2024 Speakers

Emily Adney-Holt, PhD, serves as a Technical Sales Specialist at Lunaphore Technologies. Within the Lunaphore commercial team, Dr Adney-Holt collaborates with scientists, delving into the intricacies of their instruments. She provides valuable support to researchers in implementing experiments that harness the full potential of Lunaphore's cutting-edge technology for advancing spatial biology studies.

Drawing on her extensive background as a genome scientist, biophysicist, and molecular biologist, Dr Adney-Holt is deeply committed to propelling scientific understanding in cellular biology to new heights.

Dr Adney-Holt earned her PhD in Human Genetics from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and holds a master's in Molecular Biophysics from Johns Hopkins University. Her academic journey reflects a strong foundation in both genetics and biophysics, contributing to her multifaceted expertise in the field.

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.

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.

Andrew Allen, MD, PhD co-founded Gritstone bio, Inc. and has served as President, CEO and a board member since 2015. In 2009, Dr Allen co-founded Clovis Oncology and served as Chief Medical Officer until 2015, driving development of Rucaparib, a PARP inhibitor. Prior he was Chief Medical Officer at Pharmion Corporation, developing Vidaza, the first approved DNA methylation inhibitor, until acquisition by Celgene in 2008. Dr Allen also served in clinical development leadership roles at Chiron Corporation and Abbott Laboratories, and worked at McKinsey & Company. He currently serves on the board of directors of TCR2 Therapeutics and Sierra Oncology (both public biopharma companies) and Revitope Oncology and Verge Genomics (both private biopharma companies). He previously served on the board of directors of Epizyme (developers of the first approved histone methylation transferase inhibitor) and Cell Design Labs (acquired by Gilead Sciences in 2017). Dr Allen qualified in medicine at Oxford University and received a PhD in immunology from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London.

Jeff Allen, PhD, is President and CEO of Friends of Cancer Research (Friends). Friends is an advocacy organization based in Washington, DC that drives collaboration among partners from every healthcare sector to power advances in science, policy and regulation that speed life-saving treatments to patients. For more than two decades, Friends has been instrumental in the creation and implementation of policies ensuring patients receive the best treatments in the fastest and safest way possible.

For over 10 years, Dr Allen has been a driving force in the growth and success of the organization. Under his leadership, Friends has evolved into a nimble, forward-thinking policy, public affairs and research organization. As President and CEO, he leads the strategic development and implementation of Friends’ scientific, policy, research and legislative initiatives, as well as overseeing Board governance and organizational operations.

As a thought leader on many issues related to the Food and Drug Administration, regulatory strategy and healthcare policy, he is regularly published in prestigious medical journals and policy publications. In addition to participating in major scientific and policy symposiums around the country each year, Dr Allen has had the honor to be called to testify before Congress on multiple occasions and regularly contributes his expertise to the legislative process. Recent Friends initiatives include the establishment of the Breakthrough Therapies designation and the development of the Lung Cancer Master Protocol (Lung-MAP), a unique partnership that will accelerate and optimize clinical trial conduct for new drugs.

Dr Allen has the privilege to also serve on a variety of influential committees, boards and advisory councils including the Alliance for a Stronger FDA (Board Member, Past President), the Medical Evidence Development Consortium (MED-C; Board Chair), Lung-MAP Senior Leadership Team Member and a participant on working groups convened by the National Academies of Medicine and President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

Prior to joining Friends, Dr Allen was an endocrinology researcher at the National Institutes of Health. His background in cancer research focused upon molecular changes associated with cancer formation as well as treatments to prevent cancer progression. Dr Allen received his PhD in cell and molecular biology from Georgetown University and holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology from Bowling Green State University.

Khalil Barrage is a Managing Director at Invus, based in New York. He joined Invus in 2003 and established its Public Equity activity. In addition to managing the Public Equity team, Mr Barrage also co-manages the Private/Public Biotech activity. Since its inception, Invus Public Equity has concentrated its investments in the emerging innovative biotech companies. Prior to joining Invus, he worked at The Olayan Group in New York and ran their US equity portfolio for 15 years.

Andrew Baum, MD, joined Citi in September 2011, as the Global Head of Healthcare Research. He benefits from a deep strategic insight of the global healthcare value chain, as well as broad network of contacts throughout the industry. In 2004, Dr Baum was one of the earliest commentators to highlight to investors the deep structural deficiencies of the historic operating structure and the need to evolve towards a radically different model.

Dr Baum is widely sought after to share his insights with the most senior levels of management within the healthcare industry. He regularly lectures for a number of prestigious organisations including The Institute of Comparative Law, The World Vaccine Congress as well as occasional presentations to some of the leading management consultancies.

Before joining the firm, Dr Baum was at Morgan Stanley 14-years, where he was the top ranked European Pharmaceutical Analyst in the Extel Poll for six years. Dr Baum and his team consistently ranked in the top three teams in external EU and Global investor polls (Institutional Investor, Greenwich and Reuters). Before this, Dr Baum was a UK pharmaceutical and biotechnology analyst at Salomon Brothers. From 1994 to 1996, he was a practicing physician at the Royal National Orthopaedic Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford (the medical centre of Oxford University) where he completed his residency. Dr Baum is a member of the American Heart Association, American Society of Oncology and the DIA. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. Dr Baum holds an MA in Physiological Sciences and an MD from Oxford University.

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.

Tehila Ben Moshe, PhD, has been the Co-Founder and CEO of Biond Biologics since its establishment. She possesses over ten years of experience in scientific research and entrepreneurial leadership within the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, underpinned by a strong track record of leadership and business expertise. Before starting Biond, Dr Ben Moshe successfully steered cCAM Biotherapeutics as CEO, guiding the immuno-oncology firm from its inception through to drug discovery, development, and early-stage clinical trials, culminating in its acquisition by Merck (MSD) in 2015. Dr Ben Moshe was instrumental in orchestrating the licensing deal for Biond’s leading asset, BND-22, an anti-ILT2 antibody to Sanofi. She earned her PhD in Biochemistry from the Weizmann Institute, focusing her research on immune signaling pathways in health and disease contexts.

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.

Jeffrey Bockman, PhD, leads the Oncology and Virology Practices at Lumanity. Dr Bockman has extensive commercial and strategic perspective on the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. He has directed hundreds of in-depth licensing opportunities 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, Dr Bockman 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.

Dr Bockman 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).

Dr Bockman is a mentor for the NCI Innovation Conference, a judge for the Citeline Awards, an advisor to the JPM Biotech Showcase and 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”).

Dr Bockman 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).

Dirk G. Brockstedt, PhD, is the Chief Scientific Officer at RAPT Therapeutics and has more than 25 years of experience in the fields of immunology and oncology originating with his PhD from the University of Kiel and Stanford University. Dr Brockstedt joined RAPT Therapeutics in 2018, bringing a wealth of experience in immunology at all stages of discovery, translational and clinical development. He joined RAPT from Aduro Biotech, where he served as Executive Vice President of Research and Development. Prior to Aduro, Dr Brockstedt held positions of increasing responsibility within the immunology department of Cerus Corporation and at Aventis in the immunotherapy and anti-angiogenesis groups. Dr Brockstedt co-authored over 50 scientific papers and is a named inventor on several issued patents and pending applications.

Dr Christine Brown is an internationally recognized leader in CAR T cell therapy and its application to brain tumors. For glioblastoma, her research led to the first successful CAR T cell-mediated complete clinical response against a solid tumor. Her efforts to develop glioblastoma-targeted CAR T cells, improve T cell manufacturing and optimize routes of T cell delivery have led to the initiation of several first-in-human clinical trials, including clinical testing of IL13Rα2-, HER2- and CLTX-directed CAR T cells for glioblastoma. This clinical experience is revealing important insights into the optimization of CAR T cells for the treatment of brain tumors. Dr Brown’s ongoing research efforts also aim to develop strategies to limit tumor antigen escape and to overcome the suppressive tumor microenvironment, critical challenges limiting the effectiveness of CAR T cell therapy in solid tumors. As Deputy Director of the T Cell Therapeutics Research Laboratories (TCTRL), Dr Brown provides scientific oversight for TCTRL translational programs, which are dedicated to accelerating the clinical testing of CAR T cell therapy. Over the past decade, she has led and built multi-disciplinary teams for CAR T cell GMP manufacturing, quality control release, patient correlative studies and regulatory protocol management.

David Burkhart, PhD, is the Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Inimmune Corp and is also the Associate Director of the Center for Translational Medicine at the University of Montana. Both entities are leading immunotherapy discovery and development groups bringing new treatments into human clinical trials.

Dr Burkhart was an Investigator with GlaxoSmithKline for 8 years in the Immunotherapeutics and Vaccines R&D teams. Prior to his work with GSK, Dr Burkhart was a Senior Scientist with the CDMO Hollister-Stier labs in Spokane, Washington for two years where he gained invaluable experience in cGMP manufacturing. He has over 17 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries with experience in project management, leadership, business development and licensing with over 20 years experience in medicinal and analytical chemistry, formulation and drug delivery. He has numerous papers and patents published in the drug delivery R&D field. Dr Burkhart earned his PhD in organic chemistry in 2002 from the University of Idaho and conducted targeted drug delivery research in oncology as a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder until 2005.

Margaret Callahan, MD, PhD, is a board-certified medical oncologist at the University of Connecticut. Previously, she was the Immunotherapeutics Program Research Director at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, specializing in the use of immunotherapies to treat melanoma and other cancers. She worked in the Immunotherapeutics Clinical Core, which is a specialized center for Phase 1 studies of new immunotherapy agents, and also worked on the Melanoma and Sarcoma Service. Dr Callahan’s research is focused on the development of new ways to use the immune system to treat cancer. Her current research aims to better understand how immunotherapy can be used to help patients with cancer and to expand this promising treatment modality into new areas.

Dr Carlin holds a Bachelors in Pharmacology and PhD in Molecular Radiopharmacology from the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Prior to taking over the role of Principal Scientist at Invicro, he held faculty positions at Weill-Cornell Medical Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and The University of Pennsylvania. With over 25 years of pre-clinical and translational radiopharmaceutical research experience, Dr Carlin has more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, and has served as principal investigator and co-principal investigator on multiple US federal grants and sponsored projects. An expert in radiation biology, he has a particular emphasis on the design and evaluation of radioligands, and in advanced preclinical nuclear imaging techniques. He is also established in the use and clinical translation of radioisotopes as oncologic therapies, incorporating the use of beta-, alpha- and Auger-emitting radionuclides. Dr Carlin has a long-standing research interest in the combination of tissue-based histologic techniques for evaluation of quantitative target expression and heterogeneity in combination with radiopharmaceutical distribution at the cellular level. The combination of these techniques can be employed to bridge the gap in resolution between the ex vivo and non-invasive imaging modalities.

Dr. Carmen is the Vice President of Business Development for Kincell Bio, a contract development and manufacturer (CDMO) focused on cell therapies. She has over 20 years of experience in the cell and gene therapy industry. Previously, she was Executive Vice President of Science & Technology at Adjuvant Partners; supporting companies in the cell and gene therapy space with their strategy, partnering, and business development needs. In a consulting capacity, she has supported the business development team at Oxford Biomedica, a manufacturer of clinical and commercial viral vectors. She has a broad technical knowledge base in cell and gene therapies with deep understanding of manufacturing of these innovative medicines and unique insights into the commercialization of tools and services to support the manufacture of these therapies. In her prior roles she has been responsible for out-licensing a non-viral enabling technology for cellular engineering at MaxCyte. She also has been responsible for establishing partnerships with developers of cell-based medicines in order to expand the cell therapy contract manufacturing business at Lonza. Dr. Carmen has been instrumental in the establishment of the Standards Coordinating Body for Regenerative Medicines and is currently serving as Vice President of the Board of Directors. She has been a member of the Science and Technology Committee of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine and has served on the Commercialization Committee for the International Society of Cellular Therapy. Dr. Carmen earned a Doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida.

Moitreyee Chatterjee-Kishore, PhD, MBA, has more than 20 years of biopharmaceutical experience spanning leadership and drug development. She currently serves as Head of Development, Immuno-Oncology and Cancer Cell Therapy at Astellas, with responsibility for driving the end-to-end development of Astellas’ most promising immuno-oncology and cancer cell therapy programs. 

Before joining Astellas, Dr Chatterjee-Kishore was Head of Research and Early Development R&D Strategy and Planning at Bristol Myers Squibb and held several senior development and early pipeline leadership roles at Janssen, AbbVie and Wyeth. Prior to this, she served as a research scientist at research institutions including the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio, and Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel.

She has led programs from discovery through late phase clinical development across a broad range of modalities, platforms and therapy areas with a strong focus in oncology and immuno-oncology.

Dr Chatterjee-Kishore holds a PhD in Medical Genetics from the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, India, and an MBA from Purdue University Daniels School of Business, Indiana. 

TBA

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.

Rhea Chitalia, PhD, is the Scientific Partnerships Manager at Picture Health, where she leads business development with pharmaceutical and biotech customers. Prior to that, she gained experience in leveraging AI derived imaging biomarkers for guiding drug development decisions as an imaging data scientist at Invicro. Dr Chitalia earned her PhD in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania where she developed imaging biomarkers to characterize intratumor heterogeneity in breast cancer.

Dawn Colburn, PharmD, BCOP, is currently the Vice President of Clinical Development at Bolt Biotherapeutics. Dr Colburn has almost two decades of drug development experience working at companies of various stages including Genentech, Arcus Biosciences and Agenus. Prior to joining industry, Dr Colburn practiced as an oncology clinical pharmacist at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She received her PharmD from the University of California at San Francsico.

With a distinguished 15-year tenure in medical imaging focused on clinical trials, Julianna Collins is a seasoned professional with expertise in providing imaging core lab services for international phase I-IV clinical trials. Her extensive therapeutic area experience spans musculoskeletal, respiratory, ophthalmology, and oncology. Passionate about advancing the field of clinical trial imaging, Ms Collins is dedicated to implementing innovative and cutting-edge solutions. She adeptly leverages her skills in project management and clinical trials to identify and pursue new opportunities, foster strategic partnerships, and propel growth and revenue for Voiant. Ms Collins consistently works with science, medical, operations, and technical teams, ensuring delivery of high-quality imaging services and unmatched customer satisfaction.

Marie Cumberbatch is Head of IO Applications & Projects at TriStar Technology Group, LLC, a biotechnology company specializing in provision of quality biospecimens and integrated research services. Ms Cumberbatch has over 35 years immunology/immuno-oncology experience gained from large pharma. From her previous role as leader of the Molecular Pathology Group in Oncology Translational Science at AstraZeneca, Marie brings extensive experience in the development and validation of oncology & immuno-oncology biomarkers in the context of efficacy, mode of action, patient selection and safety for oncology & immuno-oncology programmes from early target identification through to clinical trials. Ms Cumberbatch has published/presented extensively in peer reviewed scientific journals/conferences.

Livija Deban, PhD, leads the strategic and operational development of Prokarium's immuno-oncology portfolio, focused on bioengineering Living Cures for solid tumors. Before joining Prokarium in 2018, she led the lead selection and immuno-oncology R&D at Oxford BioTherapeutics, focusing on target discovery and the development of immunomodulatory antibodies for cancer treatment. Dr Deban conducted her academic research at Cancer Research UK and holds a PhD in Basic and Applied Immunology.

Mark DeMario MD, MPH, is Vice President, Oncology Clinical Development at BioNTech. Dr DeMario joined BioNTech in 2020 and has led clinical development of programs within the Company’s cell and gene therapy portfolio including BNT221, a novel, personalized neoantigen-specific T cell therapy for melanoma. Prior to BioNTech, he served as Senior Director at Neon Therapeutics where he led phase 1b development of NEO-PV-01, a personalized cancer vaccine for advanced melanoma, NSCLC, and bladder cancers.

Dr DeMario established his translational oncology expertise at Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., with over 15 years development experience in antibody and small molecule therapeutics including epigenetic therapies for hematologic malignancies. At Roche, Mark was also active in the in-licensure of multiple programs, including the ALK inhibitor Alectinib.

Dr DeMario received his MD degree from the University of Pittsburgh. His medical oncology training and academic appointment were at the University of Chicago Medical Center. He is a co-inventor on multiple patents and has co-authored many publications including recently in Cell and Cancer Cell.

Dr Pete DeMuth is a founding scientist at Elicio and currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer, leading the development of technology platforms for cancer immunotherapeutics from early research to clinical development. To this role, he brings over 15 years of experience in oncology, immunology and materials science.

Prior to joining Elicio, Dr DeMuth oversaw efforts to develop novel technologies for immunotherapy and vaccine development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research in affiliation with the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT and Harvard University, where he received recognition from the National Institutes of Health and the American Chemical Society. In 2015, Dr DeMuth received the Quadrant Award from Quadrant AG, a global manufacturer and innovator in polymer materials science, for research he completed while at the Koch Institute at MIT. Dr DeMuth has also been an NIH Fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and a research fellow at Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics. As a Howard Hughes Research Fellow at the University of Maryland, he was awarded the University Medal for his development of advanced technologies for oncology therapeutics.

Serena De Vita, MD, PhD, is the Global Head of Hematology, Translational Clinical Oncology at Novartis BioMedical Research. In this role, she provides strategic guidance for the development of new agents that are in preclinical and early clinical development for benign and malignant hematology indications. Prior to this role, Dr De Vita led a variety of programs in early clinical development for hematology indications across a variety of modalities, including small molecules, CAR-T and bispecific programs for lymphoid malignancies and a gene therapy program for sickle cell disease.

A physician scientist with more than 15 years of experience in hematology across academia and industry, Dr De Vita received her medical degree and training in hematology from the Catholic University of Sacred Hearth (Policlinico Gemelli) in Rome and a PhD in Human Genetics and Hematology from the University of London, before pursuing additional postgraduate training at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Harvard Medical School. She is a co-inventor on several patents and a co-author on 20 original articles spanning basic research on hematopoietic stem cells, biology of myeloid diseases and clinical and translational research across a variety of hematology indications.

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.

Marisa Dolled-Filhart, PhD, is Vice President of Translational Research (Tumor Microenvironment) for the Cancer Immunology & Cell Therapy Thematic Research Center (CICT TRC) at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), where she and her team focus on translational biomarker strategies and execution for Phase 1 and Phase 2 oncology clinical trials.

Dr Dolled-Filhart is an experienced leader in biomarkers and companion diagnostics (CDx), with experience spanning from early development through commercialization. Prior to BMS, she held various roles at Merck including Translational Biomarkers, Companion Diagnostics, Project Management, Global Regulatory Affairs, Global and US Commercial Biomarkers and Diagnostics Strategy, and Oncology Global Medical and Scientific Affairs Biomarkers and Diagnostics positions. She was also the scientific lead for the first FDA-approved CDx for PD-L1 IHC for immuno-oncology.

Prior to Merck, she held several scientific, operational and strategic roles in biotech and in the CRO industry focusing on business development, as well as running the day-to-day operations of a laboratory focused on biomarker assay development, validation and clinical sample analyses. She is a co-author on 95+ publications, chapters and abstracts (incl. NEJM, Lancet). She is active in women’s professional organizations, enjoys mentoring, crochets for various non-profits and is a member of the Yale Graduate School Alumni Association Board.

Dr Dolled-Filhart received a Bachelor’s degree in biology from Cornell University, and a Masters and PhD in Genetics from Yale University in the lab of David Rimm, MD, PhD.

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.

Judd Englert, MD, PhD, is currently an Executive Medical Director for Oncology at Amgen. In this role, he is responsible for the early phase development of multiple assets and serves as the global product team lead for Xaluritamig, an investigational STEAP1-targeted T-cell engager for prostate cancer. Prior to this, Dr Englert was the SVP of Clinical Research and Development at Cyteir Therapeutics where he led the clinical organization and oversaw the development of an MCT-1 inhibitor as well as earlier pipeline programs. Before this, Dr Englert was a Senior Director at UPMC Enterprises, where he led the evaluation and diligence for investment into biotechnology companies across all therapeutic areas. Dr Englert started his industry career at MedImmune in the early phase oncology group leading and developing numerous immunotherapy and ADC programs for solid tumors.

He received his MD and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a fellowship in medical oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital where his post-doctoral studies on glutamine inhibition in cancer led to the formation of a biotech company.

Laura J Esserman, MD, MBA, is Professor of Surgery and Radiology at UCSF, where she is also Director of the multi-disciplinary UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center. She is Co-Leader of the Breast Oncology Program for the Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr Esserman’s breast cancer work spans a spectrum from basic science to public policy issues and the impact of both on the delivery of clinical care. She has published more than 300 articles in peer-reviewed journals. She led efforts to address harms of screening including over-diagnosis, and proposed tools including the development of molecular diagnostics to help reclassify tumors as IDLE or ultra-low risk.

She leads the I-SPY TRIALS, a ground-breaking national public-private collaboration among 20 cancer research centers, pharma and biotech companies, FDA, and NCI, designed to reduce the time and cost for drug development, find the right drug for the right patient earlier in the disease course when cure is possible.

In addition, Dr Esserman led the creation of the University of California-wide, and now national Athena Breast Health Network, a learning system designed to integrate clinical care and research and follow 150,000 women from screening through treatment and outcomes. This spawned the PCORI funded WISDOM study to determine if personalized screening has higher health care value than the standard of annual screening.

Dr Esserman was included as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2016, was the recipient of the 2016 Stanford Business School Ernest C Arbuckle Award and the 2016 Personalized Medicine World Conference Luminary Award.

Marissa Fahlberg, PhD, is a distinguished researcher and current Director of Applications at LASE Innovation in Waltham, MA. With extensive experience in flow cytometry panel design, experimental design and high-parameter data analysis, Dr Fahlberg has significantly advanced the field of single-cell barcoding technology, focusing on high-marker flow cytometry and novel time-lapse studies. In her previous position as the Assistant Director of the Flow Cytometry Core at Tulane National Primate Research Center, Dr Fahlberg has a history of innovative research and operational leadership in complex laboratory settings.

David Feltquate, MD, PhD, is an accomplished drug developer in the immuno-oncology field. Prior to joining Palleon, Dr Feltquate was the Global Head of Hematology Development and Chair of the Precision Medicine Leadership Team at Novartis. Prior to this, he held numerous leadership positions at BMS including Head of Oncology Early Clinical Development and Development Leader for Ipilimumab/Nivolumab LifeCycle Management. As the Nivolumab Clinical Head, Dr Feltquate was responsible for the development of the first PD1 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 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.

Dr Dongxiao Feng got his PhD degree from Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, he had his postdoctoral training at Oxford University, UK and UCSF before he joined Medarex (later acquired by BMS) as a research scientist and team leader in the Department of Animal Biology, in charge of genetic modified animal model development as well as new humanized mouse platform for fully human antibody discovery. He joined Luye Pharma after he left BMS and led his team to develop the first biosimilar product of Prolia (Denosumab) in China, the product was approved in China at early 2023 and is at Phase III clinical trail in the US now.

Dr Feng moved to the business development area at 2013, and helped a few Chinese pharmaceutical companies to in-license and/or out-license some assets in the United States.

Dr Feng joined GenobioTX on 2022 as the CEO of the company, the company is focus on genetic modified animal models as well as related in vivo CRO services.

Jay Fine, PhD, is President, Research & Development at EvolveImmune Therapeutics, a development-stage company located in the New Haven, CT area. EvolveImmune is pioneering a new category of Precision Oncology immunotherapeutics designed to overcome cancer cell resistance to current anti-tumor therapies, with its first clinical trial planned for 2025. Previously, Dr Fine was a Senior Vice President and Global Therapeutic Area Head at Boehringer Ingelheim, as well as the US Discovery Research Site Head at their Ridgefield, CT headquarters. Dr Fine’s teams played seminal roles in the discovery and development of Skyrizi™ and Spevigo™, and delivered over 25 molecules into clinical development. Dr Fine has held leadership positions at Roche and Schering-Plough, and began his career at the National Cancer Institute. He received his BS degree from Cornell University and his PhD degree from the University of Rochester Medical Center. He is the author of over 75 scientific publications and patents and has received numerous honors and awards throughout his career.

Mark Frattini, MD, PhD, is Cellectis' Chief Medical Officer. Dr Frattini has over 20 years of experience in the field of hematological malignancies and joined Cellectis in August 2020 as Senior Vice President of Clinical Sciences where he has been responsible for Cellectis’ clinical leadership including the clinical development strategy of the Company’s current immune-oncology UCART product candidates. He has also been serving as a core member of the senior clinical team. As Chief Medical Officer, Dr Frattini oversees clinical research and development for Cellectis’ UCART clinical trial programs.

Prior to joining Cellectis, Dr Frattini was Executive Medical Director, Program Lead, Global Clinical Research & Development at Celgene/Bristol Myer Squibb and was responsible for the oversight and management of several of Celgene’s sponsored programs in the hematology therapeutic area. Before joining Celgene, Dr Frattini spent over 16 years as a physician-scientist specializing in hematologic malignancies in academia at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Columbia University where he was a member of the adult leukemia service and the Experimental Therapeutics center at both institutions. At Columbia University from 2013-2018 Mark also served as the Director of Research for Hematologic Malignancies.

Dr Frattini holds a MD and PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from The University of Chicago and received his Internal Medicine residency and Medical Oncology fellowship training at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Shishir Gadam, PhD, joined CARGO Therapeutics as CTO in January 2022. He is a seasoned biotechnology leader with over 25 years of experience and brings a wealth of CMC experience across vaccines, biologics and cell therapy modalities. Dr Gadam is passionate about building strong technical teams and accelerating development and commercialization of new products and technology.

Most recently, Dr Gadam was Vice President of Global Cell Therapy Manufacturing Science and Technology at BMS (acquired Celgene, which acquired Juno Therapeutics, his previous company). He played an instrumental role in the global licensure and launch of the CAR T-cell products Breyanzi® (lisocabtagene maraleucel) and Abecma® (idecabtagene vicleucel) and built a global technical organization responsible for product life cycle management, commercialization, technology transfers and support of internal and external manufacturing. Prior to BMS, Dr Gadam spent 12 years at Genentech/Roche in various global leadership roles in Biologics Technical Development and Operations focused on CMC life cycle management, manufacturing science, new facility startup, technology transfers and Site Operations. Dr Gadam established technical teams in multiple countries and interacted with global health authorities to support Roche’s Biologics portfolio, including critical new launches of Actemra® (tocilizumab), Perjeta® (pertuzumab), Ocrevus® (ocrelizumab) and Tecentriq® (atezolizumab). Prior to Genentech, he was at Merck and Company’s Vaccine/Bioprocess Technical Development Organization and played a key role in the development and approval of critical vaccines including Gardasil® (Human Papillomavirus Quadrivalent Vaccine, Recombinant).

Dr Gadam earned a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a Masters in Chemical Engineering from West Virginia University and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology in India. In 2017, he was inducted to the AIMBE College of Fellows for his outstanding contributions in developing, scaling up, designing and starting up manufacturing processes and factories, along with defining the product technology lifecycle strategy for multiple products.

Cindy Geoghegan is a patient advocate, advisor and activist with over 30 years of health policy and communications experience, having held senior staff and board positions with several leading cancer non-profit organizations including Susan G. Komen, Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization and others. She began her advocacy career shortly after her breast cancer diagnosis in 1995. Ms Geoghegan has provided the patient perspective on research teams and projects funded by Stand Up to Cancer, the National Cancer Institute, the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and has served on the steering committee of the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI), the Duke University/FDA joint venture focused on more efficient clinical trials. Ms Geoghegan is currently a member of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center’s External Advisory Board, and on the Founding Members Council for the Digital Medicine Society, where she also serves on its research committee. Ms Geoghegan has co-authored more than a dozen publications with researchers focused on patient preferences and improving patient outcomes.

As the VP, Head of Immuno-Oncology and GI Tumors Franchise for US Oncology at AstraZeneca, Shubh Goel, BSc, oversees all sales, marketing and cross-functional team efforts across the Immuno-Oncology portfolio of indications and GI sales teams.

Prior to joining AstraZeneca, she was Chief Commercial Officer of Fennec, a late-stage biotechnology company dedicated to improving the lives of children with cancer. She also held various commercial and marketing leadership positions at Odonate Therapeutics, Celgene, Bayer AG, Aveo Oncology, Ariad Pharmaceuticals and Millennium Pharmaceuticals.

Ms Goel received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from the University of Bath.

Mara Goldstein was most recently a senior biotechnology and managing director with Mizuho Securities, providing research coverage of oncology-focused companies. Ms Goldstein joined Mizuho Securities in late 2018, following her tenure with Cantor Fitzgerald that spanned seven years, where she served as a senior biotechnology analyst and head of the healthcare group, and in a dual capacity as research analyst and director of research beginning in 2016. During her time with Cantor, healthcare coverage grew to over 130 stocks spanning multiple sub-sectors, and helped to launch Cantor’s healthcare conference program. Prior to Cantor Fitzgerald, Ms Goldstein headed the healthcare team at Reuters Insight (Anian), and later head of the research group. Ms Goldstein also spent eight years with CIBC World Markets (now Oppenheimer) as an executive director and senior analyst covering large capitalization pharmaceutical companies, drug delivery companies and contract research organizations (CROs). Before joining CIBC World Markets, Ms Goldstein was an associate analyst with Alex. Brown & Sons (now Deutsche Bank), covering biotechnology, drug delivery, large cap pharmaceuticals, PBMs and drug distribution companies. Ms Goldstein has been quoted in numerous national publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, as well as news sources such as Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, and has been a guest on CNBC and ABC’s World News Tonight.

Ms Goldstein graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science in economics and minors in history and French. Ms Goldstein currently holds FINRA Series 7, 63, 86, 87, 24 and SIE licenses.

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.

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.

Anders Haegerstrand, MD, PhD, is currently the CEO of Annexin Pharmaceuticals. He has extensive R&D experience including drug discovery and development as manager at Karolinska Institutet, Astra Pain Control AB and AstraZeneca LLC and within biotech. From 2000, Anders was CEO and CSO for NeuroNova AB, a leading company in applied stem cell research that brought protein molecules into Phase I/II clinical studies. The company was later acquired by a listed company, Newron Pharmaceuticals S.p.A., at which Dr Haegerstrand was a management team member between 2013 and 2016.

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.

Kristen Hege, MD, is currently an Independent Board Member at Adaptimmune, Mersana & Graphite Bio. Her most recent role was SVP, Early Clinical Development, Hematology/Oncology & Cell Therapy following the acquisition of Celgene in 2019. Previously, she spent 10 years at Celgene building the Early Clinical Development organization where her team advanced a pipeline of small molecules, biologics and T cell therapies. She has led the bluebird- partnered BCMA CART cell program (ide-cel; formerly bb2121) in multiple myeloma from first in man through registrational studies. Prior to joining Celgene she held multiple executive roles at biotech companies, including Cell Genesys, Cellerant and Theraclone. In addition to her work at BMS, Dr Hege is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) where she continues to see patients with blood cancers weekly. Dr Hege also serves on the Board of Directors of Mersana Therapeutics and was elected to the Board of Directors for the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) for a 3-year term from 2016-2019.

Dr Hege received her MD from UCSF and internal medicine and hematology/oncology subspecialty training at Harvard and UCSF, respectively. In 2015, Dr Hege was recognized by Fierce Biotech as one of the top 12 women in Biopharma and in 2019 she was the first Celgene recipient of the Healthcare Business Women’s Association Luminary award. Her career path and long history with CAR T cell development was featured in the “Turning Points” series as one of 25 physicians and scientists recognized as part of the 25th anniversary celebration of Nature Medicine.

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.

Joanne Hulme, PhD, currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer of Radiant Biotherapeutics, an innovative antibody platform company leading the new frontier of multi-valent, multi-specific therapeutics to deliver transformative therapies for patients. Prior to Radiant Biotherapeutics, she was VP, Head of Research at Northern Biologics, where she held several scientific and strategic leadership roles focused on the development of first-in-class antibody therapeutics in cancer. Prior to Northern, Dr Hulme previously worked at Amgen, where her research resulted in the development of multiple preclinical programs in autoimmune diseases and cancer. Dr Hulme earned her PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Leeds.

Patrick Hwu, MD, is the president and CEO of Moffitt Cancer Center, one of the nation’s leading cancer hospitals and the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center based in Florida.

As an internationally recognized tumor immunologist, Dr Hwu has led pioneering research and clinical efforts to better understand the interactions between tumors and the immune system. He helped launch the field of gene-modified T cells, publishing research on the first chimeric antigen receptor directed against cancer. His work focuses on vaccines, adoptive T-cell therapies and immune resistance. An internationally recognized physician-scientist, Dr Hwu has a proven track record leading collaborative teams to make breakthroughs in science while improving cancer outcomes for cancer patients.

Prior to joining Moffitt, Dr Hwu was the head of the Division of Cancer Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he held various leadership roles for 17 years. In 2003, he was recruited as the first chairman of the Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology. He was also the associate director of the Center for Cancer Immunology Research (2004) and chair of the Department of Sarcoma Medical Oncology (2012).

Dr Hwu earned his medical degree from The Medical College of Pennsylvania. He served as a house officer in Internal Medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and completed a fellowship in oncology at the National Cancer Institute, where he worked as a principal investigator leading tumor immunology studies.

Antoine Iannessi, MD, currently holds the role of Head of Medical Affairs at Median Technologies (imaging CRO Business), where he actively supports various clinical trials in the field of oncology. With over a decade of experience as an interventional radiologist at the renowned Cancer Center Antoine Lacassagne in Nice, South of France, he has cultivated expertise in oncology and percutaneous procedures, particularly in the realms of pain palliation and tumor ablation.

Ohad Ilovich, PhD, is the head of clinical imaging at Amgen. Prior to this, Dr Ilovich was the head of scientific and medical services at Invicro.

Dr Ilovich has over a decade of experience supporting scientific and strategic imaging activities across multiple disease areas including oncology, immunology and cardiac disease. Dr Ilovich’s focus has been in translation and clinical application of both anatomical- and nuclear medicine-based molecular imaging methodologies in support of drug development. He obtained his PhD in radiochemistry and molecular imaging from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel and was a postdoctoral fellow at Sam Gambhir’s lab at Stanford.

Noor Jailkhani, PhD, is the CEO and co-founder of Matrisome Bio, a venture-backed biotech company focused on improving the lives of patients with chronic diseases such as cancer and fibrosis. She was previously a research scientist and Mazumdar-Shaw international oncology Fellow at the Koch Institute at MIT, where she played a vital role in developing the company’s foundational technology. Dr Jailkhani has over a decade of experience in oncology and extracellular matrix (ECM) biology, focusing on developing ECM-targeted agents for cancer detection and therapy, such as ECM-targeted cytokines and CAR T-cells. Her work has led to multiple publications and patent applications related to cancer, ECM biology, and their applications to disease. Dr Jailkhani holds a PhD in Immunology from the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and an MS in Biomedical Sciences from Delhi University. She led the company’s seed fundraising efforts, successfully securing seed capital, and is now leveraging her knowledge and experience to drive the vision and mission of Matrisome Bio.

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 the USA and China.

Maria Jure-Kunkel, DVM, PhD, is currently Vice-President of Translational Medicine at Genmab, where she leads translational strategies for programs in solid tumors and hem-oncology. Prior to Genmab, she led Translational Medicine and Discovery/Translational Research teams at MedImmune/AstraZeneca and at Bristol-Myers Squibb. In her 20+ years of pharmaceutical experience, Dr Jure-Kunkel has been the recipient of several patents in the field of Immuno-Oncology for agents based on diverse targeting modalities (monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, small molecules), CD3-bispecific antibodies in hem-oncology, had the privilege to lead and contribute to the development and registration of several IO agents, and generated biomarker strategies leading to the development of companion diagnostics.

Dr Jure-Kunkel received her DVM from the University of Uruguay, School of Veterinary Medicine, a PhD in Immunopathology from Cornell University, and post-doctoral training from Rockefeller University.

Allison Kaeding, MD, is a Senior Director of Early Clinical Development for IO and Cell Therapy at BMS. Dr Kaeding leads early clinical development for BMS’s GPRC5D-targeted CAR T cell therapy, now entering pivotal and novel combination trials, since its lead nomination, and has conducted Phase 1 trials and clinical development for numerous other clinical-stage and pre-clinical cell therapy, cell engager, biologics and targeted degrader programs. She is the Clinical lead for the BMS partnership with Century Therapeutics to develop off-the-shelf induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived, engineered allogeneic cell therapies.

Dr Kaeding co-leads the BMS Cell Therapy Correlative Research Team, with bioinformatics expert Dr Julie Rytlewski, Director of Predictive Sciences, to apply cutting-edge data analytics including statistical modeling and machine learning to address pressing, clinically relevant questions impacting BMS. Cell Therapy portfolio development (and beyond). Leveraging BMS’s unparalleled breadth of cell therapy clinical trial experience, including curated data from 4700+ patients treated on 24 cell therapy trials with 6 distinct CAR T assets including Breyanzi and Abecma, the Cell Therapy Correlative Research Team uses big data to shape current and future BMS Cell Therapies.

Dr Kaeding is a pediatric hematologist-oncologist and stem cell transplant physician. She earned her Medical Doctorate at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed her fellowship training at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Children’s Hospital. Prior to joining industry at Juno Therapeutics/Celgene, she was an early career physician-scientist as an attending physician on the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant service and bench researcher at Fred Hutch developing novel AML antibody-drug conjugates and other targeted therapeutics.

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.

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.

Erin Karski, MD, is an executive director of Cell Therapy Clinical Development, Oncology R&D at AstraZeneca. Dr Karski received her medical degree from the University of Minnesota, where she also completed her general pediatrics training. She completed her training in pediatric hematology-oncology at the University of California-San Francisco where she focused on early phase clinical trials and completed a master’s in clinical research. Dr Karski entered the pharmaceutical industry following her time at UCSF. She has worked across modalities, indications and development stages. Prior to working with AstraZeneca, she enjoyed tenures at Genentech and Allogene.

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.

Tanya Keenan, MD, MPH, is an executive director in the oncology clinical development group at Merck Research Laboratories. Dr Keenan is the clinical lead for the asset development team for the anti-TIGIT antibody vibostolimab, currently being evaluated in multiple phase 3 studies. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and then earned an MD from the University of Pennsylvania and an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed her internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she later served as chief resident. Dr Keenan then completed her oncology fellowship with a focus in breast cancer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, during which she collaborated on early phase immunotherapy studies and conducted computational analyses of clinical genomic data. She has worked on multiple preclinical programs and global phase 1/2 trials in advanced solid tumors.

Dejan Knezevic, PhD, is the Senior Director of Business Development at Guardant Health where he focuses on the introduction of new liquid biopsy products in oncology. Prior to joining Guardant, Dr Knezevic spent more than a decade leading Product Development at Genomic Health, one of the pioneers in the field of personalized cancer diagnostics. Subsequently, he joined Business Development at Adaptive Biotechnologies where he focused on pharma partnering. Dr Knezevic holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from Yale University and a BS from the University of Bridgeport where he was an undergraduate Howard Hughes Fellow. He has completed postdoctoral fellowships at Roche and Genentech.

Ron Korn, MD, PhD, is one of our most recognized board-certified and fellowship-trained radiologists. A scientist at the core, he completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Molecular Biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, which provided a solid foundation for his Medical training at Stanford School of Medicine followed by postgraduate training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr Korn specializes in Nuclear Medicine and Cancer Biology with extensive involvement in clinical research as both a study investigator and clinical publication author that has afforded him in-depth knowledge of the common pitfalls and complex challenges associated with clinical trials. Dr Korn has received public recognition and awards from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, American College of Radiology Imaging Network, Ibis Foundation of Arizona, and received the Top Doctor Award for Radiology and Nuclear Medicine. Though his professional accolades accurately reflect his clinical excellence, his current professional associations, education-based activities, and commitment to clinical research quality make up the core of this professional. As Imaging Endpoints’ Chief Medical Officer, Dr Korn provides the medical perspective, oversight, and leadership that is critical to the services we provide.

Michelle Krogsgaard, PhD, is an Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of Pathology and the co-leader of the Tumor Immunology Program in the Perlmutter Cancer Center at New York University School of Medicine. She is the graduate advisor for the Inflammation and Immunology Program at NYU. Her laboratory combines cell biology, biochemistry and biophysics to explore mechanisms of T cell recognition, activation, migration and T-cell effector functions in mouse models of disease and in human tissues to develop new therapies for cancer, viral and autoimmune disease. She serves on NIH/NCI study sections and has been continuously funded by the NIH during her independent career. Dr Krogsgaard was an Alfred Benzon Fellow, a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, an American Cancer Society Research Scholar, a Cancer Research Institute Investigator, received the Mark Foundation ASPIRE Award and was selected for the Exceptional, Unconventional, Research Enabling Knowledge Advancement (EUREKA) Innovator Award from the NIH.

Adam Laing, PhD, is an experienced life sciences operator and systems immunologist with over 15 years of experience working in academia and industry. Focusing on building tools to generate, analyze and interpret large-scale, complex immunology data sets, Dr Laing has led several ambitious systems immunology research programs spanning transplantation, cancer, immunogenetics and infectious diseases.

Caleb Lareau, PhD, is an Assistant Member in the Computational and Systems Biology Program at Sloan Kettering Institute. He joined MSK from Stanford University where he was a Stanford Science Fellow and Parker Scholar at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Originally from Oklahoma, Dr Lareau completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Tulsa before attending Harvard University for his graduate degrees.

Selena Larkin, PhD, MBA, is a protein biochemist who has committed her career to the advancement of biomarker analysis for research, translation and clinical applications. She has experience bringing protein quantitation assays to market for liquid biopsy including a number of clinical assays for cancer detection and longitudinal patient monitoring. She is delighted to now have the opportunity to contribute quantitative rigor to the field of spatial analysis. Dr Larkin’s team supports RareCyte’s customers using CyteFinder and Orion for Precision Liquid Biopsy and Spatial Biology.

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.

Mat Legut, PhD, is a co-founder and CEO of OverT Bio, an NYC-based cell and gene therapy. Previously, Dr Legut was a Hope Funds Fellow in the lab of Neville Sanjana at NYU and the NY Genome Center where he developed high-throughput approaches to discover novel regulators of the immune response. Dr Legut holds a BSc from the University of Wroclaw, Poland, and a PhD in Cancer Immunology from Cardiff University, UK. In addition to his academic career, Dr Legut has collaborated with several UK-based cell therapy companies on preclinical development of cell therapy programs.

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.

Bruce Levine, PhD, is the Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy, is the Founding Director of the Clinical Cell and Vaccine Production Facility (CVPF) in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. He received a BA (Biology) from Penn and a PhD in Immunology and Infectious Diseases from Johns Hopkins. First-in-human adoptive immunotherapy trials include the first use of a lentiviral vector, the first infusions of gene edited cells and the first use of lentivirally-modified cells to treat cancer. Dr Levine is co-inventor of the first FDA approved gene therapy (Kymriah), chimeric antigen receptor T cells for leukemia and lymphoma, licensed to Novartis. Dr Levine is co-inventor on 29 issued US patents and co-author of >200 manuscripts and book chapters with a Google Scholar citation h-index of 98. He is a Co-Founder of Tmunity Therapeutics, and of Capstan Therapeutics both spinouts of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr Levine is a recipient of the William Osler Patient Oriented Research Award, the Wallace H. Coulter Award for Healthcare Innovation, the National Marrow Donor Program/Be The Match ONE Forum 2020 Dennis Confer Innovate Award, serves as President of the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy and serves on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine. He has written for Scientific American and Wired and has been interviewed by the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, Time Magazine, National Geographic, Bloomberg, Forbes, BBC and other international media outlets.

Jing Li, MD, PhD, MBA, is the founder and CEO of VelaVigo. Prior to founding VelaVigo, he served as Senior Vice President, head of Discovery at WuXi Biologics. Before joining WuXi Biologics, he worked in Novartis Biologics Center as Senior Manager of Portfolio & Alliance Management, and Novartis Oncology as Lab Head and Program Team Head. Prior to Novartis, he worked in Wyeth (now Pfizer) as Senior Scientist and Project Leader.

Dr Li received his MD and PhD degree in molecular immunology and oncology from Peking University Health Science Center (the former Beijing Medical University), and MBA degree from Yale University School of Management. He obtained his post-doctorate training in Tufts University. He has 25+ years of professional experience in antibody engineering and 20+ years of industry experience in the drug discovery and development field. He is a member of AACR (American Association for Cancer Research), ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) and FOCIS (Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies). He has filed 70+ patent applications and authored 20+ publications. He was awarded the Jiang Su Innovation Talent title in 2015.

Jie Liu, MBA, is a Managing Director in Stifel’s Global Healthcare Group with over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, mostly focused on global licensing and M&A. In his current role, Mr Liu is active in a variety of transactions in both branded and generic opportunities in the US and China. He became part of Stifel in 2023 through the Torreya acquisition.

Mr Liu joined Torreya in 2016 from Heritage Pharma, a subsidiary of Emcure Pharmaceuticals, where he was Vice President, Business Development and Licensing. Previously, he was Senior Director, Global Business Development at Teva, and held business development positions with increasing responsibilities at J&J, Cephalon and Auxilium.

Mr Liu received a BA from Tianjin University in China and an MBA in healthcare from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr Liu is a native Mandarin speaker.

Elaine Long, PhD, is Scientific Leader for the Immuno-Oncology franchise at GE Healthcare Pharmaceutical Diagnostics. As part of her role, she partners with leading Immuno-Oncology experts and pharmaceutical companies developing immunotherapies, to help GE Healthcare to develop the right diagnostic tools, including PET imaging agents and AI solutions, to address current unmet needs to better select and monitor immunotherapy patients.

Dr Long has a PhD in Molecular Immunology and joined GE Healthcare in 2020 with 15 years clinical research experience. She spent 10 years studying pediatric cancer and immunodeficiency disease at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London. During her 5 years at Oxford University, Dr Long explored the role of T cells in the balance between immune tolerance and immune activation.

Hongtao Lu, PhD is Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Elpiscience. Trained as an immunologist, Hongtao is a 20-year industry veteran, with R&D experience developing both small molecule and biologic-based therapies across several therapeutic areas, including autoimmune diseases, oncology, and neuroscience. Before co-founding Elpiscience, Hongtao co-founded Zai Lab, a NASDAQ-listed company, as its Vice President and helped to build a robust pipeline focusing on oncology and autoimmune diseases. Prior to Zai Lab, he was with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as the founding head and senior director of Neuroimmunology Discovery Performance Unit (NI-DPU), where he led a team of 70 biologists and chemists focusing on drug discovery in multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's disease. While at GSK, he also successfully built this R&D team and the pipeline in only 5 years, producin three clinical-stage assets and four pre-clinical programs. Dr Lu spent his early career with Berlex Biosciences and Bayer Schering Pharma, where he conducted target identification and validation in autoimmune inflammatory diseases and oncology. Dr Lu holds a PhD in Regulatory Biology and conducted his graduate research at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, focusing on MHC class II gene regulation. After receiving his doctorate, Dr Lu completed his post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine under the guidance of Dr. Richard Flavell, where he worked on T cell differentiation and signal transduction pathway.

At Merck, Dr Gregory Lubiniecki, vice president, oncology clinical research, is a senior leader who oversees cancer research. He’s also a practicing clinician, continuing to see patients — adding a human connection to his research.

For Dr Lubiniecki, having a “one-on-one connection” with patients is important both personally and professionally, and helps to keep the patient experience at the forefront when designing clinical studies.

Dr Lubiniecki’s drive to pursue a career in oncology was motivated by his family’s experience with cancer — watching his mother go through surgery and chemotherapy while he was in high school — and his own scientific curiosity. “The complexity of the molecular biology involved in cancer was very intriguing to me,” he said.

Dr Lubiniecki and his team play a critical role in advancing Merck’s effort to help save and improve lives around the world through leading-edge science. With an ongoing connection to patients and his research firmly focused on the future, Dr Lubiniecki is excited about where cancer care may go next.

Vanessa Lucey, PhD, MBA, is a Director, WW Oncology Commercial, Early Assets at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS). Prior to BMS, Dr Lucey was the director of Clinical Accelerator and the CRI Venture Fund at the Cancer Research Institute, where she managed the program’s scientific and investment strategy for $100M evergreen venture fund.

Prior to joining CRI, Dr Lucey performed research for 12 years as a scientist in immunology. She received her BS in Biology from Fordham University and prior to graduate school, Dr Lucey worked as a research technician studying the co-stimulatory molecule ICOS in Graft-versus-Host-Disease and Graft-versus- Leukemia. She received her PhD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine studying T cell activation. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at NYU School of Medicine, studying the role of a common gene variant and its effects on Graft-Versus-Host- Disease. Dr Lucey received her MBA in Management/Finance from Mercy College School of Business. She has published 28 peer-reviewed papers in top tier journals.

Jason Luke, MD, FACP, is an associate professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, where he is associate director for Clinical Research and the director of the Immunotherapy and Drug Development Center (Phase I).  Dr Luke specializes in early phase drug development for solid tumors (particularly novel immunotherapeutics and biomarkers of immunotherapy activity) as well as the management of melanoma.

Dr Luke received his medical degree from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago. He then pursued internship and residency at the Boston University Medical Center followed by medicine and medical oncology fellowships at Weill Cornell Medical College and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.  Following fellowship, Dr Luke was a tenure-track, Type 1 Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School as well as staff physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Thereafter, Dr Luke was an assistant professor at the University of Chicago.

Dr Luke is one of the foremost international investigators in the realm of immuno-oncology, having led clinical trials of immunotherapies including but not limited to anti-PD1/L1, CTLA4, many secondary checkpoints, bispecific approaches (checkpoint, CD3 and cytokine), metabolism modifiers (IDO, A2Ar/CD73/CD39 and arginase), innate agonists of STING, TLRs and oncolytic virus as well as solid tumor cellular therapies (TCRs and CART). In melanoma, Dr Luke has designed and led two practice changing trials determining the role of anti-PD1 + CTLA4 after initial anti-PD1 failure (compendium listed in the NCCN) and altering the landscape of melanoma oncology practice across dermatology, surgery and medical oncology via establishment of modern adjuvant therapy with anti-PD1 for node negative stage IIB/C disease (leading to FDA/EMA approval). Dr Luke has been a major contributor toward the investigation of radiation and the microbiome in relation to cancer immunotherapy.

Dr Luke’s major translational research focus leverages large scale informatics to advance cancer immunotherapy. Dr Luke is currently senior editor at Clinical Cancer Research, section editor at the Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer and skin cancer sectional editor for the American Cancer Society journal Cancer. Dr Luke is actively involved in several professional societies including SITC -- where he sits on the Board of Directors -- AACR, ASCO and the Society for Melanoma Research, having served on the scientific program committees for each.  Dr Luke leads an R01 funded laboratory, he is co-PI for the Pittsburgh UM1 LAO and is project 3 clinical co-leader of the Pittsburgh Skin Cancer P50 SPORE, in addition to multiple private and state awards.

Dr Luke has received several awards for research and clinical care including the Melanoma Research Foundation Humanitarian Award, Crain’s 40 under 40, DOD Career Development Award, Paul Calabresi Career Development in Clinical Oncology Award (K12), ASCO Merit Award as well as Young Investigator Awards from the Melanoma Research Alliance, the Cancer Research Foundation and the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO.

Dr Luke has been the leader of the Melanoma Committee for the American Society of Clinical Oncology and has held leadership positions within the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer. Dr Luke is a member of the Melanoma Committee of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and the Experimental Therapeutics Committee of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. Dr Luke is also a member of the American Association for Cancer Research and Society for Melanoma Research.

Mr MacDonald partners with J&J’s Oncology disease area leaders to develop and drive external innovation strategies. He leads a team to identify, evaluate, and execute Hematology and Immune-oncology transactions in support of J&J Innovative Medicine growth strategies.

His extensive career spans Pharma, Med Tech, Consumer Products and Management Consulting. Mr MacDonald’s multifaceted background encompasses roles in Business Development, Analytics, Operations and Supply Chain.

Mr MacDonald holds a BS degree in Quantitative Business Analysis from The Pennsylvania State University, an MBA from Columbia Business School and is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt.

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.

Saman Maleki, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Oncology, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Medical Biophysics at Western University. He is also a Translational Immuno-Oncology Scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute and a scientist at the Ontario Institute of Cancer Research (OICR). Dr Maleki has background training in tumor Immunology, Cancer Biology, and Microbiology and extensive experience with clinical research in cancer immunotherapy and oncology. Dr Maleki has pioneered phase I clinical trials in Canada that combine fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) plus immunotherapy in melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, non-small cell lung cancer and pancreatic cancer patients. Dr Maleki’s academic research focuses on sensitizing hard-to-treat cancers to immunotherapy via novel combination drug treatments and modifying the gut microbiome in the host. Dr Maleki regularly collaborates with biotech companies in the Immuno-Oncology space and has helped move oncology and Immuno-Oncology drug candidates from pre-clinical to phase I clinical trials in patients. In addition, as an advocate of better academia and industry collaborations, Dr Maleki is involved with several professional societies that aim to increase collaboration between academia and industry and facilitate continuous training and education for scientists and clinicians involved in immunotherapy research and clinical use in both sectors. 

Gulam Manji, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine and the Director of the GI Medical Oncology section at Columbia University Medical Center, co-Director of the Pancreas Center, and co-Leader of the Precision Oncology and Systems Biology section of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr Manji received his PhD. degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed his residency in internal medicine at Albany Medical College. He then completed his fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia. Dr Manji conducts translational research with the overall goal to develop new treatments for cancer. His focus is in gastrointestinal malignancies, particularly pancreas adenocarcinoma, on which he is conducting preclinical combination immunotherapy studies on genetically engineered mice and using the autologous co-culture system with patient derived tumor organoids and immune cells in his laboratory at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. The combination immunotherapy preclinical proposal received the Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology-2015. This project lead to a multicenter investigator initiated clinical trial and is now a randomized phase 2 study in first line metastatic pancreatic cancer of which Dr Manji serves as the overall principal investigator. Dr Manji serves as the overall PI of numerous clinical trials and is an R01 funded investigator. Dr Manji's research career in identifying new genes and their implication in disease has led to numerous key publications and an issued patent.

Irina Margine, PhD, is a private equity principal on the Wellington Private Equity Team, where she focuses on private company investing in the area of Biotechnology. Prior to joining Wellington Management in 2019, Dr Margine was on the Equity Research Team at Cowen and Co., covering small and mid-cap biotechnology companies. Previously, she worked in risk management within JPMorgan’s wholesale lending businesses. Dr Margine earned her PhD in microbiology from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and her master of science in biomolecular sciences from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Matthew Martin, PhD, MBA, is a co-founder and CEO of Saros Therapeutics which is re-engineering innate immune activation for oncology. He is also a venture partner at Pathway Bioventures, a seed stage fund investing in precision therapeutics. Dr Martin has more than 15 years of management and leadership experience with research based startups, investors, and universities. His startup operational experience includes being a founder or early employee of 3 healthcare companies and 1 bio-based renewable fuel company. Dr Martin was originally trained as a physicist. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University.

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.

Nathanael McCurley, PhD, comes to SIRPant leveraging 20 years of experience in academic science and industrial research and development. Trained as an experimental immunologist and cell biologist, Dr McCurley began his research career in Becton Dickinson’s Molecular Diagnostics R&D division, resulting in 510(k) Premarket Notification and successful commercial launch of a clinical-grade molecular diagnostics device (BD ProbeTec ET). In graduate studies, he investigated cellular mechanisms of antigen processing by dendritic cells in the laboratory of Ira Mellman, PhD at Yale (now VP of Cancer Immunology at Genentech), followed by postdoctoral studies of cellular immunology in the laboratory of Max Cooper, MD (winner of the 2019 Lasker Award) at Emory. Following his postdoc, Dr McCurley worked in two biotech startup companies that were spun out of Emory (Haplomics, Inc and GeoVax, Inc) and was pivotal in raising $5.6M in non-dilutive funding for the firms. Prior to joining SIRPant, Dr McCurley held positions in academic technology transfer at Georgia State University and at Emory University.

Dr McCurley received his MS, MPhil, and PhD in Immunobiology from Yale University. He earlier received a BS in Philosophy, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics from Towson University.

Robert Meehan, MD, is an experienced pharmaceutical executive with over 10 years of leadership experience in biotechnology and pharmaceutical development. He joined Moderna in 2017 to lead the company's efforts to develop mRNA based medicines including individualized therapies for cancer patients. Prior to joining Moderna, Dr Meehan was a staff clinician at the National Cancer Institute in the DTC. He has authored many publications and is an inventor on multiple patents.

Ira Mellman, PhD, came to Genentech in 2007 after more than 20 years as a faculty member at the Yale University School of Medicine. He was chair of his department, a member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, scientific director of the Yale Cancer Center, and Sterling Professor of Cell Biology and Immunobiology. Dr Mellman has an AB from Oberlin College and Conservatory, a PhD in Genetics from Yale, and was a Fellow at the Rockefeller University with Ralph Steinman.

Dr Mellman’s laboratory is known not only for advances in fundamental cell biology in the area of membrane traffic (notably, the discovery of endosomes), but also for applying these insights to understanding the cellular basis of the immune response. Of particular importance to cancer immunotherapy has been his laboratory’s pioneering contributions to elucidating how dendritic cells initiate immunity or maintain immune tolerance. Recently, his group shed light on how T-cell signaling is regulated by immune checkpoints and how personalized cancer vaccines and cell-based therapies can be used to enhance anti-tumor T-cell responses. Dr Mellman ran all of the oncology research at Genentech until the end of 2013 when he decided to concentrate his efforts on cancer immunotherapy and became Vice President of Cancer Immunology. His group was responsible for bringing Genentech’s anti-PD-L1 antibody, Tecentriq® (atezolizumab), to the clinic, an approved blockbuster drug used in treating a growing list of indications including bladder cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. Dr Mellman also oversaw the discovery and early development of cancer vaccine programs directed against patient-specific mutant neo-antigens using mRNA (in collaboration with BioNTech, now in Phase II); DNA-based platforms (in collaboration with Vaccibody); tiragolumab (anti-TIGIT, now in pivotal trials); Cotellic® (MEK inhibitor cobimetinib); mosunetuzumab (anti-CD20/CD3 bispecific now in pivotal trials); and ipatasertib (Akt inhibitor).

Dr Mellman is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the European Molecular Biology Organization and the former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cell Biology. He also served on the editorial boards of Cell, the Journal of Experimental Medicine, EMBO Journal and OncoImmunology among others. Dr Mellman is the recipient of many named lectureships, honorary professorships, and awards, including Yale University’s Wilbur Lucius Cross medal and the 2019 Leadership Award in Cancer Immunology from the American Association for Precision Medicine. He has also served on the boards of AACR, SITC, the ASCB, the Melanoma Research Foundation and the Cancer Research Institute.

Taha Merghoub, PhD, is the Deputy Director of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine, New York. He is also the Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor of Oncology Research, Professor of Pharmacology and Professor of Immunology Research in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr Merghoub directs a translational tumor immunology laboratory and is currently investigating the means for developing immune-based therapies to treat cancer. In addition, some of his work aims to research the pathogenesis and treatment of melanoma and is directed in part at developing tools to study melanoma and immune responses in multiple cancers. His projects are heavily collaborative, within the institution and across different disciplines with multiple entities. His projects can be divided into the following categories: 1) overcoming resistance to immune checkpoint blockade therapy by modulating the immune system; 2) using the immune modulatory properties of modalities that target and kill tumor cells directly; 3) defining biomarkers and genetic determinants of response to immune therapy; and 4) developing a tissue repository for the immunotherapy and melanoma groups.

James Moon, PhD, is John Gideon Searle Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, and Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His interdisciplinary research program aims to develop novel biomaterials-based strategies for cancer immunotherapy. Dr Moon has published over 120 research articles, including those published in Nature Materials, Nature Medicine, Nature Nanotechnology and Science Translational Medicine. He has over 23 pending/approved U.S. and international patent applications, and his novel drug delivery technologies have led to 3 new start-up companies. Dr Moon is a fellow of BMES, AIBME and CRS, and his contributions to the field has been recognized with numerous awards, including NSF CAREER Award and Samyang CRS Award. Dr. Moon received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley (2002), and his PhD from Rice University (2008), and he completed his postdoctoral training at MIT. He joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 2012.

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.

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.

Tonia Nesheiwat, PharmD, is the vice president of medical affairs and project leadership at Caribou Biosciences, responsible for developing and executing medical affairs strategy and supporting new product development. She brings 15 years of clinical development, submission and medical affairs experience from large, mid-size and small pharmaceutical companies primarily focused in hematology/oncology. Before joining Caribou, Dr Nesheiwat was the Executive Director of Medical Affairs, Cell Therapy at Legend Biotech, where she was a member of the senior leadership team, established the medical affairs organization from the ground up, managed a diverse group of medical affairs professionals (including medical science liaisons) located across the U.S. with cell therapy expertise, as well as led medical affairs activities with their collaboration partner for the global and U.S. launch of CARVYKTI™ in multiple myeloma. Her experience also includes five years at Celgene, where she held several program leadership positions across hematology in clinical development and medical affairs, including Senior Director, Global Medical Affairs, CAR-T for ABECMATM in multiple myeloma. Prior to Celgene, Dr Nesheiwat worked at Novartis on the oncology global clinical development team for Afinitor® in mantle cell lymphoma, gastric cancer and breast cancer indications. Dr Nesheiwat received her Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, where she also completed her post-doctoral fellowship in oncology early phase clinical development in partnership with the Schering-Plough Research Institute.

Travis Osterman, DO, is a practicing medical oncologist, informatician, Associate Vice President for Research Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), and Director of Cancer Clinical Informatics in the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. He is board certified in internal medicine, medical oncology, and clinical informatics and completed a Master of Science in biomedical informatics at Vanderbilt University. He has dual faculty appointments at VUMC in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and the Department of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology.

Dr Osterman's clinical interest within oncology is lung cancer. His research focuses on applying clinical informatics methods across the cancer care continuum. He has worked to improve access to tumor genomics for patients and investigators. As part of this work his teams develop tools used for research and to support patient care directly. 

Nationally, Dr Osterman is involved in several national efforts to improve the availability of oncology-specific EHR data to support quality improvement across oncology practices. Dr Osterman is Chair of the Minimum Common Oncology Data Elements (mCODE™) Executive Committee. He also serves on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Electronic Health Record (EHR) workgroup, Epic Adult Oncology Steering Board and chairs Epic's Beacon Community Operations Group. 

Reshma Patel, BSc, brings more than 25 years of extensive regulatory experience to her current role as Senior Director of Global Regulatory Affairs at Janssen. Ms Patel's experience spans across all phases of drug development, advancing small molecules and biologics to global markets. Her in-depth knowledge and diverse experience of the global regulatory environment accumulated by leading multiple global submissions through to approval for key compounds including Breakthrough Therapies to treat hematologic malignancies.

Currently, Ms Patel leads the global regulatory strategy for principal Janssen Hematology assets in Early Development. Ms Patel also co-leads the MRD Partnership and Alliance in AML Clinical Treatment (MPAACT), an industry and academic alliance founded in 2018 working to establish MRD surrogacy based on clinical trial data generated in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). She is also the Regulatory lead for Janssen strategic goal to establish MRD as a surrogate endpoint in multiple myeloma for PFS.

Co-founder and CEO of Cytovation, Lars Prestegarden is a medical doctor with a PhD in cancer biology from the University of Bergen, in Norway. His academic career includes work at University of California, San Francisco, and Harvard/Brigham and Womens’ Hospital, where he was a Fullbright Fellow. He has also been an Associate Professor at the University of Bergen, from where Cytovation was spun off building on the peptide discovery platform developed in his group. He is the author of several peer-reviewed publications and patents in the field of cancer research.

Oscar Puig, PhD, brings over 17 years of extensive experience in molecular biology and oncology to his role as VP of Translational Medicine & Diagnostics at Nucleai. At Nucleai, he leads the development of AI-driven spatial biomarkers and diagnostics, his scientific career spans pivotal roles at BeiGene, Lilly, Bristol Myers Squibb, Roche and Merck, specializing in biomarker development for oncology. Dr Puig holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Valencia, Spain and completed his postdoctoral research at EMBL, Germany, and UC Berkeley, USA. His deep expertise will enrich the Immuno-Oncology 360° Conference.

Sergio Quezada, PhD, is a scientific founder of Achilles and is the Company’s CSO. He is also a Professor of Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy at University College London Cancer Institute and a CRUK senior cancer research fellow. He is an internationally recognized leader in the field of cancer immunology, tumor microenvironment, regulatory T cells and immune checkpoint blockade. His research unveiled the critical role of Fc receptors and the tumor microenvironment in the mechanism of action of anti CTLA-4 antibodies, and he is an inventor of several key patents supporting the clinical development of antibodies targeting immune checkpoints including VISTA, ICOS and CD25. Dr Quezada co-led the development of a first in class Treg-depleting anti-human CD25 antibody with TUSK Therapeutics which was acquired by Roche in 2018 and is currently under clinical evaluation. In 2016 he co-led ground-breaking research supporting the key role of clonal tumor neoantigens in the immune response to cancer; research that underpins the Achilles approach. Dr Quezada holds a PhD from Dartmouth Medical School. From 2004 to 2010 he held a postdoctoral position at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Adeeb Rahman, PhD, is the VP of Platform Architecture at Immunai, a biotechnology company focused on mapping the immune system to help discover and develop the next generation of immunotherapies. Dr Rahman received his PhD in Immunology from the University of Pennsylvania and completed postdoctoral fellowships in cancer immunology and human liver disease, after which he has focused his career on developing and deploying advanced technology platforms to better understand human disease. As an Associate Professor and Director of Technology Development at the Human Immune Monitoring Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, he established one of the world’s leading comprehensive immune monitoring programs, with a core focus of increasing the utility of high dimensional single cell data for translational and clinical research. In his current role at Immunai he leads a highly multidisciplinary team applying industrial-scale data generation, curation and integration to build a multi-omic single cell data foundation from patient samples, and leveraging machine learning approaches to surface actionable insights to improve preclinical and clinical development decisions. 

Kanya Rajangam, MD, PhD, is responsible for leading the development and regulatory strategy to rapidly advance Senti Bio's off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell oncology programs into and through clinical development. Dr Rajangam served in leadership roles at various biotech companies, most recently Nkarta Therapeutics where, as chief medical officer, she was responsible for clinical development of CAR-NK cell therapies for oncology. Prior to Nkarta, she was chief medical officer at Atara Biotherapeutics where she led the development of T-cell therapies for oncology, neurology and infectious diseases. Prior to that, Dr Rajangam was chief medical officer of Cleave Biosciences, where she led oncology clinical development programs. Prior to becoming a chief medical officer, Dr Rajangam gained relevant senior leadership experience at Onyx and Exelixis, while contributing to the clinical development and global approval of several marketed oncology products including Kyprolis®, Cotellic® and Cometriq®/Cabometyx®. Dr Rajangam currently serves on the board of directors of Turnstone Biologics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation tumor infiltrating lymphocyte cell therapies and oncolytic virus cancer immunotherapies.

Dr Rajangam received a medical degree from St Johns’ Medical College and completed her surgical residency with a focus on oncology at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), both in India. She received a PhD in biomedical cell and tissue engineering from Northwestern University.

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.

Benoit Rousseau's, MD, PhD, research career has been focused on understanding the factors driving immunogenicity in cancer with a focus on gastrointestinal cancers. Since Dr Rousseau joined the GI oncology service and Dr Luis Diaz’ lab in MSKCC, as a physician-scientist trained in both immunology and genomics, he developed his translational and clinical research around the theme of immunogenomics with three main objectives:

1) Identify the determinants of sensitivity and resistance to immune checkpoint blockade in patients with DNA repair impaired cancers, including Mismatch Repair and Polymerase epsilon proofreading deficient tumors ;

2) Target novel mutation-derived potent neoantigens with mRNA vaccine strategies to enhance the immunorejection of cancers harboring specific mutations ;

3) Make poorly immunogenic tumors produce de novo neoantigens, exploring how mutagenic agents and DNA repair inhibitors help to convert immunoresistant tumors into an immune state sensitive to checkpoint blockade inhibition.

Marco Ruella, MD, is Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology and the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies and Scientific Director of the Lymphoma Program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the study of the mechanisms of relapse after chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CART) immunotherapies with the goal of rationally designing combined innovative immunotherapies for relapsing/refractory leukemia and lymphoma. He is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications on targeted immunotherapies for hematological cancers and is an inventor in several patents on CAR T therapy. His work has been recognized through numerous awards including the inaugural SITC EMD-Serono Cancer Immunotherapy Clinical Fellowship (2014), the AACR-BMS Oncology Fellowship in Clinical Cancer Research (2015), the ASH Scholar Award (2016), a NIH K99-R00 award (2017), the “Paola Campese” Award Leukemia Research (2017), the Cancer Support Community Award (2018), and most recently the 2018 American Society of Hematology Joanne Levy, MD, Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement. Dr Ruella obtained his medical degree with high honors and completed his specialization in clinical hematology at the University of Torino, Italy. After completing his fellowship, he was an attending physician in the Hematology and Cell Therapy Division of the Mauriziano Hospital and an Instructor at the Biotechnology School at the University of Torino. From 2012, he was a postdoctoral fellow, and then an instructor at the University of Pennsylvania in the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies where he worked with Drs June and Gill until appointment to his current position in 2018.

Greg Russotti, PhD, is Chief Technology and Manufacturing Officer at Century Therapeutics. Prior to joining Century, Dr Russotti served as Vice President of Cell Therapy Development and Operations at Celgene. At Celgene, he guided chemistry, manufacturing and control efforts for five different cell therapy products to clinical-stage development. Dr Russotti was also a leader in establishing in-house clinical manufacturing at Celgene, and in building Celgene’s first commercial CAR T manufacturing facility. Earlier, he held various leadership roles at Merck Research Laboratories, developing vaccines and monoclonal antibodies for clinical and commercial manufacturing. He received his BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and his PhD in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from Rutgers University. Dr Russotti has held a visiting professorship in Rutgers Biomedical Engineering department since 2008. He also serves as Industrial Executive Board Member of the Marcus Center for the Commercialization of Cell Therapies at Georgia Tech, and as an Executive Committee member of the National Science Foundation-funded Center for the Manufacturing of Advanced Therapeutics at Georgia Tech.

Takeshi Saito, PhD, is a skilled bioinformatician with extensive knowledge of drug discovery research and the translational science field. He completed his BS in Biological Science from the University of Tokyo in 2008, and his PhD in Biophysics and Biochemistry at the University of Tokyo. During his PhD, he worked with Professor Shinya Kuroda and Associate Professor Uda Shinsuke to understand single-cell level cellular signal transduction systems by utilizing dynamical modeling and Shannon’s information theory. In Astellas Pharma Inc, he first worked in drug discovery research as a primary bioinformatician of next-generation sequencing analysis. Then, he expanded his area of work/expertise to translation science in clinical development and recently contributed to multiple IND applications by providing bioinformatics analysis.

Rachel Salazar, DHSc, is the SVP, R&D Strategy & Operations at Bicara Therapeutics. A passionate and adaptive organizational leader, Dr Salazar brings more than two decades of experience as a strategic drug development executive in both early and late-stage clinical development. Skilled in strategy development, portfolio management and prioritization, over the past 15 years, Dr Salazar has driven various clinical-stage assets in the oncology and immuno-oncology space to advance therapeutically meaningful and differentiated assets to patients.

Prior to joining Bicara, Dr Salazar has held various leadership roles with increasing responsibility in both R&D and Portfolio Management at Pfizer, Takeda Oncology and EMD Serono.

Dr Salazar holds both a Bachelor and Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and Tufts University and earned her DHSc from Eastern Virginia Medical School.

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.

Christine Schuberth-Wagner, PhD, MD, serves as Chief Scientific Officer at CatalYm. She joined the company in November 2018 with more than 10 years of experience in drug discovery and non-clinical development of immunomodulatory drugs in the immuno-oncology space. She has established a track record as a successful leader and entrepreneur in the biotech industry. Prior to joining CatalYm, Dr Schuberth-Wagner co-founded Rigontec in 2014 where she led the company’s discovery and non-clinical development activities as Senior Vice President, Research. Her discoveries on the first-in-class RNA-based innate immune receptor agonist RGT100, built the foundation for the initiation of a Phase I clinical trial as well as the successful acquisition of Rigontec by MSD (known as Merck & Co. in North America) in late 2017. Dr Schuberth-Wagner holds a PhD in Molecular Biomedicine from the University of Bonn and an MBA from the University of Potsdam.

Matthew Silver, PhD, serves as Head of Oncology Precision Medicine and Companion Diagnostics at Takeda. Dr Silver established and built the centralized CDx function at Takeda, where he and his team are accountable for global diagnostic strategy development and execution across the Oncology pipeline.

Before joining Takeda, Dr Silver was with EMD Serono where he was Director of Companion Diagnostics and Immuno-Oncology CDx Team Lead. In this role, Dr Silver had broad responsibility for Immuno-Oncology CDx strategy and served as CDx Lead for multiple late-stage programs. Prior to EMD, Dr Silver led the translational assays group at Cell Signaling Technology where he was responsible for product development to support their growing translational portfolio and external collaborations.

Dr Silver earned a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of New Hampshire, which was followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Wyeth Research. Dr Silver also holds a BS in Molecular and Cell biology from the University of Connecticut.

John Simmons, PhD, currently leads oncology biopharma partnerships at Natera. Before joining Natera, Dr Simmons completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and served as Vice President of Translational Medicine at Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx). He received his PhD in Tumor Biology from Georgetown University.

Tim Sindelar, MS, has been involved in leading strategy and execution for life science companies for over 5 years. His current role at Canopy Biosciences focuses on increasing accessibility of spatial biology and raising the bar for routine and custom spatial analyses on images acquired using ChipCytometry. Apart from strategy, Mr Sindelar has deep experience in GPCR drug discovery and plant space biology.

Harpreet Singh, PhD, has served as Chief Executive Officer of Immatics since 2019, as Executive Director and Member of the Board since 2021 and as President and Chief Executive Officer of Immatics US since 2015. Prior to that, Dr Singh served as Immatics’ Managing Director and Chief Scientific Officer since co-founding the company in 2000.

Dr Singh has played a leadership role in the company’s inception, strategic and business development, public listing at NASDAQ in 2020 and in raising more than $550 million of venture capital, IPO and public follow-on proceeds.

Dr Singh holds a PhD in immunology from the University of Tübingen and is the inventor of numerous granted patents and patent applications and co-author of numerous scientific papers in high-impact journals.

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).

TBA

Kelly (Spill) Bonito is a 3 Year Colorectal Cancer Survivor who has been featured on: Stand Up 2 Cancer, The Washington Post, Everyday Health, and CBS News. Ms (Spill) Bonito is a colorectal cancer survivor as a result of immunotherapy treatment. She started her journey with cancer when she was 28 years old, which was finally diagnosed in January 2020. However, her symptoms arose in 2019, when she was 8 months pregnant with her son. Unfortunately, Ms (Spill) Bonito was brushed off from a handful of doctors telling her it was internal hemorrhoids caused by pregnancy. With persistence to self-advocate, she finally found a provider who listened. Ms (Spill) Bonito’s plan was to explore her options by visiting three cancer centers. She was looking to find her best fit by the feeling of comfort and best treatment option. Her first stop was Memorial Sloan Kettering and it ended up being her last stop. Her initial treatment plan was the traditional treatment approach; chemotherapy, oral chemotherapy/radiation and a surgical resection. This treatment option would lead her to never being able to carry another baby again, as well as, forever having a colostomy bag. This led her and her husband to freeze embryos prior to treatment in hopes to be able to bring another baby into this world. She arrived at her appointment to schedule her first day of chemotherapy and left that appointment with a new treatment plan. Ms (Spill) Bonito’s tumor tested positive for a genetic mutation called Mismatch Repair Deficient (MMRd), which allowed her to be a candidate for a clinical trial immunotherapy treatment that now carries that name of Dostarlimab. Ms (Spill) Bonito made a brave decision being the fourth patient in the USA to undergo this treatment. Ms (Spill) Bonito is a wife, now a mother of two, runs her own health and wellness business and is a patient advocate for Colorectal Cancer and clinical trials. She continues to advocate to bring hope and awareness for this cancer that is on the rise for individuals 50 and under. She used to be the quietest woman in the room, but now wants her voice heard on how important it is to self-advocate, persevere, and to trust your instincts regarding your body. Most recently, Ms (Spill) Bonito was invited by Stand Up 2 Cancer to appear at a corporate event held by MasterCard and to participate in a Q & A hosted by Memorial Sloan Kettering to support the need for continued research and applaud the success of this clinical trial.

Ramji Srinivasan is Co-founder and CEO of Teiko.bio. Teiko’s mission is to make immune profiling a reality for clinical trials, and eventually for patients. We’re making that mission happen by performing deep immune characterization using single-cell mass cytometry and spectral flow cytometry.

Our team includes 12 PhD-trained Immunologists and Computational Scientists who lead each stage of data generation, analysis, and interpretation. Teiko scientists have first author publications in JACI, Science, eLife, Nature and Cell.

Mr Srinivasan apparently got selective amnesia about startups, since he’s back at it again. He previously co-founded and ran Counsyl from napkin idea to 1M patients served and acquisition by Myriad Genetics. He holds a BS in Computer Science and an MS in Financial Mathematics, both from Stanford. He attended Stanford’s Graduate School of Business program, but then dropped out to start Counsyl.

Jennifer Stewart, PhD, has devoted her career to oncology research with an immunology focus. She has worked in both academia and the CRO (contract research organization) space for more than 20 years. Throughout her career she has been involved in both pre-clinical and clinical research in support of various immune-oncology programs. In her current role at TD2, she is focused on leveraging flow cytometry and predictive biomarkers to drive the Sponsor’s program forward. Dr Stewart has a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and serves on the Board of the Northwest Flow Cytometry Society providing educational outreach to the local scientific community. She is also co-chair of the AAPS Flow Cytometry Action Programming Committee, and is very engaged in biomarker discovery for drug development.

Mark Stewart, PhD, serves as a Vice President, Science Policy at Friends of Cancer Research (Friends). Dr Stewart leads the development and implementation of the organization’s research and policy agenda as well as overseeing the conduct of research projects to inform ongoing policy discussions. Dr Stewart establishes unique partnerships to help develop innovative policy proposals and consensus-driven solutions to address challenges and accelerate cancer drug development. He regularly participates in policy discussions and meetings throughout the year to help catalyze meaningful change for oncology healthcare.

Prior to joining Friends, Dr Stewart worked at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. At the Academies, he assisted with a congressionally mandated study that resulted in the report titled Ovarian Cancers: Evolving Paradigms in Research and Care. This report identified gaps in ovarian cancer knowledge and care, and established science and policy recommendations to overcome these gaps. Dr Stewart also assisted the National Cancer Policy Forum.

Dr Stewart has had the honor to serve on several membership and working group committees, including serving as chairperson for the Associate Member Council of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and member of the Drug Information Association Program Planning Committee.

Dr Stewart received his PhD in cancer biology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and was a recipient of two Federal grants including the NCI’s Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Predoctoral Award.

Diana Stoycheva, PhD, is a principal scientist with a Masters in Molecular Biotechnology from the University of Heidelberg. She holds a PhD in immunology from HU Berlin and pursued postdoctoral studies in Immunology at the ETH Zurich. Dr Stoycheva’s strong scientific background reflects her personal passion for immunology, immuno-oncology and specifically cell therapies. She joined Scailyte in 2020, evaluating opportunities to apply our AI to new projects in immunology and immuno-oncology.

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.

Stephen Thorne, PhD, co-founded Kalivir in 2019 and currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer. He is a leader in the field of oncolytic viral immunotherapy and previously co-founded Western Oncolytics, BioEclipse and Jennerex, which is currently advancing Pexa-Vec through late-stage clinical trials.

Dr Thorne was a Professor of Cell Biology and Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh and received his BA from Oxford University, UK and PhD from Imperial College of London. Dr Thorne has served in post doctorate roles at Surrey University, Cancer Research UK, and Stanford University and has authored more than 100 scientific publications in the field.

Nathalie Toussenel is an executive director of hematology/oncology and serves as an internal advocate, who ensures that clinical studies are operationally sound, meeting study timelines and corporate milestones. Ms Toussenel ensures that through PPD’s flat structure model and escalation pathway, clients have access to the highest level of leadership within PPD Biotech.

Edward van der Horst, PhD, is a molecular pharmacologist with a strong focus on antibody drug development across diverse target classes in oncology. He has 20 years of research and development experience from Zenith Epigenetics Ltd., Igenica Biotherapeutics Inc., OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Tularik, Inc. (now Amgen), and U3 Pharma GmbH (now Daiichi-Sankyo). Dr van der Horst’s contributions and discoveries have led to the clinical evaluation of several novel drug candidates at Igenica Biotherapeutics and OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, as well as to the first clinical stage anti-HER3 antibody at U3 Pharma GmbH. He received his postdoctoral training at Tularik, Inc., earned his PhD in biochemistry from the Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry and conducted his master’s thesis at Max-Planck Institute of Neurobiology. He graduated with a MS of chemistry from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

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.

Jan Wolber, PhD, is Global Product Leader Digital in the Pharmaceutical Diagnostics business of GE Healthcare. He is based in Amersham in the UK. His work is focused on Artificial Intelligence solutions for image assessment and clinical decision support across multiple disease areas. The development of digital biomarkers is an integral part of the Precision Health strategy of GE Healthcare.

Dr Wolber has more than 20 years of experience in medical imaging R&D as a scientist, project leader, departmental manager and commercial leader. He received his PhD from the University of London in 2000 on work in the field of hyperpolarized 129Xe Magnetic Resonance. He also has a MBA from Warwick Business School. Since 2012, Jan has held an honorary professorship in MR physics at the University of Sheffield alongside his employment at GE Healthcare. In addition, Dr Wolber is involved in several academic collaborations, for instance with the University of Oxford in the UK and with Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in the US.

Dr Wolber has been working across the innovation value chain of medical imaging from very early concepts to translational research, clinical studies and commercialization. For instance, he was a key team member in the development and regulatory approval of GE Healthcare’s amyloid PET agent VizamylTM. He has also been involved in the development and deployment of image analysis software.

Mai-Britt Zocca, PhD, brings more than 18 years of experience in the biotechnology field and has participated in the founding and co-founding of several biotech spinouts. Her focus on translational and clinical immune oncology has led to the development of important immunotherapies for a variety of cancer types. She is a member of the board of directors of DANSK BIOTEK and has held several executive positions in the industry. Dr Zocca holds a PhD in tumor immunology and a Master of Science in biochemistry. She received her PhD from the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Copenhagen and the NIH, National Cancer Institute (NCI), Bethesda, Maryland, USA.