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Plenary Speaker Profile – WednesdayProf Mario PlebaniMario Plebani obtained his medical degree summa cum laude from theMedical School of University of Padova in 1975. He completedspecialisaon in Laboratory Medicine (1978), then Gastroenterology(1983), at the same University. In 1991 he was appointed Head of theClinical Laboratory of the University-Hospital in Padova and in 2001 Chairof the Department of Laboratory Medicine. In 2003 he was appointedFull Professor of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Molecular Biology at theMedical School.Currently, he is Director of the Postgraduate School in Clinical Biochemistryand President of the course for Medical Technologists. He is a Fellow ofRCPath and a Member of the ACB. He is Past-President of the InternaonalSociety of Enzymology (ISE) and of the Italian Society of ClinicalBiochemistry and Molecular Clinical Biology. He is President of the ItalianFederaon of Scienfic Sociees of Laboratory Medicine (FISMeLAB).He has published 700 original papers and is a recipient of a number ofnaonal and internaonal Awards, including the 2008 AACC Award forOutstanding Clinical Laboratory Contribuons to Paent Safety. He is Editorin Chief of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM), andAssociate Editor of other journals.Dr Rossa ChiuAer graduang from the University of Queensland, Australia, in 1997with First Class Honours in Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery,Dr Rossa Chiu specialised in Chemical Pathology. She received postgraduatetraining in research and was awarded Doctor of Philosophy by The ChineseUniversity of Hong Kong in 2004.Dr Chiu joined the Department of Chemical Pathology, The ChineseUniversity of Hong Kong in 1999 as Assistant Professor, became AssociateProfessor in 2004 and then Senior Lecturer, her current posion, in 2008.She is also an Honorary Consultant at the New Territories East Cluster ofHospitals, Hong Kong.Dr Chiu’s main research interests include the development of non-invasiveprenatal diagnosc approaches, novel molecular diagnosc strategies andinnovave applicaons of molecular analysis tools. She was the first todevelop approaches to apply cell-free fetal DNA analysis in maternalplasma for the non-invasive prenatal diagnosis of autosomal recessivediseases. Recently, she was the first to perform a large scale study todemonstrate the effecveness of massively parallel sequencing as a clinicaldiagnosc tool for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis of Down’s syndrome.To date, Dr Chiu has published over 100 peer-reviewed research arcles,15 books or monographs, delivered over 30 invited presentaons and has19 granted patents or patent applicaons. Dr Chiu has been awarded theIFCC Roche Young Invesgator Award in 2011, plus other awards.She is Past President of the Hong Kong Society of Clinical Chemistry.Focus 2011 | Speaker Profile | Wednesday23