Meet the Speakers
Get to Know the Speakers
Meet the speakers for the ISLB 2023. In order to learn more about each individual speaker, please click on the photos below.
Alessandro Russo
Categories: Invited Speakers
Alessandro Russo: Italy
Alessandro Russo
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Alexandra Clipson
Categories: Invited Speakers
Alexandra Clipson: UK
Deputy Lead of Nucleic Acids Biomarker Team
Alexandra Clipson
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Ana Vivancos
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Arsela Prelaj
Categories: Invited Speakers
Arsela Prelaj: Italy
Arsela Prelaj
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Atocha Romero
Categories: Local Organizing Committee
Atocha Romero: Spain
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.
Atocha Romero
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Beatriz Bellosillo
Categories: Invited Speakers
Beatriz Bellosillo: Spain
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
Beatriz Bellosillo
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Bernardino Alcazar Navarrete
Categories: Invited Speakers
Bernardino Alcazar Navarrete: Spain
Bernardino Alcazar Navarrete
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Charu Aggarwal
Categories: Invited Speakers
Charu Aggarwal: USA
Charu Aggarwal
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Christian Rolfo
Categories: ISLB Executive Committee
Christian Rolfo: USA
Christian Rolfo
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Christofer Abbosh
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Nicola Fusco
Categories: Invited Speakers
Nicola Fusco: Italy
Nicola Fusco
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Delvys Rodriguez
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Denis Horgan
Categories: Invited Speakers
Denis Horgan: Belgium
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.
Denis Horgan
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Diego de Miguel Perez
Categories: Invited Speakers
Diego de Miguel Perez: USA
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.
Diego de Miguel Perez
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Eloisa Jantus Lewintre
Categories: ISLB Executive Committee
Eloisa Jantus Lewintre: Spain
Eloisa Jantus Lewintre
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Enrique Billalabetia
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Enriqueta Felip
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Evi Lianidou
Categories: Invited Speakers
Evi Lianidou: Greece
Evi Lianidou
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Klaus Pantel
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Norma Pilnik
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Gilbert Morgan
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J.F. Pouliot
Categories: Invited Speakers
J.F. Pouliot: USA
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.
J.F. Pouliot
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Clara Mayo De las Casas
Categories: Local Organizing Committee
Clara Mayo De las Casas: Spain
Hospital Universitary Dexeus. Pangaea Oncology Laboratory
Clara Mayo De las Casas
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Jean Y Pierga
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Joaquin Dopazo
Categories: Invited Speakers
Joaquin Dopazo: Spain
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.)
Joaquin Dopazo
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Laura Mezquita
Categories: Invited Speakers
Laura Mezquita: Spain
Laura Mezquita
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Laura Muinelo
Categories: Invited Speakers
Laura Muinelo: Spain
Laura Muinelo
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Lauren Leiman
Categories: Invited Speakers
Lauren Leiman: USA
Lauren Leiman
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Lorena Dieguez
Categories: Invited Speakers
Lorena Dieguez: Portugal
Lorena Dieguez
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Luis Paz Ares
Categories: Invited Speakers
Luis Paz Ares: Spain
Luis Paz Ares
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Luis Raez
Categories: Invited Speakers
Luis Raez: USA
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.
Luis Raez
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Maria Arcila
Categories: Invited Speakers
Maria Arcila: USA
Dr. Arcila is a molecular genetic pathologist and hematopathologist with a specific interest in cancer diagnostics.
Maria Arcila
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Maria Jesus Pareja
Categories: Local Organizing Committee
Maria Jesus Pareja: Spain
Medico especialista en Anatomía Patologica. Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocio. Sevilla
Maria Jesus Pareja
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Maria Jose Serrano
Categories: ISLB Executive Committee
Maria Jose Serrano: Spain
Maria Jose Serrano
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Masahiro Tsuboi
Categories: Invited Speakers
Masahiro Tsuboi: Japan
Masahiro Tsuboi
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Massimo Cristofanilli
Categories: ISLB Executive Committee
Massimo Cristofanilli: USA
Massimo Cristofanilli
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Miguel Milan
Categories: Invited Speakers
Miguel Milan: Spain
Miguel Milan
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Natasha Leighl
Categories: Invited Speakers
Natasha Leighl: Canada
Natasha Leighl
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Navneet Singh
Categories: Invited Speakers
Navneet Singh: India
Navneet Singh
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David Gandara
Categories: ISLB Executive Committee
David Gandara: USA
David Gandara
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Noelia Tarazona
Categories: Invited Speakers
Noelia Tarazona: Spain
Noelia Tarazona
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Ola Khorshid
Categories: Invited Speakers
Ola Khorshid: Egypt
Ola Khorshid
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Paraskevi Giannakakou
Categories: Invited Speakers
Paraskevi Giannakakou: USA
Professor of Pharmacology in Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine
Paraskevi Giannakakou
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Pascale Morel
Categories: Invited Speakers
Pascale Morel: France
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.
Pascale Morel
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Pashtoon Kasi
Categories: Invited Speakers
Pashtoon Kasi: USA
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.
Pashtoon Kasi
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Paul Hofman
Categories: Invited Speakers
Paul Hofman: France
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.
Paul Hofman
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Paz Vellanki
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Rafael Lopez
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Rafael Rosell
Categories: 2023 Awardee
Rafael Rosell: Spain
Rafael Rosell
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Simon Heeke
Categories: Invited Speakers
Simon Heeke: USA
Simon Heeke
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Simon Patton
Categories: Invited Speakers
Simon Patton: UK
Simon Patton
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Solange Peters
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Sylvan Baca
Categories: Invited Speakers
Sylvan Baca: USA
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.
Sylvan Baca
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Umberto Malapelle
Categories: ISLB Executive Committee
Umberto Malapelle: Italy
Umberto Malapelle
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Valeria Cecilia Denninghoff
Categories: Invited Speakers
Valeria Cecilia Denninghoff: Spain
Valeria Cecilia Denninghoff
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Valsamo Anagnostou
Categories: 2023 Awardee
Valsamo Anagnostou: USA
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.
Valsamo Anagnostou
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Yüksel Ürün
Categories: Invited Speakers
Yüksel Ürün: Turkey
Yüksel Ürün
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