Our
Speakers (A-Z)
Ali Ismail
Founder at Birka Biostorage
Ismail started the company in 2010 in Lund, Southern Sweden. His company, Birka BioStorage, offers safe storage and transportation of biological samples and other sensitive goods. Birka´s site in Lund is the first certified repository in Scandinavia. The premises are the first cGMP & GDP qualified storage facility in Scandinavia for the banking of biological and pharmaceutical samples.
Alissa M. Resch
Chief Scientific Officer at Coriell Institute for Medical Research
As head of scientific operations at the Coriell Institute for Medicial Research, Dr. Alissa M. Resch oversees the scientific functions of the institute, including management of the contracts & grants portfolio and oversight of the research and project management teams. Prior to her role as Chief Scientific Officer, Alissa served as Director of Biobanking Operations.
Caoimhe Vallely-Gilroy
Director, Head of Clinical Trials Biosample Management, Merck KGaA
Caoimhe is currently the Global Head of Clinical Trial Biosample Management at Merck KGaA, leading a team of biosample operational experts in the feasibility and execution of biosampling strategy in clinical trials, across all trial phases and indications.
Catherine Larue
CEO at IBBL
After a Ph.D. in Immunology, Catherine Larue began her career at Sanofi, Montpellier (France) in the cardiovascular R&D department and participated in the discovery of innovative biomarkers such as troponin I and natriuretic peptides. She then joined Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur, at Minneapolis MN (USA) for 3 years where she was responsible for Assay Development in the immunodiagnostic area.
Jan-Eric Litton
Senior professor at the Karolinska Institutet
Jan-Eric Littonis a Senior professor at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. He was appointed BBMRI-ERIC’s first Director General on 22 January 2014 – 1 August 2017, building up one of the largest infrastructure for Health in Europe. Litton is renowned for his expertise in biobanking and leadership in large-scale projects. He was also heading the development of e-epidemiology by using Internet, cell-phones, digital paper and digital TV for collecting epidemiology data.
Jens K. Habermann
President of ESBB (European, Middle Eastern and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking)
Professor Jens K. Habermann, m.d., Ph.D., is director of ICB-L (Interdisciplinary Center for Biobanking-Lübeck) and scientific director of UCCL (University Cancer Center Lübeck) at the University of Lübeck and University Clinic Schleswig-Holstein. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm, Sweden) and postdoc training at the NCI, NIH (Bethesda, USA).
Jordan Moore
Senior Field Applications Specialist at Fluidigm
Jordan Moore is a Senior Field Applications Specialist (FAS) at Fluidigm, helping to ensure that customer projects exceed expectations. Supporting the microfluidics portfolio, he promotes Fluidigm’s continued success in Europe and has supported its ever-expanding genomics portfolio. Jordan is now a dual Franco-American national and is based out of Lyon, France.
Karine Sargsyan
Chief Operating Officer at Biobank Graz
Karine Sargsyan, MD, pediatrician and psychologist, is a native Armenian.
She joined the Medical University Graz, Austria (MUG) in 2005 within the scope of an international cooperation project after several years in Children’s Republican Hospital in Yerevan, Armenia where she led the Metabolism, Nutrition and Medical Dietetics department.
Marybeth Joshi
Director, Biobank & Translational Research Core at Duke University Medical Center
Marybeth Joshi has spent more than 20 years directing complex, multi-faceted, multi-institutional, and multi-disciplinary clinical, translational, and basic science, as well as clinical outcomes research projects in oncology.
Merja Perälä
Project Manager at Auria Biobank
Dr. Merja Perälä joined Auria Biobank at 2017. Auria is Finland’s first biobank established in connection with Turku University Hospital and the University of Turku. Merja works as project manager taking care of biobank sample and data request and granting process for research both in academia and industry.
Michael Roehrl
Director, Precision Pathology Biobanking Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Michael Roehrl M.D., Ph.D., is Director of the Precision Pathology Biobanking Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA. He is dually board-certified in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. He holds an MD from the Technical University of Munich, a Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from Harvard University, and trained clinically at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Pasquale De Blasio
Executive Vice President at ISENET Biobanking
Pasquale De Blasio the Executive Vice President of ISENET Biobank. He is also the founder president of ESBB (European, Middle Eastern and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking (ESBB) and Founder of Integrated Systems Engineering srl leader in Tissue Microarray Platforms. Pasquale graduated in Electrical Engineering from Villanova University (PA, USA, 1976), acquired his Master in Engineering Management from Drexel University (PA, USA, 1980) and a Master in Business Administration from Bocconi University (Milano, Italy, 1986).
Peadar Mac Gabhann
Managing Director at Biostór Ireland
Peadar Mac Gabhann graduated from the National University of Ireland, University College Dublin with a M.Sc. in Industrial Microbiology. He carried out post graduate research at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) Amsterdam, Biogen at ETH Zurich and the Faculty of Medicine at Kyoto University Japan.
Rita Lawlor
Biobank and Model Bank Director, Research Coordinator at ARC-NET : Centre for Applied Research on Cancer
Rita Lawlor is a Computer Science graduate of Trinity College Dublin with a doctorate in Oncological Pathology from the University of Verona where she is co-founder of the ARC-Net (www.arc-net.it) applied cancer research centre where is director of the ARC-Net biobank and coordinates research activities.
Robert Hewitt
Director, Biobank Consortia & Communications at Trans–Hit Biomarkers, Inc.
Dr. Robert Hewitt joined Trans-Hit Bio in November 2017. He is responsible for developing THB’s existing international networks of biobanks and for enhancing interactions between industry and academic partners. Robert holds a medical degree from St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, UK (1983) and a PhD in tumour virology from the Institute of Virology, University of Glasgow, UK (1989).
Rohit Gupta
Executive Director, Stanford Biobank and Clinical Research Services (CTRU) at Stanford Medicine
Rohit Gupta began his research at Stanford Medicine in 2003 and now oversees the Stanford Biobank and leads the institute’s largest, research focused, ambulatory care group (Spectrum’s Clinical & Translational Research Unit). Notably, he’s established biorepository and associated big data infrastructure for multiple large-scale biobanks, both locally and globally, while also designing innovative cost-recovery business models for clinical and lab related research services at the university.
Ronny Baber
Head of the LIFE-Biobank and Preanalytical Laboratory at University Hospital Leipzig
Dr. Ronny Baber studied biochemistry and did his Ph.D. thesis in the Institute of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Chemistry, and Molecular Diagnostics at the University Leipzig. Since 2010 he is the head of the LIFE-Biobank and the LIFE-Preanalytical laboratory (since 2014) in the Leipzig Research Center for Civilisation Diseases (LIFE).
Shona Kerr
Project Manager at MRC Human Genetics Unit, Edinburgh
Shona Kerr has more than 20 years of experience in the management of basic scientific research in academia. Her primary interest is in the genetics of quantitative traits using human population and family-based biobanks and linked electronic health record data.
Sigbjørn Gregusson
Executive manager at Biobank AS
Sigbjørn Gregusson is the Executive Manager of BioBank AS(Ltd) in Hamar, Norway. Dr. Gregusson had several international missions in developing countries on Food safety issues (Baltic countries, Nepal, Uganda), and on quality control and assessments for microbiological laboratories (UNIDO, Pakistan).
Sofia Spyrou
Production Manager at NIBSC
Sofia Spyrou has over six years of experience as a production manager. She joined the UK Stem Cell Bank at NIBSC in 2016 and currently manages the day to day banking operations. Her focus is to review, bank and distribute the MRC funded “EUTCD-Grade” human embryonic stem cell lines.
Svetlana Gramatiuk
President and Medical Director, Ukraine Association of Biobank
Svetlana Gramatiuk (MD PhD) serves as President of UAB (Ukraine Associated of Biobank) that she co-founded in 2017. She was also the Medical Director Research Biobank ASK-Health (2015-2016) and the Ukraine Editor of the journal Advanced research biobank and pathophysiology from 2017. Previously, Svetlana also established and/or managed several biobanks in Ukraine.
Vincent von Walcke-Wulffen
CEO at BioKryo GmbH
Dr. von Walcke-Wulffen, born in 1976 in Düsseldorf, went after school in Brussels and Saarbrücken for one year to the German Navy for his military service. In 1997 he started to study at the University of Hamburg Business Administration with a minor field of study in chemistry and graduated in 2003 with a master theses at a BASF plant by using evolutionary algorithm for productions planning in the chemical industry. From 1999 to 2003 he was supported by a scholarship of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
