John BrennanProfessor and Director, Biointerfaces Institute, McMaster University Professor John Brennan holds the Canada Research Chair in Bioanalytical Chemistry and Biointerfaces (Tier 1) and is Director of the Biointerfaces Institute at McMaster University. He is an expert in the development of biosensors and point-of-care diagnostics, with specific expertise in bioactive paper, high-throughput development of printable biomaterials, and development of solid-phase assays for diagnostics and small molecule screening. Dr. Brennan has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, given over 150 invited presentations, and has been awarded several patents in the areas of POC diagnostics. |
Max MaDirector, Medical Affairs, Roche Sequencing Solutions, Inc. Dr. Ma joined Roche in 2008 and held a number of positions with increasing responsibility in various business areas. He joined Genentech as an Oncology Biomarker Scientist discovering predictive biomarkers for various targeted therapies. In 2011, he moved to Roche Diagnostics as a team lead in Roche Molecular Diagnostics (RMD) developing oncology IVD assays. Early 2016, he joined Roche Sequencing Solutions (RSS), devoting his effort to building oncology sequencing assays and conducting clinical research after launching AVENIO assays globally. Max holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Rochester, New York, followed by his postdoctoral training in Cancer Biology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Max holds multiple patents on molecular technologies and publishes as a lead author in prestigious journals including EMBO, Nature Reviews and Cell. |
Takahiro OchiyaProfessor, Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, Tokyo Medical University Dr. Takahiro Ochiya was a Chief of Division of Molecular and Cellular Medicine at the National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tokyo since 2011 and he is currently appointed as professor of Tokyo Medical University (since 2018). After he got Ph.D. in 1988 in Osaka University and then went to do a post-doc at La Jolla Cancer Research (Burnham Institute for Medical Research), CA, USA. Dr. Ochiya’s lab focuses the development of novel animal models, methods, and strategies to study cancer development and metastasis. Especially, current focuses are siRNA- and microRNA-based therapy against cancer stem cells. Dr. Ochiya is one of top scientist in Exosome research in cancer area and carries President of Japanese Society of Extracellular Vesicles (JSEV) since 2014. |
Balaji PanchapakesanProfessor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Dr. Balaji Panchapakesan is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. He invented the Nanotube-CTC-Chip microarray technology. He has published over 100 articles in leading journals, and conferences. He is a conference chair of the SPIE Nanoscience and Engineering conference. His interests are in enabling nanoscience for wide variety of applications including capture of circulating biomarkers. |
Dominique PV de KleijnProfessor Experimental Vascular Surgery, Professor Netherlands Heart Institute, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands Prof. Dr. Dominique PV de Kleijn is molecular biologist and chemist and professor of Exp. Vascular Surgery at UMC Utrecht and professor at the Netherlands Heart Institute. From 2012 to 2016, he was Research Professor of Surgery at NUS/NUHS and preclinical director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI) Singapore. He was until 2016 professor of Cardiovascular Immunology and co-chair of Experimental Cardiology at UMC Utrecht. Since 1997 he is coordinating cardiovascular research from basic science, animal myocardial infarction and atherosclerotic studies (pig and sheep) towards clinical biobanking studies. His research interests are: The innate immune system in cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis & Biomarkers predictive for primary & secondary events with a focus on plasma extracellular vesicles. He has more then 275 publications and a H-factor of 78. |
Hsian-Rong TsengProfessor, Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging, California NanoSystems Institute, University of California-Los Angeles Dr. Tseng is professor in the Department of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology at UCLA. He also holds memberships of the California NanoSystems Institute, Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging and Institute for Molecular Medicine on the UCLA campus. Since he joined UCLA Pharmacology in 2003, Dr. Tseng’s group at UCLA has developed a series of nanotechnology- and microfluidics-enabled in vitro molecular diagnostic (IVMD) technologies. In collaboration with his physician colleagues, the goal of their joint team is to translate these new IVMD technologies from research bench to clinical practice. |
