Speaker

Ruijun Tian

Professor at Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China

Prof. Ruijun Tian is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at SUSTech. He serves as the vice president of CNHUPO and is co-leading the new technology sub-project of the π-HuB International Project. He received several awards including the National Distinguished Young Scholar (NSFC). His research focuses on proteomics-related method development, and their applications in biomedical fields such as cell signaling and tumor micro-environment. He has published over a hundred papers in Nature, Nat. Chem. Biol., PNAS, Mol. Cell. Proteomics, and Anal. Chem.

Jeremy Herrera

Assistant Research Professor, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, USA

Björn Krenz

Head of Department, Plant Viruses, Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures Gmb, Braunschweig, Germany

Björn Krenz is head of the Department of plant viruses at Leibniz Institute DSMZ. He has an extensive research background from the University of Stuttgart to Cornell University, USA. He previously led the "VirusInteract" group at DSMZ and has contributed to key publications in virology.

Axel Hochstetter

CEO: Life on a Chip, Sappemeer, The Netherlands

Mark Kühnel

Group leader at UKA RWTH Aachen, Institute for Pathology. Associated PI in the German center for lung research (DZL), Aachen, Germany

Mark Kühnel's main focus lies on the role of macrophages in non-neoplastic pulmonary diseases, especially the regulation of aberrant mechanisms of lung repair and regeneration leading to progressive pulmonary interstitial lung diseases (PF-ILDs).
During his 10 years at Hannover Medical School, Mark has published over 50 scientific articles on various disease entities. He has extensive experience in correlative omics 7 Histopathology analysis in many respiratory diseases. His most recent success was the identification of intussusceptive neoangiogenesis in COVID-19 as a specific molecular trait of SARS-CoV-2 infection in human patient. Currently, his group specialises in the spatial analysis of cell subpopulations in ILDs.

Hongbo Jia

Microscopy Core Facility Manager at Combinatorial NeuroImaging Core Facility, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany

Hongbo Jia, PhD., leads the microscopy core facility service at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (Magdeburg, Germany) and in parallel consults an engineering lab at the Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences which builds advanced optical tools for measuring neural network activities at single-cell and sub-cellular precision in intact living brains.
 

Samer Alokaidi

Scientific associate in the Department for Experimental Physics at the Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany

Samer Alokaidi is a scientific associate in Professor Karin Jacobs' research group at the Department of Experimental Physics, Saarland University. He studied biomimetics at Westfälische Hochschule Bocholt (B.Sc., 2019) and biophysics at Saarland University (M.Sc., 2024). He is currently pursuing his doctoral studies.

Xiangwei Zhao 

Professor at State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

Xiangwei Zhao is a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering, Southeast University. He graduated from Zhejiang University with PhD degree in 2006 and then joined Southeast University. He has been a visiting scholar at Osaka University (2008), Michigan University Ann Arbor (2011), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2011) and Harvard University (2013). His research focuses on biomedical detection and analysis, including nanophotonics, spatial transcriptomics, POCT, etc. He has won the First Prize in Natural Science from the Ministry of Education and the Gold Medal of the Geneva International Invention Exhibition.

Xiang Zheng

PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, NNF Center for Protein Research, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Xiang Zheng earned a medical degree and began a career in cancer research at Peking University, China. Subsequently, he pursued a PhD at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, completing the program in 2021. After obtaining the doctorate, Xhe joined the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research at the University of Copenhagen, where significant contributions were made to advancing spatial proteomics through the integration of multiplex imaging into Deep Visual Proteomics.

Sophia Mädler

Postdoctoral Researcher, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich, Germany

Sophia Mädler is a postdoctoral researcher in Matthias Mann’s lab at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry. She specializes in developing computational methods for high-throughput image-based screening and single-cell analysis. Her work focuseson developing new approaches to make biological information captured in microscopy images accessible for a wide range of applications. She is the lead developer of scPortrait, a Python frameworkfor deep representation learning of single cell images, and recently developed SPARCS, a technology for high-throughput genetic screening of image-based phenotypes. 

Ruchi Bansal

Professor at University of Twente, Experimental and Translational Hepatology, Department of Bioengineering Technologies, the Netherlands

Ruchi Bansal is a biochemist with over 15 years of experience in liver and cancer research, and 2+ years in bioengineering (nano) technologies. Her work focuses on end-stage liver diseases, MASLD, liver cancer, and metastasis. She combines innovative technologies with liver biology to understand disease mechanisms, identify P4 biomarkers (precision, personalized, prognostic, predictive), and develop targeted (nano)therapies. Her goal is to translate scientific innovations from bench to bedside. Her work is recognized by major awards (EASL, UEG, AASLD), grants (NWO, KWF, PPS, TKI), and impactful publications.