Keynote speakers
Professor Anne M Molloy, Honorary President
Professor Anne Molloy is the honorary president of the 12th International Conference on One carbon metabolism B vitamins and homocysteine, 2019. Anne Molloy, PhD., is a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and Emeritus Professor in the Discipline of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine.
She received a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from University College Dublin and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Trinity College Dublin. As Director of the Vitamin Research Laboratory in TCD, her primary interests are in researching the molecular, nutritional and genomic factors that influence cellular function of folate, vitamin B12 and related micronutrients and in exploring the consequences of factors that alter the interaction between folate and vitamin B12 metabolism.
She has a particular interest in understanding the role of folic acid in prevention of neural tube defects and other adverse pregnancy outcomes, and the contribution of low vitamin B12 status to these defects. She has served on multiple expert advisory panels and guideline development committees for both national and international public health bodies, including the World Health Organization and the Micronutrient Forum.
She collaborates with investigators in the NIH National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the Eunice Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and with colleagues in the Northern Ireland Centre for Food and Health (NICHE). Delegates that know Anne through collaborations, the literature, advisory boards, review panels, conferences or academic activities will appreciate that we are privileged and delighted to have such an esteemed colleague of many talents as honorary president at our conference
Manel Esteller, M.D., PhD
Manel Esteller (Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, 1968) graduated in Medicine from the Universidad de Barcelona in 1992, where he also obtained his Ph.D. degree specialising in molecular genetics of endometrial carcinoma, in 1996. He was an Invited Researcher at the School of Biological and Medical Sciences at the University of St. Andrews, (Scotland, UK) during which time his research interests focused on the molecular genetics of inherited breast cancer. From 1997 to 2001, Esteller was a Postdoctoral Fellow and a Research Associate at the Johns Hopkins University and School of Medicine, (Baltimore, USA) where he studied DNA methylation and human cancer. His work was decisive in establishing promoter hypermethylation of tumour suppressor genes as a common hallmark of all human tumours.
From October 2001 to September 2008 Manel Esteller was the Leader of the CNIO Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory, where his principal area of research were the alterations in DNA methylation, histone modifications and chromatin in human cancer. Since October 2008, Dr Esteller is the Director of the Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program (PEBC) of the Bellvitge Institute for Biomedical Research (IDIBELL) in Barcelona, Chairman of Genetics in the School of Medicine of the University of Barcelona, and an ICREA Research Professor. He has been elected as Director of the Josep Carreras Research Institute (IJC). His current research is devoted to the establishment of the epigenome and epitranscriptome maps of normal and transformed cells, the study of the interactions between epigenetic modifications and non-coding RNAs, and the development of new epigenetic drugs for cancer therapy.
Author of 510 original publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, 24 of them categorized as “Highly Cited Paper” by Thomson Reuters. Dr Esteller has a Total Impact Factor of 4,842.046 and a Total Number of Citations of 62,669, having an h-Index of 121. He is also a Member of numerous international scientific societies, Editorial Boards and reviewer for many journals and funding agencies. Dr Esteller is also Associate Editor for Cancer Research, The Lancet Oncology, Carcinogenesis, Genome Research and The Journal of The National Cancer Institute. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Epigenetics.
Christopher B. Newgard, PhD
Christopher B. Newgard, Ph.D. is the Director of the Sarah W. Stedman Nutrition and Metabolism Center and the W. David and Sarah W. Stedman Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at the Duke University Medical Center. He is also the founding Director of the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute (2013).
Prior to coming to Duke in 2002, Dr. Newgard was the Gifford O. Touchstone Jr. and Randolph G. Touchstone Distinguished Professor, Department of Biochemistry, and Co-Director of the Touchstone Center for Diabetes Research, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas.
Dr. Newgard’s research focuses on application of an interdisciplinary approach for understanding of cardiometabolic disease mechanisms involving gene discovery, metabolic engineering, and comprehensive tools of metabolic analysis (“metabolomics”) such as mass spectrometry-based metabolic profiling and metabolic flux analysis.
Dr. Newgard has authored >350 peer-reviewed and review articles (h-index, 91), and has been the recipient of several awards, including the Outstanding Scientific Achievement (Lilly) Award from the American Diabetes Association (2001), a Merit Award from the NIH (2001), a Bristol-Meyers Squibb “Freedom to Discover” Award (2006), and a Duke Medical Alumni Association Distinguished Professor Award (2016).
