Scientific Advisory Board Members
The BioMedical Asia 2008 program was developed with input from a team of internationally recognised professionals in the biomedical sciences industry.
We are delighted to present our official panel of Scientific Advisory Board for BioMedical Asia 2008. Terrapinn would like to thank the following members of the scientific advisory board for their invaluable help and input in the planning and creating of this event.
Board Members include:
Dr Alan Colman
Dr Andre Wan
Dr Carl Firth
Dr Chris Mason
Chris Molloy
Chu Swee Yeok
Dr George Wang
Dr Liz Jazwinska
Dr Michael Schroter
Prof Miranda Yap
Alan Colman
Executive Director
A*STAR Singapore Stem Cell Consortium, Singapore
In July 2007, Alan Colman took the post of Executive Director of the Singapore Stem Cell Consortium and Principal Investigator at the A*STAR Institute of Medical Biology, having been with ES Cell International (ESI) since April 2002 (first CSO and then CEO). His main interests concern basic research into stem cells and the translation of that research into the clinic. Alan Colman obtained a BA degree in Biochemistry in Oxford (1971) and a PhD under John Gurdon, a pioneer of the field of nuclear transfer, at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK (1974). After a series of academic appointments in Oxford and Warwick Universities, he became Professor of Biochemistry in the University of Birmingham, UK. The focus of his academic career was the area of eucaryotic protein secretion, with a particular emphasis on the use of frog oocytes and eggs as in vivo test tubes. From 1987 until March 2002, he was research director of the company PPL Therapeutics in Edinburgh, UK. This company specialized in the production of transgenic livestock that produced human therapeutic proteins in their milk PPL attracted considerable media attention because of their participation, together with the Roslin Institute, in the technique of somatic nuclear transfer. This work led to Dolly, the world’s first sheep cloned from an adult somatic cell (1996), Polly and Molly, the first cloned transgenic livestock (1997), Diana and Cupid, the first livestock with targeted genetic changes (2000), Millie et al., the first cloned pigs (2000) and, finally, Austin and crew, the first homozygous, alpha gal transferase knock out pigs (2003). Alan lists amongst his hobbies, mountain biking, scuba diving, white water rafting, skiing, and trying to approach old age gracefully and soberly
 Dr Andre Wan
Deputy Executive Director, Biomedical Research Council (BMRC)
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)
Dr Andre Wan is currently Deputy Executive Director of the Biomedical Research Council (BMRC) at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). The BMRC oversees the biomedical research institutes of A*STAR at Biopolis, supports biomedical research in the universities and hospitals through competitive grants, coordinates thematic biomedical research activities across public sector agencies in Singapore and develops collaborations with local and international research partners.Prior to joining A*STAR in Nov 2004, Dr. Wan worked in the Ministry of Health (MOH) headquarters where he held appointments as Deputy Director, Health Services Development; Director, Professional Standards and Development; and Director, Health Regulation. His previous scope of work included planning of national disease control programmes, policies for training and registration of healthcare professionals, licensing of healthcare institutions, quality improvement of clinical services, traditional and complementary medicine, laboratory biosafety and regulation of biomedical research.
Dr Wan graduated in 1988 with an MBBS degree from the National University of Singapore (NUS). He received his Master of Medicine (M.Med) in Public Health from NUS in 1994. In 1998, he was awarded an MOH fellowship for training in health promotion programme planning and evaluation, which he pursued at various centres in the USA, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore under the Chapter of Public Health Physicians.
 Dr Carl Firth
Regional Business Development and Strategic Planning Director, Asia-Pacific
AstraZeneca, Singapore
Dr Carl Firth is Regional Business Development and Strategic Planning Director, Asia-Pacific, at AstraZeneca, based in Singapore. He is responsible for licensing, alliances and strategic projects in the Asia-Pacific region. Previously, Carl worked in China for 3 years, where he was responsible for the commercial development of new products and indications, and for business development activities in the China market. Carl has held positions in other commercial areas in the UK, including acquisitions, licensing and competitive intelligence. He has over 5 years drug discovery experience, as Associate Director of Bioinformatics, where he was responsible for building an in silico biology capability across global R&D and the discovery of novel genes associated with asthma, one of which is now a target in a phase 2 clinical trial. Carl holds a PhD from Cambridge University and an Executive MBA from London Business School.
 Dr. Chris Mason
Group Leader, Stem Cell + Regenerative Medicine Bioprocessing Unit
Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering
University College London, UK
Dr. Chris Mason is a recognised leader in the field of stem cells and regenerative medicine. His particular interest is facilitating the realistic translation of the fantastic discoveries made in the laboratory into effective and affordable therapies that will benefit patients, the NHS and in the process create a successful UK industry. Originally graduating from Imperial College with a degree in molecular biology and St. Thomas’s Hospital Medical School with a medical degree, Chris then specialised in surgery. Chris is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. In addition, he has a PhD in Biochemical Engineering under the supervision of Prof. Peter Dunnill (UCL). Today, Chris leads the Regenerative Medicine Bioprocess Group of 20 researchers in the Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering at UCL. The research group focuses on the vital aspect of the translation of stem cell and regenerative medicine science into routine clinical practice. In order to achieve this goal, the group has multiple collaborations throughout the stem cell community including leading scientists, clinicians, companies and government organisations.
In order to encourage active participation of all the future key players required to build a successful UK sector, Chris together with Dr. Stephen Minger (King’s College London), founded the London Regenerative Medicine Network (LRMN). The LRMN is the world’s largest network of its kind. Since its launch in early 2005, it has hosted over 60 international speakers, plus well in excess of 6,000 people have attended the regular monthly meetings including scientists, clinicians, reporters, politicians, industrialists and patient groups.
In addition, Chris is a member of the Steering Committee of the UK National Stem Cell Network (UKNSCN), member of the MRC Stem Cell Clinical Liaison Committee, sits on the Editorial Boards of the journals, “Regenerative Medicine” and “Tissue Engineering” and was the Mission Leader of the DTI funded Global Watch Mission “Advanced Cell & Tissue Therapies” which visited the West Coast of North America in September 2006.
 Chris Molloy
Chief Operating Officer
MerLion Pharmaceuticals, Singapore
Mr. Chris Molloy is Chief Operating Officer of MerLion Pharmaceuticals, a private anti-infectives drug discovery and development organisation headquartered in Singapore. Chris joined MerLion in early 2005 to manage business development, since when the company has demonstrated award winning market penetration and expansion in its global partnering. In 2006 Chris played a major role in the dual acquisition of two European biotechnology companies and the raising of a landmark round of international venture finance for drug discovery and development in Asia. MerLion has been recognised in 2007 by Fierce Biotech, as one of the top fifteen emerging biotech’s worldwide: the first ever Asian company to make this list; and has been twice shortlisted by the industry journal, Scrip, as best company in the world’s emerging markets. Chris retains his responsibility for business development and licensing in addition to those of group COO and is involved in a wide range of global target, compound and discovery technology licensing activities. Before joining MerLion, Chris had a fourteen year career at GlaxoSmithKline in a variety of scientific and international management roles within preclinical drug discovery, informatics and discovery automation. He was closely associated with a number of significant global process improvement projects: applying industrial manufacturing theory to the scientific disciplines of lead optimisation and high throughput discovery. He is a graduate in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Bradford, UK.
 Chu Swee Yeok
CEO
Bio*One Capital Pte Ltd, Singapore
Swee Yeok oversees the entire operations and investment activities of Bio*One Capital Pte Ltd as its Chief Executive Officer. She has more than 20 years of track record and experience in investment & technology promotion, strategic planning and business development in biomedical sciences.
Prior to her current role, Swee Yeok led the Biomedical Sciences Group at Singapore Economic Development Board (SEDB) for many years and concurrently headed the Biomedical Research Council of the Agency for Science & Technology Research where she played a pioneering role in developing and implementing key strategies leading to the growth the Biomedical Sciences industry as one of the major pillars of Singapore’s economy today. At SEDB, she was also responsible for many successfully negotiations with global biomedical companies to set up their R&D, manufacturing and regional headquarters activities in Singapore.
Swee Yeok was instrumental in setting up all of the four SEDB’s funds dedicated to biomedical sciences investments, the largest being a US$600 million Biomedical Sciences Investment Fund established in 2001. She served part-time as its Executive Director in 2002, and was appointed the Chief Executive of Bio*One Capital in mid 2004, responsible for all of the funds' global investments in the biotechnology and medical devices & technology. Today, Bio*One is the leading biomedical investment management company in Asia, managing a portfolio of some 60 biomedical companies worldwide.
Swee Yeok holds several board directorship responsibilities including A-Bio Pharmaceuticals, a contract manufacturing company; CombinatoRx Singapore, an infectious diseases drug development company; Lonza Biologics Tuas, a commercial scale biologics manufacturing operations; Merlion Pharmaceuticals; a natural product based drug discovery company; the Novartis Institute of Tropical Diseases (NITD); and S*BIO Pte Ltd, a cancer drug and development company. She graduated from the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard University in May 2004 and received her honours degree in Biochemistry from National University of Singapore.
 Dr George Wang
Managing Director
A-Bio Pharma Pte Ltd, Singapore
Dr. George Wang joined A-Bio in 2004 and has served as Managing Director responsible of all operations since January 2005. Prior to A-Bio, Dr. Wang spent 11 years (from 1991 to 2002) at Tanox Inc., USA and served from 1994 to 2002 as the Vice-President of Process Development and Production. He held various engineering and management positions at IDEC Pharmaceuticals, BP Amoco Corporation and MGI Pharma in USA. Dr. Wang received his Sc.D. degree in biochemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
 Dr Liz Jazwinska
Executive Director¸ New Business & Strategic Alliances
Johnson & Johnson Research Pty Limited, Australia
Liz Jazwinska joined Johnson & Johnson Research Pty Limited (JJR) in 2002. Her primary responsibilities in JJR are to identify and evaluate new business opportunities in the Asia Pacific Region for partnering and licencing into Johnson & Johnson (J&J) global companies. The main focus of partnering is support for the J&J global pharmaceutical sector, this includes partnering and licencing of new chemical entities, chemical libraries and biotechnology platform technologies, research collaborations and outsourcing. In addition, Liz can facilitate links with the medical devices and consumer sectors of J&J to enable companies in the Asia Pacifc region to take their products to the global market place. Prior to joining JJR, Liz held a number of positions in the academic sector and pharmaceutical industry, including Business Development Manager in the Technology Transfer Office of the University of Sydney, Assistant Director in Human Genetics and Pharmacogenetics in SmithKline Beecham in the UK and Senior Research Fellow in Human Genetics at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research. During her academic career Liz authored 62 publications in peer-reviewed journals and continues to act as an expert reviewer for international molecular and medical journals and science funding agencies and is Chair of the Australian Research Council (ARC) College of Experts in Biological Sciences and Biotechnology (the ARC is the major science funding agency in Australia).
 Michael Schroter
Chief Operating Officer and Director of Business Development and Alliance Management
Lilly Singapore Centre for Drug Discovery, Singapore
Michael Schroter is the Chief Operating Officer and Director of Business Development and Alliance Management of Lilly Singapore Centre for Drug Discovery (LSCDD), a wholly owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company. LSCDD focuses on drug discovery based on epigenetic and adult stem cell research in the areas of cancer and metabolic disorders. The Centre also conducts biomarker discovery in these areas, and scientific computational research and development in support of therapeutic areas of interest to Lilly.
Prior to his current position Dr. Schroter was a member of the Eli Lilly business development team in the US, responsible for negotiating late stage in- and outlicensing deals. Dr. Schroter was a co-founder and director of Apotech in Switzerland (today TopoTarget and Apotech Research) a biotech company specializing in drug discovery related to apopotic signaling pathways.
Prof Miranda Yap
Executive Director
Bioprocessing Technology Institute (A*STAR), Singapore
Prof Miranda Yap is the Executive Director of the Bioprocessing Technology Institute which she has progressively built from its nascent days as the Bioprocessing Technology Unit in 1990. Her other accomplishments include the formation of two other organizations, the Centre for Natural Product Research now called Merlion Pharmaceuticals Pte Ltd and the Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Technology Centre now known as A-Bio Pharma Pte Ltd. In February 2006, Prof Miranda Yap was named a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Engineering for 2006, due to her achievements in education, research and management in the field of mammalian cell culture.
Prof Yap is actively involved in research, supervising PhD candidates in the area of Animal Cell Technology. Her research interest is in the area of bioprocess science and technology and she is actively involved in developing manpower and educational programmes for the biopharmaceutical industry. She is also currently serving A*STAR as a Scholars’ Counsellor.
There are still opportunities for you to join our official scientific advisory board. To apply please email Wang Tingting at tingting.wang@terrapinn.com
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