Trainer biographies

Dayane Araújo | EMBL-EBI

Dayane completed her PhD in Microbiology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich where she studied bacterial ECF sigma factors in order to design and implement orthogonal genetic switches in Bacillus subtilis. She also studied the mechanisms of resistance against antimicrobial peptides in Streptomyces venezuelae.

In 2019, Dayane joined the database of life sciences publications Europe PMC which is hosted at EMBL-EBI. At Europe PMC, Dayane worked as a Technical Outreach Officer engaging with programmatic users including researchers, curators, developers, policymakers and funders. She has recently joined EMBL-EBI training team as a Scientific Training Officer where she works on the development and delivery of a range of bioinformatics-focused courses for the life science community.

Marc Jan Bonder | University Medical Center Groningen

Marc Jan Bonder is a PostDoc in the department of Genetics at the University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. His research interest are in the use of functional genomics data to interpret the downstream effects of genetic variation. Specifically, he has focused on the application of both tissue level, and more recently single cell level, molecular read outs, such as gene expression, DNA methylation and protein information, to determine functional consequences of genetic variants. His work has focused on (re)analyzing large scale functional genomic data to do link genotype variants to consequences.

Elliot Sollis | EMBL-EBI

I completed my PhD in the genetics of language-related disorders at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. I relied heavily on publicly-available databases to support my research, which convinced me of the value of good biological data curation for open and collaborative science. I now work as a Scientific Curator for the GWAS Catalog – a database of human genome-wide association studies. My roles include interpreting and annotating GWAS publications, supporting authors to submit their data, and maintaining and enhancing the scientific content, design and user experience of our website and online tools.

Talya Dayton | EMBL Barcelona

Talya L. Dayton, PhD Group Leader, EMBL Barcelona https://www.embl.org/groups/dayton/ Talya L. Dayton is a Group Leader at the EMBL tissue biology and disease modelling unit in Barcelona, Spain. She received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2016, where she worked in the labs of Tyler Jacks and Matthew Vander Heiden, studying metabolism in development and cancer using mouse models. After completing her Ph.D., Talya joined the lab of Hans Clevers at the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht, The Netherlands, where she developed patient-derived tumor organoids of neuroendocrine cancers. She also developed organoid models of pulmonary neuroendocrine cell differentiation in healthy cells. Research in the Dayton lab at EMBL leverages these organoid models of neuroendocrine cells and cancers to better understand mechanisms and gene by environment interactions in cancer initiation, progression, and drug response.

Kees de Hoogh | Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute

Kees is an environmental exposure scientist and assistant professor working at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel, Switzerland and Utrecht University. His recent focus involves cutting edge fine resolution spatio-temporal modelling to derive refined exposures using satellite and ancillary data. He has been involved in a number of large projects (BioSHARE, ESCAPE, ELAPSE) where he co-led the air pollution exposure assessment, and currently is a co-PI of the EXPANSE and PI of MOBI-AIR studies. In Switzerland he has collaborations with the Luftibus and BILD cohorts.

Tomas Fitzgerald | EMBL-EBI

Tomas Fitzgerald started his career at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in 2006 working the population level copy number variation in human populations as part of the CNV project with Prof. Matthew Hurles. During his time at the Sanger Tomas worked on the Deciphering Developmental Disorders Study. This was the first large scale sequencing cohort with direct clinical applications. Tomas was instrumental in developing analytical methods and large data processing solutions. Developing methods for genomic variant detection, prioritisation, interpretation and prediction of clinical impact. At this time large scale NGS cohorts were in their infancy so the DDD team needed to implement many methods and pipelines from scratch. In 2016 Tomas joined EMBL-EBI as a staff scientist and has since worked directly along side Prof. Ewan Birney co-running the Birney research team at EBI. This involves overseeing and managing a large number of diverse genetics / genomics, algorithmic and AI based project areas. A large part of this research involves the use of large human cohorts and the development of novel genetic association testing methods and workflows as well as models to represent complex phenotypes and trajectory modelling using modern AI techniques.

Amy Louise Foreman | EMBL-EBI

Amy joined EMBL as a Scientific Programme Manager in 2021 and works to coordinate the Human Ecosystems Transversal Theme. The theme is a pan-EMBL initiative that forms part of the Molecules to Ecosystems indicative scheme running from 2021-2026. It aims to get a complete understanding of how your genotype and environmental exposures interact to lead to disease phenotypes. Amy previously worked as a Research Associate/Research Project Manager at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge where she coordinated several activities including the ‘Virtual Drosophila Methods Workshop’ which had over 500 attendees. She has experience in the science-policy interface and participated in workshops exploring the potential ethical and legal constraints surrounding the development of reproductive organoids. Amy has an interest in public engagement and led “The Great BioQuest” interactive treasure hunt, funded by the Genetics Society and University of Cambridge which has so far had over 1000 participants. Amy completed her PhD in Ecotoxicology at the University of Exeter where she undertook computational and laboratory research to understand the gene regulatory networks underlying the oxidative stress response in teleost fish species.

Gabriele Rinck | EMBL-EBI

After my PhD in virology, one of my first jobs was at Public Health England, contributing to a molecular epidemiology study on drug-resistant HIV. I then spent a decade in the molecular diagnostics industry, leading the development of diagnostics and overseeing testing services for clinical trials. Following this, I joined the Wellcome Sanger Institute, where I managed a UK-wide genomics study focused on prenatal diagnosis of rare diseases. Since 2020, I have been at EMBL-EBI, initially as part of the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) team, where I worked as a Senior Data Coordination Officer. My role primarily revolved around COVID-19-related cohort data and integrating multi-omics datasets. Last year, I transitioned to the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA) team, as Project Lead for federated EGA.

Kees de Hoogh | Swiss TPH

Kees is an environmental exposure scientist and assistant professor working at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel, Switzerland and Utrecht University. His recent focus involves cutting edge fine resolution spatio-temporal modelling to derive refined exposures using satellite and ancillary data. He has been involved in a number of large projects (BioSHARE, ESCAPE, ELAPSE) where he co-led the air pollution exposure assessment, and currently is a co-PI of the EXPANSE and PI of MOBI-AIR studies. In Switzerland he has collaborations with the Luftibus and BILD cohorts.

Lea Maitre | ISGlobal

Dr. Léa Maitre is a tenure-track Assistant Research Professor at ISGlobal, where she leads the Exposome Hub, fostering innovation and collaboration in exposome research. With a PhD in Molecular Epidemiology from Imperial College London, her expertise spans metabolomics, environmental epidemiology, and systems biology, with a particular focus on maternal and child health. Dr. Maitre has played key roles in major European exposome projects, including serving as scientific coordinator for the HELIX project and leading work packages in the ATHLETE and International Human Exposome Network (IHEN) initiatives. She is also a key investigator in the ENDOMIX project, focusing on the impact of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) on the gut microbiome and metabolic health. Her research integrates high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) and multi-omics approaches to uncover the hidden effects of environmental exposures on health.

Emily Jefferson | Erasmus MC

Professor Emily Jefferson became the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Health Data Research UK in November 2022. She is seconded from her position as Professor of Health Data Science at the University of Dundee. She leads on the development and delivery of technology services to enable the provision of consistent and meaningful research access to health data. Prior to her role as CTO, Emily was the Director of the Health Informatics Centre (HIC) at the University of Dundee for 10 years during which time she led a large team providing services and academic collaborations to over 700 different research projects covering health informatics, data science, data management, governance, and machine learning. She also held a part-time role at the University of Glasgow for 18 months. Emily’s main research interest is in innovative methods for the provision of sensitive linked data at scale which meets both data governance requirements and those of the research community. Emily has a degree in Biochemistry, a PhD in Bioinformatics and was employed as a post-doctoral researcher in Bioinformatics following her PhD. She then left academia to work in the finance sector before solo cycling from NZ to the UK and then returning to academia.

Sam Lambert | University of Cambridge

Sam Lambert is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cambridge in the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit of the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, and is a Visiting Researcher at EBI. Sam leads the development of the Polygenic Score (PGS) Catalog (www.PGSCatalog.org), an open database of PGS with the metadata required for accurate application and evaluation. Apart from the resource the PGS Catalog team focused on developing tools to make PGS easier to calculate and use (https://github.com/PGScatalog). In the department, Sam lead’s a research group focused on studying the molecular aetiology of multimorbidity involving cardiometabolic diseases.

Giorgia Renne | EMBL

Giorgia Renne has a law degree, a master’s degree in Global Health and is qualified to exercise as a lawyer in Italy. Since 2023 she works in EMBL Bioethics Services as Bioethics Officer, and is also a member of the EMBL Bioethics Internal Advisory Committee (BIAC).

Oliver Stegle | DKFZ / EMBL

Prof. Stegle is the Head of the Computational Genomics and Systems Genetics Division at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and group leader at EMBL in Heidelberg, Germany. His laboratory is developing and applying statistical and machine learning methods for deciphering molecular variation across individuals, space and time. He coordinates the German Human-Genome-Phenome Archive, the health program of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems and is an ERC investigator.

Roel Vermeulen | Utrecht University

Prof. Roel Vermeulen is Professor of Environmental Epidemiology and Exposome Science at the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS), Utrecht University and at University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands. He is the co-chair of the Personalized Health and Medicine Program of Utrecht Life Sciences at Utrecht University and co-coordinates the preventive health program of the alliance between the Universities of Wageningen, Eindhoven and Utrecht and the academic Medical Center Utrecht. He previously held positions at the National Cancer Institute, USA. Prof Vermeulen’s scientific research focuses on environmental risk factors for cancer, cardiometabolic and neurological diseases through inter and trans-disciplinary research. Current research areas include the exploration of new methods for quantifying the external and internal exposome. He coordinates the Dutch research program on the exposome (Exposome-NL), leads an EU project (EXPANSE) as part of the European Human Exposome Network and coordinates the Dutch Hub of the European infrastructure on Exposome research (EIRENE-NL). He is the PI of large case-control and prospective (biobank) studies in occupational and the general population. Prof. Vermeulen has served on international committees including the WHO and the National Toxicology Program (USA). He is a member of the Dutch Health Council and has authored/co-authored over 700 publications.

Natalia Vilor-Tejedor | BarcelonaBeta Brain Research Center

Natalia is the team leader of the Genetic Neuroepidemiology and Biostatistics team at BarcelonaBeta. She also serves as an associated researcher at the Clinical Genetics Department, Erasmus University Medical Center, and at the Center for Genomic Regulation. Additionally, she is the Coordinator of Statistical Modeling for the UNITED Consortium and an associated professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the University of Vic, and the University of Valencia.” Her research interests have always been related to the role of genetic (non-modifiable) and neuroepidemiological (modifiable) factors, with a particular focus on gaining a clear understanding of the etiology and prevention of complex neurological and neurodevelopmental diseases. Natalia holds a BSc in Mathematics, a BSc in Applied Statistics, an MSc in Omics Data Analysis, and a PhD in Biomedicine.

Pu Xia | University of Birmingham

Dr Pu Xia is an ecotoxicologist interested in understanding and predicting the molecular mechanisms underlying the toxicity of chemicals. His research focuses on the development and application of cutting-edge system toxicology approaches, including multi-omics, artificial intelligence, and adverse outcome pathway networks, to facilitate high-throughput screening and accurate prediction of chemical toxicity. Dr Pu Xia’s pursuits are fundamentally oriented towards advancing the next-generation chemical risk assessment.