Takahara Clinic Innovative Scan;Institute of Science Tokyo;Taro Takahara was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1961. He is a radiologist specializing in MRI and is distinguished by his ability to operate MRI scanners hands-on at the level of an experienced technologist while also developing new imaging techniques. He devised diffusion-weighted whole-body imaging with background body signal suppression (DWIBS), first reported in 2004, which enables cancer screening without the use of contrast agents. After a short-term research stay at Emory University, the USA, in 1995, he served as a visiting associate professor at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, from 2007 to 2010, where he was a founding member of the 7-tesla MRI team. From 2010 to 2025, he was a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tokai University. In 2025, he founded Takahara Clinic Innovative Scan in Tokyo, where he serves as director; he is also a clinical professor at Institute of Science Tokyo. Through DWIBS Search Inc., he has led the nationwide expansion of non-contrast, compression-free MRI breast cancer screening in Japan, now available at approximately 100 partner facilities. He has authored approximately 150 scientific publications.

School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong;Professor Faye Suk-Ying Tsang obtained her Ph.D. degree from the Chinese University of hong Kong. She obtained the postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University and the University of California. She is now a full professor at the School of Life Sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is the investigator in both the State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology and the Ministry of Education Key Laboratories for Regenerative Medicine. Her research interests include stem cell biology, cancer cell biology and metabolism.

Georgia Cancer Center, Augusta University;Dr. Ali S. Arbab earned his MD from the Institute of Postgraduate Medicine and Research (now Bangladesh Medical University) and completed his PhD at Yamanashi Medical University, Japan. Following postdoctoral training in cellular and molecular imaging at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), he joined the Henry Ford Health System as an associate scientist, where he established and led the Molecular Imaging Division within the Department of Radiology. In 2013, Dr. Arbab joined the Georgia Cancer Center, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, as a professor, where he leads a multidisciplinary research program focused on brain tumors, breast cancer tumor microenvironments, and stroke. His research integrates advanced molecular and cellular imaging technologies with nanotechnology-based diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, with a strong emphasis on translational and clinically relevant applications. With more than 37 years of experience in imaging sciences, encompassing MRI, SPECT, CT, ultrasound, and optical imaging, Dr. Arbab has developed extensive expertise in stem cell biology, recombinant DNA technologies, engineering of exosomes, tumor model development, flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, and cancer cell biology. His broad scientific expertise has been strengthened through numerous NIH-, Department of Defense (DoD)-, and American Heart Association (AHA)-funded research projects, in which he has served as either principal investigator or co-investigator, advancing innovative approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and stroke.

Department of Molecular Genetics, Erasmus University Medical Center;Dik van Gent studied various aspects of DNA recombination and repair. During his postdoctoral research at the NIH (Bethesda, the USA), he unraveled the basic mechanism of RAG1/2 mediated V(D)J recombination, which generates the antigen receptor diversity in B and T cells. Subsequently, he joined the Department of Molecular Genetics at Erasmus MC, where he has studied many aspects of DNA double strand break repair. He characterized various aspect of Non-Homologous End-Joining, including the identification of pathogenic variants of the DNA-PKcs, DNA ligase 4 and Artemis genes in Severe Combined Immunodeficiency patients. More recently, his lab developed a functional test for Homologous recombination proficiency, using tumor tissue slices that can be propagated ex vivo and probed for the ability to accumulate RAD51 protein at DNA breaks (the RECAP assay). He is now broadening this approach to assessing the effects of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and targeted therapy in various types of cancer tissues using ex vivo culture methods, including organ-on-chip approaches.