2026 Speakers

Rick Aldridge, MBChB is Managing Director, Healthcare Investment Banking.

Dr Aldridge is a Chartered Accountant (CA), Chartered Tax Advisor (CTA) and a member of the CFA institute. He holds an MBChB (Medicine) from the University of Edinburgh and a Masters (Dist) in Economic History from the University of Glasgow.

Trishan Arul is the Chief Executive Officer of Picture Health, where he leads a team developing AI biomarkers from routine medical imaging for use in real-world oncology practice and drug development. A startup operator and investor with over 25 years of experience, Trishan has founded, scaled, and backed multiple companies. He co-founded Picture Health to ensure that AI tools are commercialized and adopted by oncologists and biopharma to meaningfully improve patient outcomes.

Julie Bailis, PhD, is Vice President, Oncology Research at Amgen. She heads a research team focused on the discovery and preclinical development of novel cancer therapeutics She has contributed to the development of several T cell engager molecules, including tarlatamab (AMG 757) and xaluritamig (AMG 509). Dr Bailis obtained her PhD from Yale University and was a Damon Runyon postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Dr Daniel Baker completed his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania with Dr. Carl June and Dr. Zoltan Arany. There he combined the fields of cellular therapy, synthetic biology, and artificial intelligence to create the next generation of cell therapies. He pioneered the approach of integrating cellular atlases with large language models (LLMs) to inform and accelerate CAR T cell therapy discovery, bridging the arc of computational target discovery, biological validation, through to translational cell therapy development.

Susan Bates, MD received her MD degree from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine. She completed her clinical training in internal medicine at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, MD. Dr Bates was a Lead Clinical Investigator and Head of the Molecular Therapeutics Section in the Developmental Therapeutics Branch of the Center for Cancer Research before moving to Columbia University in August 2015.

During her years at the NCI, Dr Bates led a highly successful translational research program focused on mechanisms of multidrug resistance and approaches to evaluate and improve the activity of epigenetic modifying agents. Her laboratory was among the first to clone the multidrug transporter ABCG2, eventually characterizing its function and its role in chemo-resistance and chemo-protection. This effort built upon earlier work elaborating the role of the multi-drug transporter P-glycoprotein that had defined the drug sensitivity profiles of cell lines in vitro, particularly in the NCI-60 cell line panel. The latter observation continues to impact how the NCI-60 cell line panel is used in drug discovery, and helped her identify a novel agent, at that time known as depsipeptide. Dr Bates brought this drug to the clinic and after completing its phase I testing, served as Principal Investigator of a multi-institutional, international Phase II study of romidepsin (depsipeptide) in cutaneous and peripheral T-cell lymphoma. Working with Gloucester Pharmaceuticals, the data from this study were included in New Drug Applications (NDA) to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). This partnership led to approval by the FDA of romidepsin for two indications - initially for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and later for peripheral T-cell lymphoma. Dr Bates' current interests are both laboratory and clinical in nature. Her laboratory efforts include laboratory and translational studies on drug resistance in T-cell lymphomas and advanced solid tumors including breast, pancreatic, neuroendocrine, renal and lung cancers. Her work is dedicated to new drug development, and finding antineoplastic agents that, alone or in combination with other anticancer agents, improve the options available for difficult to treat cancers. Emanating from the clinical and translational development of romidepsin, a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, a current focus is on epigenetic therapies, and the development of combination therapies to use with HDAC inhibitors in refractory advanced cancers, including solid tumors. She also has a special interest in drug delivery and drug distribution and the role of the blood brain barrier in creating a sanctuary site for cancers that metastasize to the brain. Clinically, her goal has always been to translate ideas from the laboratory to clinical trials, an effort that has proven very successful. Clinically she seeks to develop combination therapies with histone deacetylase inhibitors for the therapy of solid tumors; and to develop therapies to treat central nervous system metastases, a complication of cancer that is becoming a greater problem as patients live longer with cancer.

Andrew Baum, MD is a former surgeon who has leveraged his deep clinical and scientific expertise to become a visionary leader in the financial services industry and biopharmaceutical sector. He has more than 30 years of experience and a proven track record in leading high-impact research projects and teams, developing robust strategies, and forging global partnerships that have expanded markets and increased investor returns. He is skilled in Equity Research, Hedge Funds, Investment Banking, Strategy, and Equities.

Dr Baum joins Pfizer as Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, Executive Vice President. He joins Pfizer from Citi where he was the Global Head of Healthcare Research for Citi Research, where he joined in 2011. Prior to this, he covered European Pharmaceuticals at Morgan Stanley for 14 years. He also worked as a UK Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology analyst at Salomon Brothers. From 1994 to 1996, Dr Baum was a practicing physician at the Royal National Orthopedic Hospital in London and at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Dr Baum has been recognized as the top ranked European Pharmaceutical Analyst six times in the Developed Europe & Emerging EMEA Research Survey, which allows management firms to provide views on the advice they receive from research analysts. His team of analysts consistently ranked in the top three teams in external EU and global investor polls (Institutional Investor, Greenwich, and Reuters).

He has been widely sought after to share his insights with the most senior levels of management within the healthcare industry. He has regularly lectured for a number of prestigious organizations including IO360°, The British Institute of Comparative Law, the World Vaccine Congress as well as occasional presentations to some of the leading management consultancies.

Dr Baum holds an MA degree in Physiological Sciences and a BM ChB degree from Oxford University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.

Roy Baynes, MD, PhD, currently serves as executive vice president and chief medical officer of Eikon Therapeutics, Inc. a privately-held biotechnology company. Prior to Eikon Therapeutics, Dr Baynes served as chief medical officer as well as senior vice president and head of global clinical development at Merck and Co, Inc, where he helped Merck become a leading oncology and global healthcare company. Dr Baynes also previously served as senior vice president of oncology, inflammation and respiratory therapeutics at Gilead Sciences, Inc, which was preceded by his service at Amgen, Inc as vice president of global clinical development and therapeutic area head for hematology/oncology. Before joining Amgen, Dr Baynes was the Charles Martin Professor of Cancer Research at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, at Wayne State University. Dr Baynes has authored more than 150 publications and is a member or fellow of several international medical societies. He received his medical degree and doctorate in philosophy from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and completed his medical training in the Department of Hematology and Oncology at Johannesburg Hospital. Dr Baynes has received innumerable awards for his activities as a physician/scientist, and currently serves on the board of directors at Atara Biotherapeutics, Natera, Inc and Travere Therapeutics, Inc. 

Reni Benjamin, MD is a Managing Director and Senior Biotechnology Analyst at Citizens Capital Markets & Advisory.  His coverage consists of small/mid-cap biotechnology companies in the oncology sector.  Dr. Benjamin has previously been ranked for recommendation performance and earnings accuracy by StarMine, cited in the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Financial Times, and Smart Money, and has made appearances on Bloomberg television/radio and CNBC.  He authored a chapter in a book entitled “The Delivery of Regenerative Medicine and Their Impact on Healthcare”, was a member of the UAB School of Health Professions Deans Advisory Board, and presently serves on the Board of Directors of the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) and is Chairman of the Finance and Audit committee.

Prior to joining Citizens, Dr. Benjamin was a Managing Director and Senior Biotechnology Analyst at Raymond James, H.C. Wainwright, Burrill Securities and Rodman & Renshaw. He earned his doctorate in Biochemistry and his expertise includes functional genomics, gene therapy and molecular biology.  Dr. Benjamin received his Ph.D. from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Allegheny College.

Igor Bilinsky, PhD joined Iovance in March 2021. He has more than 20 years of cumulative leadership experience through prior roles as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Business Officer at companies within the life sciences industry. Prior to joining Iovance he served as Chief Business Officer of Oncternal Therapeutics, where he was integral in building the publicly traded oncology company. Previously, Dr. Bilinsky served as Chief Operating Officer of AmpliPhi Biosciences, and as General Manager of Immuno-oncology and Senior Vice President at IGNYTA (now part of Roche). His prior experience also includes senior executive roles at Vical and Halozyme Therapeutics, and Chief Executive Officer at Androclus Therapeutics. He also served as a principal in the healthcare practice of Boston Consulting Group. Dr. Bilinsky received a B.S. in Physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and a Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Gwendolyn Binder, PhD joined Cabaletta Bio in February 2019 as one of Cabaletta’s first employees and established the preclinical, translational, manufacturing, and quality organizations. As President of Science and Technology, Dr Binder is responsible for establishing and executing strategies in research and manufacturing to deliver competitive and transformative cellular therapeutics for patients with autoimmune disease. In addition to her position at Cabaletta, she serves on the Board of Directors of Instil Bio, Inc., a company developing novel cancer immunotherapies, and as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Immatics N.V., which is a publically traded company developing engineered T cell immunotherapy for cancer. Prior to joining Cabaletta, Dr. Binder was the Chief Technology Officer of Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc, where she established early clinical, translational research and manufacturing functions in the US arm of the company, including providing oversight on the build-out of a commercial-scale cell therapy manufacturing facility and ultimately transitioned to lead the research team to focus on prioritizing next generation products and novel targets in early clinical development. Earlier in her career, Dr. Binder served as Director of Operations for the Translational Research Program at the University of Pennsylvania, where she progressed multiple Investigational New Drug applications (“IND”) for novel engineered T cell therapies in human immunodeficiency virus (“HIV”) and oncology, including the CD19 CAR IND acquired by Novartis (now Kymriah®), the first human gene editing IND, and three TCR engineered T cell therapy studies in oncology and HIV. Prior to that, she served as the Director of Scientific Affairs at VIRxSYS Corporation in Gaithersburg, Maryland where she supported the development of the first clinical lentiviral vector used in humans. Dr. Binder studied viral immunology and translational research at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland where she earned a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Medicine in 2002. She has authored over 30 publications in the field, including top international journals such as "Science" and "Nature Medicine". She is a recognized leader in the biotechnology sector for the translational and clinical advancement of novel T cell therapies for patients with serious diseases.

Jeff Bockman, PhD, leads the Oncology and Virology Practices at Lumanity. Jeff has extensive commercial and strategic perspective on the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. He has directed hundreds of in-depth licensing opportunity and valuation assessments during his tenure at Cello Health BioConsulting, now Lumanity. He often speaks at conferences on scientific and commercial issues in cancer, especially immuno-oncology.

Before joining Cello Health BioConsulting, Jeff was a Senior Research Scientist and Research Project Leader in the commercial development of oligonucleotide therapeutics for viral diseases and cancer at Innovir Laboratories; and an Assistant Research Professor at The George Washington University School of Medicine. He has worked closely with two Nobel Prize recipients – Dr. Sidney Altman on ribozymes, and Dr. Stanley Prusiner on prions – and holds four patents in the use of ribozymes. He received a BA from University of California at San Diego, a PhD in Medical Microbiology from the University of California at Berkeley, and an MA in English/Creative Writing from New York University.

Jeff is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT), the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) and the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS).

Jeff is a mentor for the NCI Innovation Conference, a judge for the Citeline Awards, an advisor to the JPM Biotech Showcase, a member of the Advisory "Group" to Skipper Bio Med (a preclinical research consultancy that provides pro bono services to academic and industry groups, developing promising lung and/or pancreatic cancer therapeutics/device. Skipper is fully supported by a private US family that has been personally impacted by these cancers and is committed to bridging the research “valley of death”).

Jeff is also part of the Clinical Advisory Board of ImmunOS (an immunotherapy company based in Zurich) and the Scientific Advisory Board of hC Bioscience (a novel RNA-based platform company in Cambridge, MA).

Dr. Bornheimer works on the development of new technologies and applications in flow cytometry and single cell research and diagnostics.  A major focus is on biomarker, MRD, and CDx development programs with BioPharma, CROs, and academic medical centers.  Other areas of interest are in imaging and spectral cytometry, cell enrichment and sorting technologies, immune based diagnostics, quantitative flow cytometry, and automated data analysis.  Previously, he led R&D to develop and commercialize an easy-to-use near-patient IVD cytometry system for absolute and percentage CD4 T cell counts and total Hb for HIV/AIDS patients in resource limited settings (BD FACSPresto).  Dr. Bornheimer received a Ph.D. from UC San Diego in Chemistry and Biochemistry, where he investigated heterotrimeric G-protein signaling through computational modeling, development of new biosensors, and live cell fluorescent imaging approaches. 

Adrian Bot, MD, PhD is the founding Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development at Capstan Therapeutics, a company developing next generation precision medicines. Previously, he held leadership roles at Kite Pharma and Kite, a Gilead Company, including Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Translational Medicine, respectively. Dr Bot has 24 years of experience in biopharmaceutical industry with focus on discovery and development of targeted therapies in general, and immunotherapies in particular. He obtained his MD in Romania in 1993 and his PhD in Biomedical Sciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York in 1998.

Andrea Cercek, MD is a physician scientist and medical oncologist, with a research focus on novel biomarker driven, therapeutic approaches and treatments for colorectal cancer and other GI malignancies. She is an Associate Attending Physician in Gastrointestinal Oncology. She is the Section Head of Colorectal  Cancer and is the Founding Co-Director of the Center for Young Onset Colorectal and Gastrointestinal Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She is an innovative researcher who designs and  executes multidisciplinary clinical trials and research initiatives with the goals of advancement of  science and improvement in patient outcomes and quality of life. She has NIH funded support for clinical trials and research investigating the mechanisms of response in neoadjuvant therapy and early stage disease. Dr. Cercek was one of the early investigators who noted a rise in early onset colorectal cancers and founded the first research and patient directed center in the world dedicated to  identifying the underpinnings of this rise and improvement in patient care. She plays an active role and  serves as an organizing member of several national and international committees including ASCO,  ESMO and AACR. Dr. Cercek’s research initiatives, particularly young onset colorectal cancer have inspired centers world-wide and spurred national and international collaborations.

As Director of Biopharma Partnerships, Jeff facilitates client relationships with RareCyte’s Precision Biology Services group. He has over 10 years of experience in business development and sales for life science technologies and tools, which was preceded by 10 years of biomedical research and development as a student and in post graduate scientific roles. His technical experience has included biosensors, immunoassays, gene editing, liquid biopsy testing, and spatial biology. Jeff obtained his PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Washington and his BE in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University.

Stéphane Champiat is a Medical Oncologist, and a specialist of early drug development and Immunotherapy.

Dr. Champiat completed his medical school at Paris VI University and completed his medical oncology residency at the University of Nantes in France. He completed a PhD in Immunology from the Paris-Saclay University and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California San Francisco, focusing on T-cell immunity.

For the last 10 years, Dr. Champiat was working in the early development of cancer therapeutics, in particular novel immunotherapies in the Drug Development Department (DITEP) at the Gustave Roussy Cancer Center in Villejuif, France.

Dr. Champiat has dedicated his clinical practice to innovative cancer care, particularly immunotherapy. He developed the iTOX program to improve management of immune- related adverse events and co-founded the annual iTOX Symposium. His operational development of intratumoral immunotherapy at Gustave Roussy has set a benchmark in the field. An accomplished clinician-investigator, Dr. Champiat has led numerous Phase I trials, advancing checkpoint blockers, T-cell engager immunotherapies and more. Dr. Champiat has co-authored more than 100 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals such as Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, Lancet Oncology, Annals of Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology and Clinical Cancer Research. In July 2024, Dr. Champiat joined The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center as an Associate Professor in the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, to transform and lead the development of the next generation of immunotherapies.

Daniel S Chen, MD, PhD, is the founder of Engenuity Life Sciences, former Vice President, Global Head of Cancer Immunotherapy Development at Genentech/Roche and former Chief Medical Officer for IGM Biosciences. He received a BS degree in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1990), a PhD in Microbiology & Immunology (1996) and MD (1998) from the University of Southern California. His PhD work and publications focused on “Early Events in Coronavirus Infection.” Dr Chen completed an Internal Medicine Residency and Medical Oncology Fellowship at Stanford University (2003). He went on to complete a Post-doctoral fellowship with Mark Davis in Immunology, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Associate. He also ran the metastatic melanoma clinic at the Stanford Cancer Center from 2003-2006. In that time, he studied human anti-cancer immune responses pre- and post- cancer vaccination and cytokine administration to determine why anti-tumor immune responses were not more clinically effective. He received a U19 grant to develop better immunologic tools to interrogate human immune responses and ultimately patented the MHC cellular microarray to detect and functionally characterize antigen-specific T cell states. He continued as Adjunct Clinical Faculty at Stanford from 2006-2016, where he cared for melanoma patients. At Genentech from 2006-2018, Dr Chen focused on the clinical development of anti-angiogenic and immune modulatory targeted therapies in both early and late Development, as well as the diagnostic tools to aid their development. This included leading the clinical development for atezolizumab, a PD-L1 inhibitor, from the time the program was in research through IND, Phase I, Phase II, Phase III, to filing and approvals in multiple indications worldwide. At IGM Biosciences, Dr Chen focused on the development of novel engineered multivalent and multispecific therapeutics and helped lead this from preclinical to having multiple therapeutics in the clinic in Phase I/II. He is a reviewer for Nature, Immunity, Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer and Clinical Cancer Research, served on the Board of Directors for SITC, has been a recurring session organizer and session chair for PEGS Europe on engineered therapeutics since 2019, gave the keynote presentation at the AACR NCI EORTC Annual Meeting 2014 and presented at the US Congressional Briefing on Immuno Oncology in 2017. He has continued to publish with academic and industry collaborators in the field of cancer immunotherapy, including the often-referenced Chen and Mellman manuscripts, “Oncology meets Immunology: the Cancer-Immunity Cycle,” “Elements of cancer immunity and the cancer-immune set point” and the Hegde and Chen manuscript “Top 10 Challenges in Cancer Immunotherapy.”

Dr. David Cohan brings more than eight years of biopharmaceutical industry experience to his role, following a tenure-track faculty position in surgical oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute–SUNY Buffalo. At Amgen and other organizations, he has held leadership roles spanning clinical development, medical affairs, and business development, with a focus on therapeutic modalities such as monoclonal antibodies, bispecifics, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), oncolytic viruses, cytokine analogs, and small molecules.

He has driven clinical and regulatory strategy from first-in-human studies through pivotal Phase 3 trials, contributing to protocol development and authoring key study documents. Dr. Cohan has led multiple ODAC preparations, reimbursement submissions, and an ICER defense. Board certified in general surgery and fellowship trained in head and neck surgical oncology and plastic and reconstructive surgery, he is also an expert in surgical critical care, melanoma, wound healing, and tumor immunology. His academic contributions include over 40 peer-reviewed publications and ongoing service as a peer reviewer for a leading oncology journal.

Dr. Cohan holds dual BAs in Slavic Languages and Literatures and English Literature from Yale University and earned his MD from Stanford University. He is an elected fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Society of Surgical Oncology, and the American Head & Neck Society.

Mike Comeau has over 30 years of experience in the biotech industry, with a career dedicated to researching novel immunological pathways and leading the development of numerous therapeutic programs. His work has spanned various indications, including autoimmune, inflammatory disease, and oncology. Mike joined Ozette in 2023 and currently leads the company's strategic scientific alliances efforts.

John Connolly, PhD, is the chief scientific officer (CSO) at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI), where he designs and executes PICI’s overall research strategy in close collaboration with the institute’s leadership team, center directors and scientific steering committee.

As a human immunologist, his research interests focus on immune monitoring and immunometabolism. Dr. Connolly previously served as CSO of Tessa Therapeutics, a clinical stage cell therapy company focused on solid tumor immunotherapy, and one of PICI’s strategic partners. He is an associate professor at National University of Singapore and an adjunct associate professor of Immunology at Baylor University, where he served on the Board of Governors for the Institute of Biomedical Sciences.

He is also a senior principal investigator and director for translational immunology at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IMCB) A*Star. Additionally, Dr. Connolly serves as director for the IMPACT Program, a multi-disciplinary national initiative focused on building cell therapy manufacturing, clinical and regulatory capability for Singapore.

Dr. Connolly received his PhD in Immunology from Dartmouth Medical School and studied human dendritic cell biology under Dr. Michael Fanger. During this time he was involved in the development of immunotherapeutic preclinical models and clinical trials for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). He moved to the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research, a fully translational research institute dedicated to rationally designed vaccines against cancer and infectious disease. Dr. Connolly served as the director of Research Initiatives for the Baylor Research Institute, leading a large integrated translational research resource and multi-institutional programs that involved a number of international sites. During his tenure at Baylor, he was the central core facility director of the NIAID Centers for Translational Research on Human Immunology and Biodefense, an NIH-funded consortium of basic, translational research and clinical trials focused on vaccine design. Dr. Connolly is the past president of the Board of Directors of The American Cancer Society in N. Texas and founding director of the Singapore Immunology Network’s Immunomonitoring Platform.

Brendan is a Stage 4 Metastatic Melanoma Cancer Survivor. Diagnosed at 27, he underwent multiple surgeries, chemotherapy treatment as well as participated in two different immunotherapy clinical trials—one at the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland and a follow-up at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. These treatments included adoptive cutting edge advancements in cell therapy and a combination of ipilimumab (Yervoy®) & nivolumab (Opdivo®), were pivotal in his journey.

Since completing his treatment, Brendan has been cancer-free for 12 years and counting, while continuing to receive follow-up scans every 2 years at MSK. He has a renewed perspective on life and even completed a 30-for-30 activity list after turning 30; skydiving, ice climbing, hiking the Grand Canyon, learning to snowboard, whitewater rafting, running a half-marathon, etc!

His journey underscores the transformative potential of immunotherapy in treating advanced cancers and his partnerships with Cancer Research Institute, Livestrong and various speaking engagements allow his story to inspire and raise awareness about the importance of clinical trials and innovative treatments in the fight against cancer.

Michael Curran, PhD is Professor of Immunology and Co-Founder of Oncology Research for Biologics and Immunotherapy Translation (ORBIT) at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) in Houston, Texas. He is also Co-Leader of the Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) SPORE Project 1: Targeting the PD-1 Pathway in HCC and Co-Leader of the HPV-Related Cancers Moon Shot, both at MDACC.

Dr. Curran received a PhD from Stanford University, where he trained in the laboratory of Dr. Gary Nolan and was awarded the McDevitt Prize for the best graduate thesis. Dr. Curran was the first recipient of the prestigious American Cancer Society Levy Fellowship to fund his postdoctoral studies in the lab of Dr. James P. Allison.

While pursuing his postdoctoral studies at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Curran published several influential manuscripts describing how T-cell co-stimulatory pathways could be modulated, in tandem, to mediate immunologic rejection of melanomas in mice. Dr. Curran described how combination blockade of the T‑cell co‑inhibitory receptors CTLA‑4 and PD‑1 promoted the rejection of most murine melanomas. This work supported the launch of a phase 1 clinical trial in which more than 50% of patients with metastatic melanoma experienced objective clinical responses—a result so unprecedented that this became the first FDA‑approved immunotherapy combination. In addition, his subsequent immunologic studies of 4‑1BB agonist antibodies earned him the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s prestigious Presidential Award. The Curran Laboratory seeks to discover the underlying mechanisms of immune resistance in some of the most immune-excluded tumors, pancreatic and prostate adenocarcinoma and glioblastoma, so that rational therapeutic interventions can be developed to restore the T‑cell infiltration and sensitivity to T‑cell checkpoint blockade.

Bushra Dabbagh is a dynamic senior scientist with deep cross-functional experience and a strong interest in biotech innovation and strategy. She brings a global academic and professional background to her work, holding dual degrees and having pursued graduate studies in biotechnology and biomedical sciences, with advanced training at Northeastern University and Harvard Medical School. Having studied and worked across Europe and the U.S., Bushra offers a cross-disciplinary and international perspective on scientific problem-solving. 

Before joining Viska in 2023, she contributed to several biotech companies at various stages of growth, gaining hands-on experience in both R&D and translational development. At Viska, she leads key immunology and immunogenic cell death (ICD) initiatives that drive the advancement of the company’s lead therapeutic programs and preclinical strategy. 

Diwakar (Davar) Davar, MD, is a translational medical oncologist and assistant professor of medicine at UPMC, specializing in the management of advanced melanoma and other cutaneous malignancies. Board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology, he brings a robust background in immuno-oncologic drug development and a clinical focus on leveraging novel immunotherapeutic approaches for patients with advanced cancers.

Dr. Davar’s expertise spans the spectrum of drug development, from preclinical models and biomarker discovery to clinical trial design, regulatory strategy, and FDA engagement. He has played a pioneering role in advancing microbiome therapeutics and contributes to the strategic planning and execution of early-phase studies across a variety of therapeutic modalities.

He earned his medical degree from the National University of Singapore and completed both residency and fellowship training at UPMC. Dr. Davar is an active member of numerous professional societies, including the American Association for Cancer Research, American Society of Clinical Oncology, American College of Physicians, Allegheny County Medical Society, and the Singapore Medical Association.

Corinne Decker is the Director of Immuno-Oncology at Ensoma where she leads a research group developing in vivo HSC-derived, multi-cellular CAR therapy to overcome solid tumors. Prior to joining Ensoma in 2023, Corinne was a Principal Scientist at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals where her team was responsible for pre-clinical development of T cell-directed bispecific antibodies and cell-based therapies to treat liquid and solid malignancies. Corinne holds a PhD in Immunology from Washington University in St. Louis.

Carl DeSelm, MD, PhD, joined the faculty in June 2018 as an assistant professor of radiation oncology with a laboratory in the Bursky Center for Human Immunotherapy and Immunology Programs (CHiiPs). After earning his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College, Dr. DeSelm earned his MD and PhD from Washington University School of Medicine in 2012, during which time he studied under Dr. Steven Teitelbaum. As a PhD student, Dr. DeSelm described a secretory pathway in the bone resorbing osteoclast that utilizes authophagy pathway proteins, and characterized the role of IL-17 in the pathogenesis of osteoporosis. His work led to the Needleman Pharmacology Award from Washington University and a patent for a new therapy for osteoporosis. Dr. DeSelm subsequently redirected his energy toward oncology, and after completing an internal medicine year at Washington University’s Barnes Jewish Hospital, underwent radiation oncology residency training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York. During his time at MSKCC, he became highly interested in immunotherapy, in particular CAR T cell therapy, as some of the first leukemia patients treated with the novel therapy began to exhibit remarkable responses. This prompted him to join the laboratory of Dr. Michel Sadelain, a founding member of the field of CAR T cell therapy, as a Holman Research Fellow. Upon finishing residency, Dr. DeSelm completed a Translational Research Fellowship at MSKCC, continuing to study the combination of radiation with cellular immunotherapy under Michel Sadelain. Currently, Dr. DeSelm clinically focuses on treating lymphoma, and is actively developing novel CAR T cell approaches to treating solid tumors, including lymphoma, pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma.

Marisa Dolled-Filhart, Ph.D. is an experienced drug development and precision medicine leader, currently Global Team Leader at Daiichi Sankyo leading oncology drug development teams. Previously, she was VP, Translational Research at Bristol Myers Squibb. Prior to BMS, she held biomarker and diagnostic roles at Merck spanning R&D, companion diagnostics, project management, regulatory, commercial and medical affairs, including as scientific lead for the first FDA-approved immuno-oncology companion diagnostic, as well as roles in biotech and the CRO industry. She is a co-author on over 95 publications and abstracts including Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine. In 2024, Dr Dolled-Filhart received the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) Luminary Award from BMS for her industry impact, leadership and mentorship. She volunteers for organizations including the HBA, the President’s Council of Cornell Women and the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Alumni Association Board. Dr Dolled-Filhart holds a B.A. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Yale University.

Charles (Chuck) Drake, MD, PhD, is Vice President, Immuno-oncology (I-O) at Janssen Research & Development, LLC. In this position, he is responsible for leading the I-O team to further enhance the scientific strategy required to deliver the portfolio of I-O and cell-based oncology therapeutics, as well as building a robust pipeline of next-generation compounds. Dr Drake is a physician-scientist whose research and clinical activities have focused on understanding the biology of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment and translating those findings into cutting-edge clinical trials in the study of patients with prostate, kidney and bladder cancer.

Prior to joining Janssen Research & Development, Dr Drake led the genitourinary oncology program at the Herbert Irving Cancer Center, Columbia University Medical Center, New York Presbyterian Hospital. He was also named the Milstein Family Professor of Medicine and Urology and served as the Associate Director for Clinical Research at the Cancer Center.

Dr Drake founded Columbia’s Human Immune Monitoring Core, which provides state-of-the-art analytic technologies for the study of human cancer. At Columbia University, he and his colleagues built a strong portfolio of more than 30 immunotherapy trials, including a number of first-in-human studies in patients with prostate genitourinary cancers, many based on his laboratory research. Previously, he served as the Co-director of the Cancer Immunology Program at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

Dr Drake received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University. He earned his medical degree from the University of Colorado Medical Science Training Program and received his doctorate in Immunology from the National Jewish Research Center. He completed his residency through the Osler Medical Residency Training Program at Johns Hopkins and finished his fellowship in Medical Oncology at Johns Hopkins as well. Dr Drake is board-certified in medical oncology.

Michael Duffy, Ph.D. is the Director of Business Development at OrgaNova TRiCBIO, a translational biotechnology company advancing next-generation patient-derived organoid platforms for immuno-oncology drug development. Michael is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, where he has supported clinical and translational research programs within the Perelman School of Medicine. His background includes biomedical research operations and collaboration with clinician-scientists and translational investigators, providing him with a strong understanding of how emerging biological technologies are evaluated and implemented in real-world research and development environments. At OrgaNova TRiCBIO, Michael works closely with pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners to align the company’s proprietary Organoid 2.0 platforms with industry needs in immunotherapy evaluation, combination strategy development, and translational decision support. His role emphasizes practical value creation - helping partners generate human-relevant functional data earlier in development to accelerate timelines, reduce risk, and support confident go/no-go decisions. In addition to leading commercial partnerships, Michael regularly presents to academic and industry audiences on challenges in model predictivity and translational efficiency in immuno-oncology. At this meeting, he will discuss how OrgaNova TRiCBIO’s Organoid 2.0 technology is being applied to improve efficiency and confidence in immunotherapy development.

Seth Ettenberg, PhD, is the President and CEO of BlueRock Therapeutics. Seth served as Chief Scientific Officer at BlueRock from 2020–2021. Prior to joining BlueRock, Seth was a founding member of the Unum Therapeutics team, where he served as Chief Scientific Officer. Previously, Seth headed the Cambridge Site of Novartis’ Oncology Biotherapeutics, leading strategy, innovation and implementation of drug development projects for Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR). In addition, Seth was responsible for building and leading the Novartis Cell and Gene Therapy research team in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania to develop chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapeutics. Seth received his formal scientific training at the Genetics Branch of the National Cancer Institute. Seth is a member of the Board of Directors for Kano Therapeutics and the 2026 Board of Directors of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine.

Antonio "Tito" Fojo, MD received his MD and PhD from the University of Miami and completed internal medicine training at Washington University School of Medicine / Barnes Hospital. He joined the National Cancer Institute in 1982 as a Clinical Associate in the Medicine Branch and after training with Drs. Ira Pastan and Michael Gottesman, became a Principal Investigator in the Medicine Branch of the National Cancer Institute.

As a Principal Investigator he went on to establish a highly successful translational clinical program that began by exploring agents to reverse Drug resistance, continued with work on the optimal use of Taxol®, and the development of novel microtubule-targeting agents and has focused on the development of therapies for endocrine and neuroendocrine cancers.

Dr Fojo has expertise in the management of patients with aDrenocortical cancer, malignant pheochromocytoma and other neuroendocrine malignancies, and thyroid cancer. These cancers also comprise areas of very active basic science interest given their unique properties and the possibilities to target such cancers more precisely. The ultimate goal is to develop novel therapies for these often very refractory cancers so that there will be additional options available for treatment for patients with these cancers. Ongoing laboratory efforts are focused on developing such novel therapies to treat patients with adrenal cancer, pheochromocytoma and a spectrum of neuroendocrine tumors.

In the laboratory Dr Fojo has also worked to understand the molecular basis of Drug resistance, and was involved in the original work relating to several ABC transporters. Additionally, his laboratory originally identified rearrangements involving the MDr-1 gene as a novel mechanism of Drug resistance in several cancers, a molecular event recently demonstrated as very important in ovarian cancer. He has also been very involved in research on microtubule-targeting agents, helping to establish as a novel paradigm the interference with microtubule trafficking, rather than mitosis, for the mechanism of action for these important Drugs.

In addition to his clinical expertise Dr Fojo has been very interested in the design, conduct and interpretation of oncology clinical trials and in collaboration with Wilfred Stein, PhD and Susan Bates, MD has helped to pioneer a novel method of analysis that dissects rates of tumor growth and regression as concurrent events. Related to this he has also written extensively about the cost of cancer therapeutics, the magnitude of the problem and how this might be adDressed. Dr Fojo served as Program Director for the Medical Oncology Fellowship Program at the National Cancer Institute, the largest fellowship program in the NIH and one of the largest medical oncology programs in the United States. Over the years Dr Fojo has helped to train more than 350 medical oncologists.

Gregory Frank, PhD, joined GE HealthCare in September 2023 to develop and lead partnering strategy for molecular imaging tracers in oncology. The goal is to leverage these PET tracers while they are in clinical development and make them available to biotech and pharma partners who want to use them for imaging in their own clinical trials.

Dr. Frank has deep domain experience building partnerships in research, biotech, pharma, healthcare, and medicine across all phases of development including research, discovery, preclinical, clinical, and commercial. Prior to GE HealthCare, Dr. Frank led licensing, business development, and strategic alliances at ImaginAb, 23andMe, Pure MHC, XBiotech, and SRI International. He started his career at DNAX.

Gregory received his PhD in Immunology from Stanford University School of Medicine and BA in Biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Dr Matt Freer is a scientist and translational research specialist with a strong academic background in advanced in vitro modelling, tissue engineering, and human relevant biology. He holds a PhD from Durham University, where his research focused on the development of complex three-dimensional intestinal tissue models using scaffold-based systems, primary human cells, and functional readouts including barrier integrity, transport, electrophysiology, and advanced imaging. His doctoral and postdoctoral work provided deep technical expertise in 3D culture, immunofluorescence, confocal and light sheet microscopy, molecular biology, and human tissue handling, alongside rigorous hypothesis driven experimental design.

Following academia, Matt moved into industrial research, leading the development, validation, and application of human skin models for regulatory safety testing and disease relevant research. This included OECD compliant epidermal irritation and corrosion models, innervated skin systems incorporating neuronal lineages, and immune based assays supporting immunotoxicology and mechanism of action studies. His work bridged fundamental biology with real world decision making in preclinical research.

Matt now works as a Senior Business Development Manager at RoukenBio, supporting biotech and pharma teams designing immunology, cell-based evidence, and preclinical safety programmes. He brings a strong focus on data quality, translational relevance, and the appropriate use of human based experimental systems. Alongside his industry role, Matt serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of FRAME, contributing scientific guidance to advance non animal methods and improve the predictive power of biomedical research.

Tim Fugmann got his Ph.D. from ETH Zurich, on mass-spectrometric discovery of antibody targets and disease biomarkers. Later, he was leading the target discovery efforts at Philochem, before moving to the Max-Delbrueck-Centrum for Molecular Medicine in Berlin. He was later appointed professor for MS-based proteomics at JLU Giessen. In 2019 he co-founded Alithea Biotechnology GmbH, which is focusing on immunopeptidomics, a topic which he has studied since 2012.

Hanif Gabrani-Juma, BEng, MASc is a biomedical engineer with a specialization in advanced image analysis. He began his career in cardiology, working with dynamic PET and SPECT scans, before transitioning to oncology at The Ottawa Hospital Division of Nuclear Medicine. Mr Gabrani-Juma previously led the North American branch of Radiomics.bio, an advanced image analysis CRO specializing in comprehensive solid tumor evaluations and predictive analytics using standard clinical CT images. Today, Mr Gabrani-Juma is an Associate Director of Translational Medicine at AstraZeneca, where he co-leads the strategy and external partnerships for exploratory image analysis for translational insights, biomarker discovery and development using CT and Nuclear Imaging modalities.

Lorenzo Galluzzi, PhD is Associate Professor in the Cancer Signaling and Microenvironment Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center (Philadelphia, PA). He also holds academic appointments at Yale School of Medicine and several institutions in Italy, including the Universities of Ferrara, Padova, and Rome “La Sapienza.”

Prior to joining Fox Chase in 2024, Dr. Galluzzi served as Assistant Professor of Cell Biology in Radiation Oncology at Weill Cornell Medical College (2017–2024), following scientific roles in France at the Cordeliers Research Center, Gustave Roussy Comprehensive Cancer Center, and a PhD from the University Paris Sud.

Dr. Galluzzi is internationally recognized for his pioneering research in cell death, autophagy, tumor metabolism, and immunology—particularly the link between cancer stress responses and immune activation. He has authored over 600 peer-reviewed publications and has been named a Highly Cited Researcher multiple times by Clarivate Analytics across disciplines including immunology, molecular biology, and pharmacology.

He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of OncoImmunology, Molecular and Cellular Oncology, Methods in Cell Biology, and International Review of Cell and Molecular Biology, and holds editorial roles with numerous other scientific journals.

Dong Geng, PhD is a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive with over 27 years of experience in translational sciences and biologics development, particularly in the field of immuno-oncology. Since joining Legend Biotech in October 2018, Dr. Geng has taken on increasingly strategic leadership roles, currently overseeing global early-stage development and preclinical development.

At Legend, Dr. Geng is responsible for preclinical development, nonclinical safety, clinical pharmacology, clinical biomarker and translational medicine. She has played an instrumental role in advancing the company’s R&D pipeline from a research-centric stage to clinical stage development, helping to drive organizational growth and integration across regional and global portfolios. Dr. Geng earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Boston College. Prior to joining Legend, Dr. Geng held senior scientific and leadership roles at leading biopharma companies including Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, and Merck. Her career contributions include numerous successful IND submissions and BLA filings.

Shubh Goel is a seasoned pharmaceutical executive, currently serving as a Global OBU Franchise Leader for the rapidly growing Bispecifics Portfolio at AstraZeneca.

Shubh joined AZ in March 2022, as the VP, Head of Immuno- Oncology and GI Tumors Franchise for US Oncology, overseeing sales, marketing, and cross-functional team efforts across the Immuno-Oncology and GI field teams. Highlights include building the US GI commercial franchise and leading the launch of multiple, sequential indications for IMFINZI.

She is a leader with more than 20 years of experience in the commercialization of oncology products Globally and in the US, including multiple blockbuster medicines. She has consistently driven strategic growth across markets and led organizational readiness with the build out of commercial infrastructures. She is adept at leading marketing and cross-functional teams and cultivating strong thought leader relationships across multiple specialties.  

Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Shubh held multiple senior level positions in small biotech as well as at Celgene, Bayer AG, and Millennium Pharmaceuticals.  

Shubh was born and raised in London, with a deep-rooted connection to her Indian heritage, Shubh now resides in Washington, DC. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from the University of Bath, UK.

Head of Clinical Imaging at Merck. Board-certified radiologist with 24 years of combined experience in clinical practice and clinical research, including leadership of imaging strategies for global trials across multiple therapeutic areas

Greg Goldmacher, MD, PhD, MBA has been at Merck since 2015. With his team of physicians and scientists, he oversees imaging and pathology-based endpoints in ~280 clinical trials in oncology and other therapeutic areas. He also leads research in novel approaches to clinical trial imaging, including radiomics, tumor growth kinetics, and novel response criteria. In addition, he supports various business development, data standardization, and educational activities. Prior to Merck, he was a senior medical director and head of oncology imaging at a global CRO, and before that in academia. His clinical training was in diagnostic radiology, along with a PhD and postdoctoral research in neuroscience, and business training in finance.

Dr. Ying Gong is an experienced strategist, drug developer and leader. Her extensive biopharmaceutical experience encompasses multiple therapeutic areas, drug modalities, R&D stages, and functions. Dr. Gong currently serves as the Chief Business Officer of GV20 Therapeutics, an AI-driven next-generation biotherapeutics company. Her previous experiences include Project Team Leader, Oncology at Genentech, where she led drug development programs from late-stage research to clinical proof-of-concept as well as business development projects. She also served as Senior Director of Portfolio Strategy and Planning and was instrumental in shaping Genentech's R&D strategy. Prior to that, she held roles in medical affairs, market access, global product strategy, and market planning at Genentech and Roche, and worked on a broad range of projects including new indication launches of Perjeta® and Avastin®. She started her career in industry as a management consultant at Bain & Company. Dr. Gong earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the California Institute of Technology.

Asthika Goonewardene, MBA, is a Managing Director at Truist Securities covering biotechnology companies with a focus on cell therapy, immuno-oncology, and antibody technology. Prior to joining the STRH Biotech team in 2019, Mr Goonewardene was a senior analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, leading coverage of the global biotech sector. Before joining Bloomberg in 2011, Mr Goonewardene worked as a senior management consultant at Datamonitor.  He started his career as an analyst at OSI Pharmaceuticals in 2005, and first joined the sell-side in 2007, with the biotech team at Piper Jaffray in London. Mr Goonewardene holds a BS in Biotechnology and an MBA in Technology Management from Rochester Institute of Technology.

John (Bobby) Goulding, MPhil, PhD; Director of Corporate Strategy at Fate Therapeutics, plays a central role in shaping external partnering strategy, informing clinical positioning across oncology and autoimmune indications, and aligning next-generation platform innovation with clinical, regulatory, manufacturing, and commercial objectives.

Dr. Goulding brings deep experience in engineered immune cell therapies, spanning discovery, IND-enabling development, cGMP process translation, and early clinical execution. Previously, he served as Director of Immunology at Fate Therapeutics, leading multidisciplinary R&D teams to develop multi-edited iPSC-derived cell therapies, and has previously held senior scientific roles across numerous biotech and academic settings. His recent work has focused on building innovative, accessible, and economically viable cell-based products, key requirements for translating cellular therapies into broad and community-based patient populations.

He earned his BSc (Biochemistry) and PhD at Imperial College (London) and completed postdoctoral training at UC San Diego and the La Jolla Institute, with research focused on leukocyte biology, immune microenvironment biology, and host–pathogen interactions. He also holds an MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. Dr. Goulding has authored extensively in top-tier peer-reviewed journals, is a named inventor on multiple patents and is recognized for bringing a pragmatic, end-to-end perspective on how to translate complex scientific concepts into commercially viable advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs).

Diederik Grootendorst, PhD, is Scientific Director Oncology Imaging at Bristol-Myers Squibb. As Clinical Imaging lead he focuses on implementing (novel) imaging solutions into early and late stage oncology development programs. Next to development of novel molecular imaging solutions, he is involved in evaluating more advanced image feature extracting tools for solid tumors including NSCLC and Melanoma. He obtained his master in Technical Medicine focusing on Imaging & Robotics from the University of Twente, the Netherlands and his PhD in melanoma imaging from the Netherlands Cancer Institute. As part of his scientific career he authored and co-authored numerous imaging related abstracts and manuscripts and presented his work at various conferences.

Dr. James Gulley is an internationally recognized expert in immunotherapy for cancer. He serves within the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) of the National Cancer Institute as Co-Director of the Center for Immuno-Oncology, the Clinical Director, NCI and the Acting Co-Director of the CCR. He has been an investigator on over 200 trials and has been instrumental in the clinical development of multiple immunotherapeutic agents and has led multiple first-in-human immunotherapy studies through phase 3 clinical trials. He was the coordinating PI of an international study that led to the approval of avelumab for bladder cancer.

Dr. Gulley is the President of SITC . He serves on many national and NIH boards and committees. He has authored over 350 scientific papers or chapters which have been cited over 30,000 times. He has had multiple awards including the 2010 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest award bestowed by the US President on investigators early in their careers. He also was awarded the 2018 Hubert H. Humphrey Award for Service to America. 

Parameswaran Hari, MD is Obsidian’s Chief Medical Officer. Dr Hari brings decades of experience designing, managing and leading complex cell and gene therapy clinical programs, including TIL therapies. Previously, Dr Hari was Senior Vice President, Clinical Science at Iovance Biotherapeutics, where he led solid tumor adoptive cell therapy programs across multiple tumor types and indications, including new IND submission, first in human phase 1 studies and BLA submission efforts. Prior to Iovance, Dr Hari was the Chief of Hematology and Oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he led national cooperative multi-PI trial groups in cell and gene therapy and multiple myeloma. He also served the American Society of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT) as its secretary. Dr Hari received his MBBS at Kerala University, MD at Central University of Pondicherry, and his MS at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Gordon Harris, PhD, is Co-Founder & Chief Science Officer of Yunu. He simultaneously holds roles as a Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the 3D Imaging Service, the Radiology Computer-Aided Diagnostics Laboratory, and the Radiology Clinical Trials Program. He is also the co-Director of the Radiology Consulting Group at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and co-Director of the Tumor Imaging Metrics Core for the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. Dr. Harris is co-founder of the open-source web-based medical imaging platform, Open Health Imaging Foundation (OHIF). He has published over 150 scientific articles and book chapters.  In addition to developing software and services applying computer analyses of medical images to aid in diagnosis, treatment planning, and clinical trials, his primary research interests include structural and functional brain imaging research in psychiatric and neurologic illnesses including alcoholism and stroke, as well as quantitative tracking of tumors for clinical care and clinical trials. 

Ryan Hartmaier, PhD is a seasoned leader in translational medicine and biomarker strategy with over 20 years of experience in oncology drug development. As Senior Director at AstraZeneca, he heads global translational strategy for the EGFR-mutated NSCLC franchise, driving innovative biomarker approaches that inform trial design and clinical development decisions. Ryan has a strong track record of delivering impactful translational insights across pre-IND, late-phase, and post-marketing programs, leveraging expertise in bioinformatics, molecular biology, and data science. His work has led to high-impact publications, foundational ctDNA datasets, and recognition as an expert among academic and industry peers. Prior to AstraZeneca, Ryan held leadership roles at Foundation Medicine, contributing to major advances in cancer genomics and precision medicine. He earned his Ph.D. in Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine from Baylor College of Medicine and a B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of Washington.

Catherine Hines, PhD is the Executive Director and Head of Clinical Imaging at GSK. The mission of GSK’s clinical imaging group to apply, seek, and develop impactful imaging biomarkers for informed clinical decision making. Dr Hines’ organization is responsible for enabling single-site exploratory or enabling imaging studies as well as registrational and multicenter imaging studies for all disease indications. In order to deliver future endpoints and biomarkers, Dr Hines and her team actively anticipate and develops imaging solutions through collaborations with external consultants, academic institutions, and CROs to meet the varied needs of GSK. Current active areas of engagement reside in imaging of neurodegeneration, ImmunoPET, analytics and data re-use; and enhancing relationships within and external to GSK.

Prior to joining GSK, Dr Hines led a multimodality preclinical imaging group within Translational Medicine, where she also was an MRI physicist supporting various MRI and CT applications throughout the Merck pipeline, with emphasis on Safety Assessment, and cardiac and abdominal imaging.

Dr Hines obtained her PhD in Biomedical Engineering and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Radiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has co-led or initiated multiple consortia, including those for DART, IMI, and Parkinson’s Disease, led internship and co-op programs to foster diversity and inclusion efforts, is an active member of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), and is a reviewer for multiple NIH grant programs.

William Ho is our co-founder and CEO has worked in the biotech industry for over 22 years. Previously he founded AlephPoint Capital, a private healthcare investment fund and launched the public and cross-over portfolio at New Leaf Venture Partners, a leading healthcare venture capital firm. He has held numerous roles across company operations and Wall Street over his career. Mr Ho received his MBA from the University of Notre Dame and a BS in Biochemistry from McMaster University.

Axel Hoos, MD, PhD, was most recently the CEO of Scorpion Therapeutics. Prior to this, Dr Hoos was Senior Vice President and Therapeutic Area Head, Oncology R&D at GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (GSK).

As leader of the Oncology TA he oversaw both its discovery and development functions and built the Oncology portfolio of GSK across several modalities including antibodies, small molecules, bispecific molecules and cell & gene therapies. The TA’s scientific focus is on Immuno-Oncology, Epigenetics and Cell Therapy. Dr Hoos also served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the HIV Cure Center, a co-venture of GSK and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr Hoos further serves as Executive Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Sabin Vaccine Institute (SVI), a Global Health organization, Non-executive Director on the Board of Imugene, a biotech company, Co-Chairman of the Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium (CIC) and Scientific Advisory Board Member of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI). He further is a Scientific Advisory Group member at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI), and Industry Co-Chair of the Partnership for Acceleration Cancer Therapies (PACT) of the US Cancer Moonshot.

His efforts in Medicines Development and Global Health focus on novel and transformational therapies for life-threatening diseases, scientific and procedural innovation, and broad collaboration across multiple constituents to solve complex health problems. Through his leadership, a new paradigm for the development of cancer immunotherapies has been defined, which helped launch the field of Immuno-Oncology.

Previously, Dr Hoos was the Global Medical Lead in Immunology/Oncology at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) where he developed Yervoy (Ipilimumab), the first life-extending therapy in Immuno-Oncology. Before BMS, Dr Hoos was Senior Director of Clinical Development at Agenus Bio (previously Antigenics), a biotech company.

Dr Hoos holds an MD from Ruprecht-Karls-University and a PhD in molecular oncology from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) both in Heidelberg, Germany. He trained in surgery at the Technical University in Munich, Germany and further in surgery, molecular pathology and tumor immunology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He is an alumnus of the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.

Jack Hoppin, PhD, is the CEO and co-founder of Ratio Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company with the mission to accelerate the development of next-generation precision radiopharmaceuticals for solid tumors and transform oncology treatment paradigms.

Dr Hoppin attended the College of the Holy Cross, studying Mathematics and Physics and went on to receive his doctorate from the University of Arizona in Applied Mathematics under Professor Harrison H. Barrett at the Center for Gamma Ray Imaging. Following his graduate studies, Dr Hoppin was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Research Center Jülich, Center for Electronics in Germany.

Dr Hoppin has over 20 years of research and business development experience in the field of Nuclear Medicine. His industry experience began at Bioscan, Inc. where he served as the Vice President of Imaging Systems and managed the development, launch and commercialization of the NanoSPECT/CT system. In 2008, he co-founded Invicro with the mission of providing innovative medical imaging data analytics and software to the pharmaceutical industry. Invicro was sold to Konica Minolta in 2017 and Dr Hoppin served as President of their Precision Medicine business unit from 2019 through 2021. Dr Hoppin began working with Noria Therapeutics in 2018, joining their board of directors in 2019 and supporting the subsequent funding of subsidiary PSMA Therapeutics. Dr Hoppin served as lead director as the Noria and PSMA Therapeutics organizations were sold to Bayer Healthcare in June of 2021. In conjunction with said transaction, he and fellow Noria teammates formed Ratio Therapeutics. Dr Hoppin serves on multiple boards in the Life Sciences space and is a founding member of Emit Imaging, Cerveau Technologies and Sentonix.

Dr. Huang is a scientist, inventor and serial biotech entrepreneur. She has over 20 years of entrepreneurial and operation experience in the U.S. and Chinese biotechnology industries, building companies from inception. As Co-founder and CEO of BeyondSpring Inc (NASDAQ: BYSI), she is developing innovative cancer therapies with a first-in-class asset, plinabulin, in late-stage clinical development in lung cancer and other solid tumors. In addition, she co-founded SEED Therapeutics, a Target Protein Degradation (TPD) company with investment and R&D collaborations with two global pharma Eli Lilly and Eisai. Prior to founding BeyondSpring and SEED Therapeutics, Dr. Huang co-founded Wuxi MTLH Biotechnology Co. Ltd., where the rights related to the China market of a peptide drug which she designed were sold to Shanghai Pharmaceutical Co.. Additionally, Dr. Huang co-founded Paramax International Inc., a clinical trial CRO, which was acquired by ReSearch Pharmaceutical Services, Inc., and subsequently acquired by Warburg Pincus. Dr. Huang was trained as a research fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where her ground-breaking work solving the structure of the first E3 ligase in the TPD field was published in Science in 1999. Dr. Huang received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley. In addition, she attended the Harvard Business School Executive Education program.

Dr. William Jia got his PhD from University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada in 1991. He later held a tenured professorship at UBC, leading a molecular virology and gene therapy laboratory till 2019.

Dr. Jia was among the first group of scientists to use tumor specifically replicable oncolytic viruses to treat cancers. Dr.Jia and his team later developed a transcription and translation dual regulation mechanism for oncolytic HSV to enhance the safety without attenuation of oncolytic activity. He is the Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Virogin to develop oncolytic virotherapy and novel mRNA vaccines. Three oncolytic virus products have been in clinical trials in both USA and China.

Jose Jimeno, MD, PhD is a medical oncologist and has extensive experience in oncology drug development and clinical trials. He was instrumental in the development of Yondelis, a drug now approved in over 60 countries including in the United States and E.U. He also contributed to the development and approval of Epirubicin in breast cancer, Amifostine as cytoprotector, and Trimetrexate in pneumocistis carinii pneumonia in HIV patients. He also developed Plitidepsin (Aplidine) from preclinical to pivotal trials in myeloma indication in Australia. Previously, Dr. Jimeno was a co-founder and CEO of Pangaea Biotech, a cancer diagnostics company, and CMO for Promontory Therapeutics. Dr. Jimeno has published over 140 papers in peer reviewed journals on cancer.

Petr Jordan is CTO and a founding team member at Onc.AI, where he leads core technology development, scientific collaborations, and intellectual property development. Dr. Jordan is an experienced R&D and AI executive with expertise in computer vision, medical imaging, machine learning, oncology, and medical physics. Before joining Onc.AI, he was a Sr. Staff Data Scientist at Varian Medical Systems where he led advanced development projects focusing on the use of machine learning in radiation therapy treatment planning, intra-fraction image guidance, and cone-beam CT reconstruction. Prior to that, he was an Imaging Research Manager at Accuray, leading the development of image-guidance and treatment planning algorithms for the CyberKnife and TomoTherapy systems. He holds a PhD in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST), a MS in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University, and a BS in Computer Engineering from Lipscomb University. During his doctoral training he completed core medical school curriculum at Harvard Medical School. He is an inventor on 34 granted and 2 pending US patents.

Dr. Michael Kalos is an internationally recognized expert in T cell therapy and immunotherapy, and brings over 28 years of experience and expertise in cell therapy, immunooncology, and oncology vaccines.

Michael is Managing Director at Next Pillar Consulting, an LLC focused on consulting services in the biopharmaceutical space. In addition, Michael serves as Senior Venture Partner and Head of Cell Therapy for Orange Grove Bio and CEO of the Orange Grove Bio sub-co IpinovyxBio, as Executive Venture Partner and co-founder of the Alloy/82VS start-ups Ypsilon Therapeutics and 7x8 Biosciences, and on Corporate and Scientific Advisory Boards for a number of public and private biopharmaceutical companies as well as international immunotherapy consortia and societies.

Michael has served in a C-suite capacity at cTRL-Therapeutics and ArsenalBio, as Vice President of Immuno-oncology and Oncology Cell Therapies at Janssen, and as Chief Scientific Officer of Immuno-oncology at Eli Lilly.

Prior to joining the biopharmaceutical sector, Michael spent 10 years in academia, where he focused on integrated translational biomarker programs to support the development of cell therapy and immunotherapy programs; he is co-inventor of the IP that led to the development and approval of Kymriah, the first approved CART therapy.

Michael has co-authored over 85 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including multiple highly cited articles that have helped define the space of CAR- and TCR- based T cell therapy, as well as book chapters in the field of cancer immunotherapy, and has over 26 issued patents in the field of cell therapy, immunotherapy, and vaccines.

Fouad Kandeel, MD, PhD, is the principal investigator on the islet transplantation trial to determine the safety and efficacy of islet cell transplantation as a treatment for patients with type 1 diabetes. In addition, Dr. Kandeel has recently concluded a clinical project to identify genes related to the development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in the Hispanic population. He also continues to oversee the Diabetes and Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Program, which he established several years ago at City of Hope. Due to his strong background in endocrine tumors and thyroid cancer, Dr. Kandeel participates in the development of the national guidelines for the management of neuroendocrine tumors and thyroid cancer.

Jacqueline Karmel is currently the Director of the Scientific Collaborations network imCORE (immunotherapy Centers of Research Excellence). imCORE is one of the largest industry and academia oncology partnerships with a global network of 25 of the leading scientific and clinical research centres for cancer immunotherapy.

Prior to this role Ms Karmel spent the previous 8 years working both as an employee and consultant for Genentech as the oncology lead for the global operational strategy for Genentech Research and Early Development (gRED). She was responsible for identifying and enabling the optimal clinical development opportunities outside of the US for both small molecules and biologics, including atezolizumab. During this time Roche acquired Genentech, at which point Ms Karmel lead the way for gRED to navigate and utilize the global wealth of country level knowledge and expertise within the multiple country affiliate offices of Roche to further assist in the operationalization of the Genentech early oncology portfolio.

Ms Karmel has over 30 years’ experience in the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industry, 20 years being focused on oncology and haematology. She was the European Headquarters site co-Head for Millennium Pharmaceuticals Ltd, and Director of Clinical Operations where she worked on the successful clinical development of bortezomib for hematological malignancies as well as investigating proteasome inhibition in multiple solid tumours. She was integral to the licensing of bortezomib, which led to partnering with Johnson and Johnson where she was part of the Joint Clinical Steering Committee.

Rajiv Kaul is a portfolio manager in the Equity division at Fidelity Investments.

In this role, Mr Kaul manages Fidelity Select Biotechnology Portfolio. Additionally, he is responsible for covering biotechnology stocks.

Prior to assuming his current responsibilities, Mr Kaul managed Fidelity Advisor Biotechnology Fund, Fidelity Growth Strategies Fund, Fidelity Advisor Growth Strategies Fund and VIP Growth Strategies Portfolio. Previously, he followed emerging telecommunications equipment stocks and managed Select Communications Equipment Portfolio and Select Biotechnology Portfolio. He has been in the financial industry since joining Fidelity's Equity research department in 1996.

Mr Kaul earned his bachelor of arts degree from Harvard. He is also a member of the research advisory council at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the research hospital of Harvard Medical School.

Brian Kelly is the founder and principal of D2Dx Consulting, bringing over 20 years of experience in life-science and diagnostic development spanning biomarker discovery, clinical assay design, and companion-diagnostic strategy. He advises biopharma and diagnostic companies on translational and commercialization pathways that bridge scientific innovation with clinical utility. At IO360 2026, Brian will present advances from Picture Health’s AI-driven RadiOmics technology, highlighting how quantitative imaging can complement molecular biomarkers to enhance patient selection and therapeutic response prediction in immuno-oncology.

Pavel Khrimian, MBA is a strategic healthcare entrepreneur specializing in developing external collaborations focused on biotechnology, precision medicine, digital health, and diagnostics within the life sciences industry. His 18 years of experience has included roles at OriGene, Suburban Hospital, BioReliance by SAFC, and MedImmune/AstraZeneca.

Dejan Knezevic, PhD, currently manages biopharma partnerships at Natera. Before joining Natera, Dr Knezevic completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Genentech & Roche Pharmaceuticals. He most recently served as the Senior Director of Business Development at Guardant Health. He received his PhD in Genetics/Physiology from Yale University.

David has 20 years’ experience leading oncology translational medicine programmes with companies including PsiOxus Therapeutics, Immunocore and Accession Therapeutics, a clinical stage viral immunotherapy company, where he is currently Chief Development Officer. He has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of London.

Marc Lajoie, PhD is co-founder and CEO of Outpace Bio, which uses protein design to transform cell therapies into cures. Prior to Outpace, Dr Lajoie co-founded Lyell Immunopharma, where he led a team focused on protein engineering and technology development, playing a key role in developing product candidates and overcoming the mechanisms driving T cell dysfunction. Dr Lajoie completed his postdoctoral studies in David Baker’s lab at the University of Washington, where he helped pioneer the ability to design proteins with moving parts, making it possible to create fundamentally new biological functions. He completed his PhD in George Church’s lab at Harvard University, where he created the first genomically recoded organism with a reassigned genetic code and co-founded GRO Biosciences. Dr Lajoie was named 30 under 30 in science by Forbes Magazine in 2012, 35 Innovators Under 35 by MIT Tech Review in 2019, and Endpoints 20 under 40 in biopharma in 2021. He has authored more than thirty scientific publications and is an inventor on nineteen published patent applications.

Theresa LaVallee, PhD, has more than 25 years of biopharmaceutical and research experience with a broad knowledge in the discovery and development of drugs. She has advanced diagnostics and drugs in oncology, immunology and inflammatory diseases from discovery through late state development. Prior to joining Coherus Biosciences as Chief Development Officer, she was Vice President, Translational Medicine and Regulatory Affairs at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI).   

Before PICI, Dr LaVallee held executive roles in drug development with Celldex Therapeutics and Kolltan Pharmaceuticals and was part of the team that built the immune-oncology (IO) portfolio at Medimmune/AstraZeneca working on the clinical development and regulatory packages for multiple checkpoint inhibitors and PD-L1 diagnostic. Dr LaVallee started her career at EntreMed and worked on the initial clinical development of thalidomide and thalidomide analogs. She has a depth of expertise in regulatory strategy to enable science driven development decisions and quality regulatory packages.   

Dr LaVallee has spent most of her career working on advancing oncology drugs that can improve the survival and quality of life for cancer patients. She has been key in building successful teams, organizations and collaborations.

She is author or co-author of more than 50 publications and abstracts. She received her PhD degree from University of California, Los Angeles and her BA degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Dr. Sangmin Lee is an executive medical director and clinical lead of multiple myeloma early development programs at Johnson and Johnson Innovative Medicine. Prior to joining Johnson and Johnson, Dr. Lee was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine in the leukemia program, where he was a clinical investigator for myeloid malignancies. Dr. Lee obtained his M.D. from the University of Miami, and B.A. in biochemistry/M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania through the Vagelos MLS program. He completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and hematology/oncology fellowship at Columbia University/New York Presbyterian Hospital.

David Leung, MD, PhD, joined Daiichi-Sankyo in April 2023 as Head of Imaging. Dr Leung is a dual board-certified radiologist and nuclear medicine physician.

Before Daiichi-Sankyo, Dr Leung served as Vice President, Discovery and Translational Medicine at RefleXion Medical since December 2021. Prior to that, Dr Leung headed oncology imaging at Bristol-Myers Squibb since 2015, during which he also led novel PET tracer development and imaging biomarkers into clinical trials. Prior to industry, Dr Leung was a practicing academic radiologist and the modality chief in nuclear medicine at Columbia University Medical center, where he maintains an adjunct professorship. Dr Leung also serves as a member of the New York State Board for Medical Physics.

Dr Leung earned his medical degree as part of the NIH medical scientist training program from College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, along with a PhD in chemistry. Dr Leung’s research interests include developing novel imaging biomarkers and PET radiotracers for oncology and other therapeutic areas to improve health care outcomes.

Dr Loskog is the CEO/CSO of Lokon Pharma and a Professor of immunotherapy at Uppsala University in Sweden. She is a scientific advisor th the venture capital company Nexttobe and a board member of several of their portfolio companies as well as of Medivir (Publ). Dr Loskog did her postdoc at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, and her research focuses to develop tumor microenvironment gene engineering viral vectors for the treatment of cancer.

Jacek Lubelski, PhD is an accomplished biopharmaceutical leader, researcher and pharmaceutical developer specializing in gene and cell therapy and viral vector production. With over a decade-long career, he has made significant contributions to the development and advancement of gene therapy technologies, particularly in the field of recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) therapeutics. Prior to joining NanoCell Therapeutics, Dr Lubelski served as the VP of Pharmaceutical Development at UniQure NV (NASDAQ: QURE), where he contributed to obtaining market authorization for Glybera, the first approved gene therapy medicine in the Western World, to treat lipoprotein lipase (LPL) deficiency. He has been instrumental in developing multiple rAAV-based translational advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) to address challenging diseases like Haemophilia B, Sanphilipo B, and Acute Intermittent Porfyria. As Vice President of Development, Dr Lubelski also led vector development, process development, analytical methods, pre-clinical studies, and CMC activities focused on rAAV-based therapies. His expertise in leading complex teams across Europe and the USA has resulted in successful design and implementation of technological processes and analytical methods for viral vector manufacturing platforms.

In his current role as the Chief Technology Officer at NanoCell Therapeutics, Dr Lubelski spearheads all research and development activities. Beyond his leadership roles, he has played pivotal roles in collaborative projects with renowned institutions and organizations such as Synpromics and 4D Molecular Therapeutics, contributing to the development of improved promoters and capsids for human gene therapy. Dr. Lubelski was also selected as an expert by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & Healthcare (EDQM) to contribute to the revision of gene therapy guidance, highlighting his deep knowledge, expertise, and contributions to shaping the future of gene therapies. He has coauthored more then 20 scientific publications as well as multiple patent applications pertaining to gene therapy filed.

Dr Lubelski holds a PhD in Molecular Microbiology from the University of Groningen and a Master's degree in Biotechnology from Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland. He is currently pursuing eMBA studies at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Erik Manting, PhD has worked for a number of years as a post-doctoral researcher in the field of immunology before making a career switch to banking in 2001. He has more than 15 years of experience in different commercial and management roles in banking, including five years as Executive Director Corporate Finance at Kempen & Co. He acted as CEO of DCPrime BV since March 2018 and was appointed as CEO of Immunicum AB in March 2021, following the merger between both companies in December 2020. The combined company was renamed Mendus in June 2022. Dr Manting holds a MSc in Medical Biology and a PhD in Molecular Microbiology from the University of Groningen.

Upendra Marathi, PhD is a co-founder, investor, and an inventor at 7 Hills Pharma. He has led the development of three novel pain and cardiovascular drugs, including one which has recently been approved by the FDA. He co-developed one of the first genetically modified stem cells to improve bone marrow function in chemotherapeutic patients.  As an investor and an entrepreneur, he was involved in the founding and launch of several biotechnology companies.  He has helped raise nearly $100 million in equity and non-dilutive funding for these companies. Upendra was a post-doctoral fellow at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and earned a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Loyola University Chicago.  Upendra has an M.B.A. from Rice University and has served as a faculty member.

Julie Martin, MSc, Lean Certified, CEO is an 18-year industry veteran who has led Scimega as CEO for 6 years. Her passion for Scimega’s business and team stems from knowing its expert oncology clinical development services add distinct value to industry stakeholders at a time when it’s needed most. As CEO, Julie’s vision is to secure the company’s long-term success by leveraging her in-depth industry expertise and business acumen. She equates that success with setting a clear vision for the organization’s continued sense of purpose. Her leadership, and collaboration with the managing Board of Directors, combined ensure the business excellence upon which Scimega has built its reputation. Julie plays a vital role in promoting Scimega’s expertise and showcasing Canada’s attributes as a formidable partner in global oncology drug development with an evolving Lean methodology.

Cailin McGurk, MBChB is a Managing Director and Co-Head Global Biopharma at Morgan Stanley, based in Boston.

Ms. McGurk joined Morgan Stanely in 2020 and has over 20 years of investment banking experience spanning M&A, strategic advisory and capital markets transactions. Her recent transaction experience includes advising Genmab on its acquisition of Merus for $8bn, Innovent on its multi-asset collaboration and licensing with Takeda (up to $11.4bn) and 3SBio on its collaboration with Pfizer (up to $5bn).

Prior to Morgan Stanley, Ms. McGurk was a Managing Director in the UBS Healthcare Team based in London and before that, she started her career with J.P. Morgan in South Africa before moving to London. Ms. McGurk qualified as a medical doctor at the University of Cape Town and practiced medicine in South Africa prior to transitioning into investment banking. She also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Management from the University of Cape Town.

Zdravka Medarova, PhD is Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at TransCode Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Medarova is a geneticist/ cancer biologist by training and is internationally recognized for her work on non-coding RNA for cancer therapy. She is one of the first to describe the design and application of nanoparticles as carries of siRNA to tumors. Dr. Medarova obtained a B.A. in pre medicine from the University of South Maine in September 1998 and a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of New Hampshire in December 2001. Prior to joining TransCode, Dr. Medarova served as an Associate Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and an Assistant in Neuroimaging at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Amal Melhem-Bertrandt joined Jazz Pharmaceuticals in October 2024 as Vice President and Therapeutic Area Head for Oncology Clinical Development. She has over a decade of experience in oncology drug development and a deep commitment to delivering innovative medicines to patients worldwide.

Dr. Melhem-Bertrandt has held leadership roles at Astellas, AbbVie, and Takeda, where she guided novel therapies through all phases of clinical development and achieved multiple global regulatory approvals. Her expertise spans oncology and hematology, with a proven track record in end-to-end development of treatments for a broad range of cancers.

Prior to her industry career, Dr. Melhem-Bertrandt served as Assistant Professor in the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. There, she co-led the breast cancer survivorship clinic and acted as principal investigator for several clinical trials.

She earned her M.D. from the American University of Beirut, followed by a postdoctoral research fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at The University of Texas, where she served as Chief Medical Resident, and subsequently completed a fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at The University of Chicago.

Ira Mellman, PhD, is President of Research at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI). A pioneering force in cancer immunology, he brings decades of experience translating fundamental discoveries into transformative therapies. At PICI, Dr. Mellman is focused on advancing scientific strategy, amplifying cross-institutional collaboration and accelerating the development of immune-based treatments that change outcomes for patients.

Dr. Mellman joined PICI after more than 15 years at Genentech, where he most recently served as Vice President of Cancer Immunology. There, he led groundbreaking research that helped bring forward Tecentriq® (atezolizumab), anti-TIGIT therapies, and patient-specific neoantigen cancer vaccines as well as multiple other first-in-class immunotherapies. Earlier in his career, he spent two decades at Yale University School of Medicine, where he served as Chair of Cell Biology, Scientific Director of the Yale Cancer Center and Sterling Professor. He is also the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Medici Therapeutics.

A world leader in immuno-oncology and cell biology, Dr. Mellman’s scientific contributions span the discovery of endosomes, the elucidation of how dendritic cells initiate immunity or tolerance and the development of the cancer immunity cycle framework. His work has fundamentally shaped our understanding of immune checkpoint biology and the design of next-generation cancer vaccines.

Dr. Mellman is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the European Molecular Biology Organization. He has served on the editorial boards of Cell, Journal of Experimental Medicine and as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cell Biology. His honors include the AACR Lloyd J. Old Award for Cancer Immunology, Yale’s Wilbur Cross Medal and SITC’s Richard Smalley Award.

He holds a PhD in genetics from Yale University and an AB from Oberlin College & Conservatory, and completed postdoctoral work at The Rockefeller University.

Miriam Merad, MD, PhD, is the Chair of the Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy, the Director of the Marc and Jennifer Lipschultz Precision Immunology Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and the Director of the Mount Sinai Human Immune Monitoring Center (HIMC).

Dr. Merad is an internationally acclaimed physician-scientist and a leader in the fields of dendritic cell and macrophage biology with a focus on their contribution to human diseases. Dr. Merad identified the tissue resident macrophage lineage and revealed its distinct role in organ physiology and pathophysiology. She established the contribution of this macrophage lineage to cancer progression and inflammatory diseases and is now working on the development of novel macrophage-targeted therapies for these conditions. In addition to her work on macrophages, Dr. Merad is known for her work on dendritic cells, a group of cells that control adaptive immunity. She identified a new subset of dendritic cells, which is now considered a key target of antiviral and antitumor immunity.

Dr. Merad leads the Precision Immunology Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine (PrIISM) to bring immunology discoveries to the clinic. PrIISM integrates immunological research programs with synergistic expertise in biology, medicine, technology, physics, mathematics and computational biology to enhance our understanding of human immunology. She also founded the Human Immune Monitoring Center at Mount Sinai, one of the world’s most sophisticated research centers, which uses cutting-edge single-cell technology to understand the contribution of immune cells to major human diseases or treatment responses.

Dr. Merad has authored more than 200 primary papers and reviews in high profile journals. Her work has been cited several thousand times. She receives generous funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her research on innate immunity and their contribution to human disease, and belongs to several NIH consortia. She is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the recipient of the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology. She is the President-elect of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). In 2020, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of her contributions to the field of immunology.

Jean-François Millau is the Co-Founder and CEO of TATUM Bioscience, a company pioneering next-generation immunotherapies. A scientist-entrepreneur with a Ph.D. in Biotechnology and a degree from Grenoble Business School, he has authored numerous cancer research publications, holds multiple patents, and led the development of the first biochip to measure DNA repair activity.

Driven by the conviction that synthetic biology will transform immuno-oncology, Jean-François co-founded TATUM Bioscience to develop nanofilament-directed immunotherapy designed to outsmart cancer and deliver breakthrough clinical outcomes.

Gerben Moolhuizen joined Abalos in October 2024. He brings to Abalos over 25 years of experience in the biopharma industry in a variety of roles, including business development, project management, and general management covering a broad range of indications and therapeutic modalities. Gerben obtained a M.Sc. in molecular biology from Utrecht University and an M.B.A. from Erasmus University Rotterdam, both in The Netherlands.

Jon Moore, PhD is a biochemist and cell biologist with 22 years of scientific leadership experience in industry, primarily in oncology. He is an Operating Partner at Advent Life Sciences where he co-founded both Epitopea and the remyelination start-up Pheno Therapeutics, serving both companies as their first CEO.

Prior to joining Advent, Dr Moore was CSO of gene editing tools and services company, Horizon Discovery, and Head of Biology at Vernalis Research. At both organisations his focus was on leading drug discovery projects, early-stage discovery collaborations and in and out-licensing key technologies.

Dr Moore also has extensive postdoctoral experience working with Tim Hunt at Cancer Research UK and Sally Kornbluth at Duke University. He holds a PhD from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

John earned his bachelor’s degree from Menlo College, an MS from Stanford University and both a MS and PhD from MD Anderson Cancer Center where he discovered that IL-10 directly activates anti-tumor CD8+ T cells. John completed post-doctoral work at DNAX Research Institute and became a Scientist at Schering Plough where he developed PEGylated IL-10 (AM0010) as an immunoncology asset. He then founded Targenics, later merged with ARMO Biosciences (briefly a publicly traded company), to clinically develop AM0010 and other immune oncology assets. ARMO Biosciences was acquired by Eli Lilly in 2018 for a $1.6B up front deal. As a founder and Senior Director of Technical Operations at ARMO, John led the manufacturing and pre-clinical research teams.

John served as the Director of Immunoncology R&D at Medimmune LLC and is the author of 28 manuscripts and 52 granted or pending patents. At Medimmune John developed diverse projects involving innate and T cell agonists, CART and other cell therapy projects and novel immunostimulatory antibody drug conjugates. John has most recently founded Deka Biosciences, the next generation cytokine company created to solve the challenges associated with harnessing the massive potential of cytokine therapy. With the challenges in developing T cell engagers and cell therapy programs, it is likely that cytokine combinations coupled with targeting modalities administered in conjunction with precision patient selection will be clear value drivers for the pharmaceutical industry for years to come.

Jayant Narang, MD, is a radiologist by training. He joined Takeda Pharmaceuticals 3 years ago in March 2022 as Senior Medical Director and Clinical Oncology Imaging Lead. He has been in the industry for last 15 years.

Before Takeda, Dr Narang served as Head of hematology and oncology at Calyx, an imaging CRO. He was at Calyx (Parexel/Perceptive) from 2017 to 2022 leading several Oncology and Hematology trials as scientific lead in Parexel. He provided oversight and medical imaging input to these trials and led several of these trials to regulatory approvals. He has a special interest and extensive experience in solid tumors, Lymphoma, Multiple Myeloma, and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. He has expertise in trial-specific modifications to commonly used oncology assessment criteria in order to correlate to drug effect evaluated through imaging and clinical data to derive surrogate endpoints. Before Parexel he was a staff radiologist, reading as an independent reviewer at Virtualscopics/Biotelemetry and did reads for hundreds of clinical trials. Before coming to the industry, Dr Narang was a practicing academic radiologist at Nanavati Hospital Mumbai, India with a special interest in MRI. Dr.Narang has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and presented at several international conferences.

Dr Narang has special interests in the application of novel imaging biomarkers in clinical trials such as the use of novel PET tracers, radiomics, tumor growth kinetics and AI/ML to derisk and accelerate oncology drug development.”

Scott Norberg, DO received his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry at Saint Mary’s College of California, Moraga, a master’s degree in Medical Sciences at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and his medical degree at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After completing his residency in internal medicine at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he completed a fellowship in medical oncology at the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. Upon completion, Dr. Norberg worked as the Head of the T Cell Therapy Care Unit at the National Cancer Institute, Experimental Transplantation and Immunology Branch under Dr. Christian Hinrichs. As an Associate Research Physician, he currently heads the Solid Tumor Cellular Therapy Program at the National Cancer Institute, Center for Immuno- Oncology. Dr. Norberg received the NCI Director’s Award for Translational Science in 2021 and 2024 and the Federal Technology Transfer Award in 2024.

Jon is Cofounder and CEO of Stingray Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical immune oncology company, started in 2016. Stingray is developing an inhibitor of the only known innate immune checkpoint in colorectal and other cancers. Stingray is a CPRIT awardee and a double awardee from the National Cancer Institute. Stingray has raised $10M equity and received $20M in non-dilutive grants and awards to date with $10M of grants still ahead to spend. Jon is also Cofounder of Iterion Therapeutics started in 2010 developing a potent and safe WNT inhibitor. Also, a former CEO and CoFounder of Salarius Pharmaceuticals started in 2012. Jon is a former Board Member of Vasculonics started in 2017. From 2007 through 2010, Jon was COO of Jubilant Innovation, Ltd., the Indian venturing arm of the multi-billion $ Jubilant Life Sciences contract research and development group. Prior to 2007, Jon was Managing Partner of Horizon Biotechnologies LLC. Jon is a published author with two works – The Pharmaceutical Industry section of “The Business of Healthcare Innovation”, Cambridge University Press, 2012 and 2005, and “Prescription Pricing in Chain and Independent Pharmacies”, University of Pennsylvania Press 1976. Jon achieved the SVP level at Eli Lilly and Company and worked as an executive in Corporate Strategy, Business Development, Marketing and Sales, and Finance. While at Lilly, Jon did 40 business development deals and launched 4 products into the US market. Jon is a graduate of the Wharton School (MBA, Finance) and Northwestern University (BA, Economics).

Deepa Pakianathan, PhD is a Managing Member at Delphi Ventures and leads all of the firm’s biotechnology investment activities. She currently serves on the boards of Alder Biopharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ALDR), Calithera Biosciences (Nasdaq: CALA), ForSight:Vision5, Karyopharm Therapeutics (Nasdaq:KPTI) and Oncomed Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:OMED).

Dr Pakianathan previously served on the boards of Salmedix (acquired by Cephalon), Ilypsa (acquired by Amgen), Proteolix (acquired by Amgen), PTC Therapeutics (Nasdaq:PTCT) and Relypsa(Nasdaq:RYLP). She also led the investments in Cardeas Pharma, KAI Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Amgen), and a PIPE investment in Seattle Genetics (Nasdaq:SGEN).

Dr Pakianathan joined Delphi in 2001 to build and lead the firm’s biotechnology investment practice which focuses on drug discovery and development platform technologies that have resulted in multiple novel drugs, including six that are commercially marketed.

Prior to joining Delphi, Dr Pakianathan was a Vice President in the healthcare group at J.P. Morgan where she was involved in several large healthcare M&A transactions and led public offerings for biotechnology companies that raised over $9 billion. Prior to that, she was a biotechnology research analyst at Genesis Merchant Group. She worked as a postdoctoral scientist in the Immunology Department at Genentech Corporation from 1993 to 1997.

She serves as Vice-Chair of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Board of Trustees.

Dr Pakianathan received her PhD and MS from Wake Forest University and her MSc and BSc from the University of Bombay.

Lorenzo Paoletti is a Managing Director in the Global Healthcare Investment Banking team at BofA Securities. Lorenzo has nearly 20 years of Life Sciences Investment Banking experience, primarily covering the Biotech ecosystem. Lorenzo has substantial M&A expertise, having advised on transactions totaling more than $20BN. Moreover, Lorenzo has executed more than $80BN of cumulative capital raises in a lead capacity across equity, equity-linked, debt and product financings. Prior to joining BofA Securities, Lorenzo was Head of Biopharma Investment Banking at Truist Securities for more than four years. At Truist, Lorenzo quarterbacked internal projects to build and fully integrate a dedicated sales force, sector-specific ECM capabilities, and a Biopharma focused corporate access strategy. During his tenor at Truist Securities, the team’s coverage footprint of Biopharma clients expanded significantly resulting in the execution of several transformative deals for the institution. Key bookrun transactions executed a Truist included: Praxis Medicines (multiple deals), Wave Life Sciences (multiple deals), Tourmaline Bio (multiple deals), Merus N.V., among others. During this period, the team gained substantial market share in number of bookrun follow-on deals per Bloomberg. Prior to joining Truist Securities Lorenzo was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse and RBC Capital Markets. At both institutions, Lorenzo executed numerous important transactions including the IPO of AbCellera, one of the largest Biotech IPOs in the past twenty years. Lorenzo holds a Bachelor of Science with High Honors in Economics from Butler University and an MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business.

Dr. Philippe Parone is a scientific innovator and seasoned biotechnology leader with over 25 years of experience across academia and industry. He earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge and trained in molecular neuroscience, with a strong emphasis on translational research.

He began his career as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Geneva and later at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of California, San Diego. He subsequently joined Fate Therapeutics, taking on roles of increasing responsibility, where he led the development of iPSC and patient-derived immunoregulatory cell therapies for immune disorders including type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and graft-versus-host disease. He also oversaw company-wide IND-enabling safety pharmacology studies for iPSC-derived cell therapies targeting hematologic malignancies.

Upon returning to Europe, Dr. Parone served as Director of Industrialization at Celyad Oncology, directing manufacturing programs and advancing both autologous and allogeneic cell therapies into first-in-human studies.

Before joining AstraZeneca, he was Chief Scientific Officer at EsoBiotec, where he led scientific strategy and R&D, culminating in the development of a cell-targeted lentiviral platform for in vivo cell therapy and the first clinical validation of in vivo CAR-T cells in multiple myeloma. Following AstraZeneca’s acquisition of EsoBiotec, Dr. Parone became Executive Director and Head of In Vivo Cell Therapy Discovery. In this role, he drives advancements in cell and gene therapy, positioning AstraZeneca at the forefront of in vivo cell therapy.

Dhavalkumar Patel, MD, PhD, is Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Sana Biotechnology.

Prior to joining Sana in 2024, Dhaval served as Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of UCB, a multinational biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, where he and his teams contributed to the registration of bimekizumab (Bimzelx®), rozanolixizumab (Rystiggo®) and zilucoplan (Zilbrysq®). Prior to UCB, he spent 10 years at Novartis, most recently as the Head of Research of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) Europe. During his tenure, he led research in the autoimmune, transplantation, and inflammation disease areas, contributing to the registration of secukinumab (Cosentyx®), fingolimod (Gilenya®), siponimod (Mayzent®), canakinumab (Ilaris®), everolimus (Zortress®/Certican®, Afinitor®), leniolisib (Joenja®), and iptacopan (Fabhalta®) in multiple indications. He was also an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Novartis Venture Fund. Dhaval served as a member of the Board of Directors of Inflazome Ltd. prior to its acquisition by Roche in 2020. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors for Anokion SA, Priothera Ltd., and Quell Therapeutics Limited and serves as Chair of the Board of Directors for Mimetas BV.

Prior to joining industry in 2006, Dr Patel was an Eminent Professor of Medicine, Chief of Rheumatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and Director of the Thurston Arthritis Research Center at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He also spent nine years at the Duke University School of Medicine, culminating in his position as the Chief of the Division of Allergy and Immunology. Dr Patel received his BS, MD, and PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from Duke University, and is board certified in internal medicine, rheumatology, and allergy & immunology.

Aakanksha Pathania is a translational immuno-oncology scientist with more than five years of industry experience advancing ex vivo disease models, functional assays, and biomarker strategies that bridge preclinical discovery to clinical trials. She holds Master’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Project Management, with the aim to integrate disciplined project management principles with cutting-edge science.

At Novartis Biomedical Research (Cambridge, MA), she leads bench investigations of efficacy and mechanism of action for Immune Cell Engagers across NHL, MM, and AML, differentiating T-cell responses in DLBCL using multi-parameter flow cytometry (conventional and spectral) and robust functional assay platforms. Her work has supported translational biomarker development, drug benchmarking, and combination strategies for programs including PIT565 and VAY736, contributing to progression into Phase I clinical trials.

Previously at Merck Research Laboratories (Boston, MA), Aakanksha optimized patient-derived 3D tumoroid co-culture assays to interrogate cytokine expression, cellular cytotoxicity, and proliferation, and scaled centralized cell culture to enable high-throughput discovery. As a graduate researcher, she developed biofabricated 3D tissue platforms for high-throughput drug screening and precision medicine. A regular presenter at immuno-oncology forums and an active peer reviewer, she is passionate about translating rigorous bioengineering and immune profiling into impactful cancer immunotherapies.

Filippo Petti was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Leucid Bio in July 2023. Prior to joining Leucid, Mr. Petti was CEO, CFO and Executive Director of Celyad Oncology SA, a biotech company focused on cell therapies for cancer. Prior to Celyad Oncology SA, Mr. Petti spent several years as a healthcare investment banker at Wells Fargo Securities and William Blair & Company, where he specialised in working with cell & gene therapy companies. In addition, Mr. Petti has worked in equity research covering U.S. biotechnology companies both at William Blair & Company and Wedbush Securities. He began his career as a research scientist at OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. focused on drug discovery and translational research, before transitioning to corporate development with the company. Mr. Petti holds a Master of Business Administration from Cornell University, a Master of Science from St. John’s University and a dual Bachelor of Science from Syracuse University.

Adeeb Rahman is Chief Technology Officer at Immunai, a biotech company developing an AI model of the immune system to support better decision making across the spectrum of drug discovery and development. Dr. Rahman oversees the development of Immunai's core technology platform, including the integration of its multiomic single cell laboratory, data, computational immunology and AI teams, and its application in driving value for Immunai's wide range of academic and industry partners. Prior to joining Immunai, Dr, Rahman was an Associate Professor of Genomics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai in NYC, where he also served as the Director of Technology Development for the Human Immune Monitoring Center.

Sruthi Ravindranathan, PhD is a Senior Scientist in Translational Medicine at Coherus Oncology, where she contributes to biomarker development for casdozokitug, the first and only clinical stage anti-IL27 antibody. Dr Ravindranathan brings over 10 years of experience in immuno-oncology drug development, with expertise spanning from target discovery through clinical translation. She has authored more than 15 scientific publications in high-impact journals including Nature Communications, holds four patents on novel cancer immunotherapies, and has presented at numerous international conferences. Dr Ravindranathan completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Emory University School of Medicine, where she developed novel immunotherapeutic strategies for solid tumors.

Mike Rice, MS, MBA is Senior Vice President of Lumanity's Cell and Gene Therapy pratice, specializing in strategic development of platform technologies and applications for genetically defined patient populations and broad polygenic diseases. He also co-leads the hematologic oncology and cardiometabolics practices.

He has 25+ years of experience in biotech ventures supporting new company creation and defining strategic development and early commercial strategy for academic and biotech inventions pertaining to nucleic acids, gene therapy and cellular platforms applied across monogenetic diseases and oncology. Mike studied the molecular basis of cancer at the Kimmel Cancer Institute and is recognized for his extensive intellectual property and publication portfolio pertaining to recombinational DNA repair and molecular diagnostics. Mike is a co-inventor of non-nuclease gene editing methodology currently used commercially in agricultural trait improvement and in development for therapeutic applications.

Mike holds an MBA, with a concentration in Biotechnology from the Alfred Lerner School of Business and Economics, at the University of Delaware, an MS in Molecular Pharmacology from Thomas Jefferson University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Delaware. Industry positions involved translational research, strategic planning, technology transfer, finance and business development.

Mike is a Member of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center Advisory Council, enjoys mentoring early-stage life science entrepreneurs and is a member of ASGCT, ARM, SITC, ASCO and AHA professional societies.

Naiyer Rizvi, MD, has served as Synthekine’s Chief Medical Officer since May of 2021. He is an internationally recognized leader in cancer immunotherapy drug development whose clinical research has helped deliver FDA approvals of several landmark immunotherapies, including nivolumab in squamous lung cancer and pembrolizumab in non-small cell lung cancer. As a medical oncologist and expert in clinical immuno-oncology, Dr Rizvi’s research into mechanisms of sensitivity and resistance to immunotherapy has laid the foundation to the understanding of clinical responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors. He conducted clinical studies of novel immunotherapy drugs and immunotherapy combinations, including the landmark study to demonstrate a correlation between mutations and neoantigens with durable benefit to immune-checkpoint blockade. His work has been published in leading journals including Science, Nature and the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr Rizvi most recently served as the Price Family Professor of Medicine, Director of Thoracic Oncology and Co-Director of Cancer Immunotherapy at Columbia University Medical Center. In addition, he was recently Research Director of the Price Family Comprehensive Center for Chest Care at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr Rizvi received his MD from the University of Manitoba Faculty of Medicine and completed his residency training at the University of Manitoba Affiliated Hospital and fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School. He is a co-founder of Gritstone bio (previously known as Gritstone Oncology) and serves on its board of directors and scientific advisory board.

Stephen C. Rocamboli is a seasoned life sciences executive with a long track record in building and scaling innovative biotechnology companies. With a focus on development stage immuno-oncology, he drives corporate strategy and leads executive teams in the development and advancement of novel immunotherapies.  He holds a B.A. from The State University of New York at Albany and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law.

Gregory Russotti, PhD is the Chief Technology and Manufacturing Officer at Century Therapeutics, a company developing iPSC-derived, allogeneic immune cell therapy products for hematology/oncology indications. Before joining Century in January 2020, Greg was Vice President of Cell Therapy Development and Operations at Celgene. During his 13 year tenure at Celgene, he guided CMC efforts for five different cell therapy products to IND and clinical stage development. Greg was also a leader in establishing in-house clinical manufacturing at Celgene and in building Celgene’s first commercial CAR T manufacturing facility. Prior to Celgene, Greg held various leadership roles at Merck Research Laboratories, developing vaccines and monoclonal antibodies for clinical and commercial manufacturing. Greg received his BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his PhD in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from Rutgers University.

As a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Immuno-Oncology at the National Cancer Institute, I have led and contributed to multiple projects evaluating novel immunotherapeutic combinations, including tumor-targeted and anchored IL-12 strategies combined with chemotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors. This work has resulted in peer-reviewed publications and has directly supported the advancement of immunotherapy concepts toward clinical translation. I work closely with clinicians and translational scientists to integrate rigorous preclinical data into NIH-supported clinical trials. My contributions include experimental design, execution of animal studies, immune profiling, data analysis, and manuscript preparation, including co-first-author and first-author publications.

Previously, during my doctoral training, I investigated molecular mechanisms driving cancer progression and therapy resistance in ovarian cancer and inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), employing RNA-based therapy, CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, and nanoliposomes-based delivery systems. This background provides me with a strong mechanistic foundation that informs my current immuno-oncology research.

Barbra Sasu is Chief Scientific Officer at Dispatch, bringing more than two decades of experience in oncology and immuno-oncology. She began working in oncology in 2001 and has specialized in immuno-oncology since 2010. In 2014, while Head of Biology at Pfizer San Francisco, Barbra initiated and led the company’s allogeneic CAR T pipeline, which was subsequently out-licensed to create Allogene Therapeutics. She served as Chief Scientific Officer at Allogene from 2018 to 2023, where she led the preclinical development of CAR T therapies targeting hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, advancing six CAR T INDs and validating a next-generation allogeneic platform. Beyond CAR T, Barbra’s areas of focus have included CD3 bispecifics, adaptive immune modulatory antibodies, and cytokine fusions. At Pfizer, she led discovery through Phase 1 execution for the approved BCMA/CD3 bispecific elranatamab and contributed to early discovery of Amgen’s DLL3 bispecific tarlatamab. Barbra holds a B.Sc. in biochemistry and molecular biology from UMIST, Manchester, and a Ph.D. from the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, Manchester, UK. She completed her postdoctoral training at Harvard before embarking on a 23-year biotechnology career spanning Amgen, Pfizer, and Allogene Therapeutics prior to joining Dispatch in October 2023.

Kimberly Schluns joined Kite Pharma in October 2020 and currently leads strategic initiatives to advance next-generation CAR-T cell therapies across multiple disease areas. Prior to Kite, Kim served as an Associate Professor in the Department of Immunology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC), where she spent over 15 years building and directing an independent research program. Her work focused on the mechanisms governing CD8 T cell differentiation during viral infections, inflammation, lymphodepletion, and within solid tumors. Her laboratory also explored the role of IL-15 in the development of NK cells, intestinal T cells, and invariant T cells. Kim’s deep expertise in the therapeutic applications of IL-15 in immuno-oncology has been widely recognized and leveraged through industry collaborations and consultations. Kim earned a B.S. in Physiology from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Loyola University Chicago. She completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Connecticut Health Science Center under Dr. Leo Lefrancois, where she investigated the roles of IL-7 and IL-15 in CD8 T cell differentiation and homeostasis.

I-hung Shih, PhD, MBA serves as Co-Portfolio Manager for Eventide’s Healthcare Strategy, as well as a Managing Director for Eventide Ventures.

Prior to joining Eventide, Dr. Shih was Co-Head of the Biotech Private Investments team at Wellington Management. She also served as Global Industry Analyst and Co-Manager for Wellington’s Small-cap and SMID Cap Biotech Strategies. Before her tenure at Wellington Management, Dr. Shih was a Senior Biotech Analyst at T. Rowe Price, covering US biotech companies and Co-Managing the Institutional US Structured Research Fund. She also served as the Lead Officer for US biopharma investment in public and private equity at Temasek International and as an Associate in investment banking on the Credit Suisse Biotech Team.

Dr. Shih holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, a PhD in Biochemistry from Duke University, and a BS in Chemistry from National Taiwan University. Additionally, she was a research fellow at the Whitehead Institute at MIT and the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Harpreet Singh is Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director and Member of the Board at Immatics (NASDAQ: IMTX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company and global leader in the precision targeting of PRAME. PRAME is a target expressed in more than 50 cancers and Immatics has the broadest PRAME franchise with the most PRAME indications and modalities, spanning cell therapies and bispecifics.

Dr. Harpreet Singh brings together leadership experience, scientific expertise and innovation in T-cell based immunotherapy of advanced solid cancers. He has played a critical role in developing Immatics from a start-up into a global, publicly listed biopharma enterprise, leading a team of more than 500 people based in the US and Germany, committed to making a meaningful impact on the lives of patients with cancer.

Dr. Singh holds a PhD in immunology from the University of Tuebingen, Germany.

Dr Alex Snyder is SVP, Head of Translational Medicine & Discovery Oncology at Merck. Previously, Dr Snyder was Head of Research and Development at Generate Biomedicines, a biotechnology company that uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and protein engineering to create novel medicines. Prior to joining Generate in 2022, Dr. Snyder was a Principal at the biotech incubator Two River, following her role as Associate Vice President and Head of Translational Oncology at Merck. She previously was Translational Medicine Lead at Adaptive Biotechnologies, and started her career as faculty and federally-funded Principal Investigator at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Snyder is a Cancer Steering Committee (CSC) Biomedical Co-Chair for the Executive Committee and co-leads the SITC Biomarker Working Group. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at NYU and Bellevue Hospitals, Section Editor for the Journal for the Immunotherapy of Cancer, and was a member of the board of Navigating Cancer. Dr. Snyder received her medical degree and internal medicine training at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai Hospital, followed by medical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).

Dr. Soria is a scientist and entrepreneur with deep expertise in cancer biology, DNA repair and drug discovery. After obtaining his PhD from the University of Buenos Aires and training at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, he conducted postdoctoral work at Institut Curie in France. Since establishing his own lab in 2014, he has focused on therapeutic targets and synthetic lethality, fostering strategic collaborations with industry leaders such as Novartis and GSK. In 2020, Dr. Soria co-founded OncoPrecision. The company leverages proprietary ex-vivo screening technologies—utilizing both patient-derived and healthy donor cells—to develop next-generation ADCs and BsAbs for precision oncology.

Jennifer has 20+ years of experience with flow cytometry in academic, nonclinical and clinical settings. Throughout her career she has the opportunity to interface with clients to gain an understanding of the evolving demands for the technology in drug development. Her mission is to be at the cutting edge in the field, knowing that TD2’s services can assist in the creation of treatments for millions worldwide who currently suffer from disease. This effort is supplemented through collaboration with other experts on research projects, publishing manuscripts, organizing workshops and speaking at symposiums.

Jennifer is currently serving as the Vice President of Flow Cytometry Strategy at TD2 Oncology and is involved in the interpretation and reporting for the various flow cytometry projects. In addition, she is the Co-chair for the AAPS Flow Cytometry Action Programming Committee and has served as a guest editor for Cytometry Part B: Clinical Cytometry and as a scientific reviewer for several high-profile journals.

Vic Stone, M.D. (Ishii Yoshihide) is Head of Cell Therapies and Japan, and General Partner and President of 82VS Venture Studios Dallas. His career in finance spans a broad range of investments including Incubation, VC, PE and PIPEs. He has raised numerous biotech funds, built numerous therapeutics and platform companies. Notable exits include Shattuck labs (NASDAQ: STTK) and ARTham Therapeutics (M&A, Kaken Pharma); signature builds include Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners, for which he continues to serve as External Director.

Dr. Stone started his career as a Naval Flight Surgeon in the Marine Corps, serving multiple combat deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. He received his MBA from the Harvard Business School and MD from Jefferson Medical College.

His ecosystem activities include Co-Chairman of a Consortia of Japanese Pharma and Lifescience VCs, and entrepreneurship programs in Dallas and Osaka.

Matteo Stoppato, Ph.D., is a scientific leader with 15+ years of experience in gene therapy, biologics, and tissue engineering. He is Senior Director and Head of R&D at Syenex, where he leads corporate R&D strategy, cross-functional program execution, and partnerships to advance next-generation delivery technologies. His work focuses on designing and optimizing retargeted lentiviral vectors for in vivo and ex vivo applications.

Previously, Dr. Stoppato was Director at Sana Biotechnology, driving protein engineering and gene therapy platform development and contributing to multiple patents. Earlier at Mass Biologics, he developed monoclonal and single-domain antibodies and explored improved AAV and exosome delivery approaches.

He earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Trento, completed postdoctoral training at Tufts University, and conducted research at Georgia Tech and Johannes Gutenberg University. He is an inventor on several patents and a frequent scientific presenter.

Dr. Walter R. Strapps is the Chief Scientific Officer of Liberate Bio, a therapeutics biotech company in the CAR-M space.  He is the co-founder and former CEO of Carver Biosciences, Inc.  His past roles include interim Chief Scientific Officer at Deep Genomics as well as Chief Scientific Officer at Gemini Therapeutics where he led all aspects of pre-clinical research, PK and biomarkers for Gemini’s clinical trials.  Before joining Gemini, Dr. Strapps was Vice President of Discovery at Intellia Therapeutics, leading programs across a range of therapeutic areas.  Dr. Strapps held previous roles in RNA Therapeutics at Merck & Co., Inc in Pennsylvania and California and at Sirna Therapeutics and Sentigen Biosciences in Colorado and New York respectively.  Dr. Strapps obtained his doctorate, M.A. and M.Phil. degrees from Columbia University and B.Sc. from McGill University.  Dr. Strapps serves on the board of Sona Nanotech a Nova Scotia-based biotech company.

Zhen Su, MD, MBA is CEO of Marengo Therapeutics and a director of the company’s board. Dr Su brings nearly three decades of experience as a physician-scientist and biopharma executive, with expertise in building and leading both R&D and commercial organizations. During his tenure at Marengo, Dr Su has led the team’s progressing the company’s lead asset into clinical trials, grown its leading-edge pipeline, and established a $2.8B strategic partnership with Ipsen. Dr Su is also the Founding Chair for the Biotech Committee of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) and was recently appointed to the Board of Directors at Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: KPTI), CytomX Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CTMX) and Galvanize Therapeutics.

Graig C. Suvannavejh, PhD, recently joined Mizuho Securities as a Managing Director and Senior Biopharmaceuticals and Biotechnology Equity Research Analyst, bringing over 20 years of experience in the healthcare sector, including equity research and investment banking roles at both bulge bracket and healthcare-dedicated boutique investment banks. He joined Mizuho from Goldman Sachs where he successfully built out and led the firm’s European biotechnology equity research franchise while initially based in London, and then, following a move to NY, was a key player in establishing the firm’s US Small-mid cap Biopharma efforts. In financial services, he has also worked at JP Morgan, Jefferies and UBS, as well as other boutique firms. Dr Suvannavejh also brings with him corporate experience, with operating roles in business development, corporate strategy and finance at top-tier and also start-up global biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including most notably, Biogen and AbbVie. He holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Northwestern University, a Master’s degree in Physiology and an undergraduate degree in Biology, with both latter degrees earned from Georgetown University. 

Leon ‘Jun’ Tang, PhD, is the founding partner of InScienceWeTrust BioAdvisory, a business development company focused on the US/APAC cross-border partnerships in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr Tang is also the founder of InScienceWeTrust Community, which has more than 2,000 members from the Asian biotech community.

Dr Tang serves as a scientific advisor to Mianus Capital, a boutique US-based healthcare PE/VC fund currently focused on ophthalmology. He is also an advisor to BioSpark, an Asian biotech professional’s association based in Massachusetts.

Previously, Dr Tang was a senior director of BD Search & Evaluation at Shanghai Henlius Biotech, a public biotech listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange, a biotech sell-side analyst at Barclays Investment Bank and a senior manager/senior analyst at the philanthropic venture fund of Cancer Research Institute of New York.

Dr Tang has published 50+ academic papers, some of which are in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Lancet Oncology, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications, Science Advances, PNAS, etc. Dr Tang received his bachelor’s degree from Tianjin University, master’s degree from Nankai University, PhD from Icahn School of Medicine of Mount Sinai and postdoctoral training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Claire Thuning-Roberson, PhD, is currently CEO of AbBC Therapies with 50+ years in translational research in immunology and immuno-oncology.  Her early efforts as Director of Goodwin Institute for Cancer Research, a primary genetic center for the National Cancer Institute (NCI), included development of human tumor xenograft models and drug screening for NCI.  Dr Thuning-Roberson subsequently designed and built Goodwin Biotechnology, one of the biotech industry’s first fully-integrated contract manufacturer.  As CEO, she led the company’s efforts to advance development and manufacture of over 30 clinical and diagnostic biologics for medical centers and industry.

Subsequent positions held by Dr Thuning-Roberson include VP of Product Development and Compliance for Sunol Molecular Corporation and Director of Pharmaceutical Development for Thallion Pharmaceuticals.  Her cross-functional experience in manufacturing, non-clinical, and clinical research supported the clinical advancement of five biologics and direct engagement with international regulatory agencies including FDA, Health Canada, EMA, ANSM, and PMDA.

Eric Tran, MD, PhD is an experienced research scientist with a lifelong goal of developing new and more effective T-cell-based immunotherapies for patients with cancer. Currently, he leads the Adoptive Cell Therapy Laboratory at the Earle A Chiles Research Institute, a Providence Center of Excellence for immuno-oncology and cellular therapy.

Dr. Tran trained at the National Cancer Institute through the National Institute of Health with Dr. Steven A. Rosenberg, a pioneer in the field of immunotherapy. He has extensive experience in translational and clinical adoptive T-cell therapy against cancer and in evaluating the T-cell response against tumor neoantigens.

Anna Truppel-Hartmann, MD is a seasoned medical professional with over 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. She earned her medical degree in Switzerland and brings a wealth of expertise and accomplished track record in clinical development, medical affairs, patient engagement, and talent development. She has held key leadership roles at both large pharmaceutical companies and smaller biotech firms, where she successfully led clinical development programs from early-stage trials to regulatory approval and is recognized for her strategic vision coupled with strong relationships with healthcare professionals, regulatory authorities, and patient advocacy groups.

Prior to joining KSQ, Dr Truppel-Hartmann was Senior Vice President Clinical Development and Chief Medical Officer at 2seventy bio, where she was instrumental in the development and approval of Abecma®, the first approved CAR-T therapy in multiple myeloma, and shaping the cell therapy pipeline in oncology. She held previous positions at Roche, where she led programs and high performing teams in Medical Affairs across the hemato-oncology portfolio, which resulted in successful pre- and postlaunch Medical Affairs execution of new products (Gazyva®), label extensions (MabThera®) and strategic direction for several products including, but not limited to Polivy®, Hemlibra®, Venclexta® within the pipeline. Dr Truppel-Hartmann’s commitment to patient engagement has been another hallmark of her career, ensuring that patient voices are at the forefront of medical innovation. In addition to her medical and strategic expertise, she is passionate about talent development, mentoring the next generation of leaders in the biotech industry. Dr Truppel-Hartmann earned her Medical Doctorate in Nuclear Medicine from the University of Zurich, Switzerland and spent part of her medical education at the University of Vienna, Austria, and the Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Bahram (Bob) Valamehr, PhD is President & Chief Executive Officer at Fate Therapeutics and is responsible for the company’s finance, administration and operations, including overseeing the company’s research and development, technical operations and translational sciences activities. Previously, Dr. Valamehr led the development of Fate’s iPSC platform and therapeutic areas for nearly 15 years and most recently held the role of President of R&D. Prior to joining Fate, Dr. Valamehr played key scientific roles at Amgen, the Center for Cell Control (a NIH Nanomedicine Development Center) and the Broad Stem Cell Research Center developing novel methods to control pluripotency, to modulate stem cell fate including hematopoiesis and to better understand cellular signaling pathways associated with aberrant cellular function. He has co-authored numerous studies and patents related to stem cell biology, immunology, oncology and materials science. Dr. Valamehr received his Ph.D. from the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at UCLA, his M.B.A. from Pepperdine University and his B.S. from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA.

As Head of Transactions, Business Development at AstraZeneca, Gayatri Varma, PhD, currently oversees transactional activity for Oncology R&D. During her time at AstraZeneca, Dr Varma has led and negotiated many transactions including the acquisition of Neogene Therapeutics and in-licensing of several oncology clinical-stage assets, and in-licensing activities for COVID-19. Previously, she held positions as Director of Partnerships & Collaborations at MedImmune, and Executive Director, University of Maryland, heading the technology transfer office with focus on out-licensing activities.

Dr Varma has a PhD in Molecular & Cellular Biology and is a registered patent agent. She recently served on the Board of AUTM and continues to serve on their Industry Advisory and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion committees.

She is also chair of the Licensing Executive Society’s Life Sciences Sector Leadership committee. Dr Varma is very engaged in the local life sciences community and has led ecosystem building in the Gaithersburg region.

Raluca Verona, PhD, is currently Head of Precision Medicine Oncology at AbbVie, where she leads clinical biomarkers and translational research strategies across solid tumors, heme malignancies and immune-oncology.

Prior to AbbVie, Dr Verona was at Janssen R&D, where she gained over 16 years of experience in drug discovery and development at. Her expertise extends across heme and solid tumor indications, encompassing a diverse range of therapeutic modalities including small molecules, checkpoint inhibitors, T cell bispecific antibodies, and CAR-T cell therapies. Dr Verona played a pivotal role within the Jannsen Oncology Discovery group, building Janssen’s Immune-Oncology (IO) portfolio in solid tumors by advancing a number of IO agents to IND-enabling studies and early clinical development, as well as by leading next-generation T cell redirectors and cell therapy strategies.

After her tenure in Discovery, Dr Verona has led both the IO and Heme Translational Research groups at Janssen, overseeing the development of 20+ early and late-stage clinical development compounds, including antibodies and small molecules, across solid and heme indications. Under her leadership, these teams made crucial contributions to clinical proof of mechanism, dose selection, correlatives for response/resistance, safety, and clinical combination strategies and achieved significant portfolio milestones, including multiple entries into First-in-Human (FIH) and late-stage development, as well as numerous successful regulatory submissions and approvals.

Dr Verona has been a dedicated advocate for mentoring and diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives at J&J. She has also been instrumental in establishing and building the Oncology Post-Doc and Summer Intern programs at Janssen.

Dr Verona obtained her BS from Yale University in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and her PhD in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute for Technology. Subsequently, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in epigenetics.

Wim Vos, PhD, is a distinguished researcher and visionary leader in medical imaging, specializing in pneumology and oncology. With executive experience at Fluidda and Radiomics, he has driven advancements in advanced image analysis for these fields.

At Fluidda, Dr Vos served as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), leading innovative projects that utilized advanced imaging technologies to enhance respiratory disease diagnosis and treatment in pneumology. He later assumed the role of Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), successfully establishing Fluidda as a key player in pneumology through comprehensive commercial strategies.

As CEO of Radiomics for the past four years, Dr Vos has revolutionized precision medicine by applying advanced image analysis techniques to oncology. Radiomics, under his leadership, has made significant strides in early treatment evaluation, treatment response prediction, and patient stratification.

Dr Vos's expertise is demonstrated through his publications in reputable scientific journals and active participation in industry conferences. Widely regarded as an esteemed expert, he is sought after for his deep insights into advanced image analysis and its impact on pneumology and oncology. Wim's collaborative approach and effective communication skills have amplified his influence within the industry.

Beyond his research and executive roles, Dr Vos is dedicated to fostering the growth of aspiring researchers in medical imaging. He actively engages in mentorship programs, educational initiatives, and scientific collaborations, promoting innovation and knowledge sharing in pneumology and oncology.

Dr Vos's exemplary leadership, research contributions, and dedication to leveraging medical imaging for improved patient care have solidified his position as a highly respected figure. He continues to shape the future of advanced image analysis, unlocking new possibilities for precision medicine and transforming disease diagnosis and treatment in pneumology and oncology.

Kristen Wangerin, PhD, is a Senior Imaging Technology Leader in the GEHC Pharmaceutical Diagnostics Research and Development team. She is responsible for the imaging strategy as part of clinical studies for GEHC PET radiotracers in development and is passionate about translating novel PET imaging agents into the clinic, thereby helping enable precision medicine and improvement in patient outcomes. Dr. Wangerin has been with GEHC for 20 years. Prior to her current role, she was a valued member of the PET/CT and PET/MR engineering teams designing new systems and shaping research collaborations. She received her PhD in Bioengineering from University of Washington, and her BS and MS in Nuclear Engineering from Purdue University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, respectively.

Jedd Wolchok, MD, PhD, FASCO, is the Meyer Director of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Wolchok was most recently Chief of the Immuno-Oncology Service and held The Lloyd J. Old Chair in Clinical Investigation at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and remains Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Wolchok is a clinician-scientist exploring innovative immunotherapeutic strategies in laboratory models, and a principal investigator in numerous pivotal clinical trials. Dr. Wolchok helped establish immunotherapy as a standard approach to cancer treatment and was instrumental in the clinical development leading to the approval of ipilimumab and the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab for advanced melanoma. He supervises an NIH R01-funded basic science laboratory which is focused on investigating novel immunotherapeutic agents in pre-clinical laboratory models. The focus of his translational research laboratory is to investigate innovative means to modulate the immune response to cancer as well as to better understand the mechanistic basis for sensitivity and resistance to currently available immunotherapies. Dr. Wolchok received his BA degree from Princeton University, and his MS, PhD and MD degrees from New York University. Dr. Wolchok has received numerous honors for his work including: American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Memorial Award, the Giants of Cancer Care in Melanoma Award, the Berson Alumni Achievement Award in Clinical and Translational Science and the Zelmanovich Young Alumni Achievement Award from NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the Alfred Taubman Prize for Excellence in Translational Medical Research (Univ of Michigan) and has been designated a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (FASCO). Most recently, he has been awarded the the Distinguished Alumni Award at MSK, the AACR-Joseph H. Burchenal Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research, the ESMO Award for Immuno-Oncology and the David Karnofsky Award from ASCO. Dr. Wolchok has served on the Board of Directors of ASCO and the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) and currently is the Treasurer of SITC. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and the Association of American Physicians (AAP) and is Chair of the Melanoma Committee for the ECOG-ACRIN NCI cooperative group. He is a full member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and center director for the Parker Institute of Cancer Immunotherapy.

Elizabeth Wood, PhD is the founder and CEO of JURA Bio, where she leads the development of AI-native drug discovery through breakthrough technologies that bridge computational design and physical synthesis.

Before founding JURA, Wood was a post-doc in the lab of Adam Cohen at Harvard’s Department of Chemistry and Physics. She pursued her PhD with Angela Belcher and Markus Buehler at MIT, and finished it under the supervision of Claus Helix-Nielsen at The Technical University of Denmark, Departments of Physics and Civil and Environmental Engineering. She has also worked at the University of Copenhagen’s SBiN Lab with Kresten Lindorff-Larsen, integrating computational methods with experimental studies to better predict RNA structure and to understand how the ability of proteins to change their shape helps modulate their function.

Wood is a visiting scientist at the Broad Institute, where she served on the founding steering committee of the Models, Inference & Algorithms (MIA) Initiative. From 2019-2021 she served as the primary organizer of the NeurIPS Workshop Learning Meaningful Representations of Life. She currently serves on the board of Project Clio, a Massachusetts-based 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to advancing the study of the health impacts of pregnancy and understudied autoimmune diseases.

Tarek graduated Summa Cum Laude from Babson College with a B.S. in Business Administration and a concentration in Entrepreneurship. He began his career by co-founding Ando, a logistics technology startup acquired by Moova, and subsequently joined private equity firm Gatewood Capital Partners in New York as an Analyst.

In late 2020, Tarek co-founded OncoPrecision, a next-generation oncology therapeutics company spun out of Dr. Gastón Soria’s Synthetic Lethality Laboratory — a group that led several successful multi-year drug discovery partnerships with GSK. As CEO, he oversees OncoPrecision's strategy, capital formation, and business development. He was recognized as EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2024.

Bin Zhao, MD, PhD is Scientific Associate Vice-President and Section Head of Thoracic Oncology and Product Development Team lead for Head and Neck Cancer at Merck. Over the past decade, she has held progressively senior roles advancing Keytruda and other oncology programs into global clinical development, including immune-oncology, precision molecular targeting, and tissue targeting therapies.

Dr Zhao received her MD from West China Medical Center, Sichuan University. After completing residency training, she obtained MS in Biochemical Nutrition from Utah State University and PhD in Pharmacology and Cancer Cell Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Evan Zisholtz, JD is Vice President of Global Business Development at Immunai, and oversees both BD and M&A. Prior to Immunai, Evan supported M&A and Corporate Strategy at Lonza. Mr Zisholtz began his career as an attorney in private practice in New York and holds a JD from New York University School of Law.