Invited Speakers


Sunday, 23 February

Opening Plenary Session
18:00-19:00
Kojo Elenitoba-Johnson

Kojo Elenitoba-Johnson

Kojo Elenitoba-Johnson


Dr. Elenitoba-Johnson is the inaugural Chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, James Ewing Alumni Chair of Pathology, and Member of the Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program (HOPP) at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Prior to this appointment, he was the Director of the Center of Personalized Diagnostics, and the inaugural Peter C. Nowell, M.D., Endowed Professor, in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Penn Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, at the University of Pennsylvania from 2015 to August 2022. He is a recognized pioneer in lymphoma proteomics, and a top leader in precision and integrated diagnostics. His work is notable for the identification and mechanistic elucidation of targetable genetic alterations underlying the pathogenesis of specific lymphoma subtypes. Dr. Elenitoba-Johnson has contributed to over 180 peer-reviewed manuscripts, numerous chapters and text books. His research is supported by 3 RO1 awards from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Elenitoba-Johnson is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the International Lymphoma Study Group. (2017) and has been recognized with numerous professional honors and awards, notably the Ramzi Cotran Young Investigator Award from the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, the Outstanding Investigator (Former Warner-Lambert-Parke Davis) Award from the American Society for Investigative Pathology and the William Gerald Award from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.


Monday, 24 February

Parallel Session 01: New Discoveries in Molecular Metabolism
9:15-10:35
Laura Cox

Laura Cox

Professor
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
United States

Laura Cox


The focus of my research is understanding the impact of maternal under-nutrition and maternal obesity during pregnancy on offspring cardiovascular health and aging using genomic and other omic methods. In recent work, my research group is using integrated "omic" approaches to better understand molecular networks underlying cardiovascular health and to identify molecules dysregulated in these networks prior to onset of clinical measures indicative of cardiovascular disease.

Parallel Session 02: (Pre-)clinical Proteomics - From Pre-Phase 1 to Phase 3
9:15-10:35
Forest White

Forest White

Forest White


Forest White is a Professor in the Department of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He received Ph.D. from Florida State University, completed a post-doc at the University of Virginia, and then joined MDS Proteomics where he developed phosphoproteomics capabilities in the company. In 2003 he joined the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. Research in his lab is focused on quantification of protein phosphorylation-mediated signaling networks and MHC peptide presentation in normal and pathophysiological conditions. Applications include novel drug target discovery in glioblastoma, melanoma, and triple negative breast cancer, as well as analysis of mechanisms underlying therapeutic resistance and metastasis. Forest is a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.

Parallel Session 03: Neuroproteomics
11:00-12:20
Tara Tracy

Tara Tracy

Assistant Professor
Buck Institute for Research on Aging
United States

Tara Tracy


Dr. Tracy received her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley where she studied synapse development. During her postdoctoral training at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Tracy investigated the toxic mechanisms that drive neuron dysfunction and cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Tracy's laboratory at the Buck Institute is investigating the synapse dysfunction in the brain that causes cognitive decline in aging and in neurodegenerative diseases. Research from the Tracy laboratory has uncovered a synapse repair mechanism that promotes resilience to tauopathy-related memory loss. In 2022, Dr. Tracy was awarded the McKnight Brain Research Foundation Innovator Award in Cognitive Aging & Memory Loss from the American Federation of Aging Research.

Parallel Session 04: Proteomics Meets Pharma: Compound, Phenotypic and MoA Screens
11:00-12:20
Jarrod Marto

Jarrod Marto

Principal Investigator and Professor
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School
United States

Jarrod Marto


Jarrod Marto, Ph.D., is a Principal Investigator at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the Department of Cancer Biology and an Associate Professor of Pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Since 2006 Dr. Marto has served as Director of the Blais Proteomics Center at Dana-Farber and more recently launched the Center for Emergent Drug Targets. Dr. Marto's research is focused on the development and use of state-of-the-art mass spectrometry and other bioanalytical techniques to understand how genomic alterations as well as the activity of chemical probes or clinical drugs manifest at the level of individual proteins, signaling pathways, or other compartments throughout the functional proteome. Dr. Marto has authored 200 peer-reviewed papers across the fields of bioanalytical chemistry, scientific instrumentation, mass-informatics, chemical biology, and cancer cell signaling. In addition, he is a founding member of Entact Bio and serves on the SAB of 908 Devices.

Parallel Session 05: Protein Networks - From Signaling to Interactions
13:40-15:00
Aleksandra Nita-Lazar

Aleksandra Nita-Lazar

Ph. D.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH
United States

Aleksandra Nita-Lazar


Dr. Aleksandra Nita-Lazar received her Ph.D. in biochemistry in 2003 from the University of Basel for studies performed at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, where she analyzed atypical protein glycosylation using mass spectrometry and protein biochemistry methods. After postdoctoral training at Stony Brook University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ludwig Cancer Foundation Fellow), where she continued to investigate post-translational protein modifications and their influence on cell signaling, she joined the Program in Systems Immunology and Infectious Disease Modeling, now the Laboratory of Immune System Biology, DIR, NIAID, NIH, in April 2009, as an independent investigator and Chief of the Cellular Networks Proteomics Unit. Dr. Nita-Lazar was granted tenure in December 2018 and she now continues her work as Senior Investigator and Chief of the Functional Cellular Networks Section. Her main research interests are protein state changes and networks regulating the host-pathogen interactions and macrophage activation.

Parallel Session 06: High Throughput Proteomics - Tackling 1000+ Samples
13:40-15:00
Roman Fischer

Roman Fischer

Roman Fischer


Roman Fischer is an associate professor at the Target Discovery Institute (TDI) and Centre of Medicines' Discovery (CMD) at the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford. He leads 2 proteomics focussed laboratories: the Discovery Proteomics Facility (DisPro, Academic Lead) and the Clinical Proteomics Group (CPG, Principal Investigator). DisPro engages in fundamental research collaborations involving protein-protein interactions, deep proteomes and PTM analysis using top end proteomics equipment (Orbitrap Astral, Orbitrap Ascend, TimsTOF HT, Q-Exactive). In the Clinical Research Group, RF focusses on own research interests covering the technology driven disciplines of spatial and single cell proteomics as well as high-throughput proteomics. The dedicated lab uses a TimsTOF Ultra 2, TimsTOF Flex, Leica LMD7, Leica Mica and CellenOne to develop specific workflows to address spatial proteome organisation in pathology, with a focus on cancer and its triggered immune response in specific cell compartments of the immune system. RF has published >250 peer reviewed manuscripts, which acquired >14000 citations (h-index 63) and is an established leader in the field of proteomics with >20 years of experience in this area. DisPro and CPG have links to all major hospitals in Oxford and long-standing collaborations with most departments across the University, facilitating close interaction and collaboration with clinical PIs with access to study and trial samples.


Tuesday, 25 February

Parallel Session 07: Proteomics Beyond Mass Spectrometry
9:15-10:35
Robert Gerzten

Robert Gerzten

Robert Gerzten


Coming Soon!

Parallel Session 08: Biofluids, Secretomes, and Extracellular Vesicles
9:15-10:35
Elena Aikawa

Elena Aikawa

Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
United States

Elena Aikawa


Dr. Elena Aikawa is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Naoki Miwa Distinguished Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She also serves as the Founding Director of the Heart Valve Translational Research Program, Head of Cardiovascular Life Sciences, and Co-director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Cardiovascular Sciences (CICS). Dr. Aikawa's research focuses on the development of new therapies to prevent and treat calcific aortic valve stenosis, a disease for which valve replacement remains the only treatment option. Early in her career, she pioneered the discovery of early pre-calcific changes in aortic valves that lead to aortic stenosis. More recently, she has developed a detailed map of proteomic changes in human calcifying valve layers, linking basic scientific findings to advanced imaging for early detection and preventive treatment. Dr. Aikawa also served as Chair of the ATVB Women's Leadership Committee of the American Heart Association until 2022 and was the first female President of the International Society for Applied Cardiovascular Biology (ISACB) from 2016 to 2021. To honor her outstanding mentorship, the ISACB recently established the "Elena Aikawa Trailblazer Award", recognizing women who have made significant contributions to applied cardiovascular research. Most recently, Dr. Aikawa has been selected as a Fellow in the 2024-2025 Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program, a prestigious nationwide fellowship for women faculty.

Parallel Session 09: ECR Session: Down in the Dumps: Treasure from Troubleshooting
11:00-12:20
Ryan Julian

Ryan Julian

UC Riverside

Ryan Julian


Ryan Julian is a professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside, where he leads a mass spectrometry research group. Dr. Julian obtained his PhD in 2003 at Caltech under the guidance of Jack Beauchamp, focusing on a variety of molecular recognition and ion chemistry projects. He pursued postdoctoral training for two years focused on instrumentation and ion mobility with David Clemmer and Martin Jarrold at Indiana University. Since 2005 in his own lab at UCR, research interests have spanned a broad range of subjects including gas-phase ion chemistry, radical-directed dissociation, antioxidant capacity, and the development of a variety of MS-based structural tools. Most recently, a particular interest in the study of isomerization in long-lived proteins and how these modifications relate to age-related diseases has become a major focus.

Parallel Session 10: Proteomics in Biopharm Drug Development
11:00-12:20
Abraham Lenhoff

Abraham Lenhoff

Abraham Lenhoff


Coming Soon!

Parallel Session 11: Emerging Opportunities in Proteomics (outside the box)
13:40-15:00
Keenan Walker

Keenan Walker

Tenure-Track Investigator
National Institute on Aging (NIA) | NIH
United States

Keenan Walker


Dr. Walker is a Tenure-Track Investigator at the National Institute on Aging's Intramural Research Program. His research program focuses on understanding the role of abnormal immune function and inflammation in Alzheimer's disease and late-life cognitive decline. He uses proteomic, genetic, and multimodal neuroimaging methods applied to large longitudinal cohort studies to understand disease biology and identify novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers. Other areas of research include understanding the mechanisms leading to cognitive decline following major infection, and evaluating the role of vascular risk factors and physical frailty in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

Parallel Session 12: Proteomics Beyond the Primary Protein Structure
13:40-15:00
Lan Huang

Lan Huang

Lan Huang


Coming Soon!


Wednesday, 26 February

Parallel Session 13: Proteoforms and PTMs in Health and Disease: From Discovery to Therapeutics
9:15-10:35
Lilly Pasa-Tolic

Lilly Pasa-Tolic

Lilly Pasa-Tolic


Coming Soon!

Parallel Session 14: Computational Proteomics: Adding Value to Proteomics Data with or without AI
9:15-10:35
Nuno  Bandeira

Nuno Bandeira

Nuno Bandeira


The Bandeira Lab research at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) focuses on the development of algorithms and big data computational platforms for community-driven consensus interpretation of mass spectrometry data in proteomics, small molecules and therapeutic drug discovery. While the drive towards data sharing has already led to the accumulation of petabytes of mass spectrometry data in tens of thousands of datasets, the unfortunate reality is that only a very small percentage of all raw data has any reusable annotations with even minimal statistical controls. We propose to address this challenge by combining systematic reanalysis with crowdsourced platforms linking public data directly to research data, thereby engaging the whole community in the determination of consensus interpretation of the data - the main vision underlying the foundations of our global mass spectrometry data sharing platforms MassIVE (focused on proteomics data) and GNPS (focused on metabolomics and natural products data). To date, this process has already revealed hundreds of novel proteins, thousands of novel post-translational modified peptides and has increased dataset annotations by several fold. Professor Nuno Bandeira was awarded the ASMS Biemann medal and the US HUPO Gilbert S. Omenn Computational Proteomics Award, and currently holds a joint appointment at the UCSD Department of Computer Science and Engineering and at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy, as well as the Executive Director of the Center for Computational Mass Spectrometry.