Digital Pathology & AI Congress: USA

Ulysses G. J. Balis

Associate Chief Medical Information Officer, A. James French Professor of Pathology Informatics, University of Michigan

Ulysses G.J. Balis, MD, Fellow AIMBE is the A. James French Professor of Pathology Informatics at the University of Michigan, with additional roles as Associate Chief Medical Information Officer and Informatics Fellowship Program Director. He also serves as the conference organizer for the annual Pathology Informatics Summit meeting series, as hosted by the Association for Pathology Informatics. Dr. Balis has longstanding interests in digital image analysis, computational pathology, AI-driven workflow, and clinical deployment of digital pathology.

Suzanne M Dintzis

Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Washington School of Medicine

Suzanne M. Dintzis, MD, PhD, FCAP, is a Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. Dr. Dintzis’ clinical areas of focus include breast and gynecologic pathology. She is currently engaged in breast cancer research, improvements in digital microscopy, and exploring the interfaces between quality of care and communication. Dr. Dintzis is the immediate past President of the Washington State Society of Pathologists, Chair of the Washington State delegation to the College of American Pathologists House of Delegates, and a Board member of the Digital Pathology Association.

Savitri Krishnamurthy

Professor of Pathology, Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Houston, TX

Dr. Krishnamurthy is a Professor of Pathology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. Her areas of expertise include Breast Pathology and Cytopathology. She is a nationally and internationally recognized Breast Pathologist and Cytopathologist who has contributed significantly towards patient care, education and clinical translational research. She is committed towards advancing our understanding of the biology and management of breast cancer and has several contributions related to clinical research, genomics and proteomics of breast cancer. In recent years, she has been an avid researcher and leading investigator for the investigation of optical imaging modalities in pathology, digital and computational pathology studies which are predicted to make revolutionary changes to the field of Anatomic Pathology. She has been included in the “Best Doctors of America” and US News and World Report listing of Top Pathologists of America since 2008.

Jason Hipp

Chief Digital Innovation Officer, Mayo Collaborative Services, Mayo Clinic

Dr. Jason Hipp, MD/PhD is the Chief Digital Innovation Officer for Mayo Collaborative Services (the commercial diagnostics arm of Mayo Clinic) and the Medical Director for Biopharma Diagnostics. He completed his undergraduate training at UCSD, his MD/PhD at Wake Forest University, residency in pathology at the NIH, and fellowship training in Informatics at the University of Michigan. He is a board-certified pathologist who has been active in the field of digital pathology, AI and cancer research. He spent most of hist time in Industry, having worked at Novartis, BMS and AstraZeneca. He was also the first pathologist hired by Alphabet and was the lead pathologist at Google. He spent two years before his current role involved in Mayo Clinic’s Practice, where he was the founder and Chair of the Division of Computational Pathology & Artificial Intelligence.

Hooman Rashidi

Professor & Associate Dean of AI, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Executive Director of Computational Pathology & Ai Center of Excellence (CPACE), UPMC

Dr. Rashidi is a physician scientist, inventor of several established and validated Machine learning Platforms (e.g. MILO Auto-ML, STNG, etc.) and a prolific author. He is the Associate Dean of AI in Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh SOM, Professor & Executive Vice Chair of Computational Pathology and the Executive Director of CPACE (Computational Pathology & Ai Center of Excellence, a joint UPitt/UPMC venture). In light of his extensive background and experience in the machine learning realm, he continues to create innovative new tools and resources along with publishing best practice guidelines that improve clinical practice, research, and education.
He is also a committed educator with numerous teaching awards and well-established educational Apps. His efforts in the AI-ML & digital space are internationally recognized, as evidenced by his numerous continuous invited talks, editorial & reviewer roles, numerous published key invited review articles & his continued national committee roles.

Jana Lipkova

Assistant Professor, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, University of California Irvine

Jana’s research lab, OctoPath, stands at the crossroads of medical exploration and technological innovation within the Department of Pathology at the University of California, Irvine. The lab focuses on developing AI methods to address crucial needs in oncology, organ transplant, immunology, and other disease areas, leveraging multimodal data from histology, radiology, genomics, and beyond. Jana recently completed her postdoc training with Prof. Faisal Mahmood at Harvard Medical School, Department of Pathology. She earned her PhD from the Technical University in Munich, where her work centered on computer-aided medical procedures in radiology. For further insights into our ongoing work, visit http://octopath.org.

Mark Gustavson

Senior Director and Head of Computational Pathology Translational Science, AstraZeneca

Mark Gustavson is in Translational Medicine Oncology at AstraZeneca where he leads biomarker development and translational medicine strategy within the Antibody-Drug Conjugate (ADC) program. Before moving to Translational Medicine, he was part of the Precision Medicine group at AstraZeneca leading development of Companion Diagnostics. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, he was with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) where he served as both scientific reviewer and member of the Personalized Medicine Group reviewing and developing policy for companion diagnostic devices including digital pathology and next-generation sequencing. Prior to the FDA, he was Vice President of Diagnostics for MetaStat, Inc. developing cutting edge quantitative pathology-based diagnostics; and before MetaStat, he worked with Genoptix and HistoRx developing quantitative pathology technologies and applications (e.g. AQUA Technology). Mark received his Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from Vanderbilt University and did his post-doctoral fellowship under Dr. David Rimm at Yale University.

Mathieu Marella

Scientific Associate Director Pathology, Pathobiology, Preclinical Sciences and Translational Safety (PSTS), Johnson & Johnson

Mathieu Marella is originating from south of France where he obtained a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, majoring in neurodegenerative disease. Mathieu investigated the toxic properties of Prion protein aggregates in mouse models.
Pursue, in San Diego, California, a Post-doctoral fellowship at The Scripps Research Institute to create a gene therapy against Parkinson’s disease, and Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy.
Joined the biotech industry world in 2013 first at Halozyme Therapeutics, then Celgene/BMS in 2017. Where he worked as a scientist in a molecular pathology lab focused translational biology and explorative toxicology.
Currently managing the Molecular Pathology lab at Johnson and Johnson Innovative Medicine since 2020 focusing on Preclinical Safety and providing support across the JnJ therapeutic portfolio.

Laura Dillon

Vice President, Translational Medicine & Bioinformatics, Incendia Therapeutics

Laura Dillon, Ph.D., is Vice President of Translational Medicine & Bioinformatics at Incendia Therapeutics, a Boston-based biotech focused on targeting immune excluded tumors. She is responsible for designing and implementing the company’s biomarker strategy across preclinical and clinical activities, including the use of traditional and novel imaging and omics technologies and analysis platforms, as well as novel target discovery and validation through the application of bioinformatics approaches to public and proprietary datasets. Dr. Dillon has over 15 years of experience in industry, academia, and government. Prior to joining Incendia, Laura was Director of Pathology Data Strategy at AstraZeneca where she focused on the development of machine learning-based methods to extract information from imaging datasets and the implementation of non-invasive bioimaging techniques to advance the drug development pipeline. Laura has a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and Genomics from the University of Maryland.

Richard Levenson

Professor and Vice Chair for Strategic Technology, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, UC Davis

Richard Levenson, MD, FCAP, is professor and vice chair for strategic technologies, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, UC Davis Health. He received his MD at University of Michigan and pathology training at Washington University, followed by a cancer research fellowship at Univ. of Rochester and faculty positions at Duke and Carnegie Mellon. He then joined Cambridge Research & Instrumentation, becoming VP of Research before assuming his present position at UC Davis. He has helped develop multispectral microscopy and small-animal imaging systems and sofware, birefringence microscopy, multiplexed ion-beam imaging (MIBI), and most recently, slide-free as well as enhanced-content microscopy approaches. He is section editor for Archives of Pathology and is on the editorial board of Lab. Invest. and AJP. Regrettably, he also taught pigeons histopathology and radiology. He is a recipient of the 2018 UC Davis Chancellor’s Innovator of the Year award and is a Fellow of SPIE.

Giovanni Lujan

Associate Professor & Director of Digital and Computational Pathology, The Ohio State University

Dr Lujan holds dual board certification in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, and he is also certified by The American Board of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine. His clinical expertise is in Gastrointestinal Pathology. He completed a Surgical Pathology fellowship at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions after graduating from the Pathology residency program at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Dr Lujan has held previous academic appointments at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He was director of a GI fellowship program for several years.

Daniel G. Rudmann

Senior Director, Digital Toxicologic Pathology, Charles River Laboratories

Dr. Dan Rudmann is an ACVP board certified veterinary toxicologic pathologist with almost 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. He is presently Senior Director of Digital Pathology at Charles River Laboratories. In this role, Dr. Rudmann is leading the digital transformation for pathology at Charles River, a company that employs over 150 pathologists. His scientific interests include the application of Deep Learning artificial intelligence models to toxicologic and diagnostic pathology and he leads a global working group investigating AI applications at CRL. Dr. Rudmann publishes and speaks frequently on Digital Pathology topics and is working with the CRL team to collaborate broadly across the industry in support of pathology digitalization.

Zoltan Laszik

Director of Digital Pathology, UCSF

Dr. Zoltan G. Laszik is a surgical pathologist with special interest in renal pathology who published extensively on various aspects of native and transplant kidney diseases. As the director of digital pathology he led the efforts to implement a fully digital workflow for primary diagnosis at UCSF that was launched in March, 2020. His research laboratory uses novel technologies to study the cellular composition of tissues, in situ. He has developed and optimized a number of quantitative highly multiplexed immunofluorescent assays combined with whole slide digital imaging, tissue flow cytometry and image analysis.

Chih-Hong Wang

Operations Manager, Pathology/DSP, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc

Chih-Hong Wang currently serves as Operations Manager, Pathology at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He received his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Pathology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2010, and trained as postdoctoral fellow at University of California San Diego. Chih-Hong Wang has 10+ more years of experience in working on histology and pathology studies. His research focuses on cardiovascular diseases and hematology and have published 15 papers in these fields. Prior to join Regeneron, he was a faculty member in the Department of Physiology & Hypertension and Kidney Center, Tulane University, and Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Nephropathy, UMICH, and then joined TrueBinding Inc. as a principal scientist and manager of histopathology team. Hes motivated by the mission to help Scientists and Pathologists to fulfillment and belonging in their study project using digital pathology and deliver on collaboration in important projects in the preclinical drug development study.

Evita Sadimin

Chief, Division of Pathology Informatics and Data Science Department of Pathology, City of Hope National Medical Center

Evita Sadimin, MD is an Associate Professor of Pathology, and Chief of the Division of Pathology Informatics and Data Science at City of Hope. She completed her Fellowship in Pathology Informatics and her residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, serving as Chief Resident, at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She then completed a Fellowship in Genitourinary Pathology at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. After her Genitourinary Pathology fellowship, she joined the faculty of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Her experiences include working with informatics, LIS and IT teams in establishing digital pathology services, supporting daily informatics activities in clinical and research efforts, improving and expanding clinical data warehouse, and supporting biorepository services. In addition, her clinical work focuses on urologic oncology pathology.

Hatef Mehrabian

Research Scientist, Computational Pathology Group, Gilead

I am a Research Scientist in the Non-clinical Safety and Pathobiology department at Gilead Sciences. My research focuses on developing machine learning and deep learning tools for the automated analysis of digital pathology images (IHC, mIF, H&E). Prior to joining Gilead Sciences in 2020, I served as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where my work centered on developing imaging and image analysis tools (machine learning and AI) for cancer and musculoskeletal diseases. Additionally, I was a post-doctoral fellow at Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto, Canada, from 2014 to 2016, conducting research on new MRI contrast mechanisms for cancer diagnosis. I earned my Ph.D. from the Medical Biophysics department at the University of Toronto in 2014, with thesis on developing data-driven machine learning techniques for unmixing spatiotemporal signals in cancer MRI.

Sripad Ram

Digital pathology and image analysis group lead, Pfizer

Sripad Ram heads the digital pathology and image analysis group at Pfizer which supports histopathology image analysis for preclinical and early-stage clinical programs across the Pfizer portfolio. His research interests include digital scoring of IHC biomarkers for clinical specimens and AI/ML algorithm development for whole-slide image analysis. He received his PhD in Bioengineering from UT Southwestern Medical Center and continued his postdoctoral research at the same institution as a National Multiple Sclerosis Society Postdoctoral Fellow where he developed novel microscopy tools to image macromolecule transcytosis across the blood-brain barrier at the single molecule level. He continued is postdoctoral work in the field of cancer therapeutics and antibody engineering where he investigated the trafficking mechanisms of trastuzumab in breast cancer cells. Prior to joining Pfizer, he worked at Carl Zeiss Inc as a microscopy systems specialist.

Harsh Thaker

Vice Chair, Digital and Integrative Pathology; Director, Anatomic Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch – Galveston

Harsh Thaker is Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX where he serves as the Vice Chair for Digital & Integrative Pathology, as well as the Director of Anatomic and Surgical Pathology. He has held similar positions at other institutions, including the Icahn School of Medicine and Mount Sinai Health System in New York. He is board-certified in Anatomic Pathology and Clinical Informatics. He holds an MD from India and a PhD from Yale University. He has received certification and training in physician executive management and leadership development. Dr. Thaker has extensive experience in pathology operations, informatics, finance, quality and compliance, education, and research.

Brittany Dugger

Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, UC Davis

Dr. Dugger has led, enabled, and enhanced many cross-disciplinary projects, resulting in more than 75 peer-reviewed manuscripts and numerous private, state, and federally funded grants. Dr. Dugger earned her Bachelor of Science from Michigan State University and PhD from Mayo Clinic. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship and was an independent staff scientist at the Banner Sun Health Research Institute. In 2015, she became neuropathology core leader for academic/drug discovery groups at the Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of California San Francisco. Currently, she is an associate professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at University of California, Davis (UCD), neuropathology core co-leader of the UCD-Alzheimers Disease Research Center (ADRC), co-leader of UCD School of Medicine Machine Learning Working Group, and department Liaison for the Women in Medical and Health Sciences. Dr. Dugger is involved in many national endeavors, including the College of American Pathologists Neuropathology and ADRC Neuropathology Core Steering Committees.

Erio Barale-Thomas

Scientific Associate Director, Pathobiology, DPDS – Preclinical Sciences & Translational Safety, J&J Innovative Medicine

Vision: Improving the workflow of toxicologic pathology by increasing standardization in histology, implementing digital pathology, and bringing quantification to pathology evaluation.

Biosketch: Erio graduated from the Veterinary School of Lyon, France, in 1989 and holds a national degree in toxicologic pathology. Since 2003 he works for Janssen Pharmaceutica in Beerse, Belgium. Throughout his career he was interested in special stains and special techniques, and in mentoring young colleagues undergoing their veterinary pathology residency.

He currently leads the digital pathology efforts in the histology and pathology departments, for both the infrastructure/platform and the scientific applications; he also liaises with IT (for optimizing platform design) and other scientific departments/therapeutic areas (for synergy in bringing tools on the platform).

He is also a strong advocate of cooperation among international toxicologic pathology societies and is very involved in the interaction with regulatory bodies. He is a former president of the French Society of Toxicologic Pathology and an active member of the European and North American STP.

Eder Lagemann

Global Director of Digital Pathology, KLAS Research

Eder Lagemann leads the Global Digital Pathology efforts at KLAS Research. He studied Electronics Technology and Business Management and has worked in various positions in the healthcare industry for the last 18 years. He is passionate about discovering and reporting what is reality and helping to improve patient outcomes through the use of technology.

At KLAS, Eder works closely with key decision makers and influencers throughout the world to understand how vendors are meeting the needs of their clients. He is the author of various global studies covering trending HIT topics.

Fabian Heinemann

Chapter lead IT Data Science and Head Central Data Science EMEA, Boehringer Ingelheim

Fabian is heading the IT Data Science Chapter and the Central Data Science EMEA I team within Boehringer Ingelheim. The team explores and develops of AI applications for all functions of the company. Prior to his current role, Fabian served as the head of the Biomedical AI lab at Boehringer Ingelheim’s research organization. His team specialized in the development and application of deep learning-based tools for extracting quantitative information from histological sections, specifically for pharmaceutical research Fabian’s experience includes working as a data scientist at Roche and conducting research at research institutes like the Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry. His educational background is physics, with specializations in biophysics and theoretical physics. Throughout his career, he has conducted research in various fields, ranging from biophysics, life science, material science, optics, to simulations of biological processes, and most recently applied machine learning.

Priti Lal

Professor of Pathology, University of Pennsylvania

Dr Lal is Professor of Pathology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.

She is Director of GU pathology service at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr Lal’s research is focused on development of automated, and objective mechanisms for assessment of prostate and bladder cancer using AI models.

In collaboration with Dr Madabhushi, she is the pathology PI on an RO1 grant focused on development of prognostic and predictive morphometric risk score for aggressive prostate cancer.

Study of tumor microenvironment and disparities in outcomes of prostate cancer has been her long-term interest.

She is pathologist on a multi-institutional consortium that works with pathology groups in Africa and the US to develop cohorts for collaborative research.

Additionally, Dr Lal is focusing on development of teaching programs suited to the needs of the individual departments within the consortium.

She has published 90 peer reviewed research papers in collaboration and independently.

She regularly contributes to book chapters and participates in development of guideline in prostate and bladder cancers.

In addition to leading a busy clinical practice she teaches at the medical school, residency, and fellowship programs at Penn.

She mentors pathology trainees, undergrads , MS & PhD students.

J. Mark Tuthill

Division Head, Pathology Informatics, Henry Ford Health System

J. Mark Tuthill, MD, completed pathology residency and informatics fellowship training at the University of Vermont College of Medicine-Fletcher Allen Health Care, and created the department’s division of pathology informatics. Dr. Tuthill is Division Head of Pathology Informatics at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. Areas of interest include digital pathology implementation, Internet applications for laboratory services, laboratory information systems, business analytics, electronic health records and informatics training and education. Active in organized medicine, he is an advisor to the ASCP Annual Meeting Steering Committee; Delegate, Wayne Medical Society; Co-director for the API’s Pathology Informatics Summit; and Delegate for CDC’s CLIAC committee. As a charter member of the Association for Pathology Informatics, Dr. Tuthill has worked for the API from its inception serving as president, chair of the membership committee, education committee, and the organization’s original planning group. Dr. Tuthill is the recent recipient of the API’s distinguished service award.

Joshua J. Levy

Director of Digital Pathology Research, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Computational Biomedicine, Cedars Sinai Medical Center

Dr. Joshua Levy is the Director of Digital Pathology Research at Cedars-Sinai and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Computational Biomedicine. He formerly served as an Assistant Professor of Pathology, Dermatology, and Epidemiology at the Geisel School of Medicine and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Dr. Levy’s research focuses on integrating AI and biostatistics in anatomic pathology, developing computational methods for histopathology, cytopathology, text and image processing, and analyzing spatial molecular variations in tumors through spatial genomics technologies, amongst numerous other application areas. His academic path commenced with a physics degree from the University of California, Berkeley, followed by computational biology and software development roles at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and in industry, leading to a doctorate in quantitative biomedical sciences from Dartmouth College Geisel School of Medicine. At Cedars-Sinai, his goal is to establish a nationally recognized digital pathology research program and create student recruitment pathways to bring new talent into the field. Dr. Levy’s mentorship efforts are highlighted by the establishment of a national internship program, through which he has guided over 150 students from diverse educational backgrounds. Dr. Levy also holds various consulting roles at the Biomedical National Elemental Imaging Resource and Veteran Affairs.

Albert Juan Ramón

Principal Scientist, Johnson & Johnson

Albert Juan Ramon, PhD, a Principal Scientist at Johnson and Johnson (J&J) Data Sciences, specializes in computer vision and artificial intelligence. Holding a B. Eng from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and a Master’s and PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), his research at IIT focused on AI algorithms in nuclear cardiac imaging.

Currently leading histopathology efforts at J&J, he focuses on developing AI imaging algorithms for various therapeutic areas. His notable contribution is the development of an AI-powered biomarker test to predict the likelihood that a patient’s tumor harbors actionable genetic alterations from H&E images. This tool was the first image-based tool deployed on a J&J clinical trial to screen patients prior to genetic testing, resulting in enhanced trial efficiency and a substantial reduction in genetic testing costs by approximately 30%.

Corey Arnold

Professor and Vice Chair of Research, Radiological Sciences Professor, Pathology, Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Bioengineering, UCLA

Prof Arnold is the Vice Chair of Research in the UCLA Department of Radiological Sciences and holds joint appointments in the Departments of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Bioengineering. He leads the Computational Diagnostics Lab, a team that uses machine learning to improve healthcare. He completed his undergraduate training at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and earned his PhD at UCLA.

Tamara Jamaspishvili

Director of Pathology Core Research Lab & Digital Pathology, Suny Upstate Medical University Hospital

Dr Jamaspishvili (MD, PhD) is a research pathologist, assistant professor, and Director of the Pathology Research Core & Digital Pathology lab at SUNY Upstate Medical University. Her translational research focuses on developing and validating tissue-based prognostic and predictive biomarkers and models to improve disease prognostication and management of cancer patients. Dr Jamaspishvili and her collaborative multi-disciplinary group of researchers have developed innovative strategies to advance biomarker assessment using quantitative computational pathology and artificial intelligence (AI) that would impact cancer research and, ultimately, clinical practice in the future.

Arvind Rao

Professor of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan Ann Arbor

Arvind Rao is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics at the University of Michigan. His group uses image analysis and machine learning methods to link image-derived phenotypes with genetic data, across biological scale (i.e. single cell, tissue and radiology data). Such methods have found application in radiogenomics, drug repurposing based on phenotypic screens and spatial profiling in tissue, as well as in spatial transcriptomics. Arvind received his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Bioinformatics from the University of Michigan, specializing in transcriptional genomics, and was a Lane Postdoctoral Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University, specializing in bioimage informatics.

Shahla Masood

Professor and Chair, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Florida College of Medicine Jacksonville, UF Health Jacksonville

Dr. Shahla Masood is a Persian born physician, who currently holds the positions of Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology at University of Florida College of Medicine Jacksonville. She is the Director of the Cytopathology and Breast Pathology Fellowship Training Programs, as well as the Medical Director of UF Health Breast Center, Chair of the Cancer Committee, and Interim Director of UF Health Jacksonville Cancer Program. As an internationally recognized expert in breast cancer diagnosis and prognosis, Dr. Masood has fostered the concept of an integrated multidisciplinary approach in breast cancer care, research, and education. She is the founder and first Editor-in-Chief of The Breast Journal, the founder and past president of the International Society of Breast Pathology, the Director of the Annual Multidisciplinary Symposium on Breast Disease, and The Breast Cancer Public Forum. Dr. Masood is a patient advocate, a partner in community affairs and an accomplished artist and gourmet chef. She is the wife of her talented and loving husband, Dr. Ahmad Kasraeian and a mother of two accomplished physicians, Dr. Ali Kasraeian, an urologist, and Dr. Sina Kasraeian, an orthopedic surgeon, as well as a caring grandmother to six beautiful grandchildren.

Sunil Singhal

Chief of Digital Pathology Transformation, Baylor College of Medicine

Sunil Singhal has managed the successful implementation of the Digital Pathology programs at multiple US healthcare organizations. He is experienced in formulating business case, and implementing Digital Pathology strategy to support clinical, research and education missions. He is interested in digital pathology workflow, image analysis, data analytics and computational pathology.

Sunil managed the digital pathology transformation program for The Ohio State University, the first hospital in the US to use primary digital diagnosis at scale and has applied these learnings to similar organization’s digital adoptions.

An engineer by training, Sunil is a broad thinker who excels at finding elegant collaborative solutions to problems that enhance the human experience. He has over 30 years of c-suite management consulting experience covering multiple industries. Sunil currently serves as Principal Consultant at Synergess. Prior to this he served as the Chief of Digital Pathology Transformation at Baylor College of Medicine.

Sunil has bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India, and a master’s degree in Electronics Engineering from Netherlands.

Chao-Hui Huang

Senior Principal Research Scientist, Quantitative Image Analysis, Pfizer Inc.

Chih-Hong Wang is currently the Operations Manager of Pathology at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He earned his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Pathology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2010 and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California San Diego. With over a decade of experience in histology and pathology studies, his research primarily focuses on cardiovascular diseases and hematology. He has published 17 papers in these fields. Before joining Regeneron in 2022, he held faculty positions in the Department of Physiology & Hypertension and Kidney Center at Tulane University, and the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Nephropathy at UMICH. He later served as a principal scientist of the histopathology team at TrueBinding Inc. He is driven by the mission to assist scientists and pathologists in achieving fulfillment and a sense of belonging in their study projects. He utilizes digital pathology to foster collaboration on significant projects in preclinical drug development studies.

Natasha Darras

Director, Digital Pathology & Innovation, Oncology & Cell Therapy Clinical Biomarker Sciences, Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Mustafa Yousif

Assistant Professor of Pathology and Director of Digital Pathology, University of Michigan

Dr. Mustafa Yousif serves as an Assistant Professor and the Director of Digital Pathology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, USA. He earned his medical degree from the University of Al-Mustansiriyah in Baghdad, Iraq, and completed his anatomical and clinical pathology residency at Wake Forest University. Following this, Dr. Yousif undertook a fellowship in Gynecologic and Breast Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, as well as a fellowship in Pathology Informatics at the University of Michigan’s Department of Pathology Informatics. He possesses extensive knowledge and a keen interest in pathology informatics and digital pathology. His research primarily focuses on digital pathology and artificial intelligence, with a particular emphasis on computer vision and image analysis, in addition to his work in gynecologic and breast pathology.

Peter Gershkovich

Director, Section of Pathology Informatics and Cancer Data Science, Associate Professor, Yale University School of Medicine

After completing a fellowship in Medical Informatics funded by the National Library of Medicine in the early 2000s, I have spent nearly two decades working to improve diagnostic and laboratory processes in Pathology at Yale. My efforts have led to the transition of pathology systems towards more agile and modular components, reflecting the principles of DevSecOps and enhancing operational efficiency. My work has been focused on integrating engineering principles into clinical operations within the department, as outlined in my publications that address functionality gaps in laboratory information systems. Additionally, I led the development of a web-based platform for the analysis of tumor DNA sequencing, aiming to advance precision medicine. My team developed numerous other systems that constitute REALM (Rapidly Evolving Agile Laboratory Modules), setting new standards for pathology diagnostics and research at Yale. Currently, my work centers on improving operational efficiency, digital pathology, and exploring the potential of artificial intelligence in our field.

David Gutman

Assistant Professor, Biomedical Informatics, Emory University

David Gutman, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and Clinical Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Gutman joined the faculty at Emory in 2000, after completing his Psychiatry Residency. His group develops and maintains open source tools to support digital pathology including the Digital Slide Archive (DSA) package and HistomicsTK. He has broad expertise in medical imaging, having helped develop the International Skin Imaging Archive (ISIC), the Cancer Digital Slide Archive which contains 25,000+ whole slide images, and is also adapting these tools for neuropathology

Orly Ardon

Director Digital Pathology Operations and Assistant Attending, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Orly Ardon is the Director of Digital Pathology Operations and an assistant member at the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

She has expertise in microbiology, molecular, and digital pathology. Orly completed the degrees of BSc, MSc, and Ph.D. in Microbiology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and an Executive MBA from the University of Utah. Her postdoctoral training was in cell biology and virology at the University of Utah. Before joining MSKCC, Orly was heading the development of novel computer assisted diagnostic tools and the expansion of digital pathology collaborative initiatives at ARUP Laboratories in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Dr. Ardon career focuses on diagnostic test advancements and laboratory innovation. Her work in digital pathology is centered on operational aspects of the digital technologies and the clinical implementation of laboratory automation. Her interests also include process improvements and healthcare economics.

Fangyao Hu

Senior Principal Scientist AI, Genentech

Fangyao is the leading computational scientist within the Genentech Safety Assessment digital pathology group. He earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University. At Genentech, he leads a team focused on applying machine learning and deep learning to enhance the digital pathology workflow in toxicologic pathology. His innovative leadership in computational methods has significantly advanced the extraction of reliable, quantitative data from pathology images. These advancements not only enhance analytical insights but also promote comprehensive cross-study comparisons and the development of predictive models for safety assessments.

William Jeck

Assistant Professor, Surgical Pathology, Program Director, GI Surgical Pathology Fellowship, Duke University Hospital

Dr. William Jeck received his dual degree from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill with a PhD in genetics and molecular biology from the laboratory of Dr. Norman Sharpless. Dr. Jeck training in Anatomic Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital and received a Fellowship in gastrointestinal pathology from Brigham and Women’s Hospital. As an assistant professor at Duke University School of Medicine he signs out gastrointestinal, liver, bone and soft tissue, and molecular pathology and plays a key role developing system architecture for digital pathology, including special projects implementing and validating AI systems within existing viewers. Dr. Jeck’s research interests focus on the intersection between molecular and digital pathology, as well as development of tools to implement AI to improve the practice of surgical pathology.

Alina Ainbinder

Principal Research Scientist, Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Alina Ainbinder holds a B.Sc. in Biotechnology Engineering from Ort Braude College in Israel and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Rochester. Her professional journey began as a Research Intern at Litron Laboratories, contributing to the development of multiplex flow cytometry techniques. She then advanced to significant roles at the Broad Institute and Ultivue INC., leading major advancements in high throughput imaging and biomarker assay development.
A distinguished biotech and life sciences professional, Alina has over a decade of expertise in the field of digital pathology and image analysis. With a strong foundation in immuno-oncology, cellular physiology, molecular biology, and genetics, she has extensive knowledge in incorporating advanced image analysis and digital pathology techniques into preclinical research. Currently serving as a Principal Research Scientist at Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, MA, Alina is at the forefront of designing and implementing cutting-edge image analysis projects. Her work is crucial in developing cloud-based infrastructure for high-throughput and whole-slide imaging, thus improving the understanding of complex biological data through multiplex immunofluorescence assays.

Erick Lin

Center for Devices and Radiological Health, FDA

Rick Torres

CEO, Applikate Technologies Inc

Sam Seymour

Director of Product, Paige

Sam Seymour, Director of Product at Paige, oversees the Paige Platform, and its integration of AI into clinical workflow. With a genomics degree from Vassar College, Sam began his career in academic and industry research, delving into enzyme kinetics and pharmacokinetics. Transitioning into healthcare technology through a Masters degree from UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley, Sam is now dedicated to the intersection of AI and clinical workflow. His mission is to facilitate effective collaboration between humans and AI to enhance healthcare economics and achieve better patient outcomes.

W. Dean Wallace

Professor of Pathology, Keck School of Medicine of USC

Dr. W. Dean Wallace is a Professor of Pathology and the Director of the Translational Pathology Core at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Dr. Wallace’s experience with digital pathology and informatics goes back more than fifteen years during his involvement in establishing the California Telepathology Network and the development of the integrated radiology-pathology reporting platform at his previous institution, UCLA. As a recognized expert in the field, Dr. Wallace has been invited to speak at many national and international meetings on the field of digital pathology. His areas of investigative interest include studying the effective deployment of digital pathology systems in the clinical setting.

Chaith Kondragunta

CEO of AIRAMatrix

Chaith Kondragunta is the CEO of AIRAMatrix. Based in Mumbai, India, Chaith has over 20 years of experience in leadership, and has been an active thought leader in Healthcare AI and Big Data Analytics.
Chaith has also served in leadership roles for Innovation International, Petco and Stern Stewart & Co, and he previously founded, grew and publicly listed a Big Data Analytics company that provides algorithmic driven analytics for leading financial institutions globally.
He earned his Masters in Computer Engineering from UC San Diego, as well as an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.
Chaith frequently writes and speaks on AI and Data Analytics for several media outlets including The Economist Group, CNBC and Bloomberg TV.

Nitin Singhal

Head - Products, Aira Matrix

Nitin is a technology professional with a track record of building AI-powered repertoire of medical imaging products. At AIRA Matrix he leads the strategic vision for Project and Portfolio management. He focuses on designing AI products and solutions to aid predictive diagnostics . His areas of expertise include medical image analysis, machine learning and deep learning, computer vision, computer-aided diagnosis, GPU computing, mobile computational photography, and digital image management. Nitin has authored 50+ publications in international journals and conferences and has 10 granted patents to this name.

Uttara Joshi

General Manager, Business Development, AIRA Matrix Private Limited

Uttara is a surgical pathologist who has spearheaded the development of an integrated digital solution for pathology.At AIRA Matrix, her experiences in healthcare and technology provide leadership for the entire scale of Artificial Intelligence based solutions offered for the cancer care pathway.

Akash Parvatikar

AI Scientist and PathologyMap Platform Product Manager, HistoWiz

Akash received his PhD in Computational Biology from the Joint Carnegie-Mellon and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He specializes in biomedical imaging informatics and computational and systems pathology. Akash investigates the intrinsic characteristics of biomedical images at multi-scale resolutions using statistical modeling, computer vision, machine learning, and graph-based deep learning techniques. At HistoWiz, Akash develops tools to ensure quality images, accelerates histopathology, and develops AI tools for preclinical researchers across academic, biotech, and pharmaceutical domains.

Trevor McKee

Chief Technology Officer, Pathomics.ai

Dr. Trevor McKee has a PhD in Bioengineering from MIT, and has spent the last two and a half decades applying computer vision techniques to the analysis of biomedical images. He spent 14 years as director of the STTARR Innovation Centre Image Analysis Core, where he led a team of programmers to develop quantitative analysis methods of spatial biology datasets spanning brightfield, multiplex and imaging mass cytometry images. He has over 50 peer-reviewed publications in these fields, and is a part of the JEDIS council – Joint Effort to Develop Immunofluorescence Standards – working to move modern multiplex staining methods to routine clinical use. He is currently the Chief Technology Officer at Pathomics.ai, an image analysis company driven to transform the landscape of spatial biology by delivering product solutions and services which demystify complex imaging data.

Mark Frushone

Global Director Commercial Development Leica Biosystems

Mark Frushone Global Director Commercial Development Leica Biosystems based in Vista, California. For over 25 years, Mark has been a leader in the Health Care industry. Mark joined Leica Biosystems in 2012 as a Market Manager in Emerging Markets, focused on digital pathology enablement across the world. Before this Mark was a Sr. Application Specialist In-Direct Channel at Aperio Inc. Mark has been in the laboratory and digital pathology space for over 14 years. Mark has a Master’s in Education from National University and a Bachelor of Science from Central Connecticut.