Scientific Advisory Board

Professor Anders Miki Bojesen

Professor of Veterinary Clinical Microbiology, University of Copenhagen

Professor Bojesen obtained his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 2000 and went on to complete his PhD at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in 2003. He is now Professor of Veterinary Clinical Microbiology in the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, where he has a particular research interest in bacteria-host interactions. His research has resulted in over 100 peer reviewed manuscripts, 5 book chapters and 2 patents. Alongside his University position, Professor Bojesen is co-founder and owner of Bojesen & Petersen Biotech, a spin-off company established in 2012 aimed at treating endometritis in mares. He is also a Diplomate of the European College of Poultry Veterinary Science, Board member of the National Council for Antimicrobial Resistance, Ministry of Health, Denmark, Head of the Council for Improved Hygiene, Denmark, Board member of the Danish Poultry Levy Foundation, and Chairman of the Credentials committee of the European College of Veterinary Poultry Science.

Professor Birgit Schilling

Director of the Mass Spectrometry Core, Buck Institute for Research on Aging

Dr Schilling is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Mass Spectrometry Core at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in California, and is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California (USC). The Schilling lab develops and implements advanced innovative protein analytical technologies (including quantitative proteomics, posttranslational modifications, protein dynamics and biomarker discovery) to advance basic biology and biomedical research related to aging research. Her ongoing research projects include investigation of protein phosphorylation, acylation, and other posttranslational modifications, as well as differential expression of proteins during disease and aging processes.

Professor Emanuel Petricoin

Co-Director, Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, George Mason University

Dr Emanuel F Petricoin has been the Co-Director of the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM) at George Mason University since 2005, where he is a University Professor. Prior to this position, he served as Co-Director of the FDA-NCI Clinical Proteomics Program from 2001-2005, and a Senior Investigator within the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the US Food and Drug Administration from 1993-2005. The focus of the CAPMM is the invention and use of proteomics technologies for personalized therapy, molecular diagnostics and biomarker discovery. Dr Petricoin’s expertise includes precision medicine, proteomics and protein biomarkers, cell signaling, molecular diagnostic assay development, biologics and cellular therapeutics regulation, as well as artificial intelligence-based algorithms.

Dr Petricoin is a founding member of the Human Proteomic Organization (HUPO), has co-authored over 400 publications, and is a co-inventor on over 40 filed and published patents.

Professor Erich Leitner

Head of Food Chemistry and Sensory Analysis Research, Graz University of Technology

Professor Leitner studied technical chemistry at the Graz University of Technology, Austria (TU Graz), going on to obtain his master's degree in 1988 and PhD in 1991. He subsequently went on to achieve his "venia docendi" in food chemistry in 2005. He is now head of the Institute of Analytical Chemistry and Food Chemistry and holds a professorship for “Analytics of Food and Food Contact Materials”, which is mainly concerned with quality parameters. His group’s research focuses on the identification of volatile and odor active substances in food and food contact materials. They utilize a trained expert panel and analytical techniques centered around gas chromatography for the identification and quantification of flavor and off-flavor substances in different matrices. Recently, they have also targeted substances of toxicological concern, like mineral oil residues and their analytical determination, as they have gained relevance.

Professor Mikael Kubista

Founder, TATAA Biocenter

Professor Mikael Kubista obtained a BSc in chemistry at the University of Göteborg, Sweden, in 1984. After working at Astra Hässle (today part of AstraZeneca), he returned to academia, joining Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg and received a PhD in 1988 for studies of nucleic acid interactions with polarized light spectroscopy. This was followed by post-doctoral positions at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, and Yale University, New Haven, USA.

In 1991, Kubista started his own research group studying DNA-ligand interactions. His group discovered a novel mechanism of transcriptional activation of oncogenes, developed methods for multidimensional data analysis based on which MultiD Analyses AB was founded, and invented the light-up probes for nucleic acid detection in homogeneous solution, which led to the foundation of LightUp Technologies AB as Europe´s first company focusing on quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) based diagnostics.

In 2001 Kubista set up the TATAA Biocenter as a center of excellence in qPCR and gene expression analysis with locations in Gothenburg, Sweden and Prague, Czech Republic. In 2014 TATAA introduced non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in Sweden and separated the business into the company Life Genomics AB.

Kubista also co-authored the MIQE guidelines for RT-qPCR analysis, which has had over 5000 citations, and became a member of the CEN/ISO working group that developed the guidelines for the pre-analytical process in molecular diagnostics that came in force during 2015. Since 2007 Kubista heads the Department of Gene Expression at the Institute of Biotechnology, CAS.

Bob McDowall, PhD

Director, R D McDowall Limited

Bob is an analytical chemist with over 45 years’ experience including 15 years working in the pharmaceutical industry and over 25 years working for the industry as a consultant. Bob has been involved with specifying laboratory informatics solutions for over 40 years and has nearly 35 years’ experience of computerized system validation in regulated GXP environments.

Chris Lowe, PhD

Head of Research Operations, Horizon Discovery

Chris joined Horizon Discovery in 2011 and, prior to leading all research operations within Horizon, led the scientific teams responsible for the development and provision of a range of translational research services to support pre-clinical drug discovery programs. Chris has a background in the genetic analysis of complex disease having obtained his PhD in the field of Medical Genetics from the University of Cambridge where he investigated the genetic causes of Type 1 diabetes in the laboratory of Prof. John Todd, followed by postdoctoral work focusing on Type 2 diabetes and metabolic disease in the laboratory of Prof. Stephen O’Rahilly.

Diane Turner, PhD, FRSC

Senior Consultant & Director, Anthias Consulting Limited

Diane has developed methods, given support and high-quality training for companies in most industries around the world for more than 20 years. A Warwick University Graduate, Diane completed her Masters in analytical chemistry and started her career in environmental chemistry, later gaining significant experience as an Applications Chemist. Diane's area of research through her PhD studies at The Open University was disease diagnosis. Diane is President-Elect of the Royal Society of Chemistry Analytical Division and Chair of the Analytical Chemistry Trust Fund. Diane is a visiting academic and consultant at The Open University.

Iva Kelava, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

After finishing my biology undergraduate degree in Zagreb, Croatia, I did my PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, where I worked on the cellular aspects of mammalian neural progenitors, with special focus on comparative, inter-species studies. I am currently studying brain development using an in vitro 3D technique called cerebral organoids at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. By using this technique on human and non-human tissue, we are trying to understand the intricate processes that occurred during evolution and led to the complex human brain that we have today.

Marc Rogers, PhD

Founding Director, Metrion Biosciences

Marc is a trained neuroscientist with 25 years’ experience in the patch clamp technique from a number of prestigious international universities and 12 years of drug discovery on both sides of the Atlantic. He was an early adopter of automated patch clamp platforms for ion channel screening and has an excellent knowledge of this market and connections with many of the commercial vendors. Marc has developed an extensive network of contacts in Europe and the US through his outsourcing activities and presentations at international ion channel drug discovery conferences. He is an experienced project manager and team leader through his work on international pharma and grant-funded collaborations, as well as a successful grant writer in the UK, Europe and the US. Before becoming the founding director of Metrion Biosciences he co-founded the virtual biotech Inovion Pharma to focus on finding therapies for rare disease channelopathies.

Matthew Segall, PhD

CEO, Optibrium

Matt is CEO of Optibrium. He has a Master of Science in computation from the University of Oxford and a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Cambridge. As Associate Director at Camitro (UK), ArQule Inc. and then Inpharmatica, he led a team developing predictive ADME models and state-of-the-art intuitive decision-support and visualization tools for drug discovery. In January 2006, he became responsible for management of Inpharmatica's ADME business, including experimental ADME services and the StarDrop software platform. Following acquisition of Inpharmatica, Matt became Senior Director responsible for BioFocus DPI's ADMET division and in 2009 led a management buyout of the StarDrop business to found Optibrium, which develops software for small molecule design, optimization and data analysis. Matt has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters on computational chemistry, cheminformatics and drug discovery.

Maureen Bunger, PhD

Product Manager, Lonza

Dr Maureen Bunger is Product Manager for ADMETox and hepatocytes at Lonza, being responsible for Lonza’s product portfolio in these areas. She has extensive knowledge about ADMETox and hepatocytes, and how they can best be used in drug discovery.

With over 20 years of experience in the life science domain, Maureen combines hands-on experience with life science tools, including mass spectrometry, sequencing, molecular biology, stem cells, genetics and animal models, with effective project management, strategic planning and new product development.

Maureen received a PhD in molecular toxicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001 and completed postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Paul Dear PhD

CEO, Mote Research

Dr Paul H. Dear got his D Phil from Oxford in 1989, for developing techniques in genome mapping and analysis. After a post-doc in Oxford, he joined the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge in 1992, first as a post-doc under Sir Greg Winter, and then as group leader. He focussed initially on genome mapping, and went on to develop the basis for a single-molecule, microfluidic-based DNA sequencing technology currently being developed with Base4 Innovation. In 2015, he left the LMB to start his own genome editing company, Mote Research Limited. His current interests include microfluidics, therapeutic and prophylactic genome editing, and the application of single-molecule methods in DNA sequencing and detection.

Peter Harrsch, PhD

Executive Clinical/Forensic Specialist, Waters Corporation

Peter joined Waters Corporation in 2005 as an Executive Clinical/Forensic Specialist. At Waters, Peter is responsible for interfacing with both clinical and forensic labs and developing the LC-MS business in those market segments with the regional sales teams. Prior to Waters, Peter held various positions as Senior Mass Spectrometry Sales Specialist at Bruker Daltonics, SFC-MS Business Development Manager at Berger Instruments, and Senior Applications Consultant for LC-MS at Agilent Technologies. Before moving to the scientific instrument segment, Peter worked in the pharmaceutical industry as a Senior Research Investigator for Sterling Pharmaceuticals and a Post-Doctoral Scientist at SmithKline focusing mainly on protein drug targets and protein-based biopharmaceuticals. Over the years, Peter has developed numerous hyphenated mass spec methods for analysis of pharmaceuticals and drugs of abuse, protein/peptide drugs, polymers, and small molecule metabolites. Other accomplishments include the development of the first commercially available SFC-MS system. Peter has delivered many LC-MS training courses and has made poster and oral presentations at numerous scientific meetings.

Ronald Clouse, PhD

Consultant, Booz Allen Hamilton

Ronald Clouse is a biologist with broad experience in field, molecular, and computational aspects of biological research. He received his PhD in biology from Harvard University and his Master of Science degree in zoology from the University of Florida. Dr Clouse is a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton in Washington, DC, advising, evaluating, and assisting a variety of federal programs and projects in the forensic biology space, especially forensic DNA. His recent research publications focus on molecular and computational aspects of epidemiology, phylogenetics, and biogeography, and recent popular articles describe molecular and statistical advances in human identification by National Institute of Justice (US Dept. of Justice) grant awardees.

Dr. Eric Yager

Associate Professor of Microbiology, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Dr. Eric Yager is an Associate Professor of Microbiology in the Department of Basic and Clinical Sciences at the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (ACPHS). At ACPHS, Dr. Yager instructs several courses in the life sciences (Immunology, Virology, Microbiology Lab, Biomedical Laboratory Techniques, Introduction to Flow Cytometry) and serves as Program Director of the College’s Pre-Pharmacy Program. Dr. Yager has over 20 years of experience in the areas of virology, immunology, antibody-based therapies, anti-virals, and vaccines. Dr. Yager has authored more than 25 peer-reviewed publications, has given invited talks at several regional and national scientific conferences, and is enthusiastic about educating individuals on viruses and vaccines.