DISEASE MODELING AND THERAPEUTICS

Dr. Hilal A. Lashuel

Qatar Foundation & Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar

Prof. Hilal Lashuel is the Research Development and Innovation Advisor to the Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, Executive Director of RDI at the Chairperson’s Office, Director of the Laboratory of Chemical Biology of Neurodegeneration at EPFL, and CSO of ND BioSciences. His research focuses on understanding protein misfolding and aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases to develop innovative diagnostics and therapies. A PhD graduate from Texas A&M University and the Scripps Research Institute, he held postdoctoral positions at Harvard Medical School before joining EPFL in 2005. He also completed a sabbatical as a Visiting Professor at Stanford University’s Department of Neurological Sciences. Prof. Lashuel has published over 226 peer-reviewed articles, holds nine patents, and has over 30,000 citations (h-index: 93). His work has received funding from prestigious organizations, including the Michael J. Fox Foundation, European Research Council (ERC), and partnerships with major biotech and pharmaceutical companies. He has held key leadership roles in Qatar, including Executive Director of Qatar Biomedical Research and advisory roles in the Qatar Genome Project and Biobank, Qatar Foundation, and Hamad Medical Corporations. Recognized globally, he is a recipient of the Kuwait Prize, Takreem Scientific Achievement Award, and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Dr. Matthias Hebrok

Technical University Munich (TUM), Germany

Professor Matthias Hebrok holds the Chair for Applied Stem Cell and Organoid Systems at the Technical University, Munich (TUM). He also serves as the inaugural Director of the Center for Organoid Systems (COS) at the TUM, and as the Director of the Institute for Diabetes and Organoid Technology (IDOT) at Helmholtz Munich.  Prior to moving to Munich in 2022, he served as the Director of the Diabetes Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).  His group has made seminal contributions to the fields of pancreas organ development, stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. The overarching goal of his work is to build and optimize functional replicas of human insulin-producing beta cells from human stem cell to enable cell therapies for patients with diabetes. He has advised prominent academic Diabetes Centers, served on the SAB of several biotech and stem cell companies, and co-founded a company developing novel nanosensors to monitor activities of stem cell derived transplants in patients.

Bezard, INSERM Research Director (DRCE), has authored or co-authored over 350 professional publications in neurobiology, most of which are on Parkinson's disease and related disorders. Listed among the most cited neuroscientists (Top 1%, Clarivate 2022 ranking; H factor= 102 – Google Scholar), he is known for his work on the compensatory mechanisms that mask the progression Parkinson's disease, the pathophysiology of levodopa-induced dyskinesia, the intimate mechanisms of cell death in Parkinson’s disease and Multiple System Atrophy, the modelling of these diseases progression and the development of new strategies to alleviate symptoms and/or to slow these diseases progression.

Dr. Sonja Schrepfer

Sana Biotechnology, USA

Work by Dr. Sonja Schrepfer is at the forefront of stem immunobiology and paves the way for treatment of a wide range of diseases – from supporting functional recovery of failing myocardium to the derivation of other cell types to treat diabetes, blindness, cancer, lung, neurodegenerative, and related diseases. Her work demonstrates that protecting transplanted cells from immune rejection is the key to unlocking the potential of regenerative medicine. Dr. Schrepfer is Professor at the Cedars Sinai Medical Center (in the Departments of Surgery and Regenerative Medicine) and a Scientific Founder and SVP (Head of the Hypoimmune Platform) of Sana Biotechnology, Inc.

Dr. Shuibing Chen

Weill Cornell Medicine, USA

Dr. Chen is the Kilts Family Professor and Vice Chair of Innovation in the Department of Surgery, as well as the Director of the Center for Genomic Health (CGH). She received her training as a chemical biologist in Dr. Peter Schultz’s laboratory at The Scripps Research Institute. Following her postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Doug Melton’s lab at Harvard, she transitioned into the stem cell field and launched her independent research career at Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) in 2011. Early in her career, Dr. Chen conducted pioneering chemical screens to identify compounds that regulate stem cell differentiation. More recently, her research has focused on leveraging human stem cell-derived organoids for disease modeling and drug discovery. Her laboratory’s work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Cell Biology, Cell Stem Cell, and Cell Metabolism, among others. Dr. Chen currently serves on the Board of Directors for both the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) and the International Chemical Biology Society. She also serves on the editorial boards of top-tier journals such as Cell Stem Cell and Stem Cell Reports. Dr. Chen’s outstanding contributions to the fields of stem cell biology and chemical biology have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including the New York Stem Cell Foundation Robertson Investigator Award, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Innovative Award, the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, and the ISSCR Dr. Susan Lim Award for Outstanding Young Investigator.

Dr. Rickie Patani

The Francis Crick Institute, UK

Rickie Patani is a Neurologist and Cell Biologist. He trained in Neurology in the UK including in UCL Queen Square and Addenbrooke's, Cambridge. He obtained a PhD and post-doctoral experience in Cambridge University and set up his lab at UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology in 2013. He moved to the Francis Crick Institute in 2017. In 2018, Rickie was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (UK). He was appointed full Professor at UCL in 2019. Rickie recently left his role as a Senior Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute as he was appointed Director of the Neurobiology Programme at NUS Life Sciences Institute and Professor of Neuroscience at NUS in the Departments of Medicine and Anatomy.

Rickie’s Lab is passionately committed to understanding neurodegenerative disorders in order to uncover new therapies. His team work primarily on the themes of RNA metabolism and cellular autonomy in ALS/FTD using human induced pluripotent stem cell models as a primary discovery platform.

Dr. Erwan Bezard

University of Bordeaux, France

Bezard, INSERM Research Director (DRCE), has authored or co-authored over 350 professional publications in neurobiology, most of which are on Parkinson's disease and related disorders. Listed among the most cited neuroscientists (Top 1%, Clarivate 2022 ranking; H factor= 102 – Google Scholar), he is known for his work on the compensatory mechanisms that mask the progression Parkinson's disease, the pathophysiology of levodopa-induced dyskinesia, the intimate mechanisms of cell death in Parkinson’s disease and Multiple System Atrophy, the modelling of these diseases progression and the development of new strategies to alleviate symptoms and/or to slow these diseases progression. Bezard founded in 2010 and headed until 2020, a CNRS research unit in Bordeaux (France), the Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases, which features preclinical and clinical researchers working towards developing therapeutic solutions. He has served or sat on the boards of international organisations such as the Michael J. Fox Foundation and Parkinson’s UK. He is editor-in-chief of Neurobiology of Disease and he serves on the editorial boards of several other neurobiology journals. Besides consulting for several drug companies in movement disorders, he is a CSO of Motac Neuroscience (France-UK-China) and co-founder of Treefrog Therapeutics (France) & SE Therapeutics (France).

Dr. Amber L. Alhadeff

University of Pennsylvania, USA

Dr. Amber Alhadeff is an Associate Member at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where her neuroscience lab investigates gut-brain signaling and the control of food intake. She completed her doctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania in the labs of Drs. Harvey Grill and Matthew Hayes, investigating how hindbrain neuroendocrine signals impact feeding behavior. As a postdoc in the lab of Dr. Nick Betley at Penn, she examined how gastrointestinal signals affect activity in hunger circuits, and how these hunger circuits influence behavioral responses to competing survival needs. The Alhadeff lab, established in 2020, combines in vivo techniques with advanced microscopy, behavioral, and surgical approaches to examine how gut-brain signaling impacts behavior. This work focuses on the relationship between various feeding and metabolic centers in the brain, potentially providing insights into the etiology and treatment of diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Her latest research made the discovery that separate neural circuits mediate the weight loss effects versus aversive side effects of popular GLP-1-based medications.

Dr. Marcelo O. Dietrich

Yale University, USA

Dr. Khaled Machaca

Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar

Khaled Machaca is Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine and serves as the Senior Associate Dean for Research, Innovation and Commercialization for the Qatar campus. In that capacity he oversees the academic, financial, operational and compliance aspects of the research department, which currently encompasses about 200 researchers. Khaled oversaw the establishment of the administrative and regulatory infrastructure; centralized core laboratories; and faculty recruitment since 2009. He also serves as the designated institutional official for the animal research program and as the director of the imaging core. He leads and serves on multiple institutional, national, and international committees. The Machaca Lab is interested in intracellular signaling under physiological and pathological conditions with a focus on calcium signaling. Our goal is to better define signaling pathways at the cellular and molecular levels to identify potential therapeutic targets in various disease states. We are particularly interested in the role of calcium in cancer, metabolic, cardiovascular, and immune disfunction, as well as in oocyte maturation in preparation for fertilization. Work from the Machaca Lab has been published in leading biomedical journals and garnered continuous extramural funding from both the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF). Khaled serves of several editorial boards, reviews widely for scientific journals and granting agencies, and has an extensive track record of training students and postdoctoral fellows.

Dr. Joep Beumer

Institute of Human Biology, Switzerland

Joep Beumer is a junior group leader at the Institute of Human Biology, Roche in Basel. He studied Biomedical Sciences at the University Utrecht, The Netherlands, where he graduated in 2015. In 2020, he received his PhD from the University Utrecht, working with Hans Clevers on the intestinal stem cell niche as well as on enteroendocrine cells. He joined the Institute of Human Biology in 2022, where his group is building high-throughput genetic perturbation strategies in adult organoid models to study homeostatic renewal as well as disease of the gastrointestinal epithelium. In addition, his group is using organoids to better understand nutrient uptake and the endocrine function of the gut.

Dr. Chiara Cugno

Sidra Medicine, Qatar

Dr. Cugno joined Sidra in 2014, where she covers the double role of Director of the Advanced Cell Therapy Core and Attending Physician in Pediatric Oncology and Hematology.

She is a 20-year experienced medical doctor with a Board Certification in Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the University of Pavia (Italy), and a Master in Pediatric Hematology at the University “La Sapienza”, Rome (Italy).

In Italy, she has been directly involved in the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) activities at the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, a renowned Academic Health Center that has performed more than 2000 transplantations.

At Sidra, Dr. Cugno has been working on the development of the Advanced Cell Therapy Core, including a Cellular Therapy Unit for the delivery of cellular products for tissue, cell and gene therapy, and a Clinical Trial Office.

Activities currently range from Hematopoietic Stem Cells processing, as part of the Bone Marrow Transplantation clinical program, to several projects of cell therapy (i.e. production of mesenchymal stromal cell from different sources), gene therapy (i.e. gene therapy approaches in Hemophilia) and regenerative medicine (i.e. production of platelet rich plasma, platelet rich fibrin, adipose-derived stem cells and cell-drug codelivery).

Dr. M. Maya Kaelberer

University of Arizona, USA

Dr. Kaelberer is an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona and an Adjunct Professor at Duke University. She is a sensory neuro-gastroenterologist. Her laboratory studies the connection between the brain and the gut. Their goal is to pioneer a new understanding of how the gut senses and responds to the complex composition of food, going beyond traditional calorie counting. Specifically, her research investigates the relationship between the vagus nerve and specialized gut sensory cells, called neuropod cells. Neuropod cells may hold the key to deciphering the "nutritional code" by which the gut identifies and reacts to various nutrients, shaping our food preferences and potentially influencing long-term health. Using a suite of cutting-edge techniques, they aim to map the diverse array of nutrient receptors and signaling pathways within neuropod cells, uncovering how these cells distinguish between different types of sugars, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. This research has profound implications for understanding how our bodies process food and could lead to innovative strategies for addressing diet-related diseases by targeting gut-brain communication pathways.

Dr. Mohammad Farhan

College of Health and Life Sciences, HBKU

Dr. Mohammad Farhan is an Associate Professor  at the College of Health & Life Sciences, Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar. His behavioral neuroscience research combines three interconnected approaches: identifying genes linked to neurological disorders through human genetics and genomics; designing targeted therapeutics using computational modeling; and validating findings in Drosophila models and human neuronal cell lines. His lab investigates mechanisms underlying autism, schizophrenia and cerebral palsy through QNRF, HBKU, and HMC-MRC-funded projects. Dr. Farhan's pioneering work on optogenetic inhibition techniques was published in Nature Methods and highlighted in scientific media. With experience at Oxford University, Duke-NUS Medical School, and IMCB Singapore, he has published over 35 peer-reviewed articles in journals including Nature Methods, Neuron, and PloS Biology. His integrated approach creates a translational pipeline from genetic discovery to therapeutic development, aiming to improve patient outcomes worldwide.

Dr. Ehsan Pourkarimi

College of Health and Life Sciences, HBKU

Dr. Ehsan Pourkarimi completed his PhD at the Wellcome Trust Centre, University of Dundee, where he challenged classical models of DNA damage-induced apoptosis using C. elegans. His work offered new insights into the mechanisms of apoptosis. During his postdoctoral training, he transitioned into chromatin biology, uncovering novel roles for chromatin modifiers in cellular stress responses and histone dynamics. Then he moved to New York and worked at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as a research associate, where he mapped DNA replication origins in multicellular organisms for the first time, providing fundamental insights into chromatin-regulated replication. In 2020, he joined HBKU as an Assistant Professor, establishing a research lab focused on DNA damage response, apoptosis, and chromatin regulation. His team integrates genetics, molecular biology, high-resolution microscopy, proteomics, and genomics to investigate how chromatin modifications influence genome stability and cell fate. His work bridges fundamental biology with translational research in genome maintenance.

Dr. Mohammed Shaker

QBRI, HBKU

Dr. Mohammed R. Shaker is a Scientist at the Neurological Disorders Research Center, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, and a Joint Assistant Professor at the College of Health & Life Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He earned his PhD in Neuroscience from Korea University, Seoul, in 2017, and was subsequently awarded the prestigious Brain Korea 21 Plus Fellowship. He then joined the Australian Institute for Bioengineering & Nanotechnology at The University of Queensland, where he advanced organoid models for the study of human brain and spinal cord development. Dr. Shaker’s research integrates patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells with organoid platforms, focusing on neurological disorders such as white matter diseases and Autism. His work has garnered multiple national and international awards, such as fellowships from the Children’s Hospital Foundation and the European Leukodystrophy Association. Dr. Shaker continues to explore innovative 3D culture systems and computational approaches to accelerate breakthroughs in neurodegeneration and disease modelling.