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Speakers 
Dr Kari Alitalo,
Director of the Center of Excellence in Molecular / Cancer Biology,
Biomedicum Helsinki
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Dr Matthew Baker,
Chief Scientific Officer,
Antitope Ltd
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 Dr Alain Beck,
Head of Physico-Chemistry Department,
Centre d'Immunologie Pierre Fabre
Dr. Beck completed his BS in Biochemistry and his PhD in Bioorganic Chemistry at the Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France (1989). During his thesis, he achieved the synthesis and the biophysical characterization of several fluorescent phospholipid biomembrane probes. He went then to Mc Gill University, Montreal, Canada as a Post-doc (Merck-Frost fellow, 1989-1990), where he designed and synthesized Phospholipase A2 inhibitors. Back to France, he became the first employee of MEDAFOR, a pharmaceutical start-up company (Strasbourg) involved in discovery and development of natural products and small drugs against Alzheimer’s disease; from 1990 to 1993, Dr. Beck was in charge of set-up and management of a chemistry unit (medicinal and analytical chemistry, pharmacokinetics, radioprotection). He then joined Pierre Fabre Médicament in 1994 and moved to the Centre d’Immunologie Pierre Fabre (CIPF), a biotechnological R&D center, focused on Vaccines and Therapeutic Antibodies. In this biopharmaceutical R&D facility, he first held a position of Head of Analytical Research and Quality Control. In 1995, he became Head of Physico-Chemistry Department (Bioanalytical Chemistry, Drug formulation and Delivery, Radioprotection, Biochemistry, Proteomics and Bioinformatics) and member of CIPF’s board of Directors. He also successively created Peptide Synthesis and Mass Spectrometry units within this department and set-up academic collaboration in Mass Spectrometry, NMR and crystallography. From 1994 to date, as a multi-activity project-team member, he contributed to the R&D of several recombinant proteins (subunit vaccines, monoclonal antibodies) and synthetic peptides, in the field of cancer and infectious diseases, from discovery to human clinical trials (phase I to III). He is co-inventor of 14 patents, author and co-author of near 50 research publications and more than 70 communications in scientific meetings. He is a member of various scientific societies (APS, EPS, BRG, FASEB, GDR CNRS 2352, GFPP, GTRV, SFSM) and acts since 2005 as an adviser for the World Health Organization for the molecular characterization of vaccines and biologicals.
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 Dr Sylvio Bengio,
Scientific Communications Specialist,
Pall Life Sciences
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 Dr Gerald Beste,
Head of Protein Engineering - Oncology,
Cambridge Antibody Technology
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 Dr David Blakey,
Senior Principle Scientist / Project Director, Cancer Discovery,
AstraZeneca
Dr Blakey has over 20 years experience in therapeutic antibodies. He initially worked on the optimisation and pharmacology of ricin immunotoxins at the ICRF in London and then joined AstraZeneca in 1987. At AstraZeneca he helped develop immunotoxins for solid tumour therapy and then led work on Antibody Directed Enzyme Prodrug therapy in collaboration with the Cancer Research Campaign. More recently Dr Blakey led the establishment of AstraZeneca’s collaboration with Abgenix as well as having a science leadership role within oncology in the area of therapeutic vascular modulation. In his current role Dr Blakey is the global programme manager for antibody projects within Cancer Discovery at AstraZeneca.
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Dr Michel Chartrain,
Distinguished Senior Investigator, Bioprocess Research and Development,
Merck Research Laboratories
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Dr Lisa Damico,
Senior Scientist and Group Leader, Early Development Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics,
Genentech, Inc.
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Dr Jonathan Dempsey,
Process Science Fellow,
Invitrogen
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Dr Dimiter Dimitrov,
Senior Investigator, Protein Interactions, CCRNP, CCR, NCI-Frederick,
NIH
Dr. Dimitrov was born in 1954 in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, graduated from a High School Magnet Program in Mathematics and Computer Science (1971), obtained his B.A. (1975), M.S. (1976) and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Sofia (1976), and his Sc.D. in Biology from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1984), where he became Professor of Biophysics and Chief of the Department of Membrane Interactions (1988). He was also a Visiting Scientist at Prof. Rakesh Jain’s Cancer Research Laboratory of Carnegie-Mellon University (1983-84), and at the Department of Cell Biology of the Holland Laboratory for Biomedical Research (1989). He joined the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA, in 1990, and was tenured in 1993 and appointed as Senior Investigator. His research group includes eight molecular biologists experts in antibody engineering and phage display, one crystallographer and one computer scientist.
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 Dr Daniel Dransfield,
Senior Director of Cell Biology,
Dyax Corp
I currently am the Senior Director of Cell Biology at Dyax, a phage display company focused on antibody, peptide and protein-based drug discovery and development. Prior to my time at Dyax, I conducted post-doctoral fellowships at Yale University and the Medical College of Georgia before starting my independent academic career at the Medical College of Georgia as an Assistant Professor in the Section of Cell Signaling at the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics. I received my PhD (Biology) from Tufts University and Bachelor of Science (Biology) from The Catholic University of America.
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Dr Stefan Dübel,
Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology,
Technical University of Braunschweig
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 Dr Scott Glaser,
Director, Molecular Engineering,
Biogen Idec, Inc.
Scott Glaser is Director of Molecular Engineering at Biogen Idec, Inc. in San Diego, CA. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, San Diego, and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Glaser completed his post-doctoral training at Protein Design Labs, Inc. studying antibody structure-function relationships.
Dr. Glaser’s group focuses on preclinical research and development of protein therapeutics, in particular, antibody therapeutics. Current laboratory activities revolve around antibody technology include development of methods for producing multispecific and multivalent antibodies, stability engineering, and semi-automated methods for antibody library screening.
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Dr Robert Hof,
Program Manager Biomanufacturing,
DSM Biologics
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Thomas Huber,
Department of Biochemistry,
University of Zurich  Â
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 Dr Laurent Jespers,
Director, Biopharm CEDD,
Domantis Limited
Laurent Jespers is Director, Biopharm CEDD at Domantis Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of GSK based in Cambridge, UK. He joined Domantis in 2001 and is currently leading the research teams on AlbudAb™, dual-targeting antibodies and protein engineering. Laurent Jespers obtained his Ph. D. in Chemistry from the University of Louvain in Belgium. As a postdoctoral fellow he worked in the lab of Sir Gregory Winter at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. He initially co-developed an antibody humanisation approach by phage display and his later work focused on repertoires and biophysics of human domain antibodies. Throughout the 90’s he worked as a principal investigator in protein engineering at Corvas International, Thromb-X and the VIB in Belgium.
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Prof Brian Kobilka,
Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology and Medicine,
Stanford University School of Medicine
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Dr Susan Lacy,
Senior Scientist, Biologics Generation, Abbott Bioresearch Center,
Abbott
Susan Lacy is a Senior Scientist in the Biologics Generation Group at Abbott Bioresearch Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. She leads therapeutic antibody projects in Oncology, Virology and Immunology, and uses her diverse molecular biology training to generate novel protein therapeutics for development. Susan received her BSc from the University of New Brunswick, her PhD from McMaster University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital.
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 Dr John McCafferty,
Group Leader,
University of Cambridge
John McCafferty was one of the founders of Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) where he demonstrated antibody phage display for the first time. This technology has led to an approved drug for rheumatoid arthritis and a number of other drug candidates in clinical trial. He subsequently set up a group at the Sanger Institute developing and utilising methods for protein generation and recombinant antibody isolation in high throughput for proteomic applications. He is currently setting up a laboratory at the Biochemistry Dept at University of Cambridge focusing on the study of protein:protein interactions driving direct cell:cell communication.
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Colin McKee,
Protein Science Team Leader,
NPIL Pharmaceuticals
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Dr Jan Müller-Berghaus,
Acting Head of Section, Monoclonal and Polyclonal Antibodies,
Paul-Ehrlich-Institut
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Dr Patrizia Nestby,
Associate Director of Regulatory Affairs,
ERA Consulting Group
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Dr Paul Parren,
Vice President of Research & Technology,
Genmab
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Dr Richard Pleass,
Institute of Genetics,
The University of Nottingham
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 Dr Andrew Popplewell,
Associate Director, Antibody Molecular Biology,
UCB Celltech
After earning a BSc(Hons) degree in Molecular Biology at Edinburgh University UK (1987), Dr Popplewell obtained a PhD from Southampton University UK in the field of protein engineering (1991). He held Post Doctoral positions at the Centre for Genome Research (Edinburgh) and at Southampton University Department of Biochemistry, before joining what was then Celltech in 1993. During his 14 years at Celltech (since 2004 UCB Celltech), Dr Popplewell has played a role in developing their antibody humanisation and E. coli expression technologies, working on several clinical candidates including Cimzia and CDP791. He currently runs a Molecular Biology group encompassing both E. coli expression and Antibody Engineering activities.
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 Philippe Stas,
Chief Operating Officer,
Algonomics
Since 1990, Philippe has been active in antibody engineering projects, immunology and bioinformatics research at the University of Brussels. After working as IT-Manager for PE Genscope (curr. Applera, CA), he joined the team for the creation of AlgoNomics. Philippe holds an M.S.E. in biotechnology, a Master in Information Technology and is chairman of the Belgian Association of Bioindustries bio.be
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 Dr William Strohl,
Executive Director, Department of Biologics Research,
Merck Research Laboratories
Dr. William R. Strohl received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from Louisiana State University, and worked as a guest researcher at the GBF in Braunschweig, Germany. From 1980 to 1997, he rose from Assistant to Full Professor in the Department of Microbiology and the Program of Biochemistry at The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. There he pursued the molecular biology and biochemistry of polyketide biosynthesis pathways, particularly doxorubicin, in actinomycetes, and the physiology of E. coli in computer-controlled high cell density fermentations. Dr. Strohl moved to Merck in 1997 to head up Natural Products Microbiology, which he did for 4 years before being asked to start a new department in the field of recombinant monoclonal antibodies. Dr. Strohl has since been a leader in Merck’s efforts to develop therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, as well as in-licensing of therapeutic targets and technologies associated with monoclonal antibodies. Recently, Dr. Strohl has been a leader in the acquisition and integration of Abmaxis and GlycoFi into the Merck Biologics organization. Dr. Strohl has over 100 publications, several patents, and has edited two books.
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 Dr Xiang-Yang Tan,
Principal Scientist, Department of Biological Technologies,
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Xiang-Yang Tan is currently the Head of Monoclonal Antibody Development Group in the Department of Biological Technologies, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. He joined Genetics Institute (GI) and its successor, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals as a research scientist in 1998, where he held a number of drug discovery research positions involved in product and technology development. Dr. Tan focused on antibody technologies and development of novel therapeutic antibodies in collaboration with scientists across diseases areas, such as inflammatory diseases, oncology, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic diseases and neurological disorders.
Prior to joining Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Xiang-Yang Tan received Postdoctoral training at the Department of Hematology/Oncology, Deaconess Hospital and Harvard Medical School with Dr. Richard P. Junghans in investigating novel immunotherapy strategies for tumors and HIV. He then moved into the Department of Pathology, BIDMC and Harvard Medical School with Dr. Jan E. Schnitzer to study tumor angiogenesis and vascular targeting. He obtained his MD from Harbin Medical University, China and PhD from Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.
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 Dr Pablo Umaña,
Head of Research,
GlycArt Biotechnology AG, Roche Group
Dr Umaña obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering and Biology from the California Institute of Technology in 1998 and was a post-doctoral research fellow in molecular medicine at the University of Manchester, UK. In 2001 he co-founded GlycArt Biotechnology AG, Zurich, a company spinning out of research carried out at the ETH-Zurich during his doctoral studies. Dr Umaña has been Chief Scientific Officer at GlycArt since its foundation, leading research and development of a new generation of engineered therapeutic antibodies. To date he continues to lead research and development at GlycArt as part of the Roche Group, after GlycArt was acquired by Hoffmann La Roche AG in 2005. He led the GlycArt team that discovered and initially developed GA101, a third-generation anti-CD20 antibody for the treatment of B-cell malignancies and autoimmune diseases. Dr Umaña is a member of the Roche team currently developing GA101.
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Dr Keith Watson,
Pharmaceutical Assessor, Biologicals and Biotechnology Unit,
MHRA
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 Dr Armin Weidmann,
Director of Research and Development,
MorphoSys AG
Dr. Armin Weidmann joined MorphoSys AG in 2002. He is Director, Research & Development and responsible for antibody generation and characterisation. MorphoSys AG is a biotechnology company focusing on the identification and production of fully human antibodies to accelerate drug discovery and target characterization.
Dr. Armin Weidmann did his post-doctoral training at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology of the Emory University in Atlanta, GA, USA on molecular virology working on glycoproteins of HIV and SIV. He received his PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Würzburg, Germany focusing on the interaction of viral glycoproteins with lympho- and monocytic cells.
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 Dr Clive Wood,
Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer,
Dyax Corp
Dr Clive Wood is the Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Dyax Corp. Dr Wood joined Dyax in 2003. Prior to this, Dr. Wood spent 17 years at Genetics Institute (GI) and its successor, Wyeth Research, where he held a number of drug discovery research positions. Most recently, Dr. Wood held the position of Senior Director and Acting Head of Inflammation Discovery Research at Wyeth Research in Cambridge, MA. At GI and Wyeth, Dr. Wood focused on respiratory diseases, transplantation, immunology, hematopoiesis and antibody technologies. Prior to joining GI in 1986, Dr. Wood worked for four years at Celltech Ltd. He received his Biochemistry BSc and PhD degrees from Imperial College, University of London, UK.
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 Dr Ping Zhong,
Co-Founder of Abmaxis and Senior Investigator,
Merck Research Laboratories
Dr. Zhong received his Ph.D. in molecular pharmacology at Georgetown University and later received his postdoctoral training at Stanford University in molecular neurobiology. He then joined Neurex Corporation in the department of assay development and biochemistry. In year 2000, he participated in founding of Abmaxis Inc., where he had served as COO, and VP of Biology. In Abmaxis, Dr. Zhong had led the research efforts that were aimed to develop display technology, combinatorial antibody library technology, in vitro selection technology, and protein expression technology, etc., he has also played a crucial role in Abmaxis in establishing technologies of novel antibody discovery using combinatorial libraries, antibody optimization, etc. In the process, he has been a co-inventor of the AISIM technology (Abmaxis in silico Immunization) that has been used for the purposes of antibody humanization, affinity maturation, and other antibody engineering tasks. Abmaxis Inc. had formed corporate partnership with several companies on projects of antibody optimization and discovery, including Merck Research Laboratories since 2004. In mid-2006, Abmaxis Inc. was acquired by Merck along with Glycofi, as the new technology enforcement for Merck's Biologics Department.
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