Daniel T. Chiu is the A. Bruce Montgomery Professor of Chemistry and Endowed Professor of Analytical Chemistry,and Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Washington. He is a member of the Cancer Consortium at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. His research interests include nanomaterials, microfluidics, and new instrumentations for ultra-sensitive bioanalytical measurements.

He obtained a B.A. in Neurobiology and a B.S. in Chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1993, then a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University in 1998. After completing postdoctoral research at Harvard University, he started in 2000 at the University of Washington. He is the author of more than 250 publications and is the inventor on over 300 issued patents.

I am a Professor with tenure in the Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). I have a background in biochemistry and molecular biology, and expertise in molecular neurobiology. Funded by the first NIH Extracellular RNA Communication Program, my group at OHSU worked together to discover miRNA biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from living donors. We then validated CSF AD miRNA biomarkers in a new cohort of participants and identified miRNAs that trend with progression from control to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to AD. We then established the utility of AD CSF miRNAs as biomarkers in plasma, the longitudinal stability of AD miRNAs in plasma, the specificity of the miRNAs for AD vs. related neurodegenerative disorders (Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Lewy body dementia), and the utility of miRNAs as early biomarkers for AD in patients diagnosed with MCI. Our current studies are designed to establish biomarkers for AD based on the features of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in CSF from living donors. We previously reported on the differential effects of apolipoprotein (APOE) genotype on CSF EV miRNAs in females with AD compared to males, as females have a higher predisposition for AD than males. We are now assessing the effects of sex and APOE genotype on the size and concentration of CSF EVs from AD and PD relative to controls, and identifying surface marker proteins altered in AD CSF EVs. In addition, we are evaluating AD miRNAs and predicted target proteins in postmortem human brain to determine the brain regions and cells that are expressing these molecular components. These studies are all aimed at identifying new mechanisms that may contribute to the underlying processes that lead to neurodegeneration, and to identify brain changes earlier in the disease process such that we can discover strategies to maintain brain cell health.

Dr. Vojtech received a PhD in Pathobiology from the University of Washington. She joined the University of Washington as a faculty member in 2016 and is currently a research associate professor in OB-GYN and adjunct faculty with Global Health. Her research program encompasses immunology, infectious disease, and pregnancy health. One area of focus is understanding how components of semen influence immunity in the recipient genital tract, inducing tolerance to paternal antigens pre-conception in support of pregnancy, and in modulating infection by sexually transmitted pathogens. Another area of interest is in developing methods and technologies to assess circulating extracellular vesicles originating from the placenta and fetus as biomarkers of pregnancy health.

Sadik Esener, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized engineer and innovator in early cancer detection, nanotechnology, and biomedical engineering. He holds the Wendt Family Endowed Chair in Early Cancer Detection and has served as Founding Director of the Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research (CEDAR) Center at Oregon Health & Science University. Previously a long-time professor at UC San Diego, Dr. Esener led multiple multidisciplinary centers supported by NCI and DARPA and pioneered advances at the intersection of photonics, nanotechnology, and cancer biology. He has authored hundreds of scientific publications, holds numerous patents, delivered many invited talks worldwide, and co-founded multiple technology companies translating academic discoveries into clinical and commercial impact.

Dr. Morgan is a Professor of Pathology and Biomedical Engineering at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon, USA. He has been an NIH-funded investigator since 2012 and he has worked with BD Biosciences since 2016 to develop, validate, and begin research trials using nanoscale high resolution flow cytometry to image, count, and isolate extracellular vesicles (EVs). Dr. Morgan is the leader of the EV research group at the Center for Developmental Health at OHSU. He is also the leader of the flow cytometry EV group at the Knight Cancer Institute to test its potential as a diagnostic platform for early cancer detection.

Dr. Jovanovic-Talisman received her B.Sc. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Belgrade, Serbia and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Columbia University under the mentoring of Professor Ann E. McDermott. She did postdoctoral research at the Rockefeller University with Professor Brian T. Chait and at the NIH with Dr. Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz. After two years as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, she joined the department of Molecular Medicine at the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope where she is currently an Associate Professor.