The Speakers

Brief Bio:

Jacob Tfelt-Hansen is Professor and Senior Consultant at the Department of Cardiology, The Heart Centre, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark, and the Department of Forensic Genetics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1999, defended his doctoral dissertation in 2007, and is a board certified specialist in cardiology since 2012, with a sub specialization in sudden cardiac death, inherited heart diseases, and intracardiac devices. 

Jacob Tfelt-Hansen researches clinical and experimental electrophysiology; Genetics of inherited arrhythmia syndromes (including cardiomyopathies) and sudden cardiac death. Publications: more than 300. 

In the last 5 years, his research has mainly been focused on sudden cardiac death and inherited cardiac diseases, such as Brugada syndrome, where he has authored national guidelines for inherited heart disease and 4 statement papers by the Danish Society of Cardiology on inherited cardiac diseases, sudden cardiac death and sport.

Brief Bio:

Katja Porvari is a docent of molecular biology and a clinical chemist. She acts as a laboratory manager at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, Finland. She has wide research experience in molecular medicine and forensic pathology. Her main research interests include molecular biology of cold stress and hypothermia deaths.

Brief Bio:

Dr. Yu Kakimoto is a Professor in the Department of Forensic Medicine at Tokai University, Japan. She is a board-certified forensic pathologist and holds a Ph.D. in Medicine from Kyoto University. Her research mission is to prevent future sudden cardiac death (SCD) by applying knowledge learned from postmortem analysis. Her work specifically focuses on the molecular pathology of SCD cases. Dr. Kakimoto daily examines human hearts at autopsy and has successfully developed proteomic analysis using formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue. Her micro-sampling method with laser microdissection has enabled precise proteomic profiling on archived human tissues. At this conference, she will present layer-specific proteomic profiling of SCD cases.

Brief Bio:

Akira Hayakawa is a forensic pathologist. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Hokkaido University, Japan. He began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at Hokkaido University and later served as a Medical Examiner at the Tokyo Medical Examiner’s Office. He subsequently conducted research at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, focusing on forensic studies of sudden cardiac death. After serving as a Lecturer at Gunma University, he was appointed Professor at Akita University in 2024. His research focuses on forensic pathology, postmortem imaging, and molecular mechanisms underlying hypothermia and sudden cardiac death, with active collaborations across Nordic countries. 

Brief Bio:

Deepthi Rajan is a medical doctor and Ph.D. student at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Since 2024, she has been affiliated with The Heart Centre at Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, where she conducts research in cardiovascular epidemiology. Her work primarily involves large-scale registry studies investigating cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death/out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Her Ph.D. project titled, “An Elucidation of the Mechanistic Link between Atrial Fibrillation and Cardiac Arrest,” focuses on examining this relationship in depth.