INTRODUCING OUR 222+ SPEAKERS

Dr. Akamatsu is a Senior Principal Research Scientist position at the AbbVie Redwood City in California where focused Oncology R&D and Immuno-Oncology Research. Her responsibility includes leading an early discovery project of Immuno-Oncology and to optimize biologics of various formats in...

Julian Andreev is a Ph.D. scientist with >15 years of experience in the Biopharmaceutical Industry.  Right after his dissertation research in Dr. Joseph Schlessinger’s lab, he joined newly-formed Molecular Oncology group at EMD Serono Research Institute as Principal Investigator.  At...

Edward Ballesteros is the Director of Supply Chain for Bellicum Pharmaceuticals.  In this role, Edward is responsible for implementing and managing supply chain projects for start-up operations supporting clinical to commercial launch of cell therapy products in the US and EU.  Edward has over 20+...

Dr. Banach is an adjunct instructor at Vanderbilt University, School of Medicine, Department of Biostatistics, and Project Manager of CTSpedia, a web-based tool to aid statisticians, epidemiologists, and clinical researchers in statistical understanding of their clinical research data.  She has...

Dr. Roger R. Beerli (CSO, NBE-Therapeutics AG) has over 15 years of experience in discovery, engineering and preclinical development of antibody-based therapeutics. Before he joined NBE-Therapeutics AG, he led therapeutic antibody development programs at Cytos AG, Switzerland, and later at...

Alexey Berezhnoy is a scientist in the Cell Biology and Immunology group of MacroGenics, Inc., which he joined in 2016 from a faculty position at the Department of Medicine University of Miami. Dr. Berezhnoy has been active in tumor immunology research for the past 10+ years, focusing on novel...

There    are    several    words    to    describe    Dr.    Christopher    Boone:    health    futurist,    social    entrepreneur,    executive,    professor,    patient    advocate,    and    self-proclaimed    “data    hippie.”    Boone    is    recognized    as    being    a    dynamic,   ...

I am currently the Director of the Antibody Discovery group at Mapp Biopharmaceutical, Inc., located in San Diego, CA USA.  At Mapp, my work is centered around engineering the viral protein reagents required to facilitate the labeling of B cells for FACS based single cell sorting activities.  Our...

Dr. Breitmeyer is the President & CEO of Oncternal Therapeutics, Inc. a clinical-stage oncology biotech developing first-in-class therapies for both rare and common malignancies. Oncternal has launched a clinical program to study cirmtuzumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting ROR1, in combination ...

Dr Broderick has a broad background in the product development and device development DNA therapeutic and drug delivery field, with specific expertise in in vivo DNA vaccine animal studies and product development in relation to electroporation.  Her particular area of focus is electroporation...

Dr. Brooks earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Microbiology from the University of Victoria in Canada where his thesis work focused on the structures of carbohydrate-specific germline antibodies.Dr. Brooks earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Microbiology from the University of Victoria in Canada...

Patrick Burke is an Associate Director in the Chemistry department at Seattle Genetics where his research is focused on the discovery and implementation of new payload and linker technologies for antibody-drug conjugates.  Prior to his 12 years at Seattle Genetics, he did post-doctoral research in...

With nearly 30 years of experience in the biotech/pharmaceutical and medical device industries, Jim Caggiano is committed to advancing therapeutic options that improve the lives of patients. Having spent his career focused on areas of medicine where few or no effective options exist, including...

Dr Cellitti earned her B.A. at Cornell University and Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley as a HHMI fellowship recipient.  She studied the influence of glycosaminoglycans on the multimerization state of chemokines through structural and biophysical...

Dr Brian Champion is Chief Scientific Officer and member of the Executive Management Team at PsiOxus Therapeutics Ltd, Oxford, UK where he is leading the scientific team in the development of novel oncolytic virus-based, Tumor-Specific Immunogene (T-SIGn) therapies for the treatment of cancer.   He ...

Since joining Celgene in 2014 , he has served in a leadership role focused on integrating internal and external capabilities and programs to deliver transformative medicines based on recombinant DNA technologies.  Dr. Cho is also the site-head for Celgene San Diego Campus Point and serves on the...

Heidi Chokeir, Ph.D., is managing director at Canale Communications, a strategic life science communications agency in San Diego. In addition to serving as a senior strategy lead, Heidi is CanaleComm’s unofficial chief scientific officer—always ready to dive deep into the science that makes each...

Mark Cobbold research focus relates to cancer antigenicity and modulating cancer antigen expression to correct the mismatch between antigenic display and TCR repertoire.  One approach has been to deliver immunodominant viral peptides to tumor cells using antibodies as delivery agents.  Another...

Jan Davidson-Moncada, M.D., Ph.D., joined MacroGenics, Inc. in 2016 and serves as Senior Director of Clinical Research, leads immuno-oncology clinical development programs for flotetuzumab, a CD123 x CD3 bispecific DART® protein under evaluation in acute myeloid leukemia; MGD007, a gpA33 x CD3 DART ...

Annick has over 15 years of experience in both pharma and academia in Australia, the USA, UK, Belgium and the Netherlands. She was trained as a neuroscientist (University of Amsterdam, NL) and acquired her PhD in Pharmacology at Utrecht University (NL). Her experience in assay development started...

John leads Amgen’s Biologic Discovery function responsible for identifying large molecule therapeutic candidates in collaboration with all Amgen Therapeutic Areas, including the discovery of fully human antibody therapeutics using the company’s proprietary platform technology. John joined Amgen in...

Steve leads a group at Lilly responsible for the design, engineering, and mechanistic characterization of proteins, antibodies, and antibody-like molecules. Prior to joining Lilly in 2011, Steve held positions at Biogen Idec, Diversa Corp, and Syngenta. Steve performed his graduate work with Daniel ...

Yanhuai (Richard) Ding, Ph.D. Director of Downstream Purification and Manufacturing at AnaptysBio. He has over 18 years of experience in protein purification, viral clearance, technology transfer, and manufacturing support for multiple bio-therapeutic and vaccine products. Prior to joining...

Ramana Doppalapudi is a drug discovery research leader with expertise in medicinal chemistry, bioconjugation, antibody drug conjugates, and nucleic acid delivery. His accomplishments include leading 3 antibody conjugate programs from discovery to development, 2 of which completed Phase-1 clinical...

Dr. Drummond currently serves as Senior Vice President and Head of Research for Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, and was one of two principle inventors for many of Merrimack's nanotechnology-based drugs and platform technologies, most notably Onivyde, a highly stabilized liposomal formulation of...

Dr. Stefan Dübel is full Professor of Biotechnology and Director of the respective department at the Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany. He further serves as director of the technology transfer unit "Centre for Molecular Engineering" of iTUBSmbH and as consultant to biotech...

Roland Dunbrack, PhD is a professor in the Molecular Therapeutics Program at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. He holds a PhD in biophysics from Harvard University and did post-doctoral work at the University of California San Francisco. His research is in structural...

Klaas Ehrig holds a biploma degree in Microbiology, Cell and Developmental Biology and Clinical Biochemstry as well as a PhD in Biology from the Julius-Maximilians University of Wuerzburg Germany since 2012 . The work for his PhD degree was sponsored by a joint venture between academia and...

Elaine Eng is a family nurse practitioner and currently serves as senior regulatory advisor at University of California, San Diego. Elaine holds more than 15 years of regulatory affairs experience focusing on first-in-class drugs for diseases with high unmet need. Prior to joining UCSD she worked...

Dana Filoti received her Bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Bucharest and her Ph.D. in Materials Science from University of New Hampshire.  Her graduate work focused on high-rate nanomanufacturing and nanostructure evolution of antimicrobial phase-segregated sputtered thin film ...

Peg Ford, Co-Founder/President, An 12 year ovarian cancer survivor, serves on NCI’s Ovarian Cancer Taskforce and a member of the FDA’s Patient Representative Program. She serves as a member on the Community Advisory Board of UC San Diego’s Altiman Clinical & Translational Research...

Sheila Frame, Vice President & Head Sandoz Biopharmaceuticals, North America, is responsible for the development and commercialization of the biosimilar medicines portfolio in the US and Canada. Sheila has more than 20 years of pharmaceutical experience and serves as a member of the Sandoz US...

Dr. Julia Frei obtained her PhD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Bronx, NY). During her doctoral and post-doctoral studies, she engineered bispecific antibodies targeting filoviruses and novel subunit based Dengue virus vaccine candidates. Currently, she leads the proof-of-concept...

Major Jeff Froude is a Military Deputy Division Chief and a Science and Technology Manager for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, responsible for the planning and execution of Research and Development Programs for medical countermeasures to threat agents for the Department of Defense.  Major...

Dr. Joseph P. Fuhr, Jr. is professor emeritus of economics at Widener University. He is also affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, College of Population Health Thomas Jefferson University and University of Sciences. He currently serves as a senior fellow with The American Consumer Institute and ...

Laura has a unique role which blends internal and external components.  Laura is Merck & Co., Inc.’s  assigned leadership to the Oversight Committee of TransCelerate BioPharma Inc.   The Oversight Committee is the primary governing body for decisions related to the operational direction of...

Scott is Director of the Antibody Therapeutics group at GNF. His group is responsible for a broad range of platform activities associated with early to late stage antibody drug discovery. Prior to joining GNF, Scott was Sr. Director and Site Head for Pfizer’s Centers for Therapeutic Innovation...

Sanjeev Gupta has obtained Ph.D. in Molecular Biology/Cell Line Engineering and M.Sc. in Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. At present working as Sr. General Manager and Head, Advanced Biotech Lab (R&D-Biosimilar), Ipca Laboratories Ltd., Mumbai, India. Sanjeev Gupta has established a new...

Eric Halioua is a serial entrepreneur with strong managerial, technological, fund-raising and deal-making experience. Eric Halioua is President and CEO of PDC*line Pharma a clinical-stage biotech company that develops a new class of therapeutic cancer vaccines based on a line of Plasmacytoid...

Brenda Hann is the Director of Clinical Research Operations in the Stanford Cancer Clinical Trials Office at Stanford Cancer Institute.  The Cancer Clinical Trials Office provides central coordination and oversight of clinical staff to ensure consistent processes, regulatory compliance and improved ...

As the Patient Engagement Lead for UCB’s Global Clinical Sciences & Operations, Mitch Herndon leads a global team that provides oversight for patient recruitment and engagement efforts across UCB’s clinical studies. Mitch has 21 years of experience in partnering with and advocating for patients ...

Kevin Heyries (Co-founder, Head of Business Development & Strategy) holds a PhD in biochemistry (Univ. of Lyon, France, 2008) and did his doctoral work on microfluidic technologies for antibody analysis. His postdoctoral work was performed at the University of British Columbia developing...

Steffan N. Ho, MD, PhD is Vice President and Head of Translational Oncology in the Global Product Development organization at Pfizer. He received his MD and PhD degrees from the Mayo Clinic where he completed his doctoral research in the Department of Immunology, and pursued postgraduate medical...

Trained as a medical oncologist at Columbia University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Kyle began his career treating patients with GI tumors at the University of Wisconsin.  There, his research interests included early phase trials and novel therapies for GI and neuroendocrine...

r. Jacobs is an expert in the implementation of creative solutions to protein engineering and drug delivery challenges. At the University of North Carolina, Dr. Jacobs developed novel protein engineering  techniques that blend computational modeling with high-throughput screening. In...

Joseph Jardine trained at the University of Washington under William Schief and David Baker, focusing on rational protein design. In 2011, he moved with the Schief lab to The Scripps Research Institute where he developed germline-targeting immunogens and designed immunization strategies to elicit...

Christopher M. Jewell is Associate Professor and Associate Chair in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland. Dr. Jewell has authored over 75 manuscripts and patents, including papers in ACS Nano, Cell Reports, Nature Materials, PNAS, and Nature. Some of Dr. Jewell’s...

Prior to co-founding medicxi, Kevin was a partner with Index Ventures for 12 years, having joined the firm’s life sciences team in 2003.  Kevin spearheaded Index’s very first experimental asset-centric investment, in PanGenetics, which was later acquired by Abbott Pharmaceuticals. He is currently...

Karin Jooss serves as Chief Scientific Officer of Gritstone Oncology.  Dr. Jooss joined Gritstone from Pfizer, where she served as head of Cancer Immunotherapeutics within the Vaccine Immunotherapeutics department for seven years.  While at Pfizer, she built and led immuno-oncology teams, was a...

Racho Jordanov is a biotech pioneer with more than 30 years of experience building and leading manufacturing operations in development-stage and multi-national biopharmaceutical companiesMr. Jordanov started his career with Genentech, Inc. in 1981 in San Francisco, where he led the facility...

Dr. Junttila joined Genentech in 2006. His early work focused on characterizing the impact and mechanism of action of Herceptin (trastuzumab) and Kadcyla (ado-trastuzumab emtansine; T-DM1), in addition to PI3K inhibitors in the treatment of breast cancer. Notably, this work unveiled a previously...

Dr. John Karanicolas is an Associate Professor in the Molecular Therapeutics Group at Fox Chase Cancer Center. He was granted a PhD from Charlie Brooks' lab at The Scripps Research Institute in 2003, for his work using molecular dynamics simulations to study protein folding. He then moved to a...

Andreas is co-founded Anaveon in April 2018, and previously was the Director of Autoimmunity, Transplantation & Inflammation, Novartis Institutes of  Biomedical Research, Basel Big Pharma experience in the discovery and development of immunomodulating drugs (26 years) Extensive BD&L...

Dr Megan Keaney is currently the Principal Medical Adviser in the Technology Assessment and Access Division  of the Australian Government’s Department of Health. The  Division   is responsible for  the evaluation, listing and review of medical services and technologies (...

Thomas Keating is Senior Director of Biochemistry at ImmunoGen, leading the research conjugation and characterization group since 2014.  He has also worked previously in anti-infective research and development at AstraZeneca.  He received an A.B. in chemistry from Harvard College, a Ph.D. in...

Marilyn Kehry is Vice President of Cell and Functional Biology at AnaptysBio, Inc. where her research is focused on discovering and optimizing immunomodulatory antibodies using somatic hypermutation and understanding in vitro and in vivo functional activity of novel antibodies on immune...

Alex is responsible for growing Retrogenix’s European and non-North American business portfolio and is based at our UK headquarters in the Peak District. Prior to joining the company, Alex spent two years at specialist pharmacogenomics service provider Epistem.  Here he built successful...

Bruce Keyt, Ph.D. Chief Scientific Officer at IGM Biosciences has 35 years of research and development experience in biotechnology. During 16 years at Genentech, he worked on Factor VIII, Activase tPA, TNKase tPA, plus anti-VEGF antibodies, Avastin and Lucentis. At Millennium Biotherapeutics, he...

Dr. Khatry is a biometrician with 20 years of statistical experience in integrating measurement theory, statistical methodology, study designs, and state-of-the-art knowledge from regulatory guidelines and the statistical and biomedical literature. He received his PhD at the University of...

Dr. Klingemann is the discoverer of the NK-92 cell line and co-founder of NantKwest. Prior to joining NantKwest as VP for Research & Development, he served as the Director of the Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplant Program and the Director for Hematological Malignancies at Tufts Medical Center ...

Vadim Klyushnichenko, PhD serves as VP Pharmaceutical Development and Quality at California Institute for Biomedical Research from April 2016. He is responsible for CMO/CRO management, process development, GMP manufacturing, quality assurance and supply chain of the Calibr clinical product...

Rob Knight is the founding Director of the Center for Microbiome Innovation and Professor of Pediatrics, Bioengineering and Computer Science & Engineering at UC San Diego. Before that, he was Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Computer Science in the BioFrontiers Institute of the...

Dr. Keith L. Knutson is currently Professor in the Department of Immunology at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville and Director, Mayo Clinic Florida Cancer Research Program.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia in Physiology and Pharmacology in 1995 and completed two post-doctoral...

Dr. Andrew Korytko is currently group leader in protein engineering at Eli Lilly and Company. He has been with Eli Lilly since 2004 and previously was at Applied Molecular Evolution for a number of years before it became a part of Eli Lilly in 2004. Dr. Korytko has over 25 years of experience in...

Dr. Krystek is Senior Principal Scientist in the department of Molecular Structure and Design where he leads a team that is focused on using in silico methods to support protein modeling and engineering of protein therapeutics.  He is also member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Rider...

Sandeep Kumar, PhD, is a senior research fellow at Biotherapeutics Discovery, Boehringer Ingelheim working on computational modeling and developability risk assessments of a wide variety of biotherapeutic drug candidates, including multispecific antibodies and antibody-based therapeutics. He earned ...

With over 15 years in biotech and healthcare, Jzaneen’s experience extends from capital markets to mergers and acquisitions, from investor relations/corporate communications to organizational development - at both private and publicly traded companies.   As a former public company General Counsel...

My training is in Internal Medicine, Hematology Subspecialty and Transfusion Medicine.  I have extensive experience and leadership positions in academic medicine, laboratory investigation and clinical trials, including cellular therapy and most recently adoptive immunotherapy. In my current...

Sheryl L. Lapidus, MAG, is Director, Corporate Affairs at TESARO, Inc. In this role, Ms. Lapidus is charged with helping TESARO fulfill its corporate mission by connecting a diverse group of stakeholders—including patient advocacy organizations, professional medical associations, people with...

Associate Professor Andreas Hougaard Laustsen heads the Tropical Pharmacology Lab at the Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark. He is specialized in antibody discovery, toxinology, antivenom, and neglected tropical diseases. Andreas is an Advisor to the WHO’s...

Shahram Lavasani holds a Ph.D. degree from Lund University in Medical Inflammation Research where he studied the immunoregulation and novel immunotherapies in multiple sclerosis (MS). He is a skillful immunologist, with many years of teaching and research expertise on gastrointestinal complications ...

I finished my masters in Biotechnology in 2018. I spend the last couple of years working to replace the current antivenom against snakebite with one that is more effective and causes less adverse reactions. I have worked on the discovery of human monoclonal antibodies against snake venom toxins...

Steven Lehrer brings over 30 years of experience starting, growing and running life science-based businesses focused on commercializing new technology and expanding businesses globally. Steve has extensive experience in pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and biosimilar...

Matthew Levengood is currently a Senior Scientist in the Protein Sciences department at Seattle Genetics where his research is focused on novel antibody formats and antibody-drug conjugate technologies. Prior to his 7 years at Seattle Genetics, Matthew performed post-doctoral work in chemical...

Ren Liu, PhD, is an associate principal scientist at Merck & Co., Inc. in Kenilworth, New Jersey, USA. He currently leads the Cell Engineering group in Merck’s BioProcess department. Before joining Merck, Dr. Liu was a senior scientist and group leader at VasGene Therapeutics from 2006 to...

Deryk Loo is the Director of Targeted Therapeutics and Site Operations at the Brisbane site of MacroGenics, Inc., which he joined in 2008 following the acquisition of Raven biotechnologie, Inc. Dr. Loo has been active in drug discovery and development for the past 15+ years, focusing on...

Professor Mark Lowdell PhD FRCPath FRSB is the Professor of Cell & Tissue Therapy at University College London and Director of the Centre for Cell, Gene & Tissue Therapeutics / Honorary Consultant Immunologist at Royal Free Hospital London. He is a qualified diagnostic immunopathologist as...

Dr. Lum is a Professor of Oncology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Director of Cellular Therapy, and Scientific Director of BMT. In the past 20 years, he conducted the first experimental trials using immunotherapy in combination with SCT for leukemia, lymphoma, multiple...

In his current role within Pharmaceutical Services Division, Ministry of Health Services, Eric leads the Drug Intelligence branch. The branch consists of several operating units including Formulary Management, Special Authority, Clinical Decision Support, and the Alzheimer’s Drug Therapy...

Maria do Céu Machado is a medical doctor (MD, PhD), President of the Executive Board of INFARMED (Portuguese Medicines Agency), Full Professor of Pediatrics at the Faculty of Medicine – Lisbon University and Vice-President of the Federation of European Academies of Medicine. She is currently also...

Dr. Mamonkin is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine. As a postdoc and later instructor at the Center, he has developed and optimized CD5- and CD7-specific CARs for T-cell malignancies and AML and investigated the role of CAR signaling and...

Dr. Mamula’s interests are in investigating the early events involved with breaking immune tolerance to self proteins, both in autoimmune disease and in tumor biology.  Overall, it is the goal of Dr. Mamula’s laboratory to understand the mechanisms that may shift the balance toward the initiation...

Jay Mandrekar, PhD, is currently a Consultant and Professor of Biostatistics and Neurology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN. He is the Director of Biostatistics Core for all of Mayo Clinic (3 sites), which includes over 200 Bachelors and Masters level statisticians. His current collaborative...

Sumithra Mandrekar, PhD, is currently Professor of Biostatistics and Oncology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN, and Section Head for the Cancer Center Statistics within Mayo Clinic. She is the Group Statistician for the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, which is one of the 4 NCI funded...

With a background in interpersonal and organizational communications (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), teaching and performing arts, plus being a patient herself, Beth has a reputation for applying different lenses to respectfully challenge the status quo toward patient value. She has...

My interest in health and science led me to pursue a doctoral degree in Immunology, a field that I find fascinating. I initiated my scientific carrier studying the relationship between hormones and the immune system. Following the completion of my PhD studies I became interested in neuroimmunology...

Krzysztof is Head of Biology at Novimmune, in charge of CD47 bispecific antibody discovery and in vivo/in vitro translational studies. Previously, he was involved in monoclonal antibody development for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, also at Novimmune. Krzysztof holds a Ph.D. from the...

Ted Mathias focuses on trying patent cases. In just the last year, he tried two cases to judgment and served as lead counsel in a case involving 33 patents that favorably settled on the eve of trial. Ted has litigated patent cases and handled successful appeals to the Federal Circuit in the areas...

Dr. Mayadev is the medical director of gynecologic brachytherapy and chief of the gynecologic malignancy disease team in the division of clinical and translational research. She oversees the clinical focus and translational research aspect of image guided brachytherapy for gynecologic cancers. She...

Hailey Tipton is an ACRP-Certified Clinical Research Coordinator with 10 years of experience in pre-clinical and clinical research. As Administrative Director of the Moores Cancer Center Clinical Trials Office at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), Hailey plans, directs, and carries out...

Johanna Mercier is President and Head of U.S. & France, Germany, Japan/Korea/Taiwan at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where she oversees a complex organization responsible for $17B in revenue annually, 80% of total company revenues.  In this leadership role, Johanna strives to instill a balance of...

Mr. Metz joined Horizon Pharma in 2009 as the vice president global business operations and general manager Europe. He is responsible for the administration of global business operations and corporate external affairs. Mr. Metz has over 27 years of commercial, external affairs, finance, corporate...

Mark Milberg has over 26 years of management and operational experience in the biopharmaceutical, medical device, and healthcare industries. He currently works as Director, Clinical Procurement and Outsourcing at Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc., supporting all of the clinical programs in this...

Dr. Vera Molkenthin earned her PhD in Biology at the University of Mainz and has more than ten years of experience in antibody discovery and engineering. Dr. Molkenthin was leading the Antibody Discovery group at Affimed AG and managed the transfer of the technology to AbCheck in 2009. Since 2010...

Dr. Nasoff is currently the Chief Scientific Officer at the Center Of Innovation (COI) in San Diego, California.  He received his PhD in microbial genetics from the University of Maryland, followed by postdoctoral training in organic synthesis at the University of Colorado, where he participated in ...

I received a B.Sc. in chemistry from MIT, conducting research in the laboratory of Prof. John Essigmann (MIT) and Prof. Steve Ley (Cambridge).  After graduation, I received Gates Cambridge Scholarship to pursue my interest in science policy and commercialization studying an M.Phil. in Technology...

Elisabeth K. Nyakatura received her MSc in Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, in 2008 and a PhD in Biological Chemistry from the FreieUniversitätBerlin, Germany, in 2013. She then joined Dr. Lai’s lab at the Albert Einstein College...

Jill O’Donnell-Tormey, Ph.D., is chief executive officer and director of scientific affairs of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI), a nonprofit organization founded in 1953 that is today the global leader in supporting and coordinating research aimed at harnessing the immune system’s power to...

Yanay Ofran is the head of the Functional Genomics and Systems Biology Lab in Bar-Ilan University. His research focuses on biomolecular recognition and its role in disease. Prof Ofran is also the founder of Biolojic Design (www.biolojic.com), a biopharmaceutical company that uses a computer-guided...

Cinthia Pastuskovas obtained her Ph.D in Neuroscience in Argentina followed by a post-doctoral position at the University of Iowa. In 2002, Cinthia was hired by Genentech Inc. where she worked for 13 years.  In 2016, she transitioned to Amgen Inc. as a senior scientist in the PKDM department where...

Dr. Sandip Patel, MD is a medical oncologist focused on early development of novel immunotherapy, in particular early phase clinical trials of cancer immunotherapy and thoracic oncology immunotherapy trials.  His research focus is on predictive biomarkers for immunotherapeutic response and...

Laura Pearce is a Consultant with over 20 years' experience in global drug development—the majority focused in oncology and immuno-oncology. She has held senior positions in clinical study operations, quality assurance/compliance, business development, alliance management, and global medical...

Andrea has a BS in Finance, received her MD from  Georgetown Medical School and completed her radiology residency at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to Merck, she was at GE Health Care, BioClinica, and a biotech company in Silicon Valley. Andrea has been at Merck for 6 years. She and her team...

Sari Pesonen, VP Scientific and Clinical Development (PhD, co-founder) at Valo Therapeutics. Previously she worked at Oncos Therapeutics as a Research Director and later took on the role of Head of Clinical Science, leading clinical sample analysis. Later, Sari worked as VP Preclinical Research and ...

Kristen M Picha PhD is a Senior Director and the Strategy & Operations Leader for Discovery, Product Development & Supply (DPDS) for Janssen R&D.  Kristen works with the DPDS Leadership Team to fully execute on their strategic imperatives.  She also manages portfolio...

Ian has over 20 years of Pharmaceutical Industry experience. He has authored nine publications in scientific journals including Nature, Diabetes & PNAS, and has eight issued patents (several pending).  Ian began his career in science at the laboratory bench, discovering new treatments for...

Gareth Powell is a Business Development Officer for the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN). Gareth facilitates key discussions between industry and the Clinical Research Network and is a point of contact for the life sciences companies engaging with the Clinical Research Network. Gareth is able...

Alexey Rak got his M.Sc in Biology and Genetics, and in Biochemistry. He then completed PhDs in Biochemistry and Biophysics working on protein biosynthesis machinery characterization. He did his PostDoc and then held a Group Leader position at Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology in...

Fred Ramsdell, PhD, is a veteran biotechnology leader in immunology with nearly three decades of experience. He currently leads the development of collaborative research programs at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy as vice president of research.After a fellowship at the National...

Douglas Reichgott is Director of Financial and Regulatory Operations for the Tufts Medical Center Office of Research Administration.  Mr. Reichgott graduated with a B.A. from Tufts University in 1992 and received his Masters in Health Policy and Management from Harvard School of Public Health in...

I joined the immuno-oncology efforts at Pfizer after 20 years in academia, initially as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Biological Science at the University of California, San Diego, and then at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP). At SBP, I was a Professor and...

Stacie’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation, due diligence and client counseling, with an emphasis on the life sciences. Her IP counseling and due diligence experience includes extensive counselingfor product development efforts relating to biologics and reconstructive...

Dr. Carlos Sattler is the Head of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs at Sandoz Inc. In that capacity, Dr. Sattler leads efforts in the US to develop and implement Sandoz’ medical and scientific strategy, medical education and communication initiatives, and data generation activities in...

Mike Schopperle received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Brandeis University and followed with postdoctoral studies in cancer research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and an Instructor faculty position at Harvard Medical School to continue cancer stem cell research. In 2011 he co-founded...

Bradley Scott is a Senior Clinical Evaluator at the Biologics and Genetic Therapies Directorate within the Health Products and Foods Branch at Health Canada. He received his B.Sc. degree in biology from the University of Waterloo and his PhD in Cellular and Molecular Medicine from the University of ...

Leader in Strategic Planning and Optimization of R&D Portfolios . As functional Head for Site Intelligence & Site Selection  based in La Jolla, CA.  Oriol provides leadership, strategic direction and oversight to effectively deliver country & site feasibility globally. Oriol´s interest...

Dr. Andrew Sharabi, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor, board-certified radiation oncologist, and director of the Radiation Medicine Core facility at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center. He has a Ph.D. in Immunology and completed his radiation oncology residency and research fellowship at Johns...

Jonathan trained as a doctor at Dundee University, before following a career as a histopathologist at Yeovil District Hospital, where he was instrumental in developing its research capabilities. In 2003 he became Medical Director for the Trust, before moving on to University Hospitals Bristol – ...

Dr. Wenyan (David) Shen is a well-recognized expert in the antibody, therapeutic protein, and biosimilar field with a proven record of advancing pipelines from discovery to clinical and regulatory approval in both US FDA and EU EMA. As an executive leading research and process development teams in...

Dr. Short is Chairman, CEO, Pres. and co-founder of BioAtla, headquartered in San Diego with operations in Beijing, pioneering Conditionally Active Biologic (CAB) cancer therapies. He is Chairman and co-founder of LusBio for biomass conversion to feed and food production. He is founder and former...

Dr Shubhadeep Sinha is a senior pharmaceutical physician with over 17 years of experience in Global Clinical Development, Pharmacovigilance, Medical Affairs in Pharmaceuticals &  CROs. He is Currently Vice-President and Head- global clinical, medical and pharmacovigilance operations at Hetero...

Jae Sly is the Director of Strategic Business Development at AcroBioSystems in Wilmington, DE.  Jae has over 20 years in the Biopharmaceutical Industry, from R&D to Clinic. She was previously the CEO of Strategic BioPharm Consulting, Inc. providing strategic partnering of...

PhD in Biology,MsC in Biotechnology, MsC in Microbiology andGenetics, MsC in Environmental sciences, BS in Biology and BSin Biotechnology with 20 years of experience in the biotechnologyand bio-pharmaceutical industry. I developed as a professionalin the area of small...

David Sourdive, Ph.D., is a co-founder of Cellectis and joined the Board of Directors in 2000. Dr. Sourdive holds the position of Executive Vice President, Technical Operations, with the mission to develop the Company’s industrial and technological basis as well as to deploy its operations in the...

Christoph Spiess received his PhD from the University of Konstanz (Germany). After completing his postdoctoral studies in the field of protein folding at Stanford University, he joined Genentech in 2007 and is currently a senior scientist in the Department of Antibody Engineering. His group is...

Ryan Stafford currently leads the Protein Engineering Discovery group at Sutro Biopharma, Inc. in South San Francisco. His team combines ribosome and phage display with rational approaches for antibody discovery and optimization using Sutro’s proprietary cell-free protein synthesis platform.  At...

Gary Starling is in the Protein Science Department at Merck Research Laboratories, based in the San Francisco Bay Area.  His career has focused on the Discovery and Early Development of Biologic therapeutics.  He began his career in the BioPharmaceutical industry at Bristol-Myers Squibb PRI working ...

Denise Steckel has over 19 years of experience at Genentech in Operations Support, Quality and External Collaborations.   Currently Denise is the Technical Alliance Manager of the Collaboration Alliance Management group.  In this role Denise and her team ensure alignment of all CMC...

Bruce is a co-founder, Director, and President and Chief Business Officer of Equillium. He is also the founder and Managing Director of BioMed Ventures, the strategic investment arm of BioMed Realty. Since founding BioMed Ventures, Bruce has directed investments in over 30 biotechnology companies...

Dr. Strauch recently joined the Dept. of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Georgia as an Assistant Professor where she is working on the design of therapeutic proteins and methods to design better immunogens. She has substantial experience in protein engineering, both...

Hiroaki Suga is a Professor of the Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science in the University of Tokyo. He received Ph. D. in Chemistry (1994) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the recipient of Akabori Memorial Award 2014, Japanese Peptide Society, Max-Bergmann Gold...

Anish Suri is an immunologist with more than 20 years of experience in basic and translational research focused on immuno-oncology, autoimmune disorders, transplantation rejection, and inflammation. Prior to joining Cue Biopharma, he held roles of increasing responsibility at Janssen Pharmaceutical ...

Alex Sverdlov has worked as a statistical scientist in biopharmaceutical industry since 2007, in such companies as Novartis, Merck Serono and Bristol-Myers Squibb. He handled clinical trials in neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic disorders, ophthalmology, immunology, and oncology. Alex has been...

Dr. Tesi has been President, Chief Executive Officer and acting Chief Medical Officer since the formation of INmune Bio in September 2015.  Before that, Dr. Tesi held multiple positions in private and public companies focused on manipulating the immune system for the benefit of the patient.  Before ...

Matthew Tirrell is the Pritzker Director of the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and Senior Scientist at the Argonne National Laboratory. Prior to joining UChicago in 2011, he was the Silverman Professor and Chair of Bioengineering at UCBerkeley, and Faculty...

Frédéric Triebel, MD. Ph.D., is the scientific founder of Immutep S.A. (2001). Before starting Immutep, he was Professor in Immunology at Paris University. While working at Institut Gustave Roussy (IGR), a large cancer centre in Paris, he discovered the LAG-3 gene in 1990 and continued working on...

Mihriban has over 15 years’ experience in antibody engineering and discovery and has successfully managed a number of internal and collaborative drug discovery projects. Prior to joining F-star, she worked in technology enhancement in Biopharm R&D at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and in the selection...

Laszlo Vasko has over 2 decades of experience leading information technology enabled change initiatives in pharmaceutical drug development.  He recently joined Janssen Pharmaceutical, as Senior Director Business Technology Leader for Clinical Development and Innovation.  Prior, Laszlo worked at...

Dr Alain Vertès is a Sloan Fellow from London Business School and a microbiologist by training (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Institut Pasteur Paris, and University of Lille Flandres-Artois). He is a strategy and business development consultant for several companies, including big...

Feng Wang, PhD, is the associate director and principal investigator at Key Laboratory of Protein and Peptide Drugs of Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research work focuses on developing new methods to identify and design novel antibody and antibody derivatives as...

Dr. Daniel C. Weaver is the Senior Product Manager and Solutions Architect for Research at PerkinElmer Informatics. Prior to joining PerkinElmer, Dr. Weaver was the Director of Scientific Computing at Array Biopharma, Inc., where he led all aspects of scientific software development and...

Han Xiao is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Biosciences, and Bioengineering at Rice University. Han obtained his PhD degree from the Scripps Research Institute. His thesis work with Prof. Peter G. Schultz focused on expanding the technique of genetically incorporating unnatural amino acids in...

With more than 20 years of industry experience, Christina has a proven track record of success across various aspects of pharmaceutical operations. Leveraging modern operational approaches and data to deliver consistent, high-impact results, she has successfully brought innovative products to...

Dr. Young is the Vice President of Biologics at the California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr) now a part of the Scripps Research family.  Dr. Young’s background is in synthetic biology and protein chemistry, he received his PhD from The Scripps Research Institute and carried out...

Beth began work at TESARO in January, 2014.  Her current role grew out of one of TESARO’s corporate values - the patient - and the desire to be a company that does more than just talk about putting patients at the center of everything they do.  Before TESARO, Beth worked as the Associate...

Jean Claude Zenklusen was born 1964 in Visp, Switzerland. He earned a Master in Sciences (Biochemistry) from the University of Buenos Aires in 1990. He received his PhD in Cancer Biology & Genetics from The University of Texas, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, in 1995. In 1996, he took a ...