Deputy Lead of Nucleic Acids Biomarker Team

PI Cancer Genomics Lab @ VHIO

Atocha Romero is a Laboratory Medicine specialist who holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Presently, Dr. Romero serves as the director of the Liquid Biopsy Laboratory (LBL), from the medical Oncology Department, at Puerta de Hierro Hospital, in Madrid. The LBL provides diagnostic services and undertakes research in the field of cancer biomarkers. Her research predominantly centers on the applicability of liquid biopsies in lung cancer patients in routine oncology as well as in the context of clinical trials. Her research has consistently secured funding through competitive public grant calls. With over 90 publications in international journals to her name, she has also overseen multiple theses and holds accreditation from ANECA as an assistant professor.

Beatriz Bellosillo is the Head of the Molecular Biology laboratory at the Pathology Department of Hospital del Mar, in Barcelona, Spain, and is associate professor at the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona. She is an experienced molecular biologist with expertise in translational research in Hematology and Oncology areas in Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM).

She studied Pharmacy from 1988-1993 and developed her PhD studies from1993- 1999 in University of Barcelona. Since her incorporation in Hospital del Mar (Barcelona) in 2001, she has developed the molecular diagnostic area in the Pathology Department with a special focus in the haematological and oncological areas and obtained ISO9001 certification in 2015 and ISO15189 accreditation in 2017. In addition, Dr. Bellosillo participates as assessor in quality programmes of the European Molecular Quality Network, and the Spanish Society of Pathology in the molecular quality programmes.

From the research point of view, Dr. Bellosillo is member of the research programme in cancer in the Hospital del Mar Research Institute and president of the Research Comission, which guarantees the implementation of the scientific policies in the institution.
In accordance with the routine clinical work, her scientific interest has focused in the last years in the assessment of molecular alterations and other biomarkers involved in haematological malignancies and solid tumors, with an especial emphasis in the implementation of liquid biopsy for studying solid tumors

Prof. Denis Horgan, a former Director of the European Cancer Patient Coalition, who was also a policy advisor in the European Parliament and worked with various international NGOs on health development projects. In addition, he has published over 70 academic articles related to the area of personalised medicine. Today, Denis is the Editor in Chief of the journal entitled Public Health Genomics and he is the Executive Director of the European Alliance of Personalised Medicine (EAPM). The mix of EAPM members provides extensive scientific, clinical, caring and training expertise in personalised medicine and diagnostics, across patient groups, academia, health professionals and industry. Relevant departments of the European Commission have observer status, as does your own organisation, of course.

Diego de Miguel Perez is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Tisch Cancer Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA. His research specializes on the discovery of liquid biopsy biomarkers, including extracellular vesicles and circulating tumor cells for early detection and the prediction of response to treatment in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Engonbil

Dr. Pouliot completed a doctoral degree in Human Physiology at the University of Montreal and a fellowship at McGill University on multidrug resistance in cancer. With broad experience in clinical development, he worked on numerous phase I – III programs leading to innovative drug approvals, including imatinib in chronic myelogenous leukemia, temozolomide in brain tumors, pembrolizumab and cemiplimab in skin and lung cancer. Over the years, he fostered numerous academia-industry collaborations and investigator-driven initiatives across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. At Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, he leads the global medical affairs team in lung cancer and other solid tumors.

Hospital Universitary Dexeus. Pangaea Oncology Laboratory

Medical Oncologist

Dr. Joaquin Dopazo is the director of the Platform of Computational Medicine of the Progress and Health Foundation from the Andalusian Health System. He has a degree in Chemistry and a PhD in Biology (University of Valencia, 1989). He has lead bioinformatics and data science departments in different academic institutions (CIPF in Valencia and CNIO in Madrid) and companies (Glaxo Wellcome, Madrid, Spain). Dr. Dopazo’s interests revolve around functional genomics, systems biology as well as development of new algorithms and software for the analysis of high-throughput genomic data and electronical health record data and its application to personalized and precision medicine and drug discovery, making intensive use of mathematical modeling and artificial intelligence. He has published more than 350 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, reaching an h-index of 70. He has promoted genomic initiatives such as the Medical Genome Project, and has participated in numerous national and international initiatives and consortia (e.g. IMPaCT-data, MAQC, ELIXIR, 1+Million genomes etc.)

Luis E. Raez, MD, FACP, FCCP works as Chief Scientific Officer & Medical Director at Memorial Cancer Institute (MCI)/Memorial Health Care System, he is also Director of the Thoracic Oncology Program. He is Co-Director of the MCI/FAU Florida Cancer Center of Excellence designated by the Florida Department of Health, one of only five cancer centers in Florida. He is also Clinical Professor of Medicine at Florida International University (FIU), Visiting Professor of Medicine at Cayetano Heredia University in Peru and Research Professor at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). He was the President of the Florida Society of Clinical Oncology (FLASCO) 2019-2021.

Dr. Arcila is a molecular genetic pathologist and hematopathologist with a specific interest in cancer diagnostics.

Medico especialista en Anatomía Patologica. Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocio. Sevilla

Professor of Pharmacology in Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine

Dr Pascale Morel has been working in the pharmaceutical industry in various international roles, such as Marketing, Clinical Development and Medical Affairs. Pascale has also worked in the clinical diagnostics and Life Sciences sector at companies like Nanostring or Guardant Heath. Her career has a strong focus on oncology and haemato-oncology, in scope of drug clinical development, clinical genomics and molecular biology, including contributing to the effort of introducing liquid biopsies testing from the industry perspective. Pascale now serves as Senior Medical Affairs Director for the Translational Sciences and Precision Diagnostics franchise at Qiagen, where her mission fits her professional priority which is to contribute in implementing clinical diagnostics tools to make personalized medicine more and more a reality for patients.

I am oncologist and researcher focused on treating patients with gastrointestinal cancers and other solid tumors using novel clinical trials and therapies. My focus has been on understanding the genomics and genetics of the underlying cancer and the person affected by it in order to help treat these cancers in a more personalized fashion. This is often referred to as precision medicine or precision oncology. My research and incorporation of other non-invasive tests like circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) testing (often referred to as “liquid biopsies”) allows me to not only understand the genetic makeup of every patient that we see, but also to study the changes over time to identify the best treatments for my patients, including clinical trials with novel drugs as single agents or combinations (targeted therapies, immunotherapy, biologics, vaccines, etc.) besides or in addition to the traditional chemotherapy. It is an exciting time to be an oncologist and scientist in the field of oncology and cancer care.

Paul Hofman, MD, PhD, is Professor of Pathology at the University Côte D’Azur (Nice, France). He is the Head of the Laboratory of Clinical and Experimental Pathology at Louis Pasteur Hospital and Director of the Research team 4 at the Inserm U1081/CNRS 7284 center (Comprehensive Cancer Center Antoine Lacassagne, Fr). He is the Director of the MSc Biobanks and Complex Data Management. He is the Head of the OncoAge consortium (www.oncoage.org) at the University Côte d’Azur. His main field of interest during these last few years focused on lung cancer pathophysiology, including the assessment of different predictive biomarkers using tissue and liquid biopsies. He is a member of the Royal Academia of Medicine in Brussels.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Sylvan Baca is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute. Raised in Albuquerque, NM, Dr. Baca received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his MD and PhD from Harvard Medical School. He trained in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and completed his fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Baca received his post-doctoral training in cancer epigenetics with Dr. Matthew Freedman at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. He is on faculty at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as a Physician and Investigator. In addition to caring for patients, he conducts research at the interface of computational biology and epigenomics to find better ways to treat cancer.

Dr. Anagnostou is an Associate Professor of Oncology, Director of the Thoracic Oncology Biorepository, co-leader of the Molecular Tumor Board and co-director of the Lung Cancer Precision Medicine Center of Excellence in the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. She graduated from Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece and
received a PhD from the same institution. Dr. Anagnostou completed her internal medicine residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital and subsequently trained in Medical Oncology at Johns Hopkins. She is a translational cancer investigator who is focusing on large-scale genomic, multi-omic and liquid biopsy analyses in human cancers. Her research is particularly focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of response and resistance to immunotherapy and translating this knowledge into minimally invasive approaches for cancer detection, monitoring and interception for patients treated with immunotherapy. Her
long term goal is to transform medical oncology to molecular oncology, where treatment decisions are tailored not only to a baseline genotype but are also informed by real-time dynamics of liquid biopsies.