Steven Haynes
Sheffield University Medical School, UK
Dr. Haynes is the manager of the Sheffield Biorepository, which is part of the Sheffield Medical School. Following graduation in 2003 he began his career as a technical scientist in the water industry conducting non-routine chemical analysis and quality assurance auditing. Taking the opportunity later that decade to return to research he became a sequencing technician at University of Sheffield, then in 2012 becoming manager of the university’s Core Genomic Facility. Since 2015 he has been manager of the Sheffield Biorepository responsible for human tissue storage and related regulatory compliance, while also retaining his other technical roles within the university.

Umesh Bhanot
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA
Dr. Bhanot is a Pathologist-Scientist and Scientific Head of the Research Histology Division of the Precision Pathology Biobanking Center (PPBC), Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), New York. He completed his medical degree (MBBS) and MD Pathology from India. He worked as an Assistant Professor of pathology for few years. In 2003, he joined the international PhD (Dr rer med) program at the University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany. During his doctoral research in Ulm, Dr Bhanot successfully applied techniques like Laser Capture Microdissection (LCM), RNA extraction from micro-dissected tissue components for transcriptional profiling and real time PCR. He successfully defended his dissertation on “Molecular mechanism of parenchymal injury and the role of duct obstruction and ductal hypertension in the pathogenesis of chronic pancreatitis”. Dr. Bhanot joined the Pathology Core Lab, MSKCC, as a Senior Research Scientist/ Experimental Pathologist in 2008. He is an expert in applying technologies like, LCM, Tissue Micro-Arrays (TMAs) for molecular research. His research interests include pancreatic, lung, kidney cancer and other solid tumors. He also engages in tissue based clinical trial engagement through PPBC. He is a member of the US and Canadian Academy Pathology (USCAP). 

Erik Steinfelder
Thermo Fisher Scientific, The Netherlands
Erik Steinfelder earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Analytical Chemistry from the Saxion University of Applied Sciences in Deventer, Netherlands, and subsequently completed a degree in Foundations of Management at Nyenrode Business University in Breukelen, Netherlands. In 2008, he joined Thermo Fisher Scientific, a multinational biotechnology product development company based in the US. In his position as first Biobank Commercial Leader EMEA, he went on to head the complete biobank portfolio and range of activities and, most recently, became Corporate Accounts Executive. Additionally, between 2014 and 2017, he was also President-elect, President and past President of ESBB, the European, Middle Eastern and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking. Since August 2017 Erik Steinfelder is General Director of BBMRI-ERIC. His vision for the coming years is to “build and strengthen value-added sustainable biobanking for all stakeholders”.

Andrew Brooks
RUCDR, Brooks Life Sciences, USA
Andrew is the Chief Operating Officer of RUCDR Infinite Biologics (RUCDR) at Rutgers University, the world’s largest academic biorepository managing critical biological resources for clients such as The National Institute of Health, leading academic researchers, and major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Additionally, Andrew is the Chief Scientist for TMRW’s infrastructure partner, Brooks Life Sciences, a division of the $2 billion (NASDAQ) Brooks Corporation. Andrew is also a Professor of Medicine and Genetics at Rutgers University. He is trained in molecular neuroscience and gene therapy and is widely recognized as a thought leader in the field of personalized medicine. Andrew has deep experience in advising leading US, global institutions, and governments on health policy, including serving on the boards and scientific leadership of several global biorepository and precision medicine programs in Europe, Qatar, and Australia.

Lester Russell
National Health Service, UK
Dr. Russell is a digital health executive with experience garnered from senior roles in global IT companies. He draws on his work in clinical, commercial and health service settings to focus on strategy leadership, cross-group orchestration, ecosystem leadership, solution incubation and sales support. He is able to engage with clinicians and stakeholders across the health & life sciences eco-system and provide clinical input to business development activities. In additional, he practices as a GP in the South of England, holds an MBA, and he is a Fellow of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics in the UK. 

Dawn Barry
LunaPBC, USA
Ms. Barry is President & Co-founder of Public Benefit Corporation, LunaPBC. LunaPBC, a World Economic Forum 2019 Technology Pioneer, launched LunaDNA, a SEC-qualified health data sharing platform owned by its members. Prior to LunaPBC, she spent 12 years at DNA sequencing leader, Illumina, and served as Vice President, Applied Genomics. In addition, she was San Diego Business Journal’s 2017 Business Woman of the Year, a TEDxSanDiego 2016 speaker, and is Board Chair of the Alzheimer’s Association San Diego/Imperial County. 

Abbie Willetto
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, USA
Abbie Willetto has worked for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium for over ten years. She has a background in biological sciences, education administration, professional development and qualitative research. She graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona with her bachelor’s and master’s degree. She attended the University of Colorado-Boulder, for her doctoral coursework. Over the past 12 years, her work has included an ongoing partnership with the Alaska Area Specimen Bank; including a historical project about the AASB, as well as serving on the AASB committee. She is currently working as a partner member of the AASB policy revision group. Her early career included teaching science, professional/curriculum development, and educational leadership on the Navajo Nation and in the lower 48. In Alaska, she worked at the University of Alaska Anchorage as Assistant Professor in the College of Education. Throughout her career, she has worked to improve the opportunities for underrepresented groups to increase access in the areas of mathematics, science, research and evaluation. While at ANTHC, she has collaborated on multiple heath research projects. Currently she facilitates the research review process at ANTHC through the Abstract, Manuscript and Proposal Review Committee and the ANTHC Health Research Review Committee, where all health research conducted with ANTHC receives review and approval by tribal leadership. She is also the ANTHC Pathology Specimen Archive coordinator. Abbie is a member of the Navajo Nation and lives in Anchorage, Alaska.

Anthoula Lazaris
The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Canada
Anthoula Lazaris, PhD, is a scientist at the RI-MUHC, who studies metastatic disease with a focus on translational research. She is also the Scientific Director of the RI-MUHC Liver Disease Biobank. Dr Lazaris has over 26 years combined experience in academia (McGill University) and biotechnology/industry, in management and senior level positions. During her PhD and under the direction of Dr Sonenberg, she made the discovery of eIF-4E as a proto-oncogene, which lead to a new line of cancer research. Her current research focuses on Metastatic disease and Translational research with an emphasis on precision therapy Together with her collegues their research on predictors of therapeutic responses to antiangiogenic agents in the context of disseminated colon cancer has led to a ground-breaking study demonstrating that different histological types of metastasis have distinct patterns of vascularization and are dependent on either angiogenesis or vascular co-option. They reported that patients with predominant angiogenic lesions receiving Bev plus chemotherapy have a more than double 5-year overall survival compared to patients with non-angiogenic lesions. Therefore, the non-angiogenic lesions do not respond to angiogenic inhibitors. She was also instrumental in the establishment of the RI-MUHC Liver Disease Biobank and is focused on ensuring the Biobank maintains a “living state” such that it can adjust to new technologies and research avenues.

Brenna Simons-Petrusa
CDC Arctic Investigations Program in Anchorage, USA
Dr. Simons-Petrusa is the laboratory director at the CDC Arctic Investigations Program in Anchorage, Alaska. She is also the Director of the Alaska Area Specimen Bank, serving as a federal co-manager with Alaska tribal partners. Dr. Simons-Petrusa completed her doctorate at Vanderbilt University in 2009 and was then hired at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to work with historic Alaska Native and American Indian clinical research cohorts and specimen collections. Her research focuses on infectious disease and vaccine efficacy, and health disparities amongst Alaska Native and American Indian populations. She now has 10 years of experience in tribal health, Arctic research, and biobanking policy experience. Recently, Dr. Simons-Petrusa led a team project that evaluated historic biospecimens for analytic quality, this work was presented at ISBER 2019 in Shanghai and now, she is leading a modernization and inventory effort within the Alaska Area Specimen Bank, helping to preserve this unique and valuable resource for many years to come. The Alaska Area Specimen Bank is undergoing many updates and changes, this also includes updating the policies and procedures by which this repository functions and collaborates with Alaska tribal partners. Dr. Simons-Petrusa has been the co-lead on these policy efforts, creating multi-partner working groups and a pending policy summit that will include tribal and federal delegation.

Brent Hallahan
Markey Cancer Center, USA
Dr. Hallahan is a staff scientist with the Biospecimen Procurement and Translational Pathology (BPTP) Shared Resource Facility in the Markey Cancer Center at the University of Kentucky. He received his Ph.D. in Neural Sciences with an emphasis in molecular and cellular biology in 2006 from Indiana University in Bloomington. After working as a postdoctoral scholar, he was Center Manager for the NCI Cancer Nanotechnology Platform Partnership Program in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Kentucky. He began working with the BPTP core lab in 2013. He specializes in the acquisition, processing and storage of patient derived biospecimens for many projects across the cancer research spectrum from basic and preclinical investigations to translational and clinical trials.

Christine Connolly
Merck Group, Germany
Christine is an Associate Director in Global Clinical Data Sciences at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt specializing in the application of data standards within studies with the aim of supporting the interconnectivity between datasets and operational activities. She has worked with clinical study data in both the pharmaceutical industry and academic settings for over 20 years with emphasis on data standards for the past 10. Her focus is primarily on Study Data Tabulation Model (SDTM) standards managed by the industry standards organization Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC). She leads and participates in the development of CDISC standards for publication and use across industries. Currently Christine co-leads the CDISC Submission Data Standards (SDS) team responsible for implementation of SDTM standards for human clinical trials and the Genomic and Biospecimen Subteams responsible for standards for genomic/genetic and biospecimen data respectively.

Sunil Kurian
Transplant Genomics, USA
Dr. Kurian is an accomplished scientist with more than 65 published research and review papers. He is trained in biomarker discovery and genomics of varied disciplines and in the critical assessment and bioinformatics approaches needed to prioritize and validate biomarkers. His research on biomarkers for Acute and Chronic Kidney Rejection was the foundation work for NIH funded studies. He has also been actively involved in discovery of biomarkers for bipolar disease and schizophrenia in collaboration with the University of Indiana, liver regeneration biomarkers with the University of Pennsylvania and biomarkers of islet quality with the City of Hope. Dr. Kurian has been an active member of the American Society of Transplantation since 2005 and has given many talks at various AST and TTS conferences. His expertise in the biomarker and diagnostics field has also helped him secure funding from the NIH for a blood-based biomarker discovery project for fibromyalgia in collaboration with researchers at Oregon Health and Sciences University. He is part of the Scripps Clinic biorepository and bioinformatics core and plays an active role in the optimization of protocols in the downstream processing of biospecimens. Dr. Kurian serves as a scientific advisor for Transplant Genomics a company specializing in post-transplant care and for also for MindX Sciences which focuses on biomarkers of mental health.

Oliver Karch
Merck Group, Germany
Dr. Oliver Karch is a Medical Informatician by training. He is heading the Clinical Biomarker Informatics and Biobanking group at Merck, Darmstadt. The group manages globally clinical biomarker data as well as the samples collected in Merck’s multi-centric clinical studies. He joined Merck in 1998 as Bioinformatician to walk all the way from early drug discovery to clinical biomarker and companion diagnostics development. Before joining Merck, he pursued his PhD at the German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg. He was cofounder of a few startup companies in the healthcare sector. He is actively involved in several IMI (Innovative Medicines Initiative) Projects and ESBB / ISBER / EFPIA interest groups to foster cross-talk and harmonization among academic and pharma Biobanks.

Christopher Loffredo
Georgetown University Medical Center, USA
Dr. Loffredo is a molecular epidemiologist specializing in the roles of genetic and environmental risk factors in human cancers and birth defects. He has numerous peer-reviewed spanning studies of environmental and genetic factors, familial aggregation, geographic information systems, and gene-environment interactions. He has led NIH-funded observational and community intervention studies, with emphasis on hepatitis C infection, tobacco smoking, environmental exposures, and their biological markers. He is strongly committed to global health and has current grant funding from the Department of Energy that supports development of a Russian biorepository to support cancer research in a cohort of occupationally exposed plutonium workers.

Anderson Mayfield
NOAA/University of Miami, USA
Mr. Mayfield has been studying coral reef ecosystems for nearly 20 years. After extended stints in Hawaii (graduate school under the supervision of the late, world renowned coral reef researcher Dr. Ruth Gates) and Taiwan (a series of post-doctoral research fellowships), he has since transitioned to working for NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (Miami, FL), the United States government research institute that oversees the study and management/protection of the nation's coral reefs. Anderson is primarily interested in the physiology of reef corals, particularly how they respond at the organismal, cellular, and molecular levels to changes in their environments. 

Antonio Hugo Campos
Rede D'Or Network Hospitals, Brazil
Mr. Campos is a Pathologist at Rede D’Or Network Hospitals, with over 10 years experience in the biobanking field. Served as consultant to the Brazilian Ministry of Health and the Brazilian Research Ethics Commission on regulatory and ethical issues related to biobanking. Former head of the A C Camargo Biobank. Currently serves as ISBER Regional Ambassador to Latin America. 

Clément Milet
Mr. Milet joined CTIBIOTECH in 2017 to lead the 3D bioprinting programme, advancing the organizations existing capabilities in 3D cell and tissue culture. He has extensive experience in development of technologies allied to cancer research, diagnosis and testing. His previous experience at the Institute for Advanced Biosciences (Grenoble, France) in cell chips for RNA screening, and at the Cancer Research Center of Lyon (CRCL, France) gave him a deep understanding of the need for 3-dimensional models of cancer. At CTIBIOTECH, he applied this experience to primary cancer tissue donated from patients and bioprinted into humanised cancer models. Since 2020, Clément Milet is the Laboratory Director of CTIBiotech in order to direct the various research programmes and to extend production capacities, in particular through 3D printing.