Speakers

Tomasz Baran MD, MBA Tomasz Baran is Chief Commercial Officer of FamiCord  AG -  the largest cord blood bank in Europe and 3rd largest worldwide. He joined cord blood banking activity in 2010, prior to that he has been holding various position in pharmaceutical industry. In his current role Tomasz ...

PhD in Biology/Biochemistry from Gothenburg University. 50 + publications in peer reviewed journals, several book chapters, and patents. Ten years within AstraZeneca R&D in Cardiovascular Diseases, twelve years at Cellartis/Cellectis as VP Regenerative Medicine, responsible for e.g., the major...

I am a pediatric hematologist/oncologist and have served as the Chief of the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapies Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) since 2018. Previously, I spent a decade developing a cord blood transplant program in the Netherlands which is now the...

Adam Brown is an Associate Professor of biopharmaceutical engineering in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield. His academic lab is focussed on developing technologies that improve the manufacture and performance of protein, DNA, mRNA, cell and viral...

Pedro is a cancer biologist and enterpreneur with a long standing interest in the tumour microenvironment (TME), as both a mediator of cancer progression and therapy resistance, and an effective therapeutic target. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge, where he initially developed...

Lindsay Davies completed her PhD in biochemistry in 2006 at Cardiff University, UK. Focussing on cell therapy for cartilage repair, her thesis work introduced her to cell and gene therapy, springboarding her into a career within the field, starting with a postdoc and two fellowship positions in...

Started as an Emergency Physician treating spinal cord injured patients involved in street accidents. Specialized later on in Public health and managing infectious diseases and dealing with scenario epidemiology. Worked for nearly 18 years as deputy director at the Municipal Public Health...

Dr. Katherine Forsey | she/her Chief Research Officer, Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association (CMTA) Katherine oversees the CMTA’s Strategy to Accelerate Research (STAR) and STAR Advisory Board, a group of 30 of the world’s leading CMT clinicians and scientists charged with shaping and delivering the...

Ibon is a seasoned executive who has advanced cell-based therapies from early discovery to clinical translation. He is currently the Chief Scientific Officer at CellProthera, a French clinical-stage biotechnology company developing stem-cell based therapies for post-acute myocardial infarction and...

For over three decades Nagy has been at the forefront of clinical research and clinical practise in cancer. He pioneered the first clinical trial in the use of adenovirus and plasmid for the treatment of liver cancer, as well as the use of plasmid gene therapy in hydrodynamic gene therapy...

Dr. Diana Hernandez is a stem cell biologist with more than 30 years’ experience in medical research and over 15 years in the cell therapy field both in academia and industry. After several years in basic academic research at Imperial College and UCL, she has led several collaborative projects...

A seasoned leader and strategist with 18 years of experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, excelling in new product planning, clinical development, operational strategy, and patient engagement. Combines global expertise across consulting, biotech, CRO, and public health...

Adam spent his early career as a scientist, gaining a PhD in cancer biology from Oxford University and working in discovery and development for AstraZeneca, Applied Biosystems and Lab901.  Over the past 15 years Adam has focused on more commercial roles, developing product and market strategies for ...

Dr Jones is an Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Clincial Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge. He specialises in the management of kidney cancer, his primary interest is in understanding how the tumour...

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 companies, such as Roussel Nordiska, Hoechst Marion Roussel (Stockholm and Paris, France) and Neopharma. Since...

Dr. Angela Justice is an award-winning Chief People Officer, executive coach, and trusted advisor to top executives. A neuroscientist by training, Angela began her career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company before holding senior leadership positions in Medical Affairs, Patient...

  Cornelia Kasper studied Chemistry at the University Hannover and received her Diploma degree 1994. She performed her dissertation at the Institute for Technical Chemistry 1995-1998 and graduated as Dr. rer. nat.. Until 2000 she was employed as EU liason officer at the University of...

Dr. Hans Keirstead is an internationally recognized stem cell expert and entrepreneur in regenerative medicine. He has pioneered therapies for cancer, immune disorders, motor neuron diseases, spinal cord injury, retinal diseases, immune disorders, and age-related immune decline, and created a novel ...

I am a Venture Capital Associate at UCB with an entrepreneurial outlook in the healthcare sector. I am passionate about working with amazing biotechnology startups and supporting the commercialization of disruptive technologies in medicine and biotechnology. PhD - The University of...

Dr Mathias Kroll has over 25 years’ experience in biopharmaceutical research and business development. He joined the Company in April 2024 as Chief Business Officer. Dr. Kroll has extensive global experience in biopharmaceutical business transactions of all kinds and has created and managed a large ...

Heather is the founder of HOYA Consulting, a company aimed at driving translation of academic research discoveries to broad patient access, as well as developing supportive ecosystems in which this product development can thrive. Heather's background is research in pluripotent stem cells since...

Dr Qasim Majid is a postdoctoral research scientist at the University of Helsinki, specialising in cardiac regeneration and coronary microvascular disease in the context of heart failure. He completed his PhD at Imperial College London, where he investigated novel stem cell-based strategies for...

Dr Malerba was awarded a PhD in Biotechnologies, describing novel approaches to improve muscle regeneration. He joined the gene therapy laboratory at Royal Holloway, University of London, in 2007 and since then he contributed to the development of novel gene therapy agents and antisense...

Julius Mathews studied mechanical engineering and business administration at RWTH Aachen University with a focus on production technologies. Since 2021, he is a research fellow at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT in the field of laboratory automation and digitalization. As...

Paolo leads European public affairs activities at ARM. He is a patient access, healthcare policy and investment professional with more than 20 years of experience in both assessing and supporting access to innovative healthcare technologies. Before joining ARM in 2017, Paolo worked for 5 years at...

Dr Sophie Mountcastle is a Programme Manager in the Translation Team at the Medical Research Council where she supports funding schemes and strategic activities for clinical and translational medical research. As part of her role, Sophie coordinates the network of Innovation Hubs for Gene...

Matthias graduated from the University of Vienna in the field of virology and molecular biology. In 2011 he joined Themis Bioscience, a biotech start-up specialized in the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases. At Themis he established the Technical Operations Department and...

Roberto Nitsch graduated in Medical Biotechnology from the University of Naples (Italy) where he also obtained his PhD in Molecular Genetics. He later moved to Vienna where he focused on mouse genetics and cancer biology, and lately recessive genetics. He then shifted his research topic to genome...

Kieran has spent ~25 years in drug safety with experience not only in both small and large pharmaceutical companies; but also in CROs and PV consultancy. Leading European and Global PV operations since 2006, Kieran has gained broad experience in PV QMS; Benefit-Risk management; Signal Detection...

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...

Matias Olsen is the Senior Manager, Public Affairs and Policy for the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE). Matias supports EUCOPE on key topics, covering among others, implementation of EU HTA, advanced diagnostics, Real-World Evidence, the Patent Package, Europe’s...

George obtained his MEng in Chemical Engineering from the University of Birmingham in 2017 and has since worked as a Biochemical Engineer in both industry and academia. After an initial period working in mAb manufacturing at Pfizer (Ireland), George transitioned to the Process Science and...

Nicola set up NJ Redfern Ltd over 2 years ago in 2022 to enable her to consult, coach and collaborate with other organisations in the area of early launch planning (strategic and operational) and market access, ensuring people living with life threatening and/or life limiting conditions can access...

Ajan is an experienced biotechnology CEO with a track record in drug development, biotech transactions and commercialisation. Over 20 years, he has served as the Global Head of Emerging Technologies for Roche Group (SWX: ROG), Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Novacyt S.A...

Dr. Tarunina joined Plasticell Ltd as Principal Scientist in 2007 and become company’s Research Director in 2017. She has contributed to the development of the company’s CombiCult® technology platform and exemplified its broad applications in different areas of stem cell biology. Prior to joining...

Ben Taylor is a Senior Director within the Discovery Sciences department in AstraZeneca. He leads a team in early R&D helping develop next generation cell therapies using gene editing technologies and advanced in-vitro cell biology. Prior to AstraZeneca in 2014, he completed a PhD at Imperial...

Anike was appointed as Chief Strategy Officer of Lucideon in 2018. She previously served on Lucideon’s Group Business Development Board and is currently a member of the Strategy Management Group. Anike is the Aegis Professor of Engineering Biology at the University of Bristol. In addition to her...

Dr. Panteli Theocharous is a seasoned leader with over 35-years of experience driving groundbreaking translational research, clinical development, and commercial strategy in the healthcare sector. With an established focus on Haematology/Oncology, Cell and Gene Therapy, Dr. Theocharous has led the...

Marco Traub, PHD. CEO, Trans European Stem Cell Therapy Society (TESCT), CSO, Switzerland, UK, Cheney; The Swiss Clinic, CEO, Switzerland, UK, India. Dr. Marco Traub has gained considerable experience in several research, management, and educational projects over the past 25 years. He is the...

Hiro Usuda is Scouting & Transaction Lead, Business Development at Astellas. He moved to Cambridge, UK in 2021 when Astellas launched an BD office in Cambridge. He is responsible for introducing European technologies and assets to global Astellas, communicating with external partners, and...

Pharmacist by training, Sonia Valero has over 25 years of experience in drug development across early to late phases in CRO, pharma, and biotech. She has extensive expertise in clinical activities and spent more than five years in the regulatory department at Servier. Since 2015, Sonia has worked...

David Venables is CEO of Laverock Therapeutics, leading the company through its formation, and initial seed funding and establishment of strategic focus and organization development. Prior to this he was President, AskBio Europe, following the acquisition of Synpromics Ltd, where he was CEO. AskBio ...

Joshi is the General Manager and Head of Europe for Novartis Gene Therapies. Joshi is an academically trained scientist who started his career in R&D departments of Novartis. Over time, he transitioned to increasingly significant commercial roles, overseeing global product launches, managing...

Dr Emily Warner is an accomplished cell and molecular biologist with expertise spanning the fields of ophthalmology, cardiovascular medicine, cancer, and diabetes across diverse drug modalities, including small molecules and gene therapies. Since joining ikarovec in 2020, Emily has led laboratory...

Ben is an experience CMC consultant and Bioprocess Engineer, with a PhD in Biochemical Engineering and an MBA in Businesses Management & Leadership. He currently holds positions as Director of Manufacturing at INmune Bio, and Technology Innovation Officer at the Centre for Cell, Gene and...

Researcher at INSERM UMR 951 located at Généthon in the Paris area. In this position, I'm working on improving gene delivery through viral vector engineering since November 2023. Previously, I have been working at various gene therapy labs in Heidelberg (Germany), London (UK), and Sydney...

Darius Widera is a Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and Research Division Lead at the University of Reading. His lab is mainly interested in adult stem cells and their secretome, inflammatory signalling cascades in health and disease, and novel methods for clinical-grade 3D...

Craig Woods has a background in genetics, next-generation sequencing, and bioinformatics from Imperial College London and the University of Nottingham. Following his PhD Craig worked as a post-doctoral researcher working on biofuel producing Clostridia sponsored by Lanzatech. In 2019 Craig joined a ...

Dr Shao-An Xue, received his PhD degree in Viral Oncology from Imperial College London in 1999. He has worked in the field of cancer immunotherapy for more than 20 years, and has successfully developed a holistic strategy for cancer immunotherapy based on TCR gene transfer. He has published more...