Tamyo Mbisa obtained his PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Ottawa in Canada in 2002. He then, undertook Postdoctoral and Research Fellowships at the National Cancer Institute-Frederick, USA within the HIV Drug Resistance Program from 2002 to 2008. He joined UK Health Security Agency in 2008 and is the Head of the Antiviral Unit, a WHO Specialized HIV Drug Resistance Laboratory which offers genotypic resistance testing for HIV and HCV, and genotypic and phenotypic resistance testing for HSV-1 and HSV-2. In 2019, his laboratory implemented HCV whole genome sequencing (WGS) for direct patient care, one of the first viral WGS assay to be used in the National Health Service (NHS) clinical pathway. His laboratory has also developed herPHEgen®, a HSV genotype-to-phenotype database and antiviral resistance interpretation system. He is the Co-ordinator of a UK network of NHS laboratories undertaking nucleotide sequencing for antiviral resistance (UK HIV ResNet)
Andy Ward is a Lecturer and Chancellor’s Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Strathclyde. His research focuses upon the use of low-cost sensors for environmental detection of bacteria, viruses, and biomolecules. He is interested in the development of extremely low-cost biosensing platforms that can be used to address environmental and sustainable development challenges. Before his academic research career, AW has over 7 years’ industry experience on the design and development of nuclear submarines focusing upon systems engineering and integration.
Eric C.J. Claas has a long-standing experience in implementation of innovative molecular tests in the clinical microbiology laboratory. After his PhD in 1991, he worked for eight years at the Dutch National Influenza centre (Erasmus University, Rotterdam) where his group identified the first human H5N1 (bird-flu) infection in 1997.Since 1998, he is heading the molecular diagnostics section of the department of medical microbiology at the LUMC, Leiden, The Netherlands. More than 100 real-time PCR assays are being offered under compliance of the ISO15189 guidelines. He is coordinator of the NGS activities of the department and also acts as a consultant for molecular diagnostics at the Franciscus Gasthuis and Vlietland hospital in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He has authored over 200 peer reviewed publications and books and holds several positions in societies and committees.
Dr. Jens Ducrée holds a Full Professorship of Microsystems in the School of Physical Sciences at Dublin City University (DCU). He is the founding director of FPC@DCU – Ireland’s first Fraunhofer Project Centre for Embedded Bioanalytical Systems, a joint initiative of Science Foundation Ireland and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. The main part of his research is directed towards novel microfluidic systems and associated actuation, detection, fabrication and instrumentation technologies for the integration, automation, miniaturization, and parallelization of bioanalytical. Typical applications of these next-generation “Lab-on-a-Chip” platforms are sample-to-answer systems for biomedical point-of-care and global diagnostics, liquid handling automation for the life sciences, process analytical techniques and cell line development for biopharma as well as monitoring the environment, infrastructure, industrial processes and agrifood.
Willem Melchers is an associate professor Research interests are in molecular microbiology, with a specific focus on the relationship between HPV infections and the development of cervical cancer. Current studies of him are focusing on the secondary factors related to progression from subclinical infection to invasive cervical cancer. His interests include novel interdisciplinary approaches where molecular biology and genetics are tightly coupled with (bio) physical/informatics methods aimed at understanding the biological function at a molecular level. Willem Melchers is associate professor in Molecular Microbiology. He is head of the Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology of the department of Medical Microbiology.
Nicola is the POCT coordinator at the Royal United Hospitals Bath Foundation Trust and have been for just over 2 years now. Before this she was a senior biomedical scientist in biochemistry in the manual section again for around 2 years and a specialist BMS since 2003. Her most recent education was the certificate in expert practice in POCT awarded by the IBMS in 2021.
she have always had a great passion for POCT and I enjoy my job despite the many challenges. She believes that POCT is the ultimate integration of the laboratory and patients and never so much in the limelight as it has been during these COVID times.
Muna is a Biomedical Scientist working at the Royal United Hospital NHS foundation trust. At the RUH she has had the opportunity to work in Point of Care Testing (POCT) and Biochemistry; The project lead to the validation of Influenza A/B rapid testing for their Accident and Emergency department as we already test for Covid-19 rapid testing, this would potentially triage our patients efficiently during the cold and flu season.
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Pedro Estrela is Professor of Biosensors and Bioelectronics at the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering and Director of the Centre for Biosensors, Bioelectronics and Biodevices (C3Bio) at the University of Bath. He has a background in Physics (degree and Masters from the University of Lisbon, PhD from the University of Amsterdam) and started working in the field of biosensors in 2000 (University of Cambridge until 2008 and University of Bath since 2008).
Prof. Estrela’s research focuses on the development of labelfree electrical, electrochemical and plasmonic biosensors for a wide range of applications such as medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring. He has over 150 peer-reviewed publications. He is an Associate Editor for the journals Biosensors & Bioelectronics, Scientific Reports, Sensors, Frontiers in Sensors and Advanced Devices & Instrumentation and Specialty Chief Editor in Frontiers in Lab on a Chip Technologies.
Saima is a trained clinician with a strong interest in research. She has worked in molecular biology and clinical research since 2007 and is very motivated in expanding my expertise in variable roles. Saima’s clinical experience has always given her better understanding of the overlap of research related to basic research and clinical applications.
As a recognized SME in the field of Oncology, specifically Immuno-Oncology and PD-L1, Radha has overall 25 years of experience in clinical and diagnostic practice as a clinical pathologist and anatomic/ surgical pathologist.
She has extensive global experience in Science and Operations, with a proven track record in delivering above market growth in high complexity biomarker analysis to support clinical trials. I also have a broad background in GCP, external reproducibility studies, IVD/ companion diagnostic (CDx) studies globally. Expertise in the development of pathology assessment criteria for neoadjuvant trials, extensive experience with NASH trials. Driving digital pathology and AI adoption in routine clinical practice and clinical trials.
Peter completed his undergraduate medical education at University College London (UCL) from 1986 to 1991, followed by studies at the College of Medicine, University of Malawi, from 1991 to 1992. He pursued postgraduate education in general medicine at Heartlands Hospital and Royal Liverpool Teaching Hospital, and in clinical microbiology at University Hospitals of Leicester. Currently, Peter holds the position of Trust Clinical Lead for antimicrobial stewardship at University Hospitals of Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust. Additionally, he serves as the Training Programme Director for Infection Training in the West Midlands. Peter's special interests lie in antimicrobial stewardship and teaching, where he actively contributes as an examiner for the Royal College of Pathologists and fulfills the role of Training Programme Director for West Midlands Infection Training.
Mohsin Bilal is Assistant Professor (Research) and a Data Scientist at the PathLAKE centre of excellence for AI in pathology at the Tissue Image Analytics Centre (TIACentre), University of Warwick, UK. A significant portion of his work focused on predictive modelling of molecular pathways and genetic alterations to discover distinct differential histology in colorectal cancer. Dr. Bilal has also worked as Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Umm Al-Qura University in Saudi Arabia in the past. Dr. Bilal is currently working on developing cutting-edge AI solutions for cancer early diagnosis and personalised treatment, and digital pathology transformation in Pakistan. He has published several peer-reviewed articles related to machine learning, image processing, and computational pathology.
I started Histopathology training late in 2012, my main aim then was to
be competent enough to pass specialty exams and progress to the next level.
I completed my master’s degree in Pathology in 2017, and became a fellow of the Royal college of Pathologists in 2019. I am also an active member of several Pathology societies including the USCAP, the BDIAP and ESP. Additionally, I am an associate member of the Academy of Medical Educators and a board member of the Manchester Medical Society. I am also a peer reviewer for Cureus Journal.
My work experience includes Histopathology reporting, with a subspeciality interest in breast and GI Pathology, postgraduate and undergraduate teaching.
I am a strong advocate of digital Pathology and cautiously optimistic about the use of artificial intelligence in Pathology. I also endorse social media engagement for pathologists to educate in, and propagate Histopathology, and I have found the power of sharing knowledge on Twitter and Linked in to be second to none; it is abundant, accessible, free, and high quality.
I experienced academia when completing my master’s degree, and, as an early career doctor, I am very interested in identifying and pursuing research opportunities.
I believe Histopathology is a profession that lies at the exciting crossroads of clinical care, cellular biology, genetics and digital technology, with a never-ending learning curve, that proves to be continuously challenging and thought provoking.
Dr Nikolay Burlutskiy is Director of Artificial Intelligence at AstraZeneca R&D, UK.
His interest is in applying AI methods, especially computer vision, to improve and accelerate drug development pipelines. Nikolay has background in computer science with a PhD in machine learning and deep learning. Prior to AstraZeneca, he was leading algorithm development of Inify, a successful decision support tool to empower pathologists, at ContextVision in Stockholm. He also worked as R&D AI engineer at Samsung Electronics in South Korea developing vacuum cleaning robots. He co-authored over 20 peer-reviewed publications including several US patents on AI applications.
