Ieva

Dr. Maryia Trubitsyna is a Consultant in Genomic and Precision Medicine at IQVIA, a leading clinical research organization with over 40 years of experience in patient engagement. With a strong scientific background in Molecular Biology and DNA/RNA therapeutics, Dr. Trubitsyna will focus her presentation on oncology, rare diseases and specific challenges associated with cell and gene therapy clinical trials. She is passionate about increasing role of patient-centric approaches through the holistic patient support programs. Dr. Trubitsyna received her PhD from the University of Edinburgh and has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. She has also delivered keynote lectures at diverse national and international conferences.

Dr. Live Fagereng is the Project Manager at PRIME-ROSE, an EU project dedicated to the implementation of Precision Cancer Medicine and developing the network of DRUP-like clinical trials across Europe.
Dr. Fagereng has extensive experience from the national precision medicine initiatives in Norway, including IMPRESS-Norway and the Infrastructure for Precision Diagnostics. She actively participates in the CONNECT public-private collaboration. Her previous roles include working with the Norwegian Hospital Procurement Trust, where she was involved in price negotiations for new hospital drugs in Norway.  Dr. Fagereng holds a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the University of Oslo.

Gustaf Ljungman is a professor of pediatrics at Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University, Sweden and a senior consultant in pediatric oncology at Uppsala Children’s University Hospital. GL’s clinical focus has been on solid tumors in general and in soft tissue sarcomas in particular. He is the clinical leader of the Swedish Childhood Tumor Biobank which is a tissue and genomic data biobank. He is also the clinical leader of the project Genomic Medicine Sweden (GMS) Childhood Cancer where today all children with cancer in Sweden are offered whole genome sequencing of both tumor and reference, and in addition analysis of childhood cancer predisposition.

Dr. Arvids Irmejs is a distinguished oncologist with a PhD in medicine, focusing on hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. He completed his medical education at the Medical Academy of Latvia and postgraduate studies at Riga Stradins University. Currently, he serves as the Director of the Institute of Oncology and Molecular Genetics at Riga Stradins University. Since 2006, he has been a senior scientist and, since 2008, the Head of the Breast Unit at Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital. He is also an associate professor in the Department of Surgery at Riga Stradins University. Dr. Irmejs has contributed significantly to breast cancer research, participating in various international projects and serving as the National Coordinator for ERN GENTURIS. He holds European qualifications in breast surgery and surgical oncology and is an associate editor for the journal “Hereditary Cancer in Clinical Practice.” His work in improving cancer care and screening has been recognized across Europe.

Prof. Tríona Ní Chonghaile is an Associate Professor in the department of Physiology and Medical Physics Department at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She completed her PhD in Biochemistry in 2008, with Prof. Afshin Samali, at the National University of Ireland, Galway. She had an interest in translational science and moved to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School to do a postdoc with Prof. Anthony Letai, which was funded in part by a Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation Fellowship. In 2014, she moved back to Ireland and joined Prof. William Gallagher’s group as a Research Fellow working on identifying novel therapeutics for triple negative breast cancer. 

Dr. Ní Chonghaile’s lab (www.ttc-lab.com) is interested in understanding why certain cancers are sensitive to chemotherapy induced cell death while others are resistant and how best to treat resistant cancers. She has a particular interest in the BCL-2 family of proteins that regulate the mitochondrial cell death pathway. She uses an innovative technology called “BH3 profiling” to functionally interrogate the cell death signaling in both leukemia and breast cancers to identify novel effective combinations of treatments. Based on her work, she received the European Association of Cancer Research (senior) young scientist of the year award (2014), along with receiving the prestigious L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science UK&I Fellowship (2015). Her research is funded by grants from Wellcome Trust, Science Foundation Ireland, H2020 and Breast Cancer Now. She has published in high-impact journals Science, Cancer Discovery and Science Advances.

Daniel is the head of the biobank and a senior researcher at the Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos. He leads a group of 10 young researchers whose main study focus is biobanking, cryobiology, ex-vivo cancer studies, drug screening, new biomarker research, the design of new molecular diagnostic tests, and single-cell genomics/transcriptomics.

Stefan Pfister serves as Director of the Preclinical Research Program of the new Hopp Children’s Cancer Center Heidelberg, a joint venture between the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and Heidelberg University Hospital. He is heading the Division Pediatric Neurooncology at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) since 2012. Being a pediatrician by training, Pfister received his MD from Tübingen University, and his clinical education at Mannheim and Heidelberg University Hospitals. As a physician-scientist, he completed postdoctoral fellowships with Christopher Rudd at the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School, and with Peter Lichter at the German Cancer Research Center, Division of Molecular Genetics. Pfister’s research focuses on the genetic and epigenetic characterization of childhood brain tumors by applying next-generation profiling methods, the development of faithful models and functional validation of findings, and the preclinical testing of new treatment options using these models. In all his activities, translating novel findings into a clinical context is of highest priority. For his translational neurooncology projects, Pfister received amongst others the German Cancer Award in 2012.

Dr. Lars O. Baumbusch is a molecular biologist working as a senior scientist and project group leader at the Dep. of Pediatric Research, Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet, Norway. In his career, he investigated genomic instability, molecular signatures of circulating and disseminated tumor cells (DTCs), and long non-coding RNAs in breast cancer applying modern molecular biology methods and applied bioinformatics. Since 2012, he is working at the Dep. of Pediatric Research, Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet on the molecular biology of oxidative stress and childhood cancer. Together with colleagues and his team, he examines genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and epigenomic changes using animal models of perinatal asphyxia and patient samples. During the last years, he focused on the characterization of the genomic profiles of primary tumors and DTCs of high-risk neuroblastoma patients applying different single cell and sequencing techniques. In addition, he was engaged as an adjunct associate professor at the University of Oslo from 2006 to 2010 and as an associate professor/professor at the Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway from 2018 to 2021. Perspectives: Progress in medical research requires sample collections like the Norwegian Childhood Cancer Biobank (NCCB). These modern biobanks provide the opportunity to combine clinical information with state-of-the art biotechnology and analytical techniques enabling a translation research approach. For more details about the scientific projects, publications, and perspectives of LOB please see https://ous-research.no/baumbusch.