SALSA 2021

Saliva Symposium Australia

Cutting-edge science symposium on saliva/non-invasive diagnostics and technologies.

Our aim is to showcase emerging saliva research, technological advances and translation pathways to personalised health & medicine.

The program includes three part-days of international and national presentations, including student presentations with an award.

If you would like to be considered for a presentation, please send a 300-word abstract to wayne.leifert@csiro.au. by Wednesday 19th May, 2021. The Team will get back to you regarding the presentation opportunity.

Pricing

• Free

Dates and Times

Contact

Wayne Leifert

More information

Some topics covered:

• Salivaomics
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Cardiovascular disease
• Cancer
• Health/disease diagnostics
• Aging
• Commercial and future technologies
• Student awards

Hosting organisation: CSIRO Australia

Speakers

A/Prof Wayne Leifert – Conference Convenor and Organiser

Bio: A/Prof Leifert completed a PhD (2001) in molecular and cellular biology (University of Adelaide and CSIRO) and was the first to demonstrate acute mechanisms of omega3 long-chain fatty acids on cardiac ionic currents. Leifert developed a sophisticated quantitative imaging microscopy suite at CSIRO, indicating increased DNA damage in peripheral blood and buccal cells from patients with Alzheimer’s disease. As a current Principal Research Scientist of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory at CSIRO and affiliated A/Prof at the University of Adelaide, Leifert’s research group aims to identify early non-invasive biomarkers of cognitive decline as a screening tool to identify Alzheimer’s disease prior to the development of symptoms, thus enabling more timely intervention measures. Leifert has an international track record in non-invasive diagnostics resulting in 15 international peer-reviewed publications in the past 5 years (with career works of 55 publications, 1 book and 9 book chapters; 1580 life-time citations, an h-index of 19 and numerous local and national awards in the field of medical biochemistry). Leifert has a deep understanding of molecular and cellular biology, biochemistry, physiology and statistics, as evidenced via a highly multidisciplinary publication profile. Recently, A/Prof Leifert has developed non-invasive (saliva) methods in “omics” technologies to identify novel neurological biomarkers. He is also leading a study investigating Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers in a cohort of 250 individuals. In mentoring, Leifert has supervised students (undergraduate and postgraduate) and staff at all levels, including 8 Hons students, 5 PhD students, 3 Masters and 3 post-docs.

Dr Maxime François – Conference Organiser and speaker

Title: Saliva-omics as a potential tool for the molecular diagnostic of Alzheimer’s disease.

Bio: Maxime François is a Research Scientist at CSIRO Health & Biosecurity. He received his PhD in Medical Sciences from Edith Cowan University where he was investigating new biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease in cheek cells using laser scanning cytometry. He went on to investigate guanine-quadruplexes (secondary DNA structures) and their modulation in the context of ageing and nutrition. His research has focused on developing imaging techniques to measure a panel of protein markers within lymphocytes and buccal cells relating to DNA damage, nutritional deficiencies, ageing and neurodegenerative diseases. His current research aims at developing biomarkers of genomic ageing and health in saliva. Maxime is an expert user of a panel of imaging equipment such as laser scanning cytometer, Metasystem Metafer, Nikon A1 confocal microscope and 3D Imaris imaging software.

Maxime has published 22 peer-reviewed research papers including two book chapters and is the SA hub leader for the Australian and French Researchers in Australia Network association (AFRAN). Maxime is an editorial board member of newly established scientific journals and has a strong engagement in teaching, with previous experience as a biology and French tutor for Flinders University and the University of Adelaide, respectively. He has also supervised visiting scientists, 2 master students and 2 PhD students from the University of Adelaide.

Prof David Wong

Title: Salivaomics, Saliva-Exosomics and Saliva Liquid Biopsy

Bio: Prof Wong is Felix & Mildred Yip Distinguished Professor, Associate Dean of Research and Director of the Oral/Head and Neck Oncology Research Center at UCLA. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS), Fellow of AADR, past member of the ADA Council of Scientific Affairs and the past president of American Association of Dental Research (AADR). He is current chair of the NCI Liquid Biopsy Consortium and chartered member and co-chair of the NIH CSR Cancer Biomarker Study Section (CBSS).

Prof Jill Maron

Title: Translating Saliva Research to the Bedside: Overcoming Roadblocks on the Path to Success

Bio: Dr. Maron received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and both her MD and MPH degrees from Tulane University. She completed her pediatric residency at Brown University and her fellowship in Newborn Medicine at Tufts Medical Center.

Jill is a Professor of Pediatrics and Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tufts University School of Medicine, the Executive Director of the Mother Infant Research Institute at Tufts Medical Center and the Vice Chair of Pediatric Research at Tuft’s Children’s Hospital. She also serves as the Co-Editor-in-Chief for Clinical Therapeutics. For over 15 years, her research has focused on developing and integrating novel salivary and genetic diagnostic platforms into neonatal and maternal care for rapid assessment of development, impending morbidities and genetic disorders. She is internationally recognized for her contribution to the development of neonatal salivary diagnostic platforms and currently serves as a multi-PI on three NIH funded, multicenter clinical trials. She has published extensively in the field.

Dr Paul Slowey

Title: TBA

Bio: Paul D Slowey PhD, CEO, Oasis Diagnostics® Corporation and Managing Member of Bamburgh Marrsh LLC, Vancouver WA 98686 USA.

Dr. Slowey is the Founder and Owner of Oasis Diagnostics® Corporation and its subsidiary Company, Bamburgh Marrsh LLC, founded in 2002, each are pioneers in the area of oral fluid diagnostics and testing. Dr Slowey’s background is in Organic Chemistry; after being awarded his Doctorate from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK), he spent several years as a Post Doctoral Fellow in Canada then 5 years in the pharmaceutical industry with Sterling Drug [UK]. He has over 35 years of experience in the clinical diagnostic and pharmaceutical industries combined. Over the years he has held positions as Director of International Sales and Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Vice President of Sales and Marketing for companies that were the original pioneers in the development of saliva diagnostic rapid tests for infectious diseases, and oral fluid collection devices. He has extensive experience in structuring strategic alliances and license agreements with both start-up and Fortune 500 companies. Dr Slowey has 45 publications in peer-reviewed journals, including seven published book chapters, seventeen (17) issued patents, ten (10) filed patent applications and he has made a number of oral presentations at key scientific symposia on a variety of subjects including HIV diagnosis, liquid biopsy testing for cancer diagnosis, nucleic acid testing, the status of oral fluid testing, the Japanese Healthcare Business and Thyrotropin Receptor Antibody Assays for the Diagnosis of Graves’ Disease.

Dr Slowey is also an Honorary Professor at Central South University, Changsha, China, the Founder and Co-Organizer of the North American Saliva Symposium (NASS, www.salivasymposium.com) and a Director of a small teaching college in Kampala, Uganda.

A/Prof Chamindie Punyadeera

Title: Salivary diagnostics: Hope or Hype?

Bio: A/Prof. Chamindie Punyadeera is an inventor and a leader in women in Science Technology Engineering Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM). She has had a hybrid research career working in industry as well as in academia. She has worked at Philips Electronics in the Netherlands and has been instrumental in developing Philips Mini-care I-20 for cardiac disease detection. She has also contributed to the development of an integrated platform to detect nucleic acids (Idylla TM) commercialised by Biocartis NV (Belgium). She is a globally acknowledged pioneer in salivary diagnostics. She is a consultant to Oasis Diagnostics®, USA and FLUIDS iQ™, Montreal, Canada. She leads a world-class saliva research laboratory in Australia, 13 researchers focusing on developing novel salivary technologies to detect heart disease and the application of liquid biopsy to accelerate precision treatment in cancers. She is the convenor of the inaugural saliva conference in Australasia in 2016, which is now a national conference. A/Prof. Punyadeera has 101 publications, 6 invited book chapters, cited 3635 times with a h-index of 31. She has also produced 16 PCT applications and in the process of licensing salivary oral cancer test. Her team is also develops prognostic assays to identify pateints likely to develop recurrences using circulating tumour cells. She has partnered with Agena Biosciences in translating this prognostic assay into clinical practice. She has delivered key note and invited lecturers both nationally and internationally. She is a grant reviewer for both national and international funding agencies and currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Oral Oncology, associate editor BMC Genomics and a guest editor to BMC Medical Genomics, Diagnostics and Biomolecules.

Prof Paul Dastoor

Title: Organic Thin Film Transistors: A Platform Technology for Low-Cost Printed Saliva Sensors

Bio: Professor Paul Dastoor is Professor of Physics at the University of Newcastle in Australia. He received his B.A. degree in Natural Sciences and his PhD in Surface Physics from the University of Cambridge. He has been Visiting Research Fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, UK, at the Daresbury Laboratory, Cheshire, UK at Nanyang Technological University and Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge. He is Director of the Centre for Organic Electronics, which he established in 2007.

Prof Dastoor is the UON Node Director for the ANFF Materials Node, which is responsible for delivering advanced fabrication and characterisation facilities to academic and industrial researchers across Australia and overseas. He is also the Ambassador for the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN), which brings together smart sensing expertise in academia, industry and government to develop a strong, collaborative and innovative network that will deliver economic and social benefits for New South Wales.

His research interests encompass the growth and properties of thin films, neutral atom microscopy and organic electronic devices based on semi-conducting polymers. These exciting materials offer the tantalising prospect of paints that generate electricity directly from sunlight and sensors that can be printed as flexible arrays. Prof Dastoor has a strong track record in research translation and commercialisation, with a substantial number of patents granted in the US and Europe (as well as in Australia). He has spun out five companies including his glucose biosensor technology (GBS Inc) which listed on the NASDAQ in 2020.

Dr Christa Noehammer

Title: Saliva biomarkers for complex disease diagnostics

Bio: Christa Noehammer currently works as Senior Scientist at the Austrian Institute of Technology where she has been heading the Molecular Medicine research unit for several years. Holding a master degree in Microbiology and a PhD in Biochemistry she has been working in the microarray field since 1999 being involved in the design, production and data analysis of various microarray types thereby mainly focusing on minimally invasive biomarker discovery for cancer diagnostics. The last couple of years Dr. Noehammer has been very much involved in the setup of sampling - and biomarker isolation protocols as well as high throughput biomarker technologies (DNA & protein microarrays, next generation sequencing etc.) for saliva diagnostics. Most recently she also started to work on saliva- and serum-derived exosomes aiming e.g. for the discovery of exosomal epigenetic biomarkers for early diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

A/Prof David J. Beale

Title: Applications of Functional Salivaomics in Systems Biology Research

Bio: David is a Senior Research Scientist in CSIRO Land & Water and affiliated A/Prof at RMIT University, delivering research outcomes and creating impact in applications of functional systems biology (i.e., metabolomics, lipidomics, and proteomics). A/Prof Beale is a project leader within the ‘Environmental Systems Biology’ team who develop high-throughput tools for detecting, quantifying, and tracking contaminants in the environment and assessing their biological impact using omics-based techniques. A/Prof Beale has been able to transfer these tools and approaches to industrial and clinical applications outside his field of expertise, growing his reputation as a national science leader with an emerging international profile in metabolomics and omics-based research. A/Prof Beale has extensive experience in applied pre-clinical and clinical metabolomics. Specifically, assessing influenza vaccine and drug therapies in ferret models using metabolomics, investigating SARS-CoV-2 viral infections and the host response post infection, investigating gut parasites and their impact on the host metabolism, and more broadly, the fundamental biochemical characterisation of human health and diseases using human clinical samples and controlled animal model experiments.

A/Prof Beale is the current Chair of the Land & Water Science Council and is the Vice President of the Australian and New Zealand Metabolomics Network (ANZMN). He holds numerous adjunct positions at Australian and International Universities and is a Section Editor of the International Metabolomics Society (MSI) journal ‘Metabolites’. David has published more than 80 peer-reviewed research papers (ISI H-index of 22), multiple book chapters and served as the senior editor for two metabolomics-based books. In mentoring, David has supervised students (undergraduate and postgraduate) and staff at all levels, including 5 Hons students, 4 PhD students, and 3 post-docs.

Dr Gargi Roy Goswami

Title: Challenges with Saliva Diagnostics – an Indian perspective

Bio: Dr Gargi is the founder and director of KROYNAS Pvt. Ltd and the founder of SALSI (Saliva Symposium of India). Gargi is at the academy for clinical and dental genetics and is an honorary invited peer reviewer. She is part of the National Research Foundation, South Africa.

 

A/Prof Andrew McKune

Title: Saliva Bioscience in Mental Health and Wellbeing

Bio: Andrew McKune is an Associate Professor in Strength and Conditioning at the University of Canberra. He holds qualifications in sport & exercise science, medical science (physiology), strength and conditioning (CSCS) and a doctoral degree specialising in exercise immunology. Andrew’s research interests are focused towards dysfunctions in the stress-response, inflammation and bioenergetic systems in mental illness and their potential as targets for exercise and nutrition interventions. This includes measurement of non-invasive methods including saliva and heart-rate variability.

Mr Nathan D'Cunha

Title: Saliva Bioscience in Mental Health and Wellbeing

Bio: Nathan D’Cunha is a PhD candidate at the University of Canberra (UC) investigating the effects of the psychosocial interventions for people living with dementia in residential aged care. Nathan’s research interests also include non-invasive biomarkers, and ageing and nutrition, particularly interventions that may serve to prevent or delay age-related conditions such as dementia. Nathan also teaches into the UC Faculty of Health in Nutritional Science and Food Science, and currently holds a Dementia Australia Research Foundation PhD scholarship.

A/Prof Guozhen Liu

Title: Paper test strips for point-of-care testing of cytokines in saliva

Bio: Professor Guozhen LIU is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), and an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney. Prof LIU’s scientific career is alternating between academia and industry. Prof Liu obtained her PhD under the supervising of Prof Justin Gooding at UNSW followed by her postdoctoral research at CSIRO and UNSW, respectively before she was appointed as an Associate Professor at Central China Normal University in 2009. She worked at Macquarie University before she was awarded the prestigious ARC Future Fellowship in 2016. From 2011 to 2015, she, as a R&D Manager (China), was leading a team to formulate and produce glucose test strips at AgaMatrix Inc, a US BioTech company to make products for diabetes. Prof LIU is recognised for her interdisciplinary and translational research with close end-user engagement in the area of advanced biosensors, intelligent nanoparticles, and medical devices. Prof LIU has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal papers, 1 book chapter and 9 patents with the H-index=35. Her patented technologies have attracted interests and funding from biomedical firms such as AstraZeneca, AgaMatrix Inc, Regeneus Ltd, etc. Among her many prestigious awards, she received the Rising Star Award by Australian Association of Chinese Biomedical Scientists (2018), and Australian Georgina Sweet Award for Women in Quantitative Biomedical Science (2020). Prof LIU is currently serving as the Specialty Chief Editor for Biosensors and Biomolecular Electronics in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, special issue editor of Biosensors & Bioelectronics, and the vice-chair of IEEE Sensor Council NSW Chapter.

Dr Yen Ting Wong

Title: A comparison of epithelial cell content of oral samples estimated using cytology and DNA methylation

Bio: Dr Yen Ting Wong completed her PhD in Biotechnology at Deakin University and she is a postdoctoral research fellow at Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT). Her research focuses on developing epigenetic biomarkers for neurodevelopmental and other chronic disorders. She also collaborates with DNA Genotek Inc. to investigate sample collection methods and cellular heterogeneity using cytology compared with cellular deconvolution algorithms. Currently, she is working on predicting the onset and different developmental trajectories in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a project on optimising saliva cell-type separation for early identification of haemolysis in leukemia patients. She carries out all the laboratory and analysis of data produced. These works work closely with the School of Psychology and IMPACT Institute at Deakin University and collaborate with MCRI, Royal Children’s Hospital.

Dr. George ‘Wren’ Greene

Title: A simple electrochemical swab assay for the rapid quantification of clonazepam in unprocessed saliva enabled by lubricin antifouling coatings

Bio: Dr. George ‘Wren’ Greene is currently the ‘Universal Biosensors Senior Fellow’ at the Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) at Deakin University and an Associate Investigator in the Australian Center for Excellence in Electromaterials Science (ACES). Dr. Greene began his research career as a research scientist in the corporate research and development department at the Porex Corporation (Fairburn, GA USA), the world’s largest manufacture of porous plastic media. During his five years at Porex, Dr. Greene gained extensive experience inventing new technologies that resulted in 6 patented with applications in medical diagnostics and filtration media. Dr. Greene left Porex to persue a PhD at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he worked both as a graduate student researcher and research associate in Prof. Jacob Israelachvili’s Lab. The late Prof. Israelachvili remains world renowned and widely regarded as one of the most influential experimental surface and interfacial scientists to have lived. In 2011, Dr. Greene joined the Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) at Deakin University and was awarded an ARC DECRA fellowship in 2013 to investigate the properties and potential applications of lubricin, a biolubricant and anti-adhesive glycoprotein having many interesting properties. Dr. Greene continues to lead the surface and interfacial science laboratory at Deakin IFM working across a wide range of multidisciplinary projects which include fluid-mineral reactions, bionic implants, biosensors, microfluidics, food preservation coatings, solid electrolytes for energy storage, and lubricant oils.

Dr Zhang, Xi

Title: Salivary Protein Panel to Diagnose Systolic Heart Failure

Bio: My major research interest involves using novel proteomics methods to identify novel biomarkers for systemic and local diseases. I expertised in immunoassay, mass spectrometry, molecular biology and general chemistry. I am particularly interested in using saliva as a medium for novel biomarker discovery due to the ease of collection nature of saliva. By developing diagnostic and prognostic platform in saliva, patients can utilise these platforms in a non-clinical setting and reduce the need of routine clinical visit. My research interest focuses on early diagnosis and prognosis management heart failure. I also interested in head and neck cancer.

Professor S.S. Vasan

Title: Importance of salivary profiling in animal and human studies on COVID-19

Bio: Professor S.S. Vasan, who goes by his surname, is based at CSIRO's secure ‘Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness’ (ACDP) facility in Geelong. His Team performs R&D and preclinical evaluation of vaccines and countermeasures against pathogens requiring physical containment at levels 3 and 4. They were the first outside China to grow stocks of the novel coronavirus, first to show that ferrets are susceptible, and used this animal model to conduct preclinical evaluation of Inovio and Oxford vaccines and demonstrate that the intranasal route is promising. He was previously at the equivalent high containment facility in Porton Down, UK, and prior to that with Oxford University’s spin-out Oxitec as Head of Public Health working on arboviral diseases. Dr Vasan is also Honorary Professor of Health Sciences at the University of York, UK, and a Fellow of several professional bodies. He obtained his doctorate from Trinity College, Oxford, on a Rhodes Scholarship. Dr Vasan is CSIRO's COVID-19 Project Leader and led his ACDP project team to the Chairman's Medal, the highest award bestowed by the national science agency of Australia. He is currently leading a COVID-19 systems biology case control study and developing cost-effective therapies that can withstand SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.

Dr. Kai Dun Tang

Title: Oropharyngeal lesions discovery through a simple saliva-based test

Bio: Dr Kai Dun Tang obtained a PhD degree in late 2015 from Queensland University of Technology (QUT), focusing on the study of tumour microenvironment and metastasis using both animal and tissue engineering models. He began his academic career as an early career postdoctoral researcher, concentrating on the development of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for head and neck cancer using blood and saliva in the lab of A/Professor Punyadeera at QUT/ Institute of Health Biomedical Innovation (IHBI).

Greg Warner, Ph.D.

Title: Measurement of Biomarkers in Saliva and other Non-Invasive Sample Types using Simoa Technology

Bio: Dr. Greg Warner is a Global Business Development Manager at Quanterix. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin and his Doctorate Degree in Nutritional Biochemistry from the University of Minnesota. After his post-doctoral training, Dr. Warner worked at Enanta Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, MA before joining PerkinElmer. During his 16 years at PerkinElmer, Dr. Warner worked in various capacities, but specialized in the development and support of various biomarker detection platforms. Dr. Warner joined Quanterix in 2017 and currently works with their Global Distributor partners to support the Simoa immunoassay technologies.

Contact us

A/Prof Wayne Leifert wayne.leifert@csiro.au

Dr Maxime Francois maxime.francois@csiro.au

Find out more

• SalSA 2021 Program (PDF, 233KB)