Dongfang Liu, Ph.D., an Associate Professor and Director of Immunoassay Development Program at the Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine in Rutgers University- New Jersey Medical School. In 2012, Dr. Liu was recruited to Baylor College of Medicine as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, and Pathology & Immunology, before joining Houston Methodist Research Institute (HMRI) as an Assistant Professor in 2015. In 2018, Dr. Liu was promoted to an Associate Professor in HMRI. Dr. Liu did his Ph.D. and postdoctoral training on natural killer (NK) cells. After completing the postdoctoral training, he joined Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard in 2011 as a senior research scientist, where he worked on HIV-specific immune cell dysfunction. Dr. Liu’s research is primarily focused on the immunobiology of NK and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-NK cells. He has more than 20 years’ experience in NK cell research. Dr. Liu has published research papers in top-tier journals, including Nature Immunology, Immunity, Nature Communications, JACI, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., and others. Dr. Liu serves on several editorial boards for multiple journals and as a reviewer for a number of journals and several grant agencies.

Santi is a research scientist and business development professional with over 10 years of experience in autoimmune disease, immunology, and oncology disease areas. Santi received her training in human B cell development at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research Australia in Immunology, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia, focusing on pediatric leukemia and therapies. Her projects include testing agents’ efficacy and mechanisms such as navitoclax, venetoclax, and selumetinib. Her research projects resulted in multiple publications in journals such as Blood and Journal of Immunology and national/international awards.