KEYNOTE SPEAKERs

Prof Du Toit Loots, Research Director of “Human Metabolomics” and Sub-programme Head of the “Infectious and Acquired Disease Metabolomics Unit” at the North-West University (NWU) - South Africa, has spent the majority of his research career developing and using metabolomics technology for new biomarker discovery, in order to better characterize, diagnose and treat diseases of high global prevalence, such as TB and HIV.  Prof Loots has to date contributed to over 150 publications, 83 conference proceedings, and trained over 80 PhD, MSc and BSc Hons students in metabolomics.  Prof Loots has additionally registered 2 full patents with application to TB diagnostics, and published a new synthesis method for NaFe(III)EDTA, a highly bioavailable form of iron for combating anaemia globally.  In recognition of these efforts, he received amongst others the: International Nestle Nutrition Institute for Africa Research Award; Janssen-Cilag Award, International ARP Walker Research Award, International Scripps Centre for Integrative Medicine's Research Award, and most downloaded paper: Awarded by Wiley and Sons Inc. in 2020.

Carina Mels is full-time Research Professor and Director of the Hypertension in Africa Research Team (HART) at the North-West University (NWU), South Africa. The vision of HART is to be nationally and internationally recognised for excellence in cardiovascular research. The team is involved in various population-based studies, including epidemiological and clinical research which focus on the early development and progression of hypertension-mediated organ damage and its comorbidities. HART is a premier centre on hypertension research as acknowledged by their NWU status as Centre of Excellence. They also host the prestigious Medical Research Council Extra Mural Unit for Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease.

Carina has published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers and acted as post-graduate study supervisor to more than 20 Masters and Ph.D students. She is the local Principal Investigator of the African PRospective study on the Early Detection and Identification of Cardiovascular disease and HyperTension (African-PREDICT). Carina is actively involved in the mentorship programme of the National Research Foundation aimed at capacity building for young graduates or post-graduates. She serves on the Board of Directors and the Next Generation Committee of the Southern African Hypertension Society (SAHS). As a Professional member of the International Society of Hypertension (ISH) she is also involved in the African Regional Advisory Group with the aim to alleviate the burden of hypertension on the African continent.

With her background in biochemistry and metabolism she took the opportunity to use proteomics and metabolomics to investigate early changes associated with the development of future cardiovascular disease. In the next 10 to 20 years she aspires to apply her skills and knowledge gained through her research funded by various national bodies to identify novel biomarkers indicative of the early development of cardiovascular disease. This can ultimately aid to prevent hypertension and associated cardiovascular conditions through implementation of early, pre-clinical detection techniques to guide individualised medicine.

Marina F.M. Tavares was born October 10, 1959 in Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil. She received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil in 1980, a M.Sc. in Analytical Chemistry from University of Sao Paulo (with Prof. Roberto Tokoro) in 1986 and a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, U.S.A. in 1993 (with Prof. Victoria L. McGuffin).  She joined the Institute of Chemistry of University of Sao Paulo (IQ-USP) in 1997 as an assistant professor, became associate professor in 2003 and full professor in 2008. In 2010, she spent her sabbatical year training in metabolomics at the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London (with Jeremy K. Nicholson/Elaine Holmes/Jasmina Saric). In 2020, she founded the Center for Multiplatform Metabolomics Studies (CEMM, in Portuguese) at IQ-USP. To date she published 9 book chapters, 120 articles and participated in more than 200 symposia and conferences, delivering 50 lectures and 15 short courses; 24 doctorate and 18 master students graduated under her guidance.

The group has hosted in Brazil the 4^th, the 11^th, the 16^th, and the 20^th Latin American Symposium on Biotechnology, Biomedical, Biopharmaceutical and Industrial Applications of Capillary Electrophoresis and Microchip Technology (LACE), and the 34^th International Symposium on Microscale Separations and Bioanalysis (MSB 2018).

Present research interests include: separation science, physical chemistry and clinical metabolomics.  Projects are focused on modeling, simulation, method development and optimization of conditions for the separation and analysis of molecules of clinical, forensic, nutritional, pharmaceutical, cosmetological, environmental and industrial importance using modern separation techniques, and more recently, in clinical/forensic metabolomics involving gestational exposure to drugs of abuse and atmosphere pollution, indoors exposition, cardiovascular diseases, acute myocardial infarction, impact of weight-reducing gastroplasty on diabetes mellitus, urinary tract diseases, kidney injury and transplant, salivary glands, lung, breast, and prostate cancer, benign prostatic enlargement, and neglected diseases.

Professor Wang graduated in Chemical Engineering at Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, P.R. China in 1986 and got her PhD in Physical Chemistry in 1997 from University of East Anglia, UK. Professor Wang joined Institute of Food Research and John Inners Center, UK, during 1998-2001 for her postdoctoral research where she applied her NMR skills in food sciences.

From 2001 to 2007, she worked at Imperial College London in the field of metabonomics as research fellow. She combined NMR and LC-MS spectroscopic techniques with computational modeling techniques to investigate metabolic effects of infectious diseases, nutritional interventions.

In 2007, she was awarded “100 talent program” by the Chinese Academy of Science and became professor at Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics. 08/2018, she joined LKCMedicine, Nanyang Technological University, and become director of Singapore Phenome Center.

Prof. Wang focused her research in development of metabonomics techniques, including NMR and MS-based techniques. She has applied the metabolomics technique to a number of disease areas, including infectious diseases, cancer, neurodegenerative disease and gastrointestinal tract disease, as well as drug toxicity. She had been an executive committee member of “experimental nuclear magnetic resonance conference”. She is also an editorial board member of several journals, including, scientific reports, metabolomics, current metabolomics.