Bioinformatics & Systems Biology

Corrado Priami is professor of Computer Science at the University of Trento. The results of his PhD thesis on stochastic pi-calculus were the basis for the foundation of the Microsoft Research - University of Trento Centre for Computational and Systems Biology (COSBI), of which he is the President and CEO. His research covers programming languages and computational methods for the modeling, analysis, and simulation of biological processes in the fields of systems nutrition and systems pharmacology. He published over 180 scientific papers, gave more than 60 invited talks and lectures at conferences and universities around the world, participated in many program committees for international conferences (also as chair), regularly serves in advisory and scientific boards and reviewing panels for many international funding agencies and institutions.

• Algorithmic Systems Biology
• Multi-source, hierarchical (omics) data analysis and integration
• Dynamic modeling and simulation

Hugo Geerts has spent 17 years in the (CNS) Drug Discovery Area, with Paul Janssen, probably the greatest drug hunters in history at the Janssen Research Foundation in Beerse, Belgium doing research in Alzheimer’s disease with targets in tangle and amyloid pathology. He was involved in supporting the successful preclinical, clinical and postmarketing development of galantamine. Since 2002, he became CSO of In Silico Biosciences, a company providing mathematical modeling of pathological interactions in the brain for supporting the whole process of drug discovery from target validation to clinical trial design in Psychiatry and Neurology. He is the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine and Drexel Dept. of Pharmacology and has over 80 peer-reviewed publications and patents.

Zoran Obradovic is a L.H. Carnell Professor of Data Analytics at Temple University, Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences with a secondary appointment in Statistics, and is the Director of the Center for Data Analytics and Biomedical Informatics. His research interests include data mining and complex networks applications in health management and other complex decision support systems. Zoran is the executive editor at the journal on Statistical Analysis and Data Mining, which is the official publication of the American Statistical Association and is an editorial board member at eleven journals. He was general co-chair for 2013 and 2014 SIAM International Conference on Data Mining and was the program or track chair at many data mining and biomedical informatics conferences. In 2014-2015 he chairs the SIAM Activity Group on Data Mining and Analytics. His work is published in more than 300 articles and is cited more than 15,000 times (H-index 48).

Matthias Reuss was born in 1941 in Berlin and completed his Ph.D. at the Technical University of Berlin in 1970. From 1971-1976 Research Assistant in the Department of Biotechnology at the GBF Braunschweig; 1977-1987 Professor of Biochemical Engineering Technical University of Berlin, he was from 1988 to 2009 director of the Institute of Biochemical Engineering at the University of Stuttgart. Since 2007 he has been Managing Director of the Center Systems Biology (CSB) of the University of Stuttgart. Prof. Reuss is a member of the European Research Council (ERC) and since 2012 member of the International Advisory Board in Framework 7 EU Project Infect since 2009. Fellow of the International Institute of Biotechnology; 1992 Research award of the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg; 2006 Doctor honoris causa TU Delft, The Netherlands.

The research focus of Matthias Reuss are in the areas of industrial biotechnology and biomedical applications. Methods of multiscale modeling are developed and applied in both areas. For biomedical applications, the focus of these developments lies in cancer research.

Origin and evolution of new genes

• The phenotypic effects and functions of new genes.

• Evolutionary analysis of gene interactions with new genes.

• Copy number variation within Drosophila populations.

• Evolution of sex chromosomes and sex-related genes.

• Genes and Genomes in plants: high origination rate of chimeric genes in the grass family.

Yike Guo is a Professor of Computing Science in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London. He is the founding Director of the Data Science Institute at Imperial College, as well as leading the Discovery Science Group in the department. He has been working on technology and platforms for scientific data analysis, where his research focuses on knowledge discovery, data mining and large-scale data management. Professor Guo also holds the position of CTO of the tranSMART Foundation, a global open source community using and developing data sharing and analytics technology for translational medicine, and the position of CIO of IDBS, a world’s leading company in developing innovative data management and analytics solutions.

Heinz Peter Nasheuer completed his PhD at MPI Göttingen, Germany, and postdoctoral studies at Stanford University School of Medicine. After academic positions at the LMU Munich and the IMB Jena, he joined NUI Galway where he was the Head of the School of Natural Sciences, the largest school in the College of Science, for 4 years. In 2013 he was appointed to a Personal Chair of Biochemistry at NUI Galway. He has published more than 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals. His research interests are mechanisms of cell cycle control and DNA replication, MAP kinase pathways, and protein-protein interactions in living cells using advanced microscopy.

• Mechanisms and regulation of human DNA replication

• DNA damage-induced re-localization of DNA repair proteins in mitosis

• Protein-protein interactions in living cells

• DNA replication of human polyoma viruses

Ravi Radhakrishnan is a Professor of Bioengineering, Biochemistry & Biophysics, and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. His expertise is in chemical physics, statistical mechanics, and computational biology his laboratory is currently funded primarily by grants from US National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and European Commission and focuses its research on the biophysics of single molecules and cell membranes and signaling mechanisms in cancer. Through his work, he has pioneered novel discovery platforms in insilico oncology and insilico pharmacology. Radhakrishnan and has authored over 100 articles in leading peer reviewed Journals and serves as a referee for over 50 leading journals, publishers, and federal funding agencies. He also serves as an editorial board member and associate editor for 5 journals, and also regularly serves as a Panelist and Study Section member for National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and several Federal Science Foundations in the EU. Radhakrishnan is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.

Ravi Radhakrishnan's research interests lie at the interface of chemical physics and molecular biology. His lab's goal is to provide atomic and molecular level characterization of complex biomolecular systems and formulate quantitatively accurate microscopic models for predicting the interactions of various therapeutic agents with innate biochemical signaling mechanisms. To do so, they employ several computational algorithms ranging from techniques to treat electronic structure, molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo simulations, stochastic kinetic equations, and complex systems analyses in conjunction with the theoretical formalisms of statistical and quantum mechanics, and high performance computing in massively parallel architectures.

Chris Beecher is Chief Scientific Officer for IROA Technologies. He was a member of the Department of Pathology, University of Michigan School of Medicine until 2011 when he founded NextGen Metabolomics. He was also one of the founders of Metabolon, and Metabolic Analyses. His Ph.D. was granted in 1985 in Pharmaceutical Sciences specializing in Natural Products drug discovery. He has more than 25 years of experience in metabolomics and drug discovery and development, has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers, and is listed as the inventor of 8 patents in metabolomics.

Chief Scientific Officer
IROA Technologies
USA

Vladimir Tolstikov, Ph.D., is Scientist at Eli Lilly and Company. He received B.S. and M.S in Organic Chemistry in 1977 from M.V. Lomonosov Institute of Fine Chemical Technology, in Moscow, Russia. He received Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 1983 from the Institute of Chemical Means for Plant Protection, Moscow, Russia. He is a pioneer in HILIC separations development applied to Metabolomics. During his career he was working in leading research institutions in USA, Germany, Hungary and Russian Federation. He has joined Eli Lilly and Company in 2012. He is author contributor and participant of 45 conferences, 5 book chapters, and 54 articles.

Director of Metabolomics
BERG
USA

He is an associate professor of pharmacology & toxicology.

Computational, analytical and statistical approaches for metabonomics and systems biology in human health

Bjoern Riefke, Head of Metabolic Profiling and Clinical Pathology, Bayer Schering Pharma After the study of Biology and his PhD in Zoology/Animal Physiology at the Heinrich-Heine-University in Duesseldorf, Germany Bjoern Riefke started to work as a research fellow in 1994 at the Institute of Diagnostic Research in Berlin. His main research field was the biological characterization of dyes for near-infrared in-vivo imaging. In 1998 he followed an offer of Schering AG to lead a research group at Justesa Imagen S.A. in Madrid, Spain as assistant manager and head of biological research and development in the field of X-ray contrast media research. In 2003 he moved back to Bayer Health Care Berlin (former Schering AG) and headed the group of early and mechanistic toxicology with research support for the early detection of safety liabilities of drug candidates and one year later headed the group of clinical pathology with the establishment of metabolic profiling technology in toxicology. Since 2005 he participated in the validation of new biomarkers within the HESI Nephrotoxicity Working Group. Beside the routine support and project related work the main area of interest are the application of metabolic profiling in toxicology and in pharmacological studies and the evaluation of new biomarkers for different organ toxicities in comparison to traditional endpoints of clinical pathology and histopathology in the context of toxicology testing.

Metabolic Profiling and Clinical Pathology

Dr. Jeff Patrick is the Director of Marketed Technology at LECO based in Saint Joseph, MI. He is responsible for applications, new products and marketing for their line of GC-TOF-MS Products. Prior to his role at LECO he was in the Pharmaceutical Industry as a leader in Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry for 18 years. Jeff is a graduate of Purdue University (Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry) where he studied with Graham Cooks and the University of South Carolina (M.S.) where he studied with John Baynes. Jeff has more than 30 publications and book chapters to his credit.

Director of Marketed Technology
LECO Corporation
USA

Scott Tebbutt is Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Respiratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, and Principal Investigator at the James Hogg Research Centre, Institute for Heart + Lung Health, St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada. Since 2006, he has served as Co-Director of the Molecular Phenotyping and Genotyping Core of the James Hogg Research Centre, and he is currently Director of the Technology Development Core. He is also Chief Scientific Officer of the Prevention of Organ Failure (PROOF) Centre of Excellence, focused on heart, lung and kidney failure. Dr. Tebbutt earned his B.A. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford (Oriel College), England in 1989, and his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the University of East Anglia in 1993 (supervised by Dr. David Lonsdale, Cambridge Laboratory, John Innes Centre, England). He pursued post-doctoral fellowships in the laboratories of Professor Ann Harris (University of Oxford, Institute of Molecular Medicine) and Professor Diana Hill (University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand), where he studied the molecular genetics of cystic fibrosis. He was appointed Research Fellow at the University of Otago (1995-2001), leading a research team investigating the genomics of the sheep cystic fibrosis locus. He was seconded to a start-up biotechnology company (Global Technologies (NZ) Ltd.) as Director of Genomics (1999-2001). He moved to Canada in 2001, and was Senior Researcher in the Centre for Biomedical Research (University of Victoria, 2001-2002), prior to being recruited to the James Hogg Research Centre (formerly the iCAPTURE Centre) at St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver (2002).

Dr. Tebbutt’s research programme is focused on the genomics of complex respiratory disease, including the early and late reactions in allergic asthma and rhinitis. He also leads a multidisciplinary collaboration to investigate interactions between fungal spores and human airway cells. His research combines hypothesis-driven study of biological mechanisms with the development of advanced tools and technology (including bioinformatics and microfluidics-based systems) to better facilitate basic and translational research. Dr. Tebbutt has published original research contributions in journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (U.S.A.), Journal of Medical Genetics, Genomics, BioTechniques, Bioinformatics, BMC Bioinformatics, BMC Medical Genomics and PLoS ONE. He has published numerous technical reviews as well as book chapters on the role of genetic variation in respiratory disease. He has served as reviewer on several grant panels, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, and he is Associate Editor for the journal BMC Genetics. Dr. Tebbutt has received several fellowships and awards, including an Edward Penley Abraham Research Trust Fellowship (U.K.), a Journal of Cell Science Traveling Fellowship Award, and a Research Fellowship from the Cystic Fibrosis Association of New Zealand. He has been awarded competitive research funding from organizations such as the National Sanitarium Association (Canada), the British Columbia Lung Association, AllerGen NCE Inc. (Allergy, Genes and Environment Network), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the BC Proteomics Network, and the Wellcome Trust (U.K.).

Dr. Vladimir E. Bondarenko is Assistant Professor at Georgia State University, USA. He did his Ph.D. Physics and Mathematics, Moscow State University, Russia, 1990. Dr. Bondarenko’s research interests include dynamical systems, neuronal and cardiac cell models, neural networks, models of cardiac arrhythmias, ion channel models.

dynamical systems, neuronal and cardiac cell models, neural networks, models of cardiac arrhythmias, ion channel models.

Paul L Wood has completed his Ph.D. from Queen’s University and postdoctoral studies from the NIMH. He is the director of the Metabolomics Unit at Lincoln Memorial University and is professor of pharmacology and physiology. He has published more than 280 peer-reviewed papers, serves as Editor-in-Chief of Metabolomics, and is a member of the editorial board of the JAOA.

Utilization of metabolomics to study mechanisms of pathogenesis in neurogegeneration and oncology

Deliang Guo is an Assistant professor at Department of Radiation Oncology, James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University Medical Center.

EGFR signaling, lipid metabolism

As an NIH-funded translational scientist and an Associate Professor at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Dr. Jay Kim aims to improving the means of objectively diagnosing IC/PBS and to discover the mechanistic basis for this disorder. She was originally trained as a cancer biologist at Harvard Medical School, and is a rising leader of research on basic urological diseases including IC/PBS. One of the major focus areas in her group is the study of the metabolic signature for the diagnosis of IC/PBS, using a number of approaches, including large-scale “Omics” methods, to elucidate the signaling network in human cells that is perturbed in IC/PBS.

Cancer Biology,Biomedical Sciences, surgery

Preeti Bais is associate scientist at the Computational Sciences group at the Jackson Lab’s new research institute at University of Connecticut - JAX Genomics Medicine (JGM). It is an independent, nonprofi t organization focusing on mammalian genetics research to advance human health. She holds a Ph.D. in bioinformatics and computational biology and has worked in the metabolomics fi eld for many years including her tenure as a principal scientist at Stemina Biomarker Discovery, where she worked on many projects involving metabolomics analysis of Human Embryonic (hES) and Induced Pluripotent Stem (IPS) cells based assays for drug toxicity screening, autism biomarker detection using blood samples and cancer drug effi cacy testing using orthotropic mouse models of GBM.

Mass Spectrometry, Machine learning, bioinformatics , database , biomarkers

My current research focuses on combining metabolomics, a new and exciting post genomic technology with the power of bioinformatics tools for studying perturbations in metabolism caused due to changes in diet and/or the disease state. In one of our projects, we are investigating the change in the metabolomic patterns produced due to introduction of neutraceuticals in non-small cell lung carcinoma model. The NMR spectral data is subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to evaluate Biomarkers for early diagnosis of lung cancer. In another project, we are utilizing the metabolomics approach to observe alterations in metabolomics patterns in NMR spectra of biofluids (urine/plasma) from a spontaneous diabetes model. The change in metabolomic pattern or the biomarker profile will enable targeting of specific metabolic pathways affected by the disease condition, leading to mechanistic insight.

George G Chen is a professor in the Department of Surgery, Director of Surgical Research Laboratories, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. He is also served as a principle investigator at the Hong Kong Cancer Institute. He has extensive experience in cancer research, particularly in the area of apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma, lung caner and thyroid cancer. He has authored or co-authored ~120 papers and has written a number of books or book chapters. He is currently a member of editorial boards or a guest editor of a number of scientific journals and a regular peer-reviewer for several grant agents. He was educated in China and United Kingdom and has MB and PhD degrees.

Metabolomics

Professor Alexander A. Kamnev is a Leading Scientist at the Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants and Microorganisms, Russian Academy of Sciences (Saratov, Russia). He received his Cand. Sci. (PhD equivalent; 1992) and DSc (2002) in physical chemistry from Saratov State University. Since mid-90s, his research has been focused on the application of various spectroscopic techniques in studying biomolecules, biocomplexes, supramolecular structures and microbial cells. Professor Kamnev is the main author of more than 100 papers in reputed international journals and several invited review chapters, serves as an editorial board member of a few international scientific journals and is involved in editorial and reviewing activities for a number of international specialized journals in the fields of chemistry and biology.

Professor
Russian Academy of Sciences
Russia

Zeeshan Ahmed works at the University of Wuerzburg with a strong interest in scientific software solution design and development. He is Post Doc. and Scientific Software Engineer and in the central computation support project of the collaborative research center SFB 1047 at the Biocenter, Department of Neurobiology and Genetics. He did Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from the University of Wuerzburg Germany in collaboration with Technical University of Munich Germany. Furthermore, he is also the alumni (pre. Doctoral research and degree course work) of Vienna University of Technology Austria, Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering Germany and Blekinge Institute of Technology Sweden.

Neurobiology and Genetics

Zuyi (Jacky) Huang completed his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 2010 and then worked as a Research Scientist in the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine. He joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Villanova University as an Assistant Professor in 2011. He is now the Director of Computational Systems Biology Lab at Villanova University. He has published 18 papers in reputed journals. He is now serving as an editorial board member of Journal of Computer Science & Systems Biology. He is also serving on the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) Policy Committee.

1) deriving quantitative data for transcription factors by analyzing GFP images and solving an inverse problem; 2)integrating available qualitative information into modeling by using Fuzzy logic;3) performing nonlinear model reduction of uncertain systems; 4) sensor network and experimental design for chemical plants.

Dr. Vicki has done MS Analytical Chemistry from University of Nebraska, PhD Analytical Chemistry, Iowa State University, Her research includes characterizing the small molecules in natural systems to understand how they interact synergistically in maintaining the energy balance in mammalian cells. As such, she have collaborated with other experts in the nutritional / biomedical area to link specific dietary metabolites to potential health outcomes. Her experience in dietary metabolites, background in pharmaceuticals, and education as a bioanalytical chemist provides the foundation needed to achieve her long term goals.

Synergistic interactions of secondary metabolites on maintaining the energy balance / fluxes in mammalian cells. Synergistic interactions of secondary metabolites of plant systems on phenotypic switches (e.g. inflammation (M1 to M2 states) and virulent bacteria). Effects of farming practices on secondary metabolites in various crops, with an emphasis on dry edible beans, strawberries, wheat and tomatoes. Development of high-throughput metabolomic analytical methods.

Dr Blair is a molecular biologist/ biochemist with 15 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry, recently as a Director of Applied Diagnostics and Surrogates at GlaxoSmithKline, and is a visiting scholar at Cambridge University.

He has been involved in all aspects of early phase drug development from target identification & routine compound screening through to pre-clinical development & Phase II clinical trials. He has developed programmes that support the strategic integration of surrogate biomarkers & diagnostics into the drug development pipe-line from candidate selection to approval & launch. His broad therapeutic area experience includes viral, respiratory, liver and neurodegenerative disease, frequently in collaboration with esteemed academic groups and he was an initial recruit to the GSK Predictive Medicine Group, where he lead pioneering work on integration of testing with influenza, herpes and hepatitis C virus drug development. He is an expert in the field of virology having published more than 30 papers, edited two books and invented 6 patents in the field.

Paul L Wood has completed his Ph.D. from Queen’s University and postdoctoral studies from the NIMH. He is the director of the Metabolomics Unit at Lincoln Memorial University and is professor of pharmacology and physiology. He has published more than 280 peer-reviewed papers, serves as Editor-in-Chief of Metabolomics, and is a member of the editorial board of the JAOA.

Utilization of metabolomics to study mechanisms of pathogenesis in neurogegeneration and oncology

Dr. Shane Rea did his Post Doctoral from McGill University of Colorado.

The goal of the research in the Rea laboratory is to understand the causes of human aging at a molecular genetic level and to use this information to slow the aging process. Dr. Rea’s research group utilizes the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and focuses specifically on the Mit mutants, which (paradoxically) have disruptions in their mitochondrial electron transport chain yet are long-lived. This model is short-lived (~20 days), self-fertilizing, genetically powerful, easily and cheaply cultivated, and provides excellent molecular and bioinformatic resources. Twenty-five percent of worm genes have human orthologues. Pathways already known to influence aging in C. elegans act similarly in humans (e.g., insulin/IGF-1 like receptor). Mitochondria function similarly in almost all eucaryotes. Life extension in the Mit mutants is restricted to a specific window of mitochondrial dysfunction. The Mit mutants provide a new model for several human mitochondrial-associated diseases. Nuclear DNA damage, cell-cycle checkpoint functions, alternate metabolic pathways, and ROS signalling appear to be central players in lifespan regulation of the Mit mutants. The Rea laboratory also explores the connection between functionally impaired mitochondria, nuclear checkpoint proteins and life extension in the Mit mutants. This research team performs metabolic fingerprinting of the Mit mutants as well as the biochemical and biophysical characterization of the mitochondria from long-lived and short-lived mitochondrial mutants. This group also investigates compensatory biochemical mechanisms that act to offset partial mitochondrial inhibition. They strive to translate their work into higher eucaryotes and to ameliorate human mitochondrial-associated diseases.

Daniel Kassel is an entrepreneur and Founder for SciAnalytical Strategies, Inc. He did his PhD in Chemistry/Bioanalytical from Michigan State University.

Adipocyte Therapeutics

Chris Beecher was a member of the Department of Pathology, University of Michigan School of Medicine until 2011 when he founded NextGen Metabolomics. He was also one of the founders of Metabolon, and Metabolic Analyses. His Ph.D. was granted in 1985 in Pharmaceutical Sciences specializing in Natural Products drug discovery. He has more than 25 years of experience in metabolomics and drug discovery and development, has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers, and is listed as the inventor of 8 patents in metabolomics.

Metabolomics, Chemistry (Natural Products, Analytical, and Physical), Biochemistry, Informatics, Statistics. The development of Metabolomics as the basis of Health Care in the future, and as a research tool in the present

Jeffrey S Patrick has completed his Ph.D. at Purdue University under the guidance of Prof. Graham Cooks. After more than 15 years in biological mass spectrometry and biomarker research, he is currently the Director of Marketed Technology at LECO, a manufacturer of high performance time of flight mass spectrometers. He has published more than 40 papers in reputed journals and presented more than 50 orals at global conferences.

Analytical Chemistry, Chromatography, Proteomics, GC-MS

Dr. D. Marshall Porterfield is now serving as Division Director for Space Life and Physical Sciences in the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington DC. The division includes the Human Research Program, the Physical Sciences Program, and the Space Biology Program, as well as acting as the liaison for the ISS National Lab. The SLPS program includes responsibility for managing all extramural grants and research, as well as the intramural research and engineering assets at six NASA centers. Currently the programmatic focus is on ISS utilization. Dr. Porterfield is on official leave from Purdue University where he is a Professor of Biological Engineering.His teaching and research focus is on advanced physiological sensing technologies for research applications in biology, agriculture, the environment, and medicine. Several of his recent projects involve scanning probe sensor technology, biosensors, bio-MEMS, bio-nanotechnology, and lab-on-a-chip systems. He also is working on understanding how living systems adapt and respond to the spaceflight environment. His work in gravitational and space biology includes cell signaling, biophysical limitations in microgravity, nutrient delivery technology, and biomimetic sensors. He was recognized by the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology in 2007 with the Halstead Young Investigator Award. Overall his research work at Purdue was recognized by the University Faculty Scholar Award, the University’s top mid career research distinction. His work includes publishing over 100 peer reviewed manuscripts, papers, technical publications, patents, and book chapters; he has also delivered almost 100 invited presentations.His leadership activity includes service as President of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology, and he was also recently elected to serve as President for the Institute for Biological Engineering.Dr. Porterfield’s work in the field of biological engineering was recently recognized by election to the College of Fellows for the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, an honor reserved forthe top 2% of medical and biological engineers in US. He was cited for his work \\\\\\\"bridging the interface between engineering and physiology through outstanding contributions to biosensor technology and fundamental cell biology.\\\\\\\"

Advanced physiological sensing technologies for research applications in biology, agriculture, and medicine. Specific projects include: scanning probe sensor technology, biosensors, bioMEMS, bionanotechnology, and lab-on-a-chip systems. He also is working with plant systems in bioregenerative life support systems for spaceflight. His work in this area includes cell signaling, biophysical limitations in microgravity, nutrient delivery technology, and biomimetic sensors.

Ralph Zahn joined BIOCRATES in October 2010 as chief technology officer for the further development of the product pipeline and the affiliated technical and scientific assignments. He holds a PhD in natural science and has a wealth of experience in the field of biotech. After he graduated from biology, he worked as research associate and earned the doctors degree in 1994 at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry in Munich. At the Cambridge University he obtained a post-graduate doctor degree. He habilitated 2001 at the Institute for Molecular Biology and Biophysics at the Eidgenössischen Technischen Hochschule in Zurich. During his career, he was managing director at BioSafety GmbH and founder and CEO of allprion AG.

NMR structure of the bovine prion protein, NMR structures of three single-residue variants of the human prion protein, metabolomic Buiomarker Research, Molecular Biology and Biophysics

Irwin J Kurland, MD, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Medicine, and Director of the Stable Isotope and Metabolomics Core Facility at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr Kurland\'s laboratory has helped, for over a decade, to establish stable isotope phenotyping methodology for assessing inter-organ fuel switching. Recent papers by the Kurland laboratory illustrate the regulatory role of lysine acetylation on enzymes in tissue specific metabolic networks (Yang et al., J. Proteome Res. 2011), and the linkage between disturbances in fasted/re-fed acetyl CoA levels and dysregulated global lysine acetylation, on the fasted/re-fed metabolic network response (Vaitheesvaran et al., PLOS One 2012).

Diabetes, Metabolomics Syndrome,GC/MS flux profiling,Gas chromatography/Mass spectrometry (GC/MS).

Dr. SivanesanDakshanamurthyis an Associate Professor in the Departments of Oncology and Experimental & Clinical Therapeutics, Georgetown University Medical Center. My area of expertise is multi-disciplinary in nature such as drug design (in-silico/in-vitro), chemo-and clinical-informatics, metabolomics, molecular biology and medicinal chemistry. I have published more than 53 peer reviewed journal articles and have 10 patents issued/applied.

High-throughput chemo-informatics, drug-repurposing, drug-protein docking, and molecular dynamics simulations

Dr. Karp has been a bioinformatics researcher for over 10 years in the areas of bioinformatics databases, metabolic-pathway bioinformatics, and database interoperation. He has authored numerous publications on these topics, and is the developer of the EcoCyc database, and the Pathway Tools software. EcoCyc is a database describing the genome and biochemical machinery of the bacterium E. coli. The Pathway Tools is a software environment for constructing, querying, and WWW publishing of pathway/genome databases such as EcoCyc. Dr. Karp\'s bioinformatics research has been funded by the NIH National Center for Research Resources and National Library of Medicine.

Bioinformatics databases, Metabolic-pathway Bioinformatics, and database Interpretation.

Danilo Tagle, Ph.D., is Program Director for Neurogenetics at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), where he is involved in developing programs in genomics and proteomics for basic and translational research in inherited brain disorders. Dr. Tagle obtained his Ph.D. in molecular biology and genetics from Wayne State University in 1990. He was a National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Research Service Award (NRSA) postdoctoral fellow in human genetics in the laboratory of Dr. Francis S. Collins at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining NINDS in 2001, Dr. Tagle was an investigator and Section Head of Molecular Neurogenetics at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) since 1993 and was involved in the positional cloning of genes for Huntington disease, ataxia-telangiectasia, and Niemann-Pick type C disease.

Dr. Tagle was an intramural investigator and Section Head of Molecular Neurogenetics at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) since 1993 and was involved in the positional cloning of genes for Huntington disease, ataxia-telangiectasia, and Niemann-Pick type C disease.

Preeti Bais holds a BS in computer Science from National Institute of Technology (Bhopal, India), MS in Bioinformatics from Brandeis University (Waltham, MA) and a PhD in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology with a minor in Statistics from Iowa State University (Ames, Iowa). For her PhD work, she combined data from 11 different GCMS and LCMS based platforms on 70 single gene knock out mutants of Arabidopsis to create the plantmetabolomics.org database and metabolomics data analysis pipeline. As a principal scientist at Stemina Biomarker Discovery (Madison, WI), she used metabolomics and stem cell technology for drug toxicity screening studies, NCI funded metabolomics analysis of mouse in-vivo assays to understand drug efficacy in human GBM (Glioblastoma multiforme), and metabolomics analysis of patient blood samples to detect autism. She has recently joined the computational sciences and statistical analysis group at the Jackson lab’s new research institute - JAX Genomics Medicine (JGM) at University of Connecticut (Farmington, CT). This independent, nonprofit organization focuses on mammalian genetics research to advance human health and has been working in various disease areas like cancer, neurodegenerative disorders to name a few.

Developing metabolomics as a systems biology tool, statistical analysis, pattern recognition, metabolic network analysis, plant metabolomics, data analysis pipeline development, metabolomics standards

Zuyi (Jacky) Huang completed his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 2010 and then worked as a Research Scientist in the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine. He joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Villanova University as an Assistant Professor in 2011. He is now the director of Computational Systems Biology Lab at Villanova University. He has published 18 papers in reputed journals. He is now serving as an editorial board member of Journal of Computer Science & Systems Biology. He is also serving on the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) Policy Committee.

1) deriving quantitative data for transcription factors by analyzing GFP images and solving an inverse problem; 2)integrating available qualitative information into modeling by using Fuzzy logic;3) performing nonlinear model reduction of uncertain systems; 4) sensor network and experimental design for chemical plants

Ryals received his Ph. D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Texas at Dallas in 1982. Following post doctoral work in the lab of Charles Weissmann at the Institute for Molecular Biology at the University of Zurich, Ryals joined Ciba-Geigy in the Biotechnology Research Unit at Research Triangle Park (now Syngenta). Ryals worked in various research and management positions including Head, Agricultural Biotechnology Research, Vice-President of Biotechnology, Vice-President, Research for Novartis Crop Protection, Inc. and Head of the Biotechnology and Genomics Center of Novartis, Inc. In 1997, Ryals founded Paradigm Genetics, Inc., an early systems biology company, and served as the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Science Officer and President and taking the company public in 2000. After leaving Paradigm Genetics in 2002, Ryals joined Metabolon, Inc. as Chief Executive Officer and President. For the past 10 years, Ryals research interest has been in the development of metabolomics to aid in pharmaceutical drug discovery and development, healthcare and nutrition. Metabolon, Inc. is a diagnostics and commercial services company offering the industry’s leading biochemical profiling platform. Metabolon has performed over 2000 studies to date with involving more than 500 customers and collaborators. Among these studies, Metabolon has conducted over 300 studies on cancer and in particular in contrasting various types of cancer and discovering biomarkers that can be used to differentiate various forms of the disease.

Development of metabolomics to aid in pharmaceutical drug discovery and development, healthcare and nutrition.

Wei Jia is Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Translational Biomedical Research, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. He also serves as Director of the Metabolomics Core Lab at the David H Murdock Research Institute, Kannapolis, North Carolina. Jia was previously Professor and Vice Dean, School of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, and has worked nearly a decade on biochemical profiling of botanical preparations and metabolomics. Professor Jia’s current research focuses on mass spectrometry (MS)-based metabolomics profiling technologies to investigate metabolic phenotypes and metabolic transformation in cancer and metabolic disorders.

Metabonomic study of disorders, including diabetes, obesity, and colorectal cancer.

She has done MS Analytical Chemistry from University of Nebraska, Ph.D. Analytical Chemistry, Iowa State University, Her research includes characterizing the small molecules in natural systems to understand how they interact synergistically in maintaining the energy balance in mammalian cells. As such, she have collaborated with other experts in the nutritional/biomedical area to link specific dietary metabolites to potential health outcomes. Her experience in dietary metabolites, background in pharmaceuticals, and education as a bioanalytical chemist provides the foundation needed to achieve her long term goals.

Synergistic interactions of secondary metabolites on maintaining the energy balance / fluxes in mammalian cells. Synergistic interactions of secondary metabolites of plant systems on phenotypic switches (e.g. inflammation (M1 to M2 states) and virulent bacteria). Effects of farming practices on secondary metabolites in various crops, with an emphasis on dry edible beans, strawberries, wheat and tomatoes. Development of high-throughput metabolomic analytical methods.

Xue-Long Sun is an Associate Professor and has been promoted to a Full Professor (2012) in the Department of Chemistry, Cleveland State University and holds an adjunct faculty position at the Department of Molecular Cardiology, Cleveland Clinic since 2007. Dr. Sun earned his Ph.D. degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from Kitasato University School of Pharmacy, Tokyo, Japan. He has published 73 peer-reviewed research articles and book chapters. He has been trained as carbohydrate chemist working on synthesis and characterization of sialic acid derivatives during graduate research and glycosaminoglycan mimetics during postdoctoral research. Recently, he is working on glyco-macroligand-based microarray and biosensor for proteomics, pathogen identification; glyco-affinity macroligand engineering for glycoproteomics and glycomics research. In addition, he has worked on synthesis and characterization of lipid and glycolipid derivatives for more than ten years. He has been a Guest Editor for a Special Issue (2010, 30 (2)) of Carbohydrate Recognition and Applications for Medicinal Research Reviews (Wiley InterScience).

Metabolomics

Laszlo Vigh, Director, Hungarian Academy Of Sciences.

Leucocyte research and molecular and chemical patterns.

Laura Bindila is Scientist within Luxembourg Clinical Proteomics laboratory, at the Centre de Recherche Publique de la Sante, Strassen, Luxembourg. She carried out her PhD program at University of Munster, Institute for Medical Physics and Biophysics and defended her thesis at the Babes Bolyai University of Cluj Napoca, Romania. She continued her potdoctoral and scientific career at the University of Munster till January 2010 when she moved to Luxemborug Clinical Proteomics laboratory. She has published more than 25 articles, including reviews. She has teaching experience of more than 5 years. She is member of graduate school in Molecular and Cellular Glyco-Sciences (University of Munster) and served as member in Erasmus exchange programs between european universities. She served as a reviewer of peer-reviewed journals in the area of glycobiology, lipidomics and proteomcis. She is member of organizing committee of the Summer School for Mass Spectrometry in Biotechnology and Medicine. She received the Summa cum laudae title for her PhD thesis.

Metabolomics

Ralph Zahn joined BIOCRATES in October 2010 as chief technology officer for the further development of the product pipeline and the affiliated technical and scientific assignments. He holds a PhD in natural science and has a wealth of experience in the field of biotech. After he graduated from biology, he worked as research associate and earned the doctors degree in 1994 at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry in Munich. At the Cambridge University he obtained a post-graduate doctor degree. He habilitated 2001 at the Institute for Molecular Biology and Biophysics at the Eidgenössischen Technischen Hochschule in Zurich. During his career, he was managing director at BioSafety GmbH and founder and CEO of allprion AG.

Chief Technology Officer
Biocrates Life Sciences AG, Austria

Viktor Stolc is the director of the NASA Ames Genome Research Facility (Mountain View, CA), where he has pioneered the development of large-scale functional genomics projects, including high resolution tiling arrays for the entire human genome and various model organisms. Prior to joining NASA in 2000, Stolc worked as a Damon Runyon Cancer Research post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University Genome Technology Center (Palo Alto, CA), where he co-invented a method for direct multiplex characterization of genomic DNA. Dr. Stolc received his doctoral degree from Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Cell Biology (New Haven, CT), where he identified and characterized nuclear RNase P protein components from humans and yeast.

Characterization of dynamic sequence variations caused by metabolic oxidation, and identification of the physical basis for universal feedback mechanism between heredity and the environment.

Mukesh Verma is a Program Director and Chief in the Methods and Technologies Branch (MTB), Epidemiology and Genetics Research Program (EGRP) of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH). Before coming to the DCCPS, he was a Program Director in the Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP), NCI, providing direction in the areas of biomarkers, early detection, risk assessment and prevention of cancer, and cancers associated with infectious agents. Mukesh Verma holds a M.Sc. from Pantnagar University and a Ph.D. from Banaras Hindu University. He did postdoctoral research at George Washington University and was a faculty member at Georgetown University. He has published 125 research articles and reviews and edited four books in cancer epigenetics and epidemiology field. Verma has developed concepts (PA and RFA) on exfoliated cells and circulating DNA and their application in cancer detection and risk assessment, cancer epidemiology, risk prediction models in cancer, mitochondrial DNA and cancer epidemiology, cancer epigenetics, pancreatic cancer etiology, AIDS related malignancies, and systems genetics. Verma represents NCI in NIH Common Funds Metabolomics and NIH Roadmap Epigenomics. He also served as the Project Officer for an Inter Agency Agreement with CDC with focus on biomarkers of cervical cancer.

Cancer epidemiology, risk prediction models in cancer, mitochondrial DNA and cancer epidemiology, cancer epigenetics, pancreatic cancer etiology, AIDS related malignancies, and systems genetics.

George G Chen is a professor in the Department of Surgery, Director of Surgical Research Laboratories, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. He is also served as a principle investigator at the Hong Kong Cancer Institute. He has extensive experience in cancer research, particularly in the area of apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma, lung caner and thyroid cancer. He has authored or co-authored ~120 papers and has written a number of books or book chapters. He is currently a member of editorial boards or a guest editor of a number of scientific journals and a regular peer-reviewer for several grant agents. He was educated in China and United Kingdom and has MB and PhD degrees.

Metabolomics

Mario Hugo Genero, MD is a cofounder and scientific Director of BMG BioPharma. He has received a MD degree from Buenos Aires University, Buenos Aires, Argentina (1990). Adjunct professor of Medical Genetics, Austral University (2005-2009). He has served as Council Member of The Human Proteome Project (HUPO) for two period (2003-2009). He is serving as coordinator of the Latin America HUPO. He is participating in the cardiovascular Initiative at HUPO. He also is serving at the Education and Training Committee of The Human Proteome Project (HUPO) as coordinator of specific educational needs of “Proteomics less advanced countries”.

Medical Genetics,Vascular Therapy

Vidya Velagapudi obtained her PhD in Applied Biochemistry from Univresity of Saarland in collaboration with the Max-Plank Institute for Informatics, Germany in 2005. Later on she moved to VTT, Finland as a post-doctral fellow and continued as a Research Scientist and Project manager during 2006-2009. In 2010, Dr. Velagapudi has taken up the role of Head of the Metabolomics Unit at Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM). From 2012 omwards Dr. velagapudi is also affiliation to University of Helsinki as an Adjunct professor. Dr. Velagapudi has published more than 25 scientific articles in international journals and also acting as editorial board member and reviewer for the journals in the field of metabolomics.

Metabolomics

Professor Alexander A. Kamnev is a Leading Scientist at the Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants and Microorganisms, Russian Academy of sciences (Saratov, Russia). He received his MSc in chemistry (1980), Cand. Sci. (PhD equivalent; 1992) and DSc (2002) in physical chemistry from Saratov State University. His scientific background included chemistry and electrochemistry of transition-metal hydroxide materials.

Plant Biochemistry

Studied in Politechnica University of Timisoara

Automation and Applied Informatics

John A. McLean is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Vanderbilt University and a faculty fellow in the Institute of Chemical Biology and Institute of Integrative Biosystems Research and Education. His recent awards include an Excellence in Teaching Award from the student members of the American Chemical Society, a Defense Threat Reduction Agency Research Award, an American Society for Mass Spectrometry Research Award, a Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh Award, an R&D 100 Award, and the Bunsen–Kirchhoff Prize from the GDCh. He has published over 60 manuscripts in the peer-reviewed literature, 8 book chapters, and 15 patents.

Chemical Biology

Guanyu Wang has completed his Ph.Ds from Zhejiang University in 1998 and from University of Cologne in 2005. He completed his postdoctoral studies from University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Rice University. He is now an assistant professor of Physics at George Washington University. He has published more than 30 papers in reputed journals and serving as an editorial board member of Journal of Biochemistry and Analytic Biochemistry.

Analytic Biochemistry

Neil Price is a government research scientist at the USDA’S National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (USDA-NCAUR) in Peoria, IL. He has a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of London (1990), and research experience at the John Innes Institute, Norwich, U.K., University of Geneva, Switzerland, and Paul-Sabatier University in Toulouse, France, before joining the Complex Carbohydrate research Center in Athens, GA. He previously held a faculty position at the Dept. of Pharmacology, U. of Rochester, NY, before joining the USDA-NCAUR national laboratory in 2003. EMBO fellowship (1990); CNRS-INRA (France) Postdoctoral Fellowship (1991); Procter and Gamble Exploratory Research Prize (1997); American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB, 1994 – present); American society for Mass Spectrometry (2003 –present).

Plant Biochemistry, Mass Spectromerty

Alan Prem Kumar earned his PhD from University of North Texas, USA. From his PhD work, he discovered a novel regulatory protein, PyrR for pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway in Pseudomonas, Because pyrimidine biosynthesis is an essential step in the progression of secondary Pseudomonas infection, PyrR presents an attractive anti-Pseudomonal drug target. Dr. Kumar then pursued Postdoctoral training in Cancer Research at Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, California, USA. He was awarded a postdoctoral Fellowship for his work on the role of nuclear receptors in the transcriptional regulation of human myeloperoxidase, a leukocyte enzyme implicated as causative agent in atherosclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Kumar relocated back to Singapore to join the Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore as an independent Principal Investigator to continue on his expertise on nuclear receptor amd cancer biology. His current research interest includes the role of nuclear receptors involved in the regulation of target genes and elucidate mechanism and association signal pathways. Another area of interest is aimed at developing new derivative drugs with hopefully fewer side effects.

Metabolomics