Speakers
Discover our international faculty!

Sofia Siest

Demet Akın

Catherine Alix-Panabières

Behrooz Z. Alizadeh

Robert Barouki

Colin J.H. Brenan

Didier Bourgeois

Ivan Brandslund

Ingolf Cascorbi

Ekaterini Chatzaki

Alex Chenchik

Georges Dagher

Georges Dedoussis

Panagiotis Deloukas

Paul Diehl

Robin Everts

Le Ferrier

Balazs Győrffy

Alexander Haliassos

Magnus Ingelman-Sundberg

Stravoula Kanoni

John Lamont

Adrián LLerena

Vangelis G. Manolopoulos

Janja Marc

Federica Marelli-Berg

Michael Marschler

Helena Murray

Lena Neufeld

Charity Nofziger

Michael Oellerich

Uwe Oelmueller

Nickolas Papadopoulos

Klaus Pantel

Guillaume Paré

Munir Pirmohamed

Reem Hamad

Ron van Schaik

Ed Schuuring

Wolfgang Schnitzel

Sanja Stankovic

Maurizio Simmaco

Csilla Sipeky

Milica Medić Stojanoska

Raute Sunder-Plassmann

Belgin Süsleyici

Frances T. Yen
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Sofia Siest
Sofia Siest (Sophie Visvikis-Siest),
PhD, was born in Athens, Greece, where she obtained a diploma of Biology. She received a PhD on Genetic Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Diseases at the University of Nancy, France.
She is Director of Research in INSERM since 2001.
She is the head of the Research Unit in Nancy: EA_1122; “Interactions Géne-Environnement en Physiopathologie Cardio-Vasculaire” (IGE-PCV) at the University of Lorraine (http://ige-pcv.univ-lorraine.fr/en/).
She is leading the Biological Resources Center (BRC): “Interactions Géne-Environnement en Physiopathologie Cardio-Vasculaire” from 2002 (BRC IGE-PCV – www.biobanques.eu/membres/, BB-0033-00051).
She is the scientific director of the STANISLAS Cohort origin project based on 1,006 families followed for 15 years (STANISLAS Family Study, SFS, epidemiologie-france.aviesan.fr/catalog/sheet).
She is actively involved in International Consortia’s Research as:
- Founder and Leader of the VEGF Consortium with 23 partners from 9 different countries (including the US and Canada) having world-renowned scientific expertise in different but complementary fields on VEGF-A, since 2015;
- Member of the MAGIC Consortium (Meta-Analyzes of Glucose and Insulin-related traits Consortium) since 2008;
- Member of the Consortium ‘CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology)’ – Inflammation working group – since 2013;
- Member of the “Social Science Genetics Association Consortium for Reproductive Behavior”, University of Groningen, Jornt Mandemakers and Nicola Barban, since 2013;
- Member of the Global Burden of Metabolic Risk Factors of Chronic Diseases Collaborating Group (NCD Risk Factor Collaboration – NCD-RisC), since 2014;
Her main Research interests are in the domain of public health, personalised medicine, prevention, genetic epidemiology, genomics and pharmacogenomics, cardio-vascular diseases, VEGF-A and inflammation.
She has published more than 380 papers in international scientific committee journals (ORCHID ID:0000-0001-8104-8425: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8104-8425?lang=fr, Web of science Researcher ID: H-2324-2014http://www.researcherid.com/rid/, https://publons.com/researcher/2517903/sophie-visvikis-siest/publications/), 2 patents and has given over 100 international invited conferences.
She has a long experience in obtaining and executing public, academic, industrial and EC funded projects. She participates in the BBMRI (Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure) European Biobanking initiative and is one of the pioneers in Biobanking founded by INSERM and ANR in France.
She has 20-years of experience in the prevention field due to her involvement in the Center of Preventive Medicine in Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France.
She was founding member and board member for 10 years (2011-2021) of the European Society of Pharmacogenomics and Theranostics (ESPT- www.esptnet.eu).
She is involved in the scientific organisation of congresses, meetings and courses, both in France and abroad.
She is the President of the Santorini Conferences Association (SCs) and of the “Santorini Conferences” colloquia held every 2 years since 2002 in Santorini, Greece, in the field of Genomics, Pharmacogenomics and Personalised Medicine.

Demet Akın
Prof. Demet Akın graduated from Ege University Faculty of Medicine. She received her PhD in Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology from Ankara University Faculty of Medicine. She worked as a postdoc at Vanderbilt University Brain Institute (Nashville/Tennessee). She is currently working as an academician in the Medical Pharmacology department of Bahcesehir University, Faculty of Medicine.She is the founder and director of the BAUGENtoFUTURE Pharmacogenetics center.

Catherine Alix-Panabières
Dr Catherine Alix-Panabières received her PhD degree in 1998 at the Institute of Virology, University Louis Pasteur, in Strasbourg in France. In 1999, she moved to Montpellier where she did a postdoctoral research at the University Medical Centre. During this last decade, Dr Alix-Panabières has focused on optimizing new techniques of enrichment, detection and characterization of viable circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patients with solid tumors. She is the expert for the EPISPOT technology that is used to detect viable CTCs in patients with breast, prostate, colon, head & neck cancer and melanoma. This technology has been recently improved to detect functional CTCs at the single cell level (EPIDROP). Dr Catherine Alix-Panabières & Prof Pantel coined for the first time the term ‘Liquid Biopsy’ in 2010 (Trends Mol Med).
In 2010, she achieved getting a permanent position at the Hospital and at the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier (MCU-PH). As an associate professor, she became the new director of the Laboratory of Rare Human Circulating Cells (LCCRH).
In this unique platform LCCRH, they isolate, detect and characterize CTCs using combinations many technologies. She has authored or co-authored >100 scientific publications in this field during the last years and 12 book chapters, she is the inventor of three patents in the liquid biopsy field and she is part of French national projects: for ex, PANTHER (FUI project), STIC-METABREAST, TACTIK (PHRC) as well as of big European projects: CTC-SCAN (Transcan project), CANCER-ID (IMI project), PROLIPSY (Transcan project) and European Liquid Biopsy Academy (ELBA, Marie-Curie project).
It was a great honor for her to receive the Gallet et Breton Cancer Prize, the highest honor conferred by the French Academy of Medicine in November 2012 and, more recently, the 2017 AACR Award for the most cited scientific article in 2015 (Cayrefourcq et al. Cancer Res).fac

Behrooz Z. Alizadeh
Dr. Behrooz Z. Alizadeh is an MD, and specialist in genetic epidemiology who obtained his MD from TUMS Tehran (1997), graduated in MSc (2001) and DSc (2002) degree from NIHES, Rotterdam, his Ph.D. from EMC–EU, Rotterdam (2005), and completed his postdoctoral fellowship in functional ImmunoGenomics at UMC Utrecht (2007). Since 2009, he is a staff member of the department of epidemiology acting as the head of the Unit of personalized medicine (2016) and is a member of the board of several research and/or educational programs and committees at UMCG Groningen, at METC UMCG (2012), and scientific international institutions. He holds visiting professor positions at several universities and is leading several (inter)national research projects (eg. MinldLines, GROUP, RadioGenomics, ARAS, CHARGE). During the 17 years of his scientific career, he published >200 publications of which the majority are in the top 10% of high-impact peer-reviewed journals. He is the principal investigator of educational institutes (eg. GUIDE, SHARE, GSMS, CPE) in the Netherlands. He has (co)supervised 20 PhDs fellows and postdocs. His current research is focused on the devising, modeling, but also clinical, and societal implementation of personalized medicine in cancer and psychosis. To this end, his research group utilizes and integrates heterogeneous data from various domains of genomics, exposome, clinical, medications, and patient-reported outcomes. In his view, personalized medicine is a health care process or even a societal program, rather than a research outcome!

Robert Barouki
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Robert Barouki |
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Inserm U 1124, Université de Paris ; 45 rue des Saints Pères, 75006 Paris France
Robert.barouki@parisdescartes.fr +33(0)621037503 |
POSITION TITLE
Professor of Biochemistry Director Inserm unit 1124, University Paris Descartes (staff 130, including 70 with permanent positions) Head of metabolomic biochemistry laboratory, Necker Enfants malades Hospital, Paris (staff 20)
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EDUCATION/TRAINING | ||||
INSTITUTION AND LOCATION | DEGREE
(if applicable) |
MM/YY | FIELD OF STUDY | |
University of Paris 5, France | M.D. | 1983 | Medicine | |
Ecole Normale Supérieure Ulm, France | 1982 | Biochemistry Pharmacology | ||
University of Paris, France | Ph.D. | 1982 | Pharmacology | |
Johns Hopkins Medical School | Post-doc | 1986 | Molecular biology | |
University of Paris, France | Habilitation | 1992 | Molecular Pharmacology Toxicology | |
Personal Statement
Robert Barouki is a biochemist and molecular biologist whose main research during the last 25 years has focused on the impact of environmental contaminants on human health and the mechanisms of action involved in those effects. In particular, he has studied the biological consequences following the activation of the dioxin receptor AhR and delineated the different mechanisms of toxicity. He has also studied the effects of combination of contaminants. More recently, he has been involved in international research programs aiming at characterizing the human exposome and at determining how to translate exposome science into policies.
He leads an Inserm unit (staff 130) and a clinical biochemistry department (staff 20).
He has led French initiatives in Environment and Health bringing together ecosystems and human health experts (IFRES). He advises the ministries of research, health and environment in France and is a member of the scientific council of Anses (environment, occupational and food safety agency), ANSM (medical drugs safety agency), IRSN (radioprotection agency). He coordinates or plays an important role in several EU programmes: HERA (agenda for research on environment climate and health, coordinator), HBM4EU (human biomonitoring, leader of exposure and health pillar), his unit coordinates a programme on endocrine disruptors (Oberon in the Eurion cluster) and he is an active partner of many others on exposome and toxicity. He has been an expert at WHO.
He was awarded the Inserm-Parliament science commission prize in 2018 for achievements in linking science to policy.
Positions and Employment
1984‑1986 Post-doctoral Fellow at the Department of Molecular Biology of the Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore (Pr Hamilton O Smith)
1983‑1992 Research scientist, CNRS, Inserm unit 99, Créteil France
1992‑2001: Director of Research, Inserm, Inserm unit 99, Créteil France
2001‑Present: Professor, University Paris, France
2005-Present Director of Inserm unit 1124 (Environmental toxicity, Therapeutic Targets, Cellular Signaling and Biomarkers) at the University of Paris (https://t3s-1124.biomedicale.parisdescartes.fr/)
2012- present Head of the clinical Metabolomic and Proteomic Biochemistry Department at the Necker Enfants malades hospital
Science Administration duties
- Member of the scientific council of Université Paris Descartes (2004-2011)
- Member of the Inserm scientific council (2008-2012)
- Member of the Anses (French Environment and Food Safety Agency) scientific council (since 2010)
- Member of the Ansm (French Drug Safety Agency) scientific council (since 2013)
- Member of the IRSN (Radioprotection agency) scientific council since 2018
- Chairman of the French National Research Agency committee on toxicology and ecotoxicology (2008-2012)
- Co-Chairman of the French Initative in Environemnet and Health Research (since 2014)
- Member of the expert committee of the French institute of public health (environmental issues)
- Leader of Pillar 3 (Exposure and Health Research) and WP6 (Sustainability) of the European Human Biomonitoring Initiative, HBM4EU (H2020)
- Coordinator of the EU H2020 HERA project aiming at developing the EU research agenda for the next decade in the field of environment climate and health
Teaching duties and responsibilities
- Charirman of the International Master Program: BioMedical Engineering-Paris (BME-Paris, http://www.bme-paris.com)
- Co-Chairman of the Environmental Toxicology specialty of the Master of Toxicology-Paris (TES,)
- In charge of a teaching unit on vulnerability to environmental stressors at the Master of Public Health France
- Teaching duties in Biochemistry and Toxicology: 1st year Medicine, Master level, PhD level.
Clinical duties
- Head of the clinical Metabolomic and Proteomic Biochemistry Department at the Necker Enfants malades hospital: in charge of the mass spectrometry facility at the Necker hospital and of clinical tests.
Major grants (selection)
– H2020 HBM4EU European initiative on human biomonitoring (2016-2021) Leader of Pillar 3 (Exposure and Health Research) , WP6 (Sustainability), bisphenols group, the French HBM4EU National hub
– H2020 HERA project coordinator (EU research agenda in the field of environment climate and Health, 2019-2021)
– H2020 Oberon project (testing strategy for metabolic outcomes of endocrine disruptors) (Unit 1124 as coordinator and co-coordinator for 15 months of the Eurion cluster (2019-2023)
– FP7 Heals: human exposome (2013-2018).
– H2020 Neurosome: exposome and neurological disorders (2018-2021).
>10 national grants since 2010
Editorial activities
– Editor of Febs letters (100 papers per year): 2002-2010
– Member of the editorial board of Médecine/Sciences (1997-2004), ERS (since 2012); Tox sciences (since 2015)
– Reviewer for several journals : : Febs J, Febs Letters, Biochem Pharmacol, Mol Pharmacol, Mol endocrinol, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Tox Sci, Diabetes, …`
Meeting organization and conferences at international meetings
– Organization of the PPTOX (III, IV and V) meetings, AhR 2016 meeting, French society of cellular toxicology and pharmacology,
– Conferences at international and national meetings (several per year): Eurotox, IUTOX, NIEHS workshop, International Congress of Pharmacology, etc.
Publications
193 publications (PubMed)
H factor: 45 (WoS), 53 (GS)
Recent Prizes and Honors
Inserm OPECST (French parliament science commission) prize 2018 for supporting science translation into policies
Elected Corresponding Member of the French National Academy of Medicine
Languages
Fluent in English, French and Arabic
References
Dr Linda Birnbaum; Pr Philippe Grandjean ; Pr Gary Miller ; Pr Paolo Vineis ; Pr Denis Sarigiannis ; Pr Jana Klanova

Colin J.H. Brenan
Colin J.H. Brenan is a serial life sciences entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in building high growth, early-stage life science companies based on in-licensed university research. Dr. Brenan is presently the CEO of Kibur Medical Inc., an early stage company commercializing a novel cancer diagnostic, and Managing Director of CB Bioventures LLC, an advisory for early stage life science companies. Previously he was Founder/CEO and Director of the single cell instrumentation company 1CellBio Inc. (www.1cell-bio.com); formerly Founder/Chief Commercial Officer and Director of antibody drug developer HiFiBiO Ltd (www.hifibio.com); and, a Managing Partner of the seed stage investment fund 7Pines Holding BV. Before 7Pines he was Managing Director of the Monsanto-Atlas Seed Fund Alliance at Atlas Venture (Cambridge, USA) where he identified and invested in seed and early-stage life science companies. Prior to Atlas, Dr. Brenan was Director of Strategic Relationships for the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT) – a Partners Healthcare innovation center (Boston, MA). Before joining CIMIT, Dr. Brenan was the Founder, Chief Technology Officer, SVP, Business Development and a Director of BioTrove Inc. (Woburn, USA), a life science nanofluidic tools company spun-out from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and acquired by Life Technologies Inc. (LIFE:NASDAQ); and a Founder of Biocius Inc., a drug discovery instrument and service provider spun-out from BioTrove and acquired by Agilent Inc. (A:NYSE).
Dr. Brenan is the inventor on 26 US patents, 27 non-US patents, +60 patent applications and published +50 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and reports in the fields of bio-microsystems, confocal microscopy, spectroscopic imaging, drug discovery and microsurgical robotics. He has over a decade of experience in consulting for the US National Institutes of Health; is an IEEE Senior Member; is formerly Editor-in-Chief of IEEE PULSE Magazine and serves currently as the IEEE-EMBS VP of Technical Activities. He received his B.Sc. (Honours Physics), M. Eng. (Electrical), and Ph.D. (Biomedical Engineering) from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and completed post-doctoral training at MIT (Cambridge, USA).

Didier Bourgeois
Didier BOURGEOIS, MD
Né le 23/01/1966
Ancien Interne des Hôpitaux de Paris
Ancien Chef de Clinique à la Faculté de médecine – Assistant des Hôpitaux de Paris
Ancien Chirurgien à l’Institut Curie
Chirurgien spécialiste en cancérologie sénologique et gynécologique à la Clinique Hartmann – Neuilly-Sur-Seine
Président de l’Institut du Sein Henri Hartmann
Nombreuses communications sur l’utilisation des signatures génomiques dans la prise en charge des cancers du sein

Ivan Brandslund
Ivan Brandslund, MD, DMSC
Professor and Head of Research, University of Southern Denmark and University Hospital of Southern Denmark Vejle, Denmark
Education
Medical authorization 1974, authorization as a general practitioner 1983, authorization as a specialist
in chemical pathology, 1984.
DMSC, Odense University, 1986
Present positions
Professor, Clinical Biochemistry and Immunology, IRS, Health Science Faculty, University
of Southern Denmark
Previous positions, fellowships, awards
Research scholarship 1978-81, Institute of Medical Microbiology, Odense University.
Visiting investigator, Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, La Jolla, California and Dept. Public Health, NIH, USA 1985-86.
Director of the Laboratory Center at Hospital Lillebaelt, Research Director 2000-2019
Head of the Dept. of Clinical Biochemistry, Vejle County Hospital1986 – 2004
Assistant professor, Clinical Chemistry, Odense University 1976-86. Assoc. professor 1986-2006.
Public Health Service International Research Fellow, National Institutes of Health, U.S.A., 1985.
The Paul Astrup price for research in clinical chemistry 1983.
Lions club international Prize 2013 for research in diabetes.

Ingolf Cascorbi
Ingolf Cascorbi is Professor of Pharmacology and Vice Dean of Studies at the Medical Faculty, University of Kiel and Director of the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein. He holds a PhD in biochemistry, an MD and is specialist in clinical pharmacology.
His research interests are in pharmacogenomics and -epigenomics, mechanisms of drug resistance as well as in neuropathic pain research.
Ingolf Cascorbi is member on various scientific boards and is currently President of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR) and President of the German Society of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology (DGPT).

Ekaterini Chatzaki
Ekaterini Chatzaki (PhD) is Professor of Pharmacology in the Medical School of the Democritus University of Thrace and Director of the Institute of AgriFood and Health Sciences, Hellenic Mediterranean University Research Centre, Crete.
She has also served as a member of the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Committee of the Hellenic Ministry of Health. Following academic and industrial post-docs, during which she worked in pre-clinical R&D of small molecule antagonists, she leads the team of Molecular Pharmacology since 2002, where she developed her interests in Epigenetic/Pharmacoepigenetic biomarkers in cancer, molecular carcinogenesis in solid tumours and clinical studies for new anticancer schemes. She has recently incorporated automated machine learning aided by HPC in her studies’ pipeline for biomarker discovery.
She has a >30 year experience in pharmacology research with a large publication record (ORCID No 0000-0002-5832-4257; Web of Science ResearcherID AAW-9507-2020). Her research has received funding primarily by the EEC and the Greek Government and by the industry.

Alex Chenchik
Dr. Alex Chenchik is president and chief scientific officer of Cellecta, Inc. based in Mountain View, California. Cellecta is focused on the development and application of next generation functional genomic technologies for the discovery of biomarkers, drug targets and the development of novel drugs. While at System Biosciences (SBI) as vice president of R&D, he developed a genetic screen technology with pooled lentiviral shRNA libraries in combination with a wide range of reporter cell lines. As director of the Gene Cloning and Analysis (GCA) group at Clontech Laboratories, he headed efforts to develop microarray and disease-profiling arrays for expression profiling, PCR-based technologies for gene cloning, and a subtraction-based approach for discovery of differentially expressed genes. Dr. Chenchik received his doctorate in Molecular Biology from the Institute of Molecular Biology, Moscow, Russia, and was a research scientist at the National Cardiology Research Center in Moscow. He has authored over 50 publications and is an inventor with more than a dozen issued patents.

Georges Dagher
Georges Dagher is an Emeritus Director of Research at Inserm (France), visiting Professor at Graz University Medical School and that of Milano-Bicocca; an honorary Professor at Stem Lab at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is also the CEO of Paradigm 66, a private company (France). He is an expert to several governmental, institutional and private Scientific and Ethical Advisory Boards. He is involved in the drafting of more than 30 standards related to biobanking, and biomarkers for diagnosis and targeted medicine. He is the convenor of the ISO WG Biobanking and Bioresources at the Technical Committee 276 “Biotechnology”.
Prior to this, he was the Vice-Chair of the Assembly of Members of the pan-European BBMRI-ERIC (2013-2016) and the Director of Biobanques a French infrastructure that networks 85 biobanks (2012-2016). He was the Director of Clinical Research Infrastructures at Inserm (2006-2009) and Deputy Director of the Department of Clinical Research at the Public Health Institute, Inserm, France (2009-2011).
He accomplished most of his career in pathophysiological and clinical research at Necker Hospital (1979-1984), College de France (1985-1993) and Faculty of medicine Broussais-Hotel-Dieu (France, 1994-2004). He joined the Physiological Laboratory (Cambridge, UK) for a postdoctoral fellowship (1983-1985) and was a visiting researcher to Biophysics & Physiological laboratory (Harvard Medical School, Boston,1982, 1984).
He published more than 100 papers in international peer-reviewed journals on hypertension, arterial hypertrophy, obesity, lipid metabolism, manic depression, renal physiology and transmembrane ion transport.

Georges Dedoussis
Georges Dedoussis is a Professor of Human Biology at the Department of Dietetics and Nutrition of Harokopio University in Athens. He received his BSc in Biology from the University of Patras, his master’s degree from the University of Technology «Compiegne» in France, and his PhD from the Medical School of Athens. He worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center of Thalassemia and as a researcher on a Fulbright scholarship at the Medical Faculty of the ‘Harvard University’ (Boston, USA). He has been a visiting professor for many years at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Nancy, France. As a Principal Investigator he has coordinated a large number of research projects mainly in the field of Human Molecular Genetics of cardiometabolic phenotypes and their interaction with dietary intake. He has supervised 9 PhD students that have defended, while in 5 others their dissertations are in progress. He has published more than 300 papers in journals with high impact factor and his research work has been recognized by others (number of citations > 45000). He is teaching Biology of the Cell and Molecular Genetics. He was recently elected as a member and Vice-President of the National Research Council. He was nominated in 2019 among the most cited scientists during the last decade. He has coordinated many national and European grants in the field of genomics of obesity, myocardial infraction and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). He is also testing the potential beneficial impact of natural compounds on the clinical outcome of patients diagnosed with NAFLD and he is the coordinator of a Marie Curie RISE European grant (web). His research group is consisted of Nutritionists, Biologists and Bioinformaticiens

Panagiotis Deloukas
Panos Deloukas is Chair of Cardiovascular Genomics and Director William Harvey Research Institute, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). He is Fellow of The Academy of Medical Sciences (UK) since 2018. Deloukas is a world leader in complex trait genetics investigating the molecular basis of cardio-metabolic traits. He co-leads global consortia in common disease genetics (CARDIoGRAMplusC4D, GLGC, GIANT) having identified many of the loci underpinning lipid levels and coronary heart disease. He has authored over 511 publications (H-index 175) and is amongst the world’s top 1% highly cited researchers in Molecular Biology & Genetics. He is the Programme Lead for MSc in Genomic Medicine at QMUL.
Cardiovascular Genetics & Genomics
Panos Deloukas, who is a co-founder and current executive member of the CARDIoGRAMplusC4D consortium, has made significant contributions to the discovery of over 240 risk loci for coronary artery disease published today having co-led several efforts. He is currently undertaking further analyses in UK Biobank including gene-gene and gene-environment interactions. Panos is theme lead for Inherited Cardiovascular Disorders in the NIHR Barts Biomedical Research Centre and chairs the Functional Genomics subgroup of the Cardiovascular Clinical Interpretation Domain from Genomics England.
Panos is an international leader in the genetics of cardiometabolic risk factors having identified many genetic loci affecting lipid levels in the blood. He is a steering committee member of the Global Lipid Genetics Consortium and co-Chair of the Lipids working group of the UK Biobank Cardiometabolic Consortium. He has conducted some of the first large-scale epigenome-wide association studies reporting several DNA methylation sites in blood and adipose tissue associated with BMI, lipid levels, and exposure to cigarette smoking. He has constructed open chromatin maps in several blood cell types (monocytes, erythrocytes, megakaryocytes) and shown their utility to guide the functional follow-up of genome-wide association signals of hematotological traits.
Finally, he has been among the first to report the association between common DNA variants in the VKORC1 gene and dose requirement for the anticoagulant drug warfarin and has conducted the first well powered genome-wide association study in pharmacogenetics which identified CYP4F2 as a genetic determinant of warfarin dose. He is a leading member of the International Warfarin Pharmacogenomics Consortium.

Paul Diehl
Paul Diehl, Ph.D.
Chief Operating Officer, Cellecta, Inc.
Mountain View, California, USA
Dr. Paul Diehl joined Cellecta, Inc. in July 2010 where he applies over two decades of experience in biotechnology to developing and expanding the company’s commercial and collaborative activities. Prior to joining Cellecta, Dr. Diehl held various marketing and business development positions at B-Bridge International, Agilent Technologies, Clontech Laboratories and other companies. Dr. Diehl received his B.A. in Biology from LaSalle University in Philadelphia, PA and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Washington State University in Pullman, WA.

Robin Everts
Robin Everts, Ph.D.
Senior Manager – Global Pharmacogenetics & Clinical Genetics
Department of Scientific Affairs
Agena Bioscience, Inc.
Dr. Robin Everts, Senior Manager in the department of Scientific Affairs at Agena Biosciences, was trained as a molecular geneticist and has published 48 peer-reviewed articles in different fields including gene expression in immunology, developmental biology, pharmacogenetics, as well as gene mapping.
He has, for the last 10-15 years, focused primarily on improving and expanding the pharmacogenetics & clinical genetics capabilities of the Agena Bioscience MassARRAY Analyzer platform. Some of the products he conceived are the ADME PGx Pro Panel, the VeriDose Core Panel, and the VeriDose CYP2D6 CNV panel as well as panels for CFTR and Ashkenazi Jewish gene mutations.
In 2020 he has been involved with the company’s COVID-19 response, developing assays and RT-PCR biochemistry for the EUA approved MassARRAY SARS-CoV-2 panel.
He earned a BSc and MSc in Animal Sciences from Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands and a PhD in Molecular Genetics from Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
He is member of AMP, CPIC, PGRN, and CLSI. He is also a contributor to the CDC’s Genetic Testing Reference Materials Coordination Program.

Le Ferrier
Title: Director, R&D
Work Group: Genetic Sciences Group
Education:
- M.S. in Engineering Management, Santa Clara University.
- B.S. in Biological Systems Engineering, UC Davis.
Employment: Thermo Fisher Scientific since 2002
Expertise: qPCR/dPCR systems and reagent development (system integration, master mix formulations, assay design)
Recent project(s): Commercialization of QuantStudioTM Absolute QTM Digital PCR reagents and assays

Balazs Győrffy
Balazs Győrffy MD PhD studied medicine at the Semmelweis University Budapest and at the Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelberg, Germany. He published over 250 scientific papers, submitted several patents and obtained doctoral degree in molecular genetics and bioinformatics. He worked several years at the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany and at the Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. He is a specialist of bioinformatical evaluation of genomic data and his current research interest in on uncovering new cancer biomarkers.

Alexander Haliassos
Alexander Haliassos obtained his MD diploma and his thesis (PhD) at the school of Medicine, National University of Athens, Greece. He pursued his scientific education at the Faculty of Medicine, Claude Bernard University, Lyon I (FR) where he gained a thesis (DEA) on electronics applied in the medical field, and one in human genetics and completed his curriculum in France as post-doctoral fellow (1987-1991) at the “Institute of Molecular Biology” of Paris-Descartes University (FR). He is registered as European Clinical Chemist (EurClinChem, now EurSpLM) since 2003.
Alexander Haliassos is currently the President and CEO of DIAMEDICA, a Greek reference laboratory specialized in Prenatal Diagnostics based in Athens since 2005. He also acts as Scientific Director of the Greek External Quality Assessment Scheme (ESEAP).
At the national level, Doctor Haliassos has held a number of professional representative roles in Greece including GSCC-CB Executive Board member and General Secretary from 1996 until today. He is elected president of the GSCC-CB since November 2017. He is a founding Member of the Scientific and Educational Committee of the GSCC-CB and a founding Member of the Greek National Registration Committee for Clinical Chemistry. He represents Greece at EQALM, and he is an elected member of HellasLab Executive Board, the Greek section of EuroLab.
At the international level, Doctor Alexander Haliassos is member of the American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC) and the leading Editor of the website www.labtestsonline.gr. He is the IFCC National Representative of Greece since 2005.
During the last decade, he has been involved in various scientific and professional International/European committees and/or working groups. He served as member of the IFCC-WG on Standardization of Troponin I (WG-TNI) and he is a member of the IFCC Analytical Quality Committee (C-AQ). In 2014, he was appointed as Chair of the IFCC-Task Force on Proficiency Testing (TF-PT) now Committee on Proficiency Testing (C- PT), a multidisciplinary effort of IFCC in the analysis and the exploration of the Proficiency Testing and External Quality Control issues. In January 2019 he has been elected in the Executive Board of IFCC as Treasurer for the term 2021-2023.
For several years now, he intensified its engagements with the IFCC conferences and congresses acting as the Greek leader for the organization of the 10th IFCC-General Conference, Corfu in 2010 and as Member of the EuroMedLab Paris 2015 Congress Organizing Committee (COC). Dr Haliassos is the President of EuroMedalb Athens 2017.
Dr Alexander Haliassos published more than 59 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals cited 1125 times, made more than 120 oral presentations in international congresses, participated in 199 posters in international meetings and chaired one international, two national congresses and several seminars on laboratory medicine subjects.

Magnus Ingelman-Sundberg
Magnus Ingelman-Sundberg, PhD; BSc.Med is Senior Professor of Molecular Toxicology and research group leader in Pharmacogenetics at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology , Karolinska Institutet since 2006. He has more than 450 original papers, 24 500 citations (32 000 in Google Scholar) and an h-factor of 85 (ISI) or 105 (Google Scholar).
He was a member of The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet 2008-2018, a Highly cited researcher 2014-2017 and a member of Editorial Advisory Boards of e.g. Trends in Pharmacological Sciences (Edit Board), Pharmacogenetics and Genomics, Pharmacogenomics, Drug Metabolism Reviews, Drug Metabolism and Disposition, Human Genomics. His research focuses on genetics, polymorphism, regulation, function and toxicology of the hepatic ADME system with aims at understanding interindividual differences in drug response. Furthermore he develops novel hepatic in vitro systems for studying liver function and validation of drug targets. Further info see: Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2015; 36:65-7 or Basic Clin Pharmacol Toxicol, 123, 643-644 Dec 2018.

Stravoula Kanoni
I am a Lecturer in Nutrigenetics and Cardiovascular Health with more than 10 years’ experience in health data science, focusing on cardiovascular disease, blood lipid traits, metabolic traits and their inheritable and environmental risk factors.
After my PhD in Nutrigenetics, I joined the Wellcome Sanger Institute, as a post-doctoral researcher in the group of genetics of complex traits in humans, where I focused on genetic and gene-diet interaction analysis in cardiovascular and cardiometabolic diseases. I was involved in several consortium-led projects and co-authored several high profile publications. In 2013 I joined the Clinical Pharmacology Department, in the William Harvey Institute of Queen Mary University of London, as a senior statistical geneticist and developed sophisticated analytical pipelines for analysing large-scale genetic data, including the UK Biobank, for the investigation of coronary artery disease, blood lipids, blood pressure and anthropometric traits. I co-authored over 50 papers, including 2 publications in Nature Genetics, as a starred first author, on the genetic architecture of coronary artery disease. I have also been actively involved in the Nutrition working group within the CHARGE consortium, investigating gene-by-diet interactions in cardiometabolic traits.
In 2019 I was appointed a Lecturer in Nutrigenetics and Cardiovascular Health at William Harvey Institute and have been leading and co-leading projects relating to genetic architecture, prediction and causality of cardiovascular-related diseases in multi-ethnic populations. My research interests are focused on risk prediction for complex cardiometabolic traits, including the genetic predisposition and the lifestyle/diet/environment interplay. I am undertaking research on elucidating disease-related mechanisms in multi-ethnic cohorts and developing innovative therapeutic strategies, to alleviate or at least modulate the impact of environment on health. I have also engaged in the genetic COVID-19 research.
My work is reflected in > 100 peer-reviewed publications.

John Lamont
John Lamont is the Chief Scientist at Randox and also a Senior Manager. John achieved a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from The Queen’s University of Belfast (1979) and also an MSc in Clinical Biochemistry from Trinity College Dublin (1983). John worked in clinical biochemistry for 4 years and in Biochemistry Research at Queen’s University before joining Randox Ltd (1984) where he led the development of Biochip Array Technology (BAT). John manages molecular biology R&D, external research collaborations, develops strategic alliances with companies and manages the company’s portfolio of IP (co-author of at least 10 patents) and licensing contracts.

Adrián LLerena
Adrián LLerena is the Director of Extremadura Biosanitary Research Institute and the Clinical Research Center in the University Hospital Ien Badajoz Spain. He is also Professor of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology in two Medical Schools in the University of Extremadura Spain and part time in the University of Beira Interior, Portugal. He earned his PhD at University of Extremadura in 1988 and between 1989 to 1993 did his post doc at Karolinska Institute Sweden focusing on Clinical Pharmacogenetics. His teaching experience is of more than 30 years in Spain and of about 9 years in Portugal. He has supervised more than 25 PhD thesis so far. He has also been an invited as Professor in different Universities in USA such as University of California at Los Angeles 2004 Mount Sinai Medical School at NY 2005 and Miller Medical School at Miami 2006 and in Latin America such as UNAM in Mexico San Marcos in Peru Chile Brasil etc. He has published more than 200 peer reviewed papers and book chapters. He is also coordinating the RIBEF IberoAmerican network of Pharmacogenetics since 2006. He served in different Scietific societies as IberoAmerican Society of Pharmacogenomics. He has been Principal Investigator in more than 25 national and European research projects. He has also served as reviewer in all journals related to clinical pharmacology and mainly pharmacogenetics and clinical psychopharmacology. At present he is the President of the Spanish Society of Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics SEFF, Board Member of ESPT, European Society of Pharmacogenetics and Theranostics. Since 2010 is is member of the EMA PGWP, European Medicines Agency Pharmacogenomics Working Parthy.

Vangelis G. Manolopoulos
Vangelis G. Manolopoulos
Professor of Pharmacology, Pharmacogenomics and Precision Medicine
Director, Laboratory of Pharmacology, Medical Faculty, Democritus University of Thrace, &
Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Academic General Hospital of Evros,
Alexandroupolis, Greece
Education and Training
Biology B.Sc, School of Health Sciences, Patras University, Greece (1979-1984)
Pharmacology Ph.D, Medical School, Patras University, Greece (1986-1991).
Postdoctoral training, Mt Sinai Hospital at Milwaukee Clinical Campus, University of Wisconsin, USA (1992-1995)
Postdoctoral training, Medical School, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (1995-1998)
Research interest(s)
- Pharmacogenomics and other omics in relation to drug response
- Anticoagulant drug omics
- Oncology drug omics
- Psychiatric drug omics
- Pharmacotherapy and omics of COVID-19
- Therapeutic drug monitoring
Boards/ Committees (national/ international)
- President, European Society of Pharmacogenetics and Personalised Therapy (ESPT)
- Chairman, Greek Society of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology
- Executive Board member, European Association for Clinical Pharmacology (EACPT)
- Member (current or ex) of several committees of the Academic General Hospital of Evros (Scientific Council, Drug Committee, Ethics committee)
Editorial board positions
- Drug Metabolism and Personalized Therapy (Associate Chief Editor)
- Pharmacogenomics
- British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
- European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
- Frontiers, section on Pharmacogenetics & Pharmacogenomics
- Hellenic Journal of Atherosclerosis
Publications
- Publications in international scientific journals indexed in PubMed/ Medline: 123
- Other publications, Book Chapters in Books, e-papers, papers in Greek: approx. 30
- Abstracts in meetings. Approx. 150
- Η-index : 33
- Citations : approx 3700
- Articles on scientific topics in lay press and sites: more than 50
Other information
Founding Director of the Center of Excellence for Pharmacological Studies and Precision Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece (est. 2021)
Regular Evaluator of Grant Proposals in various national and international agencies, most notably the EU (FP7 and HORIZON programmes)

Janja Marc
Prof.dr. Janja Marc, EuSpLM (janja.marc@ffa.uni-lj.si) is full professor of Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory biomedicine at University of Ljubljana. Between 2007 – 2013 she was the head of Department of Clinical biochemistry at Faculty of Pharmacy and 13 years (2005-2018) she was the head of Laboratory for molecular diagnostics at Faculty of Pharmacy. She is giving lectures at all three levels (BSc, MSc. and PhD) of of Pharmacy and Laboratory biomedicine university studies. Her lectures are covering different topics of clinical chemistry, laboratory medicine and molecular diagnostics. She has been the supervisor of over 170 graduate and master thesis and 14 PhD theses. She is the principal coordinator of the CIII-SI-0611 network in international CEEPUS student exchange program and the principal investigator of research group working on musco -skeletal disorders. Since 2020 she is partly employed as scientific advisor at Clinical Center Ljubljana.
Her research is focused on genetic backgrounds of complex diseases in humans with the aim of finding the genetic markers and pathways important for diseases etiology. For many years she is studying the genetic background of diseases like osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, insulin resistance, obesity (metabolic syndrome) and toxicity of heavy metal exposure. After many genotype-phenotype association studies and later the whole genome and transcriptome analyses of osteoblasts her group continued to functional evaluation of genetic variations using transfected cells models, primary osteoblasts and mesenchymal stem cells. Important part of her research is related to pharmacogenomics, aging and the impact of epigenetic factors like micro RNAs, histone modulating enzymes and DNA methylation in bone tissue. Since 2012, after invitation to European Society for Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Therapy (ESPT) she started to researching and evaluating the panels of markers for personalization of prevention, diagnosis and management of osteoporosis and some other age-related diseases. She was investigator in 18 national and international research projects and is/was the member of five international consortiums: GEFOS/GENOMOS, VEGF, EuPIC, STAT-TBI, Osteotarget. She is the coordinator at partner institution of ARTE project, Interreg Italia-Slovenia, EU-Standard project; (Leader: Antonio Sfiligoj, Udine, Italia) and the member of Management Committees of two COST projects: EVBRES and GEMSTONE. She published over 135 scientific papers with over 3400 citations (h-index=22), was invited speaker at over 40 national and international conferences and was/is the member of editorial boards of five international scientific journals (CCLM, AP, BM, eIFCCJ, DMPT, LM, FV). 8 years she was the member of the executive board of European Society for Pharmacogenomics and Personal Therapy (ESPT) and general secretary of this society between 2012-2016. She is active also in the professional Slovenian Association of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (SACCLM) and at Slovenian Chamber of LM. For contribution to development of laboratory medicine profession in Slovenia she received the Recognition of SACCLM in 2016. Since 2019 she is the member of the national Committee of Patient rights RS.
Present positions:
- The member of Laboratory diagnostics advisory board at Ministry of health RS (since 2010)
- Member of the Committee of Patient Rights of Republic of Slovenia (since 2019)
- The Chair of Education Division at European Society for Pharmacogenomics and Personal Therapy (ESPT) (since 2016)
- The member of EFLM/ESPT working group for Personalized Laboratory Medicine at European Federation of Laboratory medicine (since 2012)
- The Chair of working group for Personalized Laboratory medicine at SACCLM (since 2017)
Past positions:
- Head of Department of Clinical Biochemistry at Faculty of Pharmacy (2007-2014)
- Head of Laboratory of molecular diagnostics at Faculty of Pharmacy (2007-2018)
- General Secretary of European Society for Pharmacogenomics and Personal Therapy (2012-2016)
- The member of EFLM/ESPT working group for Personalized Laboratory Medicine at European Federation of Laboratory medicine (2012-2018)
- Chair of Laboratory diagnostics advisory board at Ministry of health RS (2010-2012)
- Chair of the Commission for licencing and education at Slovenian Laboratory Medicine Chamber (2007-2014)
- Member of executive board of SACCLM (1993-1997 and 2000 -2004)
Key words: aging, epigenetics, functional genetics, muscle-skeletal diseases, human bone tissue, genome, transcriptome, pharmacogenetics, biomarkers, personalized laboratory medicine

Federica Marelli-Berg
Federica Marelli-Berg qualified in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Milan in 1989, and specialized in Hematology in 1993 at the University of Pavia, Italy. In 1997 she completed her PhD studies at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (London) under the supervision of Professor Sir R. Lechler. In 2000 she was awarded a Governors’ lectureship by Imperial College London, where she continued her academic career to become Professor of Immunology in 2011. She joined the William Harvey Research Institute (Barts and The London SMD, Queen Mary University of London) in November 2011. In 2016, she was awarded the BHF Chair of Cardiovascular Immunology.
Her work focusses on the modulation of immune responses through control of T cell migration.

Michael Marschler
Michael Marschler is a pharmacist and pharmacovigilance expert by training. He worked in various roles in the Pharmaceutical and CRO industries, providing leadership to his direct reports and to project teams. His experience includes all aspects of pharmacovigilance from case processing and aggregate safety reporting to risk management and signal management, as well as process development to ensure regulatory compliance. During the last years he additionally focuses on pharmacogenomics and how to integrate PGx within pharmacovigilance. He served as EU QPPV and most recently as Sr. Director Pharmacovigilance and Global Head of Patient Safety Operations at PRA Health Sciences. Michael Marschler is a member of the Steering Committee and Scientific Advisory Board of The Santorini Conferences, member of the Santorini Conferences Association and member of the Board of Editors of two scientific publications.

Helena Murray
Helena Murray is a Team Leader in Molecular Diagnostics at Randox. Helena achieved a BSc (Hons) in Food Science (1995) followed by a PhD in Molecular Microbiology (1999) from Queen’s University of Belfast. Since joining Randox in 1999 Helena has helped develop mutation and genotyping assays for use on Randox’s proprietary biochip array technology within the areas of oncology, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, diabetes and infectious diseases.

Lena Neufeld
Lena Neufeld | Chemical engineer
PhD student
Professor Ronit Satchi-Fainaro’s Laboratory
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology
Sackler School of Medicine, Room 607
Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
Tel: +972-3-640 8733 Fax: +972-3-640 9113
Lena Neufeld earned her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. After completing her M.Sc. (Cum Laude), Lena’s goal was to combine her multidisciplinary knowledge in bio-polymers and chemistry with a clinical aspect. She joined the research group led by Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University as a Ph.D. student. She designed and created a perfusable 3D-bioprinted tumor model based on cells from patients. Her 3D-bioprinted model can serve as a powerful platform for rapid, reproducible, and robust biomedical device for personalized therapy screening and drug development. This work was recently published in Science Advances and gained worldwide media attention. For this project, Lena and her team were awarded first place at the 3D-Printing Industry Awards as the Healthcare application of the year and a US provisional patent application was filed. In the past three years, Lena was awarded the Dan David Prize Scholarship for Excellent Researchers of Exceptional Promise in the future time dimension, in the personalized medicine field. Lena also received the TEVA Pharmaceutical Bio-Innovation mentorship fellowship and participated in their year-long training project. Moreover, the Israeli Academy of Sciences nominated and chose her for a science communication workshop for outstanding doctoral students.

Charity Nofziger
Dr. Charity Nofziger received her PhD in Biology in 2008. Her thesis work focused on ENaC and its potential role in thiazolidione induced fluid retention in the context of renal pathophysiology. From there, she accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the Paracelsus Medical University (Salzburg Austria) where she started her work in the field of pharmacogenetics focused on CYP2D6. She designed a practical course for pharmacogenetics and implemented it into the medical curriculum there. In the same institution, she accepted a second postdoctoral fellowship funded by Roche with a focus on the expression of drug transporters in the proximal tubule. In 2017, she switched sectors and joined a private laboratory (PharmGenetix Gmbh – provides PGx analyses and reporting services) as their Chief Science Officer.
Dr. Nofziger serves the broader field of PGx through professional societies including CPIC, ESPT and PharmVar, the latter of which she holds a seat on the steering committee, serves as an expert on the CYP2D6 gene panel, and acts as a PharmVar representative on the DPYD and CYP2A6 gene panels. Dr. Nofziger has an extensive publication list of original research articles and reviews. She also serves as an expert for the European Research Executive Agency within the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe frameworks.

Michael Oellerich

Uwe Oelmueller
Dr. Uwe Oelmueller joined QIAGEN in 1995. He is Vice President, Head of the Molecular Diagnostics Department for Sample Technologies. At the QIAGEN / BD joint venture company PreAnalytiX he is QIAGEN’s Management Committee Co-Chair. Dr. Oelmueller was the coordinator of the EU FP7 Collaborative Grant Project SPIDIA (2008 – 2013) and is the current coordinator of the EU Horizon 2020 Coordination and Support Action SPDIA4P (2017 – 2020). Both projects focus on the standardization and improvement of pre-analytical workflows for in-vitro diagnostics. He is a working group convener at the ISO/TC 212 (clinical Laboratory testing and in vitro diagnostic test systems) and at the CEN/TC 140 (in vitro diagnostic medical devices). In 2017 he received in Stockholm the “DIN Honorary Needle” Award for his international engagement in standards developments for quality management in medical laboratories and in 2020 in Brussels the CEN-CENELEC “Standard and Innovation Technical Body Officers Award” for successfully introducing research outcome and innovation into standardization.
The SPIDIA project received funding from under the 7th Research Framework Programme of the European Union, under grant agreement no. 222916. SPIDIA4P project receives funding from the European Union´s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 733112.

Nickolas Papadopoulos
Dr. Nickolas Papadopoulos is internationally known as a co‐discoverer of the genetic basis of the predisposition to hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer (HNPCC), one of the most common hereditary forms of cancer, earlier in his career. He is known for the development of diagnostic tests and he is considered an expert in cancer genetics and diagnostics. He was part of the interdisciplinary team that was first to sequence all of the protein coding genes, determine genetic alterations and construct expression profiles of four common tumor types. Later he was involved in the identification of genetic alterations that drive tumorigenesis in multiple tumor types. Noteworthy discoveries he has made include the identification of novel mutations in chromatin remodeling genes in ovarian clear cell carcinomas and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Currently, he is focused on translating the genetic information derived from cancer genome analyses to clinical applications in early detection, diagnosis and monitoring of cancer. He is a co-developer of sensitive methods for the detection of tumor DNA in liquid biopsy. Recently, he developed CancerSEEK, a blood test for the early detection of multiple cancers. He is also the co-founder of Inostics, PGDx, Thrive, and ManaTbio.

Klaus Pantel
Prof Pantel is Chairman of the Institute of Tumour Biology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.
The institute is part of the Centre of Experimental Medicine and the University Cancer Center Hamburg (UCCH). Prof Pantel graduated in 1986 from Cologne University in Germany and completed his thesis on mathematical modelling of haematopoiesis in 1987.
After his postdoctoral period in the USA on hematopoietic stem cell regulation (Wayne State University, Detroit), he performed research at the Institute of Immunology, University of Munich for 10 years. The pioneer work of Prof Pantel in the field of cancer micrometastasis, circulating tumor cells and circulating nucleic acids (ctDNA, microRNAs) is reflected by more than 500 publications in excellent high ranking biomedical and scientific journals (incl. NEJM, Lancet, Nature Journals, Cancer Cell, Science Translational Medicine, Cancer Discovery, PNAS, JCO, JNCI, Cancer Res.) and has been awarded the AACR Outstanding Investigator Award 2010, German Cancer Award 2010, and two ERC Advanced Investigator Grants 2011 and 2019.
Moreover, Prof Pantel coordinates the European IMI consortium CANCER-ID (www.cancer-id.eu) on blood-based “Liquid Biopsies” in lung and breast cancer comprising 37 partner institutions from academia, non-profit organizations and industry.

Guillaume Paré
Guillaume Paré is a Professor and University Scholar, Dept. of Pathology & Molecular Medicine at McMaster University and Director of the Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory.
He was recently inducted as a member into the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. Dr. Pare currently holds a Canada Research Chair in Genetic & Molecular Epidemiology, as well as a CISCO Professorship. His clinical interests are centered on lipoprotein disorders, obesity and cardiovascular disease prevention. His corresponding research interests are in cardiovascular genetics, biomarker development and pharmacogenomics. These interests have led to expertise in bioinformatics, high-throughput biology and genetic epidemiology. Since joining McMaster University in 2009, Dr. Pare has published over 190 original contributions in peer-reviewed journals, all related to his research program in cardiovascular disease and genetics. These include first or last authored articles in the NEJM, Lancet (comment), Circulation, EHJ, Stroke, JACC, PLoS Genetics, Circulation Genetics and Scientific Reports. Collectively, he has published over 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts, which have been cited over 22,800 times.

Munir Pirmohamed
Munir Pirmohamed is currently David Weatherall Chair in Medicine at the University of Liverpool, and a Consultant Physician at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. He also holds the only NHS Chair of Pharmacogenetics in the UK and is Director of the M.R.C. Centre for Drug Safety Sciences, and Director of the Wolfson Centre for Personalised Medicine, and President of BPS. He was awarded a Knights Bachelor in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2015. He is also an inaugural NIHR Senior Investigator, and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in the UK. He is also Chair of the Commission on Human Medicines. He is also a member of the MRC Governing Council and a non-executive director of NHS England/Improvement and Director of HDR North . His research focuses on personalised medicine in order to optimise drug efficacy and minimise toxicity, move discoveries from the lab to the clinic, and from clinic to application

Reem Hamad
I am currently employed as a clinical research fellow and project manager at the University of Khartoum’s Institute of Endemic Diseases. I graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Khartoum. Afterwards, I earned two Masters of Sciences in Molecular Medicine and Bioinformatics due to my interest in Human genetics.
Throughout my molecular medicine degrees, I attained appropriate skills and knowledge in the field of molecular biology, particularly in the genetics of human diseases, with a research group led by Prof. Muntaser E Ibrahim and including outstanding scientists working in various disciplines
Nowadays, I’m the project manager and co-investigator of a research project funded by NIH to study genetics of hereditary deafness in sub-saharan. Moreover, I’m a member of a group working on developing a comprehensive cancer centre at the University of Khartoum and other groups which focus on establishing the Sudan National Genome Project.

Ron van Schaik
Prof. Dr. Ron van Schaik (PhD, FACB) is a registered European Specialist Laboratory Medicine and a Full Professor of Pharmacogenetics. He is head of the Dept. Clinical Chemistry at the Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, and Director of the International (IFCC) Expertcenter for Pharmacogenetics. Main interest is the implementation of pharmacogenetics in clinical practice. He published over 350 peer reviewed articles in this field. Specific research topics oncology, cardiology, psychiatry and pain medication. Prof van Schaik participates in several national and international groups on Pharmacogenetics, such as ESPT (Co-Founder/Past President), PGRN (founding member), CPIC, DPWG, IUPHAR, EMA, PharmVar and AMP. In 2001, he received the Ortho Clinical Diagnostics Award for Outstanding Research, in 2009 the AACC Outstanding Speaker Award, and in 2010 the AACC/Mol Pathology Award for Outstanding Scientific Research. h-index 75 (Google Scholar).

Ed Schuuring
Prof Dr Ed Schuuring, PhD, senior clinical scientist in molecular pathology, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
Three decades his research focuses on the identification of prognostic/predictive epigenetic and molecular markers for clinical outcome, response to chemo-radiotherapy, gene-targeted therapy and treatment-resistance in lung, GIST, head&neck cancer, as well as the early detection of cervical cancer in scrapings. More recently his interest expanded to primary diagnosis, early detection and response monitoring using plasma ctDNA as a bloodborne-based molecular tool to predict early cancer, MRD, high risk to develop metastasis and response to targeted and immuno-therapy in NSCLC, GIST and NEN/NET. He is heading the laboratory of Molecular Pathology offering the latest innovative methods for treatment-decision-making in the region North-Netherlands. Since 1997 he is active in (inter)national committees and advisory boards on implementing Molecular Pathology, the organisation of international proficiency mutation testing in lung tissue biopsies and plasma ctDNA, and co-authored various international guidelines on Molecular Pathology. He graduated in Medical Biology in 1985 and PhD in 1993 in Molecular Biology (University of Amsterdam). He worked as a staff clinical scientist in Molecular Pathology at LUMC (1991-2000) and UMCG (2001-now).
Please find more details on my research and publications (>260) on http://www.rug.nl/staff/e.m.d.schuuring/ and information on Molecular Pathology on www.moloncopath.nl

Wolfgang Schnitzel
Dr. Wolfgang Schnitzel
Phone +43 6643934493
Email wolfgang.schnitzel@pharmgenetix.com
Date of Birth 09. Nov.1965 (Vienna)
Marital status married, 3 kids (1991, 1993, 2000)
Nationality Austrian
Career History
Oct/19 – PharmGenetix GmbH
Chief Executive Officer
Apr/13 – Sep/19 Shire Austria GmbH
General Manager Austria
Area Director Austria & Hungary
May/10 – Mar/13 Merck GmbH, Vienna
Business Unit Director Biotech
Nov/94 – Apr/10 Novartis Pharma GmbH, Vienna
Head Business Unit Primary Care
Head Business Franchise Neuroscience
Head Business Unit Transplantation & Immunology
Jan/89 – Jan/94 Sandoz Research Institute, Vienna
Diploma, Dissertation & Post-Doc Fellowship
Assocations/ Memberships
• Ministry of Health, member of Rare Disease Expert Group 05/2016 – 09/2019
• Pharmig (Association of Pharmaceutical Industry), member of the board 04/2017 – 03/2019
• Pharmig, head working group Rare Diseases 05/2016 – 09/2019
• PMCA (Pharma Marketing Club Austria), member of the board 2008 – 2010
Academic Education
1993 Graduate degree Doctor rer.nat. (PhD), Genetics, University of Vienna
1990-1992 Dissertation at Sandoz Research Institute (Regulation of Pro-inflammatory Cytokines)
1984-1989 University Vienna, Dept. for Microbiology, Immunobiology and Genetics (Master)
Scientific Publications
o Journal of Virology, 1995, Vol.69: p814
o Journal of Leukocyte Biology, 1994, Vol.55: p763
o Cytokine, 1993, Vol.5: p512
o Biochem. & Biophys. Res. Comm., 1991, Vol.180: p301
Executive Education
• Business Admin.: License for production and trading of medical devices, Salzburg (2020)
• Business Admin.: License for production and trading of medicinal products, Vienna (2014)
• Leadership: Shire “leading beyond”, Zug/CH (2017), Coaching Masterclass, Warsaw (2017)
“Novartis Executive Leadership”,Interlaken/CH (2008),“The Role of the Leader”, Boston/USA (2006)
• Finance: Harvard Business School, “Novartis Business Finance”, Boston/USA (2002)

Sanja Stankovic
Asst. Prof. Sanja Stankovic, MPharm, PhD, EuSpLM, has received her graduate and postgraduate education at the Faculty of Pharmacy University of Belgrade where she currently serves as a member of the Faculty Council. Currently, Asst. Prof. Stankovic is employed at University Clinical Center of Serbia, where she holds the position of Director of Center for Medical Biochemistry and Chair of General Director’ s Advisory Board. She currently holds an asst. professor position at the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medical Sciences University of Kragujevac and senior research associate at the Faculty of Medicine University of Belgrade. She is a President of Serbian Committee for Clinical Biochemistry in the Ministry of Health Republic of Serbia. She is the founder and President of the Serbian Society for Pharmacogenetics and Personalized Therapy (SSPT) and Serbian Society for Clinical Laboratory Medicine and Science (SCLM). During her professional career, Prof. Stankovic has served the general secretary of ESPT; corresponding member of IFCC Emerging Technologies Division (ETD) Committee on Mobile Health and Bioengineering in Laboratory Medicine (C-MHBLM), Member of editorial Board of eJIFCC, International Journal of Clinical Practice, Drug Metabolism and Personalized Therapy, Preventive Pediatrics and corresponding member of EFLM: Science Commitee/ Working Group: Cardiac Markers. Prof. Stankovic has authored or co-authored numerous peer reviewed manuscripts. She is the founder and director of annual international symposium SERBIS (Serbian Biomarker Symposium) and Conference on Medical Laboratory Accreditation and Quality Systems (CLAQ).

Maurizio Simmaco
Titles: MD, specialist in laboratory Medicine, Full Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Sensory Organs, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Roma and Sant’Andrea Hospital of Rome, Director of the UOC Laboratory of Clinical Biochemistry
M. Simmaco, MD was born in Catanzaro, Italy, on 1961.
Presently, he is Full Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Sapienza University of Rome, and Director of the Clinical Biochemistry/Analytical Laboratory of the academic hospital Sant’Andrea of Rome, where Precision Medicine strategies have been fully integrated in routine clinical practice.

Csilla Sipeky
Dr Csilla Sipeky
Director Associate, Genetics, Data & Translational Sciences, Early Solutions, UCB Biopharma, Brussels, Belgium
Professor Associate, Turku, Finland
Leading expert of pharmacogenetics in drug discovery. Identification and validation of genetically supported drug targets focusing on neurosciences (neurodegeneration, neuroinflammation, epilepsy). Performed research at the intersection of cancer genomics and precision medicine, focused on genome-wide strategies in cancer, specifically aggressive prostate cancer. Broad scientific experience with an ability to combine research with industrial driven development. Translational research-oriented innovator in field of genomic biomarkers for aggressive prostate cancer.
Professional experience is ranging from early phase research until clinical application published in leading international scientific journals (Cell, Nature Genetics, Nature Genetics, Clinical Cancer Research), patented and applied. More than 16 years of experience both in academy and industry.
Medix Prize 2019 for the best biomedical research in Finland: discovery of the genetic mechanism of aggressive prostate cancer published in CELL: (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30033361).
Mentoring on all academic levels (BSc, MSc, Phd, Licenciate) for more than 30 students.
Member of scientific societies including I-PWG, ESPT (board member), HSPM, ASHG, ESHG, TCRS.
Habilitation in Molecular Genetics (2015, Finland), Phd in Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences (2011, Hungary)
H-index: 24; i10-index: 37, publications ~100, citations ~2000 (google scholar 2022)

Milica Medić Stojanoska
Milica Medić Stojanoska is a Full Professor in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology at the Faculty of Medicine Novi Sad, University of Novi Sad (2008-) and a subspecialist in Endocrinology at the University Clinical Centre of Vojvodina, Clinics for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases. She is also a vice-dean for healthcare specialization at MFUNS (2015-). She graduated in 1982, received the magister title in 1986 and the PhD title in 1997 at MFUNS. She specialized internal medicine in 1990 and received the subspecialist title in endocrinology in 1998. She runs an interdisciplinary research group dealing with endocrine disrupting chemicals impact on human health and was the PI of several projects of the Ministry of Science and Technological Development of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. She has also been a holder or participant in several national research projects in the field of neuroendocrinology . She was the Serbian coordinator for MAST4HEALTH RISE Marie Currie Horizon 2020 project (2016-2020). She improved her skills and knowledge during research stays in Greece (Chios Mastiha Growers Association), Spain (Fisabio), Italy (Intervideo) and Marcy hospital (Chicago, USA). She is a member of the Serbian Medical Association and Serbian Endocrine Association, a member of the Endocrine Society, Society of Endocrinology (ESE), Society for Endocrinology (SfE), European Neuroendocrine Association (ENEA) and a member of FIPA consortium and VEGF consosrtium. She was an invited lecturer at numerous international and national scientific conferences and European postgraduated courses in endocrinology (such as The Congress of Toxicology in Developing Countries, Serbian Congress of Endocrinology) and the organizer of an international interdisciplinary meeting “Metabolic syndrome and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease consequent to endocrine disorders”. Her research field/area are neuroendocrinology, pituitary impairment and metabolism, endocrine disrupting chemicals. Her scientific work has been cited over 802 times , with an h-index of 14. She was awarded for extraordinary scientific achievement by MFUNS for 2017 and awarded from ENEA for the best presentation (Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2017).

Belgin Süsleyici
Prof. Dr. Belgin SÜSLEYİCİ, PhD.
She is a full professor at Marmara University, Faculty of Sciences and Letters, Department of Molecular Biology; Founder and President of Turkish Society for Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Therapy (TSPPT); Director of Marmara University Research Center for Environmental Problems and Applications; Director of Marmara University Molecular Metabolism Research Lab. and Pharmacogenetics Unit; International Scientific Advisory Committee Member and Integrated Health Committee Member in IFSO (International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders); European Commission Research and Innovation Specialist; Associate Board TR Representative of ESPT (European Society of Pharmacogenetics and Personalized Therapy; TR Participant of PGx diagnostic and PGx research groups within European Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (Eu-PIC); Chairman of the Scientific Board of TOSS (Turkish Obesity Surgery Association), Member of the Scientific Board of the World Council on Aging, Erasmus Coordinator of Marmara University Biology Department.
After completing her PhD. in Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine Medical Biology Department between 1996-2000, she completed her post-doc studies in Center for Preventive Medicine, Nancy, France with IFCC scholarship. She has published 64 peer reviewed papers. She has been the principal investigator in more than 37 national and European research projects. Her main research focuses on genomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, nutrigenomics and pharmacogenetics, as well as stem cell research. She has also served as reviewer in many high impact journals related to molecular medicine, molecular pharmacology, cellular research and mainly pharmacogenetics. She has organized several national and international congress, scientific conferences and international workshops in Turkey. Currently she is the founder and president of Turkish Society for Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Therapy (TSPPT), a national society and a member of ESPT, and coordinating the Turkish Network of Pharmacogenomics and implementing PGx to Turkish Health Care System. She is serving in different scientific societies such as; International Federation of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry Society, International Federation of Societies for Electron Microscopy, European Microscopy Society, International Federation of Surgery of Obesity (IFSO), ESPT (European Society of Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Therapy). She is Editorial Board member both in Jacobs Journal of Obesity and Chronicals in Surgery and Obesity Diagnosis and Treatment; Consulting Editor in Diabetes Science, Turkiye Klinikleri Journal of Pediatry, Hippocrates Cardiology, Frontiers in Nutrition, Trends in Endocrinology, Istanbul Bilim University Florence Nightingale Journal of Medicine and Turkiye Klinikleri Journal of Medical Sciences. She has more than 700 citations. She has given over 50 international presentations upon invitation.

Frances T. Yen
Frances T. Yen (director of research, INSERM) completed her PhD in nutritional biochemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and her postdoctoral studies at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans. She has worked in both the biotechnology private sector and academic laboratories, focusing primarily on lipid and lipoprotein metabolism using functional genomics approach. She is currently team leader of Qualivie (Quality of diet and aging) of the URAFPA laboratory at the University of Lorraine in Nancy, France. She has published over 50 scientific papers, is co-inventor of 10 patents, and has served as reviewer for numerous journals peer-reviewed served as reviewer for journals including Diabetes, Intl J Mol Sci, Lipids, Neuroscience, Phytotherapy Research, PloS One, etc).