Kornberg studied chemistry and biochemistry, and without having to think about it, became a scientist. He graduated from Harvard University in 1967 with a Bachelors in science, and went to Stanford University for graduate work. His doctoral thesis was on the chemical nature of phospholipids. In 1972, Kornberg went to the Medical Research Council in Cambridge for postdoctoral work in X-ray crystallography. There he became interested in the X-ray patterns Aaron Klug obtained for chromatin. Using this and other experimental data, Kornberg eventually worked out the importance of histones to chromatin structure. Kornberg published his results in 1974. Kornberg stayed on staff at the MRC until 1975 when he was offered an assistant professorship at Harvard University. In 1978, he moved to Stanford University where he is now professor of structural biology. Over the past 35 years, Kornberg has published over 150 peer-reviewed research papers on phospholipid and chromatin structure, gene regulation and transcription control. His current research interest is on the overall structure of chromatin and chromosomes and how such structuring may be associated with gene repression.

Edward Abrahams, Ph.D., is president of the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC). Representing a broad spectrum of academic, industrial, patient, provider and payer communities, PMC seeks to advance the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts and products for the benefit of patients. It has grown from its original 18 founding members in November 2004 to over 175 today. Previously Dr. Abrahams was Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association, where he spearheaded the successful effort that led to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s investment of $200 million to commercialize biotechnology in the state. Earlier he had been Assistant Vice President for Federal Relations at the University of Pennsylvania and held a senior administrative position at Brown University. Dr. Abrahams worked for seven years for the U.S. Congress, including as a legislative assistant to Senator Lloyd Bentsen, an economist for the Joint Economic Committee under the chairmanship of Representative Lee Hamilton, and as a AAAS Congressional Fellow for the House Committee on the Interior. The author of numerous essays, Dr. Abrahams serves as senior editor of Personalized Medicine and has also taught history and public policy at Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania.  

Galli received his BA and MD from Harvard, trained in Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and then served on the Harvard faculty until moving to Stanford as Chair of Pathology in 1999. Galli investigates the roles of mast cells in health and disease, including allergies and asthma. Dr. Galli was President of the American Society for Investigative Pathology (2005-2006) and has been elected to several honorary societies including the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum (his four year term as President began in 2010), the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome (considered the oldest secular scientific society in the Western world), and is an Honorary Fellow of the College of American Pathologists. In 2006-2007, the last year of a three year elected term, Dr. Galli was the Chair of the Advisory Board to the President and Provost of Stanford University.  

Brett Davis is a Senior Director in Oracle's Health Sciences Global Business Unit.  In this role, Brett is responsible for shaping and driving Oracle's personalized healthcare strategy and solutions.  He works closely with leaders in healthcare and life sciences to help them leverage innovative information technologies and applications to innovate and grow.  In addition to his role at Oracle, he is on the Board of Directors of the Personalized Medicine Coalition, served on the US Department of Health and Human Services HRSA’s Genetic Services Policy Project Advisory Panel, is a Strategic Advisor for the Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation for glioma research, and has been an invited speaker at industry meetings on information technology’s transformative role in the health sciences. Prior to joining Oracle, Brett was a Business Unit Executive in IBM's Healthcare and Life Sciences business.  In this role, he was involved in helping shape IBM’s strategy for health analytics, clinical genomics, high performance scientific computing, biobanking and translational medicine. Prior to joining IBM, Brett led business development and marketing efforts at Genstruct, Inc., a Cambridge, MA based biotech.  Previously he served as Senior Product Manager and Director of Marketing for Viaken Systems, Inc., where he helped develop and market bioinformatics and knowledge management solutions for pharmaceutical research. 

Bonnie is the Founder and Chair of the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, a San-Francisco-based nonprofit organization that is the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to eradicating lung cancer. With unanimous support from the United States Senate to make lung cancer a national priority, Bonnie works collaboratively with a diverse group of physicians, researchers, corporations, legislators, and individuals to identify solutions and make timely and meaningful change through research, early detection, education, prevention, and treatment. Bonnie is a 6- year lung cancer survivor and a visionary with 25 years of experience in managing a large oil company and a commercial credit card networking company. A nationally recognized business leader, from 1997 to 2004, Bonnie was the President of both the Commercial Fueling Network and Olympian Oil companies. Bonnie was the first female President of the California Independent Oil Marketers. Bonnie is the founder of the Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute (ALCMI), serves as a past director of the Sequoia Hospital Foundation Board, Vice Chair of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Thoracic Cabinet, and is an advocate and member of Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) Lung Committee.

Steven R. Binder Technology Development Clinical Diagnostic Group Bio-Rad Laboratories

Garret Hampton, Ph.D. Senior Director and Head of Oncology Biomarker, Development Research and Early Development (gRED) Group, Genentech

Chris Hempel’s six year old identical twin daughters, Addi and Cassi, are afflicted with an ultra rare a fatal cholesterol storage disorder called Niemann Pick Type C disease. Since receiving the NPC diagnosis on her twins in October 2007, Ms. Hempel has worked tirelessly with doctors and researchers around the world to search for a lifesaving treatment for her daughters. In May 2010, she worked with Children’s Hospital Oakland to receive one of the few orphan drug designations granted by the FDA for a non-toxic sugar compound called cyclodextrinPrior to becoming a full-time medical advocate for her children, Chris worked in corporate communications at the Internet company Netscape and also co-founded Sparkpr, one of the leading technology public relations companies in the country.

Dr. Schad has over 20 years experience in the areas of biotechnology including business development, genomics, as well as other “omics”, personalized medicine, translational medicine infectious disease, molecular biology, bioinformatics, medical informatics, electronic medical records, genetics, oncology, target validation, biomarker discovery, and in silico biology. Currently, Dr. Schad is the Director of Molecular Epidemiology, Genomics, Environment and Health, MEGEH at RTI providing business and scientific leadership to an interdisciplinary scientific group, as well as developing a “in silico” computational biology program to look at large desperate biological data sets utilizing non-statistical methods. Dr. Schad currently sits of several ad hoc NIH study sections for NCI, NIAID, NIRR, NIDCR and several Scientific Advisory Boards as well as elected to the Genetics and Environmental Mutagenesis Society Board of Directors

Dr. Shuster provides strategic intellectual property legal services to biotechnology and chemical/pharmaceutical companies. His practice includes patent prosecution, portfolio analysis, due diligence, litigation and opinion work. His clients include start-up and established biotechnology companies, venture capital firms and research universities and hospitals. Dr. Shuster’s career experience has included graduate research in the laboratory of Professor Eric Kandel at Columbia University as part of a team focused on discovery of mechanisms by which short-term memories are stored, research for which Professor Kandel was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Dr. Shuster then moved to the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, where he pursued his interests in ion channel biophysics and protein structure. Dr. Shuster received his B.A. from Brandeis University in 1981, magna cum laude and his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1986. He received his J.D. cum laude from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1997. In 2009, Dr. Shuster was listed as one of the Daily Journal's Top 25 Intellectual Property Portfolio Managers.

Dr. Cronin is an internationally recognized leader in high complexity molecular diagnostic assay technology research, development and validation. In her former role as Vice President of Translational Research at Genomic Health, Dr. Cronin headed the team that proved the clinical utility of performing RNA expression profiling from FFPE tumor specimens. She went on to lead development of the laboratory process and analytical assay validation of the Oncotype DX breast cancer test. Her expertise extends to identifying optimal laboratory processes and integrating them with automation systems, data management, bioinformatics and biostatistical analyses to produce fully optimized, high throughput, high-performance, innovative, first-in-class medical products performed in a regulated reference laboratory environment. Dr. Cronin brings over 20 years of R&D experience in biotechnology companies focused on applying cutting edge technology to clinical diagnostics including ACLARA BioSciences, Protogene Laboratories and, Affymetrix where she played a key role in developing DNA microarray(GeneChip®) technology. Dr. Cronin’s Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology is from the University of California, San Diego and her undergraduate education from the University of California, Davis.