Dr. Shigeru Omi, Regional Director of the Western Pacific Regional Office of the World Health Organization
Dr. Shigeru Omi was born in Tokyo, Japan, in June 1949. In 1967, under a scholarship from the American Field Service, he attended Potsdam High School in New York and graduated in 1968. He studied law at Keio University in Japan from 1969 to 1971. He obtained his degree in Medicine from Jichi Medical School in 1978. Dr Omi obtained his doctorate in molecular biology of hepatitis B virus at the Jichi Medical School, Japan, in 1990.
Dr Omi has held a wide range of positions in the field of medicine and public health. After graduation from medical school in 1978, he worked as Medical officer in the Bureau of Public Health of Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The job included an assignment as the sole medical doctor to remote islands in the Pacific, where he worked under difficult conditions and with limited resources. From this field activity, he proceeded to do research work on molecular biology of hepatitis B virus at the Division of Immunology, Jichi Medical School in 1987. During 1989-1990, Dr Omi served as Deputy Director in the office of Medical Guidance and Inspection, Bureau of Health Insurance in the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Japan.
Dr Omi joined the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Regional Office in Manila, Philippines, in 1990 as Responsible Officer for the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI). Dr Omi spearheaded the regional poliomyelitis (polio) eradication initiative in the Western Pacific Region. In 1995, he was promoted to the position of Director of the Division of Communicable Disease Prevention and Control, a post he held until 1998. In 1998-1999, Dr Omi was a professor of public health at Jichi Medical School, Japan. In February 1999, Dr Omi assumed the position of Regional Director of WHO Western Pacific Region. He was reappointed for a second term in January 2004. Dr Omi is married and has two children and a granddaughter.
Dr Francis Collins, Director,
National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI),
United State of America
Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project, is director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the National Institutes of Health.
With Dr. Collins at the helm, the Human Genome Project consistently met projected milestones ahead of schedule and under budget. This remarkable international project culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human genetic blueprint. From its outset in 1990, the public sequencing effort swiftly deposited all of its data into free, public databases for use by scientists around the world. Building on the foundation laid by the Human Genome Project, Dr. Collins is now leading NHGRI’s effort to ensure that this new trove of sequence data is translated into powerful tools and thoughtful strategies to advance biological knowledge and improve human health.
Dr. Collins’ own research initiatives have included the development of “positional cloning,” a now fundamental approach to identify disease genes in the absence of known functional abnormalities. His laboratory has discovered a number of important genes, including those responsible for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, Huntington's disease and most recently, the gene that causes Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, a dramatic form of premature aging. In addition to his scientific achievements, Dr. Collins is known for his continuing emphasis on the importance of ethical and legal issues in genetics. He has been a strong advocate for protecting the privacy of genetic information and has served as a national leader in efforts to prohibit gene-based insurance and employment discrimination.
Dr. Collins received a B.S. from the University of Virginia, a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Yale University, and an M.D. from the University of North Carolina. Dr. Collins' many accomplishments have been recognized by numerous awards and honors, including election to the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.
Professor Edison Liu, Executive Director, Genome Institute of Singapore (Biomedical Sciences Institutes)
Professor of Medicine, National University of Singapore
Special Advisor to the Vice Chancellor, National University of Singapore
Director, Singapore Cancer Syndicate
Dr. Edison Liu was born in Hong Kong, China, and emigrated to the United States in 1957. He received his bachelor's degree (Phi Beta Kappa) in chemistry and psychology from Stanford University where he remained to complete his M.D. in 1978. This was followed by internship and residency in internal medicine at Washington University, St. Louis, and clinical cancer fellowships at Stanford University (Oncology), and at the University of California at San Francisco (Hematology). He then pursued post-doctoral studies as a Damon-Runyan Cancer Research Fellow at the University of California at San Francisco in the laboratory of Dr. J. Michael Bishop identifying transforming genes in human leukemic states. In 1987 when he joined the faculty of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There, he developed programs in leukemia and breast cancer research centering on molecular epidemiology and cell signaling.
In 2001, Dr. Liu assumed the position of Executive Director, Genome Institute of Singapore which is a flagship programme of the Biomedical Sciences Initiative of Singapore. At the GIS, he is building an international research institute of 300 individuals focused on integrating genomic sciences with cell and medical biology. His scientific investigations have spanned molecular epidemiology to molecular biochemistry of human oncogenes. His current scientific research investigates the dynamics of whole genome gene transcription that explains biological states in cancer. Dr. Liu has contributed over 200 articles, reviews, and book chapters to the scientific literature. Dr. Liu also is the executive director of the Singapore Cancer Syndicate, a governmental funding agency supporting clinical translational cancer research, and the Managing Director of the Singapore Tissue Network, the national tissue repository in Singapore.
Dr. Liu has received a number of awards including the Leukemia Society Scholar (1991-1996), the Brinker International Award for basic science research in Breast Cancer (1996), the Rosenthal Award from the American Association for Cancer Research for his work in elucidating the importance of the HER-2 gene as a predictive marker for breast cancer adjuvant therapy (2000). Dr. Liu was recently the recipient of the President’s Public Service Medal for his work in helping Singapore resolve the SARS crisis.
Professor Franco Guidozzi,
Chief Specialist Obstetrician & Gynaecologist and the Academic Head,
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology,
Johannesburg Hospital and the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Professor Franco Guidozzi, is a Chief Specialist Obstetrician and Gynaecologist and the Academic Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the Johannesburg Hospital and the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He presently is the President of the South African Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, an Executive Member of the College of Medicine of South Africa and its examination’s committee, an Executive Member of the South African Menopause Society, the South African HPV Advisory Board and of the FIGO council. He has published over 100 articles, 50 of which are in peer reviewed journals and has written 5 book chapters. His particular interests are gynaecological cancer and aspects pertaining to hormonal therapy. He is married and has 3 daughters, two of which are studying medicine.
Professor Michael Nauck,
Head physician,
Diabeteszentrum Bad Lauterberg, Germany
Professor Nauck is currently the head physician at the Diabeteszentrum, Bad Lauterberg and he has held clinical and research positions at the Georg-August-University, Göttingen (1980-1992), Ruhr-University (Knappschafts-Krankenhaus and St. Josef-Hospital; 1992-2000).
Professor Nauck maintains an active clinical practice and as well as a productive research program. Among his areas of scientific interest are the role and impact of gastrointestinal peptide (“incretin”) hormones for the physiological stimulation of insulin secretion, namely glucagon-like peptide 1 and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide. He has contributed to the development of new therapeutic principles for the treatment of type 2-diabetes based on antidiabetic properties of these gut “incretin” hormones and of other GLP-1 receptor agonists (“incretin mimetics”). Other areas of his interest are disorders with spontaneous hypoglycemia (insulinomas and other conditions), the metabolic consequences of pancreas transplantation, and cardiovascular disease in type 2-diabetic patients and its modulation by different antidiabetic therapies. He has published widely in these and other areas, and has received research grants from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinshaft, Bon-Bad-Godesberg; Wilhelm-Sander-Stiftung, München; Deutsche Diabetesgesellschaft (German Association for the Study of Diabetes); and pharmaceutical sponsors. Professor Nauck is a member of a number of professional societies, including Deutsche Diabetes-Gesellschaft (DDG), European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), American Diabetes Association (ADA), International Diabetes Federation (IDF), and American Physiological Society. He has been awarded the Ferdinand-Bertram Award of the DDG in 1993.
Professor Nauck is editor of Diabetes-Newsletter and currently is associate editor of Diabetes. He has been associate editor for Diabetes & Stoffwechsel. He has also been a reviewer for many journals, including Diabetes, Diabetologia, Endocrinology, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolishm, Journal of Diabetes and Its Complications, and Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology and Diabetes.
Dr. Spencer Wells, Population Geneticist,
National Geographic,
United State of America
This scientist, author, and documentary filmmaker has dedicated much of his career to studying humankind’s family tree and closing the gaps in our knowledge of human migration. This gifted young pioneer was recently named project director of the groundbreaking multiyear Genographic Project, which uses DNA samples to trace human migration out of Africa over 60,000 years ago. The assignment is a dream come true for him, marrying his two passions of biology and history.
The Genographic Project, by far the largest genetic study of human migration ever undertaken, addresses the oldest question asked by humans, "Where did we come from?" By collecting blood samples from thousands of men living in isolated tribes around the world and analyzing the Y chromosome, Spencer Wells and his colleagues have found answers to this question in our living genetic code. Wells has concluded that all modern humans are descended from a man who lived in Africa around 60,000 years ago. In following this genetic trail, Wells has charted the ancient journey of our ancestors as they populated the planet, continent by continent.
Wells’ own journey of discovery began at the University of Texas, where he enrolled at 16, majored in biology, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa three years later. He then pursued his Ph.D. at Harvard University. In 1994, he conducted postdoctoral training at Stanford University’s School of Medicine with Luca Cavalli-Sforza, considered the “father of anthropological genetics.” It was there that Wells became committed to studying genomic diversity in indigenous populations and unraveling age-old mysteries about early human migration.
Wells later worked at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University in England, then as a research director of a biotechnology company in Massachusetts, and finally as an unusual mixture of scientist, writer and filmmaker. Throughout these pursuits, Wells pieced together the story of The Journey of Man.
Professor Margaret Stanley,
Professor of Epithelial Biology, Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge
Professor Stanley is Professor of Epithelial Biology, Department of Pathology University of Cambridge. She attended the Universities of London, Bristol and Adelaide and was made a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2005.
She has served on several research council committees and was a member of the Biology and Biotechnology Science Research Council from 2000-2003. She is currently a member of the Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee (SEAC) that advises the UK government on prion diseases and in 2004 she was awarded the OBE for services to Virology.
Professor Stanley’s research interests concern the biology of the cervical epithelium and how and why cancer of the cervix devel ops. Her current research focuses on mechanisms of host defence and the development of vaccines and immunotherapies against human papillomaviruses, the cause of cervical cancer. She has published extensively in peer reviewed journals (148 papers) and in the past 5 years has given 45 keynote or plenary presentations at national and international meetings on these topics. She is at present on the Editorial Board of Sexually Transmitted Infections and Reviews in Medical Virology.
Professor Myron Levin,
Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Centre, USA
Myron J. Levin graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1960. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the Bronx Municipal hospital Center (Einstein Medical School), and spent the next three years at the National Institutes of Health. The last two years at NIH were devoted to research in molecular virology. Dr. Levin returned to Harvard in 1969 to complete a fellowship in Infectious Diseases with the combined adult-pediatric training program at the Children’s Hospital and the Beth Israel Hospital.
In 1976 he became the first Chief of Infectious Diseases at the Sidney Farber Cancer Center (now the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute). From 1982 to 2000 he was Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Denver, and Director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory at the University of Colorado Hospital. Dr. Levin’s clinical interests are in antiviral therapy, the immune response to herpesvirus infections, and vaccinology (especially the immunology of vaccines). His laboratory studies focus on latency of herpesviruses in human neurons. Dr. Levin has authored 285 original articles and edited 6 books. He recently co-authored a report that led to the licensure of a live vaccine to prevent herpes zoster in older individuals. In 2005, Dr. Levin completed five years as a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (CDC), serving as its Chair for the last two years. Dr. Levin directs a clinic at his medical school for research on experimental vaccines and antiviral drugs.
Professor Yvonne Carter,
Dean, Warwick Medical School, United Kingdom
Professor Yvonne Carter was appointed Vice-Dean of Leicester Warwick Medical Schools in 2003 and became Dean of the newly established Warwick Medical School the following year. She holds a Chair in General Practice and Primary Care and is a practising general practitioner in Coventry. She is also a Non-Executive Director at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust. Yvonne has developed a research track record in health services research and the evaluation of new models of service delivery. She is currently joint principal investigator of two UK evaluations of Living with Cancer and Palliative Care initiatives funded by the Big Lottery Fund. She was the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Chairman of Research from 1996-2000.
Yvonne received an OBE for services to health service research in 2000 and also received an Honorary Fellowship from Queen Mary, University of London for services to general practice and primary care in 2004.
She is a current member of the Medical Research Council Health Services and Public Health Research Board College of Experts and the Joint Medical Advisory Committee of the Higher Education Funding Council for England. She is also a Governor of the Health Foundation and a member of the General Medical Council’s Quality Assurance of Basic Medical Education Visiting Team to UK Medical Schools.
Yvonne is only the second female Dean of a UK Medical School and follows in the footsteps of Professor Dame Lesley Rees, Dean of Barts Hospital Medical College from 1989-1995.
Professor Michael Kidd MBBS (Melbourne), MD (Monash), DCCH (Flinders), DipRACOG, FRACGP, FACHI, Hon FAFP of Malaysia
Michael Kidd is Professor of General Practice and Head of the Discipline of General Practice at The University of Sydney. He works as a general practitioner in the inner-city suburb of Darlinghurst. He has been President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners from 2002-2006. He has a Doctorate of Medicine in Medical Education.
His research and education interests include the use of information technology to improve patient care in general practice, the development of computer-based medical education, the use of the internet in health education, aspects of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, and the management of HIV and hepatitis C in general practice. He is co-editor of the textbook "Health Informatics: an Overview" and wrote the chapters on “HIV/AIDS” and “Computers in the Consultation” in the Oxford Textbook of Primary Care Medicine.
He is a member of the Australian Health Information Council which provides advice to Australian Health Ministers on long term directions and national strategic reform issues for information management and technology in health. He is past chair of the Australian General Practice Computing Group. He is past chair of the Australian Government’s National HIV/AIDS Committee, and a past member of the Australian National Council on AIDS, Hepatitis C and Related Diseases.
At an international level he is Member at Large of the Executive of Wonca (The World Organisation of Family Doctors) and is the convenor of the Wonca Informatics Working Party. He also co-chairs the Primary Care Working Group of the International Medical Informatics Association.
