Speakers 2024

Oana Dima

Oana Dima is Science Policy Manager at VIB-Ghent University Center for Plant Systems Biology. In her daily work, she follows up on European and international policies related to crop improvement using new plant breeding techniques including genome editing. In addition, she coordinates the activities of the European Sustainable Agriculture through Genome Editing (EU-SAGE) network, which consists of over 150 research institutes and associations across Europe.

Oana Dima is passionate to facilitate open dialogues on the latest technological advancements in plant sciences and to contribute to the policy environment through consultation, education and discussion. During her PhD in Belgium in the frame of the Stanford’s University Global Climate and Energy Project, she researched the lignification process in the context of biofuel production. Currently, as Science Policy Manager at VIB-UGent and Managing Director of EU-SAGE, she facilitates shaping policies to enable genome editing in plants for the transition to sustainable agriculture in Europe.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/oana-dima-08340995/

Publications related to the conference:

Dima et al., Genome Editing for Crop Improvement. ALLEA (2020)

Dima O, I.D., The role of scientists in policy making for more sustainable agriculture. Current Biology, 8 March 2020. 31(5): p. R218-R220.

Dima et al., Interactive database of genome editing applications in crops and future policy making in the EU. Trends in Plant Science, 2022

Dima O, Custers R, Genome-edited crops and 21st century food system challenges; The European Parliamentary Research Service and its Scientific Foresight Unit (STOA), 2022

Dima, O. et al. (2023) EU legal proposal for genome-edited crops hints at a science-based approach. Trends Plant Sci. 28

Małgorzata Borowiak

Małgorzata Borowiak graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland with Gold Medal distinction for extracurricular activities. She then pursued her PhD studies at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, Germany, focusing on liver regeneration in Professor Carmen Birchmeier's laboratory. Subsequently, she completed postdoctoral training at Harvard University and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute in Cambridge, MA, USA, working with Professor Doug Melton on pluripotent stem cell differentiation, high-throughput screening, and endoderm development. During this time, she was awarded a prestigious HHMI fellowship.

Dr. Borowiak then established her independent research group at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX, USA as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. There, she utilized stem cell platforms to uncover mechanisms regulating human beta cell development and disease, earning recognition as a McNair Medical Institute Scholar.

Currently, she has returned to Adam Mickiewicz University, where she leads the Stem Cell Program within the Faculty of Biology and the Institute for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. She published in top journals, including Nature, Cell Stem Cell, Nature Biotechnology, Science Advances and Nature Communications. She received funding from NIH, FNP, NCN, JDRF and ADA. She also member also NIH Consortium for Rare and Atypical Diabetes Studies (RADIANT).

Nicola Bordin

Dr. Nicola Bordin did his Bachelor’s and Master in Biotechnology and Industrial Biotechnology at the University of Padua (Italy) with both dissertations in the fields of structural bioinformatics and functional genomics. He completed his PhD in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics on functional genomics in PVC bacteria at the Universidad Pablo de OIavide in Seville, Spain, under the supervision of Dr. Damien Devos. His fields of expertise are in algorithm design for protein function prediction, structure classification, sequence analyses and machine learning applied to protein data. He is currently a senior researcher in the CATH team at University College London, where he develops novel algorithms for the functional classification of proteins, structural classification of AlphaFold domains in CATH, and applications of CATH data to various biological questions in cancer, megaphages, plastic degrading enzymes and SARS-CoV-2 host range in animals.

Abzer Kelminal Pakkir Mohamed Shah

Throughout my academic journey, I’ve garnered a robust skill set in data analysis, particularly in clinical spectroscopy, machine learning, and computational mass spectrometry. With a foundation established during my Master’s program, I acquired over 2 years of hands-on experience in R coding, focusing extensively on spectroscopy data analysis. Transitioning into my current Ph.D. at the University of Tuebingen, I’ve dedicated nearly 2 years to advancing computational mass spectrometry techniques. Proficient in technical tools such as R and Python, my passion lies in using these skills to develop web-based tools to understand the intricate dynamics of microbial communities across diverse environments, ranging from the gut to broader ecosystems such as marine environments. I’ve actively contributed to various projects, accessible via GitHub: https://github.com/abzer005 and our Lab's GitHub page: https://github.com/Functional-Metabolomics-Lab.

Dr. Francesco Asnicar

Dr. Francesco Asnicar was a postdoctoral researcher in the Computational Metagenomics lab under the supervision of Prof. Nicola Segata and now holds an independent research position at the Department CIBIO at the University of Trento, Italy. Francesco has a computer science background and his research interests focus on developing computational tools for microbiome analyses, phylogenomics, and studying the complex relationships between diet and metabolic responses with the human gut microbiome.