Organizers

Gyorgy Bagdy, PhD, DSc

Dr. Gyorgy Bagdy is a Professor of Pharmacology and Chair of the Department of Pharmacodynamics at Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

Dr. Bagdy obtained his Pharmacy degree and PhD degree at Semmelweis University, Budapest. He worked as a Visiting Fellow and Research Consultant at the NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA for 5 years. He was the Scientific Director of the National Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Budapest before he obtained the Full Professorship at Semmelweis University. His main research interests are physiology and pathophysiology, genomics and pharmacology of anxiety, depression and sleep disorders including molecular, in vivo animal and human studies which include neuropsychopharmacology and pharmacogenomics. The Laboratory of Neurochemistry and Experimental Medicine in Budapest, achieved international reputation in the above fields including the role of serotonin in neuropsychiatry and its pharmacology under his leadership.

Dr. Bagdy works in national and EU funded research consortia like the “New molecules in mood disorders: a genomic, neurobiological and systems approach in animal models and human disorder”.

He has published more than 150 scientific papers in reputed journals with a cumulative impact factor of 400 and has over 3500 citations on his works.

He is the member of several national and international professional scientific societies, and the Scientific Board of the Semmelweis University. He serves on the editorial boards of journals in the field of neuro- and psychopharmacology, including e.g. European Neuropsychopharmacology.

Daniel Bereczki, MD, PhD, DSc, FESO

Daniel Bereczki is a professor of neurology and the chairman of the Department of Neurology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary. Dr. Bereczki is a board certified neurologist and psychiatrist, with major interest in clinical neurology, especially cerebrovascular diseases. He has gained his clinical and research experience at the Department of Neurology, University of Debrecen, Hungary; State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA; and CYRIC Center, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. Dr. Bereczki joined the Cochrane Collaboration in 1993, and since 2001 he has been on the Editorial Board of the Cochrane Stroke Review Group. He also serves on the Editorial Board of the journals Stroke (American Heart Association), Stroke Research and Treatment, Neuropsychopharmacologia Hungarica, and Frontiers in Stroke, and he is a section editor for BMC Neurology. Dr. Bereczki is a consultant for the Medical Research Council, and for the National Health Service, Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (UK), and is the head of the Szentágothai Neuroscience Doctoral School of Semmelweis Universtiy.

Andras Falus

Andras Falus is a professor of the Semmelweis University (Budapest, Hungary) and member of Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His major field is immunogenomics, allergy- and oncogenomics. Recently his major attention focuses on histamine related immunoregulation, non-coding DNA (e.g. microRNA) and microvesicles, a newly recognized form of intercellular communication.

He wrote and edited 9 books (including at Springer, John Wiley & Sons, Karger) and published over 300 research papers with a total citation over 3,500.

He is the past president of Hungarian Society for Immunology. Dr. Falus was a fellow at Odense University (1980-81), Harvard Medical School (1984-86), visiting professor at Osaka University (1989). He organized the first International Immunogenomics (2004) and Immunoinformatics (2006) Conference, and is a founding member of International Immunomics Society. He is Editor or board member of four international scientific journals. Andras Falus supervised about 30 graduated students, so far.

Dr. Falus was awarded the Szechenyi price (2006), Neumann award (2006) and Semmelweis price (2008).

Prof. Béla Péter Merkely

Prof. Béla Merkely is the director and chair of Semmelweis University Heart Center – Cardiology Department.

He received his medical degree with Summa Cum Laude at Semmelweis University’s Faculty of Medicine. In 1996 he acquired a certification in Internal Medicine, in 1998 acquired a certification in Cardiology.

In 1999 Merkely obtained PhD degree and then in 2006 he was named doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and habilitated at Semmelweis University. He has been the consultant of about twelve sponsored research projects since 1994. He participated in several international research projects cooperating with such foreign universities as that of Heidelberg, Aachen, Berlin, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Bonn, Paris, Gdansk, Boston, Oulu.

As for his professional activity, Merkely introduced the use of implantable cardioverter defibrillator and cardiac resynchronization therapy in the treatment of sudden cardiac death and heart failure. Besides, in Hungary he was the first who used the invasive rotablational treatment for inoperable coronary disease. He was one of the organizors of the Infarction Emergency Service in Central-Hungary, and as a professional supervisor, he was responsible for its monitoring and the development of the quality indicators of the treatment of acute myocardial infarction.

He is the co-chairman of the National Societies Committee of European Heart Rhythm Association and the president of the Hungarian Society of Cardiology.

Maria Judit Molnar

Dr. Maria Judit Molnar is the director of the Genomic Medicine and Institute of Rare Disorders, vice-rector of the Semmelweis University, president of the Hungarian Clinical Neurogenetic Society and secretary of the Hungarian Society of Personalized Medicine. Since 1999 she is an adjunct professor at the Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University.

She·received his MD and later PhD in Neurobiology at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. She is specialized in neurology, psychiatry, clinical genetics and neuropathology. She is the Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences since 2011.

She was the founder of the first neurogenetic laboratory in Debrecen, and Department of Molecular Neurology at the National Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology. She also pioneered with the launch of the neurological and psychiatric biobank (NEPSYBANK) and with the introduction of the concept of personalized medicine into neurology. Her most important scientific achievements: identification of genetic mutations and pathological processes in the background of rare neurologic disorders; genetic epidemiological studies; development of new diagnostical methods (eg. preimplantational genetic diagnostics in mitochondrial disorders), investigation of new predictive genetic biomarkers.

She also carried out promising animal and human gene therapy studies with the insertion of the dystrophin gene aiming to treat the Duchenne type muscular dystrophies. She has been the leader and coordinator of numerous research grants. She conducted the Prevention Modul at the scientific university project „Modern Medical Technologies at Semmelweis University”.

Her research activity yielded 165 publications, more than 300 presentations, 18 book chapters and 1 individual book (Basics and modern approach of neuromuscular disorders). She initiated the Semmelweis University Biobank Network and the Rare Disorders Network.

Pál Soós

Pál Soós MD PhD, senior lecturer at the Heart Center, Semmelweis University. His main focus is heart failure diagnostics and therapy. Dr. Soós has spent three years at the University of Heidelberg as postdoctoral research fellow and clinician. He became a specialist of end-stage heart failure patient management. Currently he is consultant of the pre-HTX program at the Heart Center. Dr. Soós is tutor in the School of PhD Studies at Semmelweis University in topic of cardiovascular epidemiology. He is the coordinator of heart failure study group of Budakalász Health Examination Survey. Dr. Soós is also involved to the heart transplantation experimental research team focusing on whole heart tissue engineering and developing new organ transfer solutions. His scientific work was awarded with several prestigious prizes, among others Rudolf-Thauer Prize and István Kunos Prize. Dr. Soós is responsible for the heart failure research program at the Heart Center, Semmelweis University.

Zoltan Takats

Dr. Zoltan Takats has obtained his M.Sc. degree in Chemistry from the Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, in 1998. He has carried out his Ph.D. research at the Chemical Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and at Purdue University. He has obtained his Ph.D.degree in analytical chemistry in 2003. He has been doing mass spectrometry-related research for more than 15 years, with a primary focus on the development of novel atmospheric pressure ionization methods. He is the primary inventor of electrosonic spray ionization, desorption electrospray ionization, jet desorption ionization and rapid evaporative ionization mass spectrometry methods. Besides pursuing a scientific career, he has been deeply involved in the introduction of mass spectrometry-based neonatal screening programme in Hungary and served as the head of one of the national screening laboratories.

Following a couple of years spent at Justus-Liebig-Universität in Gießen, Germany, he currently works as Reader in medical mass spectrometry at Department of Surgery and Cancer, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London.

Present research interests include the application of ambient ionization methods in surgical metabonomics and development of mass spectrometric imaging techniques for the rapid phenotyping of cancer patients.