Advances in Cellular Assays & Cell Culture Keynote Speakers

Anthony Mitchell Davies Director, Trinity College Dublin Dr Davies’s research has been focused on the development of advanced in vitro c ell based models for almost 2 decades. During his early research work, Dr Davies was primarily involved in the development of specialized bioreactor cell based models utilising primary adult cardiomyocytes which were specifically designed for use in the study of the molecular events that occur during the acute and chronic phases of heart disease. Latterly Dr Davies has been active in rapidly growing field of high content screening and analysis (HCS/A) where he has been responsible for the setting up and running of one of the first purpose built academic screening centres in Europe (INCHSA) which is based in the prestigious department of Clinical Medicine Trinity College Dublin. Since its opening INCHSA has gained recognition internationally as a centre of excellence for both advanced technology development and training in the area of cell based screening. As part of these activities Dr Davies was key in the setting up and running of the first academic course specifically focused on the use of HCS/A technologies in Biomedical Research. Most recently Dr Davies has developed and commercialized a suite of novel micro-plate Bio-reactor technologies and liquid 3D cellular scaffolds specifically designed for use in automated Drug discovery.
Dario Marchetti Endowed Professor, Baylor College of Medicine Dario Marchetti is Professor in the Department of Pathology & Immunology and Director of the CTC Core at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Marchetti’s bibliography includes 145 publications, numerous awards, and uninterrupted funding since 1991. He acts as Reviewer of the most relevant journals in cancer research, and on Editorial Boards of “Cancer Microenvironment, “Tumor Viruses”, “Vascular Cell”, “Cancer Letters”, and “Journal of Cellular Biochemistry”, among others. He serves on grant reviewing panels of the National Institutes of Health of USA and Italy, the U.S. Department of Defense, and is a grant Reviewer for other national and international Agencies.
Klaus Pantel Chairman, Department of Tumor Biology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf Prof. Klaus Pantel graduated in 1986 from Cologne University in Germany and completed his thesis on mathematical modelling of hematopoiesis in 1987. After his postdoctoral period in the USA on hematopoietic stem cell regulation (Wayne State University, Detroit), he performed research on cancer micrometastasis at the Institute of Immunology, University of Munich for 10 years. Currently, Prof Pantel is Chairman of the Institute of Tumour Biology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. The institute is part of the University Cancer Center Hamburg (UCCH). 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 300 publications in excellent high ranking biomedical and scientific journals (incl. NEJM, Lancet, Nature Journals, Cancer Cell, PNAS, JCO, JNCI, Cancer Res.) and has been awarded recently (AACR Outstanding Investigator Award 2010, German Cancer Award 2010, ERC Advanced Investigator Grant 2011). Moreover, Prof Pantel was co-ordinator of the FP6 EU STREP “DISMAL” (Disseminated Malignancies, www.dismal-project.eu), coordinates now the European TRANSCAN group “CTC-SCAN” and the EU IMI Network Project “CANCER-ID” (www.cancer-id.eu) and serves on the Editorial Boards of international cancer journals (e.g., Clin. Cancer Res., Breast Cancer Res., Cancer Res.).