Keynote Speakers

Till Bachmann, Reader Dr Till Bachmann is Reader in Personalised Medicine in Infectious Diseases and Deputy Head of the Division of Infection and Pathway Medicine, University of Edinburgh. Till has a PhD in biosensors from research at University of Stuttgart and The University of Tokyo and a German Habilitation in Analytical Biotechnology. His scientific interests focus on molecular diagnostics and point of care detection of infectious diseases of important human pathogens such as S.aureus and E.coli and their antimicrobial resistance including ESBL, CRE and MRSA. This also includes research on novel detection modalities and discovery of biomarkers of bacterial response to antimicrobial therapy, working towards prognostic tests for Precision Medicine of infectious diseases. Till has published extensively, is a named inventor on various patent applications, and he has led a number of large interdisciplinary diagnostic projects. He is engaged in a number of undergraduate and graduate teaching programmes and is Programme Director of the new online MSc course on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Till has a strong track record on hosting international conferences and has a wide international collaboration network including links to India and Japan where he recently co-chaired the workshop on Biosensors for Healthcare at the UK Embassy in Tokyo and he was hosting the Workshop on Next Generation Tools for DNA Diagnostics in February 2015 in Edinburgh. Till keeps close links with the diagnostics industry and as such is Scientific Programme Director for Mölnlycke Health Care Scotland, member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Biomedical Diagnostics Institute in Dublin, advises NESTA on the Longitude Prize in Antibiotics and is member of various advisory panels for major funding bodies including Innovate UK and the EU Innovative Medicine Initiative.
Isobella Honeyborne, Senior Research Associate Isobella Honeyborne is a Senior Research Associate at University College London. Her current focus is on biomarkers of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. She earned her B.Sc (Hons) in Biology/Biochemistry at the University of Keele in 1999 and went on to develop interests in infectious disease. She spent time working on HIV-1 in South Africa and maintains strong links with groups in southern Africa. Her D.Phil, obtained in 2009, investigated CD8+ T cell responses to HIV-1 with particular interest in how particular HLA class I molecules are associated with failure or ability to contain the virus. A background in human immunology, in combination with study of prokaryotic biomarkers, allows a synergistic approach to developing molecular and other tools for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The Molecular Bacterial Load (MBL) assay is an example of a bacteria-specific biomarker. She is also currently working on human miRNA and small RNA as both diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of tuberculosis disease.
Norman Nelson, Senior Consultant Dr. Nelson received his BS in Chemistry from The California Institute of Technology in 1976 and his PhD in Chemistry from the University of California at San Diego in 1982. He joined Gen-Probe (a leading molecular diagnostics company) in 1985, where over his 27 year tenure held positions of increasing responsibility, culminating in the role of Senior Director of Discovery Research. Dr. Nelson has extensive experience in the development of technology for FDA-regulated molecular diagnostic products. He is also an expert in Next Generation Sequencing, including direct experience with Illumina, Ion Torrent & Pacific Biosciences platforms. He also has a proven track record in innovation, as well as the associated reduction to practice and implementation. As an inventor or co-inventor on 26 issued U.S. patents, and more than 100 issued and pending patents world-wide, he played a key role in the commercialization of multiple technologies, many of which are core to Gen-Probe products that generate >$500MM in annual revenue. He also has broad expertise and experience in intellectual property protection. Dr. Nelson now owns his own consulting business, NCN Enterprises.
Lawrence Wangh, Professor Lawrence J. Wangh, Ph.D. is a Professor of Biology at Brandeis University and director of the laboratory of Molecular Diagnostics and Global Health. He earned his B.A. at Brandeis University (1968) and his Ph.D. at Rockefeller University (1973) in Biochemistry. As a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow, Professor Wangh studied developmental biology in the laboratories of John Gurdon (MRC Cambridge) and Jamshed Tata (MRC, Mill Hill). Professor Wangh joined the faculty of Brandeis University in 1977 where he did seminal work leading to the invention of whole animal cloning. Professor Wangh and his laboratory colleagues invented LATE-PCR about twelve years ago in the course of working on improved methods of single-cell PCR. Over the past decade they have analyzed the properties and possibilities inherent to reactions which reliably generate single stranded amplicons. For the past eight years his research has been funded through a combination of NIH grants (US), TSB grants (UK), and research support from Smiths Detection Diagnostics, Inc. They are currently developing assays for a wide spectrum of human and animal infectious diseases, cancers, and degenerative diseases. They also continue to explore and improve LATE-PCR and its Allied Technologies.