text: Principal investigator and head of Precision Medicine in Diabetes Prevention Lab at Sidra Medicine. Interested in utilizing the genomic data and local population cohorts in studying the genetic susceptibility and risk variants of complex diseases with a special focus on diabetes, obesity and their complications in kids and adults. Her lab have special attention to discover the key immuno-cellular risk pathways aiming to developing antigen-specific therapeutic strategies and drug delivery approaches.
  Dr. Akil is chairing PMFG21 this year, where she has compiled an ironic program for Day1 track 1, on Future of Paediatric Genomic Medicine.
  Professor C.Thomas Caskey, MD, FACP, FACMG, FRSC (Duke Med 62), Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Clinical and Molecular Genetics Professor and Founder of the Department of Molecular & Human Genetics, which he established in 1971, and Professor at Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine.
  With Dr. Marshall Nirenberg he discovered the “universality“ of the Genetic code & elucidated the mechanism of peptide chain termination. Dr. Caskey discovered 34 disease genes including the molecular understanding of triplet repeat disorders anticipation (Fragile X & Myotonic Dystrophy). His STR identification system is internationally used by FBI, Interpol, CIA. In 1994 he became Sr. VP of Drug & Vaccine Development at Merck.
  Member of National Academies of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, Royal Society of Canada. He has served as President of the American Society of Human Genetics, Human Genome Organization, and Texas Academy of Medicine and Engineering. He has been recognized by awards from the Justice Department, Muscular Dystrophy Association, March of Dimes, Duke Medical School, and Baylor College of Medicine.
  Dr. Caskey recently directed a program of Precision Medicine with Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and Consultant to Human Longevity, Inc. His current research focuses on the application of whole genome sequence and metabolomics of individuals for identification of disease risk and disease prevention.
  Dr. Carmella serves as Director of the Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, IN, USA. Her research is focused on understanding the molecular pathways that lead to pancreatic β cell dysfunction in type 1 and type 2 diabetes and is funded by US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US Veteran’s Administration, and the JDRF. Dr. Evans-Molina is a Co-Executive Director of the Network for Pancreatic Organ Donors with Diabetes (nPOD), and she is an investigator in the NIH Type 1 Diabetes in Acute Pancreatitis Consortium and the Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet and RADIANT Networks.
  Dr. Green directs Preventive Genomics Clinic, the Genomes2People Research Program and the Precision Population Health initiative at Mass General Brigham, the Broad Institute, Ariadne Labs and Harvard Medical School. His work has provided early data on the clinical utility and cost-effectiveness of genomic sequencing in healthy adults (the MedSeq Project), in active duty military personnel (the MilSeq Project) and most recently in healthy newborn infants (the BabySeq Project). Dr. Green also leads policy for returning genomic information to research participants within the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health, Verily-Google Baseline Project and All of Us Research Program.
  Dr. Hakon is Director of the Center for Applied
  Genomics, Endowed Chair in Genomics Research and Professor of Pediatrics at The University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Hakonarson received his MD and PhD from the University of Iceland, School of Medicine. He leads a major commitment from CHOP to genomically characterize approximately 100,000 children, an initiative that has gained nationwide attention in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Time Magazine, Nature and Science. Dr. Hakonarson is a Principal Investigator within the Kids First program and the TopMed genomics program funded by the NIH.
  Dr. Hakonarson has previously held several senior posts within the biopharmaceutical industry, directing a number of genomics and pharmacogenomics projects as vice president of Clinical Sciences and Development at deCODE genetics, Inc. Dr. Hakonarson has been the principal investigator (PI) on multiple National Institute of Health- sponsored grants, and he was a principal investigator on the Neurodevelopmental Genomics: Trajectories of Complex Phenotypes, the largest research project ever supported by the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Hakonarson recently completed a clinical biomarker study in ADHD demonstrating strong efficacy and safety of a neuromodulator compound (NFC-1) in children with specific mutations in the glutamate metabotropic (mGluR) receptor family of genes with ADHD and Autism (www.ClinicalTrial.gov; Elia et al, Nat Comm, 2018).
  Dr. Amel Hassan MBBS, MSC pediatric & FRCPCH UK is a Senior Attending Physician in Pediatric Immunology & Allergy at Sidra Medicine. Beside her clinical commitment, she works closely with the Medical Education Office as a Director Of Undergraduate Medical Education. She is also the Vice Chair of the Children Clinical Guideline Committee (C-CGC)
  Dr. Hassan has over 17 years of extensive experience in caring for children with complex inherited primary immunodeficiency and their corrective stem cell therapies, including; HSCT, Gene therapy & Thymus Transplant. Her passion for the specialty field has been demonstrated by her contribution to research and publication in high impact journals.
  Before joining Sidra; She worked as the Clinical Division Head, in the Qatar Genome Program (QGP), an ambitious population-based project aiming to position Qatar among the pioneering countries in the implementation of Precision Medicine. She has a passion for the application of precision medicine to improve the outcome of children with Primary Immunodeficiency (PID).
  Dr. Adam is the John Beveridge Professor of Paediatrics and Head of School of Women’s and Children’s Health, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Sydney and a Paediatric Respiratory Consultant at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick. Jaffe trained predominantly in London and gained an MD thesis in gene therapy for children with cystic fibrosis (CF) from Imperial College, University of London in 2000. He has published >200 peer-reviewed publications, 9 book chapters and has co-edited 3 books. Jaffe has been associated with more than $22 million in grant awards including 9 NHMRC/MRFF as CI. His interests lie in the areas of cystic fibrosis, childhood respiratory infections, rare “orphan” lung diseases and asthma.
  Sr. Attending pediatrician at Sidra Medicine
  Associate Professor at Qatar University College of Medicine Associate Professor at Weill cornel Clerkship director of Pediatrics National health strategy Deput Head
  In addition to her clinical work, she is actively working on research, most recently working on whole genome sequencing of children with Autism spectrum disorder and Attention Deficit hyperactivity disorder
  Had presented her research outcome at national and international conferences and published at peer review journals
  Dr. Mustafa Khokha is a Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics at Yale University School of Medicine. He completed his pediatrics and pediatric critical care training at Washington University and UCSF. His research interest includes the discovery of candidate genes from patients with birth defects and other critical illness. Then using Xenopus, a high-throughput animal model, the khokha lab investigates pathogenesis mechanisms. Recently, a number of ion channels have been implicated in congenital heart disease. This is unexpected as these children suffer from structural heart disease and not arrhythmia. Our work demonstrates that the electrophysiology of early embryonic cells is can regulate pluripotency, an unexpected finding inspired by patients with birth defects.
  Dr, Laetsch an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania and Abramson Cancer Center and director of the Developmental Therapeutics Program and the Very Rare Malignant Tumors Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He also leads the Rare Tumor Disease Committee for the Children’s Oncology Group. Dr. Laetsch completed medical school at the University of California San Francisco, pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital of Colorado, and pediatric oncology fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Laetsch leads several pediatric early phase clinical trials of molecularly targeted therapies, including TRK and RET inhibitors
  Richard is a Diabetes UK Harry Keen Fellow and Senior Clinical Lecturer specializing in nephology, diabetes, and transplantation at the NIHR Exeter Clinical Research Facility. Richard finished his Diabetes UK funded PhD in 2014. He studies endogenous insulin production in people with type 1 diabetes. Using a new method developed by the NIHR Exeter team (urine C-peptide creatinine ratio), and using patients recruited as part of the Wellcome funded UNITED study, he studied endogenous insulin production in 1500 patients with type 1 diabetes and showed that most people with type 1 diabetes still make small amounts of their own insulin. He is now an Investigator on the JDRF funded TIGI study to look at mechanisms of persistent C-peptide secretion in Type 1 diabetes.
  Working with Mike Weedon he has developed a cheap simple method to assess genetic risk in type 1 diabetes – The T1D genetic risk score (T1D GRS). He has shown this can be used as a diagnostic test to differentiate type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and with Kash Patel has shown it can be used to identify monogenic diabetes. Recently Diabetes UK awarded Mike Weedon a project grant to further translate the T1D GRS into a tool that could be used in routine clinical care. With MIke Weedon, Bill Hagopian and the NIH funded SEARCH study, Richard is working of uses of the T1D GRS in the US population. The recent Harry Keen Career Development award and a Helmsley Foundation Breakthrough Grant funds him to study the causes of a rare subtype of type 1 diabetes - those who are diagnosed under the age of 1 year.
  Richard spent a period of his training at the University of Alberta with the world leading clinical islet transplant renal transplant programs. During this time he performed analysis of complications related to immunosuppression post-islet transplantation, and with Peter Senior and Shareen Forbes developed a new method to assess graft function - The Beta2 Score
  Dr. Scherer holds the GlaxoSmithKline-Canadian Institutes of Health Research Endowed Chair in Genome Sciences at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and University of Toronto (U of T) and he is Director of the U of T McLaughlin Centre, as well as The Centre for Applied Genomics at SickKids. His team contributed to the landmark discovery of global gene copy number variation (CNV) as a common form of genetic variation in human DNA. His group then identified CNV to contribute to the aetiology of autism and many other disorders, and the Database of Genomic Variants he founded facilitates hundreds of thousands of clinical diagnoses each year. Dr. Scherer has won numerous honors such as the Steacie Prize, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scholarship, the Killam Prize, and multiple Honorary degrees. He is a Fellow of CIFAR, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Royal Society of Canada. In 2014, he was selected as a Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate in Physiology and Medicine for “the discovery of large-scale copy number variation and its association with specific diseases”.
  Ma’n H. Zawati (LL.B., LL.M., Ph.D. (DCL)) is an Assistant Professor at McGill University's Faculty of Medicine and the Executive Director of the Centre of Genomics and Policy in the Department of Human Genetics. He is also an Associate Member of the Biomedical Ethics Unit and the Division of Experimental Medicine at McGill University. His research concentrates on the legal, ethical and policy dimensions of health research and clinical care, with a special focus on biobanking, data sharing, professional liability, and the use of novel technologies (e.g. mhealth apps, WGS, WES) in both the clinical and research settings. Prof. Zawati is funded by Fonds de Recherche du Québec, Genome Quebec and Genome Canada. His work is interdisciplinary, drawing together perspectives from law, ethics, bioinformatics, genomics, and policy. He’s also a frequent presenter on a variety of the most critical and topical issues in healthcare and the biosciences. He has appeared at 150+ international conferences, symposia, meetings, and has shared his expertise with universities, research ethics boards and law firms. Prof. Zawati has published 17 book chapters and 64+ peer reviewed articles in leading publications such as Nature Reviews Genetics, the Canadian Medical Association Journal, and the Journal of Law and the Biosciences. In 2015, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarship (stay at Oxford University) and was named a Royal Society of Canada Delegate for the IAP Young Scientists of the Year international symposium. In 2021, Prof. Zawati received his J1 FRQS Career Award.
  Laura obtained her PhD in language genetics from Oxford University in the lab of Anthony Monaco. She then went on to complete her post-doctoral training at King’s College London studying the genetics of childhood epilepsy. Following an Eli Lilly Innovation Fellowship working on NMDA receptors, she moved into the field of pain genetics and -omics for drug discovery at the same company. In early 2020 Dr Addis moved to GSK where she leads the program of recall-by-genotype studies in the Human Genetics Computational Biology department, as well as applied genetics research for novel drug target identification in both pain and epilepsy.
  Dr. Fowzan S Alkuraya is a Professor of Human Genetics at Alfaisal University and the Chairman of the Department of Translational Genomics at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center. He joined medical school (King Saud University) before turning 15 and graduated first in his class with first class honor. He did his pediatric residency at Georgetown University Hospital, followed by a fellowship in clinical genetics and another in molecular genetics at Harvard Medical School. He also did a postdoctoral research fellowship in the area of developmental genetics in the lab of Prof. Richard Maas at Harvard Medical School. He returned to his native Saudi Arabia to establish the Developmental Genetics Lab, which later evolved into the Center for Genomic Medicine at KFSHRC. He is an authority in the area of Mendelian genetics with more than 480 published manuscripts that describe his lab’s discovery of hundreds of novel disease genes in humans as well as many other seminal contributions to the field of human genetics as featured in profiles published by The Lancet and Science. He is a frequently invited speaker at local, regional and international conferences, on the editorial board of prominent human genetics journals, and the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including William King Bowes Award in Medical Genetics (first non-US based winner), King Salman Award for Disability Research and Curt Stern Award (first non-US based winner).
  Director of Khalifa University Center for Biotechnology and an Associate Professor at the Biomedical Engineering Department in Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
  Habiba alsafar is an Emirati research scholar who has a wealth of professional and educational experience. Her research interest is constructing the genomic structures of individuals of Arab descent to identify genomic segments that carry gene(s) that predispose to disease. Specifically, addressing diseases that are increasing in prevalence amongst the local communities of the UAE. Dr. Alsafar has identified a gene strongly associated with the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes among the Emirati population. This is the first Genome Wide Association Study of the UAE Bedouin population and first of its kind in the Middle East.
  Director, Department of Human Immunology and Cancer Program
  Dr. Davide Bedognetti, MD, PhD is the Director of the Human Immunology Department and Cancer Program at Sidra Medicine and serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, Qatar. Dr. Bedognetti joined Sidra in 2014.
  After obtaining the Board Certification in Medical Oncology by the University of Genova and Italian National Cancer Institute (IST) in 2008, he joined the Infectious Disease and Immunogenetics Section (IDIS) of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) where he completed his post-doctoral fellowship. From 2013 to 2014, he served as Director of the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) Center of Excellence at NIH Clinical Center. As an Investigator, his main research focus is to define determinants of immune responsiveness in tumors by using integrative genomic approaches.
  Dr. David has worked in the research and commercial areas of the pharmaceutical industry for over 25 years. Having worked on programmes for: AstraZeneca, GsK, Pfizer, Baxter, Novo Nordisk, and Novartis.
  Much of this work has involved the implementation of technology to address the gathering and analysis of patient data in clinical trials. In recent years David was the CTO for the BT for Life sciences suite of products designed to provide cost effective cloud solutions for research computing and the Chief Architect at Genomics England. Currently David is the Science and Programmes Director of the Qatar Precision Medicine Institute.
  Dr. Ceccarelli is Full Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Naples "Federico II" (Italy) where he serves as the Director of the Ph.D. Program in Computational and Quantitative Biology. He is also Deputy Scientific Director and PI at the Biogem Research Center. Michele has made several contributions in the field of computational systems biology developing novel methods to identify the main drivers of cancer progression and drug resistance in glioma and other cancers through the analysis and dissection of molecular networks. He also worked in the Pharma Industry, where he led the development and application of machine learning and large scale data science tools for accelerating clinical development and success of immuno-oncology therapies.
  Director – Immunology Program Principal Investigator – Full Level Translational Systems Biology Laboratory
  Dr. Chaussabel obtained his PhD from the University of Brussels in 1999. As a trained immunologist, he acquired expertise in the genomics and bioinformatics fields, with the use of whole genome transcriptional profiling tools as a postdoctoral fellow at the NIAID/NIH for the study of host-pathogen interactions. Prior to joining Sidra, Dr. Chaussabel developed a genomics and bioinformatics program at the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research in Dallas TX (2004-2010). He served as head of the Systems Immunology Division at the Benaroya research institute in Seattle WA (2010-2014) where he led studies investigating “genomic reprograming” that occurs in the blood of patients with infectious and autoimmune diseases as well as in response to vaccination.
  Said Ismail is the director of the Qatar Genome programme (QGP), one of the major national programs in the region. QGP is a population-based initiative designed around on a comprehensive strategy involving drafting regulations and policies; forging local research partnerships; establishing national genomic data networks; building local human capacity; and facilitating the integration of genomics into the healthcare system. QGP sheds light on the genetic makeup of Qataris as well as over 400 million Arabs whose genomes have always been underrepresented in the scientific literature. Dr Ismail, a Ph.D. graduate from the University of Oxford, has work experience extending into various fields including research, education and consultancy
  Dr Love gained his PhD (Biochemistry) at The University of Adelaide in 1982, then moved to the University of Auckland to study the genetics of thermophilic bacteria. He moved to Oxford in 1987 to study Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and discovered its orthologue, utrophin, then to Cambridge University, in 1991, to study Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 2.
  Dr Love returned to The University of Auckland in 1993 to undertake research into several heritable human disorders. He moved to Auckland City Hospital in 2007 as its Director of Diagnostic Genetics, then in 2017 became Division Chief in Pathology Genetics at Sidra Medicine.
  Dr. 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. We create and deploy novel techniques in next-generation sequencing and algorithms for: tumor evolution, genome evolution, DNA and RNA modifications, and genome/epigenome engineering. We also work closely with NIST/FDA to build international standards for these methods (SEQC2, IMMSA, and Epigenomics QC groups), to ensure clinical-quality genome measurements and editing. We also work with NASA to build integrated molecular portraits of genomes, epigenomes, transcriptomes, and metagenomes for astronauts, which help establish the molecular foundations and genetic defenses for enabling long-term human spaceflight.
  He has won the NIH’s Transformative R01 Award, the NASA Group Achievement Award, the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance Young Investigator award, the Hirschl-Weill-Caulier Career Scientist Award, the Vallee Scholar Award, the CDC Honor Award for Standardization of Clinical Testing, and the World Quant Foundation Scholar Award. He was named as one of the “Brilliant Ten” Scientists by Popular Science, featured as a TEDMED speaker, and called “The Genius of Genetics” by 92Y. He has 200 peer-reviewed papers and scholarly works that have been featured on the covers of Nature, Science, Cell, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Microbiology, and Neuron, as well as legal briefs cited by the U.S. District Court and U.S. Supreme Court. Coverage of his work has also appeared on the covers of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, TIME, The LA Times, and across many media (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN, PBS, NASA, NatGeo). He is an inventor on four patents, co-founded five biotechnology start-up companies, and serves as an advisor to many others. He lives with his daughter and wife in Brooklyn, NY.
  Dr. John Mattick is the Professor of RNA biology at UNSW Sydney. He was previously Chief Executive of Genomics England, where he developed the 2019-2023 UK National Vision and Plan for Genomic Healthcare. Prior to that he was Director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, where he established one of the first clinically accredited centres for genome analysis in healthcare. He has received many awards including the University of Texas Bertner Award for Distinguished Contributions to Cancer Research and the Human Genome Organisation Chen Medal for Distinguished Academic Achievement in Human Genetics and Genomic Research.
  Rafael Rosengarten CEO of Genialis, leads the company’s effort to integrate and mine vast and diverse sources of biomedical knowledge to realize the promise of precision medicine and therapeutic discovery. He spent nearly 20 years in biomedical research prior to Genialis, publishing in the fields of evolution, immunology, bioengineering and genetics. Rafael attended Dartmouth College and then Yale University, where he was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. He went on to postdoctoral training in Jay Keasling’s synthetic biology group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), where he co-invented the j5 DNA assembly design automation tool (which has since been commercialized by TeselaGen Biotechnology). This was followed by a National Library of Medicine fellowship in Biomedical Informatics at Baylor College of Medicine. In his free time, Rafael enjoys cooking and rock climbing, and raising heirloom tomatoes and two precocious children.
  Dr. Ingrid Scheffer is a physician-scientist whose work as a paediatric neurologist and epileptologist at the University of Melbourne and Florey Institute has led epilepsy genetics research over more than 26 years. She identified the first epilepsy gene in collaboration with Professor Samuel Berkovic and molecular geneticists, and many genes subsequently. She led the first major International League Against Epilepsy revision of the classification of epilepsies in 28 years (March 2017) and co-received the 2014 Australian Prime Minister’s Prize for Science. Professor Scheffer was elected to the Royal Society (London) in 2018 and in 2019 was elected as President of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.
  Dr. Aghaeepour is an Assistant Professor at Stanford University. His laboratory develops machine learning and artificial intelligence methods to study clinical and biological modalities in translational settings. He is primarily interested in leveraging multiomics studies and wearable devices to address global health challenges. His work is recognized by awards from numerous national and international organizations including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the March of Dimes Foundation, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.
  Dr. Awwad has 25 years of experience as a Fertility Consultant. After completing a fellowship training in Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility at the Massachusetts General Hospital – Harvard Medical School, he joined the American University of Beirut Medical Center where he set the foundations for In Vitro Fertilization and Minimally Invasive Surgery. He then received his certification in Embryology and Andrology from the American Board of Bioanalysis as a high complexity laboratory director (HCLD). Dr. Awwad is a Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and founding Head of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility at the American University of Beirut Medical Center. He is also the founder of the Cryopreservation and Pre-Implantation Genetic programs at the same institution. Dr. Awwad has a reputation of providing individualized care to couples in a compassionate manner. In addition to his clinical expertise, he is an invited speaker to many international scientific meetings and is the author of more than 110 publications. He has been past President of the Middle East Fertility Society and has recently received the STAR Award at the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.
  Dr. Spyridon is a highly experienced consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist at Sidra Medicine. He is a specialist in infertility and IVF and has a wealth of experience in general gynecology.
  He completed his higher specialist training in Obstetrics and Gynecology in the UK (Manchester Deanery) where he also worked as an NHS consultant.
  Dr. Chouliaras completed an Advanced Training Skills Module in Subfertility and Reproductive Endocrinology from RCOG, at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester, a world class specialized University hospital for Women and Children.
  He has a fellowship in Reproductive Medicine and Surgery from the Assisted Conception Unit from St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. Dr. Chouliaras worked at Create Fertility (London -St Paul’s), one of the largest private IVF providers in London where he established and led the hysteroscopy department.
  Professor and Consultant in Obstetrics and Maternal Fetal Medicine, University College London
  Director, EGA Institute for Women's Health,
  Anna is Director of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Institute for Women’s Health at University College London in London and an Honorary Consultant in Obstetrics and Maternal Fetal Medicine at UCL Hospital. Clinically she specializes in fetal medicine, severe congenital disease, fetal growth restriction and prevention of preterm birth. Her research team is developing novel prenatal therapies using stem cells and gene therapy. She is part of the BOOSTB4 consortium performing the first clinical of in utero stem cell transplantation for osteogenesis imperfecta. She has led development of the first standardized Maternal and Fetal Adverse Event Terminology: MFAET version 1.0, for use in clinical trials of pregnancy interventions.
  Dr. El Hajj is Assistant Professor of Genomics and Precision Medicine at the College of Health and Life Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He obtained his PhD and completed his postdoctoral training at the Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Würzburg (Germany). He later joined Baylor College of Medicine as research associate. His main research interests are in epigenomics and epigenetic etiology of human diseases. Dr. El Hajj has published over 50 research articles, many in leading journals. In 2012, he was awarded the young investigator award of the European Society of Human Genetics.
  Dr Nusrat Fazal is a senior Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist with over 20 years clinical experience, working at Sidra Medicine since August 2018. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist of London and Faculty member of Weil Cornell Medical College.
  Along with Extensive experience in all areas of General Obstetrics and Gynecology she holds advanced skills in Fetal Medicine, Early Pregnancy Problems, Emergency Gynecology, Ultrasound Scanning and Problems of Labor/Delivery
  Prior to joining Sidra, she worked as consultant obstetrician at Great Western Hospital UK. She was trained at Imperial College London NHS trust which is a well renowned tertiary care hospital of United Kingdom.
  Her obstetric expertise includes but not limited to care of both high risk and low risk pregnancies, pregnancies with medical problems, mental health issues, previous pregnancy losses, preterm labor, multiple pregnancy and fetal surveillance with ultrasound scan.
  Surgical expertise includes complex operative deliveries (cesareans and instrumental) pelvic floor repairs, benign gynae procedures, cervical cerclage and of course the art of vaginal delivery!
  She promotes normality and safety in child birth .Her passion for quality improvement is evident by Excellence awards she received for innovation in practice and patient experience.
  Dr. Fenizia is a molecular immunologist focused on virally transmitted infectious diseases. Currently, he is Assistant Professor at the University of Milan, Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, Milan, Italy, with a 10-year experience in academic research, five of which spent abroad. In fact, he was employed at National Cancer Institute (NCI/NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA), focused on transcription factors involved in the immunological antiviral response and on vaccine development. He is now fully committed to SARS-CoV-2 research, with a particular interest on the potentially detrimental impact of the infection on pregnancy, producing pivotal results among the firsts. His seminar will be on “in-utero SARS-COV-2 vertical transmission”.
  Dr. Ramkumar Menon, serves as Professor and Division Director of Basic and Translational Research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, at The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX. His research as a Reproductive Biologist and Immunologist spans over three decades. His lab’s current focus is on feto-maternal communication mediated by extracellular vesicles and their role in preterm birth. Dr. Menon has developed multiple models of microfluidic organ-on-chip technology for various intrauterine systems, to study intercellular interactions in human pregnancy and parturition. Dr. Menon’s research is funded by Federal, non-Federal and industrial agencies. He has authored over 250 peer-reviewed articles and mentored over 40 students so far.
  I am currently a consultant in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Al Wakra Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation and an Assistant Professor in Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine, Qatar. I had my primary medical degree in Ghana and my postgraduate training in the UK with a Fellowship in Reproductive Medicine/Assisted Conception. I obtained my MRCOG in 2009 and CCT in 2014.
  I worked as a consultant in Obstetrics and Gynecology/Assisted Conception at the Homerton Hospital in London prior to relocating to Qatar.
  Dr. Ortashi is an experienced Gynecologist & Obstetrician, with over 20 years’ experience, he completed his training in Cardiff and Bristol. Thereafter he worked as Lead for Gynecology & Colposcopy service at North Devon Hospital as well as NHS cervical cancer hospital based program coordinator for North Devon Region. He was member of South East lead colposcopiests committee and member of Devon gynecology oncology network. Dr. Ortashi has an excellent experience in obstetrics that expand over three continents and consolidated by working under different settings and resources. He is well known regional figure in advanced pelvic and laparoscopic surgery. Before joining Sidra he was working for UAE University and Mediclinic Hospital and was coordinator for Abu Dhabi cervical cancer screening committee and member of UAE national cancer reduction committee. Dr Ortashi is sitting on many regional academic committees as well as on many advisory boards For HPV vaccination. He has published many original research on screening for cervical cancer & HPV vaccination.
  Accademic title : Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
  Head of the Obstetric and Gynecological Clinic
  Dept of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences L.Sacco
  Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
  My research mainly concers viral infections in human reproduction and during pregnancy.
  Professor Snyder completed his postdoctoral training at Stanford School of Medicine in the laboratory of Dr. Ronald Davis. There he was involved in several projects including establishment of successful cloning of genes using antibodie.
  Professor Snyder moved to Yale as an Assistant Professor in 1986 in the Department of Biology.
  He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1994, then he became chair of the new MCDB department in 1998. He was also the Director for the Center for Genomics and Proteomics at Yale University.
  In 2009 Professor Snyder moved to Stanford University to Chair the Genetics Department and to direct the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine.
  Snyder was elected and has served as President of US Human Proteome Organization (2006–2008) and Human Proteome Organization (2017-2018). He has served on numerous scientific advisory committees (e.g. EMBL Scientific Advisory Committee) and is on the Genetics Society Board of Directors (2006–2009).
  Prof. Rachel Tribe, Professor of Maternal and Perinatal Science in the Dept. of Women and Children’s Health at King’s College London, trained as a physiologist, leads a multidisciplinary group whose research focuses on parturition and preterm birth. Key interests include preterm birth biomarkers, the innate immune system/ microbiota of the female reproductive tract and ion channel physiology. She is a co-investigator of the Precise Network (precisenetwork.org) and leads on preterm birth projects in sub-Saharan Africa. She co-chairs the PREBIC Europe chapter. She will be speaking on preterm birth risk prediction and the need for clinically useful biomarkers.
  Alessandro Aiuti is Deputy Director, Clinical Research Coordinator, Head of Unit on Pathogenesis and Therapy of PID and Head of Pediatric Clinical Research Unit of SR-Tiget, Milan; Director of the Pediatric Immunohematology Unit, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan; full Professor of Pediatrics, and Director of the Residency Program of Pediatrics at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy.
  He is M.D., Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology. In 1998 he obtained the National Board in Hematology.
  His main interests are hematology, immunology and pediatrics, particularly in the study of Primary Immunodeficiencies (PID). His main domains of research are: HSC gene therapy for genetic diseases (PI or co-PI of 5 clinical trials: ADA-SCID, WAS, β-thalassemia, MLD and MPS1), clonal dynamics of hematopoiesis, genetics and pathogenesis of primary immunodeficiencies.
  Prof. Aiuti has been awarded the Else Kroener Fresenius Price for Medical Research 2020 for groundbreaking successes in the development of gene therapies.
  He has published more than 220 papers in international peer reviewed journal including New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Science, Nature Medicine, Lancet Haematol, J Exp Med, Blood, JACI, Mol Ther. Full list of his publications is available at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=aiuti+a&sort=date&size=50
  Dr. Bot is the Vice President of Translational Medicine at Kite, a Gilead Company, developing genetically engineered cell products for oncology indications. Dr. Bot has more than two decades of experience in biopharmaceutical industry with focus on discovery and development of immunotherapies. He obtained his M.D. in Romania in 1993 and his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York in 1998. Subsequently, he was a Guest Scientist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Prior to his appointment as Chief Scientific Officer at Kite Pharma in 2011 and then Vice President of Translational Medicine where he contributed to the development of first-in-class cell therapies for cancer, Dr. Bot served in various senior R&D leadership positions at MannKind Corp and Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp, La Jolla, California. His present or prior activities and appointments include scientific advisory boards (Elicio Therapeutics), editorial boards (Journal of Immunology, Journal of Translational Medicine, International Reviews of Immunology) and leadership appointments in global professional societies (Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer).
  Dr. Crystal is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Genetic Medicine at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, where he is also the Bruce Webster Professor of Internal Medicine, Director of the Belfer Gene Therapy Core Facility and Attending Physician at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. His laboratory focuses on gene therapy for human disorders and how human genetic variation in the context of the environment modulates susceptibility to organ dysfunction. In Qatar, his laboratory has collaborated with colleagues at the Qatar Biobank, Sidra and Hamad Medical Corporation to develop QChip1, a Qatari-specific microarray to help screen the population for hereditary and acquired disorders.
  Director of Translational Cancer Research Facility
  National Center for Cancer Care and Research, Hamad Medical City, Hamad Medical Corporation
  Adjunct Associate Professor, College of Health and Life Sciences (CHLS), Hamad Bin Khalifa University
  Dr. Said Dermime is a highly experienced senior scientist in Cellular Immunology and Cancer Immunotherapy with more than 30 years of expertise in the fields of academia and research. He has also over 20 years of experience in establishing research groups and/or departments. The specific areas of his expertise include mechanisms of immune escape in cancer, tumor antigen-specific immune responses, cancer immunomodulation, and the characterization and expansion of tumor specific T cells in cancer patients. Dr. Said obtained his PhD degree in immunology from Salford University, Manchester, UK in 1992. He then joined the NCI, Milan (Italy) from 1992-1994; then the NHLBI, NIH, (USA) from 1995-1997 as postdoctoral fellow. He was a Leader of the Lymphoma-Cancer Vaccine Team at the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, Manchester (UK) for a period of 5 years; then he was appointed as Senior Scientist to establish and lead the Tumor Immunology Section at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, Riyadh (KSA) for a period of 6 years. In 2015, Dr. Said joined NCCCR at HMC, Doha (Qatar) as a director of the Translational Cancer Research Facility. Dr. Said published over 77 peer-reviewed articles in high impact factor journal.
  Dr. Elawad has his training in Pediatric gastroenterology at Great Ormond Street, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Oxford John Radcliff Hospital and King’s College Hospital. He worked as a consultant Paediatric gastroenterologist at University Hospital of Wales and Birmingham Children’s Hospital before he rejoined Great Ormond Street Hospital in 2002 as a consultant gastroenterologist and senior lecturer at the University College of London. He joined Sidra Medical and Research Center in 2014 as a Chief of Paediatric Gastroenterology and a section head of inflammatory bowel disorders.
  He has been the head of the department at Great Ormond Street since 2007 until he joined Sidra. During this period he led the department to the largest ever expansion and restructure of the service to attract 3 main nationally funded programs that included gut rehabilitation and small bowel transplant, intestinal pseudo-obstruction. He then became the founder and the director of the first worldwide pioneering program for Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant for autoimmune and inflammatory gut diseases. He was also the director of the department international collaboration “ImproveCareNow”, which involves 87 pediatric gastrointestinal units in the United States, with GOSH being the only center outside the United States. This collaboration sets the standards of management of children with inflammatory bowel diseases and is a unique quality improvement and research tool that attracts more than 20,000 patients. He was also the co-founder of the European GENIUS group that oversees the diagnosis and the treatment of children with Early onset inflammatory bowel diseases.
  Dr. Elawad was a member of the clinical committee of ImproveCareNow, member of the council of CAPGAN and member of the inflammatory bowel disease working group for BSPGHAN. He was also the co-author of the worldwide strategy for implementation of pediatric endoscopy produced by the FISPGHAN.
  Dr. Elawad has been a senior lecturer at the Institute of Child Health – University College of London.
  Dr. Massimo Gadina is the Director of the Office of Science and Technology (OST) and Chief of the Translational Immunology Section at National Institute of Arthritis Musculoskeletal and Skin diseases at the NIH. Prior to this appointment, he was Senior Lecturer in the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, The Queen’s University of Belfast, (UK). He is also the Editor in Chief for the Journal Inflammation.
  Dr. Gadina co-authored over 120 papers. His research interests are focused on the biology of cytokines and their role in immune-mediated diseases. He has been investigating the effects of the JAK inhibitors on immune cells and in animal models of autoimmunity and inflammatory diseases. He has also been involved in several translational studies that have defined the molecular basis of major Mendelian autoinflammatory and immunological diseases.
  Director - Deep Phenotyping Core Principal Investigator – Associate Level Deep Phenotyping Core
  Dr. Jean-Charles Grivel obtained a Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Aix Marseille II in 1993. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NIH, USA) and became a Staff Scientist in 2000 at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. He pioneered the development of human organ culture for studying the pathogenesis of HIV, Human Herpes Viruses and Measles virus as well as their interactions, which led to the granting of two patents. Dr Grivel has developed several high dimension immunoassays for the quantification of viral antigens and other immune system related proteins. He has also developed several flow cytometric methods for characterizing antigen-specific cellular responses as well as submicron particles. These methods are used for studying the role of microvesicles in heath and disease, especially in cardiovascular disease and cancer as well as to characterize the antigenic composition and maturation of viral particles. Dr Grivel has received the NIH Award of Merit in 2006. Dr Grivel has authored 94 peer reviewed publications, mentored several PhD students and postdoctoral fellows. He currently directs the Deep Phenotyping of Sidra Medicine holds an Adjunct Associate Professor position at Hama Bin Khakifa University in Doha.
  Dr. Marincola is President and Chief Scientific Officer at Refuge Biotechnologies, Menlo Park, California, a synthetic biology spinoff from Stanford University, Lei Stanley Qi laboratory focused on cellular reprogramming for multiple applications including oncology, regenerative medicine, metabolic and autoimmune disorders. He was previously Distinguished Research Fellow at AbbVie Corporation; Chief Research Officer at Sidra Research, Qatar; and Tenured Investigator at the National Institutes of Health, Maryland. Dr. Marincola founded in 2003 the Journal of Translational Medicine and is the Editor-in-Chief. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Translational Medicine Communications. He is past-president of the Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) and the International Society for Translational Medicine. He edited several books including the SITC-affiliated Cancer Immunotherapy Principles and Practice Textbook. Dr. Marincola is also an award winning fiction author of The Wise Men of Pizzo and Cat Behind the Window.
  Paolo Martini is the Chief Scientific Officer for Rare Diseases, Hematology and Rare Alliances at Moderna. With more than 20 years of experience in drug discovery working on molecular mechanisms underlying monogenic and multigenic metabolic and fibrotic disorders, his laboratory is focused on identifying novel therapies and applying translational approaches for drug development in Rare Diseases and Hematology disorders. Currently exploring the identification of several targets and key animal models for translating messenger RNA therapeutic in human patients.
  Previously at Shire Pharmaceutical in Lexington, MA, as Senior Director of Discovery Biology and Translational Research, Massachusetts, his focus was on fibrotic diseases of muscle, kidney, skin, lung, bone marrow and metabolic liver diseases with particular emphasis on different therapeutic modalities for pathway modulation. He has been supporting phase 1 and 2 clinical studies for lysosomal storage and chronic kidney diseases.
  He has also worked at EMD-Serono prior to Shire in Discovery Research. After graduating at the University of Milan, Italy, he moved to Germany for a post-doctoral work at Schering AG (now Bayer) in Berlin, Germany, and then to the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign (USA). He has been collaborating with organizations supporting research and clinical development of rare metabolic disorders and fibrotic diseases and served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Keystone Symposia.
  Dr. William Mifsud is a Attending Physician in Anatomical Pathology at Sidra Medicine, where he is part of the team delivering paediatric and perinatal pathology services. Prior to joining Sidra Medicine, he worked as a paediatric pathologist at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, after training in paediatric and perinatal pathology at Great Ormond Street Hospital and University College Hospital, London, and general histopathology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. At Great Ormond Street, he held a UK National Institute of Health Research Academic Clinical Lectureship, which allowed him to pursue research in paediatric tumour genomics at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the UCL Institute of Child Health. Before training in pathology, Dr. Mifsud qualified in medicine and surgery from his native country of Malta and then did his PhD in Developmental Biology at the University of Cambridge.
  Dr. Mifsud’s clinical work spans the entire range of diagnostic paediatric and perinatal pathology, with special interest in the diagnosis of medical renal biopsies and paediatric renal tumours. His main research interests are in paediatric tumour evolution and its impact on clinical outcome, and more recently in the emerging area of digital pathology and specifically its impact on paediatric tissue diagnosis.
  Dr. Stanley Qi is an assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering, Department of Chemical and Systems Biology, and ChEM-H Institute at Stanford University. He obtained Ph.D. in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley, where he studied synthetic biology with Adam Arkin and CRISPR biology with Jennifer Doudna. He performed independent research as Systems Biology Faculty Fellow at UCSF, prior to joining Stanford faculty in 2014. Dr. Qi is one of the developers of the dCas9 technology and invented the original CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) and CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) technologies. His work greatly expanded the CRISPR toolbox beyond gene editing, with new technologies for targeted genome regulation, epigenome editing, 3D genome engineering, and chromosome imaging. His lab developed the first CRISPR-Cas13 as antivirals to treat SARS-CoV-2 and broad coronavirus infection. He won NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, Pew Scholar, Alfred. P. Sloan Scholar, NSF CAREER award, and ACS Synthetic Biology Young Innovator Award.
  Dr. Rosenberg is Chief of Surgery at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland and a Professor of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences and at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C. He is a Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.
  He pioneered the first effective immunotherapies for patients with advanced cancer. His studies of interleukin-2 directly resulted in the approval of this agent by the FDA for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma and renal cancer. He was the first to demonstrate the anti-tumor role of T lymphocytes in immunotherapy. He pioneered the development of gene therapy and was the first to successfully insert foreign genes into humans and to demonstrate the clinical efficacy of CAR-T.
  He received the highest awards from virtually every major organization involved in the study of cancer.
  He has published over 1100 papers in the peer-reviewed literature. His h-index of 185 continues to make him one of the highest cited clinician/scientists in the world
  Dr. Eliana Ruggiero received her Ph.D. in Life Sciences from the University of Heidelberg (Germany) in 2013, trained at the laboratory of Christof von Kalle. She focused her research on the exploitation of sequencing technologies for the characterization of the T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire. In 2015, she joined Chiara Bonini’s lab at San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan (Italy) with the aim of identifying new tumor-specific TCRs to be used in TCR-based immunotherapeutic approaches. Her work resulted in 25 publications and 2 patents.
  For the recognition of her scientific achievements, she has been awarded with international fellowships and her research has been supported by the Italian Ministry of Health. She has been nominated Young Investigator and presented her work at the WIC-SITC meeting in Maryland (USA) in 2019. In 2020, her research abstract submitted to ASGCT Annual Meeting was chosen for an Excellence in Research Award.
  Holm Uhlig is Professor of Paediatric Gastroenterology in the Translational Gastroenterology Unit, University of Oxford and Honorary Consultant, Children’s Hospital Oxford. After his medical training in Leipzig, Germany, he did a DPhil in Oxford and Medical residency in Germany. Holm's research focuses on the genetic and immunological basis of inflammatory bowel disease. His research aims to introduce clinical genomics into routine clinical care for patients with suspected monogenic forms of inflammatory bowel disease and translate understanding of mechanisms into treatments.
  Dr. Nahla Afifi earned her MBBCh with honors, Master of Anatomy and Embryology and Diploma of Gynecology and Obstetrics from Ain Shams University, Egypt. She earned her PhD. with joints supervision from UMD, NJ, USA. She started her career as a Medical Researcher in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, UMD, NJ, USA then proceeded her academic career at Ain Shams University, Dubai Medical College for Girls, UAE and Qatar University. She was promoted to full professor of Anatomy and Embryology in 2007. In 2013 she joined QF as Education and Scientific Manager and in 2017 was appointed as the Director Qatar Biobank.
  Dr. Mohammed Bin Hamad Al Thani is graduated from the Faculty of Medicine – Cairo University in 1998. He completed his fellowship in Arab Board Program in Community Medicine in 2006. He gained the Fellowship from the Faculty of Public Health in London in 2010 and a master’s in business administration in 2014 from HEC Paris - France. Dr. Mohamed Bin Hamad Al Thani is Director of Public Health Department at the Ministry of Public Health since 2008. He is also Associate Professor of Clinical Healthcare Policy and Research at Weill Cornell Medical College and Qatar University. He developed programs to protect the health of individuals, families and community in Qatar and he placed a high priority in developing the first Public Health Strategy 2017-2022 in Qatar. He is continually conducting clinical research studies in the most ethical and safest manner possible to develop an integrated approach to health prevention and promotion. Dr. Mohamed Bin Hamad Al Thani has headed number of national committees including the National Preventive Health Committee.
  Dr. Salha Bujassoum is a Sr. Consultant, Medical Oncology at the National Centre for Cancer Care & Research. Chairperson of medical oncology and palliative, care medicine, director of cancer genetic. Since 2005 she is also the Clinical Lead of Breast cancer program, Lead of National Clinical Advisory Board of Qatar Breast Cancer, Director of cancer Genetics and assistant chair Precision Medicine Committee at HMC. In 1992 she obtained Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and received the Specialty Certificate in Internal Medicine/Hematology from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Toronto. She served on many HMC committees including hospital research committee, Qatar medical board committee. Her research activities focused in breast, gynaecological malignancy, and cancer genetics. She has multiple active grants from QNRF She is a lead of clinical advisory for Cerner oncology solution implementation team 2015. Clinical lead with UHN–HMC collaboration breast site 2016.
  Dr. Khalid A. Fakhro is the Chief Research Officer at Sidra Medicine and the Director of the healthcare facility’s Precision Medicine program. As the CRO for Sidra Medicine, Dr. Khalid Fakhro is responsible for designing and implementing the healthcare organization’s ambitious research strategy to advance precision medicine in Qatar and to place Sidra Medicine among the top destinations for personalized care in the world. Under Dr. Fakhro’s leadership, scientists in the Research Branch at Sidra Medicine, have made important strides to improve diagnosis of rare genetic conditions. They have also contributed towards Qatar’s efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, through the development of new testing methods and the publication of studies in conjunction with international collaborators. Prior to joining Sidra Medicine, Dr. Fakhro was part of the Department of Genetic Medicine at Weill-Cornell Medicine in Qatar. He graduated with Honors from the University of Chicago (USA) and later completed his PhD in Human Genetics at Yale University (USA)
  Dr. Khalid is member of the International Faculty for the Pediatric Epilepsy Training Courses (IPET) of the British Pediatric Neurology Association (BPNA) , member of the International Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) group and member of the British Pediatric Neurology Association (BPNA).
  His current role is Chief of the Pediatric Neurology Division, HMC, Qatar.
  Before his current role, Dr. Khalid was Pediatric Neurology Fellowship Program Director, HMC and Clinical Lead for Epilepsy Service in North London, UK.
  He also was Member of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN).
  He published many articles and research work in peer reviewed journals and he is Principle Investigators in 4 large funded, ongoing research projects.
  Khaled Machaca is Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine and serves as the Senior Associate Dean for Research, Innovation and Commercialization for the Qatar campus. In that capacity he oversees the academic, financial, operational and compliance aspects of the research department. He also serves as the designated institutional official overseeing the animal research program and as the director of the imaging core. The Machaca Lab is interested in intracellular signaling under physiological and pathological conditions with a focus on calcium signaling. Our goal is to better define these signaling pathways at the cellular and molecular levels to identify potential therapeutic targets in various disease states. We are particularly interested in the role of Calcium influx in cancer, cardiovascular and immune disfunction. Khaled serves of several editorial boards, reviews widely for scientific journals and granting agencies, and has an extensive track record of training students and postdoctoral fellows.
  Rayaz Malik graduated in Medicine from the University of Aberdeen in 1991, obtained his MRCP (London) in 1996, PhD from the University of Manchester in 1997 and was elected to become a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 2007. He was appointed as Consultant Physician and Senior Lecturer in 2001 and as Professor of Medicine and Consultant Physician in 2008 in Central
  Manchester University Teaching Hospitals and the University of Manchester. In 2014 he was appointed as Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and remains an honorary Professor of Medicine at the University of Manchester and visiting Professor of Medicine at Manchester Metropolitan University. He was appointed as the Organizational Official in November 2016 and as the Assistant Dean for Clinical Research at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar in February 2019. His research focuses on the pathogenesis, assessment and treatment of diabetic and other peripheral neuropathies and central neurodegenerative disorders. The research is funded by the NIH, JDRF, QF, ECTRIMS and MJFF. Over ~20 years he has pioneered the use of corneal confocal microscopy, a non-invasive ophthalmic instrument, to quantify neurodegeneration in diabetic and other peripheral neuropathies and more recently in patients with Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Stroke, Dementia, Autism and long-COVID.
  Dr. Hadi is the Head of the Professional Development and Scientific Research Department at the Qatar Cancer Society (QCS); and the representative member of the QCS in the National Cancer Committee in Qatar, the Gulf Federation for Cancer Control, the Union International for Cancer Control, the World Ovarian Cancer Coalition, and the All.Can International.
  Dr. Hadi graduated from the University of Aleppo – Faculty of Medicine in Syria and completed his post-graduate training at the University of Iowa in the USA.
  Dr. Kakil Ibrahim Rasul has completed his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBchB) from the College of Medicine, University of Mosul in 1978. He completed his Certificate of Arab Board for Medical Specialization in Baghdad, Iraq in 1989, MRCP (UK), Royal College of Physicians and Surgeon of Glasgow (U.K) in 2000 , FRCP Edin (UK) Royal College of Physician, Edinburgh of Glasgow (U.K) in 2004 and has been granted an ESMO Certificate (European Society for Medical Oncology) in 2004 and recertified in 2009. He is a Senior Consultant in Haem/ Oncology in the National Center for Cancer Care and Research in Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar and an Associate Professor in Clinical Medicine at Weil Cornell Medical College in Qatar. He leads the Hepatobiliary Pancreatic Multidisciplinary Team and a core member of the Gastrointestinal Multidisciplinary Team, Hamad Medical Corporation. He is also an active member of ESMO and ASCO, a core member of both Colorectal and Hepatobiliary MENA-NCCN guidelines panels tasked to modify and develop guidelines.
  Dr. Ayman Saleh joined Sidra Medicine in 2017. He currently serves as the Division Chief of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology & Bone Marrow Transplant, as well as the Chairman of the IRB and multiple other committees at Sidra Medicine.
  Completed his internship and residency and served as chief resident in general pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in 1992. He subsequently entered Pediatric Hematology/Oncology & Stem cell Transplant Clinical Fellowship at the University of Florida. He received clinical fellowship award from the American Cancer Society for 2 years 1993-1994. He successfully completed his training in 1995 then served as junior faculty at the same institution. Most recently, Dr. Saleh has added to his educational experience by the successful completion of Master in Public Health (MPH) program at Northeastern Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) in 2015.
  Dr. Saleh has over 30 years of experience in the field of pediatrics and pediatric hematology oncology, the majority of which have been devoted to research and delivery of health care to patients and families.