WIRED has announced the final main stage speakers, as well as the draft agenda, subject to updates, for WIRED Health 2016, the one-day summit on the future of health taking place on Friday, April 29. More than 20 speakers will comprise the Main Stage line-up of ground breaking individuals from across the medical spectrum.

Newly confirmed speakers include:

  • Kyu Rhee, chief health officer, IBM, who oversees the Health Unit for AI computer Watson. A physician focusing on public health, he joined IBM in 2011 after working for the US Department of Health.
  • Vincent Walsh, professor of human brain research, UCL, who is researching the effects of magnetic and electric brain stimulation in the treatment of depression and sleep disorders, and applying it to the world of sport.
  • Ye Yin, CEO, BGI Genomics Co. Yin leads the largest genomics organisation in the world. BGI offers genetic screening for inherited diseases, whole-genome sequencing - for people, animals and plants - and animal clone research.
  • Jeremy Farrar, an infectious diseases scientist who heads the Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving human health.
  • John P. Donoghue, director of the Wyss Center, whose BrainGate enables paralysed people to control robotic limbs using their minds. He's also tackling motor neuron disease with gene therapy and building haptic prosthetics.
  • Craig Venter, biotechnologist & CEO, Human Longevity, Inc, who sequenced the human genome in 2001. He created the first synthetic lifeforms and co-founded genomics company Human Longevity - to boost human lifespan. Craig will be speaking via video link.

Individual session themes and speakers within each session include:

  • The Threat Of Epidemics - Jim O'Neill, Commercial Secretary to the Treasury who is leading the UK Government's Review on Microbial Resistance. The former chief economist for Goldman Sachs is credited with coining the term BRIC economies; Jeremy Farrar, head of the Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving human health, and a specialist in infectious diseases.
  • Unlocking The Brain - John P. Donoghue, Director of the Wyss Center, whose BrainGate enables paralysed people to control robotic limbs using their minds. He's also tackling motor neuron disease with gene therapy and building haptic prosthetics; John Hardy, chair, Department of Molecular Neuroscience, UCL Institute of Neurology. Pioneering the study of Alzheimer's, Hardy won the 2015 Breakthrough prize, the award backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin; Gero Miesenböck, professor of physiology and director of the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, University of Oxford, who has pioneered optogenetics, inventing techniques used for visualising and controlling nerve cells with light; Vincent Walsh, professor of human brain research, UCL, who is researching the effects of magnetic and electric brain stimulation in the treatment of depression and sleep disorders, and applying it to the world of sport.
  • Redesigning Medicine - Anna Young, co-founder of MakerNurse, with which she is turning nurses into hackers by bringing rapid prototyping tools into American hospitals; Lucy McRae, a science-fiction artist, film maker and body architect whose recent project, The Astronaut Aerobics Institute, is a fictional futuristic day-spa prepping the human body for space travel; Geraldine Hamilton, president and chief scientific officer, Emulate, whose organs-on-chips could replace human and animal test subjects. It won the London Design Museum's Design of the Year 2015; Jose Gomez-Marquez, director of Little Devices Lab, MIT, who is the inventor of Ampli and MEDIKit tools that allow medical staff to invent their own medical devices, such as an Ebola diagnostic kit; Andrew JS Dawood, specialist in periodontics and prosthodontics who uses 3D scanning technology and 3D printing to rebuild the jaws, teeth and cheekbones of patients; and Josh Stephenson, patient of Dawood who has had sections of his skull and body removed following melanoma diagnosis. 3D printing helped reconstruct his appearance.
  • Healthcare Online - Jen Hyatt, founder, Big White Wall, the online community which offers millions of mental health patients peer and professional support, self-management tips and therapy;
  • The AI Doctor - Kyu Rhee, Chief Health Officer, IBM, who oversees the Health Unit for AI computer Watson. A physician focusing on public health, he joined IBM in 2011 after working for the US Department of Health.
  • Genomics - Craig Venter, biotechnologist & CEO, Human Longevity, Inc, who sequenced the human genome in 2001. He created the first synthetic lifeforms and co-founded genomics company Human Longevity - to boost human lifespan; Ye Yin, CEO, BGI Genomics Co. Yin leads the largest genomics organisation in the world. BGI offers genetic screening for inherited diseases, whole genome sequencing - for people, animals and plants - and animal clone research.
  • Medicine At The Cellular Level - Jo Mountford, head of Tissue and Cellular Therapeutics RDI, Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, whose team is trialling lab-grown blood. Her vision is to create an unlimited supply of clean blood for transfusions; Geoffrey Raisman, chair of Neural Regeneration and founding director of the Spinal Repair Unit, UCL Institute of Neurology. In 2014, Raisman's work on spinal repair led to a paralysed patient regaining the ability to walk;
  • Food As Medicine - Molly Maloof, physician, technologist and scientific wellness pioneer who advises multiple health technology companies and operates a medical practice aimed at optimising the health of Californian entrepreneurs; Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College, London. As Founder of TwinsUK, Spector is working with Human Longevity Inc. to conduct metabolomic analysis of 12,000 individuals in the programme.

Designed to introduce, explain and predict trends in the medical and personal healthcare industries, WIRED HEALTH is a showcase for the extraordinary innovators using technology to re-imagine the health sector. From diagnostics and neuroscience, to data-driven healthcare and new material sciences helping to re-build the human body, WIRED HEALTH is a haven for disruptive thinking and innovation.

Aimed at a high-level executive audience, attendees will enjoy the opportunity to network with like-minded, intellectually curious individuals from the sector, including physicians, senior healthcare executives, innovators and investors, disrupters and incumbents. From helping humans to live longer and hacking our performance, to repairing the body and understanding the brain, WIRED Health will explore the evolution of this critical sector.

Once again, WIRED HEALTH will be hosted at 30 Euston Square, home to the Royal College of General Practitioners.

There are a limited number of tickets available for WIRED HEALTH, at a price of £999*. Speakers will be announced in due course. For further information, or for registration, go to www.wired.co.uk/health16.

*Discounts are available to subscribers. A 50% discount is available for NHS or UK Government employees and for health sector startups.