Speakers

Dr. Aftab is the Chief Scientific Officer at Adicet Bio leading the design and development of first-in-class allogeneic gamma-delta CAR T cell therapies. Dr. Aftab has over 20 years of rich experience in biotech, academia, and pharmaceutical industries developing multiple therapeutic modalities...

Steve is a Director within North Highland's Global Life Sciences vertical, co-leading its Cell & Gene therapy practice. He is a seasoned supply chain and technical operations leader, with 15 years of experience spanning leadership roles within Celgene (a Bristol Myers Squibb...

Dr. Baraniak holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and dual BSE degrees in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering from Duke University. A results-oriented business leader and scientist with 20+ years of experience in regenerative medicine and cell therapy, Dr. Priya ...

Dr. Shirley Bartido is currently Takeda’s Director of Global Regulatory Affairs in Cell Therapy Oncology. Dr. Bartido holds a PhD in Immunology and an MBA in Pharmaceutical Management from Rutgers University. She completed her doctoral studies at New York University elucidating an alternative Class ...

Alexandra Beumer Sassi, PharmD, PhD, RAC is an accomplished leader with over 24 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical and consulting industries. She currently serves as Executive Director of Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) Regulatory at AstraZeneca, where she oversees the...

Jaap Jan Boelens is a distinguished leader in the field of transplantation and cellular therapies, currently serving as the Chief of Transplantation and Cellular Therapies at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. With a strong background in pediatric hematology-oncology and stem cell...

I received my PhD in biological chemistry from the Federal university of Rio de Janeiro in 2004. I lead the Program for Cell and Gene Therapy at the Brazilian National Cancer institute in Rio de Janeiro. We were the pioneer group in Brazil in CAR-T cell development and have contributed to the field ...

Anne Brooks is an experienced biotech and pharmaceutical executive with a 20+ year proven track record of successfully commercializing pharmaceutical products across diseases, technologies and reimbursement models at all stages of product lifecycle, from early stage development, to product...

  Frederic Bushman is the W. M. Measey Professor and Chair of Microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Bushman received his bachelor’s degree fromAmherst College, and his PhD from Harvard University. His research centers on genomics of host/microbe...

Ying Cai is the Executive Director of Manufacturing Science and Technology at Ultragenyx, where she leads technology transfer and process validation for AAV gene therapies. She also led Downstream Process Development and Formulation Development at Ultragenyx and served as the CMC lead for a...

Yu (Clay) Cao, Ph.D. is the Vice President, Global Head of Drug Discovery, and U.S. Site Executive at GenEditBio. A distinguished immunologist and seasoned scientific leader, Dr. Cao brings over 15 years of experience spanning academia and the biopharmaceutical industry. He has held pivotal roles...

My name is Guobao Chen, also known as Paul Chen. I have extensive experience with various drug modalities, including small molecule agonists/antagonists, monoclonal antibodies, Fc-function enhanced depleting monoclonal antibodies, bispecific antibodies, and antibody-drug conjugates. In recent...

Amanda Conerty is the Executive Director or Manufacturing, Advocacy and Engagement at Artiva Biotherapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company dedicated to delivering highly effective, off-the-shelf, allogeneic, natural killer cell-based therapies. Amanda is an ASCP-certified clinical laboratory...

Dr. Das is Chief Business Officer at Cabaletta, having joined in July 2019. He is also a Lecturer in the Health Care Management Department at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Cabaletta, Dr. Das was a resident physician in General Pediatrics at the Children’s...

Kate Excoffon is the VP of Research at Spirovant Sciences, Inc, a company focused on gene therapy for respiratory diseases. With over 25 years of experience in gene therapy in the academic and biotech space, Kate’s passion is creating, building, and advancing viral vector-mediated gene...

Peter Francis MD PhD, CSO & CMO of Ray Therapeutics, is an experienced biotechnology executive and an ophthalmologist clinician-scientist with expertise in ophthalmic genetics and retinal disease. He has almost two decades of working in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries where he...

I am a post-doctoral researcher in the Silverbush lab at the University of Pennsylvania, where I have established single cell wet lab pipelines and am working on novel computational methods. I received my B.A. From Oberlin College and my Ph.D in the lab of Dr. David Feldser at UPenn. I am...

Patrick has spent 19 years in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries supporting companies bringing innovative therapies to market, specializing in establishing manufacturing and logistics capabilities to launch, then expand access to these therapies globally.  This includes evolving those...

https://nanocelltx.com/about-us/

Erin Harris is Chief Editor of Cell & Gene and Host of Cell & Gene: The Podcast. She interviews the key players in the cell and gene therapy space and writes about the sector's most pressing issues. She studied English and Psychology at Lafayette College and has 20+ years of experience ...

Christina lives right outside Washington, DC in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband, Matt, and daughters Sophie (14) and Charlotte (9). Christina leads government affairs for Orchard Therapeutics, a Kyowa Kirin company and gene therapy leader focused on ending the devastation caused by genetic and...

Jenny Holt Chief Development Officer, Ray Therapeutics   Jenny Holt is Chief Development Officer at Ray Therapeutics. She has more than 25 years of life sciences expertise primarily in gene therapies, ophthalmology, and oncolytics. She joined Ray Therapeutics in 2022 as part of the executive...

Director of Process Development Labs at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's, Connell & O'Reilly Families Cell Manipulation Core Facility. Founder of Cellular Technologies Bioconsulting, LLC, previously VP of Scientific Affairs at Cytonome, LLC and Scientific Director at...

Dr. Johnston has been studying neurodegenerative disease for the last 20 years, starting with postdoc at Stanford which resulted in the discovery and description of Aggresomes. This discovery was the first example of cellular proteostasis demonstrating a link between the proteasome pathway and...

Margareth Jorvid – MSc Pharm, MSc MTRA, MBA, FTOPRA Elicera Therapeutics AB Board Member Margareth Jorvid has over 30 years of experience in Regulatory Affairs and has worked at the Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA) as well as large and small pharmaceutical and biotech companies, such as...

Stephan Kadauke, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Associate Director of the Cell-Based Therapy Laboratory (CBTL) at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. A board-certified transfusion-medicine specialist, he...

Mr. Kirby joined Iovance in February 2025 as Chief Commercial Officer, bringing deep experience in commercial operations, including cell therapy. Prior to joining Iovance, Mr. Kirby led global commercial strategy and operations for an emerging cell therapy platform of products as Chief Commercial...

Ashley Krull, Ph.D., received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from the University of Iowa and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Washington. After graduate school, Dr. Krull completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Regenerative Neurobiology within the Department of...

With a first degree in Biochemistry and Pharmacology, and a Ph.D. focusing on drug metabolism and Pharmacokinetics, Graeme has worked in the areas of Drug Safety and Medical services for over 35 years. Having worked as a Head of Global Pharmacovigilance for a multi-national innovator Company and...

Dr. Bruce Levine, Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy, is the Founding Director of the Clinical Cell and Vaccine Production Facility (CVPF) in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center, Perelman School of Medicine, University of...

Dedicated and results-oriented professional with over two decades of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. A proven leader in project management, drug development, and immuno-oncology research, with a track record of successfully leading cross-functional teams to drive...

Hi, I'm Nadia Milne. As the Associate Director of Logistics for Advanced Therapies at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicines, I lead the global logistics for advanced therapies clinical trials, ensuring the reliable delivery and integrity of pioneering treatments. I specialize in...

Dedicated to transforming scientific discoveries into life-changing therapies, Dr. Samarendra Mohanty co-founded Nanoscope Therapeutics and serves as president and chief scientific officer. With over 25 years of experience in biomedical sciences, Dr. Mohanty has co-founded several biotech and...

Alexander Natz is the Secretary General of the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE) in Brussels and advises innovative pharmaceutical and biotech companies, including start-ups, in regulatory and pricing & reimbursement matters from the EU law and German law...

Pharma/Biotech senior executive with over 26 years of commercial, drug development, product lifecycle and strategy expertise. His multiple achievements through global and country leading roles (Novartis Oncoloy, Celgene, BMS),  and his proven leadership skills came from an extensive 21-year...

Dr. Porter is the Jodi Fisher-Horowitz Professor of Leukemia Care Excellence at the Perelman School of Medicine and Abramson Cancer Center, and the Director of the Center for Cell Therapy and Transplant at the University of Pennsylvania.  He is also the co-director of Penn’s Colton Center of...

Michael Riotto is a former retail department store manager turned cancer patient advocate, coach and mentor after his diagnosis with multiple myeloma in 2011 at the age of 51.  His journey through the maze of chemotherapy, radiation, surgeries, broken bones, and a stem cell transplant has led him...

Dr. Blaine Robinson joined LLS in 2011 and was recently promoted in January 2025 to Vice President of the Therapy Acceleration Program (TAP), the venture philanthropy initiative aiming to accelerate high-risk, innovative blood cancer therapeutics. He works closely with the entire LLS Research team...

Qian Ruan, Ph.D., is the Senior Vice President of Technical Operations of Arcturus Therapeutics, and a board member at ARCALIS, Japan. Dr. Ruan is responsible for managing the product production of mRNA drug substances, novel lipids, and LNP drugs, as well as managing global tech transfers. Prior...

Justin is the Vice President of Technical Operations at Caribou Biosciences which is a leading clinical-stage CRISPR genome-editing biopharmaceutical company advancing a pipeline of off-the-shelf CAR-T therapies for the treatment of patients with hematologic malignancies and autoimmune...

Dr. Kara Spiller is the URBN Endowed Professor of Biomedical Innovation in Drexel University's School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health Systems. Her research focuses on the role of immune cells in tissue repair and regeneration and the design of immunomodulatory biomaterials. Her...

Ales Štrancar is executive managing director of Sartorius BIA Separations since funded in 1998.Aleš is one of the main inventors of the CIM Convective Interaction Media® monolithic columns technology and co-inventor of many analytical methods including pDNA, mRNA, AAV, Adeno and other viruses.He...

Sarah Thomas is the Sr. Vice President of Quality at REGENXBIO, responsible for the Quality Assurance, Quality Control and Analytical Development organizations.  She has over 30 years’ experience in pharmaceutical, biotech & gene therapy Quality.  She has experience working with products at all ...

Pierre-Axel Vinot brings over 10 years of experience in preclinical research, clinical trials, and CMC management, particularly in the field of cell and gene therapies. He holds a Pharm.D. from the University of Paris and a Ph.D. from Sorbonne University and completed a specialized residency in...

Professor Yuntao Wu is a tenured full professor at George Mason University’s Center for Infectious Disease Research. He has dedicated over 35 years to virology research, focusing on HIV infection in the past two decades. Currently, he co-directs the Center for Infectious Disease Research at...

Howard (Hao) Wu, PhD has 25 years’ experience in gene editing technology and new drug discovery. He is specialized in overseeing R&D programs, new lab and research team set up in the biotech start-ups.   Dr. Wu is the co-founder and CSO of Full Circles Therapeutics, where he is dedicated to...

Andrew York is the Executive Director of the Maryland Prescription Drug Affordability Board, which is an independent agency charged with protecting Marylanders from the high costs of prescription drugs. Previously, Andrew worked on prescription drug payment policy and drug pricing reform at the...

Dr. Zhong has worked in the drug discovery industry for over 25 years. He is the inventor of multiple patents.  Dr. Zhong is the scientific founder and CEO of GeneLancet, a gene editing company developing precise next-generation gene editing. Prior to GeneLancet, He was a principal scientist at...

Dr. David Zuzga, PhD is the Associate Dean of Biomedical Studies at The Wistar Institute and works to expand and enhance its life science training programs spanning high school, workforce development and apprenticeship, graduate education, and postdoctoral training. Prior to joining...