Associate Director fo Computational Sciences, The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, CT, USA. Previously worked at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in Melbourne Australia and at the Genome Institute of Singapore.
Dr. Noushin Ghaffari is a senior member of the bioinformatics team at Texas A&M AgriLife Genomics and Bioinformatics (TxGen), where she is involved in various projects from planning experiments to data analysis. She is also focused on method development and application projects that will impact scientific community. Her research activities have encompassed various areas of computational biology and have enabled her to study and learn more about the characteristics of multiple species. Furthermore, she intensely pursues her theoretical interests focusing on applications of mathematics in solving biological problems. Dr. Ghaffari has led numerous genome and transcriptome assembly projects for novel species such as cattle tick, gene discovery research though RNA-Seq studies, studying microbiome communities via metagenomics research and etc. Dr. Ghaffari has vast teaching experiences and continues to educate Texas A&M faculty/students/researcher on high performance computing, data analysis and bioinformatics.
Dr. Faten Ghodhbane-Gtari is Associate Professor at the Higher Institute of Biotechnology of Sidi Thabet, University of Manouba, Tunisia.
She has significantly advanced the field of microbiology over the past 10 years, with a particular emphasis on nitrogen-fixing actinobacteria and their ecological importance.
Dr. Gillespie is an evolutionary biologist with broad interests in organismal and molecular evolution. The major focus of his current research is deciphering the mechanisms by which obligate intracellular species of Rickettsiales (Alphaproteobacteria) invade, survive and replicate within eukaryotic cells.
In research funded by the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Gillespie utilizes phylogenetics, comparative genomics and bioinformatics to guide experimental research on various pathogenic species of Rickettsia and their associated arthropod vectors. His early research resulted in the reclassification of Rickettsia species and the identification of many lineage-specific pathogenicity factors. Through years of intense scrutinization of dozens of diverse rickettsial genomes, Dr. Gillespie and colleagues have described a large, dynamic mobilome for Rickettsia species, resulting in the identification of integrative conjugative elements as the vehicles for seeding Rickettsia genomes with many of the factors underlying obligate intracellular biology and pathogenesis. Via an iterative process of genome sequencing, phylogenomics, bioinformatics, and classical molecular biology and microbiology, Dr. Gillespie continues to lead and assist research projects on the characterization of rickettsial gene and protein function, as well as the description of cell envelope glycoconjugates.
Dr. Rosanna Giordano is Assistant Professor at Florida International University, Institute of Environment.
She received her undergraduate degree from Dowling College, her master’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa, and her doctoral degree in Entomology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Dr. Giordano's primary research interests are focused on the population structure and genomics of invasive agricultural insect species such as aphids and honey bees. How the microbiome affects insect’s metabolism and their ability to cope with control strategies such as resistant plant varieties and insecticides. As well the development of genomic tools to track invasive insect species and to use insects as bio monitors of environmental pollution.
My research focuses on investigating the patterns of gene flow in pathogen populations, focusing in phylogenetics and phylogeography as tools to recreate and understand the determinants of viral outbreaks and how this information can be translated into public policy recommendations. More specifically, my research focuses on recent arboviral outbreaks in Latin America (Zika, Chikungunya, Dengue and Yellow fever viruses and more recently SARS-CoV-2 in Brazil, Italy and South Africa), combining genetic, spatial and ecological information. I am interested in the epidemiology and ecology of viruses in natural populations. My research involves developing and applying techniques to integrate virus genetic data with traditional clinical and demographic data.
Professor and Associate Chair for Research in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNC-CH and NCSU and Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at UNC-CH. Previous Florence Gould Scholar and Pasteur Foundation Fellow. Current research interests in systems and synthetic biology, bioimage informatics, and network science applied to biology. Broader interests in translational medicine and the fostering of innovative solutions to problems in healthcare.
Brenton Graveley is Associate Director of the University of Connecticut Institute for Systems Genomics and the John and Donna Krenicki Professor of Genomics and Personalized Healthcare in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health in Farmington, CT. Brent has studied RNA biology throughout his entire career. He performed his undergraduate studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder with David Prescott, his graduate studies at the University of Vermont with Greg Gilmartin, and his postdoctoral studies at Harvard University with Tom Maniatis. Brent has led large components of the ENCODE and modENCODE projects, studies the mechanisms of alternative splicing using genomic, genetic, and biochemical approaches, and collaborates extensively to investigate various aspects of RNA biology.
Professor of Computational Biology, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester. Manages the miRBase database of microRNA sequences. Founded the Rfam RNA families database. Interested in RNA structure, function and evolution.
Professor of Plant Developmental Genetics and Assistant Director of the Institute of Plant Biology of the University of Zurich. Co-leader of the University Research Priority Program "Evolution in Action: from Genomes to Ecosystems". Past-President of the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center. Recipient of the various fellowships, the Amerbach Award, a Searle Scholarship, and Awardee of an ERC Advanced Grant. Elected member of EMBO and the German Academy of Science Leopoldina.
Prof. Arthur Gruber received his Bachelor’s in Veterinary Medicine, PhD in Biochemistry, Associate degree in Animal Pathology from the University of São Paulo. He is Associate Professor at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, affiliated member, European Viral Bioinformatics Center, and member of the directory board, Brazilian Association for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (AB3C). Prof. Gruber is PI of the Viral Genomics and Bioinformatics research group, developing bioinformatics methods and tools for viral detection, classification and discovery.
Prof. Fanglin Guan is Dean at Xi'an Jiaotong University. He is engaged in the integrated biological research of complex diseases, including tumor microenvironment and novel immunotherapeutic modalities, and research on the mechanisms and medical applications related to tumor cell vaccines, especially for the exploration of the mechanism of determining the biomarkers of complex diseases.