Biography
Mathias Ehrich, M.D., has more than 20 years of experience successfully developing, implementing and commercializing cutting-edge scientific technologies and clinical applications. Throughout his career, Dr. Ehrich has specialized in circulating cell-free DNA, epigenetics and oncology, and has launched more than 20 products across multiple categories, including instrumentation, reagents, clinical assay and collection devices. Previously, Dr. Ehrich co-founded Juno Diagnostics, where he built the foundational technology stack of in-home genetic testing devices, which led to the creation of four novel patent families. Dr. Ehrich has authored or co-authored more than 50 peer reviewed publications, owns more than 15 patents and patent applications, and has written multiple book chapters on genomics and DNA sequencing. Dr. Ehrich began his career in the medical industry as a trained physician and received his M.D. from the University of Hamburg in Germany.

Talk
Epigenetic Detection of Early Stage Lung Cancer
Nucleix will demonstrate the strength of its technology and differentiated approach to detecting cancer earlier to benefit physicians and patients, share results from the EpiCheck Lung Cancer Atlas, provide an update on its Sightline clinical study, which is currently enrolling 5,000 highrisk current and former smokers and share initial performance data for Lung EpiCheck.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Nucleix
Nucleix is a liquid biopsy company revolutionizing early cancer detection and recurrence monitoring through the Company’s pioneering methylation based EpiCheck® technology. Construction of its Lung Cancer Atlas focuses on stage I disease to provide a high-resolution platform to discover novel, multi-omic biomarkers for cancer screening.

Biography
Dr. Kaysen is a clinical psychologist and health services researcher. Her area of specialty in research and clinical work is in treatment of PTSD and related disorders. She has conducted critical studies on treatment of PTSD and comorbid conditions across types of trauma events especially those disproportionately affecting women such as sexual assault and child sexual abuse. Her work expands treatment to diverse populations (e.g. Native Americans, sexual and gender minorities, Latinos) and across settings (e.g. primary care, community, low and middle income countries) and means of treatment delivery (telehealth, digital health, text based). Dr. Kaysen is a past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (www.istss.org). Dr. Kaysen's has over 180 research publications and her research has been funded by NIH, the Department of Defense, and The PatientCentered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Her clinical work has been featured on This American Life.

Talk
Gender Effects on Trauma Exposure, PTSD, and Treatment
Gender influences risk of overall trauma exposure, risk of specific types of traumatic events, and risk of development of PTSD. Women and gender minorities have higher risk of interpersonal violence and of PTSD. In contrast, women generally have a more robust treatment response. This has implications for personalized prevention and treatment.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Stanford University
The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Stanford Medicine has an overarching aim to enable great science, prepare exceptional people, and inspire an engaged society to create a better future for all whose lives are affected by mental illness.

Biography
Carrie leads Mirvies efforts to develop the proprietary Mirvie RNA platform. The platform is first to predict unexpected complications months before symptoms occur by revealing the underlying biology of each pregnancy. It opens a new window into pregnancy health for women to act and their doctors to intervene before unexpected complications become a crisis. Mirvie is shaping the future of pregnancy health by enabling proactive, preventive, and personalized pregnancy care for the wellbeing of moms and babies. As a board certified genetic counselor, Carries direct patient care focused on high risk prenatal care and providing broad access to new diagnostic technologies. She led clinical teams at Massachusetts General Hospital and Sutter Health. Her direct clinical experience served as the foundation for leading edge product development at Counsyl, Myriad, and Miroculus.

Talk
Predicting Preeclampsia and Preterm Birth
Mirvie is developing the breakthrough Mirvie RNA platform to predict pregnancy complications months in advance, such as preeclampsia and preterm birth. We will present the company's landmark pregnancy health research, and show how the prediction of pregnancy complications can enable personalized care and the prevention of disease.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Mirvie
Mirvie is shaping the future of pregnancy health by providing women, expecting parents and their doctors with an early detection window to intervene before unexpected pregnancy complications become a crisis.

Biography
Manu Tamminen is an expert in molecular biology, next generation DNA sequencing and bioinformatics. He received his PhD from the University of Helsinki and did his postdoctoral research at MIT and ETH Zürich, where he developed methodologies for single cell sequencing and molecular counting. He is currently an Adjunct Professor and Academy Fellow at the University of Turku and has authored several high impact research publications.

Talk
Geno1 Scalable, Sensitive and Cost-Efficient Liquid Biopsies
Geno1 is a presequencing platform enabling improvements in performance, cost and scalability for liquid biopsies and beyond. Geno1 combines proprietary probe design with patented NGS library preparation and AIpowered sequence processing. We present analytical validation and clinical verification of Geno1.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Genomill Health
Genomill Health is a pioneering precision diagnostics company with a mission to make molecular diagnostics more scalable, sensitive and accessible for all.

Biography
Brian Hashemi is cofounder and Executive Chairman of Novigenix. A former NASA Principal Investigator and Researcher, Dr. Hashemi has extensive background in healthcare technology development and commercialization and has been an Assistant Professor at Baylor College of Medicine where he began his affiliation in the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. Brian holds a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell University in New York, and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School in Philadelphia.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Novigenix SA
Novigenix is a precision oncology biotech with a proprietary platform LITOseek optimized for mapping the response of the immune system to onset and progression of disease to provide actionable insights and precision solutions for optimization of patient’s therapeutic journey.

Biography
As Senior Director of Computational Biology and Algorithms at Exai, Dr. Hormozdiari brings extensive research experience to his role leading the computational biology and data science team at Exai. His team is developing computational algorithms and AI models based on a novel category of cancer-associated RNAs, which can be used across multiple cancer care settings and applications, such as screening and early detection, monitoring, molecular residual disease and therapy selection. Fereydoun also holds an associate professor position at University of California, Davis where his lab is working on computational method development for understanding the etiology of complex diseases. He has been awarded the Sloan Research Award and NSF CAREER award for his work in computational biology and has been a member of large genomics consortiums such as the 1000 genomes project. Fereydoun has a Ph.D. degree and a masters degree in computing science from Simon Fraser University, Canada.

Talk
Early Cancer Detection Using Novel RNA & AI Liquid Biopsy Platform
Highly Differentiated Approach to Liquid Biopsy: Exai has identified a novel category of cancer-associated, small non-coding RNAs, termed orphan non-coding RNAs (oncRNAs). When combined with Exais proprietary artificial intelligence, this unique platform can be used across multiple cancer care settings and applications, such as screening and early detection, monitoring, molecular residual disease and therapy selection.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Exai
Exai's mission is to enable a world where cancer can be detected early, diagnosed accurately, and treated in a personalized way. The company’s proprietary RNA- and AI-based liquid biopsy technology delivers clinical insights into cancer biology to enable the earliest, most accurate detection of cancer.

Biography
Dr. Harmeet Dhani is the lead Medical Director at Biological Dynamics, a pioneering liquid biopsy biotechnology company focusing on extracellular vesicle-based biomarkers for early detection of cancer, and research in neurodegenerative and infectious diseases. He is also the Principal Investigator of the ExoLuminate clinical trial, aimed at early detection of high-risk pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients. A surgeon scientist, Dr. Dhani completed a general surgery residency and specialized in transplant and hepatopancreatobiliary surgery, supplemented by a research fellowship at Georgetown University. His research, particularly in liver and intestinal diseases and transplantation, has earned him significant recognition, including the Emerging Liver Scholar Award and the Young Investigator Award from the American Transplant Congress. Dr. Dhani's career also includes valuable experience in the oncology division at Natera. He holds a Master's in Clinical Research from UCSD and is currently pursuing an Executive MBA at the UCSD Rady School of Management.

Talk
Exosomes Tell the Story
TBD

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Biological Dynamics
Biological Dynamics, Inc. is a San Diego biotechnology company committed to improving global health outcomes by detecting disease in its earliest stages. Our proprietary Verita™ platform simplifies access to biomarkers, enabling differentiated multiomic applications.

Biography
Dr. Kidd has more than twenty years of molecular and cancer biology laboratory experience focused on oncology and other disciplines. His professional and academic research interests have focused on the biology of neuroendocrine cells and the development of tumor models of the disease. Dr. Kidd’s publications cover diverse areas including global gene analysis, tissue microarrays, tumor biology, bacterial genetics as well as gastric and pancreatic pathology.

Talk
Liquid Biopsies: The Final Frontier for mRNA Assays
Wren Laboratories has identified gene expression signatures for a variety of hematological and solid tumors and, to facilitate clinical application, have developed and validated bloodbased assays based on these unique gene expression signatures. These bloodbased mRNA qPCR assays are used both to confirm the presence of residual disease as well as to monitor disease progression.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Wren Laboratories
Wren Laboratories is a molecular diagnostics company that develops mRNA-based biomarkers that are assessed with a suite of AI-enabled multianalyte algorithms to identify and characterize a range of cancers and other diseases.

Biography
Dr. Milburn received his Ph.D. in Biophysical Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley and was a research fellow at Harvard Medical School for his post-doctoral work. Dr. Milburn has over 25 years of experience in biotech and pharmaceutical companies including over 20 years in senior management research positions. Dr. Milburn has published over 100 scientific articles on technology, research and development in the life sciences. At GeneCentric, Dr. Milburn is responsible for the RNA-based diagnostics development and commercialization.

Biography
Cindy is passionate about innovation to make genetic and multi omic technologies easier and cheaper to measure. She sees such innovation as pivotal to lower the barrier of entry for implementing scalable, reproducible solutions advancing individualized medicine and health equity. In over 14 years at Illumina and together with customers, she helped develop solutions to advance the understanding of genetic risk and holds several USDA Excellence in Technology Transfer awards for her work leading Illuminas Consortia Program. She joined Olink in 2020 soon after the launch of the Explore Platform that leverages next generation sequencing as a high throughput proteomic readout. Ask her about how high throughput proteomics are helping translate the impact our genetics has on more real time health.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Olink

Biography
Shana White serves as the Senior Director of Clinical Genomics and Product at Fabric Genomics where she leads the team providing expert interpretation services. Prior to joining Fabric, Shana helped launch the clinical genomics laboratory at Stanford HealthCare which was one of the first labs in the country to offer clinical disease specific panels and exome from a whole genome backbone. Prior to that, Shana was at Massachusetts General Hospital where she was involved in analysis for rare inherited disease and built systems to streamline and improve variant interpretation and reporting for rare disease analysis. Shana is a certified genetic counselor. She received her Masters degree in Genetic Counseling from Boston University.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Fabric Genomics

Biography
Dr. Nagarajan has been a pioneer in genomics and informatics for 20+ years. He started at Washington University, the first CAPCLIA laboratory for clinical NGS, and where he facilitated clinical and translational research by integrating EHR, clinical trials, patient registry, biospecimen, and genomics data and by supporting complex multimodal analyses across these data types. As the Founder and President of Pierian, he built the Clinical Genomics Workspace (CGW), an endtoend disease, assay and instrument agnostic informatics solution used to process clinical NGS cases. At Velsera, Dr. Nagarajan leads the Knowledgebase team, which is responsible for curated clinical content that supports tertiary analysis in the CGW, and is responsible for regulatory submissions and for incubating and developing technology solutions to extend Velseras reach.

Talk
Optimizing Clinical Genomics with Velsera KB
The Velsera Knowledgebase (KB) streamlines the interpretation of clinical genomic test results, sensitively identifying important biomarkers and highlighting associated therapy options for comprehensive. In this session, we describe our practices for maintaining up-to-date genomic knowledge for solid tumors and hematological cancers and present approaches for benchmarking the KB’s performance, including against public databases, other curated knowledge sources, and real-world assessments by clinical molecular laboratories. We also showcase the adaptive learning capabilities of Velsera’s Clinical Genomics Workspace, which eliminates rework on recurrent biomarkers for faster sign out over time.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Velsera
Velsera connects healthcare and life sciences to reveal the true promise of precision medicine—a continuous flow of knowledge between researchers, scientists and clinicians around the world, creating insights that radically improve human health.

Biography
Torbjørn is an experienced executive with a broad background within life sciences. He has practiced as a physician in radiology and sports medicine, and transitioned into business as a management consultant at McKinsey Company, where he served several pharma and healthcare clients. After McKinsey he joined pharma and biotech companies in Aker and eventually became EVP Innovation at Aker BioMarine, where he established and led the innovation department. Prior to DoMore Diagnostics, his latest positions were CFO at listed immunooncology companiesTargovax and Lytix Biopharma.

Talk
Personalized Cancer Treatment with AI Pathology Solutions
There is a large medical need to identify patients with resectable colorectal cancer at high risk who will benefit from chemotherapy. DoMore Diagnostics' Histotype Px is a digital biomarker developed with AI based on routine histology slides and can optimize treatement for 250 000 patients and save up to $4B in healthcare costs globally.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
DoMore Diagnostics
DoMore Diagnostics utilizes the power of AI to guide personalized cancer treatment decisions. Histotype Px® Colorectal is a CE-IVDD marked outcome prediction marker for stage II/III colorectal adenocarcinoma that informs the decision of whether to provide adjuvant chemotherapy following surgery.

Biography
Dr. Christian Meisel, MD PhD, is a highly accomplished physician scientist with substantial contributions to the field of medicine and innovation in drug development. He holds board certifications in Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology from the Charité University Hospital and has an additional background in Informatics. Dr. Meisel is renowned as a thought leader in Precision Oncology, where he played a central role in advancing drug development and clinical diagnostics. Prior to co-founding Hedera Dx and assuming the role of Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Meisel had a distinguished career in the biopharmaceutical industry. He held key global leadership positions at Roche, including Global Head Translational Medicine Oncology, Oncology Biomarkers, and Personalized Healthcare Platforms. Additionally, his role as Chief Medical Officer at Molecular Health exemplified his leadership and expertise in patient-centric precision medicine and clinical decision support.

Talk
Hedera Dx: Transforming Oncology Through Liquid Biopsy
Liquid Biopsy has the potential to transform Oncology. Hedera Dx pioneers noninvasive liquid biopsy solutions, reshaping oncology and significantly enhancing patient outcomes through better diagnostics for more patients as well as by accelerating and improving drug development through patient-centricity and clinicogenomics realworld evidence generation.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Hedera Dx
Hedera Dx is on a mission to improve patient outcomes by simplifying clinical cancer testing and providing an unprecedented platform for cancer drug development

Biography
Ziad Obermeyer is Associate Professor and Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professor at UC Berkeley. His research uses machine learning to help doctors make better decisions, and help researchers make new discoveries by seeing the world the way algorithms do. His work on algorithmic racial bias has impacted how many organizations build and use algorithms, and how lawmakers and regulators hold AI accountable. He is a cofounder of Nightingale Open Science and Dandelion Health, a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator, a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and was named an Emerging Leader by the National Academy of Medicine. Previously, he was Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, and continues to practice emergency medicine in underserved communities.

Biography
Rob Tarbox has 20 years of experience in genomics product marketing. Starting out with Capillary Electrophoresis systems at Applied Biosystems and progressing into NGS systems including the development and launch of the MiSeq System at Illumina. He has worked on multiple sequencing and library prep systems at several companies including lon Torrent, 10xGenomics and Ultima Genomics. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Davis, and an MBA from Arizona State University.

Talk
Complete Sequencing Solutions for Every Lab
Complete Genomics offers a comprehensive portfolio including sample extraction, library preparation, lab automation, sequencing platforms and analysis. Our mission is to drive genomics forward with complete sequencing solutions that improve lives. Over 4,000 publications and counting have leveraged DNBSeq technology across a wide array of applications and customer labs.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Complete Genomics
Complete Genomics is a pioneering life sciences company, founded in 2005, offering a comprehensive portfolio including sample extraction, library preparation, lab automation, and sequencing platforms. Our mission is to drive genomics forward with complete sequencing solutions that improve lives.

Biography
Dr. Lauren Saunders has a Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University where she specialized in protein kinetics. She completed her postdoc at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research focusing on chemical production in yeast and antibiotic discovery in Bacillus sp. She spent several years at Beckman Coulter developing an extensive background in nucleic acid isolation and purification with a wide variety of sample types. She is currently a Field Applications Manager at Ceres Nanosciences specializing in sample preparation for a variety of applications.

Talk
A Novel Hydrogel Particle Technology for Purification of cfDNA
Ceres Nanosciences has developed a novel hydrogel particle (Nanotrap particle) functionalized with an affinity bait that binds strongly to cellfree DNA and excludes large DNA fragments. It is integrated into a workflow that highly concentrates cfDNA. We compare this cfDNA isolation with commercially available cfDNA extraction kits.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Ceres Nanosciences
Ceres Nanosciences' Nanotrap® Particles capture, concentrate, and preserve low-abundance analytes. Our new Nanotrap cfDNA product leverages the Nanotrap hydrogel particle technology in an easy, semi-automated workflow to provide highly concentrated cfDNA with less gDNA.

Biography
Alexandre is a molecular biologist, with the main interest in regulatory genome architecture. He is a cofounder of Oxford BioDynamics and a designer of its EpiSwitch biomarker platform. Alexandre obtained his PhD in cell biology from University College, London (with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories). He spent six years of research at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School UMDNJ, NJ, funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Upon return to England, he established the Nuclear Dynamics research laboratory at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, becoming University Academic Fellow (Research Council UK) and Senior Fellow of Exeter College. Alexandre is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.

Talk
3D Genomic Liquid Biopsy: Predictive, Prognostic and Diagnostic Biomarkers
EpiSwitch 3D Genomic bloodbased platform: from fundamental biology to systemic clinical biomarkers;EpiSwitch CiRT (Checkpoint Inhibitor Response Test): clinical blood test for prediction of systemic response to PD1L1 immune checkpoint inhibitors; EpiSwitch Prostate Screening Test (PSE): highly accurate, multivariant clinical blood test for prostate cancer screening

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Oxford BioDynamics
Oxford BioDynamics Plc (OBD) is a global biotechnology company, advancing personalized healthcare by commercializing precision medicine tests. The Company's product portfolio is based on a proprietary 3D genomic biomarker platform, EpiSwitch®, built for the prediction of response to therapy, patient prognosis and disease diagnosis.

Biography
Chris Dingman has over 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry. A top performing, proven sales leader with extensive expertise in oncology, molecular diagnostics, and the pharmaceutical industries, Chris has a successful track record of developing and launching laboratory developed tests by growing commercial and marketing capabilities. Over the past 15 months, he has helped build OncoHost's US commercial operations. He is committed to hiring top tier, successful teams who put patients and physicians first.

Talk
Biomarker-Driven Treatment Decisions for Immunotherapy in NSCLC
OncoHost's PROphet® platform combines bioinformatics, system biology, proteomic pattern recognition, and machine learning in a cancer patient's blood plasma to guide treatment decision-making. This presentation will review the development, validation, and clinical utility of the first test from the platform, PROphet® NSCLC.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
OncoHost
OncoHost is a technology company transforming the approach to precision medicine for improved patient outcomes. Its PROphet® platform guides decision-making in the choice of first-line PD-(L)1 inhibitor treatment regimens for cancer patients, analyzes resistance mechanisms, and suggests potential treatment combinations to overcome this resistance.

Biography
Dr. Jennifer Stone is a commercial life sciences executive specializing in building markets, high performing international teams and sustainable topline growth. She joined biomodal in 2023 to build out and lead the business development, sales and customer solutions teams to deliver on the companys commercial growth objectives. Dr. Stone has over two decades of experience in the omics space. Before joining biomodal, Dr. Stone worked at PacBio as part of the leadership team that led to transformative change within that organization and ultimately the launch of the game changing Revio long read sequencing platform. She also held several commercial roles at Illumina. Dr. Stone has focused her career on the intersection of technology and precision health, specifically with early mid stage technologies as they cross the chasm into translational and applied use.

Talk
Refining Liquid Biopsy: Generating More Info From Cell-Free DNA
Liquid biopsy for profiling cell-free DNA holds promise to transform how we manage cancer by early detection and identification of residual disease and subtype. biomodals duet multiomics solution +modC generates data from low input amounts, obtains more sensitive somatic variant calling, and obtains multimodal information to discriminate cancer patients from healthy controls.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
biomodal
biomodal (previously Cambridge Epigenetix) is an omics-based life sciences technology and analytics company developing products that bring biological dynamism into focus.

Biography
Dr. Miller is a board certified clinical pathologist with expertise in microbiology and infectious disease diagnostics. He has specialized in development and validation of molecular diagnostic testing for pathogen detection and characterization, with a focus on the application of broadspectrum identification methods to patient diagnostics. Much of his career has involved use of next generation sequencing of microorganisms to diagnose infections and enable detailed strain characterization by genome analysis tools, with a goal to improve clinical testing and public health monitoring.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Delve Bio
As exclusive licensee of University of California San Francisco’s (UCSF) metagenomic sequencing (mNGS) technology, Delve Bio leverages mNGS to empower labs and clinicians with the results they need to diagnose routine and rare infectious diseases.

Biography
David Kurtz (M.D.Ph.D.) is a co-founder of Foresight Diagnostics and an Assistant Professor of Medicine (Oncology) at Stanford University. His research focuses on developing and translating methods to detect, monitor, and treat hematologic malignancies. To accomplish this, Dr. Kurtz works at the intersection of molecular biology, cancer genomics, and bioengineering to develop the next generation of cancer diagnostics. Along with Dr. Ash Alizadeh, Dr. Kurtz was one of the earliest investigators to explore the utility of tumor-derived cell-free DNA in lymphomas. He has applied multiple methodologies to detection of cell-free DNA in lymphomas, with a focus on improving the clinical utility and analytical sensitivity of these methods. Clinically, Dr. Kurtz is a medical oncologist who specializes in the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphomas. His research program also focuses on the clinical translation of NGS tools and computational approaches for improving patient care for patients with all types of cancer.

Talk
Ultra-Sensitive MRD: A New Paradigm for Response Assessment
Dr. David Kurtz will present new data shown at ASH 2023 that compare the accuracy and prognostic utility of response assessment using ultra-sensitive ctDNA-MRD (using Foresight's PhasED-Seq MRD platform) to that of standard-of-care PETCT in lymphoma. He will also discuss implications and next steps for integration of MRD as surrogate endpoint in clinical trials.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Foresight Diagnostics
Foresight Diagnostics is developing a novel liquid biopsy test for the measurement of minimal residual disease (MRD). The improved sensitivity of the Foresight MRD assay can provide actionable information to physicians and biopharmaceutical companies to enable more personalized treatment approaches.

Biography
Ilona Holcomb is a molecular biotechnologist with over two decades of experience in academia and cancer research. Specializing in genomic instability in breast and prostate cancers, she has greatly contributed to understanding these complex diseases. Ilona earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Biotechnology from the University of Washington, focusing on prostate cancer. She furthered her research at Stanford University as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Cancer Biology, delving into genomic underpinnings of the aggressive basal-like breast cancer. Known for her innovative and collaborative approach, Ilonas work integrates Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to address critical questions in cancer biology. Ilonas commitment to cancer research reflects her passion for advancing treatment strategies and diagnostic techniques in the field.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
ImpriMed
ImpriMed provides an anticancer drug efficacy prediction service using artificial intelligence on a patient's live cancer cell data, aiming to help oncologists personalize a treatment regimen tailored to each patient's unique cancer in both human and veterinary oncology.

Biography
Dr. Oguzhan Atay is the Co-Founder and CEO of BillionToOne, a next-generation molecular diagnostics company. Co-developed by Oguzhan, BillionToOne’s QCT molecular counting technology achieves the physical limit of disease detection, shifting the paradigm of cell-free DNA testing for prenatal and oncology care. The rapidly growing UNITY Screen™ is the only NIPT that can assess fetal risk for common recessive conditions such as cystic fibrosis and hemolytic disease of fetus and newborn along with aneuploidies just from maternal blood. More recently, BillionToOne used the same groundbreaking QCT technology to commercialize Northstar liquid biopsy assays, for cancer therapy selection & treatment monitoring, with an unprecedented limit of detection and precision. BillionToOne has raised more than $300 million in funding to date. Previously, Oguzhan received his PhD from Stanford, and he graduated summa cum laude and PBK from Princeton with a Bachelor’s in Molecular Biology and minors in Physics, Computer Science, and Mathematics.

Talk
Next-Generation Liquid Biopsies Using World's First Multiplex Molecular Counter
QCTs enable multiplex counting of molecules, enabling single molecule sensitivity and precision at Poisson physical limit. Here, we show how Northstar Select can detect up to 50% more reportable mutations than other methodologies, and Northstar Response precisely quantifies hypermethylated loci, enabling accurate monitoring even in late stage cancers, where surgical removal is not an option.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
BillionToOne
BillionToOne is a precision diagnostics company with the mission to make molecular diagnostics more powerful, accurate, and accessible for all. Our QCT molecular counting platform enables us to offer unique products from single-gene NIPT to quantitative liquid biopsy for treatment monitoring.

Biography
Dr. Venkata Yellapantula's research is focused on developing bioinformatics methods to understand the genetic basis of diseases and especially cancer. He has a broad background in genomics, with specific training and expertise in developing computational methods to understand the genetic basis of how cancers initiate, progress and evolve. He currently develop clinically validated genomic tests for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Talk
Clinical Utility of Liquid Biopsies for Pediatric Cancers

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Children's Hospital LA
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is one of the nation’s leading pediatric hospitals. True to our mission, we have been creating hope and building healthier futures since 1901. We deliver a level of care that’s consistently recognized as some of the best in the world.

Biography
Vijay Vaswani views science as fundamental to humanity. He has been part of scaling companies such as Illumina and 10X Genomics. He has acquired and commercialized disruptive diagnostic technologies during his leadership at Siemens Healthineers and Meridian Biosciences. Vijay has been part of important IPOs in the biotechnology industry and finds his passion in improving health through the application of technology.

Talk
AI-Enabled Immune Repertoire Modeling to Identify Response to Immunotherapy
Despite efficacy of immunotherapy, only 20% of patients respond, thus highly heterogeneous patient responses highlight the need for novel predictive strategies that leverage immune cell biomarkers to stratify patients for ICI therapy. Omniscope's deep immune repertoire sequencing and AI demonstrate potential clinical utility.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Omniscope
Omniscope is a Deep Biotech whose technology platforms decode the immune system in high resolution to inform therapy and develop diagnostics through the convergence of immune cell sequencing and artificial intelligence.

Biography
Alex Forrest-Hay has 24 years experience working in the genomics, proteomics, metabolomics industry with a passion for personalized medicine. He has held a variety of sales and business development leadership positions and was most recently at Seer Bio where he led the commercial roll out of the nanoparticle based Proteograph proteomics technology. Prior to Seer, Alex spent 5 years in the metabolomics sector with Metabolon and Nightingale Health. Alex worked for Affymetrix for 9 years prior and spent 3 of those years developing and launching clinical RNA biomarker assays to enable accurate diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma, head and neck cancer and lymphoma. Alex was also at Beckman Coulter for 7 years developing clinical genomics assays and supporting pioneering DNA sequencing developments. Prior to Beckman Coulter, he worked as a researcher exploring the genetics of astrocytomas at the University of Keele.

Talk
NULISA: A Novel Ultra-Sensitive and High-Multiplex Proteomic Platform
The proprietary NULISA Platform utilizes a novel sequential capture and release method reducing background signal and increasing sensitivity and dynamic range compared with standard approaches. The NULISA Platform allows for a fully automated workflow with the ARGO HT System enabling

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Alamar Biosciences
Alamar Biosciences offers fully automated, high throughput solutions for ultra-high sensitivity protein biomarker analysis across a range of multiplex levels in liquid biopsy samples with their NULISA™ Platform and ARGO™ HT System.

Biography
Dr. Odegaard is currently the Vice President of Clinical Development and Product at Guardant Health, Inc., a diagnostics company focused on building tools to improve the care of cancer patients. He earned MD and PhD degrees from Stanford University, where he trained in surgical and molecular pathology. Prior to Guardant Health, he worked at Lifecode, Inc. as Director of Molecular Biology, OneOme Laboratories as Laboratory Director, Stanford University on the adjunct faculty, and at the University of California San Francisco as an Assistant Professional Researcher.

Talk
Accelerating Drug Development Through Epigenomic Diagnostics

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Guardant Health
Guardant Health is a leading precision medicine company focused on guarding wellness and giving every person more time free from cancer. Founded in 2012, Guardant is transforming patient care by providing critical insights into what drives disease.

Biography
Natali Gulbahce leads the bioinformatics team at CareDx. Her team serves as the dry lab to several NGS products in production and development. In addition to bioinformatics pipelines, the team is responsible for accurate donor quantification algorithms and data analysis pipelines that deliver accurate and precise results to transplant patients. In her career, she has developed algorithms and applied machine learning techniques for over 10 years in the diagnostic and pharma space to diverse problems in genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics. As an author of numerous publications on applications of bioinformatics, NGS technologies of Illumina and Complete Genomics, and machine learning, she has expertise in NGS-based sequencing methodologies and data analysis pipelines.

Talk
Clinical Utility of Molecular Testing in Transplants

Clinical Dx Showcase:
CareDX
CareDx is committed to improving transplant patient outcomes by providing innovative and intelligent solutions throughout the entire patient journey.

Biography
Dr. Varsha Rao is the Director of Partnerships and Clinical Affairs at ClaretBio. She oversees the clinical applications of the novel next-generation sequence assays and analytical pipelines developed at ClaretBio with a main focus on evaluating the utility of cell-free DNA fragmentation patterns in cancer progression and treatment response monitoring. Before joining ClaretBio, she was a Research Scientist at Stanford University School of Medicine in Prof Michael Snyder's lab. As a part of multiple consortia such as the Integrative Personalized Omics Profiling Project, the Human Microbiome Project and the NASA Twins Study she has worked on longitudinal multiomic analyses, focusing on applying transcriptomics and liquid biopsy approaches to understand nuances of metabolic diseases, cancer, infectious disease and general health. She received her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2012.

Talk
Degraded Samples? Don't Despair
ClaretBio's SRSLY and REALLY technologies help capture degraded DNA and RNA from challenging input types such as cfDNA and FFPE tissues to improve the quality of NGS data. These methods enhance the accuracy of molecular diagnostic approaches and enable novel fields such as cfDNA fragmentomics.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Claret Bioscience
Claret Bioscience's mission is to improve the quality of NGS data obtained from degraded, highly fragmented, and low yield samples. Our approach aims to provide a complete picture of DNA molecules, enhancing the sensitivity of disease screenings, and ultimately improving treatment decisions.

Biography
Padma Sundar has close to 15 years of experience in the genomics and molecular diagnostics industry with leadership roles in strategy, marketing, sales, and reimbursement at Oncocyte, Roche Sequencing, Guardant Health and Affymetrix. She is experienced in securing high value reimbursement values and launching multiple ground-breaking technologies in the oncology field. Padma began her career as a consultant with McKinsey and company. She has a bachelors in chemistry and an MBA and Masters in Public Health from UC Berkeley.

Talk
Enabling dPCR to Displace NGS Assays
ChromaCode’s unique ability to interrogate more than one target per color channel on digital PCR instruments enables applications that might otherwise require NGS. Featured example applications include fast turnaround time (a) bespoke MRD assays and (b) donor-derived cell-free DNA testing of transplant patients.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
ChromaCode

Biography
Erin has been a board-certified genetic counselor for over 10 years with a career spanning direct patient care in clinical oncology, utilization management and product development. She now leads product strategy for solutions in Cost Management, Clinical Management and Precision Health. Erin has led the development and implementation of products currently serving millions of lives through national and regional health plans.

Talk
Results of Optimizing Hereditary Cancer Risk Assessment

Clinical Dx Showcase:
InformedDNA
InformedDNA supports Payors, Health Systems and Life Sciences through the application of genomic insights in Cost Management, Clinical Management and Precision Health. Tech-enabled solutions include Prior Authorization, Payment Integrity, Telehealth Genetic Counseling, Clinical Trial Recruitment and Population Health Genomics.

Biography
Ferhan Qureshi has over 20 years of experience at biotechnology companies in the San Francisco Bay Area including roles at Genentech, Aviir, Crescendo Bioscience, and now Octave Bioscience leading cross-functional teams involved in the research and development of analytical techniques to support therapeutic development, lab developed tests (LDTs) and in-vitro diagnostic applications. Ferhan has led several successful cutting-edge projects with a primary focus on multiplex immunoassay techniques deployed within regulated environments (GLP and CLIA) to support products in oncology, cardiovascular, autoimmune, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Octave Bioscience
Octave has launched a Precision Care Solution to improve outcomes for patients with multiple sclerosis. The Precision Care Solution incorporates enhanced MRI reports, tools for advanced clinical insights, and multiplex blood-based biomarker tests powered by Olink’s PEA methodology for quantitative and objective disease assessments.

Biography
Tony Chung, with a 23-year tenure in biotech, specializes in life sciences, clinical research, and molecular diagnosis. He led the sole agency for key brands like PerkinElmer and Illumina (2001-2016). Chung's significant achievement in 2020 was the global patent strategy for the IN-CHIP pumpless microfluidic chip. His work was globally recognized when Germany's Merck selected his biosensor as the top global choice from 500 teams, a unique honor for an Asian team. Chung has managed over ten multinational projects, including the notable Eureka Globalstars RD initiative. His research is particularly distinguished in early disease diagnosis, with a focus on Alzheimer's blood testing,This blend of leadership and innovation underscores Chung's impactful contributions to biotechnology.

Talk
FOPPR: From Antibody Analysis to Enhanced Alzheimer's Blood Testing
FOPPR: Uniting Characterization Analysis and Ultra-Sensitive Detection in Alzheimer's Blood Testing" spotlights FOPPR technology's dual strengths. It integrates the analysis and selection of post-translational modification antibodies with the capability to detect fgml level biomarkers in blood. This approach significantly enhances Alzheimer's diagnostics, providing unparalleled precision and sensitivity, and establishing new standards in precision healthcare.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Instant NanoBiosensors
We developed light sensing biomarker analyzer/ reader. It utilizes patented Fiber Optic Particle Plasmon Resonance （FOPPR) and IN-Chip (auto-flowing microfluidic chip) technology for the life science research and IVD markets, enabling measurement of biomarkers. It offers instant and accurate results for a variety of applications.

Biography
Dr. Christine Eng serves as the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Quality Officer at Baylor Genetics. She is Vice Chair for Diagnostic Laboratory Affairs in Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX, where she is also a professor. She is a trained pediatrician and medical geneticist. Dr. Eng has been recognized for contributions to the implementation of genomics in clinical practice. She is the senior author of articles in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of American Medical Association regarding exome sequencing. In addition, she is the principal investigator of the genome sequencing core for the National Institutes of Healths Undiagnosed Diseases Network, and was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Society of Human Genetics effective January 1, 2024.

Talk
Addressing the Burden of Undiagnosed Disease
The NIHs Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN), together with sequencing core Baylor Genetics, is tackling the most challenging medical mysteries. Learn how the UDN brings together clinical and research experts and advanced technologies to help patients and families living with the burden of undiagnosed disease.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Baylor Genetics
Baylor Genetics provides diagnostic answers to complex medical conditions and rare diseases. The company specializes in rapid Whole Genome Sequencing and Whole Exome Sequencing and complementary panels. Baylor Genetics works to transform healthcare and improve lives by converting scientific innovations into accessible clinical solutions.

Biography
Olena Vaske is the Founder of the Treehouse Childhood Cancer Initiative at the University of Santa Cruz Genomics Institute, where she is Assistant Professor of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology. Dr. Vaske is the scientific lead for the California Kids Cancer Comparison (CKCC) project, one of the demonstration projects of the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine, a public-private effort recently launched by Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. Dr. Vaske’s research focuses on developing novel RNA-Seq analysis approaches to discover druggable targets for pediatric cancer patients. Dr. Vaske holds a PhD in Bioinformatics from the University of British Columbia and a BSc (Hons) in Molecular Genetics and Biology from the University of Toronto.

Biography
Taylor Jensen joined Sequenom in 2009 and was part of the team that developed and launched the first commercially available noninvasive prenatal test based on cell-free DNA in the U.S. Subsequently, Dr. Jensen was involved in numerous development efforts focused on the detection of genomic and epigenomic changes in cfDNA for use in prenatal and cancer diagnostics. Since the acquisition of Sequenom by LabCorp in 2016, his work has been primarily focused on biomarkers, precision medicine diagnostic assays, and product strategy with the overarching goal of utilizing these technologies to improve human health. He is a member of multiple professional societies including AACR and ASCO, has contributed to multiple awarded patents, and has authored or co-authored more than 35 publications in peer reviewed scientific journals. He holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Arizona and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Arizona Cancer Center.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Labcorp
Through unparalleled diagnostics and drug development capabilities, Labcorp provides insights and accelerate innovations to improve health and improve lives.

Personalized Cancer Care-The Role of Somatic and Germline NGS Test
Cancer is a disease of the genome with aberrations derived from both somatic and germline origins; therefore, a comprehensive genetic assessment of the tumor may be optimal to guide treatment, prognosis, and future risk for a patient and their family.

Biography
Dr. Megan P. Hall partners cross-functionally with Medical Affairs, Corporate Communications, Government Affairs, Investor Relations, and various scientific and clinical teams to develop and execute company-wide initiatives supporting GRAILs product portfolio. Dr. Hall also established and built GRAILs Medical Affairs group, supporting the development and launch of Galleri, a blood-based multi-cancer early detection test. Previously, Dr. Hall was Director of Medical Communications at Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Natera, and was an editor at the flagship open-access journal, PLOS Biology. She also held various research roles funded by the American Heart Association, California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, National Institutes of Health, and the Howard Hughes Research Foundation. She earned a BS in Biological Sciences from the UC-Santa Barbara, and a PhD in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics from the UC-Los Angeles.

Talk
Multi-Cancer Early Detection: Innovation for Population Health
GRAIL uses next-generation sequencing, population-scale clinical studies, and state-of-the-art computer and data science to detect cancer early when it can be cured. Learn how our multi-cancer early detection technology can improve cancer detection on a population scale, and how our methylation-based platform has applications across the cancer care continuum.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
GRAIL
GRAIL is a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early when it can be cured. GRAIL is focused on saving lives and improving health by pioneering new technologies for early cancer detection.

Biography
Genetika+ is focused on personalizing treatment in the mental health space, with a first product focusing on optimizing drug choice in depression. Prior to co-founding Genetika+ , Daphna was Chief Scientific Officer at Ibex Medical Analytics, a digital health company developing AI-based cancer diagnostics, and before that, she served as Head, Personalized Medicine and Diagnostics at Teva Pharmaceuticals, where she supported the discovery, development and differentiation of Tevas pipeline drugs, in collaboration with the Israeli healthcare sector and multinational companies. Daphna joined Teva after having led biomarker and diagnostic development activities within the pipeline of multiple top-10 pharma and fortune 500 companies. She served in several roles with increasing responsibility at Selventa, a system's biology company focused on personalized medicine, and founded the Israeli branch of the company, as Global Head of Diagnostics. Daphna trained as post-doc at Harvard University, after receiving her PhD in Medical Sciences from the Technion.

Talk
Brain in a Dish: Personalizing Treatment in Depression

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Genetika+
Genetika+ personalizes treatment in the mental health space, initially focusing on depression. The Genetika+ platform uses innovative technology to predict the best drug treatment for each patient, enabling faster treatment, fewer side effects, and lower dosing.