2024 Speakers

Laurie Adami Bio Laurie had a 25 year career in financial services and was President of Los Angeles-based fixed income software firm Capital Management Sciences. Diagnosed with incurable Stage IV follicular non-Hodgkin lymphoma at the age of 46 in 2006, Laurie spent 12 years in continuous cancer...

Kévin is co-founder, Chief Technology Officer and US VP at TreeFrog Therapeutics. Kevin is a biophysicist and completed a PhD on micro-fluidic technologies for cell encapsulation. With his co-founder, they invented 3D encapsulation system, C-Stem™, a biomimetic technology that overcomes the...

Christopher Ballas is Chief Technology Officer at Castle Creek Biosciences, Inc. He has over 25 years of experience with cell and gene therapies in academic and industry roles covering research, development, testing, and manufacturing of viral vectors and cell therapies. Dr. Ballas recently was...

Donnie has nearly 15 years’ experience working in single-use and automation technology in biopharma. Donnie joined Entegris in 2019 as Sr. Product Manager for single-use products and has since taken a lead role in helping customers overcome unique challenges in cell and gene therapies. He has...

Researcher at the National Cancer Institute (INCA) of Brazil and Specialist at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, in Rio de Janeiro, he is the head of the Cell and Gene Therapy Program at INCA.

Gretchen Miller Bowker is the founder of Pearl Pathways and Pearl IRB. She serves as Chief Executive Officer, overseeing the management team responsible for regulatory and QA services, clinical development and IRB services, business development, finance and all business operations. Gretchen has...

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 from Amherst College, and his PhD from Harvard University. His research centers on genomics of host/microbe...

Dr. Colleen Delaney is Scientific Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Executive Vice President of Research and Development of Deverra Therapeutics, Inc., a cellular therapy company focused on development of universal donor, off-the-shelf cell therapies for patients with hematologic malignancies...

Caring Cross co-founder, Boro Dropulić, was born and raised in Australia, the son of Croatian immigrant parents that fled ideologically torn Europe after the Second World War. A virologist by training, he has worked in the gene therapy field since the late 1980s. After completing his post-doctoral ...

George Eastwood currently serves as Board Chair and Interim Executive Director for The Emily Whitehead Foundation. Emily is widely known as the first pediatric CAR-T patient and the Whitehead family created the foundation to ensure that more families could have the same outcome as theirs. Since its ...

Associate Director at AstraZeneca's Cell Culture & Fermentation Sciences group, focusing on regenerative cell therapies for our Biopharmaceutical pipeline.

Bringing products to market that meet the unmet needs of patients via a practical approach to problem-solving, collaboration, and dynamic leadership. Influential and engaging executive leader with 15+ years of success in the healthcare and biotechnology industries, including commercial operation...

Christine Gathers worked at Eli Lilly and Company for nearly 29 years with a multitude of experiences spanning the pharmaceutical value chain (e.g. product development, medical, strategy, marketing and sales, biomarker operations and regulatory).  In Regulatory for 8.5 years at Lilly, Christine...

Dr. Geerlings brings 30 years of biotech industry experience, partly as a serial entrepreneur (co-founder of Actinium Pharma (CBO); Formula Pharma (CEO); Mirata Pharma (Director); CelluTx (CEO); NanoCell (CEO)). Maurits has also been a senior business development executive (Ludwig Institute of...

Sarah received her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics at Ohio State University where she trained in rare inherited cancer syndromes. She has over 20 years of experience in clinical development and research across academia, pharmaceutical companies, and CROs. Sarah brings significant strengths and...

Dr. Thorsten Gorba is the VP of Process & Analytical Development at Aspen Neuroscience (San Diego, CA, USA). Thorsten is a developmental and molecular neuroscientist and stem cell biologist by training, who has also served as a consultant to the advanced therapies field. He has 25 years of...

Dr. Lore Gruenbaum joined LLS in 2020 as the Vice President for the Therapy Acceleration Program (TAP), the LLS venture philanthropy program aiming to accelerate high-risk, innovative blood cancer therapeutics. In 2023 she additionally took on oversight of LLS' Beat AML Master Clinical...

Dr. Nadine (Xiufang) Guo is a Professor (Research Track) in the NanoScience Technology Center (NSTC) at University of Central Florida (UCF). Dr Guo obtained her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on the  modeling of human diseases utilizing stem cell...

Michael Gustafson, PhD, is a Consultant in the Division of Laboratory Medicine and Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology with a joint appointment in the Department of Immunology. He is an Associate Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, and...

Nader Halim, PhD, is CEO of Innervace, a regenerative therapy company and resident of Cure, the healthcare innovation campus in New York City. In 2022, Halim led the completion of a $40 million Series A financing round to develop the company’s novel therapy for Parkinson’s Disease. Innervace's...

Dr. Hofmeister joined Myeloid in February 2024 as Chief Scientific Officer. Previously, he was the CSO at Resonance Medicine where he oversaw the research and development strategy, leveraging the company’s protease evolution platform. Previously, he served as CSO at TCR2 Therapeutics where he...

Xiao Huang received his PhD degree in Chemistry and Materials at UC Santa Barbara in 2016. There he worked on the spatial control of gene regulation in human embryonic stem cells through light-responsive nanomaterials. He went on to conduct his postdoctoral research at UC San Francisco, working at...

Dr. Ruud Hulspas works at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute as Director of Process Development in the Cell Manipulation Core Facility. He is Founder of Cellular Technologies Bioconsulting, LLC, a company focused on improving reproducibility and quality in (pre-clinical...

As an Edinburgh native, Adam spent his early career as an R&D scientist, gaining a PhD in cancer biology from Oxford University and working in discovery and development for AstraZeneca, Applied Biosystems & Lab901.  Over the past 15 years Adam has focused on more commercial...

Scott Jones, PhD became Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of BioBridge Global in October 2022. He joined BioBridge Global in 1999 and has held various positions including Director and Vice President of Laboratory Services in 2004 and 2007 and Vice President, Scientific Affairs in...

Dr. Stephan Kadauke is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and serves as the Associate Director of the Cell Based Therapy Laboratory at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). In his role, he focuses...

Annahita Keravala is a seasoned industry leader with over two decades of experience in gene therapy, including 14+ years in the biotech industry. She has extensive expertise in gene therapy drug development for rare and prevalent indications in ophthalmic, cardiac, neurological, and musculoskeletal ...

Eric B. Kmiec, Ph.D., is Founder and Executive Director of ChristianaCare’s Gene Editing Institute Inc. (GEI), a translational research and education institute with a specific focus on enabling breakthrough technologies to reach underserved populations.  He is widely recognized for his pioneering...

Dr. Kotecha serves as the Program Director of Regulatory Affairs at the Gates Institute, a role through which she passionately supports the advancement of transformative cell and gene therapies. With a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Regulatory Affairs Certification, she has over a decade of...

Antti Kourula, M.D.Vice President, Hematology Global Commercial DevelopmentCSL BehringAntti Kourula is Vice President for the Hematology Therapeutic Area in Global Commercial Development for CSL Behring. Antti is accountable for leading the multidisciplinary Global Commercial Development Hematology ...

Betsy Lahue's career spans nearly 30 years in healthcare innovation including advanced therapeutics, diagnostics, drug delivery platforms, and rare diseases. As a former executive at Sanofi-Genzyme, Vertex, Boston Scientific, and BD, Betsy served in various leadership roles and built...

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...

Dr. Hernando Lopez-Bertoni is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology, Oncology and Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Since being appointed Assistant Professor in July 2018, he has gained a national and international...

Steven Lucio leads the spend management Insights and Intelligence team, which provides Vizient members, suppliers, and the health care community with clinical and industry-related resources. Steven and the team include trained clinicians (pharmacists and other subject matter experts) representing...

Drug delivery focused engineer with previous experience in targeted lipid nanoparticle platform development with Tidal Therapeutics (acquired by Sanofi). Currently focused on progressing Tessera’s in vivo RNA delivery capabilities.

Lake is an experienced life science consultant in the areas of access, evidence, value, and pricing. In his current role as Market Access Manager at Alkemi, he collaborates with manufacturers, payers, KOLs, and other stakeholders across the healthcare ecosystem to unlock treatment value, facilitate ...

Milla Neffling, PhD., is a market segment manager for bioprocessing at 908 Devices. Milla works with bioprocess labs and scientists in the fields of biotherapeutic proteins, viral vectors, vaccines and cell therapies, to apply analytical solutions to drive bioproduction and its development. She...

Pharma/Biotech executive with over 25 years of commercial, drug development, product lifecycle and strategy expertise, including 20 years in Oncology. Throughout his career, he built extensive expertise in Oncology/Hematology and acquired leadership skills through country and global roles in...

Brian Price, Ph.D., Co-founder and CTO at Neucore Bio, Inc., has a successful track record of business development growth and product development in Chemistry Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) for therapeutic and vaccine development, toxicology and analytics.  Dr. Price was previously Principal...

Dr. Ragheb is SVP for Translational Sciences & Medicine at NexImmune, a clinical stage company based in Gaithersburg, MD. He received his MD and PhD degrees from the Johns Hopkins University and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Allergy & Immunology. Formerly, he was the Senior...

Brock Reeve is the CEO of Eos BioInnovation, an investment company launched in 2022 to accelerate the formation of companies in the regenerative medicine field. Eos is dedicated to incubating and seeding companies across modalities and indications based on research from leading academic labs. Prior ...

Michael’s journey through the maze of chemotherapy, radiation, surgeries, broken bones, stem cell transplant, and way more has led to where he is right now….educating and helping others.  He considers himself to be a very positive, hopeful, thankful, gracious, appreciative, and resilient person. ...

Biotech co-founder, global operations and clinical drug development professional who has grounded technical expertise in financial results. Managed venture-backed biotech spin-outs of Stanford and Johns Hopkins (Seed Stealth NewCo, $40MM Series A: Earli, $69MM Series B: Ashvattha, NASDAQ:...

Adam Shaywitz, M.D., Ph.D. is the Chief Medical Officer at BridgeBio Gene Therapy (BBGT), which is part of the larger BridgeBio Pharma portfolio focused on finding and developing novel treatment approaches for genetically driven disease.  BBGT is developing gene therapy treatments for a range of...

Ted Slocomb is a commercial executive with over 30 years of experience in the launch planning and strategic marketing of novel biopharmaceutical brands, with the last 10+ years focused exclusively on cell and gene therapies.Ted Slocomb serves as Vice President, Global Commercial Strategy, Value...

David joined Akron Biotech in May 2020 to focus on global sales, marketing strategy, and to support Akron’s business development efforts by utilizing his deep expertise in the field of cell and gene therapy. Previously, he served on the Board Directors of Healios K.K. before he assumed the position ...

Danielle Lynn Steele is Manager of Moffitt Cancer Center's Gene Engineering Facility for viral vector production.   Danielle is a graduate of Miami University (Ohio) and the University of Florida.  Danielle formerly supervised laboratory operations and quality control at Cincinnati Children’s...

As Spark Therapeutics’ Chief Patient Supply Officer, Chris Stevens leads a team of dedicated professionals working together in manufacturing and technical operations, supply chain, quality and compliance to deliver transformational therapies for patients globally. Chris is also responsible for...

Mathias Svahn, Ph.D., is the CEO of NextCell Pharma AB, a biotechnology company specializing in advanced cell therapies. With a doctorate from Karolinska Institutet, Svahn has extensive experience in the biotech industry. A serial entrepreneur, he serves as a non-executive board member for several...

Arun Upadhyay, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, and Head of Research, Development and Medical, drives Ocugen’s innovation and product development. He leads science and operations, creating and implementing fit-for-purpose strategies that enable scientific and business solutions. He oversees the...

Currently, VP, head of regulatory strategy genetic medicines at Regeneron.  My team is responsible for the development, regulatory interactions and approval of genetic medicines including gene editing/insertion, gene silencing and AAV gene replacement modalities.   Presviouly, chief regulatory and ...

DURHANE WONG-RIEGER, PHD is Chair of Rare Disease International, President of Asia Pacific Alliance of Rare Disease Organizations, Treasurer of UN NGO for Rare Diseases, Chair of Patient Advocates Constituency Committee of the International Rare Disease Research Consortium, and member of the...

Howard (Hao) Wu, PhD has almost 20 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...

With over 25 years of experience in the life science industry, Jie has successfully navigated various roles encompassing drug development, HEOR, and market access across Global and US organizations.  He joined Novartis from Abbott in 2002. In the past 8 years, Jie has dedicated his expertise to the ...