Droplet Digital PCR World 2022

Dr. Liting Chen is a Researcher of Hematology at Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Dr. Chen received a Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China. She received her training as a post-doctoral fellow at the Medical School of the University of California, San Francisco, in the United States.

Dr. Chen's research focuses on the pathogenesis of hematological malignancies. She is particularly interested in cfDNA analysis and applications. She also has extensive experience with CAR‑T therapy. She has received funding from China's National Science Foundation for Young Scientists and has published in prestigious scientific journals such as Nature Communications and Leukemia et al.

Dr. Deborah Chen is the Principle Scientist at Tessa Therapeutics where her work focuses on developing and qualifying molecular assays for characterization or lot release of Tessa's cell therapy products targeting a wide range of cancer indications. Before joining Tessa, Deborah worked at MSD, where she utilized her diverse experience in genetics and genomics to identify novel targets and to validate exploratory and clinical biomarkers across different therapeutic areas. Deborah holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis from Washington University in Saint Louis (USA).

Dr. Liuh Ling Goh is the Laboratory Director of the Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. She received her PhD in 2006 from The National University of Singapore and continued her training in molecular cell biology as a Postdoctoral at ASTAR’s Institute of Medical Biology. She joined TTSH in 2014 and established the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory and Biobank, with the major objective of bridging the gap between genomics research and its applications for precision medicine. Till date, she has authored and co-authored more than 30 peer review papers. Her major clinical and research interests focus on the development of less invasive blood tests for early detection of cancer and disease progression.

A/Prof. Dobrovic heads the Translational Genomics & Epigenomics Laboratory at University of Melbourne Department of Surgery. His laboratory is at the forefront of a translational research — clinical implementation interface that translates laboratory research findings into affordable diagnostics to benefit the patient population. Prof. Dobrovic has made a particular contribution to innovative methodology in cancer molecular diagnostics. He has authored more than 200 publications in leading scientific journals.

Dr. Sungpyo Kim is a Professor of Environmental Engineering at Korea University in Sejong, Korea. He obtained his undergraduate degree in civil engineering (1995) from Korea University in Seoul, Korea. Dr. Kim received his Ph.D. in Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo, USA (UB) in 2005. After three years training as a postdoctoral fellow at UB and Columbia University, NY, USA, he joined Korea University in Sejong in 2009. Professor Sungpyo Kim is the author of over 70 SCI peer-review research papers on Environmental Engineering. As of 2022, Google Scholar reports over 4700 citations (h-index 28) to his work. He has served as a chief-editor for the Advances in Environmental Research. His recent research interests include the wastewater water surveillance for preventing infectious diseases and biomarker development from wastewater.

Dr. Darren Day is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington. He completed his PhD in biochemistry and microbiology at Southampton University, UK, then moved to Auckland University to undertake postdoctoral research in molecular biology and molecular diagnostics. He then took a position at Cornell University Medical College, New York, where he researched human molecular genetics before obtaining a tenured position at Victoria University, Wellington. His scientific expertise and interest are varied encompassing molecular biology, cell biology, microbiology and neuroscience. Over the last 8 years his interest in neuroscience and the biology of the neurotransmitter serotonin, have coalesced with his interests in microbiology, such that his current primary research focus is on how maternal infection during pregnancy interacts with serotonin signalling to alter brain function. In particularly his laboratory is investigating how maternal immune activation (MIA) leads to an increased risk of the offspring developing neurological disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the role that the serotonin system plays in this.

Frank Bizouarn joined Bio-Rad in 2000 to support quantitative PCR (qPCR) technology as a Field Applications Specialist (FAS) in the southeast United States. In 2006, he moved into the role of International FAS for Bio‑Rad’s global Gene Expression Division to promote best practices in qPCR around the world. In 2011, Frank began working on Droplet Digital PCR applications (ddPCR) and joined the Digital Biology group. Currently, he is focused on supporting and promoting quantitation, detection, and sample discrimination applications that take advantage of the high resolution and sensitivity provided by the power of droplet partitioning. 

Carolyn has been with Bio‑Rad for over 9 years, where she currently serves as Senior Director, Global Product Marketing, Digital Biology Group (DBG). Carolyn's responsibilities include leading the product marketing team in defining and executing the strategy for the Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR) product line. Prior to Bio‑Rad, Carolyn held a variety of key marketing positions at Agilent Technologies, including Dir, Mktg for the qPCR, PCR and Bioreagents team, and eContent & Solutions Manager for WW Marketing Operations in Agilent's Life Sciences Business. Prior to her experience in marketing, Carolyn worked as a bench scientist at Fraunhofer, where she worked on developing vaccines for bioweapons and diseases. Carolyn has a Bachelors of Science degree from Washington College and a Masters in Biotechnology and Business from San Jose State University. 

Deborah is the Principle Scientist at Tessa Therapeutics where her work focuses on developing and qualifying molecular assays for characterization or lot release of Tessa's cell therapy products targeting a wide range of cancer indications. Before joining Tessa, Deborah worked at MSD, where she utilized her diverse experience in genetics and genomics to identify novel targets and to validate exploratory and clinical biomarkers across different therapeutic areas. Deborah holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis from Washington University in Saint Louis (USA).

Philippe is leading the biomarkers activities at Charles River Laboratories in Evreux (France), including large molecules bioanalyses of preclinical as well as clinical samples. Before joining CRL, he supervised translational research, clinical biomarker programs as well as co-development of companion tests with IVD industry partners at Transgene, a late stage clinical biotech company involved in the development of therapeutic vaccines as well as oncolytic vectors. Before joining Transgene in 2010, he set-up and managed the biomarker Department at CIToxLAB. He began his career by leading the biomarker group at Galderma, and then the R&D activities of the pharma business unit of Proteus, a french biotech company involved in protein directed evolution. Philippe holds a PhD in molecular and cellular biology from the Nice University and is graduated as engineer in chemistry from the National School of Chemistry of Montpellier (France). Philippe is passionate about advanced therapies, incl. immunotherapies, as well as gene and cell therapies.

Dr. Pestano is the Chief Development Officer at Biodesix, a leading molecular diagnostics company providing testing solutions to critical clinical questions in lung diseases. He has focused on the development of diagnostic tests for oncology and virology, with an emphasis on emerging technologies and biomarkers in tissue and liquid biopsies. Most recently, Dr. Pestano has fostered collaborations aimed at demonstrating the performance of circulating nucleic acids as a marker of cancer diagnosis and progression in high complexity clinical laboratory testing.

Joel A. Lefferts, PhD, HCLD, DABCC is an Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and Assistant Director of the Clinical Genomics and Advanced Technology (CGAT) Laboratory at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, New Hampshire and also serves as a medical director of the clinical laboratory at Valley Regional Hospital in Claremont, NH. Within the CGAT Laboratory, he leads the chromosome microarray and molecular infectious disease services, is responsible for evaluating new platforms and validating new clinical tests for infectious disease, oncology and genetic applications. He also is active in the laboratory’s next generation sequencing efforts and is the director of the Molecular Diagnostics Fellowship program at DHMC.

Dr. Sungpyo Kim is a Professor of Environmental Engineering at Korea University in Sejong, Korea. He obtained his undergraduate degree in civil engineering (1995) from Korea University in Seoul, Korea. Dr. Kim received his Ph.D. in Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo, USA (UB) in 2005. After three years training as a postdoctoral fellow at UB and Columbia University, NY, USA, he joined Korea University in Sejong in 2009. Professor Sungpyo Kim is the author of over 70 SCI peer-review research papers on Environmental Engineering. As of 2022, Google Scholar reports over 4700 citations (h-index 28) to his work. He has served as a chief-editor for the Advances in Environmental Research. His recent research interests include the wastewater water surveillance for preventing infectious diseases and biomarker development from wastewater.

Chanakha Navaratnarajah, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Mayo Clinic. He is a virologist by training working on virus entry and assembly. He works on emerging viruses with zoonotic potential such as the Henipaviruses and more recently, Coronaviruses. At the onset of the pandemic, he helped establish a wastewater monitoring pipeline to help Mayo Clinic and public officials in the city of Rochester, MN keep track of the pandemic.

Ramanath Majumdar, PhD, Assistant Professor, currently a member of Advanced Diagnostics Laboratory, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic. Dr. Majumdar is involved in research, innovation, and clinical test development in Molecular Genetics, Genomics and Biochemical Genetics. He is currently involved in following projects: 1. Test development using Covid‑19 related molecular platforms, 2. Short Read Next Generation Sequencing for newborn screening (NBS), metabolic disorders, and rare hereditary diseases and 3) Oxford Nanopore Long Read sequencing for ‘Ultra-Long-Read Technology’ to Resolve “Dark” Genomic Sequences in Clinically Relevant Genes. His training includes a BSc degree in Chemistry, PhD degree in Biochemistry from the University of Calcutta, India, and post‑doctoral fellowship at the University of Alberta, Canada.

Frank Bizouarn joined Bio-Rad in 2000 to support quantitative PCR (qPCR) technology as a Field Applications Specialist (FAS) in the southeast United States. In 2006, he moved into the role of International FAS for Bio‑Rad’s global Gene Expression Division to promote best practices in qPCR around the world. In 2011, Frank began working on Droplet Digital PCR applications (ddPCR) and joined the Digital Biology group. Currently, he is focused on supporting and promoting quantitation, detection, and sample discrimination applications that take advantage of the high resolution and sensitivity provided by the power of droplet partitioning. 

Carolyn has been with Bio‑Rad for over 9 years, where she currently serves as Senior Director, Global Product Marketing, Digital Biology Group (DBG). Carolyn's responsibilities include leading the product marketing team in defining and executing the strategy for the Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR) product line. Prior to Bio‑Rad, Carolyn held a variety of key marketing positions at Agilent Technologies, including Dir, Mktg for the qPCR, PCR and Bioreagents team, and eContent & Solutions Manager for WW Marketing Operations in Agilent's Life Sciences Business. Prior to her experience in marketing, Carolyn worked as a bench scientist at Fraunhofer, where she worked on developing vaccines for bioweapons and diseases. Carolyn has a Bachelors of Science degree from Washington College and a Masters in Biotechnology and Business from San Jose State University. 

Jan Hellemans is founder of Biogazelle, a Belgian service provider exploiting RNA to improve healthcare and site manager of CellCarta's genomic unit in Ghent. He is an expert in qPCR and dPCR technologies and co‐author of the (digital)MIQE guidelines. He led the development of Bio‐Rad’s PrimePCR assays and supervises CellCarta's service team in designing and validating qPCR/ddPCR assays for clinical research.

Philippe is leading the biomarkers activities at Charles River Laboratories in Evreux (France), including large molecules bioanalyses of preclinical as well as clinical samples. Before joining CRL, he supervised translational research, clinical biomarker programs as well as co-development of companion tests with IVD industry partners at Transgene, a late stage clinical biotech company involved in the development of therapeutic vaccines as well as oncolytic vectors. Before joining Transgene in 2010, he set-up and managed the biomarker Department at CIToxLAB. He began his career by leading the biomarker group at Galderma, and then the R&D activities of the pharma business unit of Proteus, a french biotech company involved in protein directed evolution. Philippe holds a PhD in molecular and cellular biology from the Nice University and is graduated as engineer in chemistry from the National School of Chemistry of Montpellier (France). Philippe is passionate about advanced therapies, incl. immunotherapies, as well as gene and cell therapies.

Three decades his research focuses on the identification of prognostic/predictive epigenetic and molecular markers for clinical outcome, response to chemo-radiotherapy, gene-targeted therapy and treatment-resistance in lung, GIST, head&neck cancer, as well as methylation-markers for the early detection of cervical cancer in scrapings. More recently his interest expanded to investigate and implement plasma ctDNA as a bloodborne-based molecular tool for the early cancer detection and classification for treatment-decision-making, and to predict MRD, high risk to develop metastasis and response to targeted and immuno‑therapy in patients with NEN/NET, NSCLC and GIST. He is heading the laboratory of Molecular Pathology offering the latest innovative methods for treatment-decision-making in the region North‑Netherlands. He is a senior member of the Dutch Society of Pathology, AACR, AMP, ESP, ASCO, ELBS, among others, and consultant in (inter)national committees and advisory boards on Molecular Pathology, the organisation of international proficiency mutation testing in lung tissue biopsies and plasma ctDNA, and co‑authored various international guidelines on Molecular Pathology. He graduated in Medical Biology in 1985 (Cum Laude) and his PhD in 1993 in Molecular Biology (University of Amsterdam). He worked as a staff clinical scientist in Molecular Pathology at LUMC (1991-2000) and UMCG (2001-now). He co-authors >280 publications.

Dr. Pestano is the Chief Development Officer at Biodesix, a leading molecular diagnostics company providing testing solutions to critical clinical questions in lung diseases. He has focused on the development of diagnostic tests for oncology and virology, with an emphasis on emerging technologies and biomarkers in tissue and liquid biopsies. Most recently, Dr. Pestano has fostered collaborations aimed at demonstrating the performance of circulating nucleic acids as a marker of cancer diagnosis and progression in high complexity clinical laboratory testing.

Marta Puig got her Ph.D. in Genetics in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). She works as a researcher in the Comparative and Functional Genomics group led by Dr. Mario Cáceres in the Institut de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina (IBB), and as a part-time professor in the Department of Genetics and Microbiology (UAB). Her research has always been focused on structural variants, and more specifically, in polymorphic inversions. For the last ten years, she has worked in the characterization, validation, and genotyping of human polymorphic inversions with the final goal of determining their role in human phenotype, evolution, and susceptibility to disease.

Luca Falzone is Post-doc fellow at the Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences of the University of Catania (Catania, Italy). Luca is collaborating with the “G. Pascale” National Cancer Institute of Naples (Naples, Italy) in the management of a clinical trial on the effects of Mediterranean Diet and exercise in the reduction of breast cancer recurrence. He is also responsible for the management of the bio-bank of biological samples from cancer patients and normal individuals at the Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences of the University of Catania (Catania, Italy).

Frank Bizouarn joined Bio-Rad in 2000 to support quantitative PCR (qPCR) technology as a Field Applications Specialist (FAS) in the southeast United States. In 2006, he moved into the role of International FAS for Bio‑Rad’s global Gene Expression Division to promote best practices in qPCR around the world. In 2011, Frank began working on Droplet Digital PCR applications (ddPCR) and joined the Digital Biology group. Currently, he is focused on supporting and promoting quantitation, detection, and sample discrimination applications that take advantage of the high resolution and sensitivity provided by the power of droplet partitioning. 

Carolyn has been with Bio‑Rad for over 9 years, where she currently serves as Senior Director, Global Product Marketing, Digital Biology Group (DBG). Carolyn's responsibilities include leading the product marketing team in defining and executing the strategy for the Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR) product line. Prior to Bio‑Rad, Carolyn held a variety of key marketing positions at Agilent Technologies, including Dir, Mktg for the qPCR, PCR and Bioreagents team, and eContent & Solutions Manager for WW Marketing Operations in Agilent's Life Sciences Business. Prior to her experience in marketing, Carolyn worked as a bench scientist at Fraunhofer, where she worked on developing vaccines for bioweapons and diseases. Carolyn has a Bachelors of Science degree from Washington College and a Masters in Biotechnology and Business from San Jose State University.