SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Jesse Berry, MD, Assistant Professor, Ophthalmology, University of Southern California

Jesse L. Berry, MD, received her undergraduate and medical degree from Harvard University. Following her ophthalmology residency at the University of Southern California, she was the assistant chief of service at the Los Angeles County Medical Center. She then completed a fellowship in Ocular Oncology at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Dr. Berry is the founder of WOO, Women in Ocular Oncology. Her research interests include the development of a liquid biopsy for retinoblastoma, a pediatric intraocular cancer.

Timothy Blauwkamp, PhD, CSO and Co-Founder, Karius, Inc.

Dr. Blauwkamp is a biomedical scientist with 15 years’ experience managing and conducting research in cell biology, regenerative medicine, and next-generation sequencing. He was previously Head of Molecular Biology at Moleculo, where he ran scientific research and lab operations until the company’s acquisition by Illumina. He continued to lead a technology development group within Illumina, creating new genomics tools and authoring several patent applications.

Richard J. Cote, MD, FRCPath, FCAP, Professor and Joseph R. Coulter Jr. Chair, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

Richard J. Cote, MD, FRCPath, FCAP is the Joseph R. Coulter Jr. Chair of the Department of Pathology, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Director of the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Biomedical Nanotechnology Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is a board-certified Pathologist, serving over 20 years in senior academic, consultative, and director/clinical roles with leading universities, hospitals and healthcare enterprises. Dr. Cote obtained degrees in chemistry and biology at the University of California at Irvine, and received his medical degree from the University of Chicago - Pritzker School of Medicine. He completed his residency at New York Hospital - Cornell University Medical College. His training included a clinical fellowship in pathology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, a research fellowship in Human Tumor Immunology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a fellowship in Molecular Pathology at New York University School of Medicine. Prior to joining the University of Miami in 2009, he was Professor, Department of Pathology; Professor, Department of Urology; Director, Genitourinary Cancer Program; Director, Laboratory of Immunology and Molecular Pathology; and Director of the USC Biomedical Nanoscience Initiative at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Cote’s research is focused on the elucidation of cellular and molecular pathways of tumor progression and response to therapy. He has special interests in micrometastases and circulating tumor cell (CTC) detection and characterization, the pathology of breast and genitourinary tumors and technology development. Most recently, he and his colleagues at the University of Southern California, Caltech and UC Berkeley have developed nanoscale technologies for cancer diagnostic applications, including bionanosensors for the detection of serum tumor markers, and technologies for the capture and characterization of circulating tumor cells. As a result of these efforts, he established the Biomedical Nanoscience Program at USC and the Dr. John T. Macdonald Biomedical Nanotechnology Institute at the University of Miami for the development of novel diagnostic platforms and targeted therapeutics. He has led three of the largest clinical trials in breast, lung and bladder cancer, which were based on discoveries from his research. Dr. Cote is the author of over 300 publications, and participates on numerous scientific advisory boards for both academic and industry related institutions. He is the founder of several technology based companies, including Impath, Inc., Clarient, Filtini and Sensitini.

Oanh Dang, PhD, Founder and Principal Consultant, Akamai Strategies, Inc.

Dr. Oanh Dang is currently the founder and principal consultant at Akamai Strategies, Inc., a consulting company focused on helping biotech companies build and analyze market research data as well as develop strategic priorities. Prior to starting Akamai Strategies, she has held business development positions at Trovagene, Sequenom, Illumina and Sirius Genomics. At all of these companies, she was responsible for identifying and building strategic partnerships and collaborations to help bring cutting-edge technologies to the clinic. Additionally, her past 10 years in molecular diagnostics have given her a passion for the impact that noninvasive testing can have on improving human health. Dr. Dang received her PhD from the University of California, San Diego in molecular biology.

Hua-Jun He, PhD, Research Biologist, Material Measurement Laboratory, NIST

Dr. Hua-Jun He is a research biologist at the Bioassay Methods Group, Material Measurement Laboratory at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The bioassay methods group works with industries, academics, hospitals, and other government agencies to improve the quality of measurements for research, production of biologicals, and healthcare applications. Dr. He’s group has developed NIST Standards Reference Material (SRM) 2373: Genomic DNA Standards for HER2 Measurements and NIST Reference Material (RM) 8366: EGFR and MET Gene Copy Number Standards for Cancer Measurements. Currently, Dr. He’s work focuses on cancer biomarker standard development (both genetic and epigenetic variations such as gene copy number (CN), DNA methylation, single nucleotide variations (SNV), indels, and fusions), assay validation, and emerging technologies for precision measurements, especially in liquid biopsy.

James Hicks, PhD, Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California

Dr. James Hicks is Professor and Member of the Bridge Institute and the Michaelson Center for Convergent Science at the University of Southern California. He is recognized for his innovative work in yeast genetics and single cell cancer genomics. He has co-founded multiple companies in the fields of biotechnology and health information. His current work is aimed at applying single cell biology to clinical problems, focusing on breast and prostate cancer.

Anton Iliuk, PhD, President and CTO, Tymora Analytical Operations

Anton Iliuk graduated with PhD in Biochemistry from the lab of Dr. W. Andy Tao at Purdue University in 2011. His thesis work on the development of new methods for phosphoprotein analysis has generated significant interest in the scientific community. As a result, Anton and Andy co-founded Tymora Analytical Operations to commercialize and disseminate their technologies. Since the inception, Tymora has developed a number of products for phosphoprotein detection, MS sample preparation, plasma analysis, and other applications. Currently, as the company’s President and CTO, Anton is leading an active research group at Tymora with a major focus on analysis of phosphoproteins and glycoproteins from plasma, urine and saliva EVs for biomarker discovery and the development of novel diagnostic assays.

Pashtoon M. Kasi, MD, Assistant Professor, Oncology, College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic

Lauren C. Leiman, MS, MBA, Executive Director, Blood Profiling Atlas in Cancer (BloodPAC)

Lauren C. Leiman is currently the Executive Director of the Blood Profiling Atlas in Cancer (BloodPAC), a consortium focused on creating an open database for liquid biopsies to accelerate the development of safe and effective blood profiling diagnostic technologies for patient benefit. Prior to running BloodPAC, she was the Senior Director of External Partnerships at White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force during the Obama Administration. Previously, Lauren was a Senior Advisor for the Melanoma Research Alliance and Director of Philanthropy at Elysium Management LLC in New York City. From 2008-2010, Lauren worked for the Millennium Promise Alliance, where she led the major gifts fundraising effort and spent significant time in sub-Saharan Africa. Lauren was also the head of marketing and investor relations at Steel Partners, LP, an activist hedge fund investing globally. Lauren received her undergraduate degree in communications from the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School. She also holds an MBA in international business from the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School and a master's degree in public relations and corporate communications from NYU.

Melissa Huang Liu, PhD, Product Manager, 2100 Bioanalyzer System & Applications, Agilent Technologies, Inc.

Melissa Huang Liu trained at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City where she obtained a PhD in Genetics and Genomic Sciences. Afterwards, Dr. Liu joined Agilent and held various roles from Technical Support to Marketing Application Scientist. She is currently a Product Manager on the Electrophoresis Team at Agilent and responsible for all things related to the 2100 Bioanalyzer System – from instrument to kits to applications.

Xuefeng Liu, MD, Professor, Pathology, Georgetown University

Dr. Liu is a Professor in the Department of Pathology, serves as Director of Telomeres and Cell Immortalization Program within Center for Cell Reprogramming (CCR) and Scientific Director of Conditional Reprogramming Laboratory (CRL). Dr. Liu’s research interests focus on the roles of papillomavirus oncoproteins and telomerase in cell immortalization. Dr. Liu is a co-inventor of CR (Conditional Reprogramming) technology, which has been widely used in normal mammalian cell models, patient-derived disease models, cancer precision medicine, regenerative medicine, and living biobanks.

Phoebe Loh, Global Product Manager PreAnalytiX, Sample Technologies, QIAGEN

Phoebe Loh is the Global Product Manager at QIAGEN for PreAnalytiX, a QIAGEN/BD cooperation dedicated to developing solutions for collection, stabilization and nucleic acid isolation of human specimens for clinical and research workflows, a keystone product being the PAXgene Blood RNA system. Previously in research roles, she was highly involved in genomics, taking part in the sequencing effort of the Human Genome Project with projects centered on sequencing and identifying genes of human chromosome 22q. Later work with RNA, including work with siRNA synthesis at Dharmacon and research on mechanisms of cellular trafficking and gene transport at the University of Rochester Medical Center, then brought her to QIAGEN and PreAnalytix where she focuses on identifying customer needs to direct development of technologies as effective tools for novel workflows.

Stuart S. Martin, PhD, Professor of Physiology, Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Dr. Martin received his PhD from the University of California, San Diego, after training as a Howard Hughes undergraduate research fellow at the University of Virginia. Dr. Martin completed a Damon Runyon postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School that combined functional genomic studies with mouse models of breast tumor metastasis, under the mentorship of Dr. Phil Leder. In 2004, Dr. Martin joined the Greenebaum Cancer Center at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Martin is working to apply physical science and engineering approaches to the study of cancer metastasis. In 2010, Dr. Martin was one of only three investigators nationwide recognized with an Era of Hope Scholar Award from the Congressionally-directed Medical Research Program for his innovative research on breast cancer metastasis.

Robert T. McCormack, PhD, Independent Consultant; formerly Head, Biomarker Strategy, Disease Interception, R&D, Janssen Pharmaceuticals

Dr. McCormack is recently retired from Johnson & Johnson and is currently consulting for a number of companies in the diagnostic testing space. He is also a member of the FNIH Cancer Steering Committee and co-leads its efforts to develop well-validated reference materials for ctDNA testing. His early career was spent in genetic, molecular, and cellular research at 3M and the University of Minnesota. Following his doctoral studies, his career focused on clinical diagnostic testing, and he has held positions in R&D, clinical, regulatory, and medical and scientific affairs with Hybritech, Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur, and Beckman Instruments. While at J&J he was a Vice President of Clinical Affairs for Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, before becoming a founding member of Veridex, LLC, the first Circulating Tumor Cell company, as General Manager of Cellular Technologies, within the Medical Device sector of J&J. For the last six years Dr McCormack was in the Pharm sector at J&J, most recently as Head of Biomarker Strategy for the Disease Interception Group in Janssen R&D. Dr. McCormack received his BS degree from the University of Wisconsin, River Falls, and his MS and PhD degrees from the University of Minnesota in hematology and immunology, respectively.

Brendan Miller, Research Fellow, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health

I am currently a PhD student under the guidance of Dr. Laura Elnitski in the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health. I am also part of a graduate partnership program between NIH and Johns Hopkins University. Here, my goal is to develop a minimally invasive cancer detection assay using methylated DNA loci as biomarkers. A second aim is to seek a better understanding of how these genomic loci become targeted for methylation during tumorigenesis. Overall, I am honored to have the opportunity to be trained by Dr. Elnitski, who has extensive experience as a graduate student mentor, as well as work on a project that allows me to bridge the gap between computational and molecular biology. I believe I will be well equipped to pursue a research career in genomics and molecular biology, whether it be in industry or academia.

Trevor J. Morin, PhD, CSO, Two Pore Guys, Inc.

Dr. Morin is CSO of Two Pore Guys and currently focused on demonstrating commercial use cases for the company’s technology. Given the open platform nature of the technology and portability of the device, Dr. Morin is very active in the strategic planning for the types of assays and markets that are best served by the technology. Activity is largely focused on both agricultural uses and human diagnostics, especially bringing high performance testing to low resource settings. This includes the long term goal of at home liquid biopsy testing for previously identified cancer markers. After receiving his PhD from the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Dr. Morin worked as a drug discovery and development scientist in the monoclonal antibody field, and later in the field of HIV vaccine design.

Balaji Panchapakesan, PhD, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Dr. Panchapakesan is a senior associate professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Mechanical Engineering Department. He invented the Droplet Biopsy Chip, which can isolate CTCs based on multiple biomarkers based on droplets. He has interests in nanotechnology, photonics, micro-device development, photomechanics and biomedical applications.

Jamie Platt, PhD, MB(ASCP), Founder & Managing Director, BRIDGenomics, LLC

Dr. Platt received her PhD in Molecular & Cellular Biology from Oregon State University and completed postdoctoral training in population genetics at the University of California, Berkeley. She is an experienced leader in early adoption strategies, transitioning emerging technologies to regulated molecular clinical diagnostics. During her 15 years in clinical diagnostics, Dr. Platt has spearheaded development, validation and commercialization of more than 30 molecular diagnostic assays across Infectious Disease, Women’s Health, Genetics, Genomics, and Oncology, with at least 18 commercially available tests built on NGS technology. Her patent portfolio includes methods on HIV/HTLV genotyping, NGS library preparation, and NGS-based Microbial Identification.

Lydia Sohn, PhD, Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley

Rebecca (Becky) Suttmann, MS, Senior Scientific Researcher, formerly Genentech, Oncology Biomarkers

Rebecca “Becky” Suttmann, MS, is a research scientist with solid industry background in immunology, cell biology and biomarker development. Her most recent experience includes work at Genentech, developing oncology diagnostics strategies that involve identification and analysis of circulating tumor events. Ms. Suttmann has happily spent her career in the research labs at Genentech, Roche and Syntex. She is committed to the exploratory analysis of human blood in the pursuit of circulating biomarkers of disease for early detection, patient selection and treatment resistance.

Margaret Van Meter, MD, Director, Breast Oncology, Intermountain Healthcare

Margaret Van Meter, MD, is a medical oncologist and the Director of Breast Oncology at Intermountain Healthcare. Dr. Van Meter attended Rice University for her undergraduate degree and completed her medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco. Her undergraduate research focused on molecular analysis of calcium channel function and her medical school research evaluated signal transduction in mouse leukemia models initiated by hyperactive Ras. She completed her clinical internship and residency at UCSF and her hematology/medical oncology fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. At Intermountain Healthcare, she works closely with the Precision Genomics program and is building an infrastructure that supports the integration of genomically informed precision medicine into breast cancer care delivery.

Glen J. Weiss, MD, MBA, Director, Phase I Clinical Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Dr. Glen Weiss is the Director of Phase I Clinical Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Harvard Medical School Teaching Hospital. He has published over 275 peer-reviewed articles and abstracts has received research funding from institutions such as the American Cancer Society and the National Foundation for Cancer Research. He completed medical school at Sackler School of Medicine, internal medicine residency at SUNY-Downstate, and a hematology/oncology fellowship at University of Colorado, and earned a MBA at W.P. Carey School of Business. In 2016, he received the Healthcare Leadership Researcher of the Year award from AZ Business Magazine.

Kang Zhang, MD, PhD, Professor, Human Genetics and Nano-Engineering; Founding Director, Institute for Genomic Medicine, University of California, San Diego

Dr. Zhang obtained his MD with magna cum laude honors from Harvard Medical School and MIT joint MD program and his PhD in genetics from Harvard University. He did his postdoctoral training also at Harvard. He completed his residency in ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University and his retina surgery fellowship at University of Utah. Among his honors include AAAS fellow, AIBME fellow, memberships in Association of American Physicians and American Society of Clinical Investigation, Chang Jiang Scholar, Burroughs Wellcome Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research; Outstanding Achievement Award of Chinese Ophthalmological Society, Lew R. Wasserman Merit Award and Senior Investigator Award from Research to Prevent Blindness; Charles Schepens Award for Excellence in Retina Research; and Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Clinician Scientist Award, the Ophthalmologist 100 Power list, American’s Top Ophthalmologists, NIH Director’s Transformative RO1. His discovery on HTRA1 as a major susceptibility gene for age-related macular degeneration is listed as one of “top-ten breakthroughs in 2006” by Science and his work on lens regeneration using endogenous stem cells is named as one of “Eight Breakthroughs in 2016” by Nature Medicine. His research has been extensively covered by prominent news media including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, LA Times, Xinhua News Agency, NBC, CBS, ABC, BBC, and CCTV.