Speakers

Dr

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. The next one, The 10th Santorini Conference: SYSTEMS MEDICINE AND PERSONALISED HEALTH & THERAPY – The Odyssey from Hope to Practice: “Patient first–keep Ithaca always in your mind”, will be held from 23 Mai to 26 Mai 2022 in Santorini.

Pr

Robert Barouki

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Robert Barouki

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)
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: 1^st 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

Pr

Shoumo Bhattacharya

Prof. Shoumo Bhattacharya MD MSc FRCP FMedSci

Date of birth: 24 Feb 1960

Nationality: British

Qualifications:

1983 MBBS, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi

1985 MD, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi

1986 Member of the Royal College of Physicians, London

1992 MSc (Biochemistry, Distinction), King’s College, London

Current Appointments

2009- BHF Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine, Honorary Consultant Cardiologist, University of Oxford

2010- Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine & Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford

Previous posts

1996-1998 Instructor, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute & Harvard Medical School

1998-2008 Wellcome Senior Fellow in Clinical Science, University of Oxford

Research leadership positions:

2008-14 Theme Leader, Cardiovascular Development, British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence, University of Oxford

2014-18 Theme Leader, Target Discovery and Therapeutics, British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence, University of Oxford

Awards & Honours

1990 MRC Training Fellowship

1992 Boehringer Prize for Biochemistry, Kings College, London

1994 British Heart Foundation International Fellowship

1996 NIH Clinician Scientist Fellowship

1998 Wellcome Senior Fellowship

2002 Reader in Cardiovascular Medicine (Titular) University of Oxford

2003 Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians

2003 Wellcome Senior Fellowship (renewal)

2004 Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine (Titular), University of Oxford

2005 Graham Bull Prize, Royal College of Physicians

2006 Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences

2009 British Heart Foundation Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine

2010 Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology

Positions of responsibility

2001-05 Scientific Advisory Board, Topotarget Prolifix Ltd., Abingdon

2002 MRC Expert Advisory Group

2002 Health Research Board (Ireland) Programme Grants Committee

2002-06 British Heart Foundation Project Grants Committee

2005 British Heart Foundation Fellowships Committee

2007 International Scientific Advisory Panel for Cardiovascular Gene Ontology

2008-12 Nucleus Member, European Society of Cardiology Working Group on Developmental Anatomy & Pathology

2008- Editorial Board, Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics

2015-2018 Scientific Evaluation Committee, ERA-Net for Research Programmes on Rare Diseases

2015- Scientific Advisory Panel, Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, University of Toronto

2015- Advisory Board Member, npj Regenerative Medicine

2017- Scientific Advisory Panel: The Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) Belgium

2018- Editorial Board, Scientific Reports

2018- International Jury, Fund for Scientific Research-FNRS (Belgian Research Funding Agency), Generet Award for Rare Diseases.

2019- Scientific Evaluation Committee, European Joint Program on Rare Diseases

Key research achievements

Molecular biology: Identified the catalytic mechanism of apolipoprotein B RNA editing and defined a protein interaction network for CREBBP/p300, consisting of STAT2, HIF1A and CITED2, demonstrating CREBBP/p300 function in interferon-alpha and in hypoxia activated signalling.
Cell and developmental biology: Developed magnetic resonance imaging of mouse embryos and discovered the role of CITED2 in cardiac, adrenal, neural and coronary vascular development, in left-right patterning and in the cell-cycle, the role of PCSK5 in cardiac development, anteroposterior patterning and HOX gene regulation, and established interaction between maternal diet and genetic factors in left-right patterning.
Genetic Origins of Congenital Heart Disease (GO-CHD). Established the BHF funded GO-CHD cohort, which in concert with the UK10K study discovered several aspects of the mechanism of human congenital heart disease.
Target discovery and therapeutics: Discovered role of splicing in BMP signalling, identified the retinoid tazarotene as an agent in wound healing and angiogenesis, and developed the “Bug-to-Drug” technology that led to the identification of a series of potent anti-chemokine agents from tick saliva.

Patents

Livingston, D. M., Kung, A. L., and Bhattacharya, S. (1999) Identification of compounds that modify transcriptional responses to hypoxia. in International Application No. PCT/US00/15325, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, USA
Bhattacharya, S., Braganca, J., and Swingler, T. (2001) Novel transcription transactivator protein. in UK Application No. 0006572.2, University of Oxford, UK
De Belin, J., Romero-Martin, F. R., Finn, P. W., Sayers, L. G., Law, N. M., Billington, D. C., Ryley, S., and Bhattacharya, S. (2001) Barbituric acid analogs as therapeutic agents. in International Publication Number WO 01/93841 A2, Prolifix, Ltd. (Abingdon, Oxon), UK
Bhattacharya, S. (2017) Evasins for use in therapy and diagnostics. in International Application No. WO2017149311A1, PCT/GB2017/050563, Oxford University Innovation Limited
Bhattacharya, S. (2017) Treatment of fibrotic disorders. in International Application No. WO2017141032A1, PCT/GB2017/050397, Oxford University Innovation Limited
Bhattacharya, S. (2017) Evasins for use in therapy and diagnostics. Priority application filed August 2017, Oxford University Innovation Limited.

Key Publications

Key first/senior author original articles in molecular cell biology/therapeutic target discovery of 123, h-index = 42 (Scopus https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=7404284575), ORCID 0000-0002-5571-0478.

*Navaratnam, N., *Bhattacharya, S., Fujino, T., Patel, D., Jarmuz, A. L., and Scott, J. (1995) Evolutionary origins of apoB mRNA editing: catalysis by a cytidine deaminase that has acquired a novel RNA-binding motif at its active site (joint first authors). Cell 81, 187-195
Bhattacharya, S., Eckner, R., Grossman, S., Oldread, E., Arany, Z., D’Andrea, A., and Livingston, D. M. (1996) Cooperation of Stat2 and p300/CBP in signalling induced by interferon-alpha. Nature 383, 344-347
Bhattacharya, S., Michels, C. L., Leung, M. K., Arany, Z. P., Kung, A. L., and Livingston, D. M. (1999) Functional role of p35srj, a novel p300/CBP binding protein, during transactivation by HIF-1. Genes Dev 13, 64-75
Bamforth, S. D., Braganca, J., Eloranta, J. J., Murdoch, J. N., Marques, F. I., Kranc, K. R., Farza, H., Henderson, D. J., Hurst, H. C., and Bhattacharya, S. (2001) Cardiac malformations, adrenal agenesis, neural crest defects and exencephaly in mice lacking Cited2, a new Tfap2 co-activator. Nat Genet 29, 469-474
Braganca, J., Swingler, T., Marques, F. I., Jones, T., Eloranta, J. J., Hurst, H. C., Shioda, T., and Bhattacharya, S. (2002) Human CREB-binding protein/p300-interacting transactivator with ED-rich tail (CITED) 4, a new member of the CITED family, functions as a co-activator for transcription factor AP-2. J Biol Chem 277, 8559-8565
Braganca, J., Eloranta, J. J., Bamforth, S. D., Ibbitt, J. C., Hurst, H. C., and Bhattacharya, S. (2003) Physical and functional interactions among AP-2 transcription factors, p300/CREB-binding protein, and CITED2. J Biol Chem 278, 16021-16029
Bamforth, S. D., Braganca, J., Farthing, C. R., Schneider, J. E., Broadbent, C., Michell, A. C., Clarke, K., Neubauer, S., Norris, D., Brown, N. A., Anderson, R. H., and Bhattacharya, S. (2004) Cited2 controls left-right patterning and heart development through a Nodal-Pitx2c pathway. Nat Genet 36, 1189-1196
Szumska, D., Pieles, G., Essalmani, R., Bilski, M., Mesnard, D., Kaur, K., Franklyn, A., El Omari, K., Jefferis, J., Bentham, J., Taylor, J. M., Schneider, J. E., Arnold, S. J., Johnson, P., Tymowska-Lalanne, Z., Stammers, D., Clarke, K., Neubauer, S., Morris, A., Brown, S. D., Shaw-Smith, C., Cama, A., Capra, V., Ragoussis, J., Constam, D., Seidah, N. G., Prat, A., and Bhattacharya, S. (2008) VACTERL/caudal regression/Currarino syndrome-like malformations in mice with mutation in the proprotein convertase Pcsk5. Genes Dev 22, 1465-1477
Bentham, J., Michell, A. C., Lockstone, H., Andrew, D., Schneider, J. E., Brown, N. A., and Bhattacharya, S. (2010) Maternal high-fat diet interacts with embryonic Cited2 genotype to reduce Pitx2c expression and enhance penetrance of left-right patterning defects. Hum Mol Genet 19, 3394-3401
Macdonald, S. T., Bamforth, S. D., Braganca, J., Chen, C. M., Broadbent, C., Schneider, J. E., Schwartz, R. J., and Bhattacharya, S. (2013) A cell-autonomous role of Cited2 in controlling myocardial and coronary vascular development. Eur Heart J 34, 2557-2565
Al Haj Zen, A., Nawrot, D. A., Howarth, A., Caporali, A., Ebner, D., Vernet, A., Schneider, J. E., and Bhattacharya, S. (2016) The Retinoid Agonist Tazarotene Promotes Angiogenesis and Wound Healing. Mol Ther 24, 1745-1759
Faherty, N., Benson, M., Sharma, E., Lee, A., Howarth, A., Lockstone, H., Ebner, D., and Bhattacharya, S. (2016) Negative autoregulation of BMP dependent transcription by SIN3B splicing reveals a role for RBM39. Sci Rep 6, 28210
Singh, K., Davies, G., Alenazi, Y., Eaton, J. R. O., Kawamura, A., and Bhattacharya, S. (2017) Yeast surface display identifies a family of evasins from ticks with novel polyvalent CC chemokine-binding activities. Sci Rep 7, 4267
Alenazi, Y., Singh, K., Davies, G., Eaton, J. R. O., Elders, P., Kawamura, A., and Bhattacharya, S. (2018) Genetically engineered two-warhead evasins provide a method to achieve precision targeting of disease-relevant chemokine subsets. Sci Rep 8, 6333
Eaton, J. R. O., Alenazi, Y., Singh, K., Davies, G., Geis-Asteggiante, L., Kessler, B., Robinson, C. V., Kawamura, A., and Bhattacharya, S. (2018) The N-terminal domain of a tick evasin is critical for chemokine binding and neutralization and confers specific binding activity to other evasins. J Biol Chem 293, 6134-6146.
Lee, A.W., Deruaz, M., Lynch, C., Davies, G., Singh, K., Alenazi, Y., Eaton, J.R.O., Kawamura, A., Shaw, J., Proudfoot, A.E.I., Dias, J.M. & Bhattacharya, S. A knottin scaffold directs the CXC-chemokine-binding specificity of tick evasins. Journal of Biological Chemistry 294, 11199-11212 (2019).

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

Dr

Michael Oellerich

Michael Oellerich, MD, Hon MD, FAACC, FAMM, FFPath (RCPI), FRCPath, is a chemical pathologist and currently a Distinguished Research Professor at the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, University Medical Center (UMG) of the George-August-University Göttingen, Germany.

From 2012 to 2017, he had an appointment as a Lower Saxony Distinguished Professor and he was chairman of the Department of Clinical Chemistry/Central Laboratory at UMG from 1991 to 2012. He received Fellowships of the Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath) in 2006, of the Faculty of Pathology of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland [FFPath (RCPI)] in 2006, of the AACC Academy (FAACC) of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry in 2012, and of the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia (FAMM) in 2014.

Since 2013, he is a member of the Transplantation Advisory Board of Chronix Biomedical Inc., San Jose, CA, USA. From 1996 to 1998, he served as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and as the deputy of the chief executive for research and teaching on the executive board for the Medical Center and Faculty of Medicine (1999-2004). He was president of the International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology (IATDMCT) from 1997 to 1999, of the German Association for Laboratory Medicine (2001-2002), and of the German United Association for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (2003-2005).

Subsequently, he was secretary-treasurer of the World Association of Societies of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (WASPaLM) (2005–2007), president (2009–2011), immediate past-president (2011–2013), and director Europe (2013-2017). Since 2016, he is Executive Secretary of the International Society of Enzymology and since 2017, Chief Research Officer of the Liquid Biopsy Center GmbH (LBC), Göttingen, Germany. From 1999 to 2010, he was a member of the Steering Committee of EUROLIFE, a network of European centers of excellence in life sciences. He served as External Examiner for the Second Professional Examination 2009/2010 of the Faculty of Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is an honorary member of the Romanian Society of Laboratory Medicine (Sibiu 2007), the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Arts (BASA) (Sofia 2012) and of IATDMCT (Salt Lake City, USA, 2013). He was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (2003-2018) and currently is Associate Editor of this journal. He was Associate Editor of Clinical Biochemistry (1996–2007), and Associate Editor of Clinical Chemistry (2007-2013). He was on the Editorial Board of Clinical Chemistry (2002-2007; 2014-2016), and currently is on the Editorial Boards of Clinical Biochemistry (2015-) as well as of J Mol Clin Pathol, Folia Med, Turk J Pediatr Biochem, and Indian J Clin Biochem. He is member of the Advisory Boards of Ital J Lab Med and Braz J Pathol Lab Med. His current research interests are in the field of therapeutic drug monitoring, with particular focus on endogenous biomarkers to achieve personalized immunosuppression in transplantation (e.g. graft-derived circulating cell-free DNA), as well as ctDNA as a “liquid biopsy” in cancer.

Further topics include proteomics, and analytical techniques (e.g. LC-MS/MS). He has authored more than 470 publications (articles contributed to scientific journals, book chapters, books edited). He received the following awards: Ludolf-Krehl prize of the S.W. German Society for Internal Medicine in 1971, the IATDMCT Award, Cairns (Australia) 1999, the IATDMCT Charles Pippenger Award for Outstanding Contributions to Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, Washington (USA) 2001, the 2002 Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists Travelling Lectureship Award, the Professor-Landbeck-Award of the Society for Thrombosis and Hemostasis Research, Hamburg (Germany) 2004, the Perth PathCentre Visiting Lectureship, Western Australia 2004, the WASPaLM Medal of Honor, Las Vegas (USA) 2011, the WASPaLM Gold Headed Cane, Quebec City (Canada) 2013, and the Sign of Honor, Professor Jordan Todoroff, of the BSCL, Sofia (Bulgaria) 2019.

Sofia Siest

Catherine Alix-Panabières

Robert Barouki

Shoumo Bhattacharya

Colin J.H. Brenan

Ingolf Cascorbi

Alex Chenchik

George Dedoussis

Paul Diehl

Magnus Ingelman-Sundberg

Stravoula Kanoni

Janja Marc

Michael Oellerich

Uwe Oelmueller

Nickolas Papadopoulos

Klaus Pantel

Guillaume Paré

Munir Pirmohamed

Ron van Schaik

Wolfgang Schnitzel

Raute Sunder-Plassmann

Dr

Sofia Siest

Dr

Catherine Alix-Panabières

Pr

Robert Barouki

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Robert Barouki

Pr

Shoumo Bhattacharya

Colin J.H. Brenan

Pr

Ingolf Cascorbi

Dr

Alex Chenchik

Pr

George Dedoussis

Paul Diehl

Pr

Magnus Ingelman-Sundberg

Dr

Stravoula Kanoni

Janja Marc

Dr

Michael Oellerich

Dr

Uwe Oelmueller

Dr

Nickolas Papadopoulos

Pr

Klaus Pantel

Pr

Guillaume Paré

Munir Pirmohamed

Pr linkDr

Ron van Schaik

Dr

Wolfgang Schnitzel

Dr

Raute Sunder-Plassmann