An overview of Personal Profiles can be found at http://www.moloncol.org.
Ruedi Aebersold
Prof. Aebersold is a native of Switzerland and a Swiss and Canadian citizen. He obtained his Ph.D. in Cellular Biology at the Biocenter of the University of Basel in 1983. He was a faculty member at the University of British Columbia, from 1988 till 1994 and then a faculty member at the University of Washington in Seattle till 2000 when he co‐founded the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. In 2004, he accepted a position as professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich and the University of Zurich.
Prof. Aebersold is one of the pioneers in the field of proteomics. He is known for developing a series of methods that have found wide application in analytical protein chemistry and proteomics, such as a new class of reagents termed Isotope Coded Affinity Tag (ICAT) reagents used in quantitative mass spectrometry. Prof. Aebersold and his team of researchers use the protein profiles determined by this method to differentiate cells in different states, such as noncancerous versus cancerous cells, and to systematically study how cells respond to external stimuli. These “snapshot” profiles indicate which cells contain abnormal levels of certain proteins. This is expected to lead to new diagnostic markers for disease and to a more complete understanding of the biochemical processes that control and constitute cell physiology. Prof. Aebersold's group has also pioneered the use of statistical models to determine the false discovery rates of peptide and protein identification in proteomic studies. These algorithms and the software tools that implement them are in use in more than 1000 laboratories worldwide. Recognizing that systems biology research is starved for high quality datasets that describe biological systems, the focus of his research is on the development and the application of new proteomics technologies. These technologies aim at detecting and quantifying the proteins and their interactions at the level of the complete proteome. Specific applications of the technology are directed towards the understanding of biological processes and the detection and validation of protein biomarkers for the early detection, diagnosis and classification of disease.
Prof. Aebersold serves on the Scientific Advisory Committees of numerous academic and private sector research organizations and is a member of several editorial boards in the fields of protein science, genomics, and proteomics. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his contribution to the field of protein sciences and proteomics including the ABRF Award (2008), the FEBS Buchner Medal (2006), and the HUPO Award (2005), the ASBMB Biemann medal (2002) the Widmer award (2002) the ASBMB Herbert Sober award (2009) the Otto Naegeli Prize (2009) and the 2003 World Technology award. He has published more than 500 peer reviewed papers and reached an h‐factor of 98.
Stephen Baylin
For the last 20 years, Prof. Stephen Baylin has studied the role of epigenetic gene silencing in the initiation and progression of human cancer. He and his colleagues have fostered the concept that DNA hypermethylation of gene promoters, and associated transcriptional silencing, can serve as an alternative to mutations for producing loss of tumor suppressor gene function. They have described some of the classic genes involved, invented approaches to randomly screen the cancer genome for such genes and to demonstrate their functional role in cancer progression, helped begin unravel the molecular mechanisms responsible for the initiation and maintenance of the gene silencing, and worked to utilize all of their findings for translational purposes. Dr. Baylin has authored or co‐authored over 350 full‐length publications on the above and other areas of cancer biology.
Dr. Baylin is currently Deputy Director, Professor of Oncology and Medicine, Chief of the Cancer Biology Division and Director for Research, of The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. He has been a member of committees of the American Cancer Society and of NIH, and his honors include a Research Career Development Award from NIH, the Edwin Astwood Lectureship of the Endocrine Society, the 2003 Jack Shultz Memorial Lecture in Genetics, Fox Chase Cancer Center, The 2004 National Investigator of the Year Award from the NCI SPORE program, the Jack Gibson Visiting Professorship, University of Hong Kong Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, The 2004 2nd Annual Sydney E. Salmon Lectureship in Translational Research, Arizona Cancer Center, the 2005 Shubitz Cancer Research Prize from the University of Chicago, and he currently holds the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Chair in Cancer Research at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Baylin is also recipient of the 2007 Woodward Visiting Professor, Memorial Sloan‐Kettering Cancer Center, the 2008 Raffaele Tecce Memorial Lecture, Trento, Italy, the 2008 The David Workman Memorial Award (jointly with Peter A. Jones, Ph.D.) from the Samuel Waxman Foundation, and the 2009 Kirk A. Landon‐AACR Prize for Basic Cancer Research, also shared with Peter A. Jones, the 14th NCI Alfred G. Knudson Award in Cancer Genetics, and, most recently, the Nakahara Memorial Lecture prize at the 2010 Princess Takematsu Symposium. Currently, he leads, with Peter A. Jones, the Epigenetic Therapy Stand Up to Cancer Team (SU2C).
René Bernards
René Bernards received his Ph.D. in 1984 from the University of Leiden. He joined the laboratory of Robert Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, USA for his postdoctoral training. Here, he studied the function of both oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. He continued this work when he joined the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center as an assistant professor in 1988. In 1992 he was appointed senior staff scientist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. In 1994 he was appointed part time professor of molecular carcinogenesis at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. In the last decade, his laboratory has focused on the development of new tools to carry out genome‐wide loss‐of‐function genetic screens to identify novel genes that act in cancer‐relevant pathways. In July of 2003 he co‐founded “Agendia”, a genomics‐based diagnostic company that started offering the first microarray‐based diagnostic test for the clinical management of breast cancer in 2004. He received several awards for his research, including the Pezcoller Foundation‐FECS Recognition for Contribution to Oncology, the Ernst W. Bertner Award for Cancer Research from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the ESMO Lifetime Achievement Award in Translational Research in Breast Cancer and the Spinoza award from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Guido Kroemer
Guido Kroemer is Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University Paris Descartes; Director of Unit 848 INSERM “Apoptosis, Cancer & Immunity”; and Director of the Metabolomics Platform at the Institut Gustave Roussy.
Guido Kroemer got his M.D. in 1985 from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and his Ph.D. in molecular biology in 1992 from the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. Since then he has worked as a research director at the French Medical Research Council (INSERM) in Villejuif. Since 2010 he is professor at University of Paris Descartes. He has made important contributions to medical research through his groundbreaking work in the fields of cell biology and cancer research. He is best known for the discovery that the permeabilization of mitochondrial membranes constitutes a decisive step in programmed cell death. Prof. Kroemer has explored the fine mechanisms of mitochondrial cell death control, the molecular pathways that explain the inhibition of cell death in cancer cells, upstream of or at the level of mitochondria, and the mechanisms that make cancer cell death immunogenic. His work has had far reaching implications for the comprehension, detection and therapeutic manipulation of cellular demise. His contributions have been recognized with numerous awards, including the prestigious Descartes Prize of the European Union, the Carus Medal of the German Academy of Sciences, the Grand Prix Mergier‐Bourdeix of the French Academy of Sciences, the Lucien Dautrebande Prize of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine, the Gallet & Breton Prize of the French Academy of Medicine and many others. He currently serves on more than forty editorial boards. These include EMBO Journal, EMBO Reports, Cancer Research, Oncogene and Cell Death & Differentiation. Prof. Kroemer is also the Editor‐in‐Chief of Cell Death & Disease. A prolific scholar, he has more than 550 scientific publications with about 50,000 citations. He is currently the most cited scientist worldwide in the field of cell death as well as in the area of mitochondrial research. He has delivered numerous keynote addresses at symposia internationally. He is member of EMBO, German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), Academia Europaea, European Academy of Sciences (EAS) and European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA). He is the President elect of the European Cell Death Organization (ECDO) and the Founding Director of the European Research Institute for Integrated Cellular Pathology (ERI‐ICP).
Jorge Reis‐Filho
Professor Reis‐Filho holds a joint medical degree from University of Porto, Portugal and Universidade Federal do Parana, Brazil. After finishing his histopathology training at the Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology, University of Porto, Portugal, he did his PhD on breast cancer molecular pathology at the Breakthrough Research Centre where he was appointed Team Leader of the Molecular Pathology Laboratory in 2006. In 2007, Prof. Reis‐Filho was awarded the CL Oakley Lectureship by the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland and the BACR Translational Research Award. In 2010, Prof. Reis‐Filho was awarded the 2010 Ramzi Cotran Young Investigator Award by the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology and the Future Leaders Prize by Cancer Research UK. Prof. Reis‐Filho is the youngest ever Fellow of The Royal College of Pathologists to have become a member by published works. Professor Reis‐Filho is an elected member of the Council of the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and a member of the Cancer Research UK Biomarkers & Imaging Discovery & Development Committee. He is the International Editor of Advances in Anatomic Pathology, associate editor for molecular pathology of The Journal of Clinical Pathology and BMC Cancer, and a member of the editorial boards of Science Translational Medicine, The Journal of Pathology, Modern Pathology, Laboratory Investigation, and of the international advisory board of the Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
Prof. Reis‐Filho's research programme focuses on i) the development of an integrated morphological and molecular classification for breast cancer and melanomas and ii) the identification of novel therapeutic targets for specific subgroups of breast cancer and melanoma patients, through an integrative analysis of data derived from histopathology, high throughput transcriptomic and genomic profiling methods, massively parallel sequencing and functional genomics.
Huanming Yang
President & Professor, BGI, China
Dr. Yang received his Ph.D. from University of Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1988, and obtained his postdoctoral trainings in France and USA. As one of the co‐founders of BGI (formerly Beijing Genomics Institute), he and his collaborators have made a significant contribution to the HGP and HapMap projects, as well as to sequencing and analysing genomes of rice, cucumber, chicken, silkworm, giant panda, ant, maize, soybean, and many microorganisms since 1999. BGI, together with its collaborators, has published the first Asian's genome, human pan‐genome, human ancient genome, and human gut metagenomes by means of new‐generation sequencing technology and innovative bioinformatic tools recently in Science, Nature and other internationally prestigious journals. BGI now has become one of the most influential genomics centers in the world and a major contributor to the International 1000 Genomes Project.
Dr. Yang has received many awards and honors, including Research Leader of the Year by Scientific American in 2002 and Award in Biology by the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS); in 2006. He was elected as a foreign member of EMBO in 2006, an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2007, a fellow of TWAS in 2008, a foreign academician of Indian Academy of Sciences in 2009.