People

Dr. Dawn Bell, Pharm.D. is a biopharma executive, former start-up CEO and Board Director with experience at large and mid-sized public pharmaceutical companies, as well as early stage and start-up privately held biotech companies. Her areas of expertise span strategic planning, portfolio prioritization, clinical development, business development, market access and commercialization. Dr. Bell is currently Global Development Head of Strategic Partnerships at Novartis. She is a passionate mentor for seed stage life-sciences start-ups and is energized by working with CEOs and founders in the Creative Destruction Lab (Toronto, Canada) and as an Executive Council member, EIT Health’s Gold Track Program (Munich, Germany).

Previously, Dr. Bell was VP Clinical Development and Medical Affairs and member of the Executive Committee for Novartis Pharma Canada, a $600M USD business where she was responsible for new product planning, clinical development and medical affairs across a broad portfolio. She oversaw launch preparations for 8 new medicines across 5 therapeutic areas (neuroscience, GI/hepatology, cardio-metabolic, ophthalmology and respiratory), and built the gene therapy team that launched Zolgensma and Luxturna. She also Tco-founded the Novartis Biome at Mila (Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms), an innovation accelerator created to foster entrepreneurship in data science and machine learning to improve drug development and health care delivery.

Prior to this, Dr. Bell led the global development team for Entresto at Novartis, a multi-billion dollar heart failure asset. Prior to Novartis, she was CEO and co-founder of Cool-Bio, a privately held, pre-clinical stage biotech company. She served as General Manager of Canyon Pharmaceuticals from 2008-2012, a privately held, clinical-stage rare-disease company. Earlier, she had several roles of increasing responsibility in medical affairs and clinical development at The Medicines Company, where she was part of the early company growth from $400M to >$1B valuation. Prior to joining the industry, Dr. Bell was a tenured Associate Professor at West Virginia University where she had an active clinical practice in the coronary care unit and a funded research program in health economics and outcomes research. She earned a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Florida, completed residency training at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and returned to Florida as a Genentech Cardiovascular Fellow studying pharmacogenomics in heart failure.

Dr. Tony Brooks is the CFO and VP of Entrepreneurship & Commercialization at Genome BC with over 25 years of experience in the life sciences, not for profit and public accounting environment.

Throughout his career, Tony has worked with both large and small life sciences companies and brings the vast knowledge he has gained to lead our Industry Innovation Program funding early stage start-ups. He believes in applying best practices, integrity and risk management to deliver high quality outputs. Tony is a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of BC and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. He holds a PhD in developmental biology from the University of London, England and a BSc from the University of Reading.

Prior to joining Genome British Columbia, he was a Senior Manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers in their Vancouver Life Sciences group, where he was responsible for managing a portfolio of early stage private and later stage public clients. He has extensive experience in providing accounting and assurance services and advising companies on corporate governance, internal controls and general business matters. He is knowledgeable in US and Canadian GAAP and has worked on a number of public and private equity and debt offerings having spent three years in their San Jose, California office. Before coming to North America, Tony articled in Glasgow, Scotland where he is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. He holds a PhD in developmental biology from the University of London, Eng.

Dr. Walter Dixon is Associate Vice-President (Research and Priority Initiatives), at the University of Alberta. In addition to this role, Dr. Dixon is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science (AFNS) in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences (ALES). Prior to becoming AVP, he was Associate Dean (Research and Graduate Studies) in ALES from 2012 to 2014, and in the Department of AFNS was Associate Chair (Research) from 2006 to 2008, and then Associate Chair (Graduate Programs) from 2011 to 2012.

Dr. Dixon has earned a reputation for being an effective leader and team player, having built strong relationships through the various corners of the research portfolio and beyond, including the Research Services Office, Research Ethics Office, TEC Edmonton, Postdoctoral Fellows and Academic Visitors Office, Field Research Office, Environmental Health and Safety, Risk Management, and Research Computing (IST). Externally, he has worked collegially with partners in the ministries of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism, and Advanced Education and with agencies such as Alberta Innovates and Alberta Health Services. The other Vice-Presidents, Deans, and Associate/Vice Deans (Research) across the University have all valued and benefitted from Dr. Dixon’s advice.

A graduate of the University of Alberta (BSc [Hon]) and the University of Cambridge (MPhil and PhD [Biochemistry]), Dr. Dixon’s research focuses on reproductive performance in livestock species and the impact of nutrition during gestation on embryo / fetal development, lifetime growth potential (especially muscle growth), and health parameters of the animal. He played a lead role in the establishment and expansion of the Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Centre (now called the Agricultural Genomics and Proteomics Unit) in the Agriculture/Forestry Centre on north campus. Dr. Dixon has also served on the graduate supervisory committees of more than 100 University of Alberta MSc and PhD students.

Throughout his career, Dr. Dixon has served the larger provincial and national research community in a variety of ways. He was on the provincial scientific review committee (Livestock Opportunities) for the Agricultural Funding Consortium for over five years, the Advancing Canadian Agriculture and AgriFood scientific review committee, and the Alberta Action Team for the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program. He has also served as both a member and later as chair of the NSERC Scholarships and Fellowships Committee for Life Sciences and Psychology. He currently serves on the Boards of TRIUMF, the Pacific Institute of Mathematical Science. (PIMS), GlycoNet, and the Canadian Mountain Network. He has been an associate editor of the Canadian Journal of Animal Science, as well as a scientific reviewer for numerous other journals.

Dr. Shelley King is a strategic, decisive, and highly respected leader in the Canadian technology commercialization, innovation, and investment space. For 25 years, she has married her scientific background in academia with her in-depth knowledge of entrepreneurship and industry to help Canadian innovations go from bright idea to market-ready product. As founding CEO of NPC, Shelley has positioned Canada as a global pioneer and trailblazer in the natural product sector. NPC has made connections with more than 800 organizations nationally, involved more than 1000 companies in its development pipeline, invested in 11 early stage enterprises, and experienced two exits.

Previously, Shelley was VP, Research and Business Development for Genome Atlantic, where she catalyzed industry-academic relationships, putting Canadian genomics research on the international map. She spearheaded the development of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Genomics Strategy, directed the management of $28 million in research projects, negotiated $17 million in multi-stakeholder collaborative research and funding agreements, and raised $8 million in co-funding. She has also served as CEO of Synapse, a not-for-profit organization responsible for UPEI’s applied research and industry services and as president of biotechnology start-up NovaLipids Inc.

A sharp risk-taker, relationship broker, and bridge builder, Shelley holds an MSc in medicine specializing in neuroscience and an MBA from Memorial University. She sits on the board of The Metabolomics Innovation Centre and has served on the boards of Springboard Atlantic, Genesis Centre, the Natural Health Products Research Society, the Aquaculture Association of Canada, the Pan American Marine Biotechnology Association, and the Newfoundland & Labrador Association of Technology Industries.

Dr. Li obtained his BSc in Chemistry from Zhejiang (Hangzhou) University in 1983 and his PhD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan and joined the University of Alberta in July 1989, where he is Professor of Chemistry and Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry. He is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Science) (2019). Dr. Li was Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Analytical Chemistry from 2005 to 2019. He served as Director, Alberta Cancer Board Proteomics Resource Laboratory, from 2000 to 2005. He was Chair of Analytical Chemistry Division at the University of Alberta from 2007 to 2019. He was a Co-PI of the Human Metabolome Database (HMDB) Project; his laboratory generated the HMDB MS/MS spectral library of the endogenous human metabolites which has been widely used by the metabolomics community. His laboratory is a pioneer in developing the high-performance chemical isotope labeling liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (HP-CIL LC-MS) platform for quantitative and comprehensive metabolome profiling of bio-systems. Dr. Li has received a number of national and international awards and honors. He is an editor of Analytica Chimica Acta, an international journal on analytical chemistry, since 2005. He is also a member of the editorial advisory board in a number of scientific journals.

Dr. Scarth is the Associate Vice-President Research Operations at the University of Victoria UVic (BC), with responsibility for the direction and overall management of the operational units in UVic’s Office of Research Services http://www.uvic.ca/research/conduct/index.php, research services strategic planning and policy functions, development of ORS budget framework and planning and the administration of regulatory committees in support of research.

Dr. Scarth received her doctorate from the University of Cambridge in plant breeding and genetics in 1981. After a post-doctoral fellowship with Agriculture Canada, Dr. Scarth joined the Department of Plant Science at the University of Manitoba in the canola breeding program. Dr. Scarth is the co-developer of over 30 canola and rapeseed cultivars with special oil quality traits including the world’s first canola cultivar with low linolenic oil quality. She has a career total of over 60 publications and received an Honorary Life Membership from the Manitoba Seed Growers Association in 1998 and an Honorary Life Membership from the Canadian Seed Growers Association in 2000. From 2001-2005, Dr. Scarth served as the Associate Dean Research for the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences with responsibility for the administration of the Faculty’s research programs. Dr. Scarth joined the UVic as the Director of the Office of Research Services in 2006 and was appointed to the AVPRO position in 2011.

A trained research scientist, Dr. Valentine recently joined the MS Society from Alberta Innovates where she spent over a decade and a half leading innovation and change. Her leadership at Alberta Innovates included significantly growing the health research portfolio and strengthening integration of research and health systems to maximize impact for patients and providers. She also led the establishment of a new Alberta Innovates organization that consolidated four corporations across the health, energy, agriculture, and forestry sectors.

Before joining Alberta Innovates Health Solutions, Dr. Valentine was an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Calgary and a member of the Epilepsy and Brain Circuits Program at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute. Her research focused on neural plasticity. She received many awards and scholarships while she obtained her PhD, MSc, and BSc in psychology, all from the University of Calgary.

She has provided leadership to international, national and provincial not-for-profit health and health research-focused organizations including the National Alliance of Provincial Health Research Organizations (NAPHRO), Canadian Cancer Research Alliance (CCRA), National Advisory Group to the Canadian Clinical Trials Coordinating Centre (CCTCC), National Committee for Strategy for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR), Alberta Committee for Strategy for Patient Oriented Research (abSPOR), Scientific Advisory Council of the International Alliance of Mental Health Research Funders, Institute of Health Economics, Knight’s Cabin and Wellspring Edmonton.

Gijs van Rooijen is a life sciences professional with >25 years of post PhD experience in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. Since 2006 he has been the Chief Scientific Officer for Genome Alberta, an organisation that coordinates, funds and administrates genomics research. He is an inventor on 24 issued patents, co-founder on two technology companies and he serves on a number of committees and panels including the International Science Advisory Panel for the Global Institute for Food Security. From 1997 to 2006, he was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Calgary and over the years he held several volunteer positions including 3 years as President of the Dutch Canadian Business Club of Calgary. In September 2017, he was elected to the University of Calgary Senate.

Dr. Christoph Borchers received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Konstanz, Germany. After his post-doctoral training and employment as a staff scientist at NIEHS/NIH/RTP, in North Carolina, he became the director of the Duke - UNC Proteomics Facility and held a faculty position at the UNC Medical School in Chapel Hill, NC (2001-2006). Since then, Dr. Borchers holds a joint appointment at the University of Victoria (UVic), Canada and holds the current positions of Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology and the Don and Eleanor Rix BC Leadership Chair in Biomedical and Environmental Proteomics. He is also the Director of the UVic - Genome BC Proteomics Centre, which is one out of six Genome Canada funded Science & Technology Innovation Centres and the only one solely devoted to proteomics.

His research is centred around the improvement, development and application of proteomics technologies with a major focus on techniques for quantitative targeted proteomics for clinical diagnostics. For his research, multiplexed LC-MRM-MS approaches and the immuno-MALDI (iMALDI) technique are of particular interest. Another focus of Dr. Borchers' research is centred on technology development and application of the combined approach of protein chemistry and mass spectrometry for structural proteomics. Dr. Borchers has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals and is the founder and CSO of two companies, Creative Molecules. Inc. and MRM Proteomics Inc. He is also involved in promoting proteomic research and education through his function as HUPO International Council Member, co-leader and Scientific Director of the British Columbia Proteomics Network and President of the Canadian National Proteomics Network.

Dr. Li obtained his BSc in Chemistry from Zhejiang (Hangzhou) University in 1983 and his PhD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan and joined the University of Alberta in July 1989, where he is Professor of Chemistry and Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry. He is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Science) (2019). Dr. Li was Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Analytical Chemistry from 2005 to 2019. He served as Director, Alberta Cancer Board Proteomics Resource Laboratory, from 2000 to 2005. He was Chair of Analytical Chemistry Division at the University of Alberta from 2007 to 2019. He was a Co-PI of the Human Metabolome Database (HMDB) Project; his laboratory generated the HMDB MS/MS spectral library of the endogenous human metabolites which has been widely used by the metabolomics community. His laboratory is a pioneer in developing the high-performance chemical isotope labeling liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (HP-CIL LC-MS) platform for quantitative and comprehensive metabolome profiling of bio-systems. Dr. Li has received a number of national and international awards and honors. He is an editor of Analytica Chimica Acta, an international journal on analytical chemistry, since 2005. He is also a member of the editorial advisory board in a number of scientific journals.

Dr. David Wishart (PhD Yale, 1991) is a Professor in the Departments of Biological Sciences and Computing Science at the University of Alberta. He is also a co-director of the Nanobiology program at the NRC's National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT). He has been with the University of Alberta since 1995 and has published more than 300 articles in various peer reviewed journals. His research interests span many areas including structural biology, bioinformatics, prion biology, nanobiology and metabolomics. From 2006-2009, Dr. Wishart led the "Human Metabolome Project" (HMP), a multi-university, multi-investigator project that catalogued all of the known metabolites in human tissues and biofluids. Using advanced methods in NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, multi-dimensional chromatography and machine learning Dr. Wishart and his colleagues identified or found evidence for more than 8500 endogenous metabolites. This information has been archived on a freely accessible web-resource called the Human Metabolome Database (HMDB). The methods and ideas developed for the HMP have helped lay the foundation for a number of clinical metabolomics projects currently being pursued in his lab. These include studies of several cancer biomarkers, identifying organ transplant biomarkers, exploring wound healing mechanisms, identifying early biomarkers of prion and prion-like diseases, and investigating biomarkers of common diseases in cows.

Dr. Christoph Borchers received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Konstanz, Germany. After his post-doctoral training and employment as a staff scientist at NIEHS/NIH/RTP, in North Carolina, he became the director of the Duke - UNC Proteomics Facility and held a faculty position at the UNC Medical School in Chapel Hill, NC (2001-2006). Since then, Dr. Borchers holds a joint appointment at the University of Victoria (UVic), Canada and holds the current positions of Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology and the Don and Eleanor Rix BC Leadership Chair in Biomedical and Environmental Proteomics. He is also the Director of the UVic - Genome BC Proteomics Centre, which is one out of six Genome Canada funded Science & Technology Innovation Centres and the only one solely devoted to proteomics.

His research is centred around the improvement, development and application of proteomics technologies with a major focus on techniques for quantitative targeted proteomics for clinical diagnostics. For his research, multiplexed LC-MRM-MS approaches and the immuno-MALDI (iMALDI) technique are of particular interest. Another focus of Dr. Borchers' research is centred on technology development and application of the combined approach of protein chemistry and mass spectrometry for structural proteomics. Dr. Borchers has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals and is the founder and CSO of two companies, Creative Molecules. Inc. and MRM Proteomics Inc. He is also involved in promoting proteomic research and education through his function as HUPO International Council Member, co-leader and Scientific Director of the British Columbia Proteomics Network and President of the Canadian National Proteomics Network.

Dr. Li obtained his BSc in Chemistry from Zhejiang (Hangzhou) University in 1983 and his PhD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan and joined the University of Alberta in July 1989, where he is Professor of Chemistry and Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry. He is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Science) (2019). Dr. Li was Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Analytical Chemistry from 2005 to 2019. He served as Director, Alberta Cancer Board Proteomics Resource Laboratory, from 2000 to 2005. He was Chair of Analytical Chemistry Division at the University of Alberta from 2007 to 2019. He was a Co-PI of the Human Metabolome Database (HMDB) Project; his laboratory generated the HMDB MS/MS spectral library of the endogenous human metabolites which has been widely used by the metabolomics community. His laboratory is a pioneer in developing the high-performance chemical isotope labeling liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (HP-CIL LC-MS) platform for quantitative and comprehensive metabolome profiling of bio-systems. Dr. Li has received a number of national and international awards and honors. He is an editor of Analytica Chimica Acta, an international journal on analytical chemistry, since 2005. He is also a member of the editorial advisory board in a number of scientific journals.

Dr. David Wishart (PhD Yale, 1991) is a Professor in the Departments of Biological Sciences and Computing Science at the University of Alberta. He is also a co-director of the Nanobiology program at the NRC's National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT). He has been with the University of Alberta since 1995 and has published more than 300 articles in various peer reviewed journals. His research interests span many areas including structural biology, bioinformatics, prion biology, nanobiology and metabolomics. From 2006-2009, Dr. Wishart led the "Human Metabolome Project" (HMP), a multi-university, multi-investigator project that catalogued all of the known metabolites in human tissues and biofluids. Using advanced methods in NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, multi-dimensional chromatography and machine learning Dr. Wishart and his colleagues identified or found evidence for more than 8500 endogenous metabolites. This information has been archived on a freely accessible web-resource called the Human Metabolome Database (HMDB). The methods and ideas developed for the HMP have helped lay the foundation for a number of clinical metabolomics projects currently being pursued in his lab. These include studies of several cancer biomarkers, identifying organ transplant biomarkers, exploring wound healing mechanisms, identifying early biomarkers of prion and prion-like diseases, and investigating biomarkers of common diseases in cows.

Dr. Christoph Borchers received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Konstanz, Germany. After his post-doctoral training and employment as a staff scientist at NIEHS/NIH/RTP, in North Carolina, he became the director of the Duke - UNC Proteomics Facility and held a faculty position at the UNC Medical School in Chapel Hill, NC (2001-2006). Since then, Dr. Borchers holds a joint appointment at the University of Victoria (UVic), Canada and holds the current positions of Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology and the Don and Eleanor Rix BC Leadership Chair in Biomedical and Environmental Proteomics. He is also the Director of the UVic - Genome BC Proteomics Centre, which is one out of six Genome Canada funded Science & Technology Innovation Centres and the only one solely devoted to proteomics.

His research is centred around the improvement, development and application of proteomics technologies with a major focus on techniques for quantitative targeted proteomics for clinical diagnostics. For his research, multiplexed LC-MRM-MS approaches and the immuno-MALDI (iMALDI) technique are of particular interest. Another focus of Dr. Borchers' research is centred on technology development and application of the combined approach of protein chemistry and mass spectrometry for structural proteomics. Dr. Borchers has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals and is the founder and CSO of two companies, Creative Molecules. Inc. and MRM Proteomics Inc. He is also involved in promoting proteomic research and education through his function as HUPO International Council Member, co-leader and Scientific Director of the British Columbia Proteomics Network and President of the Canadian National Proteomics Network.

Dr. Britz-McKibbin received his PhD from the University of British Columbia prior to joining the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at McMaster University in 2003, where is now a Professor and currently a Cystic Fibrosis Canada Researcher. Dr. Britz-McKibbin has contributed to innovations in capillary electrophoresis and mass spectrometry for metabolomics as applied to preventative health. His research program includes the development of higher throughput methods for identifying and quantifying metabolites of clinical significance in human biological samples, including the introduction of multiplexed separations and accelerated data workflows for biomarker discovery. His research has been funded by NSERC, CFI, CIHR, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Canada, the Ontario Genomics Institute, and the Ontario Ministry of Labour. He has presented over 100 invited talks and published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles, including 6 invited reviews, 5 book chapters, 2 technical reports and 3 filed patents. Dr. Britz-McKibbin is the recipient of several prestigious awards for his important contributions to separation science, MS and metabolomics, including the American Chemical Society – Young Investigator Award in Separation Science (2010), Japan Society for Promotion of Science (2009), Petro-Canada Young Investigator Award (2007) and Premier’s Research Excellence Award (2004-2010). He is currently co-chair in analytical/physical chemistry in the NSERC Discovery Grant Evaluation Committee, a founding member of the North American Chapter of the Metabolomics Society, and a Section Editor in Chemical Biology for the journal Scientific Reports (Nature). He has also served as a scientific advisory board member on several metabolomics initiatives across North America. Dr. Britz-McKibbin’s research program strives to bridges the major gap existing between basic scientific research and large-scale epidemiological studies for population health, including expanding newborn screening programs.

Dr. David R. Goodlett has spent his career using mass spectrometry to solve biomedical problems via novel technology and software developments. His Ph.D. training with Prof. Richard B. van Breemen on protein adducts concluded in 1991 and his postdoctoral work with Dr.Richard D. Smith on Native MS and ESI fundamentals in 1993. He has been active in a variety of fields including medicine, oceanography, pharmacy, microbiology, proteomics (including clinical applications), lipidomics, and protein and glycolipid structure-function relationships. Dr. Goodlett has published over 250 papers generating an H-index of 80. He is currently a Professor at the University of Victoria and Director of their Genome BC Proteome Centre. Prior to this he was Professor at the Universities of Washington (2004-2012) and Maryland-Baltimore (2013-2020) as well as first Director of Proteomics at the Institute for Systems Biology (2000-2003). From 2012-2016 he was a Finland Distinguished Professor studying pediatric type 1 diabetes. For the last dozen years he has been an Editor at Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry for Wiley-Blackwell publishing. Dr. Goodlett has founded two companies based on his patents: Deurion of Seattle, WA which is developing mass spectrometry ion sources and Pataigin of Baltimore, MD which is focused on microbial diagnostics. Since 2007 he has been a co-organizer of the Mass Spectrometry in Biotechnology and Medicine summer school held annually in Dubrovnik. Recently, Dr. Goodlett was appointed Visiting Professor at the International Centre for Cancer Vaccine Science (ICCVS) at the University of Gdansk.

Dr. James Harynuk received his PhD from the University of Waterloo in 2004 where he conducted pioneering work in the emerging field of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography and won the WB Pearson Medal for creative research in a doctoral thesis. He then moved to Melbourne, Australia to continue the study of multidimensional separations with Dr. Philip Marriott at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. In 2007 he started his own research group at the University of Alberta where he continues to advance our understanding of multidimensional separations science. Current research interests include the development of tools to identify molecules based on their thermodynamic behavior in a gas phase separation and tools for the rapid interpretation of GCxGC and GC-MS data. The tools that Dr. Harynuk is developing have been applied in a diversity of fields with a variety of collaborators including petroleum (Syncrude, Imperial Oil), forensics (RCMP), foods (University of Jaen, Spain), anti-doping (UFRJ, Brazil), and textile science (UofA).

He has a special interest in using metabolomics to advance drug discovery and drug screening. He has developed several large libraries of biologically significant small molecules, including nucleotides, amino acid derivatives, ions, and lipids, as well as stabilizers such as osmolytes and short-chain polymers. This diverse library has been used to screen and identify novel ligands, profile binding specificities, and map interaction sites for a number of protein signaling and enzymatic domains (GTPases, kinases, phosphatases, and proteases). He also co-created an open access drug fragment library optimized by multiple drug discovery campaigns for high-throughput screening by NMR. The Membrane Optimal Docking Area (MODA) software he co-developed is freely available at Molsoft, providing a basis for further studies on specificities and cellular localization of the thousands of novel membrane binders (i.e., metabolites) that can now be easily predicted by any researcher.

Dr. Ian Lewis is an Associate Professor and Alberta Innovates Translational Health Chair in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary. Dr. Lewis earned a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed his postdoctoral training at Princeton University. The Lewis laboratory specializes in unraveling the complex metabolic underpinnings of infections. To support this research, Dr. Lewis founded the Calgary Metabolomics Research Facility (CMRF), an integrated suite of microbiology, engineering, and analytical laboratories that was specifically built for studying microbial metabolism and building tools for fighting infections. Recently, Dr. Lewis launched the Alberta Precision Exchange (APEX), a province-wide program that leverage’s Canada’s unique health infrastructure to fast-track the development of medical diagnostic technology. Dr. Lewis has leveraged APEX to launch a suite of new diagnostic tools and treatment practices that may significantly reduce the number of people who die from infection.

Dr. Li obtained his BSc in Chemistry from Zhejiang (Hangzhou) University in 1983 and his PhD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan and joined the University of Alberta in July 1989, where he is Professor of Chemistry and Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry. He is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Science) (2019). Dr. Li was Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Analytical Chemistry from 2005 to 2019. He served as Director, Alberta Cancer Board Proteomics Resource Laboratory, from 2000 to 2005. He was Chair of Analytical Chemistry Division at the University of Alberta from 2007 to 2019. He was a Co-PI of the Human Metabolome Database (HMDB) Project; his laboratory generated the HMDB MS/MS spectral library of the endogenous human metabolites which has been widely used by the metabolomics community. His laboratory is a pioneer in developing the high-performance chemical isotope labeling liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (HP-CIL LC-MS) platform for quantitative and comprehensive metabolome profiling of bio-systems. Dr. Li has received a number of national and international awards and honors. He is an editor of Analytica Chimica Acta, an international journal on analytical chemistry, since 2005. He is also a member of the editorial advisory board in a number of scientific journals.

Dr. Michael Overduin is an internationally recognized structural biologist who focuses on protein:lipid recognition and signaling mechanisms of therapeutic targets. He has done pioneering work in the study of interactions of small molecules with proteins and membranes, with a primary focus on NMR-based metabolomics. He has recently taken over as Executive Director of NANUC (the National High Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Centre) at UofA, which is equipped with 2 600 MHz NMR instrument and a specially contained 500 MHz instrument. He previously led the Henry Wellcome Building for Biomolecular NMR in the UK. He has published over 100 papers in journals including Cell, Mol Cell, Dev Cell, EMBO, JACS, Nature, Nature Struct Mol Biol, Nature Communs, PNAS USA and Science, (h-index = 34; 5387 citations). He has patented the styrene maleic acid lipid particle system for preparation and analysis of native membrane proteins and developed the international SMALP network (SMALP.net). Dr. Overduin launched Science Capital as a start-up that has connected hundreds of scientists, spin-offs, industry and business experts to tackle grand challenges, is one of the original editors of the J Chem Biol Drug Design, and founded academic-pharma partnering networks at www.discoverylab.ca and www.drugdiscovery.org.uk, with outputs including molecular libraries for ligand screening and drug discovery.

Dr. David Wishart (PhD Yale, 1991) is a Professor in the Departments of Biological Sciences and Computing Science at the University of Alberta. He is also a co-director of the Nanobiology program at the NRC's National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT). He has been with the University of Alberta since 1995 and has published more than 300 articles in various peer reviewed journals. His research interests span many areas including structural biology, bioinformatics, prion biology, nanobiology and metabolomics. From 2006-2009, Dr. Wishart led the "Human Metabolome Project" (HMP), a multi-university, multi-investigator project that catalogued all of the known metabolites in human tissues and biofluids. Using advanced methods in NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, multi-dimensional chromatography and machine learning Dr. Wishart and his colleagues identified or found evidence for more than 8500 endogenous metabolites. This information has been archived on a freely accessible web-resource called the Human Metabolome Database (HMDB). The methods and ideas developed for the HMP have helped lay the foundation for a number of clinical metabolomics projects currently being pursued in his lab. These include studies of several cancer biomarkers, identifying organ transplant biomarkers, exploring wound healing mechanisms, identifying early biomarkers of prion and prion-like diseases, and investigating biomarkers of common diseases in cows.

Dr. Ian Lewis is an Associate Professor and Alberta Innovates Translational Health Chair in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary. Dr. Lewis earned a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed his postdoctoral training at Princeton University. The Lewis laboratory specializes in unraveling the complex metabolic underpinnings of infections. To support this research, Dr. Lewis founded the Calgary Metabolomics Research Facility (CMRF), an integrated suite of microbiology, engineering, and analytical laboratories that was specifically built for studying microbial metabolism and building tools for fighting infections. Recently, Dr. Lewis launched the Alberta Precision Exchange (APEX), a province-wide program that leverage’s Canada’s unique health infrastructure to fast-track the development of medical diagnostic technology. Dr. Lewis has leveraged APEX to launch a suite of new diagnostic tools and treatment practices that may significantly reduce the number of people who die from infection.

Dr. Li obtained his BSc in Chemistry from Zhejiang (Hangzhou) University in 1983 and his PhD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan and joined the University of Alberta in July 1989, where he is Professor of Chemistry and Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry. He is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Science) (2019). Dr. Li was Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Analytical Chemistry from 2005 to 2019. He served as Director, Alberta Cancer Board Proteomics Resource Laboratory, from 2000 to 2005. He was Chair of Analytical Chemistry Division at the University of Alberta from 2007 to 2019. He was a Co-PI of the Human Metabolome Database (HMDB) Project; his laboratory generated the HMDB MS/MS spectral library of the endogenous human metabolites which has been widely used by the metabolomics community. His laboratory is a pioneer in developing the high-performance chemical isotope labeling liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (HP-CIL LC-MS) platform for quantitative and comprehensive metabolome profiling of bio-systems. Dr. Li has received a number of national and international awards and honors. He is an editor of Analytica Chimica Acta, an international journal on analytical chemistry, since 2005. He is also a member of the editorial advisory board in a number of scientific journals.

Dr. James Harynuk received his PhD from the University of Waterloo in 2004 where he conducted pioneering work in the emerging field of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography and won the WB Pearson Medal for creative research in a doctoral thesis. He then moved to Melbourne, Australia to continue the study of multidimensional separations with Dr. Philip Marriott at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. In 2007 he started his own research group at the University of Alberta where he continues to advance our understanding of multidimensional separations science. Current research interests include the development of tools to identify molecules based on their thermodynamic behavior in a gas phase separation and tools for the rapid interpretation of GCxGC and GC-MS data. The tools that Dr. Harynuk is developing have been applied in a diversity of fields with a variety of collaborators including petroleum (Syncrude, Imperial Oil), forensics (RCMP), foods (University of Jaen, Spain), anti-doping (UFRJ, Brazil), and textile science (UofA).

He has a special interest in using metabolomics to advance drug discovery and drug screening. He has developed several large libraries of biologically significant small molecules, including nucleotides, amino acid derivatives, ions, and lipids, as well as stabilizers such as osmolytes and short-chain polymers. This diverse library has been used to screen and identify novel ligands, profile binding specificities, and map interaction sites for a number of protein signaling and enzymatic domains (GTPases, kinases, phosphatases, and proteases). He also co-created an open access drug fragment library optimized by multiple drug discovery campaigns for high-throughput screening by NMR. The Membrane Optimal Docking Area (MODA) software he co-developed is freely available at Molsoft, providing a basis for further studies on specificities and cellular localization of the thousands of novel membrane binders (i.e., metabolites) that can now be easily predicted by any researcher.

Dr. Michael Overduin is an internationally recognized structural biologist who focuses on protein:lipid recognition and signaling mechanisms of therapeutic targets. He has done pioneering work in the study of interactions of small molecules with proteins and membranes, with a primary focus on NMR-based metabolomics. He has recently taken over as Executive Director of NANUC (the National High Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Centre) at UofA, which is equipped with 2 600 MHz NMR instrument and a specially contained 500 MHz instrument. He previously led the Henry Wellcome Building for Biomolecular NMR in the UK. He has published over 100 papers in journals including Cell, Mol Cell, Dev Cell, EMBO, JACS, Nature, Nature Struct Mol Biol, Nature Communs, PNAS USA and Science, (h-index = 34; 5387 citations). He has patented the styrene maleic acid lipid particle system for preparation and analysis of native membrane proteins and developed the international SMALP network (SMALP.net). Dr. Overduin launched Science Capital as a start-up that has connected hundreds of scientists, spin-offs, industry and business experts to tackle grand challenges, is one of the original editors of the J Chem Biol Drug Design, and founded academic-pharma partnering networks at www.discoverylab.ca and www.drugdiscovery.org.uk, with outputs including molecular libraries for ligand screening and drug discovery.

Dr. David Wishart (PhD Yale, 1991) is a Professor in the Departments of Biological Sciences and Computing Science at the University of Alberta. He is also a co-director of the Nanobiology program at the NRC's National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT). He has been with the University of Alberta since 1995 and has published more than 300 articles in various peer reviewed journals. His research interests span many areas including structural biology, bioinformatics, prion biology, nanobiology and metabolomics. From 2006-2009, Dr. Wishart led the "Human Metabolome Project" (HMP), a multi-university, multi-investigator project that catalogued all of the known metabolites in human tissues and biofluids. Using advanced methods in NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, multi-dimensional chromatography and machine learning Dr. Wishart and his colleagues identified or found evidence for more than 8500 endogenous metabolites. This information has been archived on a freely accessible web-resource called the Human Metabolome Database (HMDB). The methods and ideas developed for the HMP have helped lay the foundation for a number of clinical metabolomics projects currently being pursued in his lab. These include studies of several cancer biomarkers, identifying organ transplant biomarkers, exploring wound healing mechanisms, identifying early biomarkers of prion and prion-like diseases, and investigating biomarkers of common diseases in cows.

Dr. Christoph Borchers received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Konstanz, Germany. After his post-doctoral training and employment as a staff scientist at NIEHS/NIH/RTP, in North Carolina, he became the director of the Duke - UNC Proteomics Facility and held a faculty position at the UNC Medical School in Chapel Hill, NC (2001-2006). Since then, Dr. Borchers holds a joint appointment at the University of Victoria (UVic), Canada and holds the current positions of Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology and the Don and Eleanor Rix BC Leadership Chair in Biomedical and Environmental Proteomics. He is also the Director of the UVic - Genome BC Proteomics Centre, which is one out of six Genome Canada funded Science & Technology Innovation Centres and the only one solely devoted to proteomics.

His research is centred around the improvement, development and application of proteomics technologies with a major focus on techniques for quantitative targeted proteomics for clinical diagnostics. For his research, multiplexed LC-MRM-MS approaches and the immuno-MALDI (iMALDI) technique are of particular interest. Another focus of Dr. Borchers' research is centred on technology development and application of the combined approach of protein chemistry and mass spectrometry for structural proteomics. Dr. Borchers has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals and is the founder and CSO of two companies, Creative Molecules. Inc. and MRM Proteomics Inc. He is also involved in promoting proteomic research and education through his function as HUPO International Council Member, co-leader and Scientific Director of the British Columbia Proteomics Network and President of the Canadian National Proteomics Network.

Dr. Britz-McKibbin received his PhD from the University of British Columbia prior to joining the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at McMaster University in 2003, where is now a Professor and currently a Cystic Fibrosis Canada Researcher. Dr. Britz-McKibbin has contributed to innovations in capillary electrophoresis and mass spectrometry for metabolomics as applied to preventative health. His research program includes the development of higher throughput methods for identifying and quantifying metabolites of clinical significance in human biological samples, including the introduction of multiplexed separations and accelerated data workflows for biomarker discovery. His research has been funded by NSERC, CFI, CIHR, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Canada, the Ontario Genomics Institute, and the Ontario Ministry of Labour. He has presented over 100 invited talks and published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles, including 6 invited reviews, 5 book chapters, 2 technical reports and 3 filed patents. Dr. Britz-McKibbin is the recipient of several prestigious awards for his important contributions to separation science, MS and metabolomics, including the American Chemical Society – Young Investigator Award in Separation Science (2010), Japan Society for Promotion of Science (2009), Petro-Canada Young Investigator Award (2007) and Premier’s Research Excellence Award (2004-2010). He is currently co-chair in analytical/physical chemistry in the NSERC Discovery Grant Evaluation Committee, a founding member of the North American Chapter of the Metabolomics Society, and a Section Editor in Chemical Biology for the journal Scientific Reports (Nature). He has also served as a scientific advisory board member on several metabolomics initiatives across North America. Dr. Britz-McKibbin’s research program strives to bridges the major gap existing between basic scientific research and large-scale epidemiological studies for population health, including expanding newborn screening programs.

Dr. David R. Goodlett has spent his career using mass spectrometry to solve biomedical problems via novel technology and software developments. His Ph.D. training with Prof. Richard B. van Breemen on protein adducts concluded in 1991 and his postdoctoral work with Dr.Richard D. Smith on Native MS and ESI fundamentals in 1993. He has been active in a variety of fields including medicine, oceanography, pharmacy, microbiology, proteomics (including clinical applications), lipidomics, and protein and glycolipid structure-function relationships. Dr. Goodlett has published over 250 papers generating an H-index of 80. He is currently a Professor at the University of Victoria and Director of their Genome BC Proteome Centre. Prior to this he was Professor at the Universities of Washington (2004-2012) and Maryland-Baltimore (2013-2020) as well as first Director of Proteomics at the Institute for Systems Biology (2000-2003). From 2012-2016 he was a Finland Distinguished Professor studying pediatric type 1 diabetes. For the last dozen years he has been an Editor at Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry for Wiley-Blackwell publishing. Dr. Goodlett has founded two companies based on his patents: Deurion of Seattle, WA which is developing mass spectrometry ion sources and Pataigin of Baltimore, MD which is focused on microbial diagnostics. Since 2007 he has been a co-organizer of the Mass Spectrometry in Biotechnology and Medicine summer school held annually in Dubrovnik. Recently, Dr. Goodlett was appointed Visiting Professor at the International Centre for Cancer Vaccine Science (ICCVS) at the University of Gdansk.