Cardiovascular Medicine
orcid.org/0000-0002-5489-6450
Research interests: Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, clinical trial, medical statistics, trial-based or model-based health economics evaluation, clinical epidemiology, system review and meta-analysis
Tao Chen earned his first degree in medicine (2006), followed by MSc (2009) and PhD (2012) in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Peking Union Medical College.
He joined the Centre for Health Economics at University of York from Nov 2022. Prior to his role at York, he worked at University of Liverpool, Liverpool School of Tropic Medicine, King’s College London and Nanjing Medical University in China.
His research includes: 1) the trial based or model-based economic evaluation. 2) Statistical issues in design, analysis and reporting in clinical trials for medical and public health problems. 3) Disease modelling to assess the clinical and cost impacts from breakthrough trials or health policies locally and globally 4) Epidemiological study in non-communicable diseases, particularly in cardiometabolic diseases. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0001-6196-7088
Research interests: Diet, health behaviour, cohort study, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental illness, health behaviour, obesity, cardiometabolism, BMI, biobank
Dr Gao is an epidemiologist and health behaviour scientist at University of Oxford. Dr Gao has a particular interest in understanding how health behaviours and obesity impact cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health, etc. Dr Gao is experienced in analysing longitudinal data, primary care datasets across behavioural science and health policy. In the meantime, Dr Gao has conducted several systematic reviews and several clinical trials to help patients manage their weight and health behaviours. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0001-7190-9025
Research interests: epidemiology, statistics, cardiovascular, public health
Dr Frederick Ho is a Lecturer in Public Health at the School of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow. He received formal training in statistics (BSc Statistics, Chinese University of Hong Kong) and epidemiology (PhD, University of Hong Kong). He has extensive experience working with complex big data, including the Scottish and English primary care, hospital, and death records, national health surveys, and the UK Biobank. His research attempts to uncover the neglected complexity in exposure-outcome associations, such as their nonlinearity, mechanisms, and interactions. He has been the referee for top funders and journals, such as the British Heart Foundation, World Cancer Research Fund, Swiss National Science Foundation, the Lancet, and BMJ. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0001-6136-1836
Research interests: Cardiovascular diseases, Type 2 diabetes, Mendelian randomization, alcohol, epidemiology
Ryan Au Yeung (MPH (HKU), PhD (HKU)) is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. He is interested in the use of Mendelian randomization to identify causes and consequences of cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes, and to explore drug reposition opportunities. His earlier research focused on exploring the causal role of alcohol in cardiovascular diseases and mental health using ALDH2 polymorphism in a Southern Chinese Biobank (Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study). His recent work involves the use of UK Biobank and summary statistics from genome wide association studies to explore pleiotropic effects of commonly prescribed medications in cardiovascular diseases and diabetes (e.g. metformin). With the COVID-19 pandemic, he is also using Mendelian randomization to explore determinants (e.g. glycaemic traits) contributing to COVID-19 susceptibility. Ryan Au Yeung is currently one of the academic leads of the “Children of 1997” birth cohort in Hong Kong, where he is responsible for curating the genomic and metabolomic data. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-3788-8942
Research interests: Cardiovascular Diseases; Atrial Fibrillation; Epidemiology; Systematic Review
Dr. Giulio Francesco Romiti is a Medical Doctor from Rome, Italy, where he obtained his medical degree at Sapienza - University of Rome. His research activities and expertise are related to clinical research in the broad field of cardiovascular disease, with a particular focus on atrial fibrillation. His research interests also include evidence synthesis. He also serves as a peer reviewer for several medical journals. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0001-7231-375X
Research interests: Coronary artery disease, hypertension, cardiometabolic, cardiac arrhythmia, biomarkers, cardiac remodelling, blood pressure
Gaetano Santulli, MD, PhD is currently working at Albert Einstein College of Medicine - Montefiore University Hospital. A physician-scientist, he received his MD and PhD at the University of Naples “Federico II”. He completed his postdoctoral training at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, fully supported by the American Heart Association (postdoctoral fellowship and Scientist Development Grant). Dr. Santulli’s expertise comprises both clinical – he is a cardiologist - and basic research topics, including hypertension, diabetes, heart failure, arrhythmias, vascular disease, microRNA, and mitochondrial pathophysiology. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0003-1314-3417
Research interests: Cardiovascular biology Heart Failure, Cardiac Remodeling, Ischemia, Vascular Biology, Aging, Metabolism, Epigenetics, Fibrosis, cardiac hypertrophy, cellular senescence
Dr. Xiaoqiang Tang received his Ph.D. degree at Peking Union Medical College, where he studied cardiac hypertrophy with his mentor Prof De-Pei Liu. In 2017, Dr. Tang joined West China Second University Hospital of Sichuan University and he is currently an Associate Professor and Hundred Person Project Scholar. Dr. Tang is also the Associate Editor of Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine, Frontiers in Endocrinology, Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, Editorial Board of Heliyon and BMC Cardiovascular Medicine, and TRAging. He has been the reviewer of over 30 peer-reviewed journals, including Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, Clinical Science, Aging and Disease. Dr. Tang focuses on the pathology of cardiovascular diseases, including heart failure, cardiac hypertrophy, and vascular diseases. Especially, Dr.Tang studied epigenetics, metabolism, and niche mechanisms underlying cardiovascular aging and diseases. He is the author or co-author of many scientific articles, including Circulation, European Heart Journal, Science Translational Medicine, Circulation Research, Journal of Experimental Medicine, and Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy. His articles have received over 2000 citations. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0001-7861-7631
Research interests: ICU, Mechanical Ventilation, Respiratory Physiology, Critical Care Medicine, Intensive Care Medicine, Sepsis, Hemodynamics
Dr. Guo-Wei Tu received his MD Degree in Medicine at Fudan University, China. He is the Professor of cardiac surgery intensive care unit of Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, China. In 2016, he was awarded with the Chinese Young Investigator Award for the research in critical care medicine. Dr Tu was awarded as Excellent Academic Leader of Shanghai and Top Young Talent of Shanghai in 2020. He has published more than 60 articles (first or corresponding author) in SCI-indexed journals and serves as guest editor and editorial board member of many scientific journals including Annals of Translational Medicine, BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, Cardiology Research and Practice et al. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-7970-3643
Research interests: cardiovascular epidemiology, cardiovascular biomarkers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, NT-proBNP, high sensitivity troponin, heart failure
After completing a BSc (Hons) in Immunology, Paul completed his PhD on inflammatory markers of cardiovascular disease at University of Glasgow in 2008, and completed an MSc in Epidemiology at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine with distinction, winning the 150th Anniversary prize. He has held two British Heart Foundation Research Fellowships at the BHF Glasgow Cardiovascular Research Centre, University of Glasgow. He has served on the Independent Scientific Advisory Committee for MHRA, as well as editorial roles for other jounrals.
Paul has a wide range of research interests encompassing biomarkers, lifestyle, and clinical research in the fields of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, metabolism, and healthy ageing, including data from clinical trials (including DiRECT, SUGAR-DM-HF, RECOVER-LV, WOSCOPS, PROSPER, ASCOT, and ADVANCE), large observational studies (such as UK Biobank, Generation Scotland, the British Regional Heart Study and MIDSPAN) and meta-analyses. He has a particular interest in cardiovascular disease risk stratification, and cardiac biomarkers. He has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0003-0491-5585
Research interests: Obesity, Hypertension, Cardiovascular disease, Lifestlyle, Tobacco, Children, Women
Dr. Bo Xi is a professor at the School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University. He is the director of Children Cardiovascular Research Center of Shandong University. He is the winner of National Science Foundation for Outstanding Youth in 2017 and the winner of the 15th China Youth Science and Technology Award in 2018. His research mainly focuses on epidemiology of childhood obesity, hypertension and cardiovascular risk factors. He has presided over 5 national projects. He has published over 50 English papers, including papers on BMJ, Circulation, JACC, Diabetes Care and Lancet Global Health. Dr. Bo Xi currently serves as the member of the National Expert Committee on cardiovascular diseases, the member of Chinese Preventive Medicine Association-Childhood Chronic Disease Prevention and Management, the youth member of the Epidemiology Branch of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, and the corresponding editor of the Chinese Journal of Epidemiology. Dr. Xi is also the peer reviewer of several international top journals including BMJ, Ann Intern Med, JACC, and Lancet Public Health. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-9202-0003
Research interests: Cardiovascular diseases; Heart failure; Cardiac Hypertrophy; Myocardial infarction; Exercise training; Biomarker; Extracellular vesicles; Non-coding RNAs
Junjie Xiao is currently a Professor at Shanghai University. He is the Vice Dean of Medical School and also the Vice Dean of School of Life Science at Shanghai University. He obtained the National Science Foundation for Outstanding Youth in 2017. He is also the Associate Editor of Journal of Cardiovascular Translational Research, Editorial Board of Journal of Sport and Health Science, Social Media Editor of Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, etc. He is the author or co-author of many scientific articles, including Circulation, Circulation Research, Cell Metabolism, Nature Communications, Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, and BMC Medicine. He has been the reviewer of Physiological Reviews, Circulation Research, Cell Reports Medicine, Hypertension, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Molecular Therapy, etc. He obtained 2018 and 2019 Peer Review Awards (Top 1% in Field, Publons). His major research interest is heart failure and exercise training, especially using exercise as a platform to identify novel targets for enhancing cardiac regeneration and combating cardiovascular diseases. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-1564-0057
Research interests: nutrition; antihypertensive drugs; Mendelian randomization; non-communicable chronic diseases
With trainings in medical science, nutrition and epidemiology, my broad research interest is to understand the aetiology of non-communicable chronic diseases, as well as identifying modifiable targets for prevention and treatment of chronic diseases. I have been interested in the effect of endocrine factors in chronic diseases, such as the role of sex hormone binding globulin and testosterone in chronic kidney disease (published in JASN 2021 and BMC Medicine 2020, the latter selected as featured article of that issue). I’m also working on the role of dietary factors and medications, such as antihypertensive drugs, as potential targets for prevention and treatment of chronic diseases, with 50 publications in area-leading journals such as American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, BMC Medicine, BMJ, Diabetologia, and Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
In my research, I applied several study designs, including randomized controlled trial, cohort studies, as well as Mendelian randomization which uses genetic variants as instruments to minimize confounding. I also chaired a randomized controlled trial to assess the effects of intervention and the underlying mechanisms. I’m always open to collaborations in projects relevant to public health and clinical practice, and would like to serve the scientific community. Currently, I’m reviewer for Nature Ageing, BMJ, Diabetes Care, BMC Medicine, International Journal of Epidemiology, JAHA, British Journal of Cancer, Kidney International et al. Webpage.
Global, Public and Environmental Health
orcid.org/0000-0002-4114-9106
Research interests: Evidence-Based Practice; Primary Care; Low value care; Overdiagnosis; Non-communicable Diseases; Clinical Epidemiology
Loai is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare. His research expertise includes evidence synthesis, evidence-based practice, healthcare services, and primary care. He is a medical doctor (MD) from Palestine and completed a Master’s degree in clinical epidemiology at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany, followed by a PhD degree in evidence-based practice from Bond University, Australia. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0001-6774-3149
Research interests: Alcohol; coronary heart disease; stroke; small vessel disease; Mendelian randomization; GWAS
Steven is an Epidemiologist based within the Stroke Research Group at the University of Cambridge with an interest in cardiovascular disease and related conditions.
His work utilises genome-wide association studies (GWAS) alongside bioinformatic approaches to obtain insights in disease aetiology. This includes applying techniques such as Mendelian randomization to prioritise therapeutic targets and inform clinical or public health decision making.
More widely, he has an interest in individual participant data meta-analysis, the use of electronic health records in medical research, the application and integration of various “-omic” technologies (e.g. metabolomics, proteomics, phenomics), machine learning and modelling of longitudinal data. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0001-8018-6279
Research interests: Epidemiology, Systematic reviews, Meta-analysis, Clinical Trials, Metabolic syndrome, Diabetes, Hypertension, Cardiovascular risk factors, Dyslipidemias, Obesity, Pulmonary Hypertension, HIV, hepatitis, Tuberculosis, Public Health, Global Health
Jean Joel is a medical doctor and researcher from Cameroon. It is an expert in epidemiology, clinical trials, and systematic reviews with focus on infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases and the interplay between these two conditions in the global context. He authored more than a hundred of papers in high-impact peer-reviewed journals. In his free time, Jean Joel spends a lot of time with his family playing video games and basketball. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0003-0650-135
Research interests: Type 2 diabetes, venous thrombosis, genome-wide association studies, metabolomics study, twin modeling, mental health (personality research)
Ruifang Li (a.k.a. Ruifang Li-Gao for publications) was originally trained as a computer scientist and bioinformatician (BSc and MSc). She has been working as a research assistant in the area of chemoinformatics (at Bonn University, Germany) and neuroscience (at Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany) from 2010 till 2014. From 2014 to 2020, she obtained her PhD degree in Clinical Epidemiology at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), the Netherlands. During her PhD, her main research focus was on untangling the metabolic and genetic basis of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases by using large-scale population based cohort studies. Currently, she worked as a postdoc at Tilburg University and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She aims to use multi-omics approach to investigate the biological mechanisms of Type D (distressed) personality, and its relationship to diseases. She also acts as an associate editor (and statistical reviewer) for the journals of BMC Endocrine Disorders and BMC Cardiovascular Disorders since October 2020. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0001-9543-8360
Research interests: Global Health, Malaria, RSV, Child Health, Childhood Immunization, Health Access, Population health
Emelda heads the Population Health Unit within the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya which aims to understand determinants of health transitions and vulnerabilities at fine scales across Africa and works to embed the use of data for decision-making by national ministries. Emelda has 20 years of Population and Public Health research experience. Deep expertise in Impact evaluation, epidemiology, public health, statistics, data analytics and operations research with a focus on evaluations and contribution analysis. Prior to this position Emelda was a Program Officer/Gates Fellow within the Global Health Team at the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. She has worked on evaluating the public health impact of malaria control, on evaluating anti-retroviral treatment programs while at IHME and on developing strategies for primary health care at Philips Research Africa. Emelda has a PhD in Epidemiology, has been awarded two internationally competitive Wellcome Trust (UK) Fellowships and is widely published. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0001-5637-3971
Research interests: Life course epidemiology; public health; general population studies; longitudinal studies; musculoskeletal disorders; rehabilitation medicine; osteoporosis.
Petteri obtained his MD-PhD degree at the University of Oulu, Finland. His PhD dissertation in 2017 addressed the life-course determinants of vertebral size, a known contributor to vertebral fracture risk. Alongside clinical work at various medical institutions, Petteri currently serves as a post-doc fellow at the University of Oulu, with diverse research activity in life-course epidemiology and public health. His particular interest is in general population studies with longitudinal data on demographic, psychosocial, behavioural and clinical dimensions. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0003-3766-2502
Research interests: Epidemiology, Public Heath, HIV/AIDS and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections, Pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV, Evidence-based Medicine, Nutrition and Infectious Diseases, Women's and Children's Health, and Inequalities in Health
M Pereira is Epidemiologist and adjunct professor of HIV/AIDS Epidemiology and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections. Bachelor's Degree in Nutrition from the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia (2011). Master Degree in Food, Nutrition and Health – Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Salvador (Brazil). Doctor in Public Health/Epidemiology by the Collective Health Institute of the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). He is a peer reviewer for several medical journals, and an academic mentor for postgraduate and doctorate students in Epidemiology. His current research interests are Epidemiology/Public Health and Nutrition, with an emphasis on Epidemiology and Prevention of HIV/AIDS and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections, Women's and Children's Health, Evidence-based Medicine, and Health Inequalities. Webpage.
Research interests: diabetes, hyperlipidemia, dementia, stroke, atherosclerosis, acne, primary care, routine healthcare data, pharmacoepidemiology, systematic review and meta-analysis
Zhirong completed a PhD in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at University of Cambridge. He also holds a bachelor's degree in medicine and master's degrees in epidemiology and in primary care research. He was a research fellow in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard University in 2018. Before his PhD, he worked as a biostatistician in Shantou-Oxford Clinical Research Unit and then as a research associate in Peking University School of Public Health. His current research interests are in the use of routine healthcare data and evidence synthesis to inform the management of cardiovascular diseases, dementia and diabetes. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-3327-8637
Research interests: Environmental Epidemiology; Cardiovascular diseases; cohort study; Air pollution; Public Health; Global Health, climate change, respiratory infection
I am a start-career investigator in the field of environmental epidemiology and global health. My interdisciplinary research lies in global climate change, air pollution, exposure estimation modeling, global infectious diseases, global health, and general epidemiology. My interests are: (1). Evaluating the effects of climate change on infectious diseases. I combine methods from traditional epidemiology, atmospheric science, and statistical modeling with the aim of answering questions of relevance to patients and policymakers. (2). Environmental epidemiology, especially particulate matter, we used comprehensive statistical models to estimate the individual PM air pollution exposure for participants from different cohorts from China, US, and South Korea, we also evaluated the health effects of PM on cardiovascular, otolaryngologic diseases, and cancer in cohort studies. (3). Translational epidemiology: I have a great interest in creating modeling frameworks that allow decision-makers to translate epidemiological data into effective decisions. I welcome collaboration from researchers, clinicians, or students having expertise in any field, who hope to create models to translate epidemiological data into meaningful policy, practical, or clinical decisions.
Infectious Diseases
orcid.org/0000-0001-5126-1225
Research interests: malaria, sepsis, antimicrobial resistance, paediatrics, quality of care, dehydration, malnutrition
Sam (MBChB, MMED (Paediatrics), Dphil) is a principal investigator at the KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Programme, Nairobi, a honorary lecturer at the Department of Paediatrics, University of Nairobi, Kenya, and a Visiting Research Fellow, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. He is a consultant paediatrician and clinical epidemiologist with research interest in severe febrile illnesses in children. His research spans understanding epidemiology of severe febrile illnesses in children, clinical trials, investigation of effectiveness of treatments in children admitted with severe illnesses, antimicrobial resistance, application of machine learning techniques and data science for biomedical clinical data, and in design of appropriate digital solutions for identification and management of paediatric sepsis. He runs an inpatient surveillance to answer questions of safety following introduction of new interventions, such a recently introduced malaria vaccine in Kenya, and to understand how compliance with clinical guidelines affect in-hospital survival. He is involved in teaching and supervision of postgraduate and doctorate students, is a peer reviewer for several medical journals and research funders and provides technical consultation to global bodies involved in health such as the World Health Organization (WHO). Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0003-3269-7351
Research interests: modeling, infectious diseases, outbreaks, COVID-19, Bayesian, infection control, reproduction number, emerging infectious diseases, vaccines, public health, global health
Andrei R. Akhmetzhanov graduated from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia and decided to pursuit his academic career in theoretical epidemiology and public health. With background in applied mathematics and physics, he found himself lucky to work with many profound scholars in biology, medicine, and computer sciences. He trained himself to deal with more applicable research involving data analysis and statistical inference. His expertise lies in mathematical modeling of infectious diseases with particular interest on outbreak investigation and identification of epidemiological parameters for emergent infectious diseases. In the past ten years, he lived in four different countries (Canada, France, Japan, Taiwan), and finally resided in Taiwan. Currently he is an assistant professor in Global Health Program and Institute of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology at National Taiwan University College of Public Health in Taipei. While working in Japan, he was a volunteer member of the national COVID-19 task force in 2020. During 2021-2022, he interacted with Taiwan Centers for Diseases Control on similar matters. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-8376-2857
Research interests: Cholera, infectious diseases, public health, epidemiology
Dr. Godfrey Bwire (MBChB, MPH, PhD) is a medical doctor, researcher and a policymaker. Godfrey is the head of the division of public health emergency preparedness and response of the Republic of Uganda Ministry of Health. Godfrey is also a research fellow in the department of Community Health and Behavioral Sciences, Makerere University School of Public Health. Godfrey’s research interests are on infectious diseases, public health and cholera. Godfrey et al. identified a new Vibrio Cholerae transmission event lineage (T13) from South Asia to East Africa, PMID: 29864113. Godfrey has an excellent peer-review record. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-0240-4370
Research interests: Infectious diseases, primary immunodeficiency, immunology
Dr Edwards received her BSc (Hons) in Applied Biomedical Science at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff (UWIC), prior to completing a PhD at Cardiff University in the UK. She relocated to Australia in 2011. She has since conducted research at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Garvan Medical Research Institute and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Monash University in Melbourne. Emily’s research focuses on the cellular and molecular pathways that underlie Primary Immunodeficiency, including identifying molecular and cellular patterns associated with viral infection, autoimmunity and gastrointestinal disease in these patients. Her research has identified new genetic causes of Primary Immunodeficiency, susceptibility to EBV and how these genetic defects influence immune pathway function, memory B and T cell function, and drive clinical disease. She is currently working to further understand primary immunodeficiencies, in order to examine the immune pathways altered in these diseases to better inform patient diagnosis and treatment. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0001-5483-9985
Research interests: Cellular and humoral immunology of parasite and viral infections; Vaccine candidate discovery, design and testing; Pathogen biology
Dr. Kwadwo Asamoah Kusi is a Senior Research Fellow in the Immunology Department of Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), University of Ghana. He started his career at NMIMR in 2012 after graduating with a PhD in Medicine from Leiden University Medical Centre, based on his work at Biomedical Primate Research Centre in Rijswijk, The Netherlands. His research has been on assessing pathogen-induced cellular and humoral immune responses, with a special focus on Plasmodium falciparum. He is currently working on identifying HLA-restricted epitopes that elicit protection-associated T cell responses in individuals with a natural history of P. falciparum infection. He is principal investigator of an EDCTP2-funded Senior Fellowship that is investigating the impact of hepatitis B and Plasmodium co-infections on the liver. He is lead Immunologist on an on-going phase Ib clinical trial of an Inovio Pharmaceuticals Lassa fever vaccine at NMIMR as well as on a combined trial of measles/COVID-19 live vaccines for cross protection in Ghana, as part of a multi-centre trial under the CROWN CORONATION umbrella. He has on-going studies on multi-allele vaccine formulation strategies that aim to overcome the strain-dependent effects of polymorphisms in immunogenic Plasmodium antigens on antigen-specific immune responses. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0003-4777-388X
Research interests: infectious disease epidemiology; infectious disease modeling; vaccine; health economics
Kathy Leung received her BS in Biological Sciences from School of Life Sciences and BA in Economics from China Center for Economic Research at Peking University, MPhil, and PhD from School of Public Health at The University of Hong Kong. In recent years, Kathy is interested in mathematical modelling of a wide range of diseases such as influenza, MERS, COVID-19, hand-foot-and-mouth disease, HPV, cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, and breast cancer. She also conducts epidemiological and economic evaluations of disease intervention strategies, such as HMFD vaccination, public health and social measures against COVID-19, and risk-based breast cancer screening. Leveraged on the latest development of data science, she also uses machine learning to interpret SARS-CoV-2 genomic data and participates in the development of tools to tackle misinformation about COVID-19 vaccination with natural language processing. Kathy is a member of HKU’s COVID-19 Response Team and has contributed to the earliest studies about COVID-19 epidemiology. She is an investigator of the Laboratory of Data Discovery for Health (D²4H) at the Hong Kong Science Park. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0003-3607-9964
Research interests: Global health, infectious diseases, immunology
Bartholomew completed a sandwich PhD degree program from Maseno University, Kenya and University of Minnesota, USA. He also completed postdoctoral training from an array of institutions, namely Kenya Medical Research Institute, University of Georgia, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA. Currently, he is an early career investigator at the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Egerton University, Kenya and a visiting post-doctoral fellow at National Institutes of Health, USA. His research interests focus on mechanisms of immunity and correlates of protection. Bartholomew particular focus is on pregnant women and children, the populations most susceptible to infectious diseases morbidity and mortality. He is interested in how people develop natural immunity to malaria, schistosomiasis and other tropical infectious diseases. In addition, he is interested in training and improving the prospects of graduate biomedical students. He is a member of several organizations including the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the Kenyan Society of Immunology. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0003-4173-680X
Research interests: pediatric infectious diseases, Infectious diseases (special interest in typhoid, diarrhea, COVID-19), Maternal and childhood nutrition, Epidemiology, Public Health
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at the Aga Khan University (AKU), Karachi, Pakistan. My area of interest and expertise is pediatric infectious diseases. My current research portfolio consists of several large grants covering diverse areas such as typhoid, diarrhea, COVID-19 and nutrition. I led the outbreak investigation of extensively drug resistant (XDR) typhoid fever in 2017 and published highly cited research in peer reviewed medical journals such as the Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine. As a result of this work, Pakistan was the first country among GAVI-eligible low-income countries which introduced the Typbar-TCV vaccine in their EPI program. I recently received recognition for my work in this important area of public health at the national level when I was awarded the prestigious Tamgha-e-Imtiaz by the Government of Pakistan.
orcid.org/0000-0001-9291-1511
Research interests: Health economics, infectious disease modelling, TB, HIV, cost-effectiveness analyses, choice modelling
I am a health economist specialising in the prevention of infectious diseases, working at the interface of mathematical modelling and health economics. I enjoy the challenge of representing complex human behaviours in models and understanding how to encourage equitable and efficient health. My work mainly focuses on HIV and TB. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0003-0471-6746
Research interests: Sporotrichosis, subcutaneous mycoses, fungal infections, epidemiology, viral hepatitis (A, B, C, D and E), dengue, SARS-CoV-2
Max is a PhD Researcher at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Peru. He has a BSc and completed a Master’s degree in Public Health at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Peru. He is a professor and researcher in epidemiology and infectious diseases. His research expertise includes evidence synthesis, clinical and epidemiological aspects of fungal infections and infectious diseases. He has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals that explore clinical and epidemiological aspects of sporotrichosis, chromoblastomycosis, and superficial mycoses, and infectious diseases (HAV, HBV, HCV, dengue, SARS-CoV-2, and cutaneous leishmaniosis). He also works in managing funds in research and improving evaluation and selection processes in Peru. He is currently the Associate/Academic Editor and Editorial Board Member for various international journals. He also acts as an associate editor for the journals of BMC Cancer and BMC Infectious Diseases since May 2019. He serves as peer reviewer for various leading journals, and is a Top Peer Reviewer in Publons, Web of Science. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0003-0187-1185
Research interests: infectious disease; coronavirus; virus evolution ; emerging virus ;epidemiological
Prof. Shuo Su is focusing on the research of comprehensive prevention and control of zoonose diseases. Through high-throughput sequencing and virus evolution research , we can look for emerging viruses in animals/human , assess the potential of new viruses to infect humans, and make predictions and early warning for new epidemics.
2. Made a series of innovative achievements from theory to practice in molecular epidemiological investigation, viral infection and cross-host transmission mechanism. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-5371-2138
Research Interests: Infectious disease epidemiology, mathematical modelling, Bayesian statistics, machine learning, serology, immunology, arbovirus, dengue, influenza, SARS-CoV-2
Dr. Lin Wang is a Research Associate in the Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge. Before joining Cambridge, he was a chargé de recherché in the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Disease Unit at the Institute Pasteur, and a postdoctoral fellow in the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control, School of Public Health, the University of Hong Kong. He has a PhD in Electronic Engineering from Fudan University, MSc and BSc in Physics from Nankai University and Southeast University, respectively. His research interests include infectious disease epidemiology, mathematical modelling, Bayesian statistics, machine learning, serology, immunology, and viral evolution, with applications to arbovirus (e.g. dengue) and emerging diseases (e.g., pandemic influenza, SARS-CoV-2). Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-5219-2599
Research interests: Tuberculosis, TB/HIV, community-based interventions, patient-centered care, implementation science, mixed-methods research, global health
Courtney Yuen, PhD, is an epidemiologist in the Division of Global Health Equity at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an assistant professor in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, USA. Previously, she worked in the Division of Tuberculosis Elimination at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She conducts implementation science research on community-based models for tuberculosis case-finding preventive treatment, as well as epidemiologic modeling to inform tuberculosis diagnosis and prevention policies. Her research has been funded by U.S. National Institute of Health, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the Charles H. Hood Foundation. Webpage.
Neurology
orcid.org/0000-0003-4624-7386
Research interests: Cognitive and Affective Neurosciences, Psychiatry, Neuropsychology, Psychotherapy
Born in 1965 in Greece, I obtained my MD degree in the University of Athens in 1989 before completing a full training on psychiatry and psychotherapy in London and Geneva as well as postdoc training in Paris (La Pitié-Sâlpetrière Hospital, Federation of Neurology). My psychiatric education combined early exposure to neurobiology and classical psychoanalytic training. In 1998, aged 33 years, I have been appointed as associate professor and medical head of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry of the University Hospitals of Geneva. Later on (2004) I obtained the position of full tenured professor of Psychiatry in the University of Geneva. From 2003 to 2011, I also assumed a parallel position of full professor of Old Age Psychiatry in the University of Lausanne in order to promote the academic careers of junior staff locally. An important part of my duties concerns the management and organization of psychiatric care for the Geneva state as Chairman of the Department of Mental Health and Psychiatry (2005-2015). In addition to this hospital position, I have been for 8 years vice dean of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Geneva having the responsibility of postgraduate and continuous education. To date, I have the responsibility of forensic psychiatry for law ordered treatments in the Geneva County. I have been also elected in the Executive Committee of the Council of Chiefs of Divisions in University Hospitals of Geneva.
My research field was initially that of the functional neuroanatomy of dementing conditions and may be illustrated by a series of clinico-pathological studies aiming to determine the relative weight of each aging-related lesion in cognitive deterioration. This work was made in close collaboration with the Department of Geriatrics and the Division of Neuropsychiatry of the University Hospitals of Geneva and the Department of Neuroscience of the Mount Sinai Hospital, NY. These ex vivo observations on neuropathological markers of dementia have been at the origin of an in vivo complement focusing on the identification of predictive markers of rapid cognitive decline in elderly controls. Lately, a new research program from my lab focuses on the fMRI and EEG correlates of human empathy in line with my current hospital position.
orcid.org/0000-0002-7168-5524
Research interests: PTSD, trauma, anxiety, development, children and adolescents, dance/movement therapy, art therapy, inflammation, psychophysiology
Lana Ruvolo Grasser (she/her/hers) obtained her PhD in Translational Neuroscience from Wayne State University. Under the mentorship of Drs. Arash Javanbakht and Tanja Jovanovic, her NIMH-funded dissertation project, “Biomarkers of Risk and Resilience to Trauma in Syrian Refugee Youth”, identified skin conductance response to trauma interview and fear potentiated startle as candidate biomarkers of trauma-related psychopathology in youth exposed to civilian war trauma and forced migration. Dr. Grasser has extended this work to query efficacy and underlying mechanisms of creative arts and movement therapies to address trauma-related psychopathology in families resettled as refugees of Syria, Iraq, the Congo, and Afghanistan. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she led efforts to expand these programs to the virtual space, to reach school children across southeast Michigan. She is also passionate about science policy and advocacy, and is a member of the National Science Policy Network as well as her local branch SciPol Detroit. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0003-3585-7728
Research interests: neurodegenerative diseases (with special expertise in Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Frontotemporal Dementia and Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease), regenerative medicine, translational research
Dr. Wenting Guo is a neuroscientist and postdoctoral research associate in both VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research and KU Leuven Stem Cell Institute (SCIL) of KU Leuven University in Belgium. She received BS in Biological sciences and BA in English language and literature from Shanxi University in China, MSc in Genetics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, PhD in Biomedical sciences from KU Leuven University in Belgium. Dr. Guo’s research focus on building up in vitro/in vivo models, studying disease pathogenesis, and finding new therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative disorders with specialized expertise in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Charcot–Marie–Tooth (CMT) disease and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). She has published a series of peer-reviewed articles in high impact journals and own several research grants, fellowships, and prizes. Her research article on axonal transport defects in ALS patient derived motor neurons has been ranked as top ten most trendy articles in PubMed in the first week online and has been widely reported by social media including Alzforum, ALS News Today et al. Aside from research, Dr. Guo serves as external expert for two European Union's Horizon research and innovation programme funded projects to promote collaboration and communication between Europe and China, she also works as reviewer board, guest associate editor and invited reviewer for several international journals. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-0966-5733
Research interests: neuroepidemiology; statistics; machine learning; dementia; mild cognitive impairment; mental health; health behaviour; routine healthcare data; global burden of health, population health, global burder of disease survey
Feng Sha is an associate professor at Shenzhen Institute of Advanced technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. As a health data scientist in the field of neuroepidemiology and population health, he focuses on using mathematical models, statistics methods and machine learning techniques to conduct epidemiological studies on dementia, mild cognitive impairment and mental health. His recent work includes AI-based screening models for mild cognitive impairment, exploring modifiable risk factors for dementia and epidemiological issues in using routine healthcare data to conduct medical research. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0001-8720-6690
Research interests: Neuroscience, neuronal circuit-signaling regulating homeostatic responses, UPR, autophagy, stress reponses, neurodegeneration
I am a postdoc in neuroscience interested in the neuronal circuit-signaling for regulation of homeostatic responses for long term adaptation during environmental changes. During my postdoctoral research, I discovered a conserved secreted pseudokinase which we named Allnighter (Aln) and found that Aln is part of a feedback loop in the Drosophila visual system. Aln is critical for proteostatic responses, including the UPR and autophagy in neurons. Our study identified a molecular link between proteostasis and sleep. This a first example of a secreted pseudokinase acting on different cell types. This surprising finding suggests that kinases and pseudokinases can be released from one cell to signal in another cell, in contrast to the conventional cell intrinsic signaling activity of such enzymes. During my PhD, I worked on Alzheimer’s diseases. I used human samples to explore possible biomarkers and designed and synthesized several peptides with potential therapeutic implications. From my PhD work, I published 15 papers; my thesis received the distinction of best PhD thesis of 2019 in our institute. Several other awards during my PhD. I am member of faculty search subcommittee (Neuroscience), UT Southwestern Medical center, Dallas, TX, Member, American Society for Cell Biology, Member, Genetics Society of America, Rockville, MD. Webpage.
Obstetrics and Gynecology
orcid.org/0000-0003-1770-4170
Research interests: Causal inference for observational studies, Bayesian modeling, Meta-Analysis, Categorical Data Analysis, skewed link function modeling, Design and analysis of Clinical Trials, Statistical Modelling, Survival Data Analysis
I am an assistant professor of Biostatistics at Babol University of Medical Sciences in Iran, and senior biostatistician at Imperial College London. I was granted my MSc and Ph.D. degree from Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) in 2016. I am also a member of the Ethical committee for biomedical research at Islamic Azad University. I was working as a Biostatistician at Royan Biomedical and Stem cells Institute from 2009 to 2018. The institute is a reputable and very well-known organization for stem cells and biomedicine research with a significant level of innovations and global achievements, hence I had the opportunity to be involved in the design of research plans, data management, data analysis and interpretation of the results of many major projects which was a great experience and learning opportunity for me to work as a Biostatistician in the research teams under supervision of the well-known specialists and academic entities in medical and biology fields. I have published several peer-reviewed papers in international ranked journals in a variety of academic disciplines, including medicine, public health, biology, genetics, biomedicine, human reproduction and psychology. I have outstanding experience in working with statistical software programmes including R, SAS, STATA, SPSS, PASS, GraphPad prism, Bugs. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0003-3581-2503
Research interests: Obstetrics, urogynecology, urinary incontinence, sexual dysfunction, delivery and pelvic damage, bi-quadri radiofrequency treatment
Dr. Francesco Dessole is currently working as a Surgeon Specialising in Gynaecology and Obstetrics at Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria di Sassari. He received his MD and PhD at the University of Sassari (UNISS), researching "Gender Medicine of Women, Men and Children". He is involved in several theoretical-scientific integrative teaching activities within the discipline of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (Gynaecological Diagnostics, Medico-Surgical and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Pre- and Perinatal Medicine, Paediatrics, Obstetrical-Gynaecological Nursing Sciences, as well as Childbirth and Childbirth Complications). He is particularly interested in using CBD in female chronic pelvic pain and its potential treatment with implantable controlled-release devices of a CBD-based active ingredient. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-9397-4327
Research interests: global health, maternal and child health
Dr. Kimiyo Kikuchi is a lecturer at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, and specializes in global health, maternal and child health, and the social aspect of HIV. Dr. Kikuchi studied at the Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo, and obtained Ph.D. in Health Sciences, with research on the adherence of antiretroviral therapy among HIV-positive orphans and non-orphans in Rwanda (mixed methods study). Dr. Kikuchi worked as a consultant of official development assistance under Japanese government projects on maternal health, school health, and water and sanitation in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Dr. Kikuchi settled in the University of Tokyo as an assistant professor in 2012 and worked as the primary researcher of Ghana's EMBRACE project to ensure the continuum of care in maternal and child health, which embodies the "New International Health Policy 2011-2015" of the Japanese government. Then, in 2016, Dr. Kikuchi moved to Kyushu University and launched a project to improve the continuum of care on maternal and child health in Bangladesh using a telemedicine system. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-2761-5262
Research interests: Polycycstic ovary syndrome, amenorrhea, functional hypothalamic amenorrhea, laparoscopy, infertility, menopause, climacteric, ovarian stimulation, IVF, reproductive surgery, hysteroscopy, fallopian, fallopian tubes
Assoc.Prof. Dr. Johannes Ott, born in September 1980 in Vienna, Austria, currently is the interims chair of the Clinical Division of Gynecologic Endocrinology and Reproductive Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles with a main focus on polycystic ovary syndrome, fertility surgery, recurrent miscarriage, artificial reproduction, thyroid function and autoimmune thyroiditis. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-0736-7046
Research interests: Pregnancy, preterm birth, immunology, reproductive health, animal models, infection
Dr. Natalie Suff is a clinical lecturer with a research interest in Preterm birth. She is a Wellcome Clinical Research Career development fellow looking into the mechanisms of infection and inflammation-related spontaneous preterm birth. She is an Obstetrics and Gynaecology doctor in London, with a specialist interest in maternal and fetal medicine. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-3708-1225
Research interests: Environmental epidemiology; climate change and health; air pollution and health; built environment and health; cohort study; time-series study
Dr. Sun is currently a Research Scientist in Environmental Health at Boston University School of Public health. Prior to his current position, he completed two years of postdoctoral training at Brown University School of Public Health. He obtained a Ph.D. is in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Hong Kong (2017). His research focuses on climate change and health and, in particular maternal and child health. He applies sophisticated statistical approaches to large complex national data sets to inform public health. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-1306-1676
Research interests: Early life determinants of endocrinology & metabolic disorders, Mendelian randomization, integrative analysis of multi-omics data, aetiological epidemiology of reproductive and perinatal outcomes, prospective cohort studies
Dr. Jian Zhao is currently an Assistant Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China and an Honorary Senior Research Associate at MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, the University of Bristol, UK. His research interests focus on investigating early life determinants of endocrinology & metabolic disorders (e.g., PCOS, NAFLD, T2D etc) in later life using state-of-the-art techniques including Mendelian randomization and multi-omics data integration analysis approach. He is also interested in computational medicine/ precision medicine research as to identify novel molecular biomarkers or therapeutic targets for adverse reproductive and perinatal outcomes leveraging human genetic data and advanced computational biology methods, in large-scale cohort studies such as UK Biobank and other collaborative birth cohorts. Dr. Zhao has published a series of peer-reviewed papers in leading medical/ statistical computing journals such as Journal of Hepatology, BMC Medicine, the Lancet Discovery Science - eBioMedicine, JCEM and Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine. He also serves as reviewers/ review editors for journals including Journal of Hepatology, BMC Medicine, Diabetes Care, International Journal of Epidemiology, Fertility and Sterility, Seminars in Liver Disease, Maternal and Child Health, Computers in Biology and Medicine, and Frontier in Endocrinology. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-7296-738X
Research interests: Pregnancy complications, gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, preterm birth, nutrition, epidemiology, obesity, children
Yeyi Zhu, PhD, is a Research Scientist II (equivalent to Associate Professor) at Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research and adjunct faculty at Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Zhu's research interests are at the interface of disease etiology and prevention strategies in the arena of women's and children's health across the lifespan. She applies a life course approach to examine the developmental origins of cardiometabolic impairments of offspring exposed to nonoptimal intrauterine environment by integrating 'omics technologies, high-dimensional electronic health records, and "big data" analytics tools. Her research aims to inform upstream preventive strategies to interrupt the vicious intergenerational cycle of obesity and diabetes and its related comorbidities across the lifespan. Dr. Zhu's research is sponsored by grants from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Webpage.
Oncology
orcid.org/0000-0001-6846-3499
Research interests: cancer biology, cancer disparities, social determinants of health, structural determinants of health
Dr. Kilan C. Ashad-Bishop (she/her) is a biomedical scientist and advocate for inclusion who has carved her niche at the intersection of science, health, and social change. She is a proud alumna of Morgan State University, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology, and the University of Miami, where she earned her Ph.D. in Cancer Biology. In her various professional capacities, Kilan works to improve the health and well-being of communities of color and expand opportunities for the next generation of innovators. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-9110-6542
Research interests: Tumor immunology, cancer, system immunology, multi-dimensional single cell technologies
Alexis is holding a position of Assistant Professor, in the department of Pathology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). His lab uses a system immunology approach leveraging immune monitoring and high-dimensional single cell technologies both on tumor of animal model and clinical samples to show the existence of archetypal organization of immune systems in tissue—collections of cell types that move together as modules. His focus is to better understand the immunological context of different diseases to expand and improve immunotherapies. The concept of immune archetype is not limited to cancer. Therefore, in the lab we are also working toward building an atlas of the different immune archetype across tissues and biological systems to explore the parallels in immune states across conditions, and how we may better stratify patients using measurements of the immune system to improve diagnoses and treatment. This is enabled by the Disease-to-biology CoLab, a collaboration-based research lab where we provide our expertise to the broader UCSF research community to profile the immune system in various sets of tissues and organism. This teamwork will dissect the different immune archetypes in different contexts and will guide the development of relevant precision therapies that are aimed at adjusting the relative strengths of these archetypes depending on the diseases. Before Joining UCSF, Dr Combes obtained his PhD in immunology from the Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy (CIML) in Marseille where he studied the regulation of protein trafficking in dendritic cell populations upon activation in viral infection and cancer.
orcid.org/0000-0002-8216-3457
Narendranath Epperla, MD, MS, is an Assistant Professor in Clinical Medicine at The Ohio State University. After receiving his medical degree in India, Dr. Epperla came to the U.S. and completed Internal Medicine Residency at Marshfield Clinic where he also served as a Chief Resident. He obtained his master’s degree in Clinical and Translational Science and completed a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He was the recipient of the Donald J Schuenke Cancer Fellowship award for excellence in educational, clinical, and research activity.
Dr. Epperla is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Society of Hematology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, and the American Association for Cancer Research. He has authored numerous peer reviewed publications, including journal articles, meeting abstracts, and book chapters. His research interests focus on conducting early phase clinical trials using novel drug combinations to treat patients with lymphoid malignancies as well as to identify possible biomarkers that can predict treatment response. He is also actively involved in the CIBMTR lymphoma and cellular therapy committees and has published several high-impact papers utilizing the registry. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-0050-655X
Research interests: cancer, epidemiology, obesity, diet, disparities, rural, implementation science
I am a cancer epidemiologist, with a focus on understanding how lifestyle factors, such as diet, physical activity, and obesity influence cancer risk and survival. My research explores rural, socioeconomic, and racial/ethnic disparities and investigates social determinants of behavioral risk factors contributing to observed disparities. As a rural community-based researcher, my research is shifting toward translational work including using dissemination and implementation science approaches to effectively incorporate evidence-based interventions into underserved settings. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0003-1839-862X
Research interests: biomedical engineering, lasers & optics, physics, and Radiology. Computer assisted quantification, Cancer, Translational medicine, Bioinformatics, Radiomics, Radiation oncology, Medical Imaging (MRI, CT, Ultrasound, Digital imaging), Nanoparticles
Dr. Jaidip Jagtap received his both M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from the University of Pune in 2008 and from IIT Kanpur, India in 2015, respectively. He has completed 5 years of postdoctoral work at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA in the Biomedical Engineering Department on developing an NIR-SWIR imaging tool to image and analyze the altered vascular/lymphatic functions in small animal models due to impact from tumor or irradiation. Also developed a nanoparticle mediated therapeutic tool for diagnostic and therapeutic study. Currently, Dr. Jagtap is a research staff in Radiology at Mayo Clinic Rochester, working with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning to develop models and assist radiologist in decision making. His study involved various clinical data (MRI, CT, ultrasound, histopathology) from the kidney, skin, nerves, etc. He is the author of over 40 scientific papers published in international peer-reviewed journals, 10 book chapters, and several congress proceedings. He has peer-reviewed 70+ articles for various international scientific journals and also given invited talks and oral presentations on various platforms. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0003-3440-8154
Research interests: medical oncology, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, breast cancer, lung cancer, head and neck cancer, GI cancer, gynecological cancers, urological cancers, solid tumor oncology, cancer epidemiology, association study, in silico research.
Dr. Victor C. Kok is the medical director of Kuang Tien General Hospital Cancer Center, Taichung, Taiwan. He obtained his MD and MMedSc degrees from Chung Shan Medical University, Taiwan. Dr. Kok got his Ph.D. from the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Asia University Taiwan. Victor Kok trained as a medical oncologist at the Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center, Taipei. He was board-certified in the Medical Oncology Certification Exam at the European Society for Medical Oncology and Taiwan Oncology Society. After that, he joined Asia University as an assistant professor. Dr. Kok graduated from the Harvard Medical School High-Impact Cancer Research-Cancer Biology and Therapeutics Program 2018/2019, Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Kok has been awarded Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP) and is now an active member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the Japan Cancer Association (JCA), the Taiwan Society of Internal Medicine, and the Taiwan Oncology Society. VC Kok's research interests include clinical cancer research, cancer epidemiology, cancer bioinformatics, medical oncology, internal medicine, palliative care, and clinical and population-based disease informatics. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0001-5540-9012
Research interests: Lymphoma, mutiple myeloma, hematological malignancies, cancer biology, oncology, molecular biology and genetics, genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics
Dr. Can Küçük earned his B.S. degree from the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at METU. He completed his Ph.D. studies on oncology and cancer biology in 2012 at the UNMC. Having continued post-doctoral studies at UNMC and City of Hope Medical Center for two years, he returned back to Türkiye, and started working at the Medical Biology branch of Dokuz Eylül University and İzmir Biomedicine and Genome Center. Dr. Küçük has publications in prestigious journals such as Lancet Oncology, Blood, PNAS, and Clinical Cancer Research. One of his first author research articles published in Nature Communications was cited as the basic reference for classification of EATL by the WHO. At the international level, he has three awards from the American Society of Hematology (Abstract Achievement Award, Global Research Award, Supplement Award) as well as the International Young Scientist Award from the National Natural Science Foundation of China. At the national level, he earned TÜBA GEBİP and Science Academy BAGEP awards. The research group led by Dr. Küçük focuses on genomic, transcriptomic, and epigenomic aberrations causing lymphoid cancers to identify molecular biomarkers that can facilitate diagnosis, risk stratification, and disease monitoring of lymphoid cancers and to discover more effective therapeutic targets. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-8696-8594
Research interests: Genetic epidemiology, epigenetic epidemiology, twin research, family research, cancer risk prediction, breast cancer
Dr Shuai Li is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, The University of Melbourne. Dr Li is trained in medicine and epidemiology, with a Bachelor of Medicine degree and a Master of Science degree obtained in Peking University, and a PhD degree obtained in the University of Melbourne in 2018. From 2018 to 2020, he worked at the Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology, Cambridge University. Dr Li’s research interests include genetic and epigenetic epidemiology of cancers, twin and family research, and cancer risk modelling. Webpage.
Tanimola Martins
orcid.org/0000-0001-5226-4073
Research interests: Health inequity/inequality, cancer diagnosis in primary care, public health, stroke rehabilitation, racial/ethnic disparities
Tanimola is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow and Lecturer in Postgraduate Education at the University of Exeter Medical School. He has a background in Medical Rehabilitation and Public Health. His research aims to identify and quantify sociodemographic differences in primary care diagnosis of cancer, intending to formulate appropriate interventions to address such inequalities. Presently, Tanimola is collaborating with researchers from University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to investigate ethnic inequities in diagnosis and outcomes of symptomatic cancer. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-6142-5489
Research interests: Regenerative medicines, drug delivery, theranostics, biosensing
Dr. Hirak K Patra is among the next generation of scientist with translational focus cross-discipline interests. He is an Associate Professor of Nanomedicine and Regenerative Medicine at the Division of Surgery and Interventional Science at the University College London (UCL). The Patra Lab at UCL is exploring nanoscale science, technologies, and materials for advanced healthcare applications. Dr Patra has been awarded with MRC Career Development Award by the Medical Research Council UK and developing medicated artificial implants. He was a fellow (Jr, B1) at the Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge where he implemented his EU Marie Skłodowska Curie Individual European Fellowship developing nano tools combating drug resistance. Dr. Patra obtained his PhD with his thesis work on “Synthetic nanoforms as designer and explorer for cellular events” with several high rank publications and huge citations from University of Calcutta. He moved to the Applied Physics Division of Linköping University with prestigious Integrative Regenerative Medicine fellowship at Sweden. His research interests across the discipline attract attention of pioneer leading scientists and awarded with several ‘Young Scientist’ category globally. His personal dedication in the field and passion for the innovation together with his skills and experience enable him to publish 4 PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty). Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-0216-2578
Research interests: Cancer, Cancer biology, Drug delivery, Cancer therapeutics, Colorectal cancer, gut microbiota, obesity, diabetes, dietary fiber, intestinal homeostasis
Dr. Ramesh Pothuraju, Ph.D. is currently working as Junior Faculty in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), Omaha, USA. During initial years of postdoctoral training at UNMC, he studied the differential expression of mucins in pancreatic cancer (PC) as well as colorectal cancer (CRC) progression and developed genetically engineered mouse models for these cancers. Overall, his research interest is gastro-intestinal cancers, dietary fibers, obesity, diabetes, gut microbiota and intestinal homeostasis. Webpage.
europepmc.org/authors/0000-0002-6927-3360
Research interests: Cancer epidemiology, cancer prevention, cancer risk factors, cohort studies, metabolomics, biomarkers, omics technologies, nutrition
Joseph is a molecular epidemiologist and researcher at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm). His main focus is understanding cancer, metabolic diseases and their risk factors, such as nutrition and environmental exposures, in the context of primary prevention. He aims to bring together traditional epidemiology and molecular techniques such as -omics technologies to aid the understanding of these diseases and contribute to their prevention.
Initially trained as a laboratory bioanalyst, he spent the early part of his career operating and maintaining instruments such as mass spectrometers for studies of various design on nutrition and health. This led him to specialise in metabolomics and these days he has traded the laboratory bench for epidemiological data analyses and programming. His recent research pertains to colorectal and breast cancer, with large metabolomics datasets frequently put to use. He is a proponent of reproducible research and a fan of open-source code and version control. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-3365-1972
Research interests: NSCLC; Liquid biopsy; Immunotherapy; SCLC
Dr. Russo is a board-certified medical oncologist with interest in thoracic malignancies, immunotherapy and liquid biopsies.
Dr. Russo degreed as M.D. at the University of Messina (Italy) and there he completed his residency in Medical Oncology. He had his PhD in 2019 in Medical and Surgical Biotechnologies at the University of Messina, with a research project on the role of liquid biopsies as predictive biomarkers to immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). During his PhD, Dr. Russo joined as Visiting Researcher the Division of Thoracic Medical Oncology and Early Clinical Trials at the University of Maryland Medical Center, Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (Baltimore, USA).
From February 2020 he joined the Medical Oncology Unit of the A.O. Papardo (Messina, Italy) as medical oncologist, with focus on thoracic malignancies.
He is member of several national and international scientific societies, including the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), the Italian Association of Thoracic Oncology (AIOT), the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM) and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). Dr. Russo took part to the Executive Board of the Sicilian Section of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM) for the years 2015-2019.
Dr. Russo is co-author of more than 70 publications in peer-reviewed international journals, three book chapters and he is actively involved in clinical research in advanced NSCLC. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-8637-901X
Research interests: Malignant glioma; Neurofibromatosis; iPS cells; Neural stem cell; Gene therapy; Immunotherapy; Skull base surgery
My clinical and research interests focus on neurosurgical approaches to patients with brain tumors. I am dedicated to management of patients with malignant glioma, sporadic schwannoma and neurofibromatosis type 2. As a neurosurgeon in Keio University, Japan, I specialize in skull base techniques for posterior cranial fossa tumors.
Active areas of research include stem cell-based gene therapy using iPS cells for the treatment of the central nervous system tumors and regenerative medicine. I serve as a PI leading multiple preclinical studies evaluating the treatment effect of genome-edited iPS cells utilizing orthotopic immunocompetent glioblastoma models and plan to transcribe into novel gene therapy clinical studies with glioblastoma patients. Another area of my research involves the role of anti-angiogenic immunotherapy for the treatment of unresectable benign tumors including neurofibromatosis type 2. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0003-3150-2751
Research interests: Biotherapy, Immunotherapy, Liquid biopsy, Tumor microenvironment, Biomarkers, Metastasis, Cancer stem cell
I am a Research Associate in the Department of Immunology, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College. I am trained in Bioengineering, with a Bachelor degree obtained in China Agricultural University, and a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology obtained in the Beijing Normal University in 2018. My research focuses on cancer biotherapy and immunotherapy, especially the application of oncolytic viruses. Similarly, I am also interested in the influence of the tumor microenvironment on tumor therapy. In addition, part of my work has focused on liquid biopsy, especially clinical applications of circulating tumor cells. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0001-7065-2416
Research interests: T cell development/differentiation, B cell development/differentiation, autoimmune diseases, T cell metabolism, B cell metabolism, nutrition, chronic disease prevention and control
Bin Zhao is a professor of the National key lab of Diabetes Immunology (the Ministry of Education), and National Clinical Research Center for Metabolic Diseases, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University. Bin Zhao obtained his Ph.D. from Karolinska Institutet and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania and the National Institutes of Health. As first author/co-corresponding author, he has published in top-tier journals, including Nature Immunol, Circulation, Trends Immunol, PNAS, etc. His lab focuses on 1. T &B cell development, differentiation and autoimmune diseases. 2. Nutrition, Metabolism, chronic disease prevention and control. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-5021-3739
Research interests: EBM, Precision Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Immunotherapy, Biomarkers, bioinformatics
Jian-Guo Zhou MD, Dr. rer. biol. hum (Ph.D.) is a oncologist at Department of Oncology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University. His research focuses on how to identify the predictive and prognostic biomarkers for cancer patients with ICI and RT. He is an Associate Editor of Technology in Cancer Research & Treatment (TCRT), Frontiers in Oncology and Frontiers in Immunology; Section Editor of Cancer Control; Academic Editor of Pain Research and Management, Disease Markers, Medicine®, and a guest editor of Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology. He also served as a reviewer for more than 40 international Journals, e.g. JITC, Oncoimmunology, Gynecologic Oncology, IJC, et al. He got Merit Award in ESMO Asia (2018, 2019), KSMO Young Investigator Award (2020), CSCO 35 under 35 (2019), and received lots of oral presentations in ESMO Asia, EANO. Webpage.
Pediatrics
orcid.org/0000-0001-9824-3534
Research interests: Early life exposure, Pediatrics and children health, Global warming, Air pollution, Healthy cities, Environmental epidemiology.
Dr Qihong Deng is a chair professor in Zhengzhou University School of Public Health and vice president for the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ). He has mainly focused on the health risk of air pollution and global warming, with the objectives to design comfortable and healthy buildings/cities. He is now associate editors for the International Journal of Environmental Health Research (Taylor & Francis), Frontiers in Public Health/Frontiers in Pediatrics, and Thermal Science and Engineering Progress (Elsevier), and editorial board members for several international journals, such as Environment International (Elsevier), BMC Medicine, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health (Elsevier), Annals of Epidemiology (Elsevier), Building and Environment (Elsevier), Indoor Air (Wiley), Energy and Buildings (Elsevier), Environmental Toxicology (Wiley), Journal of Thermal Biology (Elsevier), Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (Springer), and Journal of Asthma (Taylor & Francis). Dr Deng received several awards, such as National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation (2005) and New Century Excellent Talents in Universities of China (2005). He is now the Fellows of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ), New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM), Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS), and International Society of the Built Environment (ISBE). He has published more than 150 papers in international journals (more than 60 during the past five years) and has been selected as the Most Cited Chinese Researchers since 2015 (Elsevier). His recent research on the role of prenatal exposure to indoor/outdoor air pollution in the late development of childhood allergic diseases has been highly cited by some world-leading professors and journals, some articles have been the Editor's Choice and Most Cited articles in international journals. His findings provide a new public health control strategy for the prevention or control of the rapid increase of childhood allergic diseases in the world, and have been incorporated into several international consensus, guidelines, and policies. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-9229-9913
Research interests: child health, complex interventions, behaviour, paediatric, non-pharmacological, mixed methods, population health, applied health, allied health, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, nursing
Dr Niina Kolehmainen is an allied health population scientist leading research into childhood health behaviours, their impact on health and well-being, and non-pharmacological innovations (NPIs) that support early-life health behaviours. Niina's particular focus is on children at the highest risk of ill health due to long-term conditions and disadvantage. Niina's research integrates behaviour science, applied health sciences, and clinical approaches to push the boundaries of current knowledge and thinking around child health, and to inform practice, policy and commissioning. Niina also leads the Reproduction, Development and Child Health Theme for the Newcastle University Faculty of Medical Sciences. This is a collaboration of around 40 academics across the Faculty, from biosciences to clinical and translational medicine to population health, with a mission to maximise life-course health and wellbeing for all through research into early-life events and interventions. As an Academy of Medical Sciences FLIER, Niina has a particular interest in interdisciplinary, cross-sector research that operates across traditional disciplinary boundaries and integrates diversity of views and expertise. Webpage.
Psychiatry
orcid.org/0000-0002-9476-1737
Research interests: Psychiatry, Machine Learning, Psychosis, Computational Psychiatry, fMRI, Insomnia, Mood Disorder Comorbidity, brain network, neuroimaging, big data, striatum
Dr. Ji Chen is an assistant professor at the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, China. He is also affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, and completed his Ph.D. research in the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7), Research Centre Jülich, Germany. Dr. Chen’s research is mainly in the area of computational psychiatry and neuroimaging. His research interests include psychiatric machine learning, big data, dimensions of psychopathology, functional MRI, schizophrenia and psychotic disorders, as well as insomnia and mood disorder comorbidity. He devotes to combining data-driven approaches with theory-driven modeling on the basis of cognitive and clinical neuroscience, aiming at advancing the understanding of neurobiology and nosology underlying mental illness. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-4724-4892
Research interests: Psychiatry, Mental health, Dementia, Cognitive disorder, mild cognitive impairment, health service utilization, social support, quality of life
My current research focuses on psychiatry and geriatrics. Both are interpreted broadly to include well-being related to mental health and cognitive/ageing health, rather than only diseases meeting diagnostic criteria. In a clinical view, I am especially focusing on the diagnosis, prognosis, and medicine management of mild cognitive disorders and dementia. In the public health and global health view, I also focus on social support and health service utilization, as well as corresponding equity, for people with cognitive disorders.
My research methods include analysis of cross-sectional or longitudinal survey data or electronic clinical records, causal inferences, structural equation modelling, policy/intervention simulation, machine learning, mixed qualitative and quantitative observational studies, economic evaluation, and systematic reviews. My research is inherently multi-disciplinary and involves strong links with epidemiology, statistics, health economics, public health, global health, mental health, and ageing health.
orcid.org/0000-0003-3398-5750
Research interests: Psychiatry, mental health, suicide, self harm, mood disorder, LGBT
Dr Runsen Chen is currently an Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator of Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, China. Dr Chen obtained his doctoral degree at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford in 2020. His main research interested are psychiatric epidemiology, psychopathology and psychological interventions, with focuses on mood disorders, self-harm and suicide, and gender dysphoria in youth people. He also has particular interest in LGBTQ+ mental health. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0001-9034-148X
Research interests: schizophrenia; psychosis; relapse; computational psychiatry; dopamine; striatum; treatment effect heterogeneity; treatment resistance; clozapine; magnetic stimulation; cognitive network; fMRI
I'm a clinician scientist at the Psychiatric University Hospital and the Neuroscience Center Zurich. My research is focused on understanding clinical and neurobiological variability in individuals with psychotic disorders. To this end, I employ behavioral modelling and multimodal imaging, ideally in the context of clinical trials. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0002-8197-6552
Research interests: psychiatric disorders, psychiatric genetics, brain molecular mechanisms, iPSC, animal models of psychiatry, psychiatry GWAS
I have been working on psychiatric disorders using combined approaches of genetics, brain imaging, molecular biology, gene editing, animal model, as well as neuroscience. The current research interest of our team is to elucidate the roles of risk genes identified via GWAS and candidate gene studies in the etiology and development of mental illnesses. Specifically, we integrate RNA-sequencing resources in human brains, and perform follow-up extensive experimental exploration using methods of molecular biology, gene editing, iPS cell biology, protein characterization and animal behavior tests. Webpage.
orcid.org/0000-0001-5308-1957
Research interests: Epidemiology, Frailty, Ageing, Depression, Bipolar disorder, Brain stimulation, aging, psychiatric genetics, biobank
Dr Julian Mutz is a post-doctoral research associate at the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at King’s College London. He completed his undergraduate training in Psychology (BSc) at the University of Groningen and University College London. He earned a postgraduate degree in Affective Disorders (MSc) from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London and is a graduate of the International Master in Affective Neuroscience (MSc) of Maastricht University. Dr Mutz obtained a PhD in Epidemiology and Population Health from King’s College London where he explored predictors of health and ageing in the UK Biobank study. Prior to that he worked as a research assistant in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Imperial College London. He is the author of 26 scientific articles published in peer-reviewed journals, including in the BMJ, BMC Medicine, the British Journal of Psychiatry and the International Journal of Epidemiology. He has served as an ad-hoc reviewer for 28 peer-reviewed journals across multiple disciplines. Dr Mutz’s research interests include population health, the epidemiology of psychiatric disorders, frailty and biological markers of ageing, and evidence synthesis studies of brain stimulation treatments for depression and bipolar disorder. Webpage.
