Prof. Susanne MICHL
Charité, University Medical Center Berlin, GERMANY

Historical perspectives of individualized Medicine

Susanne Michl is professor for Medical Ethics and Medical Humanities at the Charité – University Medical Center in Berlin. From 2007 to 2017 she was a lecturer for medical history and ethics at different Institutes for Medical History and Ethics in Germany (Tübingen, Greifswald, Göttingen and Mainz). As a certified ethics consultant she also was a member of different clinical ethics committees. At Greifswald she joined the GANI_MED consortium (Greifswald approach to Individualized Medicine). Her research interests include history of pharmacogenetics, social and historical studies of personalized medicine, and clinical ethics.

Dr. Catherine BOURGAIN
INSERM, Cermes3, Paris, FRANCE

Societal and Ethical Challenges of Precision Medicine

Catherine Bourgain is a researcher in human genetics and statistics at the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) since 2002, and a member of the Inserm ethics committee. In September 2012, she joined Cermes3 (Centre de Recherche Médecine, Sciences, Santé, Santé mentale, Société). Her research focuses on the repositioning of scientific, medical, ethical and economic issues induced by broadband genomics technologies in the context of the development of personalized medicine. She is particularly interested in the evolution of the links between research and clinical practices. In addition, she is the vice-president of the Fondation Sciences Citoyennes, which aims to bring science and innovation into the field of democratic debate, and which is particularly interested in synthetic biology.

Prof. Joseph NADEAU
Pacific Northwest Research Institute, Seattle, USA

The continuum from mendelian to complex diseases

Dr. Nadeau is internationally-recognized for his work on mouse models of human disease. He has been a pioneer in comparative genomics, genetics and systems studies of mouse models of human disease, with an emphasis on transgenerational epigenetic effects on metabolism and cancer, and most recently on phenotypic ‘noise’ in metabolic systems. His work is contributing to a revolution in the ways that we understand inheritance of phenotypic variation and disease susceptibility. He is currently Principal Scientist at the Pacific Northwest Research Institute (Seattle). He is the former chair and James H, Jewell Professor of Genetics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.  He is the founding director of the Mouse Genome Informatics Project and the Mouse Genome Database, founding director of the Ohio GI Cancer Consortium, and founding editor of two research journals, one of which (Systems Biology and Medicine) won the American Publishers Awards for Professional & Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) top award for outstanding scholarly work in all disciplines of the arts and sciences.  The Smithsonian Museum deposited in their permanent collection a copy of the MGI-MGD software as an example of Innovation in Information Technology. Among his recognitions are an National Institutes of Health Pioneer Award and election as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Abdel B. HALIM
Biomarkers and Companion Diagnostics Taiho Oncology, NJ, USA

The Role of Biomarkers in Precision Medicine: Opportunities and challenges

Dr Abdel Halim is an internationally-recognized key opinion leader with 25+ years of experience in different aspects of biomarkers, precision medicine and IVD; from strategic planning to actualization. He is the Vice president of Biomarkers and Companion Diagnostics at Taiho Oncology (Otsuka holding). Before Taiho, Dr. Halim held multiple leadership positions in the pharmaceutical and diagnostic industries. He oversaw the development and validation of assays for several hundreds of biomarkers on different platforms and their applications in 200+ PI-PIV clinical trials and patient managements. Abdel has led 7 CDx programs and has track records for 5 FDA 510K approvals of high complexity IVD and 2 drug approvals. Abdel has served on 20+ governmental and public expert panels and advisory boards in the US, Canada and EU. Dr. Halim has served on 25+ committees to establish guidelines to promote quality in clinical laboratory and diagnostic industries. Abdel has 70+ peer-reviewed publications and 100+ presentations including 40+ invited and keynote speeches in national and international meetings.

Prof. Olli CARPEN
Helsinki University, Helsinki, FINLAND

Biobanking in Precision Medicine

Olli Carpén is professor of pathology at the University of Helsinki and scientific director at Helsinki biobank since 2015. He studied medicine at the University of Helsinki and continued his studies at Harvard Medical School. After returning to Finland, he specialized in pathology. From 2004 he served as a professor of pathology, and from 2013 as professor of biobank research at the University of Turku. He has been elementary in creating the Finnish biobank network and providing expertise within the international biobanking community. He is passionate in implementing biobanking into health care and personalised medicine research. His additional research interest is cancer, especially mechanisms of chemoresistance and discovery of prognostic and predictive biomarkers.

Prof. Nicolas VUILLEUMIER
Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, SWITZERALAND

Laboratory Medicine as a Key Driver in Precision Medicine

Nicolas Vuilleumier is a Professor at the Faculty of Medicine UNIGE and Head of the Laboratory Medicine Department at HUG. Nicolas Vuilleumier obtained a medical degree in 1999 at the University of Geneva. He then completed a specialization in internal medicine and a second in laboratory medicine. He also obtained a doctorate in medicine and a master’s degree in medical biology. After a two-year post-doctoral training at the Karolinska Institute (Sweden), from 2006 to 2008, he returned to Geneva where he continued his research on the role of humoral autoimmunity in atherogenesis, in parallel with his clinical activities in the Laboratory Medicine Department of HUG, and teaching. More recently, he is working on the unification of biobanks and biospécimens as part of specialized medicine. His work has been supported by the SNSF since 2011 and he is the winner of the Leenaards Prize in 2013. At the hospital level, he has held the position ad interim of Chief Medical Officer of the HUG Laboratory Medicine Department since 2013, before being appointed to this position in 2018. His a the acting president of the Swiss Society of Clinical Chemistry.

Prof. Jürgen BROCKMÖLLER
Göttingen University, Göttingen, GERMANY

The Role of Drug Monitoring in Precision Medicine

Jürgen Brockmöller was born in 1958 in Bonn, Germany. After his medical studies and approval as physician, he worked from 1993 to 1997 as PhD student at the Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Genetics in Berlin on the structure of ribosomal proteins. From 1987 to 1993, Jürgen Brockmöller was postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology at the University Medical Center Benjamin Franklin in Berlin. He has the board certification in Clinical Pharmacology and his research focussed on pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics with emphasis on pharmacokinetics, drug transport and drug metabolism. From 1993 to 2000, Dr. Brockmöller was senior lecturer at the University Medical Center Charité in Berlin and since 2000, Dr. Brockmöller is director of the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology at the Georg August University Göttingen, Germany. Dr. Brockmöller is chairman of the Ethics committee at the Medical Faculty of the Georg-August-University Göttingen. From 2005 to 2015, Dr. Brockmöller was chairman of a postgraduate training and research initiative on pharmacogenetics in oncology supported by the German Research Foundation. He served as a scientific advisor and as a member of scientific advisory boards and safety committees for several pharmaceutical companies. The department of clinical pharmacology under the directorship of Dr. Brockmöller has the approval for postgraduate training in clinical pharmacology. Dr. Brockmöller has contributed to more than 260 peer reviewed scientific papers in the fields of molecular genetic epidemiology, pharmacoepidemiology, molecular and functional genetics, and molecular and clinical studies on genetically polymorphic drug membrane transport and drug metabolism. Present research priority of the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology of the University Medicine Göttingen is functional genomics with focus on drug membrane transport and drug biotransformation. Both, with scientific projects and our daily activities, we want to contribute to the clinical application of pharmacogenetic diagnostics in individualized medicine.

Dr. Abdellah TEBANI
Science for Life Laboratory, KTH, Stockholm, SWEDEN
Rouen University, Rouen, FRANCE

Data Sciences and Predictive Analytics in Precision Medicine

Abdellah TEBANI, PharmD, PhD, is trained as a clinical chemist with a fellowship in Inborn Errors of Metabolism at Robert Debré Hospital (APHP) earning an Advanced degree in Medical Biology from Paris-Sud University, France. Meanwhile, he obtained a Master degree in Analytical Development Strategies and chemometrics from School of Pharmacy, Paris-Sud University and then a PhD in Medical Sciences (Clinical omics) from Normandie University. As a clinical chemist at the Department of Metabolic Biochemistry at Rouen University Hospital he developed and implemented high-throughput metabolomics strategies for the diagnosis of Inborn Errors of Metabolism using machine learning techniques and mass spectrometry along with other omics. As an instructor in Medical Biochemistry at Rouen School of Medicine, he’s also actively involved in education, outreach, and teaching. Combining his medical background and data analytics passion, he’s focused on designing and delivering courses to undergraduate students and medical residents. They cover biochemistry, clinical chemistry, chemometrics, data analytics, systems biology and omics-based tools in research and clinical settings. He is now a postdoctoral fellow at SciLifeLab in Stockholm (Sweden) working on integrative omics and Precision Medicine. Abdellah TEBANI is passionate about innovations in artificial intelligence technologies, digital health and data sciences, and defines himself as a Precision Medicine enthusiast.

Prof. Philippe LAMBIN
Maastricht University, Maastricht, NETHERLANDS

Radiomics: Bridging Medical Imaging and Precision Medicine

Philippe Lambin is a Clinician, Radiation Oncologist, “ERC advanced & ERC PoC grant laureate”, co-inventor of Radiomics and Distributed learning and pioneer in translational research with a focus on tumour hypoxia and immunotherapy. He has a PhD in Molecular Radiation Biology and is Professor at the University of Maastricht (Radiation Oncology) He is co-author of more than 458 peer reviewed scientific papers (Hirsch Index: 85 Google scholar), co-inventor of more than 18 patents (filed or submitted) and (co) promoter of more than 50 completed PhD’s. He is currently involved in several successful European grants (e.g. Metoxia, Eureca, Artforce, Radiate, Quick-Concept, Requite, BD2decide, Predict) including ImmunoSABR (6 millions €, a multicentric randomized trial in metastatic lung cancer comparing radiotherapy plus or minus immunotherapy with immunocytokine). More recently, his interests have been directed towards hypoxia targeting, Hypoxia Activated Prodrugs, during immunotherapy. He is one of the inventor of “Distributed learning” a revolutionary Big Data approach for health care (watch the animation of a project he managed) and “Radiomics” (watch the animation).

Prof. Peter LAUSSEN
Hospital for Sick Children – University of Toronto – Toronto, CANADA

The Patient’s Journey in Intensive Care

Peter Laussen is Chief of the Department of Critical Care Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Professor in Anaesthesia at the University of Toronto and holds the David and Stacey Cynamon Chair in Critical Care Medicine. He is a Senior Associate Scientist at the Research Institute and co-chair of the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine steering committee at SickKids. He graduated from Melbourne University Medical School, Australia, in 1980, and completed fellowships in anesthesia and pediatric critical care medicine before moving to Boston Children’s Hospital, Massachusetts, in 1992. In 2002 he was appointed Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Critical Care and to the Dolly D. Hansen Chair in Pediatric Anesthesia at Boston Children’s Hospital, and in 2008 was appointed as Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School. In 2012, Dr. Laussen accepted his current position at SickKids. Dr. Laussen has extensive experience with clinical research and educational activities in cardiac critical care and anaesthesia. Over the past decade he has focused on systems and human engineering applied to critical care, and the use of high and low frequency physiologic signals for predictive modelling in pediatric critical care; he is the lead developer of an innovative web-based data visualization platform called T3 (Tracking Trajectory Trigger tool). Dr Laussen is a co-founder in 2006 of the international “Risky Business” risk management, safety and quality conferences (www.riskybusiness.events) which brings together leaders in high-risk industries to discuss ways of improving the safety and quality of health care.

Prof. Stefan SCHULZ
Medical University of Graz, AUSTRIA, Averbis GmbH, GERMANY

Clinical Informatics Challenges in Precision Medicine

Stefan Schulz holds a professorship of Medical Informatics at Medical University of Graz, Austria. In 1990, he graduated from medical school at University of Heidelberg, Germany, where he also earned a doctorate in theoretical medicine. After a short period of clinical practice, he specialized in biomedical and health informatics at University of Freiburg, Germany. Since then, his R & D activities have focused on the use of semantics, knowledge representation and human language technologies. His main goal has been to contribute to the interoperability and reusability of clinical and biomedical research data, which are unstructured to a large amount. This effort is mirrored by (co-)authorship of more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, several awards, and the participation in numerous national and international research consortia, e.g. currently the EU project PRECISE4Q and the COST action Gene Regulation Knowledge Commons.
Stefan Schulz has contributed to the development of clinical terminology standards such as WHO classifications and SNOMED CT, with a focus on refining their ontological foundations. He is currently leading a project on semantic clinical data enhancement for biomarker research at the Austrian Biomarker Research Centre CBmed, in which he extended the notion of “digital biomarkers” to clinical data extracts. Besides his academic position, he holds a position as director of research at the German software company Averbis GmbH, where he is involved in three large German Medical Informatics Initiative consortia dedicated to clinical data integration.

Prof. Ron WEVERS
Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, NETHERLANDS

The genome, the metabolome and beyond

Prof Ron Wevers holds a chair in Clinical Chemistry at the Radboud University Medical Centre in Nijmegen in the Netherlands. The focus of this chair is on clinical chemistry of inborn errors of metabolism and more specifically on neurometabolism. Until recently he was member of the Dutch Health Council (2003-2015), member of the Praesidium com­mittee of the Dutch Health Council (2013-2015) and was board member of the Nijmegen Clinical Genetics Centre 2005-2017. Prof Wevers was trained as a clinical chemist in Utrecht and works in Nijmegen since 1981. In 2001 he ob­tained an addi­tional professional regi­stra­tion as clinical biochemical geneticist. Currently Prof Wevers was head of the Translational Metabolic Laboratory (TML) in the depart­ment of Laboratory Me­di­ci­ne in Nijmegen. The TML labo­ratory is a fully accredited mixed function labo­ratory with patient care and translational research. The laboratory has approximately 140 fte including 15 staff members among whom six academic chairs. Per year there are 150-200 peer reviewed scientific papers from this laboratory. Around 480 scientific papers (co)authored by Prof Wevers appeared in peer reviewed journals (source: pubmed). The papers have been cited 18929 times. Prof Wevers gave 180 international lectures. His H-index amounts to 72 (source: Google scholar). Prof Wevers is retired since august 2017.

Prof. Jean-Louis GUEANT
Lorraine University, Nancy, FRANCE

A multi-omic approach reveals a new type of inherited errors of vitamin B12 metabolism

Jean-Louis Guéant, MD, DSc, is Professor of Medical Biochemistry-Molecular Biology at the University of Lorraine, Faculty of Medicine, Director of UMR-S Inserm 1256, Head of the Department of Biochemistry-Molecular Biology-Nutrition at the University Hospital of Nancy. He followed a MD, PhD double cursus at the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Sciences of the University Henri Poincaré of Nancy, with the qualification in Hepato-Gastroenterology in 1984, and the degree of Doctor of Science in Nutrition in 1986. He is recruited as Master of Conferences – Hospitaller Practitioner in 1987 and appointed Professor of Universities – Hospital Practitioner in 1990. Prior to this appointment, he made several post doc stays at the State University of New York and the Institute Minerva of Helsinki (with R Gräsbeck as mentor). He then directs one of the 3 research teams of Inserm Unit 308 (director JP Nicolas) from 1988 and obtains the creation of an EP-CNRS team in 1996, which will become EMI-Inserm in 1999, then UMR-S Inserm 724 in 2002, UMR_S Inserm 954 in 2009 and UMR_S Inserm 1256. This Inserm Unit brings together nearly 70 people, including 3 Inserm researchers and 36 academic investigators in experimental and clinical research, around a research project on the interactions between nutrition, genes and the environment. In this context, he has been principal investigator of many national contracts. In hospital, he has contributed to the creation of the Reference Center for Rare Diseases of Metabolism in which he carries out a very specialized medical consultation on rare metabolic diseases with a regional, national and international recruitments of patients.

Prof. Mathias UHLEN
Science for Life Laboratory, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, SWEDEN

The Human Protein Atlas
Implications for human biology, drug development and precision medicine

Mathias Uhlen is professor at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden. His research is focused on protein science, antibody engineering and precision medicine and ranges from basic research in human and microbial biology to more applied research, including clinical applications in cancer, infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases and neurobiology. He leads an international effort to systematically map the human proteome  to create a Human Protein Atlas (www.proteinatlas.org) using antibodies and various omics technologies. This effort has so far resulted in the Tissue Atlas (2015) showing the distribution of proteins across human tissues and organs, the Cell Atlas (2016) showing the subcellular location of human proteins in single cells and the Pathology Atlas (2017) showing how cancer patient survival is tied to RNA and protein levels.. He is the President of the European Federation of Biotechnology and from 2010-2015, he was the founding Director of the Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab) which is a Swedish national center for molecular bioscience.

Enzo RANIERI
Head of Biochemical Genetics
Head of South Australian Screening Centre Department of Biochemical Genetics, Directorate of Genetics and Molecular Pathology, SAPathology, at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Enzo Ranieri is the Head of Biochemical Genetics within the Directorate of Genetics & Molecular Pathology, SAPathology at the Women’s & Children’s Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia. He holds an associate academic position at the University of Adelaide within the Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences. He obtained postgraduate higher degrees from Flinders University in the School of Medicine, Department of Neurophysiology and from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Adelaide.
He has acquired over 25 years experience in Newborn Screening in biochemical genetics with certification in Biochemical Genetics as a Fellow of the Human Genetics Society of Australasia (FHGSA) and was appointed as a Fellow of the Faculty of Science of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (FFScRCPA). He was appointed to the Board of the International Society of Newborn Screening in 2016 and serves on the committee responsible for Asia-Pacific region.
He is a member of the Human Genetics Society of Australasia (HGSA) and Australasian Society of Inborn Errors of Metabolism (ASIEM) and has served as a member on numerous committees and subcommittees for both the HGSA & ASIEM including the American Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). He has served as a national committee member of the Australasian Newborn Screening and Metabolic Diseases and is currently a member of the standing scientific committee on quality assurance of the International Society of Newborn Screening (ISNS).
He has published numerous articles in leading scientific journals, books and reviews and has been an invited speaker at numerous international and national congresses and meetings as a keynote speaker. He has an international expertise in newborn screening for inborn errors of metabolism (IEM) using tandem mass spectrometry (MSMS) and his laboratory is considered a world leader in the field of neonatal screening being one of the first laboratories in Australia to implement MSMS into routine screening. He was one of the first pioneers and instrumental in the developed the two-tier IRT/DNA screening strategy for Cystic Fibrosis in December 1989. He has a strong interest in teaching and training having had numerous international scientific and clinical trainees spend time in the laboratory to undertake specialised training in all aspects of MSMS newborn screening for IEM. He also has a strong research interest in Metabolomics and the department is a leader in this new emerging field, specifically looking at MSMS to screen, characterise and monitor metabolic diseases.