World Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine Congress 2012 - list of speakers

Dr. Joseph Amaral is a proven strategic leader with significant achievements in revitalizing a major regional healthcare institution, exploring and developing new medical technologies, and educating international communities in new surgical procedures. He is Professor Emeritus of Surgery at Brown University School of Medicine and internationally...

Dr. Aras is the founding President and CEO for Juventas Therapeutics, a regenerative medicine company developing novel biopharmaceuticals for treatment of ischemic disease. In his role, he has led the company from concept through its recent completion of a Phase I heart failure trial and initiation of a Phase II critical limb ischemia (CLI)...

Dr. Asada (Professor in iCeMS, Kyoto University) is Project Manager of NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) Project, which has been started last year for 5 years project for the aim to build a robust system for cell culture and evaluation on stem cells. He has been engaged Foundation for Biomedical Research and...

Martin Birchall trained in medicine at Jesus College Cambridge and in ENT Surgery in London, Liverpool and Brisbane. He studied for a higher degree at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and was the first surgeon to be awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Leave Fellowship in 2001. Senior Lecturer and Reader in ENT in Bristol, he was appointed to...

Dr. Heribert Bohlen MD, PhD Chief Executive Officer is co-founder and CEO of Axiogenesis for the last 10 years where he developed stem cell derived cells, tissue models and disease models. Axiogenesis’ core business is in the area of pharmaceutical biotechnology, especially in the production of stem cell-based assays and customized cell lines that ...

Mr. Bonfiglio is the Founder & Managing Partner of Proteus, LLC – an investment and advisory firm focused solely on regenerative medicine. Proteus provides fund management, consulting, and investment banking services to the regenerative medicine industry. Proteus works with RM companies across all stages of development from early stage to large ...

Frank Bonner is Chief Executive of Stem Cells for Safer Medicines, a Public-Private partnership which is focussed upon developing stem cell assays for predictive toxicology. Frank has over 25 years of experience of toxicology and non-clinical drug development, gained in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and contract research industries. In...

After obtaining a PhD degree in the University of Paris VII in 1993, Dr D Bonnet joined the group of Prof. John Dick’s laboratory in Toronto, Canada where she stayed as a research fellow for four years. She worked there on establishing an in vivo model to study human Acute Myeloid leukaemia and identified and purified Leukemic Stem Cells. In...

Stefan Braam is a research scientist at the Leiden University Medical Center, furthermore he is the scientific founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the LUMC spin-off company Pluriomics BV. He has over 7 years of pluripotent stem cell experience from laboratories in The Netherlands (Prof. C.L. Mummery, Utrecht/Leiden), UK...

Christopher Bravery founded CAB Ltd at the end of 2009 in order to focus his activities within the Regenerative Medicine sector. CAB Ltd provides EU regulatory services to the regenerative medicine industry in addition to business and regulatory research and analysis to identify and focus on the real barriers to commercialisation of regenerative...

Mr. Bravo has more than 18 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry. His professional career includes several senior management positions at Sanofi-Aventis, including Vice President for Latin America, where he was in charge of more than 2000 employees and oversaw sales of more than €1 billion. At Sanofi-Aventis he also held positions such...

Degree in Chemical Engineering, ULB, Belgium PhD in Applied Sciences (organic chemistry), ULB, Belgium Best Business Plan Award, Solvay Business School, Belgium Jose is an inspired inventor with a broad R&D experience in university environments. In addition, he accumulated an extensive knowledge in Operations as he was the Head of...

Mr. Chereau assumed the role of President and Chief Operating Office at Pervasis Therapeutics in September 2008. Prior to Pervasis, Mr. Chereau was the Vice President and General Manager of Genzyme Cardiovascular, a business unit of Genzyme Corporation. As VP and General Manager, Mr. Chereau led teams focusing on commercialization of a...

Degree in Biological Sciences, PhD in Molecular Medicine; currently senior researcher, Cell Biology and Neurosciences Department, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma, Italy. Dr. Galli was active for more than 20 yrs as researcher in experimental oncology, cellular biology, molecular immunology; she has been active for the past 15 yrs as quality...

Davide had his MD and then PhD at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy. He then joined the laboratory of Austin Smith at the University of Cambridge, UK where he has taken forward pioneering work of Steve Pollard on brain tumour stem cells. With him at the UCL Cancer Institute in London he is now improving a live image based chemical ...

Simon Ellison is developing strategies that are enabling the National Blood Service to utilise its technical skills, GMP facilities, and clinical contacts to provide contract manufacturing services to the growing cellular therapy field, under the brand of Clinical Translation Partnerships (CTP). Simon has an MSc in Environmental Science from...

George Emont is a Managing Partner with Triathlon Medical Ventures and also a Managing Partner of the Kentucky Seed Capital Fund. Mr. Emont's 25 years of health care industry experience include 15 years in venture capital. Prior to joining Triathlon and KCSF, Mr. Emont was the Director of Venture Capital for Humana Inc. where he managed a venture...

Dr Flynn is the Vice President of Biologic Therapeutics and iPSC technology at Fate Therapeutics. He manages the in vivo protein therapeutics pipeline and preclinical development and the iPSC technology group including the collaboration with Becton Dickinson (BD). Peter has been involved in biotechnology start-ups with a focus on biologic...

Dr Fraser is Principal Scientist at Cytori Therapeutics Inc, a San Diego-based company engaged in commercialization of adult stem and regenerative cells from human adipose tissue. He has more than 25 years of experience working with adult stem cells. Prior to joining Cytori, Dr Fraser was an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at...

Anand Gadre graduated with his BS from the University of Mumbai (India) in 1994. He received the MS Degree at the Institute of Science in 1997. During his Master’s degree, his research was involved in characterizing the structural, electrical and optical properties of insulating and conducting polymers. Anand completed his doctorate (Ph.D.) in...

Maria Cristina Galli, PhD - EMA Committee for Advanced Therapies (CAT) member, GTWP Chair, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma, Italy Degree in Biological Sciences, PhD in Molecular Medicine; currently senior researcher, Cell Biology and Neurosciences Department, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma, Italy. Dr. Galli was active for more than 20 yrs...

Richard Garr, JD, has been a director and our Chief Executive Officer since 1996. Mr. Garr was previously an attorney with Beli, Weil & Jacobs, the B&G Companies, and Circle Management Companies. Mr. Garr is a graduate of Drew University (1976) and the Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America (1979). Additionally, he was a...

Professor Ming H Zheng (MD, PhD, FRCPath, FRCPA) is the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Western Australia, and the Director of Research at the Centre for Translational Orthopaedic Research, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth, Australia. Previously he held the position of CSO for...

Dr David Hay is a Group Leader at the University of Edinburgh’s MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine. David carried out his PhD at the University of St Andrews. Following this he relocated to the Roslin Institute and subsequently to the Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 2006. His research has highlighted the...

Christian Homsy, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cardio3 BioSciences and Member of the Board as Executive Director – Christian Homsy obtained his Medical Doctorate at the University of Louvain and holds an MBA from the IMD in Lausanne (Switzerland). He has been Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cardio3 BioSciences since its foundation. Christian...

Michael Hunt was appointed Chief Executive Officer of ReNeuron in July 2005. Prior to ReNeuron, he spent six years at Biocompatibles International plc (sold to BTG plc) where he held a number of senior financial and general management positions. His early industrial career was spent at Bunzl plc. He sits on the BioIndustry Association’s Cell...

Dr Jacques joined CMS in 2003 and has been director of the Coverage and Analysis Group (CAG) since October 2009. The group reviews evidence and develops Medicare national coverage policy. From 2004 through 2009 he was Director of the Division of Items and Devices within CAG. Prior to his arrival at CMS, Dr. Jacques was the Associate Dean for...

David James is the Senior Director of Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical at Invetech, a world leading contract development company that assists Clients around the world to commercialise their products. David has nearly 25 years experience providing consulting and development services including automated production systems, instruments, delivery...

Paul Kemp has been involved in commercial regenerative medicine for over 20 years. During that time he has developed a successful track record in virtually all aspects of the private and public Biotech business in both the U.S. and U.K. from founding biotech companies (Intercytex Ltd), raising significant public, private and non-equity based...

Arnaud Lacoste is a Project Team Leader at Novartis where he pioneered the use of reprogramming technologies and patient-derived pluripotent stem cells for drug discovery and development. Dr Lacoste’s group is in charge of large-scale production and quality-control of stem cell-derived models for various R&D programs at Novartis. Dr Lacoste is...

Zahid qualified as a pharmacist and after a stint in hospital pharmacy, went on to complete a PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry. He then spent 11 years in R&D working with SME's such as MNL & Integrin and multinationals such as Wyeth. He joined the Technology Strategy Board in Oct 2007 where he is now Head of Healthcare.

Dr. Frank-Roman Lauter is Head of Business Development (BD) at the Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT) & Spokesman of the German-Californian RegMed Initiative. Trained as a molecular biologist at the Max-Planck-Institute in Berlin-Dahlem, Frank worked with Charles Yanofsky at Stanford on the molecular genetics of circadian...

Dr. Antonio (Tony) Lee - Associate Director, Business Development and R&D Strategy at MEDIPOST Co., Ltd., is involved in product development, clinical trials, licensing and marketing of human Umbilical Cord Blood-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cell (hUCB-MSC) technology and products at MEDIPOST.

Alan Lewis is currently an advisor to various Biopharma companies in the regenerative medicine space. He was recently CEO of Ambit Biosciences, the JDRF and Novocell( Viacyte). He also served as CEO of Signal Pharmaceuticals before it was acquired by Celgene after which he served as President of the Signal Research Division. Before joining Signal...

Geoff MacKay has served in his current leadership role since Dec. 2003. Mr. MacKay provides Organogenesis Inc. with significant global, commercial experience spanning the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. Mr MacKay has held numerous leadership positions within Novartis AG in roles such as Vice-President & Business Unit...

Ramkumar Mandalam, Ph.D. is President and CEO of Cellerant Therapeutics Inc, a clinical stage biotechnology company developing novel therapies for cancer treatment and blood-related disorders. Prior to joining Cellerant as VP of Pharmaceutical Operations in 2005, he was the Executive Director of Product Development at Geron Corporation, a...

Dr. Margolin is the president and CEO of Gamida Cell. Prior to joining the company, Dr. Margolin served as vice president of Denali Ventures LLC, where she specialized in investments in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Dr. Margolin also worked at Teva Pharmaceuticals, where she was responsible for new product initiatives, evaluation of...

Prof. Chris Mason MBBS, PhD, FSB, FRCSI, FRCS Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine Bioprocessing Unit Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering University College London Mason is internationally recognized to be at the forefront of the emerging field of cell therapy translation and commercialization. He has a diverse background in...

Michael May is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) a Canadian, federally incorporated, not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting the development of foundational technologies that accelerate the commercialization of stem cell – and biomaterials – based technologies. ...

Timothy M. Mayleben, Mr. Mayleben joined Aastrom as a member of the Company’s Board of Directors in June 2005, and currently serves as Chief Executive Officer, President, Chief Financial Officer and Director. Mr. Mayleben was formerly an advisor to life science and healthcare companies through his advisory and investment firm, ElMa Advisors. ...

Dr. McAllister has a Ph.D. in BioMedical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego. He is the co-founder and CEO of Cytograft Tissue Engineering, Inc. Dr. McAllister has been an early proponent of tissue engineered self-assembly approaches that do not require synthetic scaffolds. Dr. McAllister has also pioneered a novel business...

Fay McCracken joined the NICE Technology Appraisal Programme at NICE in 2008, having previously worked in the pharmaceutical industry and in strategic market access and health economic consulting. Since 2011 she has provided technical leadership for the external engagement and notification functions of the Medical Technologies Evaluation...

Tristan McKay obtained his Bachelors degree from University of Essex, a Master’s degree from Imperial College and graduated with a Ph.D from Imperial College in 2000 having developed new gene therapy approaches to the hepatobiliary manifestations of Cystic Fibrosis (CF). He went on to gain post-doctoral experience at the internationally renowned...

Ruth McKernan is Senior Vice President Pfizer and Chief Scientific Officer of the corporation’s Neusentis research Unit. Neusentis is a consolidation of Pfizer’s Pain & Sensory Disorders, Regenerative Medicine & Epigenetics research activities. She graduated from London University with 1st class honours in biochemistry and pharmacology and...

Dr. Shosh Merchav has been involved in the field of Regenerative Medicine since the early 80's, both in the Academic as well as Industrial setting. Dr Merchav joined Teva in 2006 and has headed the Cell Therapy Projects Unit at Teva Innovative Ventures. Prior to joining Teva Dr. Merchav served as Director of Research and Operations at ViaCell...

Current Appointment: 2001 to date Expert Medical Assessor Biologicals unit Licensing Division, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency Previous Appointments: Associate Director, Clinical Development Chiron Corporation, Emeryville, CA, USA 94556 Medical Advisor, Medical Affairs Reckitt & Colman...

Prof. Andreas K. Nussler is a German native. He studied Pharmacy and human biology in Germany and France. He received his PhD from University Paris VI, France in 1991. From 1991 to 1994 he worked as Research Assistant Prof. at Pittsburgh Medical School, USA. Between 1994 & 2003, he was group leader in the experimental surgery unit at the...

Mr. Kendrick-Parker is responsible for sales, marketing and business development. Mr. Kendrick-Parker brings more than 20 years of experience in the life science industry to CDI. As a Vice President at Affymetrix, he managed all aspects of sales and marketing for the Global Pharmaceutical Business Unit. Mr. Kendrick-Parker led the sales efforts...

Guy Parkes is Head of Special Projects at Anthony Nolan having worked there since 1999. His primary responsibility is to lead the Charity’s Cord Blood Programme, which was established in 2008 to complement the adult stem cell donor Register that the Charity has managed since 1974. Anthony Nolan’s Cell Therapy Centre in Nottingham is home to their...

I obtained my PhD entitled ‘Role of transcriptional and translational gene regulation in the mechanism of doxorubicin cardiotoxicity’ in 2009 from the MRC Toxicology Unit based at the University of Leicester. Following this I obtained a post doctoral fellowship position at AstraZeneca based within Molecular Toxicology working on the development...

Cathy brings over 20 years of experience in research, management and business within the life-science and venture capital sectors. She is the Founder Director of Biolatris Ltd., Co-founder and Director of Univercell Market Ltd., Chair of the UK National Stem Cell Network Advisory Committee, Life Sciences Advisory Board member for the Worcester...

Gary Rabin's 24-year career in finance and operations has primarily encompassed investing in, managing and raising capital for small-cap and emerging growth companies. From 2007 to 2010, he was Managing Partner at GR Advisors, LLC, a hedge fund focused on media and communications. From 2005 to 2007, he was a Portfolio Manager at MACInvestment...

Professor Rasko is an Australian pioneer in the application of adult stem cells and genetic therapy. He directs the Department of Cell and Molecular Therapies at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and heads the Gene and Stem Cell Therapy Program at the Centenary Institute, University of Sydney. John Rasko is a clinical hematologist, pathologist and...

Fred J. Roisen, Ph.D., founder and CSO of RhinoCyte™, Inc., is professor and chair of the Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology in the School of Medicine at the University of Louisville. He holds a B.S. in biochemistry from Northeastern University, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Development Physiology from Princeton University. Prior to...

Dr. Rubin received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from The Rockefeller University and completed postdoctoral fellowships in Pharmacology from Harvard Medical School and in Neurobiology from Stanford University School of Medicine. He has worked both in academia and in industry. Notably, at Athena Neurosciences (now Elan Pharmaceuticals), he initiated a ...

Fatiha Sadallah is responsible for the IMI collaborative research in the field of Education and Training. She manages the implementation of the Education and Training programme while addressing the scientific priorities of the IMI Call topics. She develops document management and participates in structuring and monitoring the field within the...

Dr. Salmikangas is a biochemist by original training, but her main research work career has been in cell and molecular biology of various inherited diseases. Since 2006, she has been an Associate Professor of Biochemistry for the University of Helsinki. Dr. Salmikangas has worked as a senior researcher at Finnish Medicines Agency since 2003. Her...

Michaela Sharpe is currently head of the Stem Cell Safety Group at Pfizer and has designed and implemented the safety programmes for Pfizer’s lead stem cell based therapy products. She has over 10 years experience in nonclinical development in the fields of vaccines and stem cells, with a strong knowledge of the regulatory environment. Michaela...

Dr. Dan Shoemaker is the chief technology officer and is leading the development of quantitative cell state analysis for the Company's therapeutic development and iPS cell technology. Dr. Shoemaker was most recently chief scientific officer of ICxBiosystems, which develops advanced detection technologies for use in biodefense, cancer and prenatal...

Mr. Siani-Rose at Kiverdi is helping design next generation biofuels and specialty chemicals using microbes to perform waste gas conversion. Michael has 15+ years of regenerative medicine and biotechnology experience. As President and Founder of Theregen he raised $10M and led the company through two Phase I clinical trials for the Anginera...

Donna Skerrett - MD, MS - Chief Medical Officer As Mesoblast’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Skerrett oversees clinical development of the antibody-based stem cell selection technology and in vitro culture processes, as well as the human clinical trial programs, while liaising closely with global regulatory authorities. She has been involved in stem...

Mr. Smith joined Cambrex Bioproducts in January 2002 as the Business Unit Director of the emerging Cell Therapy business. In 2004, he was promoted to Vice President, Business Development, and in December 2005 to Vice President, Cellular Therapeutics. In this role, he assumed responsibility for contract manufacturing, process...

Glyn Stacey has a background in public health and cancer research and has worked on the development of cell substrates for manufacture of biological medicines. He is currently Head of Division of Cell Biology and Imaging and Director for the UK Stem Cell bank, a licensed clinical tissue bank, at the National Institute for Biological Standards and...

Nancy Stagliano, Ph.D. joined iPierian as Chief Executive Officer in September 2011 with an accomplished career as a biotech leader spanning all aspects of the industry, from discovery research and strategy to global medical affairs and corporate communications. Prior to joining iPierian, Dr. Stagliano was CEO of CytomX Therapeutics, a company...

Dr Steger is Global Head Research & Technology Partnering at Roche, and in this role is also responsible for the company’s collaborations in the area of stem cell technologies and therapeutics. Dr Steger is co-chair of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Industry Committee. Prior to joining Roche in 2007, Dr Steger was a...

Ted Tenthoff is a managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, focused on the drug discovery sector of the biotech industry. Prior to joining Piper Jaffray in 2003, Tenthoff worked at Think Equity Partners. Prior to that, he covered the genomics sector at Robertson, Stephens & Company, and was a medical technology analyst at...

Keith Thompson was appointed CEO of the Cell Therapy Catapult on 1st May 2012 to establish and lead the Centre. For the last eight years he was the Director of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service where he was responsible for providing blood components, tissues, bone, clinical services and an increasing range of Cell Therapies. Prior to ...

Dean Tozer is Senior Vice President at Advanced BioHealing, Inc. (ABH). In this role he oversees marketing, corporate development, reimbursement, government affairs, product development, various regulatory functions and international expansion. Mr. Tozer joined ABH in March 2006 as Vice President of Marketing & Corporate Development. Prior to...

Ludovic Vallier is a MRC senior-non clinical fellow affiliated to the Department of Surgery Cambridge University, principal investigator in the Anne McLaren laboratory for Regenerative Medicine and director of the Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre hIPSCs core facility. He has developed a strong expertise on human embryonic stem cells and human...

Dr. Gil Van Bokkelen is the Chairman and CEO of Athersys, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHX), a biopharmaceutical company based in Cleveland, Ohio that was established in 1995. He has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors at Athersys since August, 2000, and as CEO since the company was formed. Since the company was founded, he has overseen the growth and...

Dr Alain Vertès is a Sloan Fellow from London Business School and was Global Alliance Director at Roche in the Pharma Partnering group, identifying strategic needs, finding, implementing and managing partnerships from licensing to M&As. He championed emerging technologies for bringing to patients disease-modifying, paradigm-changing...

David is the Minister for Universities and Science, and has been the Member of Parliament for Havant since 1992. David has worked at HM Treasury, the Number 10 Policy Unit, the Centre for Policy Studies and served as Paymaster General in the last Conservative Government. He has also previously served as the Shadow Secretary of State for Work &...