Peter Meissner
Peter Meissner has been associated with the University of Cape Town (UCT) Porphyria Laboratories at Groote Schuur Hospital since his student days, and his research career has focused on the porphyrias since 1982. As a medical biochemist his studies have centered primarily on the enzymes of the haem pathway, the biochemical and molecular (and clinical) mechanisms related to the pathogenesis and diagnosis of the porphyrias and spin-off projects associated with running the major specialist porphyria Centre in South Africa. He has maintained a close relationship with the University of Georgia where he spent time in the Dailey lab as a visiting Postdoc in the early 90’s.
In 2008 he was awarded the Chair in Medical Biochemistry at UCT, where he is now Professor (and previous Head). His current substantive role at UCT is as Director of Postgraduate Studies and Researcher Development, a senior leadership position born out of his passion and interest in training postgraduate students and developing young researchers across the university.
Laurent Gouya
Professor of Genetics University of Paris
Head Centre de Reference Maladies Rares Porphyries, Paris
Head INSERM UMR-S 1149, Team Heme and iron metabolism, Paris
Sverre Sandberg
Professor Sverre Sandberg MD, PhD is director of the Norwegian Quality Improvement of Laboratory examinations (NOKLUS) and the Norwegian Porphyria Center (NAPOS). He has been president of the European Organization for External Quality Assurance Providers in Laboratory Medicine (EQALM), president of the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) and has been a board member of IFCC. He is currently the president of the European Porphyria Network association (EPNET), chair of the council of ICHCLR and chair of the Task Group in EFLM for the Biological Variation Database. He also participates in other WGs in EFLM and IFCC. His professional interests are in porphyria, evidence-based laboratory medicine, quality improvement of point of care instruments, biological variation, analytical performance specifications.
Mike Badminton
Mike Badminton was Clinical Lead for the National Acute Porphyria Service Cardiff centre, and Director of the Cardiff SAS Porphyria Service laboratories until retiring at the end of 2021.
He has been involved in the diagnosis and management of all types of porphyria since 2001 and his research interests include the erythropoietic porphyrias, and more recently identifying modifier genes in acute porphyria.
He is a founder member of the European Porphyria Network, which was established to improve healthcare for porphyria patients and their families. He is involved in a number of international collaborative projects aimed at supporting other clinicians diagnosing and managing porphyria through sharing diagnostic information and developing consensus guidelines.
John Phillips
Dr. John Phillips has been working in the heme biosynthesis field at the University of Utah School of Medicine for the past 30 years. The primary focus of the laboratory is biochemical analysis of the proteins of heme biosynthesis, including regulation of expression, metabolic interactions and structure function studies.
