Advances in Proteomics & Metabolomics 2023

As a pioneer of Precision Medicine, Dr Michael Snyder has invented many technologies enabling the 21st century of healthcare including systems biology, RNA sequencing, and protein chip. Dr Snyder has initiated the Big Data approach to healthcare through his work using omics to detect early stage disease, including wearables to detect infectious diseases like COVID-19, and at-home microsampling to measure hundreds of molecules from a single drop of blood. He is the first researcher to gather petabytes of data on individuals, which is 1 Million - 1 trillion times more data than the average clinician collects. He as published over 800 papers and is one of the most cited scientists. In terms of commercial success, Mike has co-founded 17 companies (including 2 unicorns) with combined enterprise value of over $6 billion.

Aivett Bilbao is a computational scientist in the Computing, Analytics, and Modeling science area at PNNL. She conducts research on computational tools for mass spectrometry-based omics, working directly with biologists and chemists in interdisciplinary teams. She has acquired extensive experience developing software for mass spectrometry using multiple programming languages and technologies. Projects include proteomics and small molecule (e.g., metabolites and lipids) molecular characterization entailing both algorithm design and software implementation for data from different instruments (time-of-flight, quadrupole, and Fourier transform-based mass analyzers) and analytical separation techniques (liquid chromatography, ion mobility, solid phase extraction, and gas chromatography). She earned her PhD from University of Geneva in Switzerland with special interest in data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry. Her bachelor’s degree is in computer engineering from Universidad de Oriente in Venezuela (cum laude) and her MSc studies were focused on machine learning algorithms and statistical methods at Telecom SudParis in France.

Ben Moree is a Principal Scientist, Applications Development at Quantum-Si. His work at Quantum-Si has focused on the development of commercial applications and workflows for the next-generation protein sequencing technology. Prior to joining Quantum Si, Ben worked at BlueLight Therapeutics where he led drug discovery programs on difficult-to-drug oncology targets and helped develop the core technology platform. Ben received his PhD in Biochemistry from Stanford University where he studied chromatin epigenetics.

Jerzy Adamski is a medicinal scientists and worldwide renowned expert in endocrinology and metabolomics. He has been working in the field of endocrine-related cancers and frequent human diseases like diabetes for 20 years. He published 463 papers (e.g. Nature Genetics, 2010; Nature 2011 and 2020; Nature Reviews in Nephrology, 2017; Cell, 2018, 2021 and 2023, Nature Biotechnology 2023) holds several patents and has H-index of 79. He acts as an Editor-in-Chief for J. Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He developed prototypes for early diagnosis of endometriosis, diabetes type 2, kidney dysfunction and cardiovascular complications. He recently co-founded a biotech company Metaron Diagnostics where he acts as CSO. At Metaron Diagnostics he implements validated assays for diagnostics of complex human diseases by metabolomics. His further interests lie in networking and team building for the efficient problem solutions in biomedical discovery and applications in personalized medicine.

Jochen M Schwenk is a Professor in Translational Proteomics at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, and holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Tübingen in Germany. Jochen is an elected member of HUPO's Council, chair of HUPO's Plasma Proteome Project, Scientific Director of SciLifeLab's Affinity Proteomics Unit, and part of the Human Protein Atlas (www.proteinatlas.org) management group. His primary interest is studying the circulating blood proteins to understand human health and disease states. His team works on the novel aspect of the biomarker analysis pipeline, including study design, pre-analytical variables, micro-sampling, assay development, data integration, and emerging translational possibilities. The Schwenk Lab collaborates with various interdisciplinary research projects on different human phenotypes.

Dr. Keenan Walker is an Investigator at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) Intramural Research Program and Chief of the Multimodal Imaging of Neurodegenerative Disease (MIND) unit. Dr. Walker earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from St. John's University. He completed his pre-doctoral internship in clinical neuropsychology at the University of California San Diego / VA San Diego Healthcare System before beginning an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. After receiving an NIA-funded K23 career development award, he transitioned to the role of Assistant Professor of Neurology at Johns Hopkins. He then joined the NIA as a Tenure-Track Investigator. Dr. Walker’s current research program focuses on understanding the role of abnormal immune function in Alzheimer’s disease and late-life cognitive decline. He uses proteomic and genetic methods, and multimodal neuroimaging to investigate the link between systemic inflammation, neuroinflammation, and neurologic disease.

Mariana is the Scientific Director for Neuroscience at Olink, supporting researchers in the fields of neurology and psychiatry. Prior to joining Olink, Mariana contributed to the development of reliable research tools through several roles at Abcam encompassing portfolio development and scientific affairs. She gained a foundation in molecular biology at the University of Lisbon, and focused on understanding the differential patterns of gene expression of rare neuromuscular disorders during her master's studies at Boston Children's Hospital. She pursued her doctoral studies at UCLA where she investigated the regulatory mechanisms of synaptic plasticity using high-throughput multi-omic approaches.

Dr. Markus Langsdorf pursued his studies in Chemistry at Justus Liebig University Gieben, Germany. His dedication and efforts culminated in the successful completion of a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry, guided by the esteemed Prof. Bernhard Spengler. Dr. Langsdorf's professional trajectory led him to Biocrates, where he began as an application and support specialist before transitioning to his current role as a dedicated product manager.

Markus Wenk has been interested in membrane lipids, their structure and function since his undergraduate years at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel. He has spearheaded novel approaches in systems scale analysis of lipids and their interactors (lipidomics) and is recognized as a thought leader worldwide in this field (e.g. European Lipid Science Award 2018). At the National University of Singapore (NUS) he established the Singapore Lipidomics Incubator (SLING), an internationally leading program dedicated to innovation, education, and partnership in lipidomics. More recently, he has been involved in designing and implementing strategies for molecular phenotyping in precision health and medicine. Markus has been Head of the Department of Biochemistry at NUS (2015-2022) and is currently Dean of the College of Health and Life Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) in Doha, Qatar.

Melanie Bailey is the Director of the BBSRC SEISMIC facility for spatially resolved single and sub-cellular omics. This is a new UK facility, designed to develop co-develop new methodologies with industry for the benefit of the UK bioscience community. Professor Bailey also serves on the management committee of the UK National Ion Beam Centre. Her expertise has led her to contribute as a technical expert for the international atomic energy agency. Notably, her research group is dedicated to devising novel analytical methods applicable in both clinical and bioscience contexts.

Ryan Kelly is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Brigham Young University (BYU). He received his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from BYU in 2005 and then returned to BYU after spending 13 years as a staff scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. A central theme of Dr. Kelly’s research has been the development of new technological solutions for ultrasensitive biochemical analyses. His recent efforts have focused on single-cell proteomics and spatial proteomics, which have involved tailoring sample preparation, separations, ionization and mass spectrometry acquisition for low-input samples. His group’s efforts have enabled thousands of proteins to be rapidly profiled from single cells.

Tina Chou is a biomarker scientist at Owlstone Medical where she is responsible for supporting customers with study design, data interpretation and report delivery. She is also involved in scientific content writing as part of the Company’s technical sales and marketing efforts. With a PhD degree in Plant Science from University of Connecticut and several years of post-doctoral experience working with omics data in the broader biology field at North Carolina State University, Tina successfully moved into her current role at Owlstone in 2021.