Plenary
Speakers
Meet the HUPO 2026 Plenary Speakers
Discover the leading scientists and innovators shaping the field of proteomics at HUPO 2026 in Singapore (September 27 – October 1, 2026). Our plenary speakers bring expertise across systems biology, clinical proteomics, computational methods, and translational research. Explore their bios, session topics, and contributions to cutting-edge proteomics research, and plan your Congress experience around these inspiring presentations.
Morten Andersen
Prof Morten Andersen’s research employs systems glycobiology approaches to explore how the complex glycoproteome affects the immune system in inflammation (sepsis), host-pathogen interactions and cancer. After completing his PhD in 2009 at the University of Southern Denmark, he relocated to Australia to complete two fellowships awarded by the Danish Research Agency and the Australian Research Council. Enabled by a Cancer Institute NSW fellowship, he established in 2015 the Analytical Glycoimmunology lab at Macquarie University, Sydney. He is currently an ARC Future Fellow and was recently recruited to the Institute for Glyco-Core Research (Nagoya Univ, Japan) as Visiting Professor to establish a satellite lab in clinical glycoproteomics.
Anna Halama
Anna Halama is an Assistant Professor of Research in Systems and Computational Biomedicine at Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar (WCM-Q), Doha, Qatar. Her research focuses on the application of multi-omics technologies, particularly metabolomics, to define complex diseases, with a primary emphasis on cancer and metabolic disorders such as diabetes. Her group investigates metabolic vulnerabilities, disease heterogeneity, and mechanisms of drug resistance using integrative omics approaches to support precision oncology, biomarker discovery, and patient stratification. In parallel, she is actively involved in medical education and explores the use of innovative technologies to enhance student learning.
Fuchu He
Dr. He is the leading scientist studying proteomics in China. He founded CNHUPO and was among HUPO's founders. He led HLPP and pushed it to CNHPP. In 2019, His team demonstrated the proteomic analysis as an independent and powerful tool in cancer molecular subtyping, indicating that the era of "Proteomics Driven Precision Medicine (PDPM)" is coming. He proposes a worldwide project called π-HuB (The Proteomic Navigator of the Human Body). It aims to play a central and catalytic role in biomedical research over the next several decades and provide an ultimate solution at the molecular level for the health and well-being of humankind.
Albert Heck
Albert Heck (Utrecht University) is an expert in protein mass spectrometry, a technology he applies to problems in proteomics and structural biology. The Heck laboratory established a track record in quantitative proteomics, and even more prominently, in the analysis of protein post-translational modifications, e.g. phosphorylation and glycosylation. Heck applied these techniques to study e.g. host-pathogen interactions and stem cell differentiation. Heck is also a leading scientist in native mass spectrometry and cross-linking mass spectrometry, that empower the structural analysis of protein assemblies. The Heck group develops mass analyzers dedicated for this work and uses these to study the structure and dynamics of among others immune complexes and viruses. In the last years Heck’s lab has developed a strong focus on serum proteomics, complement activation and antibody biology, advancing our understanding of the humoral immune response.
Olga Vitek
Dr. Vitek is Raymond Bradford Bradstreet Professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences, and Director of the Barnett Institute for Chemical and Biological Analysis at Northeastern University. She holds a PhD in Statistics from Purdue University, and was previously a Faculty and a University Faculty Scholar at Purdue.
Dr. Vitek's research intersects statistical science, machine learning, mass spectrometry, proteomics and systems biology. Statistical methods and open-source software developed in her lab, in particular MSstats for statistical analyses of quantitative proteomic experiments, and Cardinal for interpreting mass spectrometry imaging experiments, are widely used in academia and industry.
Dr. Vitek is an elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association, a recipient of the 2021 Gilbert S. Omenn Computational Proteomics Award of the US Human Proteome Organization (HUPO), and of the Indigo BioAutomation Females in Mass Spectrometry Distinguished Contribution Award. She is a recipient of the CAREER award of the National Science Foundation, and of the Essential Open-source Software Award of the Chan-Zuckerberg foundation. She is President-elect of USHUPO.
David Fenyo
Dr. David Fenyö received a PhD in Physics from Uppsala University in Sweden, and then switched the emphasis of his research to computational biology, first as a postdoctoral fellow at the Rockefeller University, then as a co-founder of a bioinformatics start-up company, and subsequently as staff scientist and product manager at GE Healthcare. Dr. Fenyö joined the NYU School of Medicine in 2010 and he is currently Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Director for the master’s program in Biomedical Informatics at NYU. Dr. Fenyö’s research focuses on providing a detailed understanding of the dynamics of cellular processes. He applies mathematical, statistical, and computational methods to optimize experimental design, analyze quantitative data, and model biological systems. His efforts to integrate data from multiple technologies—including mass spectrometry, sequencing, and microscopy—have provided a wide array of powerful tools for discovering and verifying biomarkers and therapeutic targets in cancer.
Matthias Mann
Matthias Mann earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Yale, contributing to his supervisor John Fenn's 2002 Nobel Prize for electrospray ionization. He leads the Proteomics and Signal Transduction department at the Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich and directs the Proteomics Program at Copenhagen University. A pioneer in the field, he has developed influential computational and proteomics workflows for biomedical applications, focusing on body fluids, single-cell biology, and post-translational modifications. With nearly 1,000 publications, an h-index of 283, and over 375,000 citations, he is among the world's most cited scientists, recognized with numerous prestigious international awards.