Droplet Digital PCR World 2025

Professor Tang is a graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1991 and became a genetic pathologist and Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia in 1997. He earned hist Doctor of Medicine degree for his discovery of the causative gene OCTN2 of primary carnitine deficiency, which is a single gene defect causing sudden infant death common in South-East Asia. His laboratory diagnosed patients sent from China, Taiwan, Macau and even Europe. Now the disease is managed by Newborn screening so 1000’s of patients are now diagnosed at birth and avoided sudden death. Later he explored into complex traits during his sabbatical in the University of Cambridge when he started to investigate genetic basis of common diseases like including Alzheimer's, asthma, breast cancer, SARS, and tuberculosis. He has >300 publications, H-index of 71 and he was among the top 10 cited scholars in this area from 2019-2022.

Currently, Professor Tang plays a pivotal role in various committees in the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia and serves as an examiner for young pathologists. During the time of COVID, he started a startup in Hong Kong Science Park with the aim to develop biomarker of host response to infections or diseases. It leads to this innovative method DIRECT Leukocyte Single Cell-type Transcript Abundance (DIRECT LS-TA) assay which can reveal gene expression levels of Monocytes (also other cell-types) directly from a blood sample without cell separation. DIRECT LS-TA assay can now differentiate viral from bacterial infection in a fever patient within 2 hours.

Associate Professor Godler is a group leader at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. He is an inventor on 6 patent families with 16 granted patents related to technologies developed for different diagnostic and screening applications, publishing in such quality journals as Genetics in Medicine, Clinical Chemistry, Neurology, JAMA Neurology and JAMA Network Open. In 2022 he was awarded a 5-year program funding from the Genomics Health Futures Mission to assess benefits of extended epi-genomic newborn screening workflow developed by his group on 100,000 infants recruited into the whole-of-state birth cohort called Generation Victoria. He also leads projects funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Foundation of Prader Willi Research (USA) utilizing multi-omics analyses to: (i) define genetic pathways dysregulated in Prader-Willi syndrome in blood and brain; (ii) identify existing medications used for other conditions to target these pathways in future clinical trials. His group routinely applies droplet digital PCR technology across these projects for copy number variation and DNA methylation analyses.

Prof. Si-Keun Lim, Ph.D. is a leading expert in forensic genetics and forensic biology, with over 25 years of experience spanning research, academia, and applied forensic science. He earned his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Microbiology from Korea University and has held key positions at the National Forensic Service, where he served as Senior Researcher and later as Vice President of the DNA Workgroup for AFSN. Since 2019, he has been Professor in the Department of Forensic Sciences at Sungkyunkwan University and currently leads the Convergence Bio Forensic Institute (BICS). He is also Director of the Forensic Genetics Division at GSK and CEO of ID-Cell Forensics Co.

Prof. Lim’s research focuses on forensic genetics, forensic biology, and crime scene management, with significant contributions to DNA analysis, body fluid identification, and forensic applications of emerging molecular technologies. He has published over 30 papers in international journals, authored the book Curious DNA Story – Searching for DNA Evidence (2019), and holds numerous domestic and international patents. His recent work explores advanced methods including digital PCR, DNA methylation for forensic applications, microbiome analysis, and machine learning-based frameworks for forensic investigations.

Prof. Rekha Pai works in the Molecular Pathology Laboratory within the Department of Pathology at the Christian Medical College, India. Her work focuses on delivering precision oncology solutions and a broad range of molecular diagnostic pathology services. She specializes in working with DNA derived from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues—often challenging to amplify—and also develops cell-free nucleic acid and RNA-based assays to provide comprehensive diagnostic workups for cancer patients.

Dr Rex Wan-Hin Hui is a resident in the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. He received his medical degree from HKU in 2018, graduating at the top of his class with the John Anderson Gold Medal. He subsequently received his Master of Research and PhD degrees in 2018 and 2025 respectively.

Dr Hui’s research focuses on risk prediction in hepatitis B and hepatocellular carcinoma. He has published over 70 journal articles, including articles in the Journal of Hepatology, Gut, Hepatology, and Clinical & Molecular Hepatology as lead author. His research has been recognized by over 20 international and regional research awards in the past 5 years

A seasoned biotech leader, Dr. Pestano heads up Development and Operations at Biodesix. His experience in laboratory and assay development for high complexity molecular diagnostics for oncology includes molecular and proteomic testing. Prior to joining Biodesix in 2012, Dr. Pestano led multidisciplinary teams in the development of tissue diagnostic tests, cancer vaccines and scientific software. He held senior positions in PharmaServices, R&D and Project Leadership at Ventana, a member of the Roche Group. Dr. Pestano is the co-inventor on multiple national and international patents for diagnostic tests. He has also fostered many collaborations in academia and industry as a part of new product development. Dr. Pestano received his Ph.D. training in Cell and Molecular Biology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York and conducted his post-doctoral training in cancer immunology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Darren Korbie is a former National Breast Cancer Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow, currently appointed at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, in Sydney, Australia; with previous leadership positions at the University of Queensland as Head of Sequencing at the Centre for Personalized Nanomedicine, and Theme Leader - Molecular Sequencing for the CSIRO-AIBN Joint Centre in Personalised Nanodiagnostics. He also has extensive industry experience, and has successfully developed diagnostics to the NATA15189 pathology standard for clinical management of cancer patients. 

Over the past several years his research has explored the epigenomics of cancer and molecular basis of chemotherapy response, with a particular focus on developing multiplexed PCR and ddPCR molecular diagnostics for patient management and liquid biopsy testing. 

Anish Tripathi is Co-founder & Managing Director of Epigeneres Biotech. He has over 30 years of work-ex cutting across multiple sectors and geographies, largely in professional services, and manufacturing.

He has been running Epigeneres along with his brother, Ashish Tripathi, for over 4 years now. Epigeneres specializes in innovative tests that can make a clinically meaningful difference in early detection of cancer and other chronic medical conditions. It also has a molecular medicine division for therapeutic interventions in such medical conditions.

The vision of the Company is “Early-detect, and then intervene”!

Epigeneres has recently launched the HrC Test in India, a revolutionary blood test for early detection of cancer. This has been done under a licensing arrangement with Tzar Labs of Singapore.

He has previously worked with firms like KPMG, Grant Thornton, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, NRB Bearings, etc. He is primarily known for his skills in Process Engineering, Marketing, Strategy and Supply Chain Management.

Dr. Xiaomo Wu is Head of the Regenerative Medicine & Gene Therapy Laboratory at the Dermatology Hospital of Fuzhou and co-founder of Humvira Therapeutics. She received her Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Basel, Switzerland, and completed postdoctoral training at the Department of Biomedicine (DBM) before establishing a medical center at the Dermatology Hospital of Fuzhou. Wu’s Lab focuses on retroviral vectorization and adeno-associated virus (AAV) innovations to develop gene therapies for hemophilia A, various inherited metabolic disorders, and multiple immunodeficiencies.

Dr. Luisa Marena is a biotechnologist with over 15 years of experience in molecular biology techniques within the biopharmaceutical sector. She holds a Ph.D. in Complex Systems for Life Sciences from the University of Torino.

At Merck, Dr. Marena is the head of the Innovative Cell Editing & Characterization Lab, leading a team of scientists focused on the transformation of quality control processes with innovative molecular technologies, such as digital PCR, next-generation sequencing (NGS), and the CRISPR/Cas system.

Throughout her career in pharmaceutical biological quality control, Luisa has played a key role in setting up and validating GMP tests for viral safety and microbial identification, as well as in studies focused on the genotypic characterization of molecules and biosafety assessments.

Dr. Kanit is a physiologist and biotechnologist specializing in gene therapy, stem cell biology, and drug discovery for blood and lysosomal disorders. He earned his Ph.D. from Paris Diderot University and completed postdoctoral training at the Imagine Institute in Paris. He is currently an Assistant Professor and Program Director at Mahidol University, with a focus on translational research and global collaboration.

Seulgi Lee, M.S., is a researcher at Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (SNBL), Ltd., currently working in the Safety Assessment Unit of the Drug Safety Research Laboratories. She holds a master’s degree in Agricultural Science from Shizuoka University, Japan. Since joining SNBL in 2021, she has contributed to various GLP-compliant studies and specialized in the bioanalysis of cell and gene therapy products. Her recent work includes a presentation on the quantification of AAV vector genomes using digital PCR at a major toxicology conference. With a strong foundation in cell biology and safety assessment, she continues to support the development of innovative therapeutic solutions.