Speakers

2019  Speakers

• Bill Burhans, PhD – Senior Cancer Scientist at Roswell Park Cancer Institute; writer and speaker. After being diagnosed with late stage prostate cancer, Bill now writes and speaks about prostate cancer genetics and offers patient advocacy. See bio

• Charles Cantor, PhD – Founder and Director at Retrotope Inc; Professor Emeritus, Boston University. Charles’ research interests are in human genome analysis, molecular genetics and genetic engineering. See bio

• Chunming Ding, PhD –Dean, School of Laboratory Medicine and Life Sciences at the Wenzhou Medical University in Zhejiang, China. Chunming has pioneered technologies for sensitive, specific and quantitative analyses of DNA and RNA, and has successfully applied them in non-invasive prenatal diagnosis, cancer monitoring, and pathogen analysis. See bio

• Jean Feraca – Poet, journalist, and radio host. Jean worked in public radio for 27 years and was as a freelance reporter for NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered. See bio

• Mark Fishman, MD – Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University. For many years Mark was the Director at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR). Mark’s current research focuses is on the genes that guide social behavior, using genetics of the zebrafish. See bio

• Terry Fry, MD – Director of Cancer Immunotherapy at CU Anschutz Medical Campus and Co-Director of the Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Initiative at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Terry’s research focuses on pediatric oncology. See bio

• Jian Han, MD, PhD – Faculty Investigator, HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. Jian studies the immunorepertoire of different autoimmune diseases and cancers using multiplex PCR and high-throughput gene sequencing. See bio

• Adrian Hayday, PhD – Kay Glendinning Professor and Chair of the Department of Immunobiology, King’s College London. Adrian’s research studies gamma-delta T cells use in immunotherapy and also involved the study of small groups of people with unusual immune systems. See bio

• Dennis Lo, PhD – Director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences; Li Ka Shing Professor of Medicine and Professor of Chemical Pathology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Dennis’s group succeeded at deciphering a genome-wide genetic map of the fetus through the analysis of the small amounts of fragmented DNA floating in the blood of pregnant women. See bio

• Jo Marchant, PhD – Jo is a freelance journalist specializing in science and history. She is the author of New York Times Bestseller Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind over Body. See bio

• Elio Riboli, MD, MPH – Professor of Cancer Epidemiology; Chair of Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention at Imperial College London; Founding investigator, European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Elio’s research focuses on cancer and non-communicable disease epidemiology, translational public health and health promotion. See bio

• Jane Salmon, MD – Collette Kean Research Professor at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City; Professor of Medicine in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Associate Dean, Faculty Affairs at Weill Cornell College of Medicine. Jane’s research has focused on elucidating mechanisms of tissue injury in lupus and other autoimmune diseases. See bio

• Ann Thor, MD – Professor, Edith B. Todd and James C. Todd, Chair of Pathology, University of Colorado Denver. Ann’s research focuses on markers of breast cancer. See bio

• Julia Vitarello –Mother, advocate, blogger, and Founder of Mila’s Miracle Foundation. Julia tirelessly advocates for her daughter with Batten Disease and for paving the path for customized genetic treatments through her foundation. See website 
• Lynne Wolfe, RN – Nurse Practitioner at NIH/NHGRI. Lynne runs numerous clinical trials with the Undiagnosed Diseases program, especially with congenital disorders of glycosylation. See bio

• Timothy Yu, MD, PhD – Attending Physician, Division of Genetics and Genomics Assistant Professor in Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School. The mission of Timothy’s lab is to uncover the genetic and neurobiological underpinnings of autism and related disorders of human neurodevelopment. See bio