2025 Speakers

Blake Aftab, PhD, joined Adicet Bio in April 2021 with nearly 20 years of rich experience in academia, biotech and pharmaceutical industries developing multiple therapeutic modalities including small molecules, biologics, antibody-drug conjugates and cell therapies through all stages of drug development. He joins Adicet from Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded immunotherapy company, where, as Vice President and Head of Preclinical Science and Translational Medicine, he contributed to the company’s initial transition to cell therapy and led the focus on developing Allo-CAR T cell capabilities. Previously, Dr Aftab led multiple research programs at University of California, San Francisco focused on drug discovery and clinical translation in multiple myeloma, including early research supporting targeted approaches for CD38 and other impactful targets of interest for CAR-T therapies. Dr Aftab received his PhD from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and holds a BSc in Pharmacology and Drug Discovery, from The University of California, Santa Barbara.

Rick Aldridge, MBChB is a Managing Director in Lazard’s Global Healthcare team focused on the Life Sciences Sector.

He joined Lazard in 2015 from Bank of America Merrill Lynch where he was an equity research analyst in the European Pharmaceutical team with lead coverage in the mid-cap biopharma space. The team was top-ranked in the Institutional Investor survey in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

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.

Siraj Ali, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist the Global VP of Translational Medicine at Lunit. Prior to his role at Lunit, he was the VP of clinical development at EQRx and led translational research efforts at Foundation Medicine.

Dr Ali has co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts, which have accrued nearly 20,000 citations, in journals such as The Oncologist, JCO-Precision Oncology, Cancer Discovery, Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), and others. Dr Ali serves as a reviewer for multiple life-sciences journals and is a member of a NIH study section focused on drug development for oncology.

Dr Ali earned his BS in Biophysics Phi Beta Kappa from the Johns Hopkins University and an MD-PhD program from Harvard Medical School supported by HHMI fellowships and the Medical Scientist Training Program. He completed residency training at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School in Boston and is board-certified in Anatomic Pathology.

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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, is Chief Medical Officer at Eikon Therapeutics, leading all clinical development.

Dr Baynes was previously Chief Medical Officer and head of clinical development at Merck, where he supervised the entire clinical portfolio in Merck Research Laboratories. He was also the architect of the development strategy for dozens of important new medicines including Keytruda®, a drug that has revolutionized cancer treatment globally. Prior to Merck, Dr Baynes held clinical development leadership positions for oncology, respiratory and inflammation at Gilead Sciences and hematology/oncology at Amgen. Prior to his industry career, Dr Baynes held academic positions at South African and American Universities in hematology and oncology, in addition to leading the bone marrow transplantation service at the Karmanos Cancer Institute at Wayne State University in Detroit, where he was Professor of Medicine and Oncology, and the Charles Martin Professor of Cancer Research. 

Dr Baynes received his degree in medicine and surgery (MB, BCh) from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he also received an MMed (specialist registration) and completed a PhD exploring human iron metabolism. Dr Baynes is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the College of Physicians of South Africa.

Arie Belldegrun, MD, is the Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Allogene. He currently serves as Chairman of Two River Group, UroGen Pharma, Kronos Bio, and as Co-Chairman of Breakthrough Properties. He is also on the Board of Gingko Bioworks, IconOVir, ByHeart, and is a Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director of Vida Ventures. As a visionary entrepreneur, Dr Belldegrun has had a distinguished tenure in the life sciences, having been closely involved with the founding and advancement of several successful biopharmaceutical companies including Cougar Biotechnology and Agensys. ZYTIGA® (abiraterone acetate), developed by Cougar, is a mainstay of therapy for patients with metastatic prostate cancer. Dr Belldegrun also founded Kite Pharma, a recognized leader in CAR T therapy where he served as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer until the acquisition of Kite by Gilead Sciences in October 2017. Dr Belldegrun is a Research Professor, holds the Roy and Carol Doumani Chair in Urologic Oncology, and is Director of the Institute of Urologic Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Prior to joining UCLA, Dr Belldegrun was at the National Cancer Institute/ National Institutes of Health as a research fellow in surgical oncology and immunotherapy under Dr Steven A Rosenberg. He has authored several books on oncology and more than 500 scientific and medical papers related to urological cancers, immunotherapy, gene therapy and cancer vaccines. He is also certified by the American Board of Urology and is a member of the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons. He completed his MD at the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, his post-graduate studies in immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and his residency in urologic surgery at Harvard Medical School.

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Sharon Benzeno, PhD, MBA, is the Chief Commercial Officer, Immune Medicine and leads the Drug Discovery group of Adaptive Biotechnologies, a commercial-stage biotech company that aims to translate the genetics of the adaptive immune system into clinical products to diagnose and treat disease. Before joining Adaptive in 2014, Dr Benzeno was Senior Director at Elsevier Inc., a healthcare informatics company. Prior to Elsevier, Dr Benzeno co-led the oncology business unit at Capgemini SE, a consulting and technology services company. Dr Benzeno came to Elsevier from Capgemini, where she served in a variety of management roles at AstraZeneca plc. Dr Benzeno holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from New York University School of Medicine, an MBA in Finance and Leadership from New York University Stern School of Business and a BA in Biochemistry from New York University. Dr Benzeno completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer biology at the University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center.

Yevgeny (Yev) Brudno received dual B.A. degrees in Chemistry and Biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Harvard University, working with David Liu to develop directed evolution technologies. From there, Dr Brudno worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute at Harvard with Prof. David Mooney, developing controlled release drug delivery technologies for cancer and regenerative medicine. Dr Brudno’s research interests span organic synthetic chemistry, materials science, and cellular immunotherapy. Mostly recently, his lab develops materials to improve cell therapies, including CAR T cells. His lab’s research is rooted in the belief that advances in chemistry and the basic molecular sciences can generate meaningful change in how therapies are designed, produced, and administered.

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S Chakra Chennubhotla, PhD earned his PhD from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto specializing in computer vision, machine learning and AI. Dr Chennubhotla was tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Computational and Systems Biology at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr Chennubhotla co-founded SpIntellx to actualize the translational potential of these Pitt IP-fueled platforms. Dr Chennubhotla’s experience encompasses years in both industry and academia. He was the lead PI on several National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation grants covering broad areas of bioimaging, molecular biophysics, computational and systems biology, and spatial intratumor heterogeneity. He holds several patents and has published extensively, appearing in Science Translational Medicine and Nature Communications, among other prominent journals.

Dushen Chetty, PhD, currently serves as the Global Program Head for Prostate Cancer at Novartis Oncology. In this role, he is responsible for developing innovative therapeutics for Prostate Cancer, with a specific focus on PSMA-targeted Radioligand Therapies. Additionally, he has played a crucial role in the development of CAR-T programs for Lymphoma and Multiple Myeloma. Prior to his current position, Dr Chetty successfully led programs that targeted BRaf malignancies and obtained regulatory approvals for Pediatric Glioma and BRaf Tumor Agnostic indications.

Before joining Novartis, Dr Chetty held the position of Senior Director at Janssen Oncology. During his time there, he led teams in designing groundbreaking medicine development strategies for radio-conjugates and bladder cancer programs. At GlaxoSmithKline, he led teams in worldwide business development and scientific licensing, where he evaluated new oncology opportunities and shaped business development strategies. In addition, he also led a joint venture in Singapore for two years, during which he fostered R&D capability through collaborative agreements with the Singapore Economic Development Board.

Dr Chetty is a distinguished scholar, having been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and obtaining a PhD from Rutgers University. He was also a British Council Scholar at King's College London. Prior to his industry career, Dr Chetty served as an Associate Professor at the University of Durban-Westville in South Africa, where he led a grant-funded research program.

Rakhshita Dhar is Senior Director of Venture Investments at Leaps by Bayer, where she is responsible for investing and managing portfolio companies. She currently serves on the boards of Deka Biosciences, NextPoint Therapeutics, Gro Bioscienes, ReCode Therapeutics, Vesigen Therapeutics, AffiniT Therapeutics, Bloom Biosciences and Sudo Therapeutics. Prior to Leaps, Ms Dhar was Director of Business Development at Roche Pharmaceuticals where she led multiple transactions. Previously, she served in Innovation Sciences at MassBio developing an accelerator program for life science startups.

Ms Dhar received her MS in molecular biology from Georgetown University, and holds a BS in biochemistry from Mumbai University. 

Kalli Dircks joined Morgan Stanley in 2006. She is a Managing Director and Co-Head of the Healthcare Equity Capital Markets group. She has been with the firm for 18 years and has held positions across the Equity Syndicate desk and Healthcare Capital Markets.

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.

Prof. Alexander M.M. Eggermont, MD, PhD, is an internationally recognized expert in surgical oncology, immunotherapy, melanoma, sarcoma and cancer drug development.

He currently holds roles as Professor or Immunotherapy at the University Medical Center Utrecht & Chief Scientific Officer at the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology, the Netherlands; Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Comprehensive Cancer Center Munich, Germany; Coordinator, Comprehensive Cancer Center Program for Deutsche KrebsHilfe (German Cancer Aid).

Prof. Eggermont was previously Director General of Gustave Roussy Comprehensive Cancer Center, Villejuif, France (2010-2019) & Professor of Oncology (Classe Exceptionnelle) at the University Paris-Saclay; and Professor of Surgical Oncology (2003-2016) and Endowed Professor of International Networking in Cancer Research (2011-2018) at Erasmus University MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He holds a PhD in tumor immunology from Erasmus University and is Fellow of the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute (NIH-NCI). Prof. Eggermont has served as President of European Academy of Cancer Sciences, President of ECCO, President of the EORTC, was a member of the Board of Directors of ASCO, served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Cancer. Prof. Eggermont has published more than 1000 peer-reviewed papers and his expertise has been acknowledged by many professional awards throughout his career.

David Feltquate, MD, PhD joined iTeos Therapeutics as Chief Medical Officer in 2024. He brings nearly 20 years of immuno-oncology clinical development, translational medicine, and diagnostic assay advancement experience. Prior to joining iTeos, he was Chief Medical Officer at Palleon Pharmaceuticals where he oversaw the clinical strategy and development of its glyco-immunology therapeutics pipeline. Before that, Dr Feltquate was the Global Head of Hematology Development and Chair of the Precision Medicine Leadership Team at Novartis. Previously, he held numerous leadership positions at Bristol Myers Squibb including Head of Oncology Early Clinical Development and Development Leader for Ipilimumab / Nivolumab Life Cycle Management. As the Nivolumab Clinical Head, Dr Feltquate was responsible for the clinical development of the first PD-1 inhibitor from proof of concept through initial registrations in non-small cell lung cancer, melanoma, and renal cell carcinoma. Dr Feltquate earned a BS in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MD/PhD in Immunology from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He completed internal medicine training at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and medical oncology training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

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.

Luisa Freitas dos Santos, PhD is an industry-leading chemical engineer with over 23 years’ experience in pharmaceutical drug development including process chemistry, particle sciences, process engineering, analytical sciences, discovery and clinical supply chain. She has led eight different R&D groups in five countries delivering multidisciplinary research with high impact both within GSK and across the sector.

Examples of impact include the implementation of the first process engineering workflow in R&D; the introduction of standardised approaches for scaling down and modelling primary manufacturing unit operations, followed by predictive scale up; and more recently leading modernisation of the R&D discovery and clinical supply chain. She is a GSK Senior Fellow and co-chair of the R&D Fellows Council.

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Maurits Geerlings, MD, MBA is an experienced executive and serial entrepreneur who has co-founded and led multiple successful biotech companies . In 2000, he co-founded Actinium Pharmaceuticals Inc., a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ATNM). In 2010, he established Formula Pharmaceuticals Inc., which was subsequently sold in 2020. In 2017, he co-founded Mirata Pharmaceuticals and  launched NanoCell Therapeutics in 2021, both companies securing venture capital funding.

Dr Geerlings played a key role as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in Actinium Pharmaceuticals Inc., From 2002 to 2010, he has been actively involved in business development for Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cephalon, Inc., Prism Pharmaceuticals, and Infinity Pharmaceuticals.

Throughout his career, he has successfully navigated complex negotiations and spearheaded strategic partnerships. With extensive expertise in deal making, Dr Geerlings has established alliances through out-licensing, in-licensing, M&A, plus co-development initiatives, spanning both domestic and international markets, including the USA and Europe.

Dr Geerlings earned his MD from the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands and obtained his Executive MBA from the George Washington University, Washington, DC. 

Brittany Gerald-Lewis brings over 16 years of global clinical operations experience working at various pharmaceutical companies and CROs and 7 years of entrepreneurial experience. Her expertise includes global study management, global site management, monitoring, and clinical trial diversity and inclusion. In her current role, she leads the strategy for implementing inclusive clinical trials, leads the cross-functional Clinical Trial Health Equity Working Group, and represents her organization on clinical trial diversity matters internally and externally. With a passion for clinical trial diversity and inclusion, she is eager to apply successful solutions to advance clinical trial diversity globally and address health disparities. She has a

Saba Ghassemi, PhD graduated with a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Villanova University. She then completed her PhD at Columbia University, training under Drs. Michael Sheetz and James Hone. During this time, she was an active member of an NIH-funded interdisciplinary center: The Nanomedicine Development Center (NDC) for Mechanobiology, Directing the Immune Response. During her PhD studies, Dr. Ghassemi identified an intracellular sarcomere-like unit that is responsible for sensing the mechanical properties of the extracellular environment. Combining nanotechnology and cell biology, she showed that this mechano-sensing unit operates at the nanoscale regime. Dr. Ghassemi completed her post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania at the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies (CCI) in Dr. Michael Milone’s lab. She focused on improving CAR T cell differentiation and potency. Her studies showed that CAR T cells progressively differentiate over time: reducing the ex vivo expansion to 3 days increases potency and durable efficacy in pre-clinical models of ALL. The findings from this work are currently being translated into a clinical trial at UPenn led by Dr. Carl June. Dr. Ghassemi was awarded the St. Baldrick’s Scholar Award (2018), Early Career Scientific Research Award from the National Blood Foundation (2019), as well as a DoD Career Development award (2020). Dr. Ghassemi has emerged as an expert in the CAR T cell field with invitations to present her findings at national and international conferences (ASH, ASGCT, AAI, ISCT) and is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications. She is also a co-inventor on several patents involving methods for improving the efficacy, expansion, and fitness of CAR T cells for adoptive immunotherapy. The overarching goals of the Ghassemi Lab are to use a multidisciplinary approach that combines engineering with CAR T cell immunology to develop potent CAR T cells for adoptive immunotherapy of cancer.

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.

Carl Gordon, PhD, CFA is a Managing Partner and leads OrbiMed’s private equity team. Dr Gordon joined OrbiMed’s predecessor firm in 1995 and was a founding General Partner of OrbiMed in 1998. He did his undergraduate work at Harvard (AB, Chemistry & Physics, 1987), worked at the biotechnology company Imclone Systems (1987-1988), then attained a PhD in Biology from MIT (1993), and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Rockefeller University (1993-1995). Carl has been fortunate to have been on the Forbes Midas list of top venture capital investors multiple times. He has founded and invested in numerous biotechnology companies and served on many public and private company boards. When considering investments, Dr Gordon looks for innovative technology and creative management teams and believes the key to success is a combination of integrity, hard work, and passion.

James Gulley, MD, PhD, FACP, is an internationally recognized expert in immunotherapy for cancer. He graduated from Loma Linda University in California with a PhD in microbiology in 1994 and an MD in 1995. As part of this eight-year MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program, he completed a dissertation on tumor immunology. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Emory University in 1998, followed by a Medical Oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Dr Gulley serves within the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) of the National Cancer Institute as Chief of the Genitourinary Malignancies Branch (GMB), the Director of the Medical Oncology Service (CCR), and also Head of the Immunotherapy Section within the GMB. He has been instrumental in the clinical development of a number of therapeutic cancer vaccines. In addition, he was the coordinating PI of an international trial of avelumab that led to regulatory approval and serves as the coordinating PI of the international M7824 bifunctional agent targeting PDL1 and TGF-beta.

Dr Gulley serves on many national and NIH boards and committees. He has been an investigator on more than 120 clinical trials, authored more than 250 scientific papers or chapters, serves on a number of editorial boards and has made hundreds of presentations at national / international meetings.

As deputy director of MUSC Hollings Cancer Center, William Hawkins, MD, focuses on strengthening translational research and increasing clinical trials across South Carolina. With a longstanding commitment to leadership, patient care, education and research, Hawkins has expertise in investigating pancreatic cancer. He is also a professor in the Department of Surgery at MUSC and in the Division of Surgical Oncology.

Priti Hegde, PhD, joined Foundation Medicine as the Chief Scientific Officer in August 2019. Dr Hegde oversees clinical product development, cancer genomics, and early-stage research, as well as regulatory and quality assurance, to accelerate advancement of the Company’s leading comprehensive genomic profiling portfolio. She is passionate about innovation in cancer research and translating innovations to precision medicine tools to advance care for patients.

Dr Hegde has spent nearly two decades in the biopharmaceutical industry, with a proven track record in drug development, registration, and commercialization of therapeutics with companion diagnostics in cancer immunotherapy.

Prior to joining Foundation Medicine, Dr Hegde spent 12 years at Genentech, a member of Roche Group, where she held roles of increasing responsibility. Most recently, Dr Hegde served as senior director and principal scientist in oncology biomarker development at Genentech, during which she established and led the biomarker group accountable for translational science strategies in cancer immunotherapy. Dr Hegde was instrumental in the approvals for atezolizumab in both the United States and European Union, as well as its forthcoming diagnostic filings.

Before joining Genentech, Dr Hegde was the manager of disease and biomarker transcriptomics at GlaxoSmithKline. Dr Hegde completed her post-doctoral fellow at The Institute for Genomic Research and holds a PhD in Biochemical Pharmacology from SUNY Buffalo, as well as a B. Pharmacy from Mumbai University, India.

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.

Rachel Humphrey, MD has over 25 years of experience in clinical drug development, particularly in the field of cancer treatments and immunotherapies. Highlights of her career include leading the development of multiple blockbuster cancer therapies: the CTLA-4 inhibiting immunotherapy Yervoy® (ipilimumab) at BMS, the PD-L1 inhibiting immunotherapy Imfinzi® (durvalumab) at AstraZeneca, and the kinase inhibitor cancer drug Nexavar® (sorafenib) at Bayer. After working at these big pharmaceutical companies, Dr Humphrey took her drug development expertise to emerging biotech companies, where she served in the role of Chief Medical Officer at Black Diamond Therapeutics, CytomX Therapeutics and Mirati Therapeutics, respectively. She previously served on the Board of Directors of CytomX Therapeutics and Xilio Therapeutics, respectively, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Pyxis Therapeutics and Sporos Bioventures. Dr Humphrey started her career as an oncology fellow and staff physician at the National Cancer Institute. She received her training in internal medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, her MD from Case Western Reserve Medical School, and her BA from Harvard University.

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Petr Jordan, PhD is the CTO and a founding member of Onc.AI, leading technology development, scientific collaborations, and intellectual property strategy. Dr Jordan has deep expertise in medical imaging, machine learning, oncology, and medical physics. Previously, he was a Senior Staff Data Scientist at Varian Medical Systems, focusing on machine learning for radiation therapy, including treatment planning and image guidance. Before that, he was the Imaging Research Manager at Accuray, developing algorithms for CyberKnife and TomoTherapy systems. Dr Jordan holds a PhD in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from the Harvard-MIT HST program, an MS from Harvard University, and a BS in Computer Engineering from Lipscomb University. He also completed medical school coursework and clinical training at Harvard Medical School. He is an inventor on 34 granted and 2 pending US patents.

Michael Kalos, PhD, is an internationally recognized expert in T cell therapy and immunotherapy, and brings over 25 years of experience and expertise in cell therapy, oncology vaccines, and immuno-oncology.

Most recently Dr Kalos served as Executive Vice President and Head of R&D at ArsenalBio, a synthetic biology-based cell therapy start-up. At ArsenalBio Michael played a key role to develop the corporate R&D strategy, and had direct remit to establish the product development organization and the strategy for the company’s first product. Prior to ArsenalBio Dr Kalos served as Vice President of Immuno-oncology and Oncology Cell Therapies at Janssen, the pharmaceutical companies of Johnson and Johnson, where he led corporate internal and external strategy and efforts in cell therapy, neoantigen vaccines, and immuno-oncology. Prior to Janssen, Dr Kalos served as Chief Scientific Officer of immuno-oncology at Eli Lilly and Company, where he established and led internal and external corporate strategy in immuno-oncology, including biologics, bi-specifics, vaccines, and cell therapy. Prior to joining the biopharmaceutical sector, Dr Kalos spent 10 years in academia, where he focused on the development of integrated translational biomarker programs to support the development of cell therapy and immunotherapy programs. The laboratory he founded and directed at the University of Pennsylvania played a key role in the success of the cell therapy program at Penn, including clinical development of the CTL019 program that was licensed to Novartis and led to the approval of Kymriah.

Dr Kalos obtained his PhD from the University of Minnesota, and completed post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Phil Greenberg at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Dr Kalos has co-authored over 85 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including multiple highly cited articles in high-impact journals 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 26 issued patents in the field of cell therapy, immunotherapy, and vaccines. He actively serves and has served as an advisory member for biopharmaceutical companies, as well as international immunotherapy consortia and societies.

Varun Kapoor, PhD, is the Senior Director of Translational Medicine at Coherus Biosciences. He brings in more than 10 years of research and development experience in immuno-oncology therapies to help establish and advance translational and biomarker strategies. He completed his post-doctoral training in the cancer-immunology department at Genentech Inc. and earned his doctoral degree in immunology-virology from University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester. He believes that translational research holds the key to success of future immuno-oncology trials. He is passionate about his work as it gives him an opportunity to see drug discovery translate into clinical benefit for patients.

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.

Delfi Krishna, PhD joined Immatics in Jan 2021 and is responsible for Strategic Operations.

Dr Krishna has 10 years of biologics and 10 years of cell and gene therapy experience. During her PhD, she designed efficient and targeted retroviral and lentiviral vectors for gene delivery in human cells. After she completed her post doctorate, she worked at GlaxoSmithKline in biologics development. She led large matrix teams to deliver process, product strategy and regulatory submissions for several monoclonal antibodies, domain antibodies and antibody drug conjugates. She also executed strategies to reduce cost and increase speed and agility in all phases of biologics development from pre-clinical, through clinical proof of concept, launch and post launch. During her role in the cell and gene therapy organization she worked on both ex vivo autologous cell therapies across rare diseases and oncology and on in vivo AAV delivered gene therapies. She worked with the executive leadership team to build a 250 people organization, design 3-5-year business strategy and mentor talent.

Michael Ku, PharmD is Vice President of Global Clinical Supply (GCS) within the Medicinal Sciences organization of Pfizer’s Worldwide Research, Development and Medical. Dr Ku has over 25 years of biopharmaceutical experience and currently provides strategic leadership for clinical supply chain functions in support of Pfizer’s clinical trials in over 70 countries. His intellectual curiosity and focus on technology and innovation drive his passion to lead the global clinical supply chain to deliver breakthroughs to patients, especially with the COVID-19 vaccine program.

Prior to joining Pfizer, Dr Ku was the Global Head and Vice President of Clinical Pharmacy Research Services (CPRS) at Genzyme Corporation. He also held several roles of increasing responsibility at Astra Pharmaceuticals (currently AstraZeneca) and Novopharm Limited (currently Teva Canada Limited) in the areas of Clinical Research, Pharmacovigilance, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance.

Having a deep appreciation for talent development and motivated by helping Pfizer colleagues thrive, Dr Ku shares his leadership skills with a focus on diversity and inclusion by serving as the Executive Leader of the Global Asian Alliance Enterprise Colleague Resource Group (GAA ECRG).

Inspired by helping to unleash the potential for pharmacists globally at Pfizer, Dr Ku also serves as an Executive Sponsor for the Pfizer Pharmacy Association (PPA) and founded the Pfizer/MCPHS Biopharmaceutical Fellowship Program as its Program Director and Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice at MCPHS University.

Dr Ku currently serves as an Advisor to the Board of Directors of Excir Corporation (www.excir.com) and the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers (www.ispe.org). He chairs the Clinical Supply Leadership Forum (CSLF) and is a founding member of the Innovation Outreach Program (IOP). In 2018, he received the prestigious Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Award.

Dr Ku’s educational background includes a Doctor of Pharmacy and Bachelor’s Degree in Pharmacy from MCPHS University as well as a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Anna Maria College. He also holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Toxicology from the University of Toronto and is a graduate of the General Management Program from Harvard Business School.

Olga Kubassova, PhD is the founder and president of Image Analysis Group. With a strong foundation in mathematics, Dr Kubassova and IAG’s team are passionately committed to accelerating drug development and improving chances of clinical trials to succeed. Her expertise is reflected in a proven track record of driving operational excellence and fostering innovation across complex global clinical trials and business ecosystems. She is an internationally recognized scientist and speaker, focusing her efforts on helping biotech and pharma companies in leveraging the power of data, AI, and digital technologies to refine clinical trial design, execution, and data analysis. Her expertise and publications encompass many therapeutic areas, including oncology, immunology, gastroenterology, and neurosciences. Her current focus is on building impactful collaborations that will shape the future of clinical development and offer innovative solutions to longstanding challenges.

John Kurland, PhD, is a Global Product Leader for Immuno-Oncology with a focus on Gastrointestinal and Head and Neck Cancers. In this position, he has been accountable for leading IO development teams driving strategy, trial execution, and commercial launch preparation for durvalumab, tremelimumab, and other IO agents, and he has overseen the successful registration of immunotherapy regimens for hepatocellular carcinoma and biliary tract cancers.  Dr. Kurland brings some 14 years of IO development experience, having held prior IO-focused roles in commercial strategy and translational medicine at AstraZeneca and as a clinical biomarker lead working on pharmacodynamics and diagnostic strategies for ipilimumab and nivolumab at BMS.

Dr. Kurland earned a BS in Biochemistry at The Pennsylvania State University and a PhD in Cancer Biology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He completed his postdoctoral studies at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory where he was a Lymphoma Research Foundation Fellow.

TBD

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.

Andy Lee is Senior Vice President and Head, Global Clinical Trial Operations (GCTO). In this role, Mr Lee leads and manages GCTO, with particular focus on global, in-patient clinical trials, designed and executed to meet cost, speed and quality standards. Mr Lee is also responsible for the design and study/data management of clinical protocols in all regions and countries, as well as the tools, systems and processes to conduct Merck clinical trials.

Mr Lee joined Merck in September 2014 from Sanofi, where he served as Senior Vice President and Deputy Head of Clinical Sciences and Operations (CSO) and Head of the CSO Clinical Operations Cluster. In addition to directing the CSO, Mr Lee led the integration of Sanofi with Genzyme, where he was Senior Vice President, Global Clinical Operations. Earlier in his career, he spent more than 16 years in a range of positions of increasing responsibility at Pfizer.

Mr Lee holds leadership positions in a number of professional societies, including the role of Treasurer of TransCelerate Biopharma, Inc, a non-profit organization that comprises the world’s leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies. He also serves as a member of the TransCelerate Operating Committee. Mr Lee received his Masters in Bioenergetics and Physiology from Ball State University in Indiana and two undergraduate degrees from Rhodes University in South Africa.

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 Caroline Loew's biopharmaceutical career spans more than 25 years of drug development and commercialization experience. She most recently served as president and CEO at Glympse Bio, a biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Mass. Prior to Glympse Bio, Dr Loew was vice president and head of R&D Strategy and Planning at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). At BMS, she led portfolio strategy and operations in a broad role that included delivering strong competitive positioning for the Immuno-Oncology, Immunoscience, Fibrosis and Cardiovascular portfolios, as well as a fit-for-purpose operating model. Dr Loew joined BMS following leadership roles at Merck and PhRMA, where she led market access, commercial portfolio management, and regulatory policy.

Dr Loew earned her PhD in Organic Chemistry and BSc in Chemistry from Imperial College London.

Crystal L Mackall MD is the Ernest and Amelia Gallo Family Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Stanford University, the Founding Director of the Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Associate Director of the Stanford Cancer Institute, Leader of the Cancer Immunotherapy Program and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy @ Stanford. During a 27-year tenure at NCI culminating as Chief of the Pediatric Oncology Branch and Head of the Immunology Section and since 2016 at Stanford, she has led an internationally recognized translational research program focused on immune-oncology. Her work has advanced understanding of fundamental immunology and translated this understanding for the treatment of human disease with a major focus on children’s cancers. She has led numerous first-in-human and first-in-child clinical trials spanning dendritic cell vaccines, cytokines, and adoptive immunotherapy using NK cells and genetically modified T cells. Her work is credited with identifying an essential role for the thymus in human T cell regeneration (NEJM 1995) and discovering IL-7 as the master regulator of T cell homeostasis (Blood 2001, J Exp Med 2008). Her group was among the first to demonstrate impressive activity of CD19-CAR in pediatric leukemia (Lancet 2015), developed a CD22-CAR that is the only active salvage therapy for CAR19 resistant B cell malignancies (Nat Med 2018, J Clin Onc 2020, Blood 2021), demonstrated preclinical activity of GD2 targeting CARs for pediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (Nat Med 2018), demonstrated superiority of regional CNS delivery of CAR T cells for brain tumors (Nat Med 2020) and demonstrated impressive clinical activity of GD2-CAR T cells in this disease (NCT04196413), which is among the first to demonstrate significant and consistent activity of CAR T cells in solid cancers (Nature 2022). Her group identified T cell exhaustion as a major feature CAR T cell potency (Nat Med 2015), created the first exhaustion-resistance (Nature 2019) and exhaustion-reversal platforms (Science 2021), developed a best-in-class regulatable “remote-controlled” CAR T cell platform (Cell, 2022) and discovered a role for mediator kinase in regulating T cell differentiation (Science 2022). She has received numerous awards, including election to the National Academy of Medicine, American Society of Clinical Investigation and American Academy of Physicians, and she is afellow of the AACR Academy. She received Smalley Award for outstanding contributions to cancer immunotherapy from the Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer, the AACR-St.Baldrick’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Pediatric Cancer Research, and the Nobility in Science Award from the Sarcoma Foundation of America. She has published over 250 manuscripts, her h-index in November 2022 according to google scholar is 96 and founded 3 biotech companies. Crystal is Board Certified in Pediatrics, Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and Internal Medicine.

B. Dusty Majumdar, PhD is a seasoned leader in Precision Healthcare with more than 20 years of experience in building and successfully launching innovative technologies across oncology, multi-omics, Real-World Evidence (RWE). diagnostic imaging and liquid biopsy platforms leveraging some of the industry’s most advanced AI platforms, genomic and clinical simulations (digital twins), and emerging medical imaging technologies. Dr Majumdar’s experience includes leading strategy and marketing as the Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at IBM and multiple commercial and technical leadership roles at GE Healthcare, Exact Sciences and 3M. He has also led the commercial and strategic functions in a range of start-ups in the healthcare/biopharma space over the last few years. Dr Majumdar is a widely respected global leader in the healthcare industry and holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. He has authored several peer-reviewed scientific publications and holds multiple patents.

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.

Julie Martin, MSc, Lean Certified - CEO & Co-Owner is a 17-year industry veteran who has led Scimega as CEO for 5 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, Ms Martin'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. Ms Martin 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.

Anne-Marie (Annie) Martin, PhD is a Senior Vice President of Precision Medicine R&D at

GSK. She leads a global team responsible for the precision medicine strategy to

deliver all clinical pharmacology, clinical biomarkers and diagnostic development into

pipeline opportunities. In close collaboration across R&D, Dr Martin plays a vital role in

utilizing a precision medicine approach to expedite the development of innovative

therapeutics for treating numerous diseases.

Dr Martin has more than 20 years of experience in the health care and biopharmaceutical

sectors leading the development, implementation and execution of precision medicine

strategies. This has culminated in the approval of more than 15 precision medicines

across multiple diseases and indications, including inflammatory disease, cancer and

neurology. She currently serves on the Cullinan Therapeutics Board, and the FNIH

PACT initiative. Dr Martin has published more than 50 publications in peer-reviewed

journals. She holds a PhD in immunology and molecular biology.

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.

After earning his Bachelor’s Degree from Menlo College, John received 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 conducted post-doctoral work for a year 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. After reviewing the immunoncology space for two years at MedImmune and developing such diverse projects as innate and T cell agonists, CART and other cell therapy projects as well as novel immunostimulatory antibody drug conjugates, John has most recently founded Deka Biosciences. Deka is the next generation cytokine development company created to solve the challenges associated with harnessing the massive potential of cytokine therapy. With the challenges in developing T cell agonists 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.

TBA

Arvind Natarajan, PhD, MBA, is Senior Vice President of Process and Analytical Development at Iovance, where he has worked on development and commercialization of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) therapy, lifileucel, for melanoma and other solid tumor indications. He has 25 years of CMC experience in cell and gene therapies, biologics, and vaccines.

Prior to joining Iovance, Dr Natarajan was Global Head of Program Management and Strategy, Cell & Gene Technical Development and Manufacturing at Novartis. Prior to that, he was the Global CMC Lead for Kymriah, the first FDA-approved CAR-T therapy.

Prior to Novartis, Dr Natarajan worked at Merck and Co for 15 years. While at Merck, he worked in biologics on tech transfer and approval of Keytruda, and in vaccines, supporting development, approval, and commercial manufacturing of Zostavax, ProQuad, and Varivax.

Dr Natarajan earned an MBA from Wharton, a PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Minnesota, a Masters in Microbial Engineering from University of Minnesota, and a Masters in Biology and BE in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani in India.

Elliot Norry, MD, FACP has served as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) since January 2020 after having served as acting CMO since August 2019 and has 15 years of experience within the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Previously, Dr Norry was Vice President and Head of Clinical Safety and Pharmacovigilance at Adaptimmune, and also led Adaptimmune’s alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) T cell receptor (TCR) clinical development program.

He formerly served as Safety Development Leader and was Chair of the Hepatic Safety Panel at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Dr Norry joined GSK in 2009, and served in positions of increasing responsibility, including clinical safety for a broad range of early and late stage products, and approval activities for pazopanib for the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma. He was also responsible for hepatic safety strategy and policy across all GSK products.

Prior to his work in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, Dr Norry practiced adult internal medicine in the Philadelphia area for 13 years. He holds a BA from Columbia College and an MD from New York University. He performed his residency in internal medicine at Temple University Hospital and completed his fellowship in gastroenterology/hepatology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

Tatiana Novobrantseva, PhD is the Chief Scientific Officer at NextPoint Therapeutics. Most recently she served as the CSO of Immuno-oncology at Moderna. In the prior role, she co-founded Verseau Therapeutics and served as CSO, guiding programs from target identification to an advanced novel therapeutics pipeline. Dr Novobrantseva also consulted on drug development program for various companies throughout the years. At Jounce, she directed programs on immune system reactivation against cancer. Dr Novobrantseva held roles at Alnylam and Biogen, uncovering the critical role of B cells in fibrosis, advancing siRNA delivery, and leading a dendritic cell cancer vaccine initiative.

She earned her PhD in B cell immunology from the University of Cologne in Germany in the Laboratory of Klaus Rajewsky. She holds a Diploma in Engineering in Physics and a Master’s degree in Molecular Biology from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

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.

Rosanna Ricafort, MD, is VP and Head, Hematology and Cellular Therapy Development at Bristol Myers Squibb. She is a core member of the BMS Hematology and Cell Therapy Leadership Team, driving the implementation of globally aligned strategies to bring transformational CAR T therapies to patients. She heads the clinical development teams for Breyanzi and Abecma.  In this role, she led the clinical teams in prosecuting successful BLAs for BREYANZI® (lisocabtagene maraleucel) in lymphoma and ABECMA® (idecabtagene vicleucel) in multiple myeloma. Dr Ricafort has been with BMS since 2015 and has held increasing leadership positions in Immuno-Oncology Research and Development.  She was responsible for multiple development programs across solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.  Notably, she led the clinical due diligence of BMS’s acquisition of Celgene, among the largest acquisitions in the healthcare industry to date. 

Prior to joining BMS, Dr Ricafort started her industry career at Celgene, where she supported the multiple myeloma franchise. 

Dr Ricafort is a pediatric hematologist/oncologist and stem cell transplant physician. She established and directed the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program at Montefiore Medical Center, NY, where she held a faculty appointment for over 10 years. She earned her Medical Doctorate at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed her fellowship training in Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.  She was a research fellow in MSKCC-Sloan Kettering Institute’s Department of Human Genetics and Immunology working on gene transfer and adoptive cellular therapy strategies in the Sadelain lab.

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.

Ruben Rodriguez, PhD is an accomplished pharmaceutical research and development leader who brings a wealth of experience in oncology and cell therapy. He has served as the Global Head of Research at InstilBio where he oversaw tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes research efforts and helped drive regulatory milestones. He started his career at Kite Pharma where he developed multiple novel CAR-T constructs and led key collaborations.

Dr Rodriguez earned his PhD in Neurobiology and Molecular Biology at the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona and later conducted his postdoctoral studies at Salk Institute for Biological Studies, advancing the fields of neurobiology and stem cell biology respectively. Contact info to date:

W. Gregory Sawyer is Chief BioEngineering Officer and Chair of the Department of BioEngineering at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa Florida. Prof. Sawyer has published over 200 journal papers, has over 16,000 citations, holds over 20 patents, and is most proud of his numerous PhD students that are now faculty members and scientists across the globe. He was a member of the original Mars Rover Program (NASA-JPL), a speaker at TED 8, lead the first space-tribology experiments on the International Space Station (ISS), developed novel biomaterials for the ocular surface, and is currently leading efforts in Cancer Engineering.

Andrew Scharenberg, MD is the founder and CEO of Umoja Biopharma, an MPM portfolio company. He also serves as an Executive Partner at MPM Capital, and Chairs the Scientific Advisory Boards at Generation Bio, Genti Bio, and Alpine Immune Sciences.

Prior to founding Umoja, Dr Scharenberg co-directed the Program in Cell and Gene Therapy at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, working to translate cell and gene therapies for the treatment of inherited immunologic and blood diseases. This work led to the development of a program in engineered regulatory T-cells, partnered with Casebia Therapeutics for the purpose of developing a gene edited cell therapeutic for Type I diabetes and other inflammatory diseases. Previously, he was the Chief Scientific Officer of Cellectis Therapeutics, where he initiated the development of an allogeneic CAR T-cell platform, and co-founder of Pregenen Inc., a gene editing and cell-signalling technology company that was acquired by bluebird bio in 2014.

Dr Scharenberg earned his M.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and then completed residency at the University of North Carolina Children’s Hospital and his fellowship in immunology at NIH and at the Division of Experimental Pathology, Beth Israel Hospital. From 2000 to 2020, he was an attending Physician at Seattle Children’s Hospital, a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Immunology at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. Dr Scharenberg received the American Pediatric Society/Society for Pediatric Research National Young Investigator Award in 2002. He is an active member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Pediatric Society.

Prof. Dr Georg Schett was born in 1969 and studied medicine at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, where he completed his doctoral degree in 1994. He worked as an assistant at the Research Institute for Biomedical Aging Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences until 1996. Afterwards he completed his speciality training for internal medicine at the University of Vienna in 2001, before becoming a specialist physician and then a senior physician in 2004. He completed his habilitation in internal medicine in Vienna in 2003. In 2004, he was a visiting researcher at Amgen in Thousand Oaks, California, USA and qualified as a specialist in rheumatology in the same year. In 2006, he accepted an appointment at the Chair of Internal Medicine at FAU and is also director of the Department of Medicine 3.

Prof. Schett has published more than 760 articles in peer-reviewed journals and, as an expert in his field, he has been invited to more than 660 congresses and conferences. His h-index is 122. He has won a large number of prizes and awards, most recently the Dr. Franciscus Blondel Medal of the city of Aachen for outstanding contributions to the field of rheumatology in 2019. He was previously and is currently involved as principal investigator or speaker in eight third-party funded projects including Collaborative Research Centre 1181 (Checkpoints for Resolution of Inflammation) since 2015, the ERC Synergy Grant (4D+ NanoSCOPE), which started in 2018, and the BMBF funding project ‘MASCARA’ (Molecular Assessment of Signatures Characterizing the Remission of Arthritis), which began in 2020.

Prof. Schett’s scientific expertise is in demand all over the world. In 2009, he was a visiting professor at UCSD (San Diego, CA, USA), in 2012 at the University of Xian and University of Guangzhou (China), in 2014 at the Hospital of Special Surgery (NYC, USA) and at NYU (NYC, USA) in 2018. He is a member of the DFG review board, a reviewer for several academic societies and journals and has collaborated on organising a large number of international congresses. Since his appointment at FAU, he has maintained close links with an ever growing number of national and international collaborations on joint projects with institutions such as the VIB in Ghent, Belgium, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden and the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology in Oxford, UK.

Emmett Schmidt, MD, PhD, received his undergraduate degree in Biology from Harvard College in 1974 and a simultaneous MA in Biology. He received MD and PhD degrees having attended medical school and graduate school at the Duke University School of Medicine from 1975 to 1981. He completed internship, residency and fellowship in Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases at Boston Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.   

Dr Schmidt was at the Massachusetts General Hospital of the Harvard Medical School from 1998 until 2010. Starting as a founding member of the MGH Cancer Center, Dr Schmidt became a full professor in 2004 and served as the Associate Chief of the Department of Pediatrics from 2002 until 2010. Highlights of his research career include: the experimental demonstration that cyclin D1 can function as a driver oncogene in breast cancer; studies of the mechanisms by which cell growth drives cell division; initial demonstrations that c-Myc has a primary function in regulating cell growth; and development of a range of transgenic models of cancers (lymphoma, gastric, HCC, and breast). Clinical highlights of his time at MGH included running a small pediatric HIV unit, co-founding the Pediatric Hospitalist Group and directing the Pediatric Residency from 1996 until 2010. Along the way he was the PI or co-PI for the following: six RO1s, one UO1, and two SPORE projects from the NIH; an ACS RIG; a MacDonnell Scholar grant; as well as grants from the Brain Tumor Society, the Hood Foundation, Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals, and the Pfeiffer Research Foundation. He was elected a member of the two academic Pediatric leadership societies including the Society for Pediatric Research in 1997 and the American Pediatric Society in 2000.

Dr Schmidt joined Merck in 2011.  Initially recruited to Experimental Medicine, his early assignments included the First-in-Human study of MK-8353 (ERK inhibitor), and evaluation of a clinically-derived biomarker for MK-0646 (anti-IGFR) in colorectal cancer. Subsequent studies as part of the Oncology group included a broad portfolio of studies of MK-2206 (AKT inhibitor) encompassing four internal studies, 31 National Cancer Institute-sponsored studies and the I-SPY2 breast cancer collaboration.  Subsequent assignments included clinical lead roles for the vintafolide program, and for the First-in-Human study of MK-4166, an inhibitor of the glucocorticoid-induced TNFR family related gene (GITR). In 2013 Dr Schmidt joined the pembrolizumab team taking on key responsibilities for developing phase 3 registration studies in adjuvant melanoma (053 and 054) as well as the first-line head and neck trial (048). Dr Schmidt has supported successful filing activities for pembrolizumab both within and outside of the United States. As part of the pembrolizumab melanoma team Dr Schmidt was the clinical lead for Keynotes 002, 027, 053, and 054. He has been part of the filing teams for 001, 002, and 006, as well as representing the Melanoma clinical team for global filing activities.

He currently leads the External Collaborations PDT whose studies include over 120 partnered studies of clinical combinations of pembrolizumab and a broad portfolio of other cancer drugs.   

Dr Schmidt was promoted to Vice President Clinical Oncology, External Collaborations in 2022.

With over two decades’ experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, Birgit Schultes, PhD brings deep immunology and cell therapy expertise to Intellia. She manages a multidisciplinary team focused on ex vivo applications of CRISPR/Cas9 to generate novel cell therapies for oncology and autoimmune indications. Prior to joining Intellia, Dr Schultes served as senior director, In Vivo and Exploratory Immunology, at Unum Therapeutics (now Cogent Biosciences, Inc.), where she was responsible for its In Vivo team and leading its exploratory immunology efforts. Earlier in her career, Dr Schultes held a variety of translational research roles in biology and immunology at Momenta Pharmaceuticals, United Therapeutics and AltaRex Corp. Additionally, Dr Schultes co-founded and served as scientific advisor at Advanced Immune Therapeutics, a company working to develop novel cancer therapeutics.

Dr Schultes received her MS in Biology and PhD in Immunology from the University of Bonn, Germany, and a degree in Advanced Management Development from Boston University.

Joanne Smith-Farrell, PhD is a mission-driven executive whose career has been devoted to leading teams conquering cancer and life-limiting disease.

Dr Smith-Farrell joined Be Bio as chief executive officer in February of 2021, where she leads a committed team of scientists, drug developers, business builders and cell therapy operational specialists, united in one common mission - to fully unleash the power of engineered B cell medicines to provide previously impossible solutions across a wide range of therapeutic areas to patients with many of today’s least tractable diseases.

Prior to joining Be Bio, Dr Smith-Farrell was the chief operating officer and business unit head, oncology at bluebird bio, where she led the growth of bluebird Oncology. Dr Smith-Farrell established and led the team that transformed an early single-candidate effort within a rare disease gene therapy company to a leading oncology cell therapy business encompassing Abecma, a transformative, first-in-class CAR-T medicine for patients with multiple myeloma, a full portfolio of clinical and near-clinical cell therapies, a research engine producing one to two new investigational new drugs per year, and a team of more than 400 employees with full research and development, commercial manufacturing infrastructure and capabilities. Prior to this Dr Smith-Farrell held executive leadership roles as the chief business officer of bluebird bio, vice president of transactions at Merck, vice president of business development at Pfizer, and senior vice president of global business development at Gene Logic.  Before entering industry, Dr Smith-Farrell was a consultant within the healthcare practice at The Boston Consulting Group, a principal investigator at The Vitreous State Laboratories and a staff scientist at The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Dr Smith-Farrell conducted her post-doctoral research in biomedical engineering in Professor Robert Langer’s lab at the Harvard-MIT Division for Health Science and Technology where she received the National Service in Research Award Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. She holds a PhD in physics from The Catholic University of America where she was a Herzfeld Scholar and held the Hubbard Fellowship, and a BS in physics and mathematics from Vanderbilt University.

Alex Snyder, MD, is the Head of Research and Development at Generate Biomedicines, a therapeutics company that exists at the intersection of machine learning, biological engineering and medicine to create breakthrough medicines across a wide range of biologic modalities. 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. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at NYU and Bellevue Hospitals, Section Editor for the Journal for the Immunotherapy of Cancer and 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 a medical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).

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.

Raffi Tonikian, PhD is the Director, Translational Biomarkers at AbCellera and is responsible for outlining the desired characteristics to guide antibody development. Dr Tonikian completed his PhD and postdoc at the University of Toronto’s Center for Cellular and Biological Research in protein and antibody engineering. Dr Tonikian joined AbCellera from Merck where he served as Oncology Medical Affairs Director in Canada. Dr Tonikian brings his broad expertise in autoimmunity and oncology to design and implement translational and biomarker strategies across several programs.

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.

Loïc Vincent, PhD, is Chief Scientific Officer at Affini-T Therapeutics. He is an oncology scientist with 20+ years’ international experience in academia/biotech/pharma industry, dedicated to advancing transformative therapies to patients suffering from cancer. Previously, Dr Vincent was the Head of Takeda Oncology Drug Discovery Unit and Immunology Unit, responsible for building the Immuno-Oncology portfolio with a global network of outstanding biotech and academic collaborators, and for leading Takeda Cell Therapy Discovery. Prior to joining Takeda in 2016, Dr Vincent spent nine years at Sanofi, where he led Oncology Drug Discovery Pharmacology, Immunotherapy and Oncology External Innovation teams. Before that, he was the Head of Pharmacology and Oncology programs at Endotis Pharma. Dr Vincent is a former board member of the French-American Biotechnology Springboard and former Board Director at Adaptate Biotherapeutics. During his career, Dr Vincent’s teams advanced more than 20 oncology drugs in the clinic based on various therapeutic modalities including small molecules, biologics, oncolytic viruses and cell therapies. Dr Vincent is author and co-author of 30+ peer-reviewed publications, and 50+ poster and oral presentations.

Dr Vincent obtained his PhD in pharmacology from the University of Rouen, France, and received the Young Scientist Award from the Bettencourt-Schueller’s Foundation for his work. He carried out his postdoctoral fellowship in oncology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, NY.

Richard Walovitch, PhD is Chief Scientific Officer of Voiant, which he joined as Chief Medical Officer in January 2009. Prior to joining Voiant, he served as the Senior Vice President of clinical research at Acusphere, Inc., Vice President of Preclinical and Clinical Research at Epix Medical, and held various positions as Research Pharmacologist and Project Clinician in the Imaging Agent Group at the DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Addiction Research Center in the Neurochemistry section. Dr Walovitch has a Doctorate in Pharmacology from the University of Illinois Medical Center and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Illinois. He is an author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, mostly in the field of medical imaging.

Sarah White, MPH, MRCT Center Executive Director, is responsible for developing, defining, and implementing the overall strategy and vision for the Center as well as oversee all management aspects of the MRCT Center functions. Ms White has over 20 years of experience in human subjects’ research including experience at both academic medical centers and industry.

Prior to joining the MRCT Center, Ms White was the Director of the Human Research Quality Improvement Program (QI Program) at Partners’ Healthcare in Boston, Massachusetts. In this capacity, she was responsible for strategic planning and oversight of the QI Program activities across the human research communities at Partners Healthcare, including Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In addition, Ms White oversaw FDA Sponsor-Investigator support and the centralized support of clinical trials registration and disclosure. Sarah is the co-chair of the national Clinical Trials Registration Taskforce, a large consortium of academic medical centers, hospitals and universities that identify best practices, develop tools, and serve as a communication forum associated with the requirements for clinical trials registration and results reporting that affect US academic health centers. Sarah received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and her MPH from Boston University School of Public Health.