RESEARCH DAY - KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Peter Kuhn,

PhD, Dean's Professor of Biological Sciences USC Dana & David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, & Sciences

Abdi Sameni,

DDS, FACD, Clinical Associate Professor Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC

Bobbi Pineda,

PhD, OTR/L, CNT, Assistant Professor USC Chan Division of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy

12:45-1:30 PM

Dr. Kuhn is a scientist, educator and entrepreneur with a career long commitment in personalized medicine and individualized patient care. He is focused on the redesign of cancer care. The first product from technology developed by Dr. Kuhn became available for cancer care in June 2016. Dr. Kuhn is the Dean’s Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Medicine and Engineering, a founding member of the Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences at USC and is leading CSI-Cancer at USC. Prof. Kuhn’s strategy is to advance our understanding of the human body to improve the human condition. His research is shedding new light at how cancer spreads through the body and evolves over time. This new science will lead to a personalized care strategy that is biologically informed and clinically actionable. Dr. Kuhn is a physicist who trained initially at the Julius Maximilians Universität Würzburg, Germany, before receiving his Masters in Physics at the University of Albany, Albany, NY in 1993 and his Ph.D. in 1995. He then moved to Stanford University where he joined the faculties of Medicine and Accelerator Physics. From 2002 to 2014 he established the Physics Oncology program at the Scripps Research in La Jolla, CA before joining USC in 2014. He has published over 200 peer scientific articles and patents as a result of his research. He founded Epic Sciences, Inc. in 2009 to develop cancer diagnostic products. In June 2016, Epic Sciences’ first CLIA certified LDT became available for patient care following the publication of clinical data demonstrating its predictive power.

Dr. Abdi Sameni is a Clinical Associate Professor of Dentistry and a 1991 graduate of the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC. He is a former faculty for the “esthetic selective” which emphasizes a “biomimetic approach” to restorative and esthetic care. He was the original director of the USC Advanced Esthetic Dentistry Continuum for the portion relating to indirect porcelain veneers. He is the former chairman and developer of the “USC International Restorative Dentistry Symposium” for the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC. In 2019 He founded the Los Angeles Dental Symposium. Dr. Sameni lectures nationally and internationally on topics related to interdisciplinary dentistry, digital photography and its applications for dentistry, and various aspects of biomimetic and esthetic dentistry. Dr. Sameni is a member of numerous professional organizations and societies, which include The American College of Dentists, The American Academy of Esthetic Dentistry, OKU National Dental Honor Society and the Pierre Fauchard Academy. He maintains a private practice in West Los Angeles, California.

Dr. Roberta “Bobbi” Pineda is an Assistant Professor of the USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. Dr. Pineda served in pediatric clinical roles at Tampa General Rehabilitation, All Children’s Hospital, Duke University Medical Center and University of Florida Shands Hospital from 1992 through 2006, where she gained expertise with outpatient and inpatient pediatric therapy, including services to fragile infants in the neonatal intensive care unit. The premature birth of her first child in addition to her ongoing interest in learning, led her to pursue her doctorate to conduct research with premature infants. Her dissertation investigated an educational intervention to promote breastfeeding in very low birth weight infants. Upon graduation with her doctorate in 2006, she began working at Washington University, where she spent 12 years exploring factors that can improve the lives of infants born prematurely.