3rd Qatar Proteomics Conference

For about 22 years, Frank Schmidt has been working in the field of host-pathogen interactions with a strong focus on proteomics and immunoproteomics. He has a strong background in the biochemistry of proteins and their analysis by mass spectrometry. In previous work, he mainly studied the patho-mechanisms of bacteria such as mycobacteria, streptococci, salmonella and staphylococcus after contact with human cells at the proteome level using various single or multiplex methods. For the past 12 years, he has extended his research to human liquid biopsies and has studied cohort material from various studies. In addition to mass spectrometry, he also performs analysis using Olink or Flexmap 3D and specializes in the measurement of proteins and their bioinformatic analysis. He is currently Professor of Biochemistry at WCMQ in Qatar and Honorary Professor in Krems, Austria. He has published about 130 research papers in the field of proteomics and is a member of the BD-HPP and Chromosome teams at HUPO. His current group consists of 10 members and he runs a unique proteomics platform including all the above mentioned methods.

Karsten Suhre is a Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Director of the Bioinformatics and Virtual Metabolomics Core at the Cornell campus in Doha, Qatar. Before joining Cornell in 2011, Dr. Suhre held a Professorship for Bioinformatics at the Department of Biology of the Ludwig-Maximillian-University in Munich, Germany, where lead the Metabolomics Research Group at the Institute for Bioinformatics and Systems Biology of the Helmholtz Center Munich. Between 1994 and 2006, he served at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), first as a Charge and then as a Director of Research, with a two-year interruption from 2000 to 2001, where he worked as a Project Engineer in the German Automotive Industry. After a very interdisciplinary career in the Theoretical Physics, Atmospheric Sciences, Bacterial and Viral Genomics, and Protein Bioinformatics, he is now investigating how human genetics, metabolomics and proteomics interact with environmental challenges and lifestyle factors in the development of complex disorders, especially diabetes, cancer, heart and kidney diseases.

Bernd Wollscheid, Ph.D., is founder of DISCO Pharmaceuticals. He is a Professor of Molecular Health and Head of the Institute of Translational Medicine at the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zürich, Switzerland. As the chairman of EC of the ETH domain Strategic Focus Area, “Personalized Health and Related Technology (PHRT),” he aims to bridge the gap between scientific discoveries and their practical applications in healthcare. Bernd’s research team pioneers developing and applying next-generation technologies at the intersection of biology, chemistry, medicine, and bioinformatics. This research contributes to understanding how molecular nanoscale organization influences cellular function and opens up new opportunities for theranostics. Bernd studied Chemistry and holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Immunology from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology in Freiburg, Germany. He performed post-doctoral research at the Institute of Systems Biology, Seattle, USA.

Peter Nilsson is Professor in Proteomics since 2011 at the Department of Protein Science at SciLifeLab and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He is head of Protein Array Technologies within Human Protein Atlas since 2003, head of Division of Affinity Proteomics and Platform Scientific Director in the Proteomics platform at SciLifeLab. The research is devoted to highly multiplex and high-throughput protein and antibody profiling in body fluids based on various aspects of affinity proteomics. This is enabled through the development and utilization of bead-based and planar protein array formats using proteins and antibodies from the Human Protein Atlas. The protein, autoantibody and serology profiling has mainly been applied within autoimmune, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases, which has generated more than 260 co-authored publications. To enable broad and large-scale seroprevalence studies, a current emphasis is on the development of an extensive resource for multi-disease serology. This is including a wide range of antigens representing various respiratory and infectious diseases, such as coronas, influenza, RSV, EBV, CMV, Mpox, Zika, Dengue, West Nile, Yellow fever, Chikungunya etc

Dr. Christopher Mason is the WorldQuant Professor of Genomics and Computational Biomedicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Director of the Initiative for Quantitative Prediction and the Cornell Aerospace Medicine Biobank. He is also co-Founder and global director at Biotia, Founder of the MetaSUB Consortium, and author of The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds and The Age of Prediction. Dr. Mason and his lab develop and deploy computational and experimental methodologies to identify the functional genetic elements of the human genome and metagenome. We perform research in three main areas: (1) clinical genetics, including molecular profiling of aggressive cancers, unusual diseases, and astronauts, (2) computational biology, including new biochemical and computational techniques in DNA/RNA sequencing and DNA/RNA base modifications, and (3) genome engineering for new cell, genome, and microbiome modifications. Overall, our lab aims to better understand of the functional elements of the human genome and metagenome, such that we can begin to repair or re-engineer these genetic networks for ameliorating disease and lay the foundation to enable long-term human survival. Dr. Mason has won the NIH’s Transformative R01 Award, the NASA Group Achievement Award, the International Space Station (ISS) R&D Award, the CDC Honor Award for Standardization of Clinical Testing, the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance Young Investigator award, the Hirschl-Weill-Caulier Career Scientist Award, the Vallee Scholar Award, the WorldQuant Scholar Award, and served on the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Decadal Survey for NASA. He was named as one of the “Brilliant Ten” Scientists by Popular Science, featured as a TEDMED speaker, and called “The Genius of Genetics” by 92Y. He has written 4 books and >400 peer-reviewed papers, featured on the covers of Nature, Science, Cell, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Microbiology, and Neuron, as well as legal briefs cited by U.S. District Courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. Coverage of his work has also appeared on the covers of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, TIME, The LA Times, and across many media (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN, NASA, NatGeo). He is an inventor on five patents and five FDA-authorized diagnostic tests, has co-founded 12 biotechnology companies, serves as an advisor to 32 others, and has also co-founded 5 non-profits. He lives with his daughter and wife in Brooklyn, NY.

Dr. Mohamed Abu-Farha is a distinguished Principal Scientist at Dasman Diabetes Institute (DDI) in Kuwait, where he leads the Proteomics Core Facility and heads the Special Services Department. He earned both his bachelor's and master’s degrees from Carleton University in Canada, followed by a Ph.D. from the University of Ottawa in 2009. He then completed postdoctoral training at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute before joining DDI in 2011.
Dr. Abu-Farha is internationally recognized as a leading expert in diabetes and metabolic diseases, with a particular focus on lipid metabolism and Proteomics. He has authored over 145 peer-reviewed publications, including original research articles, reviews, and book chapters published in high-impact journals such as Diabetes Care, Journal of Lipid Research, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), Progress in Lipid Research, Molecular & Cellular Proteomics, and Obesity. His work has received more than 6,500 citations, with an h-index of 42 and an i10-index of 85, reflecting the broad influence and scientific impact of his research.
Among his most notable contributions is his work on angiopoietin-like protein 8 (ANGPTL8), which has significantly advanced our understanding of its role in diabetes and obesity. His studies have elucidated key regulatory mechanisms of ANGPTL8, demonstrating its strong association with insulin resistance and lipid biomarkers. A landmark discovery from his team showed that insulin—rather than glucose—is the primary driver of ANGPTL8 expression in humans, shifting a long-standing paradigm in metabolic regulation. In addition to his work on diabetes, Dr. Abu-Farha leads several research programs investigating non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), diabetes prevention strategies, and emerging therapies for type 1 diabetes. His interdisciplinary and collaborative approach continues to inform the development of novel therapeutic interventions and enhance clinical understanding of metabolic disorders.
Beyond his research leadership, Dr. Abu-Farha serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is deeply committed to academic mentorship, having supervised several graduate students, numerous summer interns, and undergraduate research projects. He has also served as a teaching assistant for first- through fourth-year courses, contributing substantially to the education and development of future scientists. His dedication to global collaboration and capacity building underscores his broader mission to advance science and education on an international scale.

Jochen M. Schwenk is a Professor of Translational Proteomics at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and a group leader at the Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab). His research aims to elucidate the dynamic molecular characteristics of human health and disease by developing innovative patient-centric proteomics approaches. His pioneering work focuses on advancing the application of proteomics technologies in biomedicine to investigate circulating blood proteins. His research team combines expertise in study design, method development, and data-driven bioinformatics. Jochen holds scientific director positions at the Human Protein Atlas and SciLifeLab’s Proteomics Platform. He is an elected council member of the Human Proteome Organization (HUPO) and chairs HUPO’s Plasma Proteome Project. He holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Tübingen, Germany, and conducted postdoctoral research at the Human Protein Atlas.

Dr. Anas M. Abdel Rahman is a leading clinical metabolomics, proteomics, and integrated multiomics expert, with over 110 peer-reviewed publications in personalized medicine and biomarker discovery. He is an Associate Professor at Alfaisal University and a key investigator in leveraging omics technologies to revolutionize personalized medicine and aging research. His groundbreaking studies have advanced the diagnosis and management of rare metabolic and age-related disorders while also identifying metabolomic and proteomic signatures that illuminate the molecular mechanisms of aging. Dr. Abdel Rahman’s work exemplifies the potential of multiomics to transform global healthspan and therapeutic precision.