviewer to a number of National and International journals. She is a Fellow of National Academy of Sciences, India and National Agricultural Academy of Sciences, India. She is Executive Council Member, Proteomics Society (India), Country Representative for Asia Oceania Agricultural Proteomics Organization, Member, and International Plant Proteomics Organization. She has mentored several Ph.D. and post-doctoral students.

Plant proteomics, Plant Immunity, Nutritional genomics, Functional genomics and proteomics, Molecular Biology & Biotechnology.

Kian Kani has completed his Postdoctoral Research at Cedars Sinai Medical Center where he utilized proteomics in order to study therapeutic response to HER axis targeted drugs in cancer and during his graduate studies at UCLA utilized molecular and bioinformatic tools in order to study control mechanisms regulating aberrant activity of the Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor (HER) family in cancer. His focus at USC is to identify and characterize novel cancer biomarkers and his goal is to enhance patient outcome by empowering physicians with the necessary tools for personalized medicine.

Proteomics, Immunohistochemistry, Fluorescence Microscopy, Mass Spectrometry, Neuroscience

Dr. Zhou has completed his PhD from Oregon State University University and postdoctoral studies from University of California San Francisco. He is the Associate Professor of the Department of Biochemistry of Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, A. T. Till University. He has published more than 35 papers on proteomics and structural biology in peer-reviewed journals.

Proteomics and Structural Biology

Andreu Soldevila Fàbrega undertook his academic training at UAB and UPC, where hecompleted a BA in Biological Sciences, BA in Biotechnology, MA in Genetics and Microbiology, MA in Environmental Sciences and a PhD in Biology. His interests have always been related to research and development in the biologics field and its translation to innovation in the market in order to provide solutions for healthcare which are environmentally friendly. For the past 16 years Andreu has been building a career in Biotechnology, specifically in Microbiology, Industrial Biotechnology, Proteomics and Biotherapeutics including NBE’s and Biosimilars. Andreu worked in the discovery and development of biological products in IUCT, a SME placed in Barcelona, before moving to IPSEN Pharma, a Multinational company based in Paris, where he developed a proteomics platform for the characterization of biotherapeutics and for its multiplex absolute quantitation at picomolar level in biological fluids. This followed a high throughput approach which is useful for PK-PD studies, from lead screening to clinical studies. Andreu’s experience of heading the R&D department of 3PBiopharmaceuticals allowed him to further his knowledge in Biopharma field. He specialised in cell line development, process development and analytical development for biotherapeutics while also contributing to Scale up and Tech transfer. Andreu is currently heading a project called Leanbio, a company created in 2014 with expectation to become a reference in Biologics in southern Europe, providing solutions and products worldwide from 2015 onwards.

Genetics and Microbiology

Sudhir Sahasrabudhe has 24 years of leadership experience in novel drug discovery (NCE) in Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology industry. He is the CEO of Rines Therapeutics and Research Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Utah. He is a consultant to the Global External Innovation Group at Merck Serono (EMD Serono). He is a member of the Utah Chapter of American Parkinson's Disease Association (APDA). Dr Sahasrabudhe's primary therapeutic areas of expertise are Oncology, Neuroscience, and inflammation-related diseases. Dr. Sahasrabudhe started his Pharma career at the Lederle Laboratories (now Pfizer) in 1990 and subsequently worked at Aventis (now Sanofi) from 1993 through 2000. As Senior Director of US Biotechnology at Aventis, Dr Sahasrabudhe introduced genomics and proteomics technologies to support the drug discovery projects.He represented Aventis as the founding board member of the Pharma SNP consortium. In year 2000 Dr Sahasrabudhe moved to Myriad Genetics as the Executive VP of R&D. He was the scientific founder, Chief Scientific Officer and member of the board of Myriad Proteomics/ Prolexys from 2002 through 2010. Dr. Sahasrabudhe served as a member of the Board of trustee's at Utah State University Research Foundation (USURF) from 2002-2007 and the member of Board of Associates at MIT Whitehead (2000-2007). He has several issued patents in the area of drug discovery and has authored high profile publications in top-tier peer reviewed journals.

Drug Discovery

M. Walid Qoronfleh is currently the Director of Biotechnology at QBRI. Dr. Qoronfleh has over 20 years of scientific and business experience. Most recently, served as the Executive Director of SDIX, a diagnostics company, and Vice President of Personalized Medicine at NextGen Sciences, Inc. Dr. Qoronfleh held appointments with increasing responsibilities at GSK, Sanofi-Aventis, the NIH-NCI, AntexPharma, and ThermoFisher. Dr. Qoronfleh is the founder of three biotechnology companies and he is co-Founder and Managing Director of the boutique consulting firm Q3CG. Dr. Qoronfleh obtained his Ph.D. from The University of Louisville Medical School and received his MBA from Penn State University.

Biotechnology

Martin von Bergen has completed his Ph.D. at the age of 32 years from the University of Hamburg and performed postdoctoral studies at the Max-Planck-Unit for Structural Molecular Biology in Hamburg. He is the Head of the Department of Proteomics and Speaker of the Department of Metabolomics at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. He has published more than 182 papers in reputed journals and has an h-index of 32.

Structural Molecular Biology

Prof. Ramon ERITJA obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1983 at University of Barcelona supervised by Prof. Giralt in peptide synthesis. Postdoctoral training in oligonucleotide synthesis at the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope (Dr. B. Kaplan and K. Itakura) from 1984-1987 and at University of Colorado at Boulder (Dr. M. H. Caruthers) 1987-1988. He returned to University of Barcelona in 1988. He was group leader at CSIC, Barcelona 1990-1994. He was group leader and director of DNA synthesis core facility at European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg (Germany) 1994-1999. He is research professor at CSIC, Barcelona from 2000 until now. From 2012 he is the Director of the Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC). He is coauthor of more than 300 publications and several patents on the synthesis and properties of nucleic acids derivatives.

Proteomics

Prof. Ming Chen received his PhD in Bioinformatics from Bielefeld University, Germany, in 2004. Currently he is working as a full Professor in Bioinformatics at College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University. His group research work mainly focuses on the systems biology, computational and functional analysis of transcriptomics, and bioinformatics research and application for plant sciences. Prof. Chen is serving as an academic leader in Bioinformatics at Zhejiang University. He chairs the Bioinformatics society of Zhejiang Province, China. He serves as a committee member of Chinese societies for “Modelling and Simulation of Biological Systems”, “Computational Systems Biology” and “Functional Genomics & Systems Biology”.

Bioinformatics

Philippe Derreumaux is a Senior Member at Institut Universitaire de France

Biochemistry

Gonzalez H. Diaz received his PhD in Organic Chemistry in 2005 from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), Galicia, Spain, with a dissertation focused on Cheminformatics. Prof. González-Díaz holds a research professor position at the Department of Organic Chemistry II, University of Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), Basque Country. This position is endowed Basque government through IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Sciences. Prof. González-Díaz is interested on the applications of Networks Science and Machine Learning to study structure-property relationships of Complex Systems in Cheminformatics, Computational Chemistry, Bioinformatics, Proteomics, Metabolomics, Systems Biology, Nano-informatics, Neuroinformatics and related areas.

Organic Chemistry

Asad U Khan, molecular biologist, graduated from Biochemistry Department, Aligarh Muslim University, India and did post-doc from RUTGERS, NJ, USA. Currently he is Associate Professor in the Interdisciplinary Biotechnology Unit, AMU, India. He has been awarded as most active teachers Award of the University and several other National awards to his credit. His work was well recognized and he has been invited several invited talks as well as reviews articles and chapters. He is member of Editorial board of a number of many International journals. He has over 140 research articles to his credit. He is member of several international grant review committees.

Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry

Pelech is the President and Chief Scientific Officer of Kinexus Bioinformatics Corporation. He is concurrently a full professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where he has been on faculty since 1988. He contributes leadership, vision and strategic planning to Kinexus with over twenty-five years experience in the areas of science, business and administration. He was the principal founder of Kinetek Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and served as its President and C.E.O. for six years and was one of the founding scientists of the Biomedical Research Center in Vancouver. Prior to his academic and industrial experience, he spent five years in post-doctoral training with Sir Philip Cohen at the University of Dundee in Scotland and Nobel laureate Edwin Krebs at the University of Washington in Seattle. Pelech received his B.Sc. (1979; Honours) and Ph.D. (1982) degrees in Biochemistry from UBC. Pelech has authored over 220 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters about signal transduction and is one of the discoverers of the MAP kinase family of cell signalling proteins. His accolades include the 1993 Martin F. Hoffman Award for Research at UBC, and the 1993 Merck Frosst Canada Prize from the Canadian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He was the 2001 Distinguished Lecturer for the Faculty of Medicine at UBC for the basic sciences. He has served on grant review panels for the US National Institutes of Health, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the National Research of Canada, the Michael Smith Medical Health Research Foundation, Genome Canada, the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation and the American Heart Association, and he has acted as an external reviewer for 22 other agencies including the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Israel Science Foundation. He has also been an external reviewer for 30 scientific journals.

Proteomics, Bioinformatics

Matthew Kuruc is a serial entrepreneur, starting as a co-founder of Affinity Technology Inc., where he was President from 1990 until 1996. After it was acquired by LigoTech, Inc., he held an executive business development role until becoming a co-founder of ProFACT Proteomics in 2004. From 1987 to 1990 he held various marketing and sales positions with Amicon Division of W. R. Grace & Co. (now Millipore), and prior to that, product and sales positions with industrial separations equipment suppliers.

Proteomics, Proteomic-Instruments

Professor of Computer Science and the Lee and Wilma Seaman Distinguished Dean of the College of Information Science and Technology (IS&T), at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). He currently serves as the director of the UNO Bioinformatics Core Facility that supports a large number of biomedical research projects in Nebraska. He has published numerous articles in various IT areas including scheduling, distributed systems, VLSI design, wireless networks, and Bioinformatics. He has also published two books in scheduling and graph algorithms, and several book chapters in Bioinformatics. He is currently serving as the PI or Co-PI of several projects funded by NSF, NIH and Nebraska Research Initiative (NRI) in the areas of wireless networks and Bioinformatics. He has been leading a Bioinformatics Research Group at UNO that focuses on developing innovative computational approaches to identify and classify biological organisms. The research group is currently developing several next generation Bioinformatics tools for integrating, and mining various types of biological data. This includes the development of new graph theoretic models for assembling short reads obtained from high throughput instruments, as well as employing a novel correlation networks approach for integrating and analyzing large heterogeneous biological data associated with various biomedical research areas, particularly projects associated with aging and infectious diseases. He has also been leading two funded projects for developing secure wireless infrastructure and using wireless technologies to address tracking and monitoring problems in medical environments, particularly to study mobility profiling for aging research

Biomedical Research, Bioinformatics

Hoffmann received his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry at University of the Saarland, Germany in 1999. He spent four years in Melbourne working with Richard Simpson and Bruce Kemp where he specialised in the use of free-flow electrophoresis in proteomics and the detection of protein phosphorylation by mass spectrometry. He moved back to Germany in 2003 and played an integral role in establishing a proteomics facility at the University Leipzig, Germany. In 2005, he was recruited back to Australia to establish a Proteomics Centre at the University of Adelaide. The Adelaide Proteomics Centre is equipped with the latest technology in Proteomics and provides service to academic researchers and industry. His research is focused on biomarker discovery in cancer, detection of protein phosphorylation and Tissue Imaging Mass Spectrometry. Hoffmann\\\'s group was the first in Australia to establish Tissue Imaging Mass Spectrometry. The Adelaide Proteomics Centre houses the national facility for Tissue Imaging Mass Spectrometry for Australia. Hoffmann is also Deputy Director of the newly formed Institute of Photonics and Advanced Sensing of the University of Adelaide and he overlooks projects to use Photonics and advanced sensing technology for biological and medical applications.

Proteomics, Analytical Chemistry

Dan Crimmins received his Ph.D. at Washington University (WU) in Saint Louis in 1980. He trained in physical chemistry. Post-doctoral work (WU School of Medicine) investigated viral membrane glycoprotein structure and endocytosis via clatherin-coated pits. Crimmins then worked at Mallinckrodt developing radio-labeled antibodies. Next he directed the HHMI Core Protein/Peptide Facility at WU for 10 years; later joining the Department of Pathology & Immunology in the Division of Laboratory & Genomic Medicine at WUSM. His expertise and research interests are: Bioanalytical protein/peptide characterization, immunogen design/antibody selection, biomarker discovery/evaluation, clinical/biological implications of post-translationally modified pro forms of diagnostic protein analytes.

Physical Chemistry, Protein Analysis Study

Alan J Tackett is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He received a PhD in Biochemistry from UAMS and performed a NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship in proteomics at Rockefeller University. Tackett now leads a NIH-funded research group focused on developing new proteomic technologies for epigenetic research. Additionally, he serves as Director of the UAMS Proteomics Facility. Tackett has published more than 46 manuscripts, served on 11 NIH study sections, served as editor for multiple journals, and has been NIH-funded for his career to date.

Proteomics, Biochemistry

By 1990 Soraya graduated in Biological Science at the University of Valencia and remained there to undertake a PhD under the supervision of Consuelo Guerri at Research Institution (Instituto de Investigaciones Citologicas), which I completed in 1996. During my PhD my dissertation was \"Changes of astroglia intermediate filaments gene expression during rat brain development: Effect of alcohol exposure\". She analyze the events which occur during the early stages of astrogliogenesis during brain development, experiments. I did experiments in cells in culture primary as radial glia (stem cells in brain), astrocytes and neurons

Biology, Neurology

Jasmina N. Jovanovic received her BSc in Molecular Biology and Physiology from the Faculty of Science, University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and her PhD in Neuroscience from the Rockefeller University, USA. During the course of her PhD, Dr. Jovanovic studied the mechanisms involved in the neurotrophin-dependent regulation of neurotransmitter release. She was a recipient of The John S. Segal Memorial Fellowship Award and The Rockefeller University Karolinska Institute Exchange Program Award. Following a short postdoctoral appointment at The Rockefeller University, Dr. Jovanovic was awarded The Wellcome Trust Travelling Fellowship to join the Department of Pharmacology, at UCL, where she studied the regulation of GABAA receptor phosphorylation, function and trafficking. As a recipient of The Grass Fellowship in Neuroscience in 2001, and The Grass Foundation Faculty Award in 2004, Dr. Jovanovic worked as a summer investigator at the Marine Biological Laboratory, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA. Dr. Jovanovic was appointed as a Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy in 2003, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2007.

Molecular Biology, Neuroscience

Chunyu Liu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Human Genetics, at University of Illinois at Chicago. He holds a Ph.D. of Human Medical Genetics from the Hunan Medical University (1998). He has worked on study of genetics and genomics of neuropsychiatric disorders. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, several book chapters. He serves as academic editor or reviewer for multiple journals and funding agencies.

Genetics, Psychiatry

Tiziana Bonaldi has completed her Ph.D. from the Parco Biomedico San Raffaele (Milano) and two post-doctoral studies, first from the Ludwig Maximillians University (2003-2006) and from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich (2006-2008). During her post-doctoral work she became progressively expert in the field of chromatin biochemistry and chromatin-proteomics, using high-resolution MS to decrypt the code of histone modifications and to dissect how distinct chromatin determinants synergize to enforce specific gene expression patterns. Since 2008 she is Group Leader at the Department of Experimental Oncology of the European Institute of Oncology in Milano, where she is continuing focusing on the use of MS-proteomics to investigate chromatin-mediated gene expression regulation. She has published more than 30 papers in peer-reviewed international journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of various journals in the field of MS-proteomics. She was awarded the EMBO Long-term fellowship in 2004 for her post-doctoral research, the Armenise-Harvard Career Development Award in 2008 and the Inner-wheel award \"Women in Science\" in 2010 for her scientific achievements.

Proteomics, Biochemistry

David Sheehan is in the School of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at University College Cork (UCC), Ireland. He holds a Ph.D. from Trinity College Dublin (1985) and a DSc (published work) from the National University of Ireland (2009). He has taught at UCC since 1989 but previously worked in the biotechnology industry (US, UK and Ireland). He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, two editions of his textbook Physical Biochemistry: Principles and Applications (Wileys) and edited several books. He serves on editorial boards including Journal of Proteomics and Bioinformatics, Toxins and Drug Testing and Analysis.

Proteomics, Bioinformatics

Xuequn Chen is currently an assistant professor in the School of Medicine at Wayne State University. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan (2003) and did his postdoctoral work with Phil Andrews in the National Proteomics Center at Michigan. He has been conducting quantitative subsellular proteomics research in the mammalian secretory pathway and published his works in Molecular & Cellular Proteomics, Journal of Proteome Research, Proteomics and Journal of Proteomics.

Proteomics, Cellular Proteomics

Achuth Padmanabhan has completed his PhD from University of Maryland Baltimore County and is currently doing postdoctoral training from Yale University School of Medicine. He has published papers in reputed journals and also serves as an editorial board member of repute for many international journals.

Yuri Dubrova grew up in Kiev, Ukraine. He did his undergraduate degree in Biology at Kiev State University (Ukraine), and PhD and DrSci in Genetics at NI Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Moscow. In 1994 he moved to Leicester.

Professor Yuri Dubrova’s research interests focus on the analysis of germline mutation induction in humans and mice following exposure to ionising radiation, chemical mutagens and some anticancer drugs. His recent research has also involved transgenerational genomic instability manifesting in the offspring of exposed parents.

Prof. Kumar is a molecular cancer biologist with a particular focus on breast cancer progression. Overall, Prof. . Kumar has made conceptual advances in connecting extracellular signaling to gene expression to cancer phenotypes, and paved the way for new directions in biomedical research. Prof. Kumar’s research has illustrated in 16 Covers in the major Cancer Research journals. He has received several awards for his research work. Prof. Kumar has authored over 292 peer-reviewed articles, and Edited or Co-Edited 6 Books/Volumes in the areas of cancer signaling and therapeutics. Prof. Kumar has trained about 70 students, fellows and junior faculty, and was actively involved in training and mentoring physician-scientists. Prof. Kumar has shared his knowledge by delivering about 230 invited, keynote or plenary lectures at academic institutions, and national and international scientific conferences. Prof. Kumar has been serving on multiple peer-review national and international funding panels, and on the editorial boards of leading cancer journals.

Mechanisms of breast cancer progression and metastasis, and hormone-independence with a special emphasis on phenotypic signaling, chromatin remodeling, and targeted therapeutics

Preeti Bais is an associate scientist at the computational sciences group at the Jackson Lab’s new research institute at University of Connecticut - JAX Genomics Medicine (JGM). It is an independent, nonprofit organization focusing on mammalian genetics research to advance human health. Preeti holds a PhD in bioinformatics and computational biology. She is interested in applying metabolomics for the functional genomics analysis; human embryonic (hES) and induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells based assays for drug toxicity screening, and cancer drug efficacy testing using orthotropic mouse models of cancer.

Systems Biology, Bioinformatics, Data Mining, Machine Learning, Pattern Recognition, Metabolomics, Drug Discovery, Modeling biological systems, Metabolic network reconstruction, BioStatistics, Computational Chemistry, Computational Biology

Mei Xiao has completed her Ph.D from UMass/Boston and postdoctoral studies from University of Calgary. She is a senior software engineer of the Jackson Laboratory, a premier mammalian genetics research organization. She is interested in artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction and data visualization, bio-medical image analysis and bioinformatics.

Genetic Research, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction and data visualization, bio-medical image analysis and bioinformatics.

Yuhua Li completed her PhD degree from Peking Union Medical College and MD from Zhengzhou University. She also received postdoctoral trainings from University of Pennsylvanian and Georgia Tech. She is the Assistant General Manager and in charge of Global Marketing & Business Development at Shanghai Biotechnology Corporation (SBC). She used to be the QA Director of SBC, VP of Otogenetics Corporation, Director of Yerkes Microarray Core Facility at Emory University and Research Scientist in Georgia Tech. She has more than 50 publications and supported hundreds of genomics projects.

Genomics & Pharmacogenomics, Human Genome Projects

Daniel Rotroff has completed his MSPH and his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is currently a postdoctoral research scholar at North Carolina State University in the Department of Statistics. His graduate work was conducted within the ToxCast project at the National Center for Computational Toxicology at the US EPA and focused on predictive modeling of the estrogen receptor signaling pathway. He is currently focused on association mapping and predictive modeling for a wide range of pharmacogenomics applications.

He is currently focused on association mapping and predictive modeling for a wide range of pharmacogenomics applications.

Modern drug discovery using in silico techniques is about sifting through large amounts of data to find signal in a sea of noise, and developing methodologies that do this efficiently. As a molecular evolutionary geneticist, I was used to finding faint signatures of positive selection in a sea of genomic noise. This led me to become involved with large scale genomic, and later proteomic, projects. This has allowed me to extend my knowledge in drug discovery towards chemical information signatures for high-throughput screening of compounds.

Focusing on how evolutionary knowledge can factor into drug discovery, Dr. Wyckoff has been creating and deploying new algorithms for better handling the targets of new chemical entities. The disconnect between proteins involved with disease and those generally targeted by commercially successful drugs is worrisome as drug target selection usually follows disease mapping initiatives. A focus in his career has been translating knowledge into the classroom, especially focusing on non-science majors to get them interested in careers in life and health sciences. His lab deals with aspects of Bioinformatics drug development and study of evolutionary processes at the molecular level.

Prof Yuriy l. Orlov has wide expertise in bioinformatics and computer genomics. He developed computer programs for analysis of next-generation sequencing data. He is head of Computer Genomics Laboratory at Life Sciences Department, Novosibirsk State University, Russia. His area of interests include neuroinformatics, DNA sequence analysis, integration of genome annotation and expression data, statistical analysis of ChIP (Chromatin ImmunoPrecipitation) sequencing data (ChIP-seq, ChIA-PET) and Hi-C data. He is organizer of international conferences BGRS of series (Bioinformatics of Genome Regulation and Structure) and Young Scientists Schools on systems biology and bioinformatics (SBB series) in Novosibirsk since 1998. He is associated editor of «Journal of Integrative Bioinformatics» and «Current Bioinformatics» journals, guest editor for «Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (JBCB) » and BioMed Central journal special issues.

His area of interests include neuroinformatics, DNA sequence analysis, integration of genome annotation and expression data, statistical analysis of ChIP (Chromatin ImmunoPrecipitation) sequencing data (ChIP-seq, ChIA-PET) and Hi-C data.

Walid Tawfik, is Egyptian associate Professor, in laser spectroscopy and ultrafast lasers at the National Institute of Laser (NILES), Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. In 1994 he joined NILES as staff member and promoted as assistant lecturer, assistant professor and associate Professor in 1996, 2000, and 2008, respectively. He received the B.SC, Master and Ph.D degrees in physics, laser physics, and laser spectroscopy in 1992, 1996, 2000, respectively, from Cairo University, Egypt. His interested in the field of ultrafast lasers and ultrafast phenomenon. He has built Fewcycle ultrafast system of 5-fs pulse duration and 0.6 mJ at 1 kHz and published 46 papers.

My research plans are devoted to optics and photonics: linear and nonlinear interactions of laser light and matter using time-resolved spectroscopy for laser-pulse durations from nanosecond to few-cycle. The studies include the application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) used in the field of analytical spectroscopy and plasma characterization, in addition to ultrafast nonlinear phenomena due to propagation of ultrafast pulses in nonlinear medium and how the interactions can be exploited for improved material characterization. The prospective plans aim to reach attosecond streaking to study transient absorption spectroscopy of ultrafast electron motion.

Dr. Raja Komuraiah Thampu completed his Ph.D. at the Kakatiya University, in 2005, investigating Plant-Microbe interaction and their biological activity of Microbial metabolites. He has joined in to the services in 2002,with UGC-NET, 2000 , his research field is Isolation and characterization of antimicrobial agent production and to control the multi-drug resistant bacteria like Staphylococcus sps and Pseudomonas sps and their Transcriptomics analysis microRNAs and their targets. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Microbiology at Department of Microbiology, Kakatiya University, Warangal-506009, Telangana State, India. His lab works on post-transcriptional regulation, in particular the role of the anti-resistant mechanism by quorumsensing; research is focused upon the basic science of MDR’S, together with biological processes under post-transcriptional control. His research is supported by different funding agencies like Department of Science and Technology (SERB), Department Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology and University Grants Commission, Ministry of Human Resources, New Delhi,

Post-transcriptional regulation of Antimicrobial Agents, Molecular, Microbiology, Genetics

He is currently an Emeritus Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Biophysics, University of Rochester, USA.

Understanding of the structure and physical properties of DNA.

The Lu laboratory is interested in understanding the molecular and biochemical basis that underlies physiological and pathological signaling pathways (growth, metabolic, hypoxia, or DNA damage signals), which lead to gene expression and subsequent cell growth arrest, differentiation, senescence, autophagy, or apoptosis.

Molecular dissection and translational research of the p53 and c-myc networks in controlling cell growth, senescence, death, differentiation, and tumorigenesis.

Momiao Xiong is a Professor at Division of Biostatistics and Human Genetics Center, School of Public Health, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston . He obtained his PhD degree from the Department of Statistics at the University of Georgia in 1993 and finished his postdoctoral training in computational biology from the University of Southern California in 1995.

His research is in the area of statistical genetics, bioinformatics, machine learning and image analysis.

Yongming Sang has completed his DSc and PhD at Nanjing Agricultural University and Kansas State University, respectively. He is a principal investigator and an Assistant Professor currently at Kansas State University. He has published 40 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as a reviewer of multiple journals and grant panel of repute. Main research efforts in his lab focus on immunometabolic regulation underlying animal viral and obesity diseases

immunometabolic regulation

Andrew Grimson completed his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004, investigating mRNA decay. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship in 2009, mentored by Dr. David Bartel (Whitehead Institute/MIT), investigating microRNAs and their targets. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Cornell University. His lab works on post-transcriptional regulation, in particular the role of the 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR); research is focused upon the basic science of 3′UTRs, together with biological processes under post-transcriptional control. His research is supported by grants from the NIH, and by a Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society.

post-transcriptional regulation, Molecular Biology, Genetics

Zhenyu Xuan obtained his PhD degree in biophysics from Institute of Biophysics, Chinese academy of science. He did postdoctoral training in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory mentored by Dr. Michael Q Zhang for computational biology. He currently is an assistant professor in University of Texas at Dallas. His lab is interested in studying transcription regulation using computational and systems biology approaches, with particular interests in non-coding RNA functions in cancer.

Transcriptional Regulation

Erin Sparks received her PhD in 2011 from Vanderbilt University and is currently a postdoctoral associate with Philip Benfey at Duke University. Erin has a longstanding interest in the molecular development of branched organs.

molecular development of branched organs

Chris Beecher is Chief Scientific Officer for IROA Technologies. He was a member of the Department of Pathology, University of Michigan School of Medicine until 2011 when he founded NextGen Metabolomics. He was also one of the founders of Metabolon, and Metabolic Analyses. His Ph.D. was granted in 1985 in Pharmaceutical Sciences specializing in Natural Products drug discovery. He has more than 25 years of experience in metabolomics and drug discovery and development, has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers, and is listed as the inventor of 8 patents in metabolomics.

Chief Scientific Officer
IROA Technologies
USA

Vladimir Tolstikov, Ph.D., is Scientist at Eli Lilly and Company. He received B.S. and M.S in Organic Chemistry in 1977 from M.V. Lomonosov Institute of Fine Chemical Technology, in Moscow, Russia. He received Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 1983 from the Institute of Chemical Means for Plant Protection, Moscow, Russia. He is a pioneer in HILIC separations development applied to Metabolomics. During his career he was working in leading research institutions in USA, Germany, Hungary and Russian Federation. He has joined Eli Lilly and Company in 2012. He is author contributor and participant of 45 conferences, 5 book chapters, and 54 articles.

Director of Metabolomics
BERG
USA

He is an associate professor of pharmacology & toxicology.

Computational, analytical and statistical approaches for metabonomics and systems biology in human health

Bjoern Riefke, Head of Metabolic Profiling and Clinical Pathology, Bayer Schering Pharma After the study of Biology and his PhD in Zoology/Animal Physiology at the Heinrich-Heine-University in Duesseldorf, Germany Bjoern Riefke started to work as a research fellow in 1994 at the Institute of Diagnostic Research in Berlin. His main research field was the biological characterization of dyes for near-infrared in-vivo imaging. In 1998 he followed an offer of Schering AG to lead a research group at Justesa Imagen S.A. in Madrid, Spain as assistant manager and head of biological research and development in the field of X-ray contrast media research. In 2003 he moved back to Bayer Health Care Berlin (former Schering AG) and headed the group of early and mechanistic toxicology with research support for the early detection of safety liabilities of drug candidates and one year later headed the group of clinical pathology with the establishment of metabolic profiling technology in toxicology. Since 2005 he participated in the validation of new biomarkers within the HESI Nephrotoxicity Working Group. Beside the routine support and project related work the main area of interest are the application of metabolic profiling in toxicology and in pharmacological studies and the evaluation of new biomarkers for different organ toxicities in comparison to traditional endpoints of clinical pathology and histopathology in the context of toxicology testing.

Metabolic Profiling and Clinical Pathology

Dr. Jeff Patrick is the Director of Marketed Technology at LECO based in Saint Joseph, MI. He is responsible for applications, new products and marketing for their line of GC-TOF-MS Products. Prior to his role at LECO he was in the Pharmaceutical Industry as a leader in Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry for 18 years. Jeff is a graduate of Purdue University (Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry) where he studied with Graham Cooks and the University of South Carolina (M.S.) where he studied with John Baynes. Jeff has more than 30 publications and book chapters to his credit.

Director of Marketed Technology
LECO Corporation
USA

Scott Tebbutt is Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Respiratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, and Principal Investigator at the James Hogg Research Centre, Institute for Heart + Lung Health, St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada. Since 2006, he has served as Co-Director of the Molecular Phenotyping and Genotyping Core of the James Hogg Research Centre, and he is currently Director of the Technology Development Core. He is also Chief Scientific Officer of the Prevention of Organ Failure (PROOF) Centre of Excellence, focused on heart, lung and kidney failure. Dr. Tebbutt earned his B.A. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford (Oriel College), England in 1989, and his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the University of East Anglia in 1993 (supervised by Dr. David Lonsdale, Cambridge Laboratory, John Innes Centre, England). He pursued post-doctoral fellowships in the laboratories of Professor Ann Harris (University of Oxford, Institute of Molecular Medicine) and Professor Diana Hill (University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand), where he studied the molecular genetics of cystic fibrosis. He was appointed Research Fellow at the University of Otago (1995-2001), leading a research team investigating the genomics of the sheep cystic fibrosis locus. He was seconded to a start-up biotechnology company (Global Technologies (NZ) Ltd.) as Director of Genomics (1999-2001). He moved to Canada in 2001, and was Senior Researcher in the Centre for Biomedical Research (University of Victoria, 2001-2002), prior to being recruited to the James Hogg Research Centre (formerly the iCAPTURE Centre) at St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver (2002).

Dr. Tebbutt’s research programme is focused on the genomics of complex respiratory disease, including the early and late reactions in allergic asthma and rhinitis. He also leads a multidisciplinary collaboration to investigate interactions between fungal spores and human airway cells. His research combines hypothesis-driven study of biological mechanisms with the development of advanced tools and technology (including bioinformatics and microfluidics-based systems) to better facilitate basic and translational research. Dr. Tebbutt has published original research contributions in journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (U.S.A.), Journal of Medical Genetics, Genomics, BioTechniques, Bioinformatics, BMC Bioinformatics, BMC Medical Genomics and PLoS ONE. He has published numerous technical reviews as well as book chapters on the role of genetic variation in respiratory disease. He has served as reviewer on several grant panels, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, and he is Associate Editor for the journal BMC Genetics. Dr. Tebbutt has received several fellowships and awards, including an Edward Penley Abraham Research Trust Fellowship (U.K.), a Journal of Cell Science Traveling Fellowship Award, and a Research Fellowship from the Cystic Fibrosis Association of New Zealand. He has been awarded competitive research funding from organizations such as the National Sanitarium Association (Canada), the British Columbia Lung Association, AllerGen NCE Inc. (Allergy, Genes and Environment Network), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the BC Proteomics Network, and the Wellcome Trust (U.K.).

Dr. Vladimir E. Bondarenko is Assistant Professor at Georgia State University, USA. He did his Ph.D. Physics and Mathematics, Moscow State University, Russia, 1990. Dr. Bondarenko’s research interests include dynamical systems, neuronal and cardiac cell models, neural networks, models of cardiac arrhythmias, ion channel models.

dynamical systems, neuronal and cardiac cell models, neural networks, models of cardiac arrhythmias, ion channel models.

Paul L Wood has completed his Ph.D. from Queen’s University and postdoctoral studies from the NIMH. He is the director of the Metabolomics Unit at Lincoln Memorial University and is professor of pharmacology and physiology. He has published more than 280 peer-reviewed papers, serves as Editor-in-Chief of Metabolomics, and is a member of the editorial board of the JAOA.

Utilization of metabolomics to study mechanisms of pathogenesis in neurogegeneration and oncology

Deliang Guo is an Assistant professor at Department of Radiation Oncology, James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University Medical Center.

EGFR signaling, lipid metabolism

As an NIH-funded translational scientist and an Associate Professor at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Dr. Jay Kim aims to improving the means of objectively diagnosing IC/PBS and to discover the mechanistic basis for this disorder. She was originally trained as a cancer biologist at Harvard Medical School, and is a rising leader of research on basic urological diseases including IC/PBS. One of the major focus areas in her group is the study of the metabolic signature for the diagnosis of IC/PBS, using a number of approaches, including large-scale “Omics” methods, to elucidate the signaling network in human cells that is perturbed in IC/PBS.

Cancer Biology,Biomedical Sciences, surgery

Preeti Bais is associate scientist at the Computational Sciences group at the Jackson Lab’s new research institute at University of Connecticut - JAX Genomics Medicine (JGM). It is an independent, nonprofi t organization focusing on mammalian genetics research to advance human health. She holds a Ph.D. in bioinformatics and computational biology and has worked in the metabolomics fi eld for many years including her tenure as a principal scientist at Stemina Biomarker Discovery, where she worked on many projects involving metabolomics analysis of Human Embryonic (hES) and Induced Pluripotent Stem (IPS) cells based assays for drug toxicity screening, autism biomarker detection using blood samples and cancer drug effi cacy testing using orthotropic mouse models of GBM.

Mass Spectrometry, Machine learning, bioinformatics , database , biomarkers

My current research focuses on combining metabolomics, a new and exciting post genomic technology with the power of bioinformatics tools for studying perturbations in metabolism caused due to changes in diet and/or the disease state. In one of our projects, we are investigating the change in the metabolomic patterns produced due to introduction of neutraceuticals in non-small cell lung carcinoma model. The NMR spectral data is subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to evaluate Biomarkers for early diagnosis of lung cancer. In another project, we are utilizing the metabolomics approach to observe alterations in metabolomics patterns in NMR spectra of biofluids (urine/plasma) from a spontaneous diabetes model. The change in metabolomic pattern or the biomarker profile will enable targeting of specific metabolic pathways affected by the disease condition, leading to mechanistic insight.

George G Chen is a professor in the Department of Surgery, Director of Surgical Research Laboratories, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. He is also served as a principle investigator at the Hong Kong Cancer Institute. He has extensive experience in cancer research, particularly in the area of apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma, lung caner and thyroid cancer. He has authored or co-authored ~120 papers and has written a number of books or book chapters. He is currently a member of editorial boards or a guest editor of a number of scientific journals and a regular peer-reviewer for several grant agents. He was educated in China and United Kingdom and has MB and PhD degrees.

Metabolomics

Professor Alexander A. Kamnev is a Leading Scientist at the Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants and Microorganisms, Russian Academy of Sciences (Saratov, Russia). He received his Cand. Sci. (PhD equivalent; 1992) and DSc (2002) in physical chemistry from Saratov State University. Since mid-90s, his research has been focused on the application of various spectroscopic techniques in studying biomolecules, biocomplexes, supramolecular structures and microbial cells. Professor Kamnev is the main author of more than 100 papers in reputed international journals and several invited review chapters, serves as an editorial board member of a few international scientific journals and is involved in editorial and reviewing activities for a number of international specialized journals in the fields of chemistry and biology.

Professor
Russian Academy of Sciences
Russia

Zeeshan Ahmed works at the University of Wuerzburg with a strong interest in scientific software solution design and development. He is Post Doc. and Scientific Software Engineer and in the central computation support project of the collaborative research center SFB 1047 at the Biocenter, Department of Neurobiology and Genetics. He did Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from the University of Wuerzburg Germany in collaboration with Technical University of Munich Germany. Furthermore, he is also the alumni (pre. Doctoral research and degree course work) of Vienna University of Technology Austria, Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering Germany and Blekinge Institute of Technology Sweden.

Neurobiology and Genetics

Zuyi (Jacky) Huang completed his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 2010 and then worked as a Research Scientist in the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine. He joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Villanova University as an Assistant Professor in 2011. He is now the Director of Computational Systems Biology Lab at Villanova University. He has published 18 papers in reputed journals. He is now serving as an editorial board member of Journal of Computer Science & Systems Biology. He is also serving on the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) Policy Committee.

1) deriving quantitative data for transcription factors by analyzing GFP images and solving an inverse problem; 2)integrating available qualitative information into modeling by using Fuzzy logic;3) performing nonlinear model reduction of uncertain systems; 4) sensor network and experimental design for chemical plants.

Dr. Vicki has done MS Analytical Chemistry from University of Nebraska, PhD Analytical Chemistry, Iowa State University, Her research includes characterizing the small molecules in natural systems to understand how they interact synergistically in maintaining the energy balance in mammalian cells. As such, she have collaborated with other experts in the nutritional / biomedical area to link specific dietary metabolites to potential health outcomes. Her experience in dietary metabolites, background in pharmaceuticals, and education as a bioanalytical chemist provides the foundation needed to achieve her long term goals.

Synergistic interactions of secondary metabolites on maintaining the energy balance / fluxes in mammalian cells. Synergistic interactions of secondary metabolites of plant systems on phenotypic switches (e.g. inflammation (M1 to M2 states) and virulent bacteria). Effects of farming practices on secondary metabolites in various crops, with an emphasis on dry edible beans, strawberries, wheat and tomatoes. Development of high-throughput metabolomic analytical methods.