Mikael Kubista
Dr. Kubista obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry at Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg and did postdocs at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, and Yale University, New Haven, USA. He invented the light-up probes for nucleic acid detection in homogeneous solution, which led to the foundation of LightUp Technologies AB as Europe´s first company focusing on quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) based diagnostics. In 2001 Kubista set up the TATAA Biocenter as a center of excellence in qPCR and gene expression analysis. In 2014, Kubista introduced non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in Sweden and started Life Genomics AB. In 2020 Kubista co-founded SimSen Diagnostics for liquid biopsy analyses. Kubista co-authored the MIQE guidelines for qPCR analysis, which is the most cited paper in molecular diagnostics, and he is a member of the CEN/ISO working group developing guidelines for molecular diagnostics. Most recently, Kubista’s team invented Two-Tailed PCR, arguably one of the most sensitive and specific methods for analyzing short nucleic acids and most suited for dPCR. Since 2007 Kubista has headed the Laboratory of Gene Expression at the Institute of Biotechnology, BIOCEV, Czech Academy of Sciences and is among the world’s 2 % most cited researchers. During the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic, Kubista’s team was one of the first in Europe to start testing on February 3, 2020.

No Digital PCR Festival would be complete without exploring the use of digital PCR in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Discover how scientists apply dPCR in cell and gene therapies where precision and sensitivity are of highest importance.

  • Opening remarks from QIAGEN
  • PCR in Biopharma - Past, Present, and the Future
    Speaker: Prof Dr. Mikael Kubista, Institute of Biotechnology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
  • Digital PCR Empowers Liquid Biopsy for Comprehensive Solid Tumor Management: Integrating Circulating Tumor Cells and Extracellular Vesicles
    Speaker: Prof Dr. Hsian-Rong Tseng, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, USA
  • Multiplex dPCR offers quantitative viral vector genome integrity evaluation
    Speaker: Assist. Prof. Dr. David Dobnik, Niba Labs d.o.o. , Slovenia
  • Digital PCR Applications for Gene Therapy Products Including AAV Quantitation
    Speaker: Mr. Stuart Nelson, Eli Lilly and Company, USA
  • Quantifying AAV vector genome titer in process  ̶  intermediate samples by digital PCR and digital droplet PCR (d/dPCR)
    Speaker: Mr. Chieme Kennedy Okechukwu, National Resilience, USA
  • Closing remarks from QIAGEN
Dr. Mikael Kubista and 4 other experts