PRECISION MEDICINE
AND THE FUTURE
OF GENOMICS
PMFG SUMMIT 2025

Dr. Giusy Gentilcore

Sidra Medicine

Dr. Giusy Gentilcore is the Manager of the Flow Cytometry Core at Sidra Medicine. She holds a Doctorate in Clinical Pathology from the “University G. D’Annunzio” of Chieti, Italy, and advanced degrees in Cancer and Environment from the “University of Sannio”, Italy, Biotechnological Sciences from “University Federico II”, Italy, as well as Nutrition, and Hospital Management from “SDA Bocconi/Columbia University”. She completed the SITC Women in Cancer Immunotherapy Network (WIN) Leadership Program in 2023.

An expert in cancer immunology, immune-related diseases, and advanced flow cytometry technologies, she has developed Sidra Medicine’s Flow Cytometry Core since 2014, supporting scientific and clinical research across the Middle East.

Under Dr. Giusy Gentilcore’s direction, Sidra Medicine has built a robust regional platform for state-of-the-art flow cytometry services and training, scientific research, and advanced training—strengthening the institution’s role in shaping precision medicine across the Middle East and internationally.

Her research focuses on developing strategies to advance translational research, biomarker discovery, and precision medicine in both adult and pediatric populations.

Dr. Abbirami Sathappan

Sidra Medicine

Dr. Abbirami Sathappan is the Lead of the Advanced Imaging Core Facility at Sidra Medicine, which she established from the ground up in 2017. Under her leadership, the AIC has grown into one of the region’s most advanced microscopy and imaging centers, providing cutting-edge platforms for optical microscopy, high-content imaging, and spatial proteomics to support translational and precision medicine research.

Dr. Sathappan earned her PhD in Hematology, Oncology, and Translational Medicine from the University of Genova and holds a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering from Imperial College London. Since joining Sidra Medicine in 2014, she has played a pivotal role in driving imaging innovation across research and clinical collaborations, including projects in cancer immunology, pediatric tumors, and maternal health. She is deeply committed to training and capacity building, having conducted numerous international workshops and microscopy courses at leading institutions including the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, KAUST, and New York University Abu Dhabi. Her research focuses on characterizing the tumor microenvironment and decoding immune–tumor interactions using advanced imaging and spatial technologies.

Dr. Sathappan’s leadership has positioned Sidra Medicine as a regional hub for quantitative imaging, bridging technology, research, and education to advance precision medicine in the Middle East and beyond.

Dr. Houari Abdesselem

HBKU

Dr. Houari Abdesselem earned his PhD in Neurobiology from the University of Konstanz, Germany, in 2009. His doctoral research focused on the role of NOGO-66 myelin-associated proteins in nervous system regeneration. Following his PhD, he pursued postdoctoral training in the United States at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he investigated neuronal guidance molecules involved in nervous system development.
In 2012, Dr. Abdesselem joined Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar as a research fellow, studying the role of SIRT1 in obesity. He later joined the Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), where he was appointed Laboratory Manager in 2016. At QBRI, he managed the Neurological Disorders Research Center and managed a research group focusing on alpha-synuclein proteins in Parkinson’s disease. His work contributed to the development of novel tools that advanced the understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying Parkinson’s disease.
In 2019, Dr. Abdesselem established the Proteomics Core Facility at HBKU, introducing and implementing state-of-the-art biomarker technologies such as Olink, Sengenics, CDI, and Quanterix. Under his leadership as a Core Lab Manager, the facility became fully certified and operational, serving as a key resource for precision medicine and biomarker discovery. Dr. Abdesselem also serves as a Lecturer at HBKU’s College of Health and Life Scineces.

Alongside his leadership and management roles, Dr. Abdesselem has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in high-impact scientific journals, contributing to the advancement of neuroscience, proteomics, and translational research in the region

Dr. Rozaimi Razali

Qatar University

Dr. Rozaimi Razali is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences (QU-Health), Qatar University. A computational biologist by training, he which focuses on population genetics, ancient DNA, and multi-omics applications in precision health. He earned his PhD from Imperial College London. Prior to joining QU, he worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Sidra Medicine, Qatar and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia. His recent scholarship includes contributions to large Middle Eastern multi-omics efforts . He also develops and teaches bioinformatics curricula and runs hands-on workshop series at QU and for PMFG.

Dr. Piero Del Boccio

Piero Del Boccio Ph.D is Associated Professor of Biochemistry, Department of Science, "G. d'Annunzio" University Chieti, Italy. His scientific experience has been mostly focused on the identification and characterization of novel molecular biomarkers in different area of Biomedical Research (mainly neurodegenerative disorders) by proteomics and metabonomics approach, giving a key contribution in the identification of specific post-translational modifications of proteins and altered lipidomics profiling in CSF of Multiple Sclerosis subjects. In the last years His research was focuses on tears, considered a window on the nervous system, demonstrating that the Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) work as shuttles able to allow molecular cross-talk between CSF and tears. Those results were obtained thanks to a new developed protocol in collaboration with other resident groups at the Centre of Advanced Studies and Technology (CAST), consisting in an optimized proteomics approach for the study of FACS-sorted EVs from untouched biological samples. Such a new strategy was employed in a wide range of biomedical issues. He is currently the Head Researcher of the Proteomics and Metabolomics core Facility at CAST, University “G. D’Annunzio”, Chieti, Italy. https://www.cast.unich.it/facilities/proteomics-and-metabolomics.

Dr. Piero Chiacchiaretta

Piero Chiacchiaretta, PhD, is a Physicist at the University “G. d’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, with expertise in atmospheric physics, computational modeling and multi-omics data integration. His research focuses on the interaction between air pollution, climate variability and human health, applying exposome science, aerosol characterization and indoor air quality studies, including work on aerosol transmission and SARS-CoV-2 in confined environments. He leads the OMNIS platform for high-dimensional proteomics and metabolomics workflows. He heads the Advanced Computing Core at UdA, supporting high-performance pipelines for precision medicine and environmental health, and contributes to national competitive research programs integrating environmental data, molecular signatures and clinical phenotypes.

Raphaël

Over the past 7 years, Raphaël has played a key role in Lunaphore’s emergence as a global leader in the Spatial Biology field, spearheading strategic global initiatives, including the launch and worldwide deployment of the COMET flagship technology platform.

Raphaël has established key strategic partnerships with academic research institutes and global biopharma companies to foster the adoption of spatial proteomics and multiomics. He is passionate about democratizing spatial biology and have led programs to expands the technology reach in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Raphaël will present today on.”

Moiz : it is part of an existing system and it is a part. it will make it better.