David Haussler is a bioinformatician known for his work leading the team that assembled the first human genome sequence in the race to complete the Human Genome Project and subsequently for comparative genome analysis that deepens understanding the molecular function and evolution of the genome. David is Scientific Director of the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) Genomics Institute and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). His team develops and shares infrastructure to support both research in and the clinical application of precision medicine. Haussler received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence.
Christopher Mason is an Associate Professor of Genomics, Physiology, and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Director of the WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction. He also holds appointments at the Tri-I Program on Computational Biology and Medicine (Cornell, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Rockefeller University), Harvard Medical School, and Yale Law School. The Mason laboratory develops and deploys new biochemical and computational methods in functional genomics to elucidate the genetic basis of human disease and physiology. Chris earned a B.S. in Genetics and a B.S. in Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2001), a Ph.D. in Genetics, Yale University (2006), and did a post-doc in Clinical Genetics, Yale Medical School (2009).
Gene Yeo PhD MBA is a Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), a founding member of the Institute for Genomic Medicine and member of the UCSD Stem Cell Program and Moores Cancer Center. Gene was the first Crick-Jacobs Fellow at the Salk Institute (2005-2008) and is a recipient of the Alfred P Sloan Fellowship in recognition of his work in computational molecular biology (2011). Gene is a co-founder of biotech companies which includes Locana, Eclipse Bioinnovations, Enzerna and Proteona. Gene has a BSc in Chemical Engineering and a BA in Economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, a Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the UCSD Rady School of Management.
Yuval Ebenstein is head of the NanoBioPhotonix Lab within the Department of Physical Chemistry at Tel Aviv University, and head of the European consortium BeyondSeq developing novel genomic technologies. Zooming in on individual components—single cells, single chromosomes and single molecules— Ebenstein’s interdisciplinary research aims to contribute to how we understand the human genome. Yuval earned B.S. degrees in Physics and Chemistry, and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry with Prof. Uri Banin, all from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. He did a postdoc with Prof. Shimon Weiss at UCLA where he used QDs to light-up individual DNA binding proteins and map them along bacteriophage genomes.
Philippe Nore is an experienced startup CEO and executive in the Life Sciences industry with a passion for driving the adoption of new products and technologies. He is currently Vice President of International Market Development at Adaptive Biotechnologies, a commercial-stage biotechnology company focused on harnessing the inherent biology of the adaptive immune system to transform the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Prior to Adaptive, he co-founded and led as CEO MiNDERA, a MedTech company developing Next-Generation Skin Diagnostics & Analytics. Prior to MiNDERA, Philippe was Senior International Business Leader for Digital Pathology at Roche where he held global P&L responsibility and launched several FDA-approved products. Philippe has held prior strategy and business development roles in the life sciences industry with Life Technologies, Bain & Company and LEK Consulting. Philippe is a proven general manager and business development expert in the Life Sciences industry with extensive US and international experience. He has been involved in the development and commercialization of next-generation sequencing products since 2004. Philippe holds a MSc. in chemistry from ESPCI (Paris) and an MBA from the Wharton School where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar
Uplaksh Kumar is SVP of strategic operations and scale at GRAIL with the mission to detect cancer early when it can be cured. Prior to GRAIL he was the first head of operations at Verily. He has held various leadership positions at Life Technologies, BD, LONZA, and Qiagen. He co-founded RoosterBio a regenerative medicine company developing research and clinical-grade stem cells. Uplaksh is a proven business leader who has built and scaled up operations in the medical device, cellular therapy, lifesciences, and biopharma space both nationally and internationally. He has successfully executed financing activities that include private investment and IPO. He holds a B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Mumbai, and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Maryland. He earned his Certificate of Professional Development from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, and is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt.