21st Annual Sam Seeds Research Day
Keynote Speaker: Rene Cortese, PhD, ATSF
Dr. Cortese has more than 15 years of profession-al experience in academic and industrial settings. His overarching research interest is the study of epigenomics in complex diseases to detect and understand how complex diseases develop, pro-gress, are inherited, and can be detected and treated.
He conducted groundbreaking studies in epigenomics of sleep disorders, including the cardiovascular and metabolic consequences of sleep disorders, the methylation patterns of circulating DNA in sleep apnea and cancer murine models, and their application as prognostic biomarkers. His team reported for the first time the effects of late-gestational sleep fragmentation and intermittent hypoxia on the epigenetic profiles of the offspring that result in metabolic disorders later in life.
Then he moved to industry, where he led the efforts to develop and implement an analytical environment tailored to circulating DNA analysis using cloud computing and served as Director of Product Development. After holding Management Positions in industry for four years, he decided to return to Academia with the goal of making a difference in scientific research and in the education of new professionals.
He has acquired extensive experience in project management, strategic decision making, and inter-disciplinary teamwork, which are key features in today’s large-scale scientific endeavors. For this project, he anticipates that the theoretical, technical, and regulatory knowledge and skills gained when working in molecular diagnostics in the industry will be extremely useful for interpreting epigenetic profiles with translational medicine insight.
He currently holds an Associate Professor position at the University of Kansas Medical Center. In this position, his work focuses on epigenomic phenomena in sleep disordered breathing and comorbidities.