These are the biographies of some of our accepted speakers. Not all our speakers are listed here
Francesco Ciompi, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Francesco Ciompi received the Master’s degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Pisa in July 2006 and the Master’s degree in Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence from theAutonomous University of Barcelona in September 2008. In July 2012 he obtained the PhD (cum laude) in Applied Mathematics and Analysis at theUniversity of Barcelona, with a thesis on “Multi-Class Learning for Vessel Characterization in Intravascular Ultrasound”. In February 2013 he joined the Autonomous University of Barcelona as postdoctoral researcher, working on machine learning for computer vision and large scale image classification and retrieval. From September 2007 to September 2013 he has been also member of the Computer Vision Center. He is currently a Postdoctoral researcher at the Diagnostic Image Analysis Group of Radboud UMC working on digital pathology and chest CT. His research interests include techniques of computer vision, machine learning, with a special focus on supervised deep learning and its application to problems of segmentation, classification and detection in medical imaging.
Ibolja Cernak, University of Alberta, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Dr Ibolja Cernak, currently a Professor and the Chair of Military and Veterans’ Clinical Rehabilitation Research at the University of Alberta, has a broad multidisciplinary expertise, including an MD, Master in Biomedical Engineering, Professional Specialty / Residency in Physiology / Pathophysiology, PhD in Pathophysiology / Neuroscience, and Master in Homeland Security in Public Health Preparedness. With a previous work experience at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Laurel, MD, USA), Georgetown University, Washington DC (USA), and Military Medical Academy in Belgrade (former Yugoslavia), among others, she focuses on both clinical and experimental aspects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and blast injuries, and their long-term neurological and multi-organ effects.
Jinqiu Chen, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, United States
Dr. Chen heads the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Collaborative Protein Technology Resource (CPTR), a core facility developing and implementing cutting-age protein analysis technologies to facilitate both discovery and translational research in NCI. Dr. Chen has many years of both academic and industry experience in studying cell signaling pathways, molecular targeting & biomarkers, and has led the development and validation of a variety of products and bio-analytical assays to support pre-clinical and clinical studies. She is considered as an expert in immunoassay-based proteomic analysis with track record on innovative technology evaluation, advancement and applications.
Cornelius K. Donat, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
Cornelius Donat is a research associate at the Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London. His primary research interests are animal models of Traumatic Brain Injury, the role the cholinergic neurotransmission in brain diseases and the quantification employing radioactive tracers.
Alexander Dobrovic, Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, Heidelberg, Australia
Alexander Dobrovic PhD leads the Translational Genomics Laboratory at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia. He has developed tests for detection of KRAS, BRAF and TP53 mutations that have entered routine diagnostics. His lab continues the focus on personalized medicine including developing clinically relevant innovative diagnostic methodologies. His lab has recently been accredited by NATA for DNA methylation assays (BRCA1, MLH1 and MGMT) and liquid biopsy assays for BRAF and EGFR mutations. He is a chief investigator of consortia funded by the Victorian Cancer Agency and by the National Breast Cancer Foundation Collaborative Research Program.
Ekaterina Kldiashvili, New Vision University, Tbilisi, Georgia
Ekaterina Kldiashvili holds a MSc in Biology – Cell and Molecular Biology (1995) and a Ph.D. in Histology, Cytology and Embryology (2003) from the Tbilisi State University; Is Professor of New Vision University since 2013; Works as the Executive Director of Georgian Telemedicine Union (Association), manages projects funded by Rustaveli Science Foundation and 700 for Science, the whole activity of the Georgian Telemedicine Union (Association) and also the creation of eHealth network in Georgia. Ekaterina Kldiashvili was the Principal Investigator of NATO Networking Infrastructure, IncoNet Eastern Partnership and BSEC projects, participant of COST Action IC0604 (Telepathology Network in Europe: EURO-TELEPATH, (2007-2011). She participated in the introduction of the Bethesda System for the diagnosis of cervical pap-smears, piloted application of liquid based cytology for cervical cancer screening and participated in the development of “home-based” polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocol for HPV detection and genotyping. Ekaterina is certified specialist of laboratory medicine with an experience to set up, develop and manage clinical laboratories (“NeoClinic”, 2009-2010; “NeoLab” – 2010-2012; “TestDiagnostics” – 2013-2014; Center of Molecular Pathology and Early Diagnostics of the Ltd “New Vision University Hospital” – 2015), prepare and realize (in-person and online) educational courses on actual topics of laboratory medicine (14 CME programs, 2006-2008). She is leading PhD program in medicine in New Vision University. Ekaterina was trained in cytological diagnosis of malignant tumors at the Department of Oncology of the Tbilisi State Medical Academy (2002, Tbilisi, Georgia) and Gynecological Cytology Diagnostics by application of the Liquid Based Cytology Method at the company “HOLOGIC” (2014, Rome, Italy). She presented the research projects and results at Med-e-Tel (2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010), Telemedicine Week 2005 (Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium), II International Seminar on Telemedicine (Ukraine, 2006), Telemedicine Conference in South Africa (2006), 2nd International Conference and Exhibition on Pathology (2013, USA), The 2014 Pathology Congress (2014, UK), Pathology 2015 (UK). Ekaterina Kldiashvili is author of about 40 articles, 2 chapters and editor of the book.
Anant Madabhushi, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Dr. Anant Madabhushi is the Director of the Center for Computational Imaging and Personalized Diagnostics (CCIPD) and a Professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Pathology, Radiology, Radiation Oncology, Urology, General Medical Sciences, and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Case Western Reserve University.
He is also the cofounder of Ibris Inc. a startup company focused on developing image based assays for breast cancer prognosis. He is also the conference chair for the new Digital Pathology Conference to be held annually in conjunction with the SPIE Medical Imaging Symposium.
University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, United Kingdom
Dr. Louise Mackenzie (nee LS Harrington) is a senior lecturer in Pharmacology at the University of Hertfordshire. Current research areas are eicosanoid and PPAR biology in cardiovascular and respiratory pharmacology, with specific interests in the role and modulation of vasoactive hormones. Research expertise extends into resistance vessel bioassay in vitro with particular reference to the role and modulation of nitric oxide, cyclo-oxygenase (COX) enzymes, and PPARβ/δ receptors and other nuclear receptors on organ function.
Hui Ma, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, China
Jianyu Rao, University of California at Los Angeles, United States
Dr. Rao is a tenured full professor of pathology and epidemiology, the chief of Cytopathology, the ex-director of gynecological pathology, the director of international telepathology, and the medical director of cytotechnology school. He is a expert in the areas of cancer biomarker and prevention studies, molecular cytopathology, urological cancer pathology and gynecological pathology, digital pathology, and cancer nanomechanical studies. He is a fellow of College of American Pathologist (FCAP), Fellow of Academy of Translational Medicine (FacdTM), Member of Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, a Member of California Nanosystem Institute, and a visiting professor of Zhejiang University. He has been invited to be a speaker for over 150 meetings with over 150 peer-reviewed research publications. His notable accomplishments include established the international Telepathology program for patient second opinion consultation, investigated cytoskeletal actin remodeling in cancer development and progression, and studied cellular nano-mechanical profiling as a biomarker for cancer.
Eric Thelin, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Dr. Thelin graduated medical school at Karolinska Instituet, Stockholm, Sweden in 2009 and received clinical training at the Department of Neurosurgery, Karolinska University Hospital. He defended his thesis at Karolinska Institutet entitled “On Biomarkers in Traumatic Brain Injury”. His work on the biomarker S100B has led to changes of treatment guidelines in hospitals in the Stockholm region. He continues to develop more brain specific proteins to monitor different conditions in the injured brain. Dr. Thelin will commence a post-doc position at the University of Cambridge focusing on the neuro-inflammatory treatment of the underlying patophysiology in brain injuries.
Arvydas Laurinavicius, Valstybinis patologijos centras, Vilnius, Lithuania
Arvydas Laurinavicius is Professor of Pathology at Vilnius University and Director of the National Centre of Pathology. He received his MD degree from Vilnius Univversity Faculty of Medicine (1981-1987), PhD – from Moscow Medical Academy (1989-1992). He has accomplished Renal Pathology Fellowship (1996-1997) at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Harvard Medical School). His primary research interest is in nephropathology. More recently, his team focused on digital image analysis of breast cancer tissue, developing new methodologies for image analytics in immunohistochemistry. In particular, multi-dimensional and spatial analysis of immunohistochemistry biomarker expression enable comprehensive analytics for integrated biomarkers and tumour tissue heterogeneity measurements
