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Wolfram Altenhofem, Director of Scientific Services, Chemical Computing Group AG
Dr. Altenhofen’s background is Pharmacy. He received a PhD in Biophysics from the Research Centre Jülich / University of Tübingen. Between 1994 and 1997 he held several postdoc posts at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, the Commissariat d’Energie Atomique, Grenoble, and the Institute for Enzyme Technology, Jülich. In 1997 he joined Prof. Kubinyi’s life-science modeling group at BASF in Ludwigshafen. In 2000 launched the European operations of CCG as Director of Scientific Services and is now also supervising CCG’s operations in India.

Michael Boutros, Head, Signalling and Functional Genomics, DKFZ
Michael Boutros heads the Signaling and Functional Genomics Research Group at the German Cancer Research Center. His primary interests are in the systematic analysis of signaling pathways using genetic and genomic approaches. The signaling and functional genomics group works on cell communication and how dysregulation of signaling pathways leads to developmental defects and aberrant proliferation of cells that can cause cancer. Using genome-wide RNAi methods they attempt to build pathways and networks from the analysis of large-scale datasets. Michael Boutros has received his Ph.D. at the European Molecular Biology laboratory. He has studied Biochemistry and worked at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories and several years as a research fellow in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.

Julian Burke, Chief Scientific Officer and a Main Board Director, Genetix Group plc.
Previously Julian Burke was founder and CEO of Genpak Limited which developed DNA sequencing reagents and microarraying instrumentation, these were marketed and sold and to major genome centres and biotechnology companies.
Julian Burke is a visiting professor at the University of Southampton he has previously held positions at the University of Sussex, the MRC, Cancer UK London and the  Roswell Park Cancer Center, NY, USA. He has authored three books in molecular biology, he has 76 publications in refereed journals, 106 other scientific reviews, published abstracts etc. and three patents.

Julio Celis, Scientific Director, Institute of Cancer Biology and Danish Cancer Society, Danish Centre for Translational Research in Breast Cancer
Julio E. Celis is Professor and Director of the Institute of Cancer Biology at the Danish Cancer Society and is generally recognized as on of the founding fathers of proteomics. Julio Celis interest in proteomics started in 1973 while at the laboratory of molecular biology in Cambridge. His group in Aarhus introduced the use of protein identification techniques to map HeLa cell proteins and developed the first protein database in 1981. In the early 1980s, the group also laid out foundations for proteomics by annotating the databases with information gathered from applications to problems in cell biology. Together with J. Vandekerckhove he later introduced the use of large scale protein identification using microsequencing. Celis’ group in Copenhagen has pioneered the use of proteomics to the analysis of bladder and breast cancer and introduced the concept of discovery-driven translational cancer research.

Leonard Fass, Director Academic Relations, GE Healthcare Born in London, Leonard Fass graduated with first class honours in Electrical Engineering at Imperial College London. He subsequently obtained a Ph.D. in Materials Science at Imperial College. After initially performing research into the optical and electronic properties of semiconductors he has spent the last 37 years in the field of medical technology in R&D and marketing roles. As head of the Physics Research Group at the 3M Company in Italy he played a key role in the development of the first rare earth based fluorescent intensifying screens for diagnostic X-Ray systems and was granted a US patent for a solid state image intensifier for X-Rays in 1974. At EMI he was a pioneer in the developing the early CT market in Italy. After the acquisition of EMI by GE he became country manager in Italy responsible for the marketing and sales of all diagnostic imaging and cardiology equipment before returning to the UK to manage the European CT and MRI business. He is currently responsible at a European level for relations with major academic research institutions and other industry partners to develop collaborative projects in healthcare. He has advised institutions such as the Cambridge MIT Institute, the European Patent Office and the European Bioinformatics Institute. He has served on various congress steering committees including the Global Medical Forum, the International Workshop on Implantable Sensors, the NanoForum Congress and was Co-Chairman of the Bio-nanotechnology Patenting Congress. He is a member of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD for New and Emerging Health Related Technologies and the United States Council for International Business Health Care Working Group. He is on the Executive Council of the UK Technology Platform on Nanomedicine, the Strategy Group on Photonics of the UK Department of Trade and Industry.     

Stig Linder, Professor, Karolinska Institute
Active in the field of anticancer drugs, Stig linders has been at the Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institute, since 1989 and is the author of 100+ scientific publications. He also is scientific advisor of Peviva AB.

Xian-Ping Lu, Ph.D., Co-Founder, Member of the Board of Directors, President, and Chief Scientific Officer, Chipscreen Biosciences Ltds
Chipscreen Biosciences Ltds is the leading drug discovery company in China. Dr. LU also serves in several Advisory Committees for Biotech/Pharma/Life Sciences Division of different levels of Governments in China. Dr. LU finished his B.S. degree in Biochemistry from University of Sichuan in 1983. He obtained respectively M.S. in Biochemistry and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology in 1986 and 1988 from Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Dr. LU completed his Postgraduate Pharmacologist Fellowship study at the Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of California at San Diego between 1989 and 1992. He continued his postdoctoral research at La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation (Burham Institute) prior to participate in founding Galderma Research Inc. and Maxia Pharmaceuticals in San Diego in 1995. He was the Director of Research at Galderma R & D (a subsidiary of L’Oreal and Nestle) in Princeton till 2000. He became visiting professor at The State Key Laboratory for Biomembrane and Membrane Biotechnology in Tsinghua University in the same year. During this period, he has led a group of US-trained talented scientists to successfully found Chipscreen Biosciences Ltd. in Shenzhen. Dr. LU has more than 20 years biomedical research and biotech/pharmaceutical experiences in varieties of therapeutic area. He is a skilled leader of diverse groups within a global operating environment. During his career, he has published many research papers in journals such as Nature, Science, and Nature Medicine. He is the co-inventor of many inventions in area of small molecule therapeutics.

Stephen Minger, Director, Stem Cell Biology Laboratory, Wolfson Centre for Age Related Diseases, King's College London
Dr Stephen Minger is the Director of the Stem Cell Biology Laboratory and a Senior Lecturer in the new Wolfson Centre for Age Related Diseases at King's College London. Dr Minger received his PhD in Pathology (Neurosciences) in 1992 from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. From 1992-1994, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego, where he first began to pursue research in neural stem cell biology. In 1995, Dr Minger was appointed an Assistant Professor in Neurology at The University of Kentucky Medical School. He moved his stem cell research programme to Guy’s Hospital in 1996 and was appointed a Lecturer in Biomolecular Sciences at King's College London in 1998. Over the last 15 years, his research group has worked with a wide range of somatic stem cell populations, as well as mouse and human embryonic stem (ES) cells. In 2002, together with Dr Susan Pickering and Professor Peter Braude, Dr Minger was awarded one of the first two licenses granted by the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for the derivation of human ES cells. His group subsequently generated the first human embryonic stem cell line in the UK and was one of the first groups to deposit this into the UK Stem Cell Bank.
They have gone on to generate three new human ES cell lines, including one that encodes the most common genetic mutation resulting in Cystic Fibrosis. In addition to the derivation of human ES cell lines, the Stem Cell Biology Laboratory is focused on the generation of a number of therapeutically relevant human somatic stem cell populations from embryonic stem cells. These include cardiac, vascular, retinal, and neural stem/progenitor cell populations, as well pancreatic beta-cells and oligodendrocyte progenitors. Dr Minger has established highly productive collaborations with a number of specialist groups in many areas of clinical interest throughout the UK, and is one of the co-organisers of the London Regenerative Medicine Network, a grass-roots, research-led organisation designed to stimulate clinical translation of cell- and gene-based therapies within London.
He is also the Senior Editor of Regenerative Medicine, a new journal launched in Jan 2006 by Future Medicines. Dr Minger’s research is supported by the UK Medical Research Council, The European Union, GlaxoSmithKline PLC, The Novartis Institute, The Oliver Bird Foundation, The Wellcome Trust, The UK Department of Trade and Industry, The Huntington’s Disease Association, The Charitable Foundation of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, the BBSRC, and the EPSRC amongst others.    

Ulrich Pison, Professor, Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Editor in chief of the Nanotechnology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics Journal
Ulrich Pison is professor of anesthesiology and intensive care medicine since 2002 at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. He is the Program Director "Nanotechnology for medical applications" at the Charité since 2003. He is on the board of several medical societies and received numerous honors and awards for his research in pulmonary surfactant and intensive care medicine. He is author of more than 100 reviewed publications and editor in chief of the international journal “Nanotechnology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics”. He received his PhD in 1986 and his habilitation at the Freie Universität Berlin in 1996.

Andreas Sewing, Associate Director, Primary Pharmacology Group, Pfizer
The Primary Pharmacology Group is a centralized resource for all Pfizer Sandwich based therapeutic areas and generates primary pharmacology data for the Hit to Lead and Lead to Candidate process. The department brings together the essential elements for screening: Material Management, Screening Units, Reagent Provision and Data support and management functions. Dr. Sewing headed the automated HTS group at Sandwich for four years, applying single molecule detection technology to HTS, introducing routine screening in 1 microliter volumes and as uHTS of cell based assays in 1536 on Evotec MKIII and Robolab platforms. Prior to joining Pfizer, Dr. Andreas Sewing worked for SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals (High Throughput Screening & Assay Development) and Schering AG (High Throughput Screening). With a background in Cell- and Molecular Biology, Dr. Sewing initially joined SmithKline Beecham to establish reporter gene and other cell-based assays for high throughput screening. His postdoctoral work as EMBO and EC fellow was conducted at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London, working on cell cycle and tumorigenesis. Dr. Sewing has a Diploma in Theoretical Medicine (Human Biology) from the University of Marburg, Germany and is a Doctor of Physiology, University of Marburg, Germany.  

Tim Sparey, Associate Director, Licensing & External Research Europe, Merck, Sharp & Dhome
Tim joined the Licensing & External Research, Europe team of Merck Sharp & Dohme (the UK subsidiary of Merck & Co. Inc.) in August 2005 with the mandate to identify potential licensing opportunities across all relevant therapeutic and technology areas in the UK, Ireland & South Africa. A key responsibility is to establish and maintain relationships with pharmaceutical, speciality and biotechnology companies in addition to academic and governmental institutions. Previously he worked in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry for Merck Sharp & Dohme on a number of high profile discovery projects including those aimed at producing therapies for anxiety, depression, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease and new anaesthetics.

Colin Wyatt, Director of Business Development, Imperial College London
Colin is Director of Business Development for Imperial College London and is responsible for the College’s research collaborations with industry. Originally a medical physiologist, he has worked in the Life Sciences sector for over twenty five years, in the pharmaceutical industry and as a management consultant to many of the major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Before joining Imperial, Colin was Vice President of Cambridge Pharma Consultancy, a specialised pharmaceutical management consultancy, where he was Consulting Leader of the Commercial Strategy Practice. He previously held senior roles in companies such as Ernst & Young Consulting (Head of European R&D Practice), IBM (Head of European Life Science Consulting), PA Consulting and Eli Lilly. He has a 2nd. MB, BA and MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and a PhD in Medical Sciences from London University. He is a Chartered Management Consultant and Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultancy and Chartered Management Institute and a Member of the Institute of Directors.