Speakers
Rob Jepras
Radhika Patel
Jeanne Rivera
Attila Bebes
Sebastiano Montante
Workshop
Dr Rob Jepras has worked in and led several research teams in both industry and public health. He spent 30 years at GSK working in both Drug Development and Drug Discovery supporting both product development and drug research. More recent work has focused on using high content multi parametric microscopic technologies for phenotyic screening using human disease relevant systems, and the develpoment of microscale technologies (microfluidics/nanowells) to enhance drug discovery efforts. Rob is currently a Vice President at Curve Theraputics, working on novel drug modalities agaist cancer targets.
Rob is also an Honorary Fellow at the University of Liverpool and is an ELRIG conference Director.
Radhika Patel currently holds the position of Senior Scientist at the AstraZeneca Flow Cytometry Centre of Excellence in Cambridge. She heads the AstraZeneca Internal Global Flow Cytometry Training Program and led the transition to the new AstraZeneca Discovery Centre building. Radhika is interested in implementing and utilizing automated processes in the lab, and she provides support for multiple projects, including immunophenotyping for drug target identification and validation screens.
Prior to joining AstraZeneca, she managed the flow cytometry hub for the National Lung and Heart Institute which is part of Imperial College London. Additionally, during her tenure in London, she served as Treasurer for the London Cytometry Club.
Jeanne Rivera is the Science Lead for the Cell Metrology team of NML at LGC based in Nexus, Leeds. Jeanne joined NML at LGC in April 2022 where she oversaw the laboratory design and renovation of the cell biology lab and led the management and upkeep of ISO9001 lab certification. Her role involves people and project management, project delivery of core metrology and building collaborative relationships through partnerships. Jeanne is an active participant in international metrology committees including CCQM Cell Analysis Working Group, ISO TC 276 Biotechnology: Cell Characterisation and NIST Flow Cytometry Consortium. She has also led on various commercial projects including Innovate UK: Analysis for Innovators.
Jeanne pursued research through PhD from the University of Leeds where she investigated genetic mutations in the pathogenesis of myeloproliferative neoplasms in developing novel therapeutic strategies. She also gained academic experience as a postdoctoral researcher in Leeds Institute of Medical Research in St James’ Hospital identifying novel biomarkers in B cell lymphoma and at University of York testing novel therapeutics for treatment of myeloid malignancies representing the team in international conferences and workshops.
Prior to joining LGC, Jeanne was a Field Applications Scientist covering the North of UK and Northern Ireland for Thermo Fisher Scientific where she supported the flow cytometry and cell sorting portfolio by training, troubleshooting and performing customer demos. The combined experience of academia and industry allowed her to form strong relationships across the disciplines that is beneficial in driving innovative partnerships and supporting implementation of novel approaches for flow cytometry.
Dr. Sebastiano Montante joined the Exeter Centre for Cytomics (EXCC) in 2024 as a data scientist officer. His passion for Bioinformatics and machine learning started during the completion of his Master’s degree thesis at the University of Pavia in Italy in 2018, where he developed his first bioinformatic algorithm.
He completed his PhD in Bioinformatics at the University of British Columbia in Canada in early 2024, focusing his research on the development of machine learning algorithms for automating flow cytometry data analysis. During his academic studies, he also acquired experience in statistical analysis of large biomedical datasets and in interactive software development using R and Python programming languages. He analysed a diverse range of data, from newborns immunology to microbiology data, and he brings this expertise in data analysis to the EXCC facility.