Bio
After studying Chemistry at the University of Bonn (Germany), Dr Fingerhut specialized in biochemistry under Prof. Konrad Sandhoff, with a focus on lysosomal storage disorders. He obtained his PhD from the University of Würzburg (Germany) for research on peroxisomal disorders, especially on Refsum Disease, under Prof. Ernst Conzelmann. Afterwards, he headed the newborn screening and metabolic laboratory at the University Children’s Hospital, Hamburg Eppendorf, from 1995 to 1999. From 1999 to 2008 he invented expanded newborn screening by tandem mass spectrometry in Munich, together with Prof. Roscher and Prof. Olgemöller. In 2008, he switched to the University Children´s Hospital Zurich (Switzerland), where he also expanded screening by tandem mass spectrometry, but also invented screening for cystic fibrosis (CF) and severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). In 2021 he went back to Germany, where he is now the Director of the newborn screening laboratory at SYNLAB MVZ Weiden, and is Associate Professor for clinical biochemistry at the Technical University Deggendorf (Germany). Dr Fingerhut has authored over 100 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals and several book chapters, for example the 2nd edition of the Physician´s Guide to the Diagnosis, Treatment, and Follow-Up of Inherited Metabolic Diseases (Springer, eds. Nenad Blau et al.). He received several poster prizes, and was awarded the Guthrie Award by the International Society for Neonatal Screening in 2023. Dr Fingerhut is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Neonatal Screening since 2015, and it has become one of the top journals in this field, with an impact factor of 4.0 and a citescore of 6.7. He serves as reviewer and scientific board member for several journals, reviewer for the German Akkreditation Body (DAkkS) for newborn screening and clinical chemistry. He is also a member of several scientific societies: ISNS, SSIEM, DGNS, GfAS, the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI), and a member of the CLSI Expert Panel on Newborn Screening.

Talk
Wilson and Jungner Principles as an Ethical Framework and ‘Screening as a System’

Bio
Dr. Schielen is a senior scientist at the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Centre for Population Screening, in Bilthoven, the Netherlands (RIVM). He earned his PhD from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He has a background in prenatal screening for Down’s syndrome and adverse pregnancy outcomes and neonatal screening for metabolic and other disorders, and was head of the reference laboratory for pre- and neonatal screening at RIVM until 2020. Since 2020, he has been the quality assurance and science coordinator for a programme focusing on breast, cervical, and colon cancer screening in the Caribbean part of the Netherlands. Implementing screening programmes in a setting with limited resources brings together his passion for screening and global health, and contributes to more equity in public health worldwide, with responsible choices to make the programmes accessible for all, respecting local values, local circumstances, and proper monitoring and evaluation. To establish this, he is partly seconded to the Julius Centre of the Utrecht University Medical Centre, the Netherlands. In another capacity, he is also the manager of the International Society of Neonatal Screening (ISNS). The ISNS, with more than 500 professional members globally, invests in screening programme support in LMIC countries. For the ISNS, he is involved in activities to establish more equity in neonatal screening not only in European states, but also globally.

Talk
ISNS General Guidelines for Neonatal Bloodspot Screening 2025

Bio
Professor Dianne Webster received her PhD from the University of London (UK, 1981) on aspects of the inborn error of metabolism hereditary orotic aciduria. She has been involved in newborn screening since 1986, and served as the Director of the New Zealand Newborn Metabolic Screening Programme since 1991. She is an honorary Professor at the Liggins Institute of the University of Auckland School of Medicine. She has served in various capacities in several professional societies, notably the ISNS (in which she currently serves as an Asia Pacific representative and Vice President), but also the Human Genetics Society of Australasia and the Clinical and laboratory Standards Institute. She has been involved in the organisation of many meetings, and has been invited as a plenary speaker many times. Her areas of interest in newborn bloodspot screening are programme evaluation (adding and removing disorders), disorder definition and counting, guideline development, and supporting fledgling newborn screening programmes.