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Register NOW: Applications of CRISPR Technologies in Research and Industry
March 28, 2017 @ 18:30 - 20:30 UTC+1
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Few discoveries have attracted more attention in the area of molecular biology over the last three years than CRISPR-Cas9, a relatively new technology that is groundbreaking, controversial and developing rapidly. Science Magazine featured CRISPR-Cas9 on its cover in 2015, calling it a “breakthrough,” and MIT Technology Review called it the “biggest biotech discovery of the century.” The technology makes gene editing simple, affordable, and precise. At present, scientists are exploring the potential of CRISPR-Cas9 to cure a host of human diseases. These tools are also being used to expedite crop and livestock breeding, engineer new antimicrobials and control disease-carrying insects.
Our panelists will address a number of the applications of this cutting-edge technology and discuss some of its challenges.
Featured Speakers
| Speaker Biographies: | |
| Dr. Paul Bernasconi received his doctoral degrees in biology and protein biochemistry from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He is the recipient of a Swiss National Science Foundation Grant to pursue Molecular Biology at the University of California Santa Cruz and was hired by Sandoz Agro Sciences in Palo Alto, California in 1990 where he was responsible for Herbicide Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Upon the formation of Novartis Crop Protection, Dr. Bernasconi became Director for Fungicides Biochemistry. He then moved to Syngenta Agricultural Products in Research Triangle Park as Director of the Biochemistry department, responsible for molecular targets for herbicides, insecticides and fungicides. In mid-2004, Dr. Bernasconi was hired by BASF Agricultural Products to develop and implement the Global in vitro Discovery Department for Novel Insecticidal Active Ingredients. He moved to BASF Plant Science to head Global Molecular Biology, where he was responsible for a global department with personnel at multiple sites, as well as being globally responsible for the Genome Editing strategy at BASF. Dr. Bernasconi has over 40 peer reviewed articles, and is co-editor of “High Throughput Methods” at Humana Press, as well as co-inventor of ten patents.
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| Dr. Branko Zevnik is a professor at the University of Cologne,Germany, and Head of the university’s in vivo Research Facilities at the cluster of excellence Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Diseases (CECAD). He has more than 20 years of experience in the management of rodent animal and transgenic facilities in academic and industrial settings. He currently heads one of the largest mouse facilities in Europe and runs a transgenic core facility offering assisted reproductive and transgenic services. His research focuses on the enhancement of CRISPR/Cas-mediated gene targeting. Branko Zevnik serves as an ad hoc Specialist for the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC) and is Board Member of the International Society for Transgenic Technologies (ISTT).
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| Dr. Ghassan Yehia is the Scientific Director of the Genome Editing Core Facility at Rutgers New Brunswick. He received his doctorate from Strasbourg, France in the Institute of Genetic, Molecular and Cell Biology (IGBMC), one of the main European research centers where he first started generating knock-out and transgenic mice. He then joined the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark, NJ to work on cancer research and cell signaling. While there, he helped establish and manage the first mouse transgenic facility at the University. After moving to New Brunswick to work at the new Genome Editing Core Facility, Dr. Yehia has successfully used CRISPR technology as an editing tool to produce several lines of genetically modified mouse lines for the research community at Rutgers University.
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| Moderator Biography: | |
| Dr. Benedikt Bosbach is an internationally renowned expert in genomic engineering of KIT-mutant mouse models. Over the past decade Dr. Bosbach conducted cancer research in various critical roles at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY, utilizing his pioneering mouse models to dissect oncogenic signaling and to elucidate mechanisms of drug resistance in vivo. Dr. Bosbach recently joined the biopharmaceutical company Pfizer to implement his innovative CRISPR/Cas9 approaches into Pfizer’s Oncology Target Discovery Program in Pearl River, NY, to translate advanced science and technologies into cancer therapies. | |
This program is funded in part by a grant from the Delegation of the European Union to the United States.
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