GUEST SPEAKER

Prof. Paolo Gasparini

Paolo Gasparini, MD, professor of Medical Genetics at Trieste University and Burlo Garofolo Children Hospital (Trieste, Italy) recently moved to Sidra (Head of Experimental Genetics Division). He has contributed to the identification of several inherited disease genes including many directly involved in causing hearing loss as well as genes underlying complex and quantitative traits. In this light, part of his research activity was based on studying the genetic basis of taste and of food preferences and their impact on overweight, obesity and in a more broad sense on lifestyle. He is author of approximately 300 original papers in International Journals. Paolo is also the founder of 2 successful startups in the domain of applied genetics: G-Diet and G-Fit

PANELISTS

Dr. Hilal A. Lashuel

Dr. Hilal A. Lashuel is the executive director of Qatar Biomedical Research Institute and an associate professor and director of the laboratory of molecular and chemical biology of neurodegeneration in the Brain Mind Institute at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology-Lausanne. Currently, he serves in several important national committees and boards, including the Qatar Cancer Research Partnership (Co-Chair) Qatar Genome national committee (member), Academic Health System steering committee (member), Qatar Biobank (member of the board of trustees), and Qatar National Research Fund exceptional grant review committee (a permanent member).

Dr. Lashuel received his B.Sc. degree in chemistry from the City University of New York in 1994 and completed his doctoral studies at Texas A&M University and the Scripps Research Institute in 2000.

Professor Pasquale VITO

Professor Pasquale Vito accomplished his PhD in Genetics at the University of Napoli Federico II. He spent five years at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA and four years at the Basel Institute for Immunology, Basel, Switzerland. He also worked as professor of Genetics at the University of Sannio, Italy for 10 years. He has taught courses at Qatar University and currently is a senior scientist at the Qatar Antidoping Laboratory. He has authored more than 50 scientific publications on the genetic control of the immune response.