Aleksandra is a PostDoc at IMES Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), specializing in chromatin architecture analysis using Hi-C, Micro-C, and imaging data. Notable for contributing to Open2C software with the Open Chromosome Collective. Currently, Aleksandra explores polymer simulations of chromatin in early embryogenesis of vertebrates. Her focus centers on understanding the biological implications of various 3D genome structures and their connection to cell fate decisions.
Dr. Ganopoulos received his BSc degree in Agriculture from the University of Thessaly (2000-2005) and his MS and PhD in Plant Breeding from AUTH (2005-2007/2008–2013). He has been awarded a Heracleitus PhD scholarship by the European Social Fund and the Hellenic National Fund. His recent scientific interests focus on epigenetics, DNA methylation, whole genome sequencing and trascriptomic analysis for molecular breeding purposes. He has participated in four research projects, one of them competitive European project. He has published 93 reviewed articles in SCI journals and h-index=27 (citations 2051 in Scholar google). He was a co-worker in national/international projects and he is Editor in Biochemical Genetics and PeerJ journals.
My research is mainly directed towards understanding processes involved in plant genome evolution and organisation, from the sequence to the whole genome. Three areas are highlighted: the study of the evolution of genome size; the structure, organisation and function of ribosomal RNA genes (rDNA) and telomere repeats, and the role of polyploidy and transposable elements (TE) in genome evolution. I have advanced these fields by: (1) the discovery of a novel arrangement of rDNA, first in several Asteraceae and later extended to gymnosperms, (2) the discovery of new telomere sequences in several organisms and (3) the launch and updating of four genomic databases, one compiling Asteraceae genome sizes; the next, on the number and distribution of rDNA sites in plant chromosomes; the following on the distribution of B chromosomes across biodiversity, and the most recent one on plant sex chromosomes. I am the PI of a project on the role of ribosomal DNA in evolution, including the analyses of the repeatome. I was recently involved in a project to examine the role of TE in the evolution of non-model plants and I also participate in a project on the origin and varieties of Cannabis. Beyond this, last year I started an initiative in my Institute to stress the role of women in science, by a series of conferences explaining the biographies and discoveries of relevant scientists in the fields of botany, genetics and genomics, both to the specialised and general public.
Dr. Jianye Ge is the Associate Director of the Center for Human Identification and an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Genetics at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. His research relates primarily to forensic genetics, bioinformatics, and data mining. The software programs he developed have been used by the Federal and State government agencies to assist in solving criminal cases.
Vice-Director for Science at the Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission Problems. Professor of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, and Higher School of Economics. Member of Academia Europaea. Recipient of the 2007 Baev Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Member of Editorial Boards of PeerJ and Biology Direct.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
Brock Harpur is an Assistant Professor at Purdue University. His work explores the evolution and genetics of honey bees. Brock completed his Ph.D. on population genomics of honey bees at York University. Brock has been awarded the prestigious Julie Payette Research Scholarship from the National Science and Engineering Research Council, an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, the Entomological Society of Canada’s President’s Prize, and was an Elia Research Scholar during his time at York University.