Keynote lectures 2024

Professor Brian Kobilka received Bachelor of Science Degrees in Biology and Chemistry from the
University of Minnesota, Duluth in 1977. He graduated from Yale University School of Medicine
in 1981, and completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the Barnes Hospital,
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri in 1984. From 1984-1989 he was
a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Robert Lefkowitz at Duke University.

While in the Lefkowitz lab, he and his colleagues cloned the gene that encodes the receptor for
the hormone adrenaline. They found that the receptor was similar to rhodopsin, the light-sensing
receptor. It was later discovered that there is an entire family of receptors that look and act in
similar ways. These receptors are known as G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs); they are
responsible for the body’s response to the majority of hormones and neurotransmitters.

In 1989 he joined the faculty of Medicine and Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford
University. Research in the Kobilka lab focuses on the structure and mechanism of action of
GPCRs. They apply a spectrum of biochemical, biophysical and structural approaches to
understand GPCR signaling at the molecular level. He is a member of the National Academy of
Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 2012, Brian Kobilka was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Robert Lefkowitz,
for his work in determining the structure of a GPCR in inactive and G protein-coupled states.

Professor Dennis Lo Yuk Ming is the Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Medicine of The
Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the President of Hong Kong Academy of Sciences. His
research interests focus on the biology and diagnostic applications of cell-free nucleic acids in
plasma. In particular, he discovered the presence of cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma in
1997 and has since then been pioneering non-invasive prenatal diagnosis using this technology.
This technology has been adopted globally and has created a paradigm in prenatal medicine.
He has also made many innovations using circulating nucleic acids for cancer detection,
including the screening of early stage nasopharyngeal cancer.

In recognition of his research, Professor Lo has been elected as Fellow of the Royal Society,
Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of The World Academy of
Sciences (TWAS) and Founding Member of the Academy of Sciences of Hong Kong. Professor
Lo has won numerous awards, including the 2014 King Faisal International Prize in Medicine,
the 2016 Future Science Prize in Life Science, the 2019 Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award, the
2021 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the 2021 Royal Medal, the 2021 ESHG Mendel
Award, the 2022 ISPD Pioneer Award and the 2022 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research
Award.

Anne Schwerk is a Professor of AI at the International University of Applied Sciences with a research
focus on Medical AI applications and Natural Language Processing. At the same time, she
works as the head of science management at the Berlin Institute of Health Center for
Regenerative Therapies. After her studies in the Netherlands, at the VU Amsterdam, she
conducted her PhD at the Charité Berlin University Medicine. Then she worked for a few years
at TNO, Leiden the Netherlands, before she moved back to Berlin to lead projects at the
intersection of medicine and AI at the German Research Center of AI. Before her current
position, professor Anne Schwerk worked for a rare disease diagnostics company leading a team of 5 Machine
Learning experts to develop omics driven diagnostics and therapies.

Mihaela van der Schaar is the John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Medicine at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute in London. In addition to leading the van der Schaar Lab, Mihaela is founder and director of the Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine (CCAIM). 

Mihaela was elected IEEE Fellow in 2009. She has received numerous awards, including the Oon Prize on Preventative Medicine from the University of Cambridge (2018), a National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2004), 3 IBM Faculty Awards, the IBM Exploratory Stream Analytics Innovation Award, the Philips Make a Difference Award and several best paper awards, including the IEEE Darlington Award.

Mihaela is personally credited as inventor on 35 USA patents, many of which are still frequently cited and adopted in standards. She has made over 45 contributions to international standards for which she received 3 ISO Awards. In 2019, a Nesta report determined that Mihaela was the most-cited female AI researcher in the U.K.

Mukesh Kapila has extensive experience in global health, humanitarian affairs, conflict and security, international development, human rights and diplomacy, He has qualifications in medicine and public health from the Universities of Oxford and London.

He is Professor Emeritus of Global Health and Humanitarian Affairs, University of Manchester, and Senior Adviser to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean.

His previous leadership functions have included senior directorships at the World Health Organization and United Nations, and as Undersecretary-General at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Previously he was Head of Conflict & Humanitarian Affairs at what is now the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office.

He has served on several Boards, including chairing Minority Rights Group International, and Nonviolent Peaceforce which was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016. Also advised many multilateral institutions including the World Bank. UN agencies, and international NGOs.

His many awards include a CBE from King Charles III, a Global Citizenship Award, the “I Witness!” award for human rights, and a special resolution of the California State Legislature for “lifetime achievements and meritorious service”.

His first memoir “Against a Tide of Evil” was shortlisted for the 2013 Best Non-Fiction Book award. His further book (2019) is entitled “Not a Stranger to Kindness”. He is a public and media speaker, and his writings can be sampled on https://www.mukeshkapila.org