Speakers

John A. McLean is Stevenson Professor of Chemistry, Chair of the Department of Chemistry, Past Chair of the Faculty Senate, Director of the Center for Innovative Technologies, Deputy Director of the Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education at Vanderbilt University. He received his Ph.D. from George Washington University, was a postdoctoral fellow at Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany with Prof. Dr. Sabine Becker, and a postdoctoral at Texas A&M University with Prof. David H. Russell before joining the Vanderbilt Faculty as an assistant professor in 2006. McLean and colleagues focus on the conceptualization, design, and construction of structural mass spectrometers, specifically targeting complex samples in systems, synthetic, and chemical biology. His group applies these strategies to forefront translational research areas in drug discovery, precision medicine, and ‘human-on-chip’ synthetic biology platforms. He served on the board of directors for the American Society for Mass Spectrometry and serves in an editorial role on the boards of several leading scientific journals. He has been honored to work closely with the NAS and NSF in several roles, including recently co-authoring an NSF report on big data science in chemistry. He has received many professional and teaching awards including his laboratory being designated as a Waters Center of Innovation and an Agilent Thought Leader Laboratory for their work in ion mobility-mass spectrometry and translational biosciences. He has published over 150 manuscripts and 30 patents in the areas of innovative bioanalytical chemistry and quantitative sciences.

Dr. Jennifer S. Brodbelt is the Rowland Pettit Centennial Professor of Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin and is also serving as Chairperson. She earned her B.S. degree in chemistry at the University of Virginia and her doctorate in chemistry at Purdue University under the supervision of Prof. Graham Cooks. After a post-doctoral position at the University of California at Santa Barbara with Prof. Mike Bowers, she began her academic career at the University of Texas. Her research interests focus on the development and application of photodissociation mass spectrometry for characterization of the structures and modifications of biological molecules, including peptides, proteins, nucleic acids, oligosaccharides, and lipids. She served as the Director of Graduate Education in the Department of Chemistry for over 20 years and recently became Chairperson in 2019. She serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, and she served as President of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry from 2014-2016.

Prof. Livia Schiavinato Eberlin is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Chemistry, Oncology and Diagnostic Medicine at the University of Texas at Austin, and an adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Eberlin received her B.S. in Chemistry in 2008 from the State University of Campinas, her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry in 2012 from Purdue University under the guidance of Prof. Graham Cooks, and pursued her postdoctoral research with Prof. Richard Zare in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University. In 2016, Prof. Eberlin started her independent career at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research in mass spectrometry has been recognized through grants and awards, including a NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, a Moore Inventor Fellowship, and a MacArthur Fellowship. Her research program centers around the development and application of novel mass spectrometry technologies in health-related research, with a particular focus on disease detection and diagnosis.

Dr. Fert-Bober is an assistant professor at Cedars-Sinai, Medical Center, Smidt Heart Institute and the Advanced Clinical Biosystems Research Institute. Dr. Fert-Bober lead a basic translational research program focused on solving the mysteries of how and why systemic autoimmunity develops and persists in order to guide the discovery of better clinical tests and improved treatments. The Fert-Bober’s lab uses traditional methodology and cutting-edge high density array technology and mass spectrometry with innovative statistical methods to discover new autoantibody targets as well as novel features of antibody and autoantibody reactivity in rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic diseases. In addition to understanding the role of citrullinated proteins in the physiology and pathophysiology process, her research group also encompasses the areas of methods development and bioinformatics, including citrullination identification pipeline, called “CitFinder”, mass spectrometry-based quantification of specific PAD isoforms in complex biological matrix and currently establishing the molecular model for binding partners. The Fert-Bober lab is funded by Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, National Institutes of Health and Cedars-Sinai Precision Health Foundation.

Dr. Birgit Schilling works at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2000, where she has her own lab. Dr Schilling is interested in translational research and any research that may aim towards therapeutic interventions to improve human aging or disease. Dr. Schilling’s uses modern proteomics technologies, such as data-independent acquisitions to investigate basic mechanisms of aging, as well as using this knowledge to develop biomarkers of aging and disease. Additional key projects in the lab investigate the dynamic role of post-translational modifications (PTMs) during signaling and specifically in the context of metabolic diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and aging. Combination of data-independent acquisitions with PTM research has allowed to gain better understanding for modification site localization and PTM crosstalk.

Dr. Young earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, from the University of California, Berkeley. He worked in industry for 2 year providing mass spectrometry expertise to biotechnology startups. In 2002 he joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where he led mass spectrometry-based biosecurity research efforts. He received a DOE Advanced Scholars Program Graduate Fellowship to support his graduate work with Carlito Lebrilla at the University of California, Davis. He then joined the laboratory of Ben Garcia at Princeton University as a National Cancer Institute postdoctoral fellow, where he focused on proteomic analysis of histones and histone post-translational modifications and their role in DNA damage response and repair. In 2012 started his own research program as the Director of Biological Applications in the Ion Cyclotron Resonance Program at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee Florida. In 2016 in joined the faculty in the Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. He has published almost 60 papers, received multiple awards, including the Robert Cotter New Investigator award from the US Human Proteome Organization, and his work is currently funded by multiple NIH grants. He has developed analytical methods that enable a more complete understanding of the regulation of the genome through the use of quantitative Top-Down Proteomics to observe the co-occurrence of multiple post-translational modifications on the same single molecule. These single molecule combinations, or proteoforms, are essential to epigenetic regulation of the genome. He also develops mass spectrometry-based methods to reveal the mechanisms of action of small molecule inhibitors of the epigenetic system and how to apply drugs in combination to overcome disease such as cancer and neurodegeration.

Prof. Boris Mizaikoff joined the faculty at Ulm University, Germany, as a Chaired Professor and Director at the Institute of Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry in 2007 with prior appointments at the Vienna University of Technology (Austria), and at the Georgia Institute of Technology (USA). Since 2021, he is also Director at the Hahn-Schickard Institute for Microanalysis Systems in Ulm. His research interests focus on optical chem/bio sensors, tailored (bio)molecular recognition interfaces, molecularly imprinted materials, system miniaturization and integration, and multifunctional (nano)analytical techniques with applications in environmental analysis, process monitoring, and biomedical diagnostics. He is the recipient of several awards  including the RSC Emerging Technologies Award by the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Craver Award by the Coblentz Society, and the Pittsburgh Conference Achievement Award by the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh. He has been elected Fellow of the Society of Applied Spectroscopy, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also an Associate Editor of Analytical Chemistry. In his free time, he is an amateur yet passionate ultra-long-distance-trail-runner!

Carol Robinson holds the Chair of Dr. Lee’s Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford and is the first Director of the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery at Oxford.  She is recognised for establishing mass spectrometry as a viable technology to study the structure, function and interactions of proteins and their complexes.  Carol graduated from the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1979 and completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK. She took a career break of eight years to bring up her children, later becoming Professor of Mass Spectrometry at the University of Cambridge (2001-2009).  She has occupied her current professorial position in Oxford Chemistry since 2009.  Her work has attracted over twenty awards and prizes including most recently, the Othmer Gold Medal from the Science History Institute (2020),  Royal Medal A from the Royal Society, the Novozymes Prize from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Stein and Moore Award from the Protein Society (2019) and the Field and Franklin Award from the American Chemical Society (2018).   Carol is the former  President of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2018-2020) and a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences USA.  She was awarded a DBE in 2013 for services to science and industry.

Dr. Yoshinobu Baba received his PhD degree in 1986 from Kyushu University. He was an Assistant Professor at Oita University and an Associate Professor at Kobe Pharmaceutical University before being promoted to full professor at The University of Tokushima in 1997. He moved to Nagoya University in 2004. He is now a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, School of Engineering, a Professor in the Department of Advanced Medical Science, School of Medicine, and a Director of the Institute of Nano-Life-Systems, Nagoya University. He is also a Director General of the Institute for Quantum Life Science, a Director of Quantum Life Science Research Hub, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, a Research Supervisor of JST CREST “Extracellular fine particles” Project, and a Project Leader of MEXT Q-LEAP program on quantum life science. He is a co-initiator for the world’s largest Nanotech International Meeting. He is a general chair of numerous international meetings (microTAS, MSB, nanotech). He is an Associate Editor of Anal. Chem. of ACS and serving to over 10 scientific journals as an editorial/advisory board member. He has been admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and received over 90 awards for his contributions in nanobiotechnology. Dr. Baba’s research studies are directed at the development of nanobiodevices for omics, systems biology, medical diagnosis, tissue engineering, and molecular imaging. He is the author or co-author of 1,050 publications, including research papers, proceedings, reviews, and books and is also an inventor of over 100 patents. He has delivered more than 1,010 plenary and invited lectures at conferences. His work has been cited on 493 occasions by newspapers, television, and web news.

Dr. B. Jill Venton is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Virginia.  She is also affiliated with the Neuroscience Graduate Program and the UVA Brain Institute.  She received her BS in Chemistry from University of Delaware, her PhD in Chemistry from UNC-Chapel Hill (with Mark Wightman), and did postdoctoral research at University of Michigan (with Bob Kennedy).  Dr. Venton started her career at University of Virginia in 2005, and has worked her way up the ranks from Assistant Professor all the way to Full Professor and Department Chair.  Her research interests are in developing analytical chemistry tools for neuroscience research and she specializes in developing electrochemical sensors.  Applications include understanding brain changes in diseases ranging from Parkinson disease, to addiction, to stroke, and aging.  She has published more than 90 scientific papers, has 3 patents, and has won numerous awards.  Dr. Venton is also a passionate teacher and has developed new classes with active learning components for the undergraduate analytical chemistry curriculum.  At home, she has 2 children who keep her busy.

Lanqun Mao is currently a Professor of the College of Chemistry at Beijing Normal University. He has enormous experience in the area of in vivo electrochemistry. His group has been working at the interface of electroanalytical chemistry and neuroscience, developing electrochemical approaches through tuning electron transfer and ion transport to understanding brain chemistry in single vesicles, single cells, brain slices and ultimately a living brain. He has demonstrated a record of successful and productive research projects in the related area, and his expertise and experience have led to more than 330 research papers and more than 40 plenary/invited talks in international conferences. He is currently an Associate Editor at ACS Sensors. His advice to young researchers is to be different and novel.

Markita Landry is an assistant professor in the department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.  She received a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.A. in Physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics and a Certificate in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and completed an NSF postdoctoral fellowship in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Her current research centers on the development of synthetic nanoparticle-polymer conjugates for imaging neuromodulation in the brain, and for the delivery of genetic materials into plants. The Landry lab exploits the highly tunable chemical and physical properties of nanomaterials for the creation of bio-mimetic structures, molecular imaging, and plant genome editing. She is also on the scientific advisory board of Terramera and on the scientific advisory board of Chi-Botanic. She is a recent recipient of over 20 early career awards, including awards from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the DARPA Young Investigator program, the Beckman Young Investigator program, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the NSF CAREER award, is a Sloan Research Fellow, an FFAR New Innovator, and is a Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator.