2023 Registrations Now Closed
2023 Registrations Now Closed
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Dana Foss PhD is a protein and RNA biochemist based in San Francisco, California and is currently Head of Therapeutic Technologies at Related Sciences where she works on preclinical drug discovery. Dana pursued her postdoctoral training at the Innovative Genomics Institute at University of California Berkeley, under the supervision of Ross Wilson and Jennifer Doudna, where she developed a novel method for genome editing primary human T cells using CRISPR ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) and endosomolytic peptides, generating higher yields of engineered T cells than with electroporation (Foss et al., Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2023). The method is minimally perturbative, does not require dedicated hardware, and is compatible with multiplexed editing via sequential delivery, thus minimizing the risk of genotoxicity. Dana received her PhD in Biochemistry in 2016 from the University of Ottawa, Canada where her research centered around engineering protein-based tools for modulating the RNA silencing pathway.
After completing his PhD and postdoctoral studies with an emphasis on biochemistry, molecular biology, and developmental biology, Ben Haley, PhD, served for >13 yrs as a point person for molecular genetic technology development at Genentech, Inc. In Fall 2023, Ben established his lab at the Centre de recherche de l’Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont (CR-HMR) and Université de Montréal, where his group will develop and apply next-gen genome engineering tools to better understand the complexities of human disease.
Associate Professor Pilar Blancafort BSc, PhD completed her Bachelor of Science at the University of Barcelona, and her PhD at the University of Montreal in the field of Biochemistry in 1999. She pursued her postdoctoral studies at the Scripps Research Institute, California in the field of genome-engineering . In 2005, she established her own laboratory at the University of North Carolina, as Assistant Professor and later as tenured Associate Professor in 2011. In 2012, Professor Blancafort moved her laboratory at the University of Western Australia. In 2014, she joined the Perkins as Head of the Laboratory in Cancer Epigenetics. Pilar is a specialist in genome engineering and gene targeting and her laboratory has pioneered the development of engineered DNA binding proteins to modulate the epigenetic state of cancer cells and delivery strategies for tumor targeting in pre-clinical studies. She has received several awards, including awards from the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Program, American Lung Association, several cancer nanotechnology awards, NCI/NIH awards, a Cancer Council of Western Australia Research Fellowship and a ARC Future Fellowship and a National Breast Cancer Novel Concept award.
Marco is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow, Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and laboratory head and CEO of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute in Melbourne, Victoria. During his PhD and first postdoctoral studies at the University of Würzburg (Germany), Marco was trained in cell death research and mouse genetics. In 2008, he moved to Australia to join the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, where he served as a Laboratory Head in the Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division and Head of the Melbourne Genome Editing Centre (MAGEC). Marco’s research team specialises in applying CRISPR gene editing techniques to identify novel gene targets required for the development and sustained growth of cancer cells. Recent findings identified DNA repair as fundamental for TP53-mediated tumour suppression (Janic et al, Nature Medicine 2018). With >130 publications (H-index 41) Marco has a comprehensive track record in cancer genetics and gene engineering. His current research specialises in applying advanced genome-wide CRISPR screens (including knockout, activation, and base-editing) to discover vulnerabilities that can be exploited for cancer therapy.
Dr Sarah Diepstraten is a Victorian Cancer Agency Early-Career Research Fellow at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. She received her PhD in genetics from La Trobe University in 2017, before joining the laboratory of A/Prof Gemma Kelly in the Blood Cells and Blood Cancer division at WEHI in 2018. Sarah’s work is focused on improving the use of BH3-mimetic drugs for high-risk blood cancers. She employs whole genome CRISPR KO and activation screening to systematically characterise resistance of blood cancers to BH3-mimetic drugs and identify potential new combination therapies. She has also developed accessible bioinformatics tools to enable other bench scientists to analyse their own CRISPR gene editing experiments more easily.
Mohamed is a mid-career research leader with a diverse background encompassing RNA biology, CRISPR, and advanced quantitative single-molecule approaches. He completed his Ph.D. training in France, where he investigated the role of non-coding RNAs in regulating tumor heterogeneity and cell plasticity. Following this, he pursued postdoctoral training in single-molecule biophysics in the Netherlands, where he developed advanced single-molecule pulldown and fluorescence assays to study RNA interference and CRISPR dynamics at nanometer and millisecond scales. In August 2018, Mohamed joined the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre as a senior research fellow, where he initiated new research directions aimed at effectively silencing tumor and viral RNAs using cutting-edge CRISPR tools. His current research focuses on three primary areas: (i) understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying various CRISPR enzymes at the nanoscale level, (ii) engineering innovative CRISPR-based therapeutics, and (iii) developing lipid nanoparticles for targeted delivery of CRISPR therapeutics. Recently, Mohamed's team uncovered crucial design principles of CRISPR-Cas13, enabling efficient and precise silencing of oncogenic RNAs (Hu et al, BioRxiv; Shembrey et al, in prep), as well as infectious viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 (Fareh* et al, Nature Communications, 2021).
Gavin obtained his PhD. from the University of Western Australia in 2016 where he was researched the mechanisms of long non-coding RNA binding proteins. After completing his Ph.D., Gavin accepted a position in the lab of Prof. Jennifer Doudna at the University of California Berkeley. During his postdoctoral years he described structures of RNA targeting CRISPR Cas13 systems, methods for RNA detection, mechanisms evolved by phage to overcome CRISPR, and the structure of CRISPR-Cas9 adenosine base editors. In 2018 Gavin received a Sir. Keith Murdoch Fellowship from the American Australian Association and an NHMRC Investigator Grant in 2020, the latter of which drew him to Australia. In 2021, Gavin moved to the Monash University Biomedicine Discovery Institute to establish an independent lab. In 2023, Gavin received a Snow Fellowship to support his teams’ vision – that the revolutionary biotechnologies of the future are encoded within genomes of the microbial world. From discovery to application, the Knott Lab is combining metagenomics, bioinformatics, high-throughput screens, biochemistry, structural biology, and engineering to develop the next-generation of CRISPR-based biotechnologies and beyond.
Prof Paul Thomas leads the Genome Editing Program and SA Genome Editing Facility at the University of Adelaide and South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. Prof Thomas completed his Ph.D. at the University of Adelaide in 1994. He completed a 3 year post-doctoral position with the late Dr. Rosa Beddington (NIMR, London) and 1998 retuned to Australia with the support of a NHMRC Florey Fellowship to establish an independent research group at the Murdoch Institute (now Murdoch Childrens Research Institute) in Melbourne. In 2006, he moved to the University of Adelaide and in 2008 was awarded a prestigious Pfizer Australia Research Fellowship. In 2014, he was promoted to full Professor and established the SA Genome Editing (SAGE) facility. In 2018, he relocated to the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. His research focuses on the development of CRISPR/CAS9 genome editing technology for a range of applications including genetic therapies for eye and muscle disease, generation and analysis of mouse models for neurodevelopmental disorders and synthetic gene drives for invasive pest suppression. He has published >130 scientific articles and has >11,000 citations.
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