Sessions & Session Chairs
Sessions
S1. Disease Mechanisms for Personalized Medicine
S2. Personalized Diagnostics, Therapeutics, and Personalized Preventative Medicine
S3. Pharmacogenomics, Multi-Omics, and Informatics for Personalized Medicine
S4. Personalized and Precision Oncology
Department of Physiology & Cell Biology, School of Medicine, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA
Dr. Seungil Ro is a Professor in the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Nevada, Reno and completed his postdoctoral training in gastrointestinal physiology and smooth muscle biology.
Dr. Ro’s research focuses on the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlying diabetes, obesity, gastrointestinal motility disorders, and cancer, with particular emphasis on the regulatory and therapeutic roles of microRNAs and other small RNAs. He has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications, including studies published in Nature Genetics, Gut, Gastroenterology, and Cell Research, and holds multiple U.S. and international patents related to microRNA-based therapeutics.
His research has been supported by more than $12 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health and private sources. He has also founded a biotechnology start-up company focused on developing microRNA-based therapeutics for metabolic and gastrointestinal diseases.
Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology Department of Internal Medicine Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Dr. Yan Bi, M.D., Ph.D., is a Consultant and Professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville. Her research focuses on pancreatic physiology, pancreatitis, and pancreatic cancer. Her work encompasses signaling pathways regulating pancreatic acinar secretion, the role of the tumor microenvironment in pancreatic cancer progression, anticoagulation strategies for acute pancreatitis, and early pancreatic cancer detection. Dr. Bi’s research has identified novel molecular mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets for pancreatic diseases. She also collaborates with the PRECEDE consortium to advance early pancreatic cancer screening and surveillance through artificial intelligence and digital wearable technologies.
Department of Microbiology, Heersink School of Medicine, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, USA
Dr. Masakazu Kamata is a Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where his research program sits at the intersection of polymer bioengineering, antibody engineering, and translational cancer immunotherapy. His laboratory develops advanced polymer-based delivery platforms designed to enhance the pharmacokinetics, tissue and tumor penetration, and safety of next-generation anti-cancer therapeutics for solid tumors. Building on this foundation, his team has developed novel nanodrug delivery strategies that exploit the tumor microenvironment to achieve targeted drug delivery independent of tumor antigen expression, alongside a portfolio of bispecific antibody-based therapeutics designed to overcome the antigen heterogeneity and treatment resistance that limit current targeted cancer therapies, with applications spanning breast, lung, ovarian, and brain malignancies.
Dr. Kamata's earlier work established foundational contributions to CAR-T cell engineering, including methods for generating enhanced T cell subsets with improved persistence and the discovery of signaling pathway modifications that enhance CAR-T cell effectiveness against solid tumors. His translational research program has been supported by NIH funding and multiple foundation awards, and his laboratory maintains an extensive patient-derived xenograft biorepository spanning diverse malignancies, developed in collaboration with UAB clinical oncology faculty.