Christina Curtis

Biography
Dr. Curtis laboratory leverages data analytics, high-throughput molecular profiling and experimentation to develop new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer. Her research has led to new paradigms in understanding how human tumors evolve and metastasize and has redefined the molecular map of breast cancer. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including those from the V Foundation for Cancer Research, STOP Cancer, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). She received the National Institutes of Health Directors Pioneer Award in 2018 and was named an In Vivo Rising Star in 2021. She is a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, a Susan G. Komen Scholar, and a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator. In 2022, she received the AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Basic Science. She is a scientific advisor to multiple academic institutes, biotech and biopharma, and is a member of the AACR Board of Directors.

Joakim Lundeberg

Biography
Professor Joakim Lundeberg works at the Department of Gene Technology, part of the School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology, and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and has competence in molecular technology development, in the fields of spatial omics with applications in both medicine and environment. Applications cover, for example, cancer, neurology and human development. His research group has been located since May 2010 at the Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab). Prof Lundeberg previously headed the National Genomics Infrastructure (NGI) platform, one of the major academic sequencing sites in Europe.Lundeberg has over 15 patent and patent applications and has established several spin-off companies based on his research.

Alex Aravanis

Biography
Alex Aravanis is CEO and co-founder of Moonwalk Biosciences. Previously Illuminas Chief Technology Officer and Head of Research Product Development, he led programs that delivered tools for research and clinical genomics, including whole-genome sequencing, comprehensive cancer profiling, COVID-Seq, and advanced AI for interpreting genomes, used worldwide today.A serial entrepreneur, Aravanis co-founded GRAIL, serving as Chief Scientific Officer and Head of RD, where he directed research, development, and clinical teams to create a multi-cancer early detection test. Earlier at Illumina, he developed key technologies such as clinical RNADNA assays for fixed tissues, whole-exome analysis, single-cell transcriptomics, and liquid biopsy using cell-free nucleic acids.Aravanis earned a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with a Physics minor from UC Berkeley, an MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering, and an MD from Stanford. He holds more than 30 patents, has numerous peer-reviewed publications, and serves on biotech Scientific Advisory Boards.

Rebecca Critchley-Thorne

Biography
Dr. Rebecca Critchley-Thorne joined Castle Biosciences in December 2021 as Vice President, RD, Spatialomics and GI, as part of the acquisition of Cernostics Inc., where she was Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer. She led the development of the TissueCypher computational pathology platform as well as the TissueCypher Barretts Esophagus test and its supporting clinical studies. She currently oversees RD for Castles commercially available tests and pipeline activities. She completed training as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, where she focused on highly multiplexed analysis of biomarkers to understand mechanisms of immune dysfunction in various cancer types. She completed doctoral work in cancer immunotherapy at Imperial College and Cancer Research UK in London, UK, and earned a B.S. (Hons) degree in Pharmacology from the University of Sheffield, UK. Dr. Critchley-Thorne is the author of many medical and scientific publications, a principal investigator on NIH-funded research studies, and an inventor on several of Castle's patents.

Tae Hyun Hwang

Biography
Tae Hyun Hwang a national leader in the use of artificial intelligence to improve cancer diagnosis and treatment, will lead a new Molecular AI initiative within the Section of Surgical Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.He was jointly recruited by the Department of Surgery and the newly established Center for Computational Systems Biology (CCSB) at Vanderbilt University.Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming our ability to solve complex biomedical problems, said Seth Karp, MD, the H. William Scott Jr. Professor of Surgery and chair of the Section of Surgical Sciences.Dr. Hwang is uniquely capable of developing approaches that use this technology to personalize the care of surgical patients, with an initial emphasis on oncology and transplantation, Karp said.Hwang joins the Vanderbilt faculty as a professor of Surgery. He was recruited from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, where he built and led the AI in Oncology Research Program. His work focused on leveraging AI and machine learning to advance precision oncology, immuno-oncology and cellular cancer therapy.

W.E. Moerner

Biography
W. E. (William Esco) Moerner, the Harry S. Mosher Professor of Chemistry and Professor by courtesy of Applied Physics, has conducted research in physical chemistry, biophysics, and the optical properties of single molecules, and is actively involved in the development of 2D and 3D super-resolution imaging for cell biology. Imaging studies include viral RNA and proteins in infected cells, protein superstructures in bacteria and mammalian cells, and studies of chromatin organization. Using powerful microscopes optimized for tracking of single objects in cells, the motions of proteins, DNA, and RNA are being measured in three dimensions in real time to understand organization, processing and binding interactions. A previous research area concerns precise analysis of photodynamics of single trapped biomolecules in solution, with applications to photosynthesis, protein-protein interactions, and transport measurements.Born on June 24, 1953 at Parks Air Force Base in Pleasanton, California, Professor Moerner was raised in San Antonio, Texas. He attended Washington University as a Langsdorf Engineering Fellow, graduating in 1975 with degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering (both B.S. with top honors), and Mathematics (A.B. summa cum laude). His doctoral research in physics at Cornell University (M.S. 1978, Ph.D. 1982) employed tunable infrared lasers to explore infrared vibrational modes of impurities in crystals. In 1982, he moved from New York to San Jose, California to join the IBM Research Division developing spectral holeburning for frequency domain optical storage and photorefractivity for dynamic hologram formation. After 13 years at IBM, Dr. Moerner accepted a position as Distinguished Professor of Physical Chemistry at UC San Diego, where he broadened his research to include biological systems and biophysics. Recruited to the Stanford Chemistry Department faculty in 1997, he served as Chair of the department from 2011 to 2014.Professor Moerners scientific contributions were recognized with the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy." One method to surpass the optical diffraction limit (PALMSTORM) uses single-molecule imaging combined with an active control mechanism to keep the concentration of emitting molecules at a very low level, followed by sequential localization to reconstruct the underlying structure. The fundamentals of this idea came from early work in the Moerner lab: optical detection and imaging of single molecules (1989) combined with blinking and switching at low temperature, as well as the discovery of optical control and blinking of single copies of green fluorescent protein at room temperature (1997). Among many other honors and awards, Professor Moerner was elected fellow of the American Physical Society, Optical Society of America, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, SPIE; and member of the National Academy of Sciences.Today, the Moerner Laboratory uses laser spectroscopy and microscopy of single molecules to probe biological processes, one molecule at a time. Primary thrusts include development and application of fluorescence microscopy far beyond the optical diffraction limit by PALMSTORM, 3D single-molecule tracking in complex cellular environments, invention and validation of methods for precise and accurate 3D optical microscopy in cells, and imaging of viral RNA and proteins during cellular infection by SARS-CoV-2 viruses. Through a variety of collaborations, these approaches are applied to explore protein and oligonucleotide localization patterns in mammalian cells and bacteria, define the organization of cell invasion proteins in parasites such as Toxoplasma gondii, and develop correlative super-resolution optical imaging with cryo-EM enhanced by suitable switchable fluorescent proteins for 77K.Please visit the Moerner Lab home page for more information.

Michael Snyder

Biography
Michael Snyder is the Stanford W. Ascherman Professor and the Director of the Stanford Center of Genomics and Personalized Medicine. As a pioneer of Precision Medicine, Dr. Snyder has invented many technologies enabling the 21st century of healthcare including systems biology, RNA sequencing, and protein chip. Dr. Snyder has initiated the Big Data approach to healthcare through his work using omics to detect early-stage disease, including wearables to detect infectious diseases like COVID-19, and at-home microsampling to measure hundreds of molecules from a single drop of blood. He is the first researcher to gather petabytes of data on individuals, which is 1 million - 1 trillion times more data than the average clinician collects. He has published over 900 papers and is one of the most cited scientists. In terms of commercial success, Dr. Snyder has co-founded 17 companies (including 2 unicorns) with combined enterprise value of over $6 billion.

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Talk
PersonalOmicsat Scale, What Longitudinal Profiles Add to Early Detection
Our present healthcare system focuses on treating people when they are ill rather than keeping them healthy. We have been using big data and remote monitoring approaches to monitor people while they are healthy to keep them that way and detect disease at its earliest moment presymptomatically.

Serge Saxonov

Biography
Serge Saxonov co-founded 10x Genomics in 2012. As the CEO, he defined the 10x vision and strategy, contributed to core inventions, and has led the company since inception. Prior to 10x Genomics, Serge was Vice President of Applications at QuantaLife, where he built products and defined the companys growth areas. Serge was the first employee at 23andMe, where he served as Founding Architect and Director of RD. There he defined the initial concept of the product, built out the core technology, and drove strategy and execution of RD functions. Serge received a Ph.D. in biomedical informatics from Stanford University and an A.B. in applied mathematics from Harvard College.

Priscilla Chan

Biography
Priscilla Chan is the co-founder and co-CEO of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, where she leads efforts to advance biomedical research and technology to help scientists cure, prevent, or manage all disease by the end of this century. As a pediatrician, her firsthand experience caring for patients has fueled her commitment to accelerating scientific discovery. Priscillas leadership at CZI has focused on harnessing AI, building cutting-edge research tools, and funding innovative science to unlock new insights into human biology. She earned her bachelors degree in biology from Harvard University and her doctor of medicine from the University of California, San Francisco, where she also completed her pediatrics residency.

Aruna Ayer

Biography
Aruna Ayer is the VP, Multiomics, Innovation Scientific Affairs at BD Biosciences. She leads a multidisciplinary team responsible for an exciting portfolio of next-generation single-cell solutions including instruments, multiomic assays, reagents and informatic solutions. Her team is also responsible for managing external scientific partnerships and collaborations supporting product development and product adoption. Aruna holds a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Texas, Austin and bachelors in biotechnology from Anna University, India. Aruna joined BD Biosciences from Roche Sequencing Solutions, where she held various roles of increasing leadership responsibility for 7 years developing the Roche Nanopore Sequencing Technology. Aruna is a named inventor on multiple patents and has published in multiple high-impact scientific journals.

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Talk
Precision Cell Profiling: Imaging, Spectral Flow Multiomics Insights
Cellular analysis is a cornerstone of discovery in immuno-oncology and drug development. Herein, we present technologies and applications that showcase high-dimensional characterization of cells, with real-time image-based spectral sorting and multiomic single-cell profiling. This demonstrates the power of combining phenotypic and molecular data to accelerate translational and clinical research.

Michael Angelo

Biography
Michael Angelo is a board-certified pathologist and assistant professor in the department of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Angelo is a leader in high dimensional imaging with expertise in tissue homeostasis, tumor immunology, and infectious disease. His lab has pioneered the construction and development of Multiplexed Ion Beam Imaging by time of flight (MIBI-TOF). MIBI-TOF uses secondary ion mass spectrometry and metal-tagged antibodies to achieve rapid, simultaneous imaging of dozens of proteins at subcellular resolution. In recognition of this achievement, Dr. Angelo received the NIH Directors Early Independence award in 2014. His lab has since used this novel technology to discover previously unknown rule sets governing the spatial organization and cellular composition of immune, stromal, and tumor cells within the tumor microenvironment in triple negative breast cancer. These findings were found to be predictive of single cell expression of several immunotherapy drug targets and of 10-year overall survival. This effort has led to ongoing work aimed at elucidating structural mechanisms in the TME that promote recruitment of cancer associated fibroblasts, tumor associated macrophages, and extracellular matrix remodeling. Dr. Angelo is the recipient of the 2020 DOD Era of Hope Award and a principal investigator on multiple extramural awards from the National Cancer Institute, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Human Biomolecular Atlas (HuBMAP) initiative.