Dr. Vladimír Beneš is Head of GeneCore facility at the prestigious institute European Molecular Biology Laboratorium (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany.

He has been at EMBL since 1994 when he came as postdoc to Ansorge group in the Biochemical Instrumentation Unit.

In 2001 he was appointed to build EMBL Genomics Core Facility, a technology orientated service laboratory founded to assist researchers with functional genomics projects. This facility is currently utilizing mainly massively parallel sequencing & microarray technologies as well as qPCR. Among Vladimir’s tasks belong also assessment of new technologies and functional genomics applications, in particular their suitability for implementation in the environment of core facilities. He is also strongly involved in teaching of methods applied in this field.

Dr. Beneitez is specialist in hematology and responsible for the Red Series Congenital Erythrology and Pathology Unit at the Vall de Hebrón University Hospital in Barcelona. Together with Dr. Albert Altés, he yearly organizes the eritropathology course of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Catalonia.

He is member of the HUVH Minority Diseases Commission, collaborates with the ORPHANET, ENERCA and CATGLOBIN networks as well as with ALHETA and TIF (hemoglobinopathies) patient associations.

He is also member of the National Group of Eritropathology, the Iberian Group of Ferropatology, the Spanish Society Hematology and Hemotherapy, as well as member of the Societat Catalana d’Hematologia i Hemoterapia.

Prof. Dr. Nathan Subramaniam is Honorary Professor and Professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Biochemical Sciences at the University of Queensland and head of the Research Group on Liver Diseases and Iron Disorders at the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI) since August 2016. PhD from Purdue University, W. Lafayette, Indiana, USA, 1990. Performed postdoctoral research stays at the University of California at Davis, USA and in Singapore. In 1999 he set up his own research group, the Membrane Transport Laboratory at the Queensland Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia. His group is expert in hereditary hemochromatosis and in studies of liver injury and hepatic regulation of iron homeostasis. He has also developed new mass sequencing tools to examine the molecular basis of iron metabolism disorders, as well as, new in vitro and in vivo models to investigate hepatic damage and iron metabolism.

Dr. Hernández has a doctoral degree in medicine. She is medical doctor specialized in Haematology working at the University Hospital Germans Trias I Pujol (HGTiP) as part of the Catalan Oncology Institute (ICO). She has more than 10 years of experience in diagnosis and clinical Haematology. She is responsible for the area of Erythropathology at the Haematology Service of the HGTIP and ICO.

Prof. Dr. Domenico Girelli is an MD internist with a doctorate in experimental haematology and Professor of Internal Medicine at the Department of Medicine, University of Verona, Italy. His field of research focuses on Cardiovascular Genomics and Iron Metabolism. Since 2015 he has been in charge of the Reference Center for the Diagnosis and Therapy of Iron Metabolism Disorders at the Policlinico Hospital G.B. Rossi, Verona.

Dr. Altés is haematologist, head of the Haematology Service at Althaia Foundation and professor of haematology at the International University of Catalonia.

He received his doctorate in medicine in the study of iron overload in hematopoietic transplantation. He is founder and president of the Spanish Association of Hemochromatosis. He has published over 100 international articles on haematology, especially on pharmacogenetics, iron overload and hemochromatosis. He yearly organizes the erythropathology course of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Catalonia.