Bio
Prof. Dr. George A. Calin received both his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Carol Davila University of Medicine in Bucharest, Romania. After working in cytogenetics as an undergraduate student with Dragos Stefanescu in Bucharest, Calin completed cancer genomics training in Massimo Negrini’s laboratory at the University of Ferrara, Italy, and in 2000, he became a postdoctoral fellow in Carlo Croce’s laboratory at Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In June 2007, Calin joined MD Anderson as an associate professor in the Experimental Therapeutics department and was promoted to Professor with tenure in 2013. He explores new RNA therapeutic options for cancer patients and studies the roles of microRNAs and other non-coding RNAs in cancer initiation and progression, as well as the mechanisms of cancer predisposition.

Bio
John Mattick is SHARP Professor of RNA Biology at UNSW Sydney. He was recently previously Executive of Genomics England (2018-2019), and Director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney (2012-2018), where he established one of the first HiSeq X10 sequencing and clinically accredited genome analysis facilities. He was previously the Foundation Director of the Institute for Molecular Bioscience and the Australian Genome Research Facility at the University of Queensland. He has published over 300 research articles and reviews, which have been cited over 80,000 times. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Health & Medical Sciences, and the Australian Academy of Technology & Engineering. He is also an Associate Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization. He has received numerous awards including the inaugural Gutenberg Chair at the University of Strasbourg, the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Medal, the Human Genome Organization Chen Medal for Distinguished Academic Achievement in Human Genetics and Genomic Research, and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Bertner Award for Distinguished Contributions to Cancer Research.