A program
co-funded by:
Daniel Abler is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Computational Bioengineering at the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Research at the University of Bern. He received a Ph.D. in Particle & Accelerator Physics from the University of Oxford and a diploma in Physics from the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.
Daniel is interested in computational research that uses mathematical and physics-informed models to study disease and treatment. His Ph.D. research at the European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN was motivated by the need to strengthen the evidence base for charged particle therapy, a form of radiation therapy that uses particle radiation for cancer treatment. As a member of multidisciplinary research collaborations, Daniel has developed, calibrated, and interrogated image-based computational models of various medical conditions and for different body sites. His current research focuses on the effects of bio-mechanical forces on the formation and development of brain tumors and possible implications for treatment. Daniel was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship to investigate this question at the University of Bern (CH) and the City of Hope National Medical Center (CA, USA).
Beyond any specific disease domain, Daniel is passionate about methods and approaches for integrating different types of information into medical decision processes: for investigating research hypotheses as well as to help healthcare practitioners extract actionable information.
In Catalyst, he is excited to work with other fellows to identify healthcare needs and solutions that can enable transitions ‘From Data to Clinical Knowledge’.
Laura Bernáez Timón is a Ph.D. candidate in Systems Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research. In her doctoral project, she studies how the brain represents sensory information. Her motivation is to gain new insights into the neural transformations that take place in our brain, and that allows us to perceive the sensory stimuli that surround us. To that end, she develops mathematical models and neural network simulations.
Before starting her Ph.D., Laura studied biomedical engineering. During her undergrad, she worked at the Spanish National Center of Cardiovascular Research. She investigated the use of nanoparticles as contrast agents for medical imaging, and she later focused on the diagnosis of cardiovascular inflammatory processes using nanotechnology.
As a biomedical engineer and neuroscience researcher, her training is interdisciplinary. She believes that cooperation between professionals of different backgrounds is essential for innovation. As a Catalyst fellow, she is looking forward to channeling her interdisciplinary knowledge towards the identification and solution of unmet medical needs.
Balázs Kunkli is a PhD student in Molecular Cell and Immune Biology at the University of Debrecen, Faculty of Medicine, in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He is currently participating in research projects of the Department’s Retroviral Biochemistry Lab, and Proteomics Core Facility. In part of his work he is developing function annotation algorithms to aid the study of changes in host cell proteome, and protein-protein interactions following viral infections. He has also created a compound annotator pipeline that gathers data from multiple resources on biological activity of secondary plant metabolites detected in mass spectrometry measurements.
Balázs holds a Master of Science in Molecular Biology from the University of Debrecen, and a bachelor’s degree in Biochemical Engineering from Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He is passionate about applying Data Science in Health and Life Sciences. As a Fellow in the Catalyst Europe program he looks forward to contributing to impactful innovations in healthcare.
Malte is a PhD Candidate at Prof. Bjoern Eskofier’s MaD Lab. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Technische Hochschule Lübeck in 2014, and his Master of Science in Medical Engineering with focus on image and data processing from FAU in 2016. In the following research stay at the Softwarelab of Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos, Brazil), Malte contributed to a project related to Healthcare Workflow Monitoring in cooperation with Siemens Healthineers.
His current research focuses on applications of IMU-based gait analysis in geriatric wards to bridge the gap between research and clinical practice and thus drive innovation in medicine. As this is not only necessary for gait analysis, he would like to broaden his experience of translational research in the Catalyst program. From his previous research projects Malte knows how crucial exchange of knowledge and opinions between different domains are and therefore is looking forward to being a part of the multi-stakeholder community.
David Pastor-Escuredo is a Ph.D. from Technical University Madrid. He is an expert in biomedical technologies having worked with the University of California San Diego, the Centre National Recherche Scientifique, the CBM – IS Carlos III and the Cardiovascular National Research Institute. He was a Ph.D. researcher at BIT-UPM. He has been associated researcher of the University California San Diego and senior associate of the CNRS BioEmergences lab. He is currently associated with the University of Washington Seattle. He integrates computational models, Machine Learning and physics to understand dynamics processes in biomedical science with applications to embryogenesis and augmented diagnosis. Now, he has joined the Catalyst Europe program of EIT Health and MIT LinQ at the Hub Madrid.
He is also an expert on Data, AI and Blockchain for Development and Humanitarian Action. He leads the digital projects at itdUPM and works for UNICEF. He is a long term collaborator of UN Global Pulse and has worked with UN agencies to develop data innovation solutions. He has been Data Science Advisor of Pulse Lab Jakarta and Lead Data Scientist for UNHCR, establishing methods leveraging data for disasters management and to support refugees and displaced population. He was part of the D4D-Orange Senegal initiative. He collaborates with the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence and the MIT Medialab city science group.
Patricia Saez Carlin is a General and Gastrointestinal Surgeon working in Madrid’s Healthcare System. She completed her residence at Hospital Clínico San Carlos, one of the main university hospitals in Madrid.
Dr. Saez Carlin has also developed a special interest in research during her training, as she believes both research and clinical practice must go together in order to provide the best care for her patients. In this sense, she completed her PhD program at Universidad Complutense by studying the relationship between image analysis and liver function in oncological patients. She has also conducted innovative clinical research by using stem cells in metastatic colorectal patients and is currently working on how microbiota can influence cancer.
She is also commited to international cooperation, having participated in several medical camps in subsaharian Africa and southeast Asia since she was a medical student. Her concern for the creation of a fair and equitable world is one of the main reasons she decided to become a doctor.
In recent campaigns she has been involved in telemedicine projects as a way to solve the lack of resources and improve education in these countries.
Patricia is interested in how recent advances in data analysis and artificial intelligence could be used for personalized medicine and improve clinical decision making; how it can also be applied to surgical education and robotic surgery. She enjoys working in multidisciplinary teams which is why she is very excited to join Catalyst 2020, keen to develop innovative and practical solutions for real medical needs and consequently generate impact.
Medical Doctor from Barcelona with a Master in General Management and an advanced Master in European Human Resources Management. Entrepreneur mindset with experience as a Co-Founder and CEO of a MedTech and Social startup, implementing lean thinking, fast validation tracks, MVPs and business iterations. Corporate experience as Market Access and Health Economics Manager EMEA & LATAM for a global MedTech company, leader in blood management, therapeutic apheresis and cell therapy. Facilitator and team builder, using formal and non-formal education methods and emotional management to support and empower groups for an optimal performance. Public speaker, trainer and mentor in startup programs and events.
Arpad received his MD/PhD degree from University of Debrecen, Medical and Health Science Center in 2008, Debrecen, Hungary. Arpad graduated summa cum laude com honoritate (MD). He was an exceptional student, receiving several prestigious awards including the “Excellence in Society Award” from the Rector and „Weszprémi Award for outstanding research activity”. Then, he joined Prof. Gyorgy Vereb’s group as a PhD student. His project was focused on cell confluence induced switching from proliferation to migratory signaling by site-selective phosphorylation of PDGF receptors. In 2015 he defended his PhD thesis („promotio sub auspiciis praesidentis rei publicae”) and joined the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy (Baylor College of Medicine / Texas Children’s Hospital; Houston; TX) as a post-doctoral fellow. In Houston, Arpad worked under the mentorship of Prof. Stephen Gottschalk. He has shown that T cells can be genetically modified to secrete T cell engagers and these T cells can redirect tumor infiltrating lymphocytes to tumor cells. Furthermore, he devised a novel strategy and engineered mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to secrete bispecific T-cell engager molecules recognizing the GPC3 hepatocellular carcinoma tumor antigen. In addition, he has generated NK cells that kill B cell malignancies through a CAR (anti-CD22) and simultaneously redirect tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) to a 2nd B-cell antigen (CD19) to enhance antitumor effects and prevent immune escape. In 2017 Arpad was awarded The Joint ISCT-EBMT Award for the best project in cellular therapy for the: “Two-pronged Cell Therapy concept”. He believes that the possibility to grow and develop together with the community of Catalyst Program, in continuous and enhanced personal interactions will enable him to not only do top quality research, but also to spread the knowledge and ideas among colleagues as well. He expects to contribute his experience and knowledge to the Program, both at the international and the regional/national level.
Adrián Valls is a neurologist who currently works at Hospital Clínico San Carlos in Madrid. He is also attending to a university master in bioinformatics and neuroimmunology. He studied medicine in the Universidad de Murcia, completed his residence in neurology at Hospital Clínico San Carlos and participated in an external rotation in the Mayo Clinic (Rochester) where he worked in a tractography project.
At the present he is working as a researcher, data manager and analyst in Hospital Clínico San Carlos in a project about COVID-19 risk factors in the emergency department. He is interested in how the impact of informatics can change the current view of medicine and how it can improve the access to healthcare system by all the society.
Botond Vitézy is a medical doctor and research assistant at the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy at the University of Debrecen.
Involvement in scientific research has been one of his priorities throughout his medical education. This research has ranged from observations in gastroenterological pharmacotherapy involving the sphincter of Oddi and the gall bladder to studying d-amino acid oxidase inhibition on short-term memory in the field of neuroscience. In the university based vertical integrated medical start-up ecosystem, he conducted R&D activity and got involved in projects developing medical devices. During his training, Botond completed multiple clinical and research placements in the UK, Germany and Hungary, which gave him valuable insight into various regional healthcare systems both clinically and in terms of functionality.
His clinical rotations at the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London, the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, and IoPPN of King’s College London further developed his interest in both surgery and the neurosciences, in particular neurosurgery. As a Catalyst fellow, Botond is looking forward to working with a versatile team of individuals across multiple specialties for finding an impactful and marketable solution in healthcare innovation.
Helena Xicoy finished her four-year Bachelor’s program in Human Biology at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain) in 2013. Next, she moved to the Netherlands and joined the “Molecular Mechanisms of Disease” research Master at Radboud University Nijmegen, supported by a Radboudumc scholarship. During this Master’s program she did two internships, which formed a basis for the topic of her PhD thesis. The first internship was performed at the Department of Molecular Animal Physiology, Radboud University, Nijmegen, working on the pathways underlying sporadic Parkinson’s disease and the effect of exercise on a Parkinson disease mouse model. The second internship was done at the Center for Neurodegeneration Research, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, working on a high-throughput screening for the identification of therapeutic agents that rescue human LRRK2 mutant neural cell phenotypes. After graduating cum laude in 2015, she wrote a PhD proposal for an open Radboudumc competition and was awarded with an internal stipend for a 4-year’s PhD trajectory. Supported by this funding she started her studies for her thesis in a joint project embedded in the departments of Cell Biology (Radboudumc, Nijmegen) and Molecular Animal Physiology (Radboud University, Nijmegen). The last year of the PhD program was spent at the Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain. During her PhD program, she participated in the organization of the 1st European PhD and Postdoc symposium “Breaking Down Complexity: Innovative Models and Techniques in Biomedicine”, within the ENABLE initiative (https://enablenetwork.eu/). Although Helena finished her PhD trajectory based on the study of the role of lipids in Parkinson’s disease, the current situation has not allowed her to do the public defense of her thesis yet. Hence, she is presently working as a research assistant in the Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute, performing bioinformatic analyses on -omics data related to Parkinson’s disease.
Martha Gray, PhD, has a multifaceted career in which she has built programs to drive biomedical technology innovation, conducted research to better understand and prevent osteoarthritis, led a preeminent academic unit, and served the profession through work with organizations and institutions. Trained in computer science and electrical and biomedical engineering, and serving as an MIT faculty for nearly three decades, she has held numerous leadership positions. For 13+ years, she directed the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST), an academic unit with multiple research and training programs for careers in medicine, business, and research. Dr. Gray currently directs MIT linQ which operates several multi-institutional ventures focus on accelerating and deepening early-career researchers’ potential for impact. Over the course of these efforts, she and her team developed a principled methodology for needs identification and opportunity development.
Bjoern M. Eskofier is German Research Foundation (DFG) funded Heisenberg-Professor for “Digital Support Systems in Sports and Medical Engineering” and endowed professor of the Adidas AG. He heads the Machine Learning and Data Analytics (MaD) Lab and the Central Institute for Medical Engineering at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuernberg (FAU). Currently, his lab has 30 co-workers, who research in the fields of machine learning and signal analysis for wearable computing systems in sports and health care. The motivation of the lab’s researchers is to increase human wellbeing.
Dr. Eskofier studied Electrical Engineering at the FAU and graduated in 2006. He then studied under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Benno Nigg at the University of Calgary (Canada). There, he received his PhD degree in Biomechanics in 2010 for his research on “Application of Pattern Recognition Methods in Biomechanics”. He authored more than 160 peer reviewed articles, submitted 5 patent applications, and started three spinoff startup companies. He won several medical-technical research awards. In 2016, he was a visiting professor in Dr. Paolo Bonato’s Motion Analysis Lab at Harvard Medical School (February-March), and in 2018, he was a visiting professor in Dr. Alex “Sandy” Pentland’s Human Dynamics group at MIT Media Lab (March-August). He is also a delegate of the FAU to the Medical Valley (80 Mio Euro German Ministry of Education funded cluster) and to the European Institute of Innovation & Technology for Health (EIT Health, 500 Mio Euro EU consortium, 2015-2021).
Bjoern Eskofier has defined his research and entrepreneurial agenda to revolve around contributions to a “Digital Health Ecosystem”, where patients are connected to other stakeholders within the Healthcare system using digital support tools. His digital health research philosophy is that only multidisciplinary teams of engineers, medical experts, industry representatives and entrepreneurs will have the tools to actually implement changes in Healthcare.
Petra Krauledat received her degrees in Germany at the Ruhr-University-Bochum and holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Medical Microbiology. She is a 2006 Tech Awards Laureate for Technology Benefiting Humanity. She has pursued a 39-year career in the commercial life sciences with Behringwerke, AG, in Germany and Ortho Diagnostics Systems, a Johnson and Johnson company, in the Unites States, and four successful companies for which she was technical co-founder and CEO. Two of these companies were based on plasmonic nanoparticle technology. At Behringwerke she directed the R&D program that resulted in the first HIV test approved in Europe. At Ortho Diagnostics she headed a 3-way R&D collaboration consisting of Ortho Diagnostics Systems, Chiron, and Abbott Laboratories to develop and launch the first FDA approved Hepatitis C test. At Sienna Biotech, the first company she cofounded, she invented and led the development of a system for multiple simultaneous immunoassays based on gold nanoparticle technology. The resulting product was marketed by DiaSorin for more than 15 years. At Union Biometrica she led the development of the first flow cytometer for the analysis and live sorting of multicellular organisms. The COPAS product line is successfully sold today. At PointCare Technologies she invented and led the development of the first assay for CD4 positive lymphocytes that can be used at the point of care in resource poor environments, another technology using plasmonic nanoparticles. The product was sold for more than 15 years until it became obsolete due to better treatment option for people living with HIV. She is currently a principal in PNPResearch Corporation, a company working on new methods for earlier diagnosis of certain cancers, and a faculty member of the MIT LinQ program where she teaches entrepreneurship with an emphasis on translating highly complex biomedical technology into commercial products.
María J. Ledesma Carbayo is Associate Professor in the Electronic
Engineering Dept at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and scientist in
the Biomedical Research Networking Center in Bioengineering,
Biomaterials and Nanomedicine where she leads several research lines in
the Biomedical Imaging Technologies group. She graduated in
telecommunication engineering and completed two different Master
programs on Biomedical Engineering (Patras University and UNED (Spain)).
She obtained her First Class Honours PhD degree from Universidad
Politécnica de Madrid in 2003 for her contributions to spatio-temporal
methods for myocardial motion estimation. Her main research motivation
relates to improving health care delivery through advances in biomedical
imaging technologies. She has also an important international network of
collaborators obtained through her visiting experiences at Oxford Univ.
(1999), École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne (2000, 2001), National
Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MA, USA, 2006), Johns Hopkins Univ.
(2014, 2015), Univ California San Diego (2017) including Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and Brigham Women’s Hospital (2018, 2019)
through her involvement as faculty in the M+Vision program and MIT LinQ.
She is currently leading the Madrid Hub of Catalyst Europe program. Her
research in biomedical imaging processing has been published in journals
and conferences (more than 150) and resulted in several patents and
licences under explotation. She has a lot of experience participating
and leading national and international research projects, from the
Spanish Financial Offices, European and other International Agencies as
well as International Companies. She is member of the Spanish Society of
Biomedical Engineering and IEEE and she collaborates with different
foundations and NGOs promoting biomedical technology innovation to
approache global health challenges.
Goggle Scholar: https://scholar.google.es/cita
Group Website: http://www2.die.upm.es/im/
Norberto Malpica is an associate professor at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) in Madrid and the Director of the Medical Image and Biometry Lab of Madri+d. The lab provides image quantification services for clinical and research studies and performs research on new techniques to obtain precise biomarkers from multimodal image data. Norberto is also the cofounder of Medimsight, a cloud platform for medical image quantification.
Francisca has a degree in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Alicante (1986–1992) and did her medical internship residency at Hospital Virgen de la Arrixaca in Murcia specializing in Nuclear Medicine (1993–1997). She obtained her PhD at University of Murcia (1998) with the Doctoral Thesis: “MIBI-Tc-99m in the differential diagnosis of breast injuries”.
She worked as a nuclear medicine specialist at Hospital Virgen de la Arrixaca in Murcia from 1999 to 2007. In 2007 she moved to the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) to lead the Molecular Imaging Unit, where she has continue developing her career in the field.
She has broad expertise in molecular imaging techniques both preclinical and clinical, and lately her research is devoted to the use of imaging techniques applied to oncologic diseases.
Francisca has published a significant number of papers in top peer-review journals, and she participates in several courses and conferences as an expert speaker in the molecular imaging field. Francisca is nationally and internationally recognized, she has been member of the international consortia (M+Vision) between the Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT) and the Comunidad de Madrid since the inception of this program.
Francisca participates as category chair of oncology in the European Molecular Imaging Congress and was part of the organizing committee of the 2018 ESMI meeting and is member of the Spanish PET imaging group.
She is a member of the CNIO WISE (Women in Science Office) since the beginning of the office (October 2012), and was its events and seminar coordinator.
Nancy is remodeling years of business experience to support healthcare improvement ventures and economic development projects. Her background includes 31 years at Pfizer, leading teams in global strategy and business development and forging relationships with start-ups. While at Pfizer, Nancy also established and led a “company within a company”, Pfizer Health Solutions (PHS), a subsidiary delivering chronic disease management and clinical decision support to payers and providers.
Prior to Pfizer, Nancy’s experience includes clinical research in a psychiatric hospital, marketing of biomedical devices, leadership development at IBM, and behavioral psychology in a state mental health facility.
Leveraging her skills in corporate strategy, organization development and health outcomes, Nancy serves as an advisor in the MIT Catalyst program and previously supported the MIT Impact program. Nancy also works with start-ups at Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll), an inclusive accelerator focused on economic development in underserved communities.
Dr. Iván Uray is a research associate professor with the Department of Oncology. He leads the Oncology Translational Research Laboratory established in 2016 and is now instrumental in setting up a new open source translational research lab for clinical faculty at UD. He is also chief curator of the Foundation for the Oncology Patients of Debrecen.
Dr. Uray received medical training at the University of Debrecen and subsequently earned his PhD with Prof. László Fésüs’s research group at the Department of Biochemistry in Molecular and Cell Biology. He spent his post-doctoral years under the mentorship of Prof. Peter Davies at the University of Texas Houston Medical School, studying the molecular events defining the recovery of cardiac muscle under mechanical unloading of the heart. Iván continued his work in the field of breast cancer prevention with the research group of Dr. Powel Brown in 2004 at the Baylor College of Medicine, and later managed the Integrated Microscopy Core lab as instructor at the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department. Joining the faculty of the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston in 2009, Dr. Uray helped establish and lead the High Throughput Screening Resource at the Department of Clinical Cancer Prevention, while conducting NIH-funded research into novel targets and low-dose drug combinations for breast chemoprevention.
Dr. Uray recently moved his lab to Hungary and joined the faculty of Catalyst Europe in 2020 to expand the scope of cross-disciplinary education in the service of medicine, with the goal of increasing the efficiency of biomedical research by focusing on real-life unmet needs and the impact of discoveries.
Joerg Bauer is the owner, President & CEO of TUNGSRAM GROUP, a company resulting from the purchase of the GE Lighting business in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, RCIS and Turkey, as well as GE Lighting’s Global Automotive business. Tungsram Group is a multinational company with as 123 years heritage of innovation, headquartered in Hungary, where also its five factories, its innovation center and central functions are located.
Joerg recently has won the Blue Innovation Special Award by the National Alliance of Managers in Hungary in 2019 for the innovative efforts of Tungsram in the fields of smart city concepts and indoor farming.
According to his concept Tungsram Group, a reinvented legacy company, invests into its Lighting core and in addition into future-safe technologies and dynamically growing global markets leveraging its deep knowledge on supply chain, materials, solutions, processes exceeding the high quality requirements of the automotive and lighting industry. One of Tungsram’s key focus areas is smart applications, where outdoor lighting could serve as the platform for data-driven smart solutions for a citizen-centric, more liveable city. Tungsram Agritech is another rising, innovative business for the company offering complex lighting and digital solutions for greenhouses and vertical farms addressing the challenges of urbanization and population growth.
Previously Joerg had been President of GE Hungary, representing GE in Hungary with more than 10,000 employees in 12 plants, 4 R&D and engineering centers and one of GE’s five Global Operations Centers.
Prior to this role Joerg was the CFO for GE Healthcare in CEE. Earlier experience includes international Finance and Management assignments with Audi and Mettler-Toledo, partly also based in Hungary.
Born and raised in Germany, Joerg started off as an apprentice banker with a local branch of Deutsche Bundesbank and holds a double master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Cologne and in International Management (CEMS MiM) from Cologne and Corvinus, Budapest; earlier he had been a one-year visiting student at Oxford University. He started his career as a member of GE Capital’s Financial Management Program in London.
Joerg has been named Hungary’s “Person of the Year 2019” by the business magazine Figyelö. Recently he has been given the Blue Innovation Special Award at the Manager of the Year Gala by Menedzserszövetség (Hungarian Alliance of Managers). 2017 Joerg was named Expat CEO Hungary of the year, has received the Dr. Iván Völgyes Award presented by the American Chamber of Commerce and the Knight of Cross from the Order of Merit of Hungary.
Next to his work-related responsibilities, Joerg is actively contributing to societal causes around education, sports, pro bono volunteering and competitiveness in various roles
Patricia Becsky-Nagy received a PhD in finance at the University of Debrecen, Doctoral School of Economics in 2008. Her research topic was the added value of venture capitalists to their investments. Since 2001 she is a lecturer in the field of finance and accounting at the University of Debrecen. As the head of Fintelligence Lab she is responsible for the cooperation with commercial banks, Ministry of Finance, and electronic payment service providers. Venture capital and private equity financing is in the focus of her research, including spin-offs, entrepreneurial ecosystem of young and innovative firms, government backed venture capital, hybrid venture capital and the role of the investor in the success of the innovative start-ups. Her range of interest is bridging the financial gap of small innovative firms with high growth potential. In the recent years she started examining the effects of digitization on the development of financial technology and the success factors of fintech companies.
Dr. Alberto Cecconi is Cardiologist and Research Coordinator at the Cardiac Imaging Unit in the University Hospital of La Princesa, Madrid. He completed the PhD degree at the Spanish National Cardiovascular Research Centre and he is currently directing several PhD projects at the Autonomous University of Madrid. His research mainly focuses on inflammation and atherosclerosis, improvement of diagnosis and outcome predictors in cardiomyopathies, air pollution and ischaemic heart disease, and detection of atrial fibrillation in cryptogenic stroke.
Attila Ferik is the MD of GE Healthcare’s Hungarian legal entity and Senior Director of Software Engineering for GE Healthcare in Hungary, Budapest. In this position he leads engineering and data science activities that delivers Healthcare solutions which allow GE Healthcare to deliver Cloud based and on-premise solutions, services and products, covering from data and image analytics, medical workflow management and pharmaceutical solutions.
In addition, Attila provides an architectural linkage between GE businesses, software solutions and platforms. Attila works across all the software teams having footprint in Hungary as well as other GE businesses to help shape and define the strategy and mission of all product areas. Overall, Attila holds accounts in driving quality, continuous improvement and global alignment in all software product GE Healthcare develops in Hungary.
Prior his current assignment in GE Healthcare, Attila worked in various software development positions from Software Engineering through System Design to Engineering Management. Prior GE Attila worked as software developer for airline, e-business and media broadcasting industry.
Juan José Gómez Valverde is an Assistant Professor in the Electronic
Engineering Department at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and a
researcher in the Biomedical Research Networking Center in
Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine. He graduated in
Telecomunicación Engineering and completed a Master program on
Biomedical Engineering at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM).
He obtained his PhD degree with international mention from UPM for his
contribution with new image processing methods for computer-aided
screening. His main researcher interests are related with screening for
diseases, biomedical image processing, artificial intelligence, optical
image analysis and telemedicine.
Dr. Hansen’s scientific career has been centered on using mathematical physics within complex biological problems to produce practical results. Fifty years ago, his Harvard undergraduate advisor and later Nobel Laureate in physics, Roy Glauber, suggested that his interdisciplinary interests might be best applied to solving problems in the life sciences. He took that advice and found a fledgling program at Northeastern University in Boston where he could take graduate degrees in Electrical Engineering while solving life science problems. For his Masters Degree in the mid-1960’s Peter developed experimental animal models and mathematical models for laser retinal surgery that combined comparative anatomy, engineering heat transfer and protein denaturation kinetics. His Doctoral dissertation in the late 1960’s introduced him to a lifelong respect for the art of collaboration. For that work he showed experimentally that connective tissue could generate coherent optical second harmonic generation (coherent two-photon) and constructed a mathematical model for the process. Without collaborations with George Benedek at MIT Materials Science, Samuel Fine at MGH Dermatology, and Theodore Maiman, at Korad Corporation the inventor of the laser who built a custom system for Peter’s work, none of this would have been possible.
Dr. Hansen’s career has been almost exclusively in forming businesses and personally conducting commercial science. He is mindful of having been mentored in the 1970s by Louis Kamentsky, who worked in a commercial environment at IBM and is recognized as having created the idea of multi-parameter flow cytometry. Since meeting Lou, Peter has worked to develop multi-parameter flow cytometry, from single cells to multicellular organisms such as c elegans. This commercial life has exposed him to a wonderful variety of experiences. He participated in the first use of antibody therapy in the late 1970’s at MGH by constructing a cellular analysis device that could monitor immunosuppression in transplant patients. Devices like this now count CD4 cells in HIV patients. He began working with plasmonic nanoparticles in the 1980’s and developed commercial products ranging from solution-phase immunoassays to a point-of–care application whereby HIV therapy could be monitored in resource challenged regions. He currently works on extending this technology to understanding the immune response to ovarian cancer. He is guided by defining un-met needs, forming a collaborative, cross-disciplinary, team for solutions and seeking commercial ways to bring the solution to the public, both in the industrialized and developing worlds.
Dr. L. Jesús Jiménez Borreguero, MD, is a cardiologist, with a focus on cardiovascular diagnostic sciences applied to research and clinical practice. He was a pioneer in introducing cardiac magnetic resonance and cardiac computed tomography in Spain. Being a leader of opinion, he is currently the elected president of the Cardiac Imaging Association of the Spanish Society of Cardiology. He has worked for 11 years at the National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) in Madrid in close collaboration with Prof. Valentín Fuster. His authorship in more than 80 scientific publications reflects his vision in the innovative application of cardiovascular diagnostic techniques. His scientific production has always been multidisciplinary and covers different scenarios, both population-based, clinical, basic and translational research. He is currently Head of the Cardiovascular Imaging Department at the University Hospital de La Princesa, Madrid, where, in addition to his clinical activity, he leads research and innovation in cardiovascular diagnostic techniques. He is currently leading a research project already completed and with original results, having used big data and artificial intelligence methods on the basis of hundreds of thousands of electrocardiograms.
Felix Kluge is the leader of the junior research group “Digital Health – Gait Analytics” at the FAU, after having devoted his dissertation to mobile movement assessment using wearable sensors in various clinical diseases. He currently leads the contribution of the FAU to the Horizon 2020 project Mobilise-D, which aims to develop gait specific digital mobility outcomes for the assessment of movement disorders in several diseases. Main contributions are the development and technical validation of algorithms for movement analysis as well as application of machine learning for outcome assessment. His research motivation is the improvement of patients’ quality of life by using new digital technologies to early diagnose diseases, predict interventional outcomes and model disease progression, especially by developing wearable solutions to assess health using home monitoring systems in the real world environment.
Maria Papp is the consultant gastroenterologist and hepatologist of Institute of Medicine at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. As an internist, gastroenterologist/ hepatologist she has been working in the healthcare system for 20 years now. She has a special interest in the diagnosis and management of chronic liver failure. Her PhD thesis was completed in 2008 on the possible pathogenetic role of vascular, immunological and genetic factors in gastroenterological disorders associated with chronic intestinal inflammation. Her DSc thesis was completed in 2020 on the pathogenesis and the predictive model of cirrhosis associated immune dysfunction syndrome. She established an own research group in this field and built an extensive scientific cooperation with various research centers all over the Europe and US. She has been a scientific leader of several national and international research projects. She is the steering committee member of the EF-CLIF consortium of EASL. She was responsible for the PhD work of three fellow in gastroenterology. As an editorial member she takes part in the educational and research activity of three international journals.
Matthias Rass has a background in information systems, strategic management, and health care management and is particularly interested in the intersection of these areas. He is responsible for the innovation and business acceleration activities of the Medical Valley Digital Health Application Center. The Medical Valley Digital Health Application Center collaborates with corporations, SMEs, startups, and researchers to shape the future of digital healthcare and is an essential part of the Medical Valley European Metropolitan Region Nuremberg, the leading medical technology cluster in Germany that was also appointed by the federal government as Germany’s Digital Health Hub.
Matthias is also a research associate at the Institute for Information Systems at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, where he was responsible for numerous national and multinational research and development projects and was teaching bachelor’s and master’s level courses in strategic management and innovation management prior to joining the Medical Valley Digital Health Application Center. His research focuses on digital innovation, open innovation, innovation networks, and the role of social aspects.
Zoltán Szabó is the Director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Debrecen, Hungary.
As an internist, cardiologist and emergency physician he has been working in the healthcare system for 25 years now. Dr. Szabó has special interest in the diagnosis and management of cardiac arrhythmias and echocardiography. He has published numerous papers in international journals especially on the prevention and emergency management of sudden cardiac death. In 2005, his PhD research was completed on the electrocardiographic prediction of atrial and ventricular cardiac rhythm disturbances. Dr. Szabó has built scientific cooperation with various research centers in Europe and overseas. He is member of the European Society of Cardiology and the European Society for Emergency Medicine. As an editorial member he takes part in the educational and research activity of three international journals.
Daniel Szemerey co-founded and spearheads the growth of Health Venture Lab, a pan-European Healthtech accelerator. Since the organisation’s inception in 2018, he’s worked to build and leverage a growing network of academic and industry partners with an aim to put European Technology Transfer at the forefront of global innovation, and expand the borders of health innovation to include strong pillars in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe.
Inspired by his own experience building a startup, Daniel mines relevant expertise from the Entrepreneurship and Healthcare community to support growing companies with industry and business expertise. HVL covers the full pipeline, from need-based research, through early-stage product-market fit iteration, to growth stage companies.
In addition to his role in the innovation community, he is trained in Adaptive Architecture and Computation, with a deep interest in Computational and Generative Design. He is also interested in the impact of Evolutionary Algorithms on Engineering and Design.
Jörg Trinkwalter is Member of the Executive Board of the cluster management organization Medical Valley Europäische Metropolregion Nürnberg (EMN) e.V. Medical Valley EMN is considered as one of the most dynamic medical technology regions worldwide and was awarded national cluster of excellence by the German Ministry of Education and Research in 2010 and national Digital Health Hub by the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in 2017. In 2015 Jörg Trinkwalter co-founded the two medical technology startup companies nice!innovations GmbH and TBrace GmbH in the orthopedic area and acts as CEO of these companies. Currently Jörg Trinkwalter is also Chairman of the supervisory board of Medandu AG, a digital health startup based in Medical Valley region.
Dr María Luaces, MD, PhD is an Attending Cardiologist at the Cardiovascular Imaging Section of the Cardiovascular Institute Hospital Clínico San Carlos, and a Professor at the School of Medicine, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She completed her Residency in Cardiology at Hospital Clínico San Carlos and received her PhD from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She trained in Cardiac MRI and Cardiac CT at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She also serves at CEO at the Innovation Unit of the Hospital Clínico San Carlos.
Victoria Goldberg is a Research Assistant at the Central Institute of Medical Engineering at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. Next to her position as the Erlangen Hub Coordinator for Catalyst Europe, she also oversees the EIT Health reporting for the MedTech Entrepreneurship Lab (a prototype building course) and is involved in the FAU Sandbox team (www.sandbox.fau.de), a program to support and fund 10 local University start-ups over the summer months. She has experience in marketing communication especially in strategic planning, branding and market research (automotive). Having studied a couple of semesters of medicine she also has a keen interest in medical innovations. Victoria hold a Master’s degree in Marketing Communication from the University of Westminster and a Bachelor’s Degree in Image and Communication studies from the University of Kent.
Merce is Operations Manager at Catalyst Europe, a network of universities, hospitals and companies that join forces to deploy the Catalyst methodology in Europe. Catalyst is a principled methodology developed by MIT for needs identification and opportunity development, and an organizational model that fosters a vibrant multi-stakeholder community. The Catalyst mission is to increase the potential impact of biomedical research and improve the likelihood that newly developed solutions will address unmet health care needs, while building innovation capacity in the regions involved (Catalyst Hubs).
Previously, Mercè was Operations Director in the innovation unit at Richi Foundation, where she managed an international innovation program that scouts and selects startups from all over the world and accelerates them by connecting them with the Boston’s innovation ecosystem.
Mercè has been a member of founding teams in 3 different tech-based startups, one of them successfully acquired by a London Stock Exchange AIM listed company. She has participated as a mentor at MIT IDEA2 innovation program.
Merce holds a Master’s degree in IT Management and a Bachelor’s of Science in Telecommunications Engineering, both from La Salle – Universitat Ramón Llull.
Ernest is the Manager of Catalyst Europe, a network of universities, hospitals and companies that together deploy the Catalyst methodology in Europe. Catalyst is a principled methodology developed by MIT for needs identification and opportunity development, and an organizational model that fosters a vibrant multi-stakeholder community. The Catalyst mission is to increase the potential impact of biomedical research and improve the likelihood that newly developed solutions will address unmet health care needs, while building innovation capacity in the regions involved (aka, Catalyst Hubs).
Prior to MIT, Ernest was Executive Director in the innovation unit at Richi Foundation, where he managed an international innovation program that scouts and selects startups from all over the world and accelerates them by connecting them with the Boston’s innovation ecosystem. Ernest also worked for technological startups and was project manager for Telefonica and Orange.
Ernest earned a Master in Business Administration (Esade Business School), Master in Project Management (La Salle) and Telecommunication Engineering Degree (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya).
