Biography
Professor Noam Shomron is passionate about using basic science to advance better healthcare. Prof Shomron heads the Genomic Intelligence Research Laboratory at the Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, after training at MIT. He leads a multidisciplinary team of scientists: biologists, physicians, computer scientists and bioinformaticians. The team develops computational methods for parsing molecular and big-data in the bio-medical field using Artificial Intelligence, successfully publishing more than 150 scientific papers and applying for more than 30 patents. Shomron’s aim is to deepen our understanding of diseases at an early stage, in order to translate information into clinical reality. Shomron is also the Editor of ‘Deep Sequencing Data Analysis’ (Springer); Director of ‘Rare-Genomics’ Israel (NPO); Academic Director of ‘ScienceAbroad’ (NPO); and, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Variantyx which provides clinical interpretation of whole genome sequences.

Biography
David Haussler develops new statistical and algorithmic methods to explore the molecular function, evolution, and disease process in the human genome, integrating comparative and high-throughput genomics data to study gene structure, function, and regulation. He recently co-founded the Treehouse Childhood Cancer Project to enable international comparison of childhood cancer genomes, and is a co-founder of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH), a coalition of the top research, health care, and disease advocacy organizations that have taken the first steps to standardize and enable secure sharing of genomic and clinical data.

Biography
Mark Van Oene is responsible for the development and implementation of the company’s commercial strategy and is responsible for world-wide sales, services and marketing. Van Oene was previously Illumina’s Senior Vice President of the Americas region and subsequently named interim Chief Commercial Officer in late 2016. Van Oene joined Illumina in 2006 as Regional Account Manager for Canada. In 2008, he assumed the role of Senior Director of Sales for the Americas and was promoted to Vice President with responsibility for global sales in 2012. In early 2014, Van Oene was named the General Manager for the Americas region, advancing to Senior Vice President in April 2016. Prior to Illumina, Van Oene was Director, Genotyping Services for Ellipsis Biotherapeutics. Van Oene earned a B.S. in biochemistry from Western University and was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto in Molecular and Medical Genetics.

Biography
Hans Cobben is the CEO of BlueBee. He is a serial entrepreneur, seasoned executive, investor and enabler for start-ups and cofounder of a number of globally successful companies. He has held senior executive roles at Alcatel, SunGard and SWIFT. Driven by his experience in technology and excited by the potential of high performance genomics, Hans joined BlueBee as a CEO in 2013.

Biography
Dr. Quagliata and Thermo Fisher are on a mission to democratize next-generation sequencing (NGS) and enable its widespread adoption to accelerate cancer diagnostics. Dr. Quagliata was introduced to NGS while visiting the NCI/NIH, and worked on one of the very first Ion Torrent instrument. Over the years, he took advantage of the Ion Torrent solutions’ exponential improvements and acquired extensive experience in molecular diagnostics of solid malignancies, helping the development of NGS into a tool that enables simultaneous analysis of multiple biomarkers, from gene variants to fusions. Dr. Quagliata is trained in medical biotechnology and holds a PhD in vascular medicine. Prior to joining Thermo Fisher, he was Senior Director for the R&D Unit and Leader of the Molecular Diagnostics Division, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. With the ultimate goal of enabling precision medicine, Dr. Quagliata’s team was amongst the first in Europe to introduce NGS into routine diagnostics of solid tumors.

Biography
Lou is responsible for developing and strengthening Agilent’s clinical brand and for providing reimbursement expertise across the DGG divisions. Lou brings more than 30 years of commercial and scientific experience in life sciences and molecular diagnostics. Lou joined HP early in his career in US commercial marketing. He held global positions with Agilent in marketing and product management, was a leader in global program management, and led the commercial strategy and launch of Agilent’s array CGH business. Lou co-founded Vela Diagnostics in 2011 and has held leadership roles at Roche Diagnostics and NanoString.