April 15-17

Oxford, UK


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Past Luminary Award Recipients

Brian Druker

Brian Druker, M.D., Co-inventor, Gleevec

Brian Druker, M.D., Co-inventor, Gleevec

Brian Druker M.D., Director of the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Knight Cancer Institute, JELD-WEN Chair of Leukemia Research, OHSU, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. After having trained in oncology at Harvard's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. Druker then returned to the lab to begin his research career studying the regulation of the growth of cancer cells and the practical application to cancer therapies. His work was instrumental in the development of Gleevec, a drug that targets the molecular defect in chronic myeloid leukemia. After completing a series of preclinical studies, Dr. Druker spearheaded the highly successful clinical trials of imatinib for CML. Imatinib is currently FDA approved for CML and gastrointestinal stromal tumors. His role in the development of imatinib and its application in the clinic have resulted in numerous awards for Dr. Druker, including the John J. Kenney Award from The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the AACR-Richard, and many others.

Craig Venter

Craig Venter, Ph.D., Co-Founder, Executive Chairman, CEO - Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI)

Craig Venter, Ph.D., Co-Founder, Executive Chairman, CEO - Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI)

J. Craig Venter is a biologist renowned for his contributions in sequencing the first draft human genome in 2001, the first complete diploid human genome in 2007 and construction of the first synthetic bacterial cell in 2010. He is a co-founder, executive chairman and CEO of Human Longevity Inc (HLI), a privately held genomics and cell therapy-based diagnostic and therapeutic company focused on extending the healthy, high performance human life span. He is also founder, executive chairman and CEO of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) and a co-founder, executive chairman and co-chief scientist of Synthetic Genomics Inc (SGI), a privately held company focused on developing products and solutions using synthetic genomic technologies. He and his teams are focused on a variety of projects and programs including: synthetic genomic research and the application of these advances to develop new vaccines and food and nutritional products, new biofuels and biochemicals; continued analysis of the human genome including the human microbiome, and discovering and understanding genetic diversity in the world's oceans. Dr. Venter is a recipient of the 2008 National Medal of Science and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life (Viking, 2013) and A Life Decoded: My Genome: My Life (Viking, 2007).

Dennis Lo

Dennis Lo, M.D., Ph.D, Director, Li Ka Shing Inst. of HS, Chinese Uni. of HK

Dennis Lo, M.D., Ph.D, Director, Li Ka Shing Inst. of HS, Chinese Uni. of HK

In 1997, Dr. Dennis Lo and his co-workers reported the presence of cell-free fetal DNA in the plasma of pregnant women. The finding of circulating fetal DNA in maternal blood has opened up new possibilities for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis. He elucidated the fundamental characteristics of such molecules, developed the technologies for their analysis, conceptualised their use and brought non-invasive prenatal diagnosis to a reality. He achieved the non-invasive prenatal diagnosis of trisomy 21, which has been hailed as the holy grail in prenatal diagnosis. Within a few years, tests, such as sex determination for sex-linked genetic disorders, are clinically used in many centres, replacing the corresponding conventional tests.

George Church

George Church, Ph.D., Co-developer, Human Genome Project

George Church, Ph.D., Co-developer, Human Genome Project

George Church, Ph.D. Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Sciences & Technology, Harvard and MIT with Walter Gilbert. He developed the first direct genomic sequencing method in 1984 and helped initiate the Human Genome Project in 1984 while he was a Research Scientist at newly-formed Biogen Inc. He invented the broadly-applied concepts of molecular multiplexing and tags,homologous recombination methods,and DNA array synthesizers. Technology transfer of automated sequencing & software to Genome Therapeutics Corp. resulted in the first commercial genome sequence, (the human pathogen, Helicobacter pylori) in 1994. He initiated the Personal Genome Project (PGP) in 2005 and research on synthetic biology. He is director of the U.S. Department of Energy Center on Bioenergy at Harvard & MIT and director of the National Institutes of Health (NHGRI) Center of Excellence in Genomic Science at Harvard, MIT & Washington University. He has been advisor to 22 companies, most recently co-founding (with Joseph Jacobson, Jay Keasling, and Drew Endy) Codon Devices, a biotech startup dedicated to synthetic biology and (with Chris Somerville) founding LS9, which is focused on biofuels. He is a senior editor for Nature EMBO Molecular Systems Biology.

Janet Woodcock

Janet Woodcock, M.D., Director, Center for Drug Evaluation & Research, FDA

Janet Woodcock, M.D., Director, Center for Drug Evaluation & Research, FDA

Janet Woodcock is the director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Woodcock has shown dedication to personalized medicine by fast-tracking individualized treatments through the FDA approval process and by encouraging collaboration between the regulatory and industry arenas. During her tenure, both of the individualized treatments Xalkori and Zelboraf received FDA approval paired with companion diagnostics. Dr. Woodcock has led many of FDA’s drug initiatives. She introduced the concept of risk management in 2000 as a new approach to drug safety. Since 2002, she has led the “Pharmaceutical Quality for the 21st Century Initiative,” FDA’s highly successful effort to modernize drug manufacturing and its regulation. In 2004, she introduced FDA’s “Critical Path” Initiative, which is designed to move medical discoveries from the laboratory to consumers more efficiently. Most recently, Dr. Woodcock launched the “Safety First” and “Safe Use” initiatives designed to improve drug safety management within and outside FDA, respectively. Dr. Woodcock previously served as FDA’s deputy commissioner and chief medical officer. She also led CDER as director from 1994–2005. Prior to joining CDER, Dr. Woodcock oversaw approval of the first biotechnology-based treatments for multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis in her position as director of the Office of Therapeutics Research and Review in FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Dr. Woodcock received her medical degree from Northwestern University Medical School, and her undergraduate degree from Bucknell University. She has held teaching appointments at Pennsylvania State University and the University of California at San Francisco. She joined FDA in 1986.

Jay T. Flatley

Jay T. Flatley, President & Chief Executive Officer, Illumina

Jay T. Flatley, President & Chief Executive Officer, Illumina

Jay was appointed President and CEO of Illumina in 1999, and has taken the company from $1.3 million in sales in 2000 to over $1 billion in 2011, representing a compound annual growth rate in excess of 90%. He oversaw the company’s expansion into the whole genome sequencing area with the acquisition of Solexa in 2006, and more recently into diagnostics and consumer sequencing. Previously, Jay served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Molecular Dynamics, later acquired by Amersham Pharmacia Biotech and now a part of GE Healthcare. As a co-founder and member of the board of directors for Molecular Dynamics he led the company to its initial public offering in 1993. While there, he also helped Molecular Dynamics develop and launch over 15 major instrumentation systems, including the first capillary-based DNA sequencer. Prior to joining Molecular Dynamics, Jay was Vice President of engineering and strategic planning for Plexus Computers, a manufacturer of high-performance Unix super-microcomputers. Before his career at Plexus, Jay was Executive Vice President for Manning Technologies and held various manufacturing positions while working for the Autolab division of Spectra Physics. Currently, he is a trustee of the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences and a member of the Board of Directors at Illumina, Inc and at Coherent, Inc. Jay received a B.A. in economics from Claremont McKenna College and a B.S. and M.S. (summa cum laude) in industrial engineering from Stanford University.

Kim Popovits

Kim Popovits, Chairman, CEO & President, Genomic Health

Kim Popovits, Chairman, CEO & President, Genomic Health

Kim Popovits has served as president and CEO of Genomic Health since 2009 and as president and chief operating officer since 2002. Prior to joining Genomic Health, Popovits served in various roles, most recently as senior vice president of marketing and sales, at Genentech, Inc. During her 15 years at Genentech, she led the successful commercialization of 14 new therapies, including Herceptin. Before joining Genentech, Popovits served as division manager for American Critical Care. In 2008, Popovits was named Woman of the Year by the Women Health Care Executives, and she has been named one of the Most Influential Women in the Bay Area by The San Francisco Business Times from 2006 to 2011. She holds a bachelor of arts in business from Michigan State University.

Ron Davis

Ron Davis, Ph.D., Director, Stanford Genome Technology Center

Ron Davis, Ph.D., Director, Stanford Genome Technology Center

Dr. Ron Davis developed the R-loop technique of electron microscopy for mapping coding RNA’s which led to the discovery of RNA splicing. Dr. Davis was the first to demonstrate the use of restriction endonucleases for joining DNA fragments. Dr. Davis was a co-collaborator in the development of the first DNA microarray for gene expression profiling, and the gene expression profile of the first complete eukaryotic genome. He is a Professor of Biochemistry & Genetics, and Director of the Stanford Genome Technology Center at Stanford University where he is a researcher in biotechnology and molecular genetics, particularly active in human and yeast genomics and the development of new technologies in genomics, with over 30 biotechnology patents.

Luminary Award Recipient

Jonathan K.C. Knowles

Jonathan K.C. Knowles, Ph.D., Executive Chairman, Immunocore

Jonathan K.C. Knowles, Ph.D., Executive Chairman, Immunocore

Jonathan Knowles has been very active in promoting Personalized Medicine in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry for several decades. He was Head of Group Research and Member of the Executive Committee at Roche up to the end of 2009. He was a member of the Genentech Board for 12 years and a member of the Chugai Board for 7 years. Under his leadership, the Roche group developed and implemented a strategy of highly effective therapies based on personalized healthcare. He was for 5 years the Chairman of the Hever Group and the Research Directors’ Group of EFPIA and was the founding chairman of the Board of the Innovative Medicines Initiative, a unique public private partnership with a budget of over 5 Billion Euros. Jonathan Knowles held a Distinguished Professorship in Personalised medicine at FIMM (Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland) at the University of Helsinki 2010-201. He was appointed as Executive chairman of Immunocore Ltd. and Adaptimmune Ltd, two leading UK Cancer Immunotherapy Companies since 2013 and serves on the boards of a number of Biotech companies.

Session Chairs

Dame Fiona Caldicott

Dame Fiona Caldicott, DBE, FMedSci, MA, FRCP, FRCPsych, Chairman of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust

Dame Fiona Caldicott, DBE, FMedSci, MA, FRCP, FRCPsych, Chairman of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust

Dame Fiona Caldicott is currently Chairman of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and in addition is the National Data Guardian for Health and Social Care, appointed by the Secretary of State for Health in England in November 2014. She is an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist and was President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists 1993-6, and Chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. From 1996-7 she chaired the Caldicott Committee on patient identifiable data and the National Information Governance Board from 2012-13. Since then she has chaired the Independent Information Governance Oversight Panel. She was made DBE in 1996 for services to medicine and psychiatry. Dame Fiona was also Principal of Somerville College in the University of Oxford from 1996-2010, and a Pro-Vice-Chancellor from 2002-10.

Dame Mary Archer

Dame Mary Archer, DBE, Chairman of Cambridge Healthcare Ltd.

Dame Mary Archer, DBE, Chairman of Cambridge Healthcare Ltd.

Dame Mary Archer DBE started her career as a physical chemist and has taught Chemistry at Cambridge University. Mary Archer was chairman of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, 2002–2012, and a founder director of Cambridge University Health Partners, 2009–2012. In 2012, she was appointed DBE for services to the NHS. As well as being Chair of the Partnership’s Expert Advisory Board, Dame Mary Archer is President of the National Energy Foundation, the UK Solar Energy Society and the Guild of Church Musicians and chairman of Cambridge Healthcare Ltd.

Program Chair & Committee

Ingrid Slade

Ingrid Slade, Director, Centre for Personalised Medicine, University of Oxford

Ingrid Slade, Director, Centre for Personalised Medicine, University of Oxford

Dr Ingrid Slade is the Director of the Centre for Personalised Medicine, an innovative partnership between St Anne’s College and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford. The Centre aims to provide a focus for multidisciplinary interaction, dissemination of knowledge and enhancement of the educational experience of students, faculty, healthcare professionals and the public more broadly. Ingrid trained in medicine at the University of Bristol and went on to specialty training in Clinical Genetics at Great Ormond Street, London. She undertook a PhD at the Section of Genetics and Epidemiology at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, identifying and characterising genes that confer susceptibility to childhood tumours. Ingrid began specialty training in Public Health Medicine in 2011 in order to pursue her academic interest in the implementation and evaluation of genomic medicine within the national healthcare setting. Ingrid is on the Programme Committee of the Mainstreaming Cancer Genetics Programme; a Wellcome Trust funded initiative that aims to make genetic testing part of routine cancer patient care. Her time is divided between the Health Economics Research Centre and Ethox, a multidisciplinary bioethics research centre in the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford.

Jonathan Sheldon

Jonathan Sheldon, Ph.D., Global Vice President Health Sciences, Oracle

Jonathan Sheldon, Ph.D., Global Vice President Health Sciences, Oracle

Jonathan Sheldon, Ph.D., is Global Vice President Healthcare responsible for Oracle Health Sciences healthcare analytics platform and solutions including in the areas of translational medicine, population health and convergence with Life Sciences. Previously, Dr. Sheldon was Chief Scientific Officer at InforSense, where he was responsible for the company's strategic direction in the health sciences market, as well as leading the consulting group. Prior to InforSense, he was Chief Technology Officer for Confirmant Ltd, where he was responsible for developing the company's proteomics products and services. He also established the first bioinformatics group and was Head of Bioinformatics for five years at Roche Welwyn, UK. Dr. Sheldon holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology/Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge.

Peter Donnelly

Peter Donnelly, FRS, FMedSci, Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford University

Peter Donnelly, FRS, FMedSci, Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford University

Peter Donnelly is Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and Professor of Statistical Science at the University of Oxford. He grew up in Australia and on graduating from the University of Queensland he studied for a doctorate in Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He held professorships at the Universities of London and Chicago before returning to Oxford in 1996. Peter’s early research work concerned the development of stochastic models in population genetics, including the coalescent, and then the development of statistical methods for genetic and genomic data. His group developed several widely-used statistical algorithms, including STRUCTURE and PHASE, and, in collaboration with colleagues in Oxford, IMPUTE. His current research focuses on understanding the genetic basis of human diseases, human demographic history, bacterial evolution and infection, and the mechanisms involved in mammalian recombination. Peter played a major role in the HapMap project, and more recently, he chaired the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC) and its successor, WTCCC2, a large international collaboration studying the genetic basis of more than 20 common human diseases and conditions in over 60,000 people. He also leads WGS500, an Oxford collaboration with Illumina to sequence 500 individuals with a range of clinical conditions, to assess the short-term potential for whole genome sequencing in clinical medicine. Peter is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Tal Behar

Tal Behar, Co-founder & President, PMWC Intl

Tal Behar, Co-founder & President, PMWC Intl

Tal Behar founded the Personalized Medicine World Conference (PMWC), in 2009 partnering with Stanford Health Care. Today, PMWC is the leading global gathering of professionals focused on personalized medicine. Tal has been responsible for the Conference’s steady and profitable growth to more than 1000 attendees, 100 speakers, 200 companies and scores of exhibitors per event. Tal is also a co-founder of Silicon Ventures, the private high tech investor forum that provides funding to early stage companies. Under her leadership, hundreds of high technology-focused events in Silicon Valley and abroad have been launched. Tal studied Law in Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Speakers

Anne Wojcicki

Anne Wojcicki, CEO and Co-Founder, 23andMe

Anne Wojcicki, CEO and Co-Founder, 23andMe

Anne co-founded 23andMe in 2006 after a decade spent in healthcare investing, focused primarily on biotechnology companies. Her hope was to empower consumers with access to their own genetic information and to create a way to generate more personalized information so that commercial and academic researchers could better understand and develop new drugs and diagnostics. Presently, 23andMe has built one of the world's largest databases of individual genetic information. Its novel, web-based research approach allows for the rapid recruitment of participants to many genome-wide association studies at once, reducing the time and money needed to make new discoveries, and the company has created a proven and standardized resource for finding new genetic association and confirming genetic loci discovered by others. Under Anne's leadership 23andMe has made significant advances in bringing personalized medicine directly to the public. Anne graduated from Yale University with a BS in Biology. Getting access to and understanding her own genetic information had always been one of her ambitions.

Cameron Frayling

Cameron Frayling, Founder and CEO, Base4

Cameron Frayling, Founder and CEO, Base4

Cameron Frayling, Founder and CEO of Base4, has spent the last 6 years building a team of the brightest scientists working next to, and in collaboration with, the Cavendish Labs in Cambridge, UK. His approach has focussed on hiring not only the brightest and most academically decorated, but also the most intellectually creative young talent. Together with this exceptional team, he has gone on to develop not one, but two new approaches to DNA sequencing. He and his team are now focussed on the transformation of their technology into instruments which will power the next era of genetic analysis. In his spare time, Cameron competes in Ironman triathlons and climbs mountains.

Clive Brown

Clive Brown, Chief Technology Officer, Oxford Nanopore

Clive Brown, Chief Technology Officer, Oxford Nanopore

Clive is Chief Technology Officer at Oxford Nanopore. On the Executive team, he is responsible for all of the Company’s product-development activities. Clive leads the specification and design of the Company’s nanopore-based sensing platform, including strand DNA/RNA sequencing and protein-sensing applications with a strong focus on scientific excellence and successful adoption by the scientific community. Clive joined Oxford Nanopore from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (Cambridge, UK) where he played a key role in the adoption and exploitation of 'next generation' DNA sequencing platforms. This involved helping to set up the world’s largest single installation of Illumina (formerly Solexa) Genome Analyzers in a production sequencing environment, initially used to pioneer the 1000 genomes project. From early 2003 he was Director of Computational Biology and IT at Solexa Ltd, where he was central to the development and commercialisation of the Genome Analyzer (GA). Solexa was sold to Illumina for $650m in early 2007 after the successful placement and adoption of 12 instruments. The Solexa technology, now commercialised by Illumina, is the market-leading DNA sequencing technology driving the renaissance in DNA-based discovery. He has a strong background in computer science and genetics/molecular biology and manages interdisciplinary teams including mechanical engineering, electronics, physics, surface chemistry, electrophysiology, software engineering and applications (of the technology). Clive applies modern agile management techniques to the entire product-development lifecycle. Clive has also held various management and consulting positions at GlaxoWellcome, Oxford Glycosciences and other EU- and US-based organisations. He has worked at the interface between computing and science, ranging from genetics to proteomics. He holds degrees in Genetics and Computational Biology from the University of York.

Corina Shtir

Corina Shtir, Ph.D., Director of Population Genomics, Thermo Fisher

Corina Shtir, Ph.D., Director of Population Genomics, Thermo Fisher

Corina is the Director of Population Genomics at Thermo Fisher Scientific, having joined the company in February 2013. Her scientific expertise is in Population Genetics and Biostatistics (PhD), and also in Statistical Genetics, Mathematics, Epidemiology, and Computational Biology. She directs the integration and execution of population-scale genomic medicine projects, such as the Saudi Genome Program, Scotland Stratified Medicine, Taiwan National Genome Program, and other mid East and European large-scale efforts. Also, she is collaborator on the Million Veterans Program US genome sequencing study. Prior to joining Thermo Fisher, Corina has been working at the Wellcome Trust Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory, Cambridge, UK, with John Todd and David Clayton. While there, she developed a comprehensive method for assessing and correcting bias of structural variants, through the largest T1D CNV study at the time, a collaborative work between the Wellcome Trust, Cambridge Institute of Medical Research (CIMR), and University of Virginia (UVA). In the UK, she has also collaborated with Kings College leaders on studying autoimmune disorders. Corina has also published and worked with scientific authorities worldwide in neurodevelopmental disorders (UCLA, USC, Pennsylvania Univ., Cardiff Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genomics - UK), and with other leading figures in population genetics, computational biology, and epidemiological genetic methodologies.

Daphna Laifenfeld

Daphna Laifenfeld, Ph.D., Director, Personalized Medicine and Pharmacogenomics, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries

Daphna Laifenfeld, Ph.D., Director, Personalized Medicine and Pharmacogenomics, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries

Dr. Daphna Laifenfeld is Director, Personalized Medicine and Pharmacogenomics (PMP) unit for Global R&D at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. She has dedicated her career to the field of genomics and biomarkers and their implementation toward the advancement of personalized medicine. She is currently charged with leading and executing a personalized medicine strategy throughout various programs at Teva, spanning activities from discovery, mechanism of action, patient stratification, and companion diagnostic development at Teva, a top-10 global pharmaceutical company. Before joining Teva, Dr. Laifenfeld served several roles with increasing responsibility at Selventa, a system's biology company focused on personalized medicine. Daphna initially lead collaborations with several big pharma companies on implementation of a personalized medicine approach in their pipeline, and subsequently took the role of Global Head of Diagnostics, where she was responsible for the company's internal diagnostic development strategy, in addition to overseeing biomarker discovery programs. In academia, Dr. Laifenfeld studied molecular pathways and pharmacogenomics in CNS, including a focus on the biology underlying Alzheimer's disease in Prof. Rachael Neve's lab at Harvard University, and on pharmacogenomics of Major Depression therapeutic response at Prof. Ehud Klein's lab at the Technion. Dr. Laifenfeld received her PhD from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

David R. Bentley

David R. Bentley, DPhil, FMedSci, Vice-President & Chief Scientist, Illumina Inc.

David R. Bentley, DPhil, FMedSci, Vice-President & Chief Scientist, Illumina Inc.

David Bentley, molecular biologist and geneticist, is currently Vice President and Chief Scientist of DNA Sequencing at Illumina, Inc., a commercial developer of genetic analysis tools and systems. Educated at the University of Cambridge (M.A. in biochemistry) and the University of Oxford (Ph.D.), Dr. Bentley was a postdoctoral fellow, lecturer, and senior lecturer at Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospital in London from 1991 to 1993 where he studied mutations that cause genetic diseases, and a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Medical & Molecular Genetics at the University of London. In 1993 he was brought to Sanger Centre (now known as Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute) as a founding member and head of human genetics by his mentor, John Sulston. Dr. Bentley led Sanger in their major contributions to the Human Genome Project, The Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) Consortium, and the International Haplotype Mapping (HapMap) Project. Dr. Bentley left Wellcome in 1985 to join commercial sequencer, Solexa, Inc., as Chief Scientist where he was responsible for the Company’s DNA sequencing applications development and projects. Solexa was acquired by Illumina in 2007.

Dirk J. Evers

Dirk J. Evers, Ph.D., SVP Alliance Management, Molecular Health

Dirk J. Evers, Ph.D., SVP Alliance Management, Molecular Health

Dr. Dirk J. Evers is the Senior Vice President for Alliance Management at Molecular Health GmbH in Heidelberg, Germany. His scientific expertise is in algorithmic bioinformatics for next-generation-sequencing data. Previously, he was part of the senior management team that was tasked with creating the New York Genome Center. From 2007 to 2012, he directed the computational biology department at Illumina’s Cambridge, UK site. While there, he was responsible for the development of the analysis software that supports the Illumina sequencing systems. Among other things, his group analysed the first African genome, characterized a malignant melanoma cell line, performed a time course analysis of genomic data of patient samples suffering from CLL, and performed a de novo normal and tumour sample analysis of the Tasmanian devil genome and the transmissible cancer that afflicts its population. Dirk holds a doctorate in natural sciences from Bielefeld University in Germany.

Eric D. Green

Eric D. Green, M.D., Ph.D., Director, National Human Genome Research Institute

Eric D. Green, M.D., Ph.D., Director, National Human Genome Research Institute

Dr. Green is director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a position he has held since late 2009. NHGRI is the largest organization in the world solely dedicated to genomics research. Previously, he served as the NHGRI scientific director (2002 to 2009), chief of the NHGRI Genome Technology Branch (1996 to 2009) and director of the NIH Intramural Sequencing Center (1997 to 2009). While directing an independent research program for almost two decades, Dr. Green was at the forefront of efforts to map, sequence and understand eukaryotic genomes, including significant, start-to-finish involvement in the Human Genome Project. Now, as director of NHGRI, Dr. Green is responsible for providing overall leadership of the institute's research portfolio and other initiatives. This requires significant coordination with other NIH components and funding agencies. Most recently, Dr. Green led NHGRI to the completion of a strategic planning process that yielded a new vision for the future of genomics research (“Charting a course for genomic medicine from base pairs to bedside,” Nature 2011;470:204).

Euan Ashley

Euan Ashley, Ph.D., Director, Stanford Clinical Genomics Service

Euan Ashley, Ph.D., Director, Stanford Clinical Genomics Service

Born and raised in Scotland, Euan Angus Ashley graduated with 1st class Honors in Physiology and Medicine from the University of Glasgow. He completed medical residency and a PhD in molecular cardiology at the University of Oxford before moving to Stanford University where he trained in cardiology and advanced heart failure joining the faculty in 2006. His group is focused on the application of genomics to medicine. In 2010, he led the team that carried out the first clinical interpretation of a human genome. The paper published in the Lancet was the focus of over 300 news stories, became one of the most cited articles in clinical medicine that year, and is currently featured in the Genome Exhibition at the Smithsonian in DC. The team extended the approach in 2011 to a family of four and now routinely apply genome sequencing to the diagnosis of patients at Stanford hospital where Dr Ashley directs the Clinical Genome Service and the Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease. Dr Ashley is a recipient of the National Innovation Award from the American Heart Association (AHA) and a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Award. He is a Principal Investigator of the Myocardial Applied Genomics Network (MAGnet), a member of the leadership group of the AHA Council on Functional Genomics, and a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences Roundtable on Translating Genomic-Based Research for Health. He is a peer reviewer for the NIH and the AHA as well as journals including Nature, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet and the Journal of Clinical Investigation,. He is co-founder of, and advisor to, Personalis, Inc, a Menlo Park based genetic diagnostics company.

Frank S. Ong

Frank S. Ong, M.D., Sr. Director of Medical Affairs, QIAGEN

Frank S. Ong, M.D., Sr. Director of Medical Affairs, QIAGEN

Dr. Ong is currently the Senior Director, Medical and Scientific Affairs of Global MDx at QIAGEN. Previously, he was the Associate Director of Medical Affairs at Illumina, where he was the Global Lead for Medical Education and Communications. He was also the Medical Lead for the for the first FDA 510(k)-cleared NGS platform and NGS-based assays submissions. Prior to Illumina, Dr. Ong was a Principal Investigator in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and by the medical center for research on the genetics of blood pressure regulation. Dr. Ong received his Medical Doctorate (M.D.) with honors from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, served as Resident Physician in the Department of Family Medicine at Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and completed a clinical fellowship in Clinical Molecular Genetics in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine of UCLA as well as a research fellowship in the Division of Experimental Pathology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Gary Middleton

Gary Middleton, Ph.D., FRCP, Professor of Medical Oncology, University of Birmingham

Gary Middleton, Ph.D., FRCP, Professor of Medical Oncology, University of Birmingham

Gary Middleton is Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Birmingham who specialises in lung cancer and colorectal cancer. Appointed to a chair of Medical Oncology at Birmingham in 2013, he is building up a strong clinical research programme in lung and colorectal cancer. Gary has a strong presence in UK stratified medicine clinical trials and is overall Chief Investigator for Matrix, a multi-centre, multi-arm, molecularly stratified clinical trial programme for UK patients with lung cancer. Gary is also a member of the trials management group and Chief Investigator for the BRAF arm of FOCUS4, a molecularly stratified multi-site, multi-arm, multi-stage randomised trials programme for UK patients with colorectal cancer. He was recently awarded MRC Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation funding to investigate the impact of the addition of Ruxolitinib, a STAT3 inhibitor, in mesothelioma. He is also co-lead for the immunobiology arm of TRACERx (Tracking Cancer Evolution through Therapy), a £14 million CRUK-funded study aiming to define how lung cancer develops spatially and temporally. In addition to leading his own clinical research group, Gary is a member of the NCRI Lung Cancer Clinical Studies Group, the advanced lung cancer sub-group, the advanced colorectal sub-group and the pancreatic sub-group. He is a member of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Awards and Advisory Committee (CTAAC). He also holds advisory board membership for a number of drug companies, and is a member of the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Centre’s advisory board.

Haim Gil-Ad

Haim Gil-Ad, CEO & Co-founder, NovellusDx

Haim Gil-Ad, CEO & Co-founder, NovellusDx

Mr. Gil-Ad brings more than 25 years of experience in management of large R&D projects. Prior to founding NovellusDx, Haim Gil-Ad was the CEO of Optigo Systems Ltd.,a vertically integrated high-tech company developing technology-oriented products and a leader in electro-optical R&D that was acquired by the Elta Co. of Israel Aerospace Industries. Prior to joining Optigo, Mr. Gil-Ad pursued an extensive career with the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD) as head of major international R&D and full-scale development programs. Mr. Gil-Ad earned a B.Sc. in Engineering from Tel-Aviv University and an MBA from Ben-Gurion University. He has twice been awarded the Israel National Quality Award.

Jennifer Hinkel

Jennifer Hinkel, Partner, McGivney Global Advisors

Jennifer Hinkel, Partner, McGivney Global Advisors

Jennifer Hinkel is a partner at McGivney Global Advisors, specializing in market access and reimbursement strategy. Before joining McGivney Global Advisors, Ms. Hinkel was part of Genentech's Industry Analytics group, where she led impact assessments of health policy, Medicare reimbursement, and policy-related industry trends. She is a graduate of Roche and Genentech's accelerated global management program, during which she held roles in pricing, contracting, and distribution strategy (North America), oncology marketing (Argentina), hospital sales and account management (UK), and specialty therapeutics marketing (US). Prior to her time at Roche, Ms. Hinkel was a manager at NCCN working on cancer center best practices and optimizing safety and efficiency in hospitals and the cancer care delivery system. Ms. Hinkel holds a MSc in International Health Policy from the London School of Economics and a BS in International Affairs from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Ms. Hinkel has also been a partner/founder in a mobile health care technology startup, a lecturer in Health Systems and Health Economics at Penn State University and Arcadia University, and has health policy experience in Washington, DC and in the UK.

Ketan Patel

Ketan Patel, Ph.D., Product Strategist, Precision Medicine, Oracle Health Sciences

Ketan Patel, Ph.D., Product Strategist, Precision Medicine, Oracle Health Sciences

Dr. Ketan Patel is currently a Product Strategist with Oracle Health Sciences working on Precision Medicine solutions. Prior to this post he has led multiple teams and projects both at Pfizer and at Lilly working on Translational Bioinformatics in the fields of Oncology, Diabetes and Inflammation over a 9 year period. Dr. Patel holds a PhD in Bioinformatics from the University Of Oxford and an MSc in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Edinburgh.

Kim Popovits

Kim Popovits, Chairman, CEO & President, Genomic Health

Kim Popovits, Chairman, CEO & President, Genomic Health

Kim Popovits has served as president and CEO of Genomic Health since 2009 and as president and chief operating officer since 2002. Prior to joining Genomic Health, Popovits served in various roles, most recently as senior vice president of marketing and sales, at Genentech, Inc. During her 15 years at Genentech, she led the successful commercialization of 14 new therapies, including Herceptin. Before joining Genentech, Popovits served as division manager for American Critical Care. In 2008, Popovits was named Woman of the Year by the Women Health Care Executives, and she has been named one of the Most Influential Women in the Bay Area by The San Francisco Business Times from 2006 to 2011. She holds a bachelor of arts in business from Michigan State University.

Leroy Hood

Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D., President, Institute for Systems Biology

Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D., President, Institute for Systems Biology

Dr. Hood’s research has focused on fundamental biology (immunity, evolution, genomics) and on bringing engineering to biology through the development of five instruments; the DNA and protein sequencers and synthesizers and the ink-jet oligonucleotide synthesizer (making DNA arrays) for deciphering the various types of biological information (DNA, RNA, proteins and systems). These instruments constitute the technological foundation for modern molecular biology and genomics. He has applied these technologies to diverse fields including immunology, neurobiology, cancer biology, molecular evolution and systems medicine. Dr. Hood is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Association of Arts and Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Hood is one of only 7 (of more than 6000 members) scientists elected to all three academies (NAS, NAE and IOM). Dr. Hood has also played a role in founding more than 14 biotechnology companies, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Systemix, Darwin and Rosetta. He is currently pioneering systems medicine and the systems approach to disease and has recently cofounded the company Integrated Diagnostics—that hopefully will become a platform company for P4 medicine.

Mark Caulfield

Mark Caulfield, FRCP, FMedSci, Chief Scientist, Genomics England

Mark Caulfield, FRCP, FMedSci, Chief Scientist, Genomics England

Mark graduated in Medicine in 1984 from the London Hospital Medical College and trained in Clinical Pharmacology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital (Barts) where he developed a research programme in molecular genetics of hypertension and clinical research. In 2009 he won the Lily Prize of the British Pharmacology Society. He is a Fellow of The Royal College of Physicians. In 2000 Mark successfully bid for £3.1m to create the Barts and The London Genome Centre at the Queen Mary University of London. Since 2008 he has directed the Barts National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit. In 2012 he become Co-Chair of NIHR Comprehensive Research Network Cardiovascular Sub-Speciality Group. Mark was appointed Director of the William Harvey Research Institute in 2002 and was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2008. His particular areas of research are Cardiovascular Genomics and Translational Cardiovascular Research and Pharmacology. From 2009 to 2011 Mark was President of the British Hypertension Society. He has also served on the NICE Guideline Group for hypertension and leads the Joint UK Societies’ Working Group and Consensus on Renal Denervation which he has driven from research into NHS care.In 2013 he became an NIHR Senior Investigator.

Michael Ball

Michael Ball, CEO, GenoLogics

Michael Ball, CEO, GenoLogics

Michael Ball, the CEO for GenoLogics Life Sciences Software, has 20 years of experience in sales, marketing and business development with high growth technology companies. Michael has held VP positions at various technology companies including five years in executive management with Creo Products Inc. as VP Business Development and VP European Sales and Service. In addition, Michael was VP at Carmanah Technologies, spent seven years at Digital Equipment Corp. and has experience with several technology start-ups. Michael has a sound knowledge of mergers, acquisitions and strategic partnerships, extensive international experience and has been instrumental in repositioning GenoLogics from a single product company to a comprehensive research informatics vendor for the life sciences industry.

Mike Standing

Mike Standing, Partner, Monitor Deloitte

Mike Standing, Partner, Monitor Deloitte

Mike Standing is Life Sciences and Health Care industry leader for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region. He has consulted to the life sciences and health care industries for over 20 years, working with pharmaceutical companies, medical device firms, hospitals, research institutions/foundations, and health insurers and government on corporate strategy, commercial transformation, operations, medical innovation, and organizational issues.

Munir Pirmohamed

Munir Pirmohamed, M.D., Ph.D., NHS Chair of Pharmacogenetics, University of Liverpool

Munir Pirmohamed, M.D., Ph.D., NHS Chair of Pharmacogenetics, University of Liverpool

Professor Munir Pirmohamed is currently David Weatherall Chair in Medicine at the University of Liverpool, and a Consultant Physician at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. He is also the Associate Executive Pro Vice Chancellor for Clinical Research and Head of Department of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology. He also holds the only NHS Chair of Pharmacogenetics in the UK, and is Director of the M.R.C. Centre for Drug Safety Sciences, and Director of the Wolfson Centre for Personalised Medicine. He is also an inaugural NIHR Senior Investigator, and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in the UK. He has authored over 370 peer-reviewed publications. Professor Pirmohamed's research focuses on individual variability in drug response (including anti-cancer drugs), both safety and efficacy, with a view to evaluating the mechanisms, and identifying strategies to personalise healthcare in order to optimise drug efficacy and minimise toxicity. The work spans the whole spectrum from discovery to implementation with laboratory based studies being linked translationally to patient studies, with the aim being to develop the evidence base that can move discoveries from the lab to the clinic, and from clinic to application. Professor Pirmohamed has received a number of honours including most recently, the William Withering Medal from the Royal College of Physicians.

Nazneen Rahman

Nazneen Rahman, M.D., Ph.D., Head of Cancer Genetics, Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden Hospital

Nazneen Rahman, M.D., Ph.D., Head of Cancer Genetics, Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden Hospital

Nazneen Rahman is Professor of Human Genetics and Head of Division of Genetics & Epidemiology at The Institute of Cancer Research. She is also a genetics physician and Head of Cancer Genetics at The Royal Marsden. Her research work is directed towards identification and clinical characterisation of human disease genes, with her primary areas of research being breast, ovarian & childhood cancer susceptibility. She is currently leading a translational research programme which aims to implement testing for cancer predisposition genes into mainstream oncology services.

Neil Campbell

Neil Campbell, M.B.A., President and CEO, Helomics

Neil Campbell, M.B.A., President and CEO, Helomics

Neil Campbell serves as President and CEO of Helomics™. He is also an Advisor to HealthCare Royalty Partners; Chairman for Mosaigen® Corporation; Chairman for KidsRgenius®; and Senior Research Fellow at University of Liverpool in the U.K. Formerly, Mr. Campbell was Chairman for Child Health Research Institute, (CureKids®); President, CEO and Co-Founder of SuperNova Diagnostics®; General Partner for Endeavour Capital; President & COO/CEO for EntreMed Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ENMD); and Senior Director of Commercial Development for Celera Genomics (NASDAQ:CRA). Additionally, Mr. Campbell held General & Executive Management positions at Life Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIFE); IGEN, Inc., acquired by Roche (NASDAQ:IGEN); and Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT). Mr. Campbell is pursuing a Doctorate from the University of Liverpool in the U.K. and earned his M.B.A. and M.A. from Webster University and his B.S. from Norwich University in the U.S.

Niven Narain

Niven Narain, Ph.D., Co-founder, President and CTO, Berg Health

Niven Narain, Ph.D., Co-founder, President and CTO, Berg Health

Niven R. Narain is Co-Founder, President & CTO of Boston-based biopharma focused on merging biology and Bayesian artificial intelligence to gain novel insight into differences in patient populations that contribute to disease. In addition, he is keenly interested translating improved healthcare outcomes to improve the overall health economic impact. He is inventor of the Interrogative BiologyÔ platform that has produced and guided clinical development of lead molecules in cancer and diabetes, notably BPM 31510 currently in development for solid tumors and skin cancer. Narain has over 400 issued and pending patents, covering novel platform technologies in addition to a diverse therapeutic and diagnostics portfolio. A graduate of St. John’s University in Biochemistry/Philosophy, Narain received his PhD training in biochemistry/cancer biology at the Miller School of Medicine. Niven is a recipient of the Sylvester Cancer Center Charles Gordon Zubrod Prize, and an NIH/NIDDK Award of Excellence. His work has forged government collaborations with NIH and DoD healthcare in addition to serving as a Steering Committee member on the NASA GeneLab project for biological systems analyses on International Space Station research. He has been an invited speaker at Aspen Ideas Festival and the Bloomberg, Economist, and Financial Times healthcare conferences. He is most passionate in improving patient care and enabling increased access to the most innovative technologies in an effort to improve the healthcare ecosystem.

Peter Paul Yu

Peter Paul Yu, M.D., President, ASCO

Peter Paul Yu, M.D., President, ASCO

Peter Paul Yu, MD, FACP, FASCO, is a medical oncologist and hematologist and Director of Cancer Research at Palo Alto Medical Foundation, where he worked since 1989. In addition to his role as the 2014-2015 President of ASCO, Dr. Yu also serves on the Scientific Program, Nominating, Government Relations, and Special Awards Selection Committees. Since joining ASCO in 1986, Dr. Yu has served on the Quality of Care Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, Integrated Media and Technology Committee, Board of Directors, and Cancer Research Committee, among others. He has served as Chair of the Health Information Technology Workgroup, Clinical Practice Committee, and Best of ASCO Planning Committee, and as President of the Association of Northern California Oncologists (ANCO; an ASCO State/Regional Affiliate society). He was Co-Chair of the ASCO-NCI Clinical Oncology Requirements for the EHR Committee (2008). He is currently a columnist on ASCOconnection.org. In addition to his ASCO involvement, Dr. Yu is a member of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B as well as the Gynecologic Oncology Group. He is a Co-Chair of the Commission for the Certification of Health Information Technology Workgroups on Research and Oncology. Dr. Yu received his medical degree from Brown University, and performed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital and a fellowship in neoplastic diseases at Mount Sinai Hospital. He was a Research Fellow and Associate at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Richard W. Barker

Richard W. Barker, Director, CASMI

Richard W. Barker, Director, CASMI

Richard is an internationally respected leader in healthcare and life sciences. He is Director of the Oxford-UCL Centre for the Advancement of Sustainable Medical Innovation (CASMI), a major UK initiative aimed at transforming the R&D and regulatory processes in life sciences to bring advances more rapidly and affordably to patients. He was recently appointed as chair of the Precision Medicine Catapult, forging a national strategy in this rapidly developing field. He is also chairman of the South London Academic Health Science Network, accelerating innovation in this region of the NHS, and of the corresponding Genomic Medicine Centre. He also chairs Image Analysis, a UK company using MRI to quantify the impact of therapy on disease. He is a board member of Celgene, a major US-based bio-therapeutics company and of iCo Therapeutics. His 25-year business career in healthcare has spanned biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics and medical informatics - both in the USA and Europe. Most recently he was Director General of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, Board member of EFPIA (the European industry association) and Council member of IFPMA (the international equivalent). As a co-founder of Life Sciences UK, member of the NHS Stakeholder Forum, vice-chair of the UK Clinical Trials Collaboration and in many other roles, he has advised successive UK governments on healthcare issues, especially those relating to developing, valuing and using new healthcare technologies. His book on the future of healthcare ‘2030 - The Future of Medicine: Avoiding a Medical Meltdown’ is published by Oxford University Press. He speaks frequently on the future of life sciences and the restructuring of healthcare systems that new technology can enable.

Robert. Klein

Robert. Klein, Ph.D., Chief Business Officer, Complete Genomics, Inc.

Robert. Klein, Ph.D., Chief Business Officer, Complete Genomics, Inc.

Dr. Klein serves as Chief Business Officer at Complete Genomics, Inc., a BGI company. Prior to joining Complete Genomics, Dr. Klein held a number of leadership positions spanning both scientific and business functions. These include Chief Executive Officer and Founder of iKaryos Diagnostics, a cancer diagnostic company, Chief Scientific Officer at Amnestix, an Alzheimer’s disease drug development company, scientific and BD roles at Rinat Neuroscience that was sold to Pfizer – at the time, the largest cash transaction for a private biotech company, and scientific and BD roles at Deltagen, Inc., a functional genomics company. Dr. Klein received his PhD from MIT and was both a post-doc and scientist at Genentech.

Sally John

Sally John, Ph.D., Vice President, Computational Biology and Genomics, Biogen Idec

Sally John, Ph.D., Vice President, Computational Biology and Genomics, Biogen Idec

Sally John, Ph.D. is the VP of Genomics and Computational Biology at Biogen Idec, her group focuses on applying human genetics, genomics and analytical methods to support drug discovery and development, from identification of new targets through to understanding genetic variability in drug response and patient stratification. She is a passionate advocate of the value of human genetics to support early drug discovery and has founded a number of groups within industry to strengthen the application of genetics, including a human genetics group at Pfizer and the Statistical Genetics group at AstraZeneca. Her most recent position prior to Biogen Idec was Head of Clinical Genetics and Bioinformatics at Pfizer. She gained a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Manchester, UK and held academic positions including Senior Lecturer in Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Manchester. Her academic focus of research has been in the area of inflammatory genetics, including rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and pain, and genetic epidemiology methods as applied to the analysis of complex traits. She is active in the external and pre-competitive community and has acted as the Co-Chair of the International Serious Adverse Events Consortium, an industry lead pre-competitive consortium focussing on the genetic basis of drug induced serious adverse events.

Sean Scott

Sean Scott, VP & GM, Clinical Genomics, QIAGEN Bioinformatics

Sean Scott, VP & GM, Clinical Genomics, QIAGEN Bioinformatics

Sean Scott is the VP and GM, Clinical Genomics for QIAGEN. Sean is responsible for QIAGEN’s Clinical Genomics product portfolio offering serving the needs of molecular diagnostics and molecular pathology testing laboratories related to NGS-based genetic test interpretation and reporting across germline and somatic test indications. Sean recently led the development of QIAGEN new Ingenuity Clinical Decision Support platform, an instrument platform, assay and pipeline agnostic solution, that enables clinical labs to scale annotation, interpretation and reporting of their screening, diagnostic and monitoring test offerings. Sean joined QIAGEN in 2013 through QIAGEN’s acquisition of Ingenuity Systems where He prior to QIAGEN spent six years as SVP, Global Commercial Operations and SVP, Corporate Development for Ingenuity Systems.

Sebastian Wernicke

Sebastian Wernicke, Ph.D., Managing Director, Seven Bridges Genomics

Sebastian Wernicke, Ph.D., Managing Director, Seven Bridges Genomics

Sebastian Wernicke leads the strategy and growth of Seven Bridges Genomics, a Cambridge-based company that builds and deploys platforms for Next Generation Sequencing analysis. He also serves as director of Seven Bridges Genomics UK, the research-focused subsidiary of Seven Bridges that works in close collaboration with Genomics England and the 100k Genomes project, being one of only five companies selected to receive an SBRI funding award from Genomics England and the Department of Health. Dr. Wernicke joined Seven Bridges in 2012 after spending several years consulting for Fortune 500 pharmaceutical and financial services companies on their strategic initiatives. He received his Ph.D. In Bioinformatics from the university of Jena, where he developed novel algorithms for the combinatorial analysis of biological networks; today his tools and algorithms for network analytics are used by thousands of researchers worldwide.

Sir John Bell

Sir John Bell, GBE, FRS, HonFREng, FMedSci, Regius Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford

Sir John Bell, GBE, FRS, HonFREng, FMedSci, Regius Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford

Professor Sir John Bell FRS is Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, and Chairman of the Office for the Strategic Coordination of Health Research. As a Rhodes Scholar (1975-78), Sir John undertook his medical training in the UK and then went on to Stanford University, returning to the UK in 1987. His research interests are in the area of autoimmune disease and immunology where he has contributed to the understanding of immune activation in a range of autoimmune diseases. In 1993, he founded the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, one of the world’s leading centres for complex trait common disease genetics. Sir John was responsible for the working party that produced the highly influential Academy of Medical Sciences “Strengthening Clinical Research” report that highlighted the need for the UK to focus some of its attention on developing expertise in translational research. In December 2011, Sir John was appointed one of two UK Life Sciences Champions by the Prime Minister.

Sir John Chisholm

Sir John Chisholm, FREng, CEng, FIEE, Executive Chair, Genomics England

Sir John Chisholm, FREng, CEng, FIEE, Executive Chair, Genomics England

Sir John is a Cambridge graduate who started work in the automobile industry. His career took flight when he founded CAP Scientific Ltd, which grew rapidly to become a core part of the CAP Group plc and subsequently the Sema Group plc of which he was UK Managing Director. He was then asked by the government to take on the transformation of its defence research laboratories into a commercial organisation. In due course these became an internationally successful technology services company and were floated on the LSE as QinetiQ Group plc of which Sir John became Chairman in 2006.At the same time he was asked to take the Chair of the Medical Research Council and in 2009 he also took the Chair of Nesta. Sir John retired from QinetiQ in February 2010. Sir John is a past president of the IET and holds a number of honorary Doctorates and Fellowships, including the Royal Academy of Engineering. He was knighted in 1999.

Sir Mark Walport

Sir Mark Walport, FRS, FRCP, FRCPath, FMedSci, Head, UK Government Office for Science and Government Chief Scientific Adviser

Sir Mark Walport, FRS, FRCP, FRCPath, FMedSci, Head, UK Government Office for Science and Government Chief Scientific Adviser

Sir Mark Walport FRS, FRCP, FRCPath, FMedSci is the Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Government and Head of the Government Office for Science, he is also co-chair of the Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology. Previously, Sir Mark was Director of the Wellcome Trust from 2003 to 2013, which is a global charitable foundation, the second largest medical research charity in the world, dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health by supporting the brightest minds. At the Wellcome Trust, Sir Mark led the funding of research projects on the human genome and was a champion of open access to scientific research. Before joining the Trust he was Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London where his research focused on the immunology and genetics of rheumatic disease. He has been a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology since 2004. He has also been a member of the India UK CEO Forum, the UK India Round Table and the advisory board of Infrastructure UK and a non-executive member of the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research. He is a member of a number of international advisory bodies. Sir Mark received a knighthood in the 2009 New Year Honours List for services to medical research and was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society in 2011.

Sir Rory Collins

Sir Rory Collins, FRCP, FMedSci, Chief Executive, UK Biobank (Oxford)

Sir Rory Collins, FRCP, FMedSci, Chief Executive, UK Biobank (Oxford)

Rory Collins was appointed Principal Investigator and Chief Executive of UK Biobank in September 2005. Rory qualified in medicine at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, University of London, in 1981 and obtained BSc in statistics from George Washington University, Washington DC in 1977 and MSc in statistics from the University of Oxford in 1983. In 1985, he became co-director, with Professor Sir Richard Peto, of the University of Oxford's Clinical Trial Service Unit & Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU). In 1996 he was appointed Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Oxford, supported by the British Heart Foundation. His work has been in the establishment of large-scale epidemiological studies of the causes, prevention and treatment of heart attacks, other vascular disease, and cancer, while also being closely involved in developing approaches to the combination of results from related studies (“meta-analyses”).

Stefan Roever

Stefan Roever, Co-founder & CEO, Genia Technologies

Stefan Roever, Co-founder & CEO, Genia Technologies

Stefan Roever has a broad entrepreneurial, software, and finance background. He was Co-Founder and CEO of Brokat Technologies, an encryption banking software company. Brokat reached a several billion dollar market cap and went public in 1998 on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on NASDAQ in 2000. Mr. Roever was honored with the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Germany. He is an active private equity investor and currently serves as Chairman of WRS Materials, a roll-up of wafer reclaim companies. Mr. Roever also is a two time award holder of Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. He earned degrees in both economics and law from the University of Tuebingen.

Stephan Beck

Stephan Beck, Ph.D., FMedSci, Professor of Medical Genomics, University College London (UCL) Cancer Institute

Stephan Beck, Ph.D., FMedSci, Professor of Medical Genomics, University College London (UCL) Cancer Institute

Using experimental and computational approaches, his laboratory has broad interests in the genomics and epigenomics of phenotypic plasticity in health and disease. He has over 30 years experience in high-throughput genomics and has co-authored over 250 publications that have attracted over 40,000 citations to date. He received his PhD in 1985 from the University of Konstanz where he studied DNA structure. After appointments at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, Millipore Corporation in Boston and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, he joined the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in 1996. During his tenure as Head of Human Sequencing (1998-2006), he played a leading role in the sequencing and analysis of the human, mouse and zebrafish genomes. He has co-founded and led a number of international efforts, including the Human Epigenome Project and serves on numerous national and international advisory boards. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and recipient of a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.

Steve Picton

Steve Picton, Ph.D., Director, Business Development-Europe, Pacific Biosciences

Steve Picton, Ph.D., Director, Business Development-Europe, Pacific Biosciences

Following a Molecular Biology PhD at Nottingham, Post Doc work in Australia and New Zealand and antisense tomatoes at Nottingham, Steve moved from academia to a commercial setting in 1992, the early days of first generation ‘automated’ sequencing. He has continued to place, collaborate and support emerging genomics technology including real time PCR, in situ PCR, high density array-based genotyping and sequence capture in leading edge research centres and groups throughout Europe. In 2012, Steve returned to his first passion - DNA sequencing and the benefits of third generation technology.

Vijay Chandru

Vijay Chandru, Ph.D., FASc, FNAE, Chairman & CEO, Strand Life Sciences

Vijay Chandru, Ph.D., FASc, FNAE, Chairman & CEO, Strand Life Sciences

Vijay Chandru (PhD, MIT ‘82) is an academic turned entrepreneur. His academic career in computational mathematics spanned over two decades as a professor first at Purdue University and then Indian Institute of Science. He is a fellow of the national academies of science and engineering in India. Vijay was inducted as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2006 and serves on the WEF’s global agenda council for the future of the health sector (2014-2016). As an entrepreneur, Chandru leads the new generation healthcare company Strand Life Sciences (US subsidiary Strand Genomics Inc.). Since 2007, Strand has been a global leader in bioinformatics and systems biology with its analytic solutions licensed to over 1400 research labs worldwide. With a team of over 200 high calibre scientists in India and the US, Strand is now leading the charge in clinical genomics and personalized medicine with over 100 partner hospitals and clinics in India. Strand’s proprietary, validated, “reads to reports” sequence alignment to clinical reporting platforms Strand NGS™ and StrandOmics™ address global market opportunities in personalized medicine.

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