SPEAKERS

Frances Balkwill is Professor of Cancer Biology at Barts and The London, School of Medicine & Dentistry and lead the Centre for Cancer and Inflammation in its Institute of Cancer.  She studies the links between cancer and inflammation being especially interested in translating knowledge of cancer biology into new biological treatments for cancer, and in the role that inflammatory cytokines play in cancer promotion. Fran runs a research centre of approximately 25 scientists, postgraduate students and clinicians.  The Centre is divided into groups, Cytokines and Cancer led by Fran, and Tumour Microenvironment led by MRC clinician scientist Thorsten Hagemann. Read more »»

Karina Fog, Head of Molecular Neurobiology, H. Lundbeck A/S. " I am heading a Research Department of around 30 people with the main responsibility being the identification and validation of new targets for the treatment of disorders in the Central Nervous System. Also I am chairing our Parkinson's Disease Team which is a cross-divisional team responsible for the initiation of research activities within Parkinson's disease at Lundbeck. In both positions establishing and maintaining good collaborations with Academic groups at Universities plays a key role."

Chris Freeman's interest in research is motivated by an intense fascination with the environment, and a realisation that carefully planned hypothesis-driven environmental manipulations can help us to uncover the fundamental processes driving the long term stability of our planet. His current work on molecular scale regulation of peatland carbon cycling is now revealing an unexpected degree of complexity in this key component of the global carbon cycle; It has also revealed the overriding importance of a single enzyme type (phenol oxidase) in regulating the sequestration of atmospheric carbon at a global scale.

Marina Heinonen Read more »»

Anu Hopia Read more »»

Jill Jönsson is part of CASCADE, a European Union funded Network of Excellence in research, risk assessment, and education concerning endocrine-disrupting chemicals in food items in 2004. Today more than 200 senior scientists, post docs and PhD students are working within CASCADE to study effects and interactions of mixtures of these chemicals. CASCADE introduces a novel concept in the field of food testing and food safety where highly innovative molecular biology techniques, transgenic animals, metabolism, chemical detection and in silico techniques are merged to test whole food items. She is currently working on the the CASCADE baby food project where industrially processed formulas or solid foods meant for babies has been analyzed. The results so far show that in solid food, there was a tendency of elevated bisphenol A (BPA) levels. In the infant formula, the levels were undetectable or low. Some of the tested formulas demonstrated hormonal activities, i.e. activated hormone receptors in the test systems. Soy-based infant formulas were high in phyto-estrogenic content (genistein). In all tested baby food, the levels of dioxins and PCBs were undetectable.

Raili Leino has studied physics at the University of Helsinki but has made a career as a science journalist at Yleisradio (Finnish broadcasting company), Suomen luonto -journal, Insinööriuutiset -journal (later known as Tekniikka & Talous) and as a free lancer. She has also written articles for Tietoviikko and other journals of their company and has created net pages. Furthermore, she has written news features for television it-news that have been co-produced by Tietoviikko and Yleisradio. Raili has been chairwoman of Science journalists´ association for two years and as a Finnish national representative in Europan Union of Science Journalists´ Association (EUSJA) for four years.

Kevin V. Morris is Assistant Professor in The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California. This year the American Society of Cell and Gene Therapy nominated him as Outstanding New Investigator. Kevin Morris is specifically interested in utilizing antisense non-coding RNAs to regulate transcription of HIV-1 and genes involved in cancer. The lab is also interested in the discerning the underlying mechanism whereby natural antisense non-coding RNAs regulate gene transcription in human cells. Lentiviral derived vector systems and cell targeted aptamers and nanoparticles are employed to deliver non-coding RNA based modalities to target cells as well as to investigate the mechanistic interactions involved in natural antisense non-coding RNA mediated regulation of transcription.

Jerry Sedgewick is  all in one package of  teacher, researcher, writer, photographer and musician.  He is currently the director of biomedical image processing lab, at university of minnesota. He has 20 years of solid experience in professional photography and  specializes in digital imaging in the field of biosciences. He  is an expert consultant when it comes to optical imaging devices like light, confocal and multiphoton microscopes and has experience working with plethora  of other imaging devices.  He has written two books, "Quick Photoshop for Research: A Guide to Digital Imaging for Photoshop 5x, 6x, & 7x." and "Scientific Imaging with Photoshop: Methods, Measurement and Output" He has  book chapters and co-authorships of scientific papers (including two covers for "Science") to his credit.  He has also worked as a consultant for many companies involving novel imaging devices. He runs regular training sessions/courses in digital image analysis methods and also  maintains this pretty helpful  website for image analysis (http://www.imagingandanalysis.com/). 
Please visit the webpage  for more information about this artistic scientist:) (http://www.jerrysedgewick.com/about_jerry.html)

Carmen Vela is managing director at INGENASA, a biotechnology company based in Madrid, Spain, devoted to animal health. She is a biochemist with more than 25 years experience in immunology, virology and related fields. She is member of the Advisory Group of FP7 People Specific programme and the advisory committee of EUREKA and the Advisory Council of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. She is the Executive Board member of the European Federation of Biotechnology and as Vice President of the Spanish society for Biotechnology.

Niklas von Weymarn has a doctoral degree in fermentation technology, earned at the Aalto University in 2002. Today, he is an adjunct professor (docent) at Aalto University, teaching in biotechnology and biorefineries. After working at Cultor Technology Centre and Aalto University, Niklas moved to VTT. At VTT he has had several positions: Team Leader, Program Manager and currently Technology Manager. Niklas is currently also Program Manager of the Future Biorefinery research program, a national program within the Forest-SHOK (Forestcluster Ltd.). See the presentation