Speakers

Prasad Adusumilli is a thoracic surgeon-scientist and Vice Chair of Translational Research in Dept. of Surgery at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. His research focuses on solid tumor immunology and immunotherapy. Supported by R01 and Dept of Defense awards, his laboratory...

Nadav Ahituv is a Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences and the Director of the Institute for Human Genetics at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his PhD in human genetics from Tel-Aviv University working on hereditary hearing loss. He then...

Sonia Appel has over 20 years of experience in Technical Operations, from commercial molecular diagnostics to pharmaceutical early development.  With a Master of Science in Molecular Biology and a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, she has led multiple development strategies, IND ...

Brian Avanzino is Director of Discovery Research at Rondo Therapeutics where he leads teams focused on the discovery and development of novel multispecific antibodies for the treatment of solid tumors. Previously, he was at Amgen and Teneobio where he led and advanced several T cell engager...

Aniket Badkar has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with a focus on biologics drug substance and drug product formulation development. Aniket currently holds the position of Director of Formulation and Drug Product Development at Vir Biotechnology, Inc. In this role, they lead...

Julio Baez is a seasoned bioprocessing scientist, manager and university instructor with a 45 years industrial experience providing a strong background in bringing innovative biologics from discovery to manufacturing. Currently serving at the University of California San Diego and MiraCosta...

Maroun Beyrouthy is a senior advisor in the BioProduct Research and Development organization at Eli Lilly and Company, in Indianapolis, IN, USA. Maroun finished his Ph.D. in biological science at Florida State University, followed by post-doctoral training in pharmacology and toxicology at...

Over the course of my career, I have accumulated over 20 years of experience spanning academia and industrial laboratories focused on antibody discovery, protein engineering and purification, and immunotherapeutic development. I led several research and development programs culminating in multiple...

Jennifer Chain, PhD, CABP, is a scientist with more than 27 years of experience spanning T cell research, product development, blood banking, and cell therapy. She is a thought leader in the field of cellular starting materials, focusing on leukopak collection, donor stewardship, and donor...

Dr. Prasun Chakraborty is the CEO and Founder of Genevation/GeneevationUS, a groundbreaking biotechnology company pioneering the development of personalized cancer vaccines. Dr Chakraborty is a visionary leader and innovator in the field of biotechnology, specializing in the development of...

Melody Chang is a dynamic and results-driven healthcare executive with over 25 years of experience in pharmacy operations within the oncology sector. Currently serving as the Vice President of Pharmacy Operations at the American Oncology Network, Melody is known for her strategic leadership and...

Dr. Jake Y. Chen, Triton Endowed Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science at UAB School of Medicine, is a Fellow of ACMI and a leading innovator in AI-driven drug discovery. As founding director of the Systems Pharmacology AI Research Center (SPARC) and Contact MPI of the NIH...

Dr. Qiang “Shawn” Chen is a molecular biologist who specializes in developing novel human therapeutics and vaccines in plants to combat infectious diseases, cancer, and biological warfare reagents. His research aims to ameliorate diseases and improve human health, as well as to contribute new...

Mark is the Chief Scientific Officer at Tavotek Biotherapeutics.  He has nearly 35 years of experience in new drug discovery for AbbVie/Abbott Laboratories and Janssen. Prior to joining Tavotek, Dr. Chiu was the Head of the Process Analytical Sciences at Biotherapeutics Development and Head of...

Dr. Daniela Cipolletta is Senior Director of Immunology at Seismic Therapeutic, developing a new generation of immunology therapies enabled by machine learning. Daniela has 20 years of immunology-focused research experience, with an emphasis on bridging immunology with oncology, metabolism, and...

Brandon J. DeKosky joined the Department of Chemical Engineering as an assistant professor in a newly introduced joint faculty position between the department and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard in September 2021. He received his BS in chemical engineering from University of Kansas, and ...

Dr. Vaibhav Deokar is Principal Scientist at Formulation Development Team of R&D, Lupin Limited (Biotech Division), India. He has pursued M.Tech (Bioprocess Technology) from the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) (formerly UDCT), Mumbai and completed his doctoral research under Lupin’s...

Hans van der Vliet, M.D., Ph.D. is a professor in medical oncology at the Amsterdam UMC in the Netherlands. He received his medical doctor degree from the University of Amsterdam in 1998, his doctor of philosophy degree (cum laude) from the VU University in Amsterdam in 2003, and was trained in...

Genevieve Desjardins is a Principal Scientist and Group Lead in the Protein Engineering department at Zymeworks Inc, where she contributes to the discovery and development of next-generation multispecific antibody therapeutics. Her work in protein engineering has supported multiple clinical-stage...

Robert O. (Bob) Dillman, M.D., is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine, and since 2016 has been the Chief Medical Officer for AIVITA Biomedical Inc., Irvine, CA. Dr. Dillman received a B.A. from Stanford, M.D., internal medicine training, and Chief Resident...

Dr Anselm Ebert, PhD holds the position of Business Development Director at H&T Presspart. Dr Ebert oversees the strategic management of the new product development process and manages new product introductions for H&T Presspart. Before joining H&T Presspart he was Director of Product...

Dr. Kamal Egodage serves as the President of Lasanth® Consulting. In this capacity, he provides expert consultation and execution in biologics full Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) development, regulatory strategy, and interactions with health authorities, spanning from discovery...

Gordon Freeman, PhD, Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, is renowned for discovering the PD-L1 and PD-L2 proteins. Dr. Freeman showed that PD-L1 and PD-L2 bound to PD-1 to turn off the immune response and that blockade of PD-L1/PD-1 enhanced immune...

Ana Garcia is a Process Development Engineer II in the Viral Production Core team of the Preclinical Manufacturing and Process Development group at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. In this role Ana contributes to the development of purification processes for rAAV therapies at the 2L, 50L, and 500L...

Dr. Gee is Vice President, Head of Research at 3T Biosciences. He is co-founder of 3T Biosciences and an internationally recognized expert and pioneer in the field of pHLA targeting via T cell receptors and bispecific T cell engagers. Dr. Gee brings more than a decade of domain expertise across the ...

I currently lead clinical development for broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (bnAbs) for HIV prevention--an approach also known as passive immunization or passive immunoprophylaxis. At the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), we work closely with partners to develop bnAbs as a new class of...

Rafael (“Rafa”) began his professional career in South San Francisco, California, where he joined Genentech’s Purification Process Development organization. He then moved to Amgen Thousand Oaks where he continued to work on the development and implementation of protein purification processes to...

Davis Goodnight is a Senior Scientist in Platform R&D at A-Alpha Bio, where he works in developing platform technologies to generate massive protein-protein interaction datasets and leveraging these datasets for a variety of therapeutic protein engineering efforts. He earned his Ph.D. in...

Ana Isabel Gutiérrez joined H&T Presspart in 2023 as Global Business Development Manager driving the company’s innovative Parenteral Applications Program. Before joining H&T Presspart, Ana spent over 12 years at West Pharmaceutical Services, where she held a prominent sales leadership...

Chad Hall is an accomplished life science leader with deep expertise in drug development, cell line engineering, and biologics manufacturing and experience spanning academia, biotech, big pharma, and CDMOs.  He currently serves as a Principal Scientist at Catalent Biologics where he develops...

Dr. Holm serves as a Senior Pharmacist Contract Portfolio Manager within Supply Chain Management at Mayo Clinic, where she negotiates contracts on behalf of Mayo Clinic and Captis, an LLC under Vizient. She drives the development and management of key initiatives focused on contracting...

Changyun Hu, PhD, is the Chief Scientific Officer at Adept Therapeutics, where he leads the development of novel antibody-based immunotherapies for cancer. Dr. Hu earned his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Fudan University and completed his postdoctoral training at Yale University...

Laurent Humeau, Ph.D. Chief Scientific Officer; Chairman, Scientific Advisory Board As Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Humeau works to ensure continuous and strategic growth of INOVIO’s pipeline by introducing a constant flow of innovative concepts and cycling them from early-stage discovery and...

Sophia Humphreys is an innovative, and dedicated Pharmacy executive with 20 plus years of pharmacy leadership experience. She is a nationally renowned leader for Medication Utilization Management, P&L and Pharmacy Operations. She uses her exceptional financial analysis skills and incorporates...

Clayton Irvine is the Senior Manager of Oncology Cancer Care Pharmacy at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he leads daily pharmacy operations within the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. Clayton currently serves as an appointed committee member for the ASHP Section of Pharmacy Practice...

Zoran Krunic, Senior Manager of Data Science, Amgen   Since joining Amgen R&D in 2018, Zoran Krunic has been at the forefront of applying Machine Learning to enhance patient outcomes and streamline clinical trial enrollment processes, utilizing comprehensive Electronic Health Records and...

My name is Sonya Kumar Bharathkar, and I am a Postdoctoral Researcher in Dr. Jamie Spangler’s lab at Biomedical Engineering department at Johns Hopkins University. My current research focuses on engineering cytokine-based immunotherapeutics, and studying their structure and function,  which will...

I. My Story in a NutshellSince my birth, I have lived around the globe (Tanzania, Singapore, Thailand, Chile, USA, etc.), got my higher educational degrees in USA, and later joined the University of Tokyo as faculty in the Department of Bioengineering. My past achievements include my original...

Sanghoon Lee is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Kennesaw State University. He received a doctoral degree in computer science from Georgia State University and was a recipient of the Brain & Behavior fellowship at the Neuroscience Institute and the Second Century...

My academic training began in 1998 as an undergraduate at UBC, where I immersed myself in the Combined Honours Physics and Mathematics Program, graduating as a Canada Scholar and recipient of the CK Choi Presidential Award. In 2002, I moved to UC Berkeley as an NSERC fellow to pursue doctoral...

Mengyue (J.P.) Li – Biography With domestic and international experience across higher education, banking, healthcare, and venture capital (VC) & private equity (PE), J.P. embarked on his first entrepreneurial journey by acquiring and scaling a local business in Houston, Texas. Under his...

Dr. Huilan Lin is a bioprocess development scientist with over 10 years of experience in antibody, vaccine, and exosome process development and manufacturing. His work focuses on upstream and downstream process optimization and technology transfer to GMP facilities, and he has contributed to...

Cate Lockhart, PharmD, PhD is the Chief Science Officer of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) and the Executive Director of the Biologics and Biosimilars Collective Intelligence Consortium (BBCIC) where she is responsible for all AMCP research programs, including those within the BBCIC...

Dr. Mark Mamula is Professor of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, and Founder of TheraJan, LLC (therajan.com), a company developing canine cancer immunotherapies.  Dr. Mamula’s interests are in investigating the early events of inflammatory mediated changes in the proteome that...

Jay Mandrekar, Ph.D., is the primary statistician for Mayo Clinic's Department of Neurology, Department of Surgery, and the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology. He is involved in multiple clinical trials, population-based studies and research grants in these...

Amy MargoliesIntegrative Resilience Coach | Founder, Sunshine Theory Amy Margolies is a breast cancer survivor, former Google executive, and integrative health and resilience coach who brings a powerful, lived-experience perspective to the evolving conversation around biologics, survivorship, and...

Shamekka Marty is a Cybersecurity Project Management Consultant, Foundation Director, and board member of several charitable organizations. She is a dedicated wife, mother of three, Lupus survivor, and mentor, whose advocacy has touched many lives across the globe. Her caregiving journey began at...

Chris Mason MD, PhD, FRSB, FRCS, FMedSciChris has over 30 years of cell and gene therapy experience spanning R&D, clinical medicine, manufacturing, and commercialization. He is a Full Professor of Cell & Gene Therapy at University College London. Chris is also a serial...

Wyatt McDonnell is Co-Founder, CEO, & Chairman of the Board of Directors @ Infinimmune, a biotechnology company utilizing natural immunity to transform natural antibodies into safer and more effective drugs for complex diseases. Previously, Wyatt developed 10x Genomics’ first therapeutic...

Rushabh Mehta is a data-driven supply chain strategist and Financial Analyst at Hammerton Inc., where he merges Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Financial Analytics to unlock agility and resilience across complex manufacturing and logistics ecosystems. His work has led to...

Dr. Santosh A. Misal is a Staff Scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. His extensive expertise in protein biochemistry, proteomics, and mass spectrometry advances groundbreaking research in malaria vaccine development. By employing advanced proteomics...

Liviu Movileanu has received his Ph.D. degree in biophysics from the University of Bucharest (1997). He has acquired postdoctoral positions at the University of Missouri (Kansas City, Missouri, 1997-1998) and the Texas A&M University Health Science Center (College Station, Texas, 1999-2004). He ...

Savita Nair, Ph.D., is an accomplished scientist and Associate Director at Sangamo Therapeutics, where she leads the CMC Bioassay Analytical Development group within Technical Operations in Brisbane, California. With a focus on product quality characterization, she has successfully guided her team...

Robert Nechanitzky is a seasoned Senior Scientist at Zymeworks Inc., a leading biotechnology company specializing in the development of innovative biotherapeutics. With a strong background in molecular biology and immunology, Robert has played a pivotal role in advancing the company's research...

After being diagnosed with a brain cancer (meningioma) and p1RCC (a rare kidney cancer) in 2014, Bill co-founded rarekidneycancer.org with Dr. James Hsieh in 2016.  In 2018 and 2020, with Pete Kane, he brought together 17 teams of more than 80 researchers who used his medical data to determine...

Michael is the technical lead of computational biology at Biolojic Design, where he leads the development of new computational tools for antibody discovery.  Prior to joining Biolojic Design, he worked as a researcher in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and in the University of...

Dr. Zoya Gluzman-Poltorak is a biotech executive with 25+ years of leadership spanning gene and cell therapy, genome editing, and targeted biologics, advancing multiple programs from early research to the clinic and serving as development lead on seven FDA INDs. She has built and led high-impact...

Kamal Puri is a seasoned executive with a strong background in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. As the Chief Scientific Officer at OncoResponse, he leads the company's efforts in developing innovative therapies for cancer treatment. With over 25 years of experience in the biotech...

Dan Qin is currently a Scientist III in the Department of Biochemical and Cellular Pharmacology. She is recognized as a leading expert in immunogenicity risk assessment for biotherapeutics, a critical field that ensures laboratory-designed medicines do not trigger harmful immune responses in...

Brandon T. Ruotolo is currently a Professor in the Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan. He earned his B.S. in Chemistry from Saint Louis University in 1999. Brandon then received his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 2004 under the direction of David H. Russell. He did his...

Volker Schellenberger co-founded Amunix in 2006 and served as Chief Scientific Officer. He is the lead inventor of the company’s XTEN as well as XPAT platforms of protease-activated T cell engagers. Since the acquisition of Amunix by Sanofi in 2022, Volker directed discovery at Sanofi’s center of...

PRISM was founded in 2009 by Dr. Schnitzer, a world-renowned expert in vascular biology with almost four decades of research experience.  Upon earning his MD in 1985 from the University of Pittsburgh, he served as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Cell Biology, Yale University Medical...

Dr. Alessandro Sette has devoted more than 35 years in biotech and academia to understanding and measuring immune responses, and developing disease intervention strategies against cancer, autoimmunity, allergy, and infectious diseases.  Dr. Sette’s laboratory is the world leader in the study of the ...

Jae Sly is a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive and consultant with over 20 years of experience spanning R&D to clinical development. She specializes in strategic partnering and international expansion of biopharma technologies and services, with a strong track record of supporting startups...

Heather Stephenson is a seasoned Senior Scientist at Gilead Sciences with over a decade of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Her expertise lies in protein engineering, display based antibody discovery and lead optimization. She is known for her attention to detail and collaborative...

Adeleh Taghi Khani is an accomplished scientist with over five years of experience in Immunology and immunogenicity, specializing in therapeutic areas like oncology and autoimmunity. Currently a Scientist II at Quest Diagnostics, she excels in developing immunogenicity assays and strategies, and...

Dr. Keenan Taylor is a Principal Research Scientist I at AbbVie in the Protein Science group within Biotherapeutics and Genetic Medicine. He is responsible for the construct design, purification, and delivery of research-grade proteins/antigens to advance the Biologics Discovery pipeline.

Andrew Tsourkas, Ph.D. is a Professor and Undergraduate Chair of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania.  He received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1997 from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the Georgia Tech/Emory University joint...

I am a Senior Scientist at ScopeSys and one of the leads in R&D. Our work sits at the crossroads of chemistry, physics, biology, and therapeutics, utilizing our unique tether-free imaging platform—Convex Lens-induced Confinement (CLiC). We are passionate about studying single nanoparticle...

Ryuta Wada is Technology Lead at the newly established Technology Scouting & Integration Labs (TSIL) at Astellas Pharma, where they drive global scouting, evaluation, and integration of emerging manufacturing technologies across modalities including small molecules, antibodies, engineered...

Kim Walker, MS, RAC (US & EU), FRAPS kawalker@sdsu.edu https://regsci.sdsu.edu/  kimwalkerconsulting@gmail.com www.kimwalkerconsulting.com www.linkedin.com/in/kimwalkerconsulting   Consulting Work Kim Walker is an independent Global Regulatory Affairs, Quality System, and Clinical...

Dr. XingXing Zang received his M.Med from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and PhD from the University of Edinburgh and completed postdoctoral training with Jim Allison at UC Berkeley and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He is currently a Professor, the Louis Goldstein Swan...

Dr. Yue Zhao earned her Ph.D in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Peking Union Medical School, China. Her graduate work discovered the NOD-like receptors(NAIPs) for recognizing cytosolic bacterial pathogens. She continued working in the innate immunity space and made several phenomenal...

Dr. Zhao has almost 20 years of experience in biomarker research and drug development in both academic and industry settings. She earned her Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from the University of Oslo, Norway, with a focus on breast cancer genomics. During her post-doctoral training at Stanford...

Dr. Yu Zhou is a highly skilled Manager in Analytical Development specializing in viral vectors for cell and gene therapy as well as oncolytic virotherapy within the Life Science division at Millipore Sigma. Prior to joining Millipore Sigma, she spent six years at Novartis, focusing on gene and...

Josh Zibit is the Head of Technical Development at Astellas Gene Therapies. He has over 15 years’ experience in biopharma working on diverse biologics including gene therapies, antibodies, and antibody-drug conjugates, and more than 7 years’ experience in gene therapy programs. At Astellas Gene...