Speakers
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Payam Barnaghi
Biography
Payam is Professor of Machine Intelligence in the Centre for Computer Vision and Signal Processing at the University of Surrey. His work focuses on AI, machine learning and semantic computing. He is technical lead of the NHS-funded TIHM for Dementia project and deputy director of the UK DRI CR&T programme.
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Paul Beard
Biography
Paul is Professor of Biomedical Photoacoustics at UCL and he founded and leads the Photoacoustic Imaging Group. They are developing a new method of non-invasive biomedical imaging based upon the use of laser-generated acoustic waves for visualising the structure and function of soft tissues.
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David Borton
Biography
David is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Brown University’s School of Engineering. Prof. Borton’s team leverages engineering principles to untangle the underpinnings of sensorimotor and neuropsychiatric disease and injury.
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Martyn Boutelle
Biography
Martyn is a Professor of Biomedical Sensors Engineering and Deputy Head of the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London. He was a research fellow in the University Laboratory of Physiology, University of Oxford, followed by academic positions at King’s College London.
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Dries Braeken
Biography
Dries is leading the Cell and Tissue Technologies group in the life science department of imec. His research interests are in the development and validation of advanced silicon technologies for cell and tissue interfacing for healthcare applications.
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Matthew Brookes
Biography
Matt is Professor of Physics at the University of Nottingham. His research centres on development and application of magnetoencephalography (MEG). He has made significant contributions to data modelling and his most recent work centres on using ‘quantum’ sensors for MEG signal measurement.
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Marc Aurel Busche
Biography
Marc received his MD/PhD from the Technical University of Munich, where he worked with Arthur Konnerth and Hans Förstl. His postdoctoral work was in Bradley Hyman's lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Marc is also a board-certified psychiatrist.
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Ben Cox
Biography
Ben is a Reader in Biomedical Acoustics at UCL, where he is undergraduate programme director in medical physics. His research interests are in the areas of modelling and inverse problems in biomedical ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging. He is a co-author of ‘k-Wave’, an ultrasound modelling toolbox.
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Ellie D'Hondt
Biography
Ellie is a data innovator at imec. Her current work focusses on smart health and smart cities. Ellie assesses how data analytics figures in these verticals for particular use cases such as multimodal mobility and clinical data analytics.
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Timothy Denison
Biography
Tim is a RAEng Chair in Emerging Technologies at Oxford, where he explores physiologic closed-loop systems. Previously, he was VP of Research & Technology for the Restorative Therapies Group at Medtronic, where he helped oversee the design of technologies for the treatment of neurological disease.
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Patrick Dupont
Biography
Patrick obtained a PhD in theoretical physics in 1990 and is now a full professor of brain imaging at KU Leuven, Belgium and an extraordinary professor in nuclear medicine at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He is director of the Postgraduate Studies in Advanced Medical Imaging at KU Leuven.
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Barun Dutta
Biography
Barun is the Chief Scientist of imec where he has been since 2010, leading R&D programs in Smart Systems, Energy and Semiconductor Process Technology. As a Venture Capitalist, between 1998-2010, he worked extremely closely with 15 founding teams, incubating, mentoring, and/or as a Board Member.
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Aldo Faisal
Biography
Aldo is a Reader in Neurotechnology at Imperial. He leads the Brain & Behaviour Lab, is founding director of the £20m UKRI CDT in Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare, and director of Behaviour Analytics Lab (Data Science Institute). He also holds positions in the University of Oxford and UCL.
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James Fawcett
Biography
James’ main interest is the restoration of CNS function lost through spinal cord injury, neurodegenerative disease and ageing. He has focused on activation of axon regeneration and plasticity through manipulation of the extracellular matrix and integrins.
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Shelley Fried
Biography
Shelley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. His lab studies how and why neurons of the CNS respond to artificial stimulation and uses that information to help develop more effective devices and strategies.
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Ian Gilmore
Biography
Ian is a Senior Fellow and Head of Science at the National Physical Laboratory. He is founding director of the National Centre of Excellence in Mass Spectrometry Imaging. This centre supports industry and academia through one of the largest ranges of imaging capabilities worldwide.
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Christopher Grigsby
Biography
Christopher trained as a biomedical engineer, focusing on designing polymers to deliver genes and direct cell behaviour. He joined Molly Stevens’ satellite group at Karolinska Institutet and his work focuses on the application of biomaterials to direct cell reprogramming and treat neurodegenerative disease.
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Nir Grossman
Biography
Nir is an assistant professor at Imperial College London and a foundation fellow of the UK DRI. Nir is educated in physics and electromagnetic engineering, with a PhD in neuroscience from Imperial. He completed postdoctoral training, as a Wellcome Trust Fellow, at MIT and Harvard University.
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Andrew Jackson
Biography
Andrew’s research interests include motor control, learning, sleep and oscillatory brain dynamics. This informs the development of closed-loop neural interface technologies for the brain, spinal cord and muscles, with applications in the treatment of stroke, spinal cord injury and epilepsy.
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Walter Koroshetz
Biography
Walter is the Director, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. He leads a number of programs including NIH’s BRAIN Initiative, NIH Neuroscience Blueprint, the NIH/ Uniformed Health Services University Traumatic Brain Injury Center and NINDS Alzheimer Disease Related Dementia programme.
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Stéphanie Lacour
Biography
Stéphanie holds the Bertarelli Foundation Chair in Neuroprosthetic Technology at the School of Engineering at the EPFL. She is Professor in Microengineering and Bioengineering at EPFL and is the current director of EPFL Center for Neuroprosthetics at Campus Biotech in Geneva.
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George Malliaras
Biography
George received his PhD from the University of Groningen. Before joining Cambridge, he taught at Ecole des Mines de St. Etienne and at Cornell University. He is a Fellow of the Materials Research Society and of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
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Róisín Owens
Biography
Róisín is a Lecturer at the Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology in the University of Cambridge. Her current research centers on application of organic electronic materials for monitoring biological systems in vitro, with a specific interest in studying the gut-brain-microbiome axis.
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Simon Shultz
Biography
Simon is Professor of Neurotechnology and Director of the Centre for Neurotechnology at Imperial College London. His research interests are in the development (and application) of technology for understanding brain circuitry involved in perception and memory, and how it is affected by neurodegenerative disorders.
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Zoltan Takats
Biography
Zoltan is a Professor of Analytical Chemistry. He pursues research in mass spectrometry and is one of the founders of ‘Ambient Mass Spectrometry’. He is the primary inventor of 6 mass spectrometric ionization techniques and the founder of companies pursuing analytical and medical device development.
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Alan Urban
Biography
Alan is group leader at the Neuro-Electronics Research Flanders (NERF) and is professor at the KU Leuven. His team is a leader in the development of the functional ultrasound imaging (fUSi) technology. He has received several scientific/entrepreneurship awards and created several companies.
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Nick Van Helleputte
Biography
Nick is currently R&D manager of the Connected Health Solutions group. His research focus is on ultra-low-power circuits for biomedical applications. He has been involved in analog and mixed-signal ASIC design for wearable and implantable healthcare applications.
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Mark Woolrich
Biography
Mark is Head of Analysis and Associate Director at OHBA and Professor of Computational Neuroscience. His research focuses on the development of new computational methods for analysing neuroimaging data. This allows novel questions to be asked about the function/dysfunction of the human brain.
How temperature and circadian rhythms intersect to regulate a protein shown to protect against neurodegeneration
A new study led by Dr Marco Brancaccio (UK DRI at Imperial) and Dr Marieke Hoekstra (former UK DRI at Imperial, now VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research) offers a deeper insight into how a neuroprotective pathway is regulated both by temperature and the body clock. This research, published in the journal PNAS, could open up new therapeutic avenues for neurodegenerative disease. Read more on the UK DRI website
Introducing Cynthia Sandor: Pioneering earlier detection of Parkinson’s
Dr Cynthia Sandor, former Emerging Leader at the UK DRI at Cardiff, joins the UK DRI at Imperial as a Group Leader, where she will be tackling early diagnosis of Parkinson’s.
With a background in genetics, Dr Sandor uses computational methods to bring greater understanding to the underlying molecular mechanisms of Parkinson’s. Read more about Cynthia's work on the UK DRI website.