2025 Speakers

Dr. Irina Antonijevic serves as Chief Medical Officer at Trace Neuroscience. To this role, she brings more than three decades of experience in clinical psychiatry and neurology, academia and drug discovery and development. Prior to joining Trace, Dr. Antonijevic served as Chief Medical Officer at EveryONE Medicines, a precision medicine company targeting genetic variants causing fatal, neurodegenerative diseases. In this role, she was responsible for designing and implementing an individualized medicines platform focused on correcting uniquely rare neurogenetic mutations. She previously served as Chief Medical Officer and Head of R&D at Triplet Therapeutics, a company developing treatments for genetic conditions associated with expanded DNA nucleotide repeats. Earlier in her career, Dr. Antonijevic held clinical and scientific roles at various pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Wave Life Sciences, vasopharm GmbH, Sanofi Genzyme, Lundbeck, and Schering AG. Dr. Antonijevic is a board-certified physician trained in Psychiatry and Neurology at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry and was an adjunct faculty member at the University of Berlin. She holds an M.D. from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry and a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh.

Dr. Arbet-Engels joined X4 in August 2023 as Chief Medical Officer. He brings to X4 more than 25 years of experience in strategic global drug discovery, development, and commercialization across a broad range of therapeutic areas including gastroenterology, cardiovascular-metabolism, neurology, oncology, and rare and orphan diseases.

Dr. Arbet-Engels previously served as Chief Medical Officer at several life science companies, including Neurogastrx, Millendo Therapeutics, and Poxel Pharmaceuticals, where he provided research and development leadership, advancing multiple candidates from pre-clinical through to late-stage clinical trials and assisting with both financial and strategic partnering transactions. Prior to these roles, he held a variety of senior medical and clinical positions at Biogen, Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Hoffmann-La Roche, Merck Research Laboratories, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, and Ligand Pharmaceuticals, where he led clinical development and registration, launch, and lifecycle management efforts for several new medicines, including the blockbuster therapies LANTUS® and JARDIANCE®.

Dr. Arbet-Engels has also served in educational roles at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, University of Paris VI, and the Assistance Publique, Hospitals of Paris, and currently serves as a Member of the Board of Tutors in Biochemical Sciences at Harvard University. He received his MD and PhD in internal medicine/endocrinology-metabolism from the University of Paris, France, and completed his MBA at Rutgers University.

Mohammed Asmal, MD, PhD is Senior Vice President, Head of Clinical at Prime Medicine. He is a physician-scientist with an AB in biology and biomedical engineering from Harvard University, and an MD-PhD in molecular and cellular biology from Columbia University. He trained in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals, and has devoted much of his academic career to studying the virology and immunology of HIV, and to treating patients with HIV and other infectious diseases in the clinic. After leaving academic medicine, Dr Asmal took on roles in clinical development at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where he led trials in oncology and hepatitis C, bringing multiple small molecules into the clinic through phase II. He subsequently transitioned to bluebird bio, where he led the clinical development team, overseeing lentiviral-based gene therapy programs in rare disease and oncology, culminating in the first approval of a gene therapy for a hemoglobinopathy in the world. Immediately prior to joining Prime Medicine, Dr Asmal was a venture partner at OrbiMed Advisors, LLC, where he performed diligence on potential investments in the cell and gene therapy, infectious diseases and oncology spaces and oversaw a seed stage investment in cell therapy. Dr Asmal has over 30 peer-reviewed scientific publications in immunology, HIV virology and in clinical trials of gene therapy for hemoglobinopathies.

Dr George Atiee has over 35 years of experience in clinical research and has participated as an investigator in well over 300 clinical studies. Before his role with DVCR, Dr. Atiee served in various leadership roles such as Vice President, Medical Director, Site Director and Lab Director for multiple CROs. Dr Atiee brings a unique perspective to our organization with his ability to assess critical study paths and provide operations teams with efficient strategies for enrollment, data collection and biomedical interventions.

Dr. Bach is a pediatric endocrinologist with over 30 years of global clinical research and pharmaceutical development experience, during which time he has led clinical teams that have successfully launched innovative pharmaceutical products into global markets. He is currently Chief Medical Officer at GentiBio. Prior to this, he was CMO with Structure Therapeutics, where he built a clinical team and helped lead the organization through a successful IPO. For over a decade, Dr. Bach was based in Asia, and served as Head of Asia Pacific Medical Sciences, Head of Japan R&D and Head of China R&D at Janssen Pharmaceutical Co. Before that, he held positions of increasing responsibility in Clinical Research at Merck & Co., Inc., ending his tenure there as Vice President of Clinical Research Operations Worldwide. Dr. Bach has lectured in national and international forums, has numerous publications and served on professional society advisory boards to advance the field of endocrinology and clinical research. Dr. Bach received an M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine, a Ph.D. in Pathology (Immunology) from The University of Chicago, and a B.A. in chemistry from Carleton College.

Dr. Johan Baeck, the Chief. Medical Officer at Promontory Therapeutics, brings over 14 years of expertise in immuno-oncology clinical development. His career has spanned both smaller, emerging biotech firms and large pharmaceutical companies, including a notable nine-year tenure at Novartis. Specializing in treatments for liquid and solid tumors, Dr. Baeck’s extensive experience encompasses his fifth role in biotech, demonstrating his seasoned insight into drug development processes. His dual exposure to both dynamic biotech environments and structured big pharma settings equips him with a comprehensive understanding of oncology patient care and therapeutic innovation.

Harold S. Bernstein MD, PhD brings more than three decades of experience and is an internationally recognized leader in basic scientific research, translational medicine and clinical development both in industry and academia. He currently serves as President, Head of Research and Development, and Chief Medical Officer at Maze Therapeutics, where he is shaping and contributing to the creative strategy and thorough scientific process aimed at delivering new, genetic-based medicines. Before joining Maze, Dr. Bernstein was Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Clinical Development at BioMarin Pharmaceutical. Prior to that, he served as Head of Translational Medicine and Vice President of Global Medicines Development and Medical Affairs at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and held roles of increasing responsibility at Merck and Co, including head of early development for Cardiometabolic Diseases. He was Professor of Pediatrics and a senior investigator at the Cardiovascular Research Institute and the Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He also served as attending physician at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Pediatric Cardiology, and at the Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital in Cardiovascular Genetics. Currently, Dr. Bernstein holds an appointment as Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics and the Mindich Child Health and Development Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He studied biomedical science, human genetics, and medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, earning MPhil, PhD, and MD degrees. He completed a pediatric residency, cardiology fellowship, and postdoctoral fellowship at UCSF and earned an undergraduate degree in biological sciences from Harvard College.

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Ari Brettman is a Senior Managing Director in the Blackstone Life Sciences group, having joined Blackstone as part of its acquisition of Clarus in December of 2018. Mr. Brettman joined Clarus in September 2014. Dr. Brettman is focused on investments across the firm's portfolio, including startups and partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. Prior to Clarus, Dr. Brettman completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Brettman was also an NIH-sponsored post-doctoral fellow at the MGH Center for Systems Biology, where he studied the autophagy of lipid droplets and used electronic medical record-based big data analytics at Partners Healthcare to conduct clinical research and improve disease management. Dr. Brettman is a member of the Board of Directors of Praxis Precision Medicines, a startup in genetically defined neuropsychiatric disorders. Dr. Brettman received his M.D. from Duke University and his AB in History and Science from Harvard College. While a medical student, he was a Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation Fellow at Stanford University, where he studied angiogenesis

Alessandra Cesano, MD, PhD is the Chief Medical Officer at ESSA Pharma since July 2019. 

Previously she was the Chief Medical Officer of NanoString Inc from July 2015 until June 2019 where she focused on the development of translational and diagnostic multiplexed assays for the characterization and measurement of mechanisms of immune response/resistance.

Prior to joining NanoString, Dr Cesano was Chief Medical Officer at Cleave Biosciences, Inc and before then she served as Chief Medical Officer and Chief Operations Officer at Nodality, Inc, where she built and led the R&D group, while providing the overall clinical vision for the organization. Between 1998 and 2008, Dr Cesano held various management positions at Amgen, Biogen Idec and SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, where she helped to advance various oncology drugs through late stage development and FDA approvals. 

Early in her professional career Dr Cesano spent 12 years conducting research in tumor immunology, including nine years at the Wistar Institute, an NCI Basic Cancer Center connected with the University of Pennsylvania.

She also holds membership in several professional and scientific societies including ASCO, ESMO, ASH, EHA, AACR and SITC. In the latter she serves as co-chair in the SITC Industry Committee, Associate Editor for the Biomarker section of JITC and is an active member of the SITC Biomarker Working Group.

Over her career she has been an author on over 140 publications. Dr Cesano received an MD summa cum laude, a Board Certification in Oncology and a PhD in Tumor Immunology from the University of Turin.

Dr Daniel Chung is the Chief Medical Officer for SparingVision, an ocular genomic medicine company, focusing on gene agnostic gene therapy and CRISPR gene editing approaches to combat blinding diseases. Prior to his recruitment to SparingVision, Dr. Chung was the Ophthalmology Therapeutic Leader for Spark Therapeutics, Where he led the medical affair group and contributed to areas of clinical development and operations, marketing, commercial, patient advocacy, pre-clinical research and development and business development. Dr. Chung was intimately involved with the development of Luxturna, the first gene therapy approved by the FDA and EMA for use in a blinding genetic disease.

Prior to joining Spark Therapeutics, at the Scheie Eye Institute, University of Pennsylvania, working in retinal gene therapy. Also serving as a sub-PI on the RPE65 gene therapy clinical trial at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and made major contribution to the development of the Phase 3 MLMT novel endpoint, was PI of the MLMT study, and the RPE65 Natural History Study. He completed his ophthalmology residency at Summa Health Systems in Akron, Ohio. He then completed fellowships in pediatric ophthalmology and ocular genetics research at the Cole Eye Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, and in retinal gene therapy at the National Eye Institute/NIH in Bethesda, MD.

Simon Cooper is the Chief Medical Officer of LifeMine Therapeutics.  He is an accomplished leader in drug development with an extensive background in translational medicine and clinical development. Over the course of his career, he has worked across multiple modalities and therapeutic areas from first-in-human studies through FDA submissions and approvals of highly successful therapeutics.

Prior to joining LifeMine, Simon was CMO of Morphic Therapeutic (acquired by Eli Lilly). Earlier, he served as Chief Medical Officer of Keros Therapeutics, Kadmon Holdings and Anokion, where he drove significant advances in program development and built key functional areas to support clinical development for assets in the autoimmune, inflammatory, and immuno-oncology areas.  Earlier in this career, Simon held roles of increasing responsibility at research and development organizations including Wyeth Research, Roche, Human Genome Sciences, Novartis, Sanofi and AbbVie.

Peg Crowley-Nowick is a well-respected expert in the pharmaceutical industry, bringing nearly 30 years of experience in medical affairs and clinical research. She has successfully led late-stage biotech and pharmaceutical companies through multiple product launches across several therapeutic areas, such as oncology, cardiovascular and diabetes. Dr Crowley-Nowick's patient-centric view and drive for improved patient care and outcomes have propelled her to shape Lumanity Medical Affairs based on not only scientific integrity but also continual collaboration with emerging medical stakeholders. Earlier in her career, Dr Crowley-Nowick held academic appointments, establishing her scientific credibility in the research and medical communities. Later she joined industry and gained valuable experience at all levels of responsibility within Medical Affairs, first at Berlex Laboratories, and then Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals. Dr Crowley-Nowick founded Zipher Medical Affairs which was acquired by Lumanity in 2021. Dr Crowley-Nowick received a PhD from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the field of immunology and an MBA from Simmons School of Management.

Jay Destino is the Vice President, Functional Service Provider (FSP) Solutions at BioPoint, Inc., where he drives strategic growth and innovation for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries. With over a decade of experience at BioPoint, Jay has excelled in roles ranging from recruitment to leadership, leveraging his expertise to deliver tailored solutions in Clinical Development, Drug Safety, Regulatory Affairs, and beyond.

He is dedicated to addressing complex challenges with scalable, flexible approaches, partnering with sponsor organizations to optimize resource allocation, reduce risk and enhance drug development processes. Jay's extensive skills include Business Development, RFP management, and consulting, supported by his technical background from Purdue University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering.

Based in the Greater Boston Area, Jay combines analytical rigor with a passion for empowering innovation, fostering long-term partnerships with clients. His work exemplifies a hands-on approach to problem-solving, delivering measurable impact across life science organizations.

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Dr. Dezube is Senior Vice President, Head of Clinical Development of Xilio Therapeutics, a company whose mission is to develop tumor-activated immune- oncology therapies for patients with solid tumors. Dr. Dezube joined Xilio from Mustang, where he served as Chief Medical Offer of Mustang Bio, which is developing the next generation of gene and cell therapies. Prior to that, Dr. Dezube served as Vice President and Clinical Head of Oncology at Alkermes, where he oversaw the advancement of the company’s interleukin-2 variant from Phase 1 to registrational studies for the treatment of cancers. Before Alkermes, Dr. Dezube spent more than 9 years with Millennium (now Takeda Oncology) and Tesaro (now GlaxoSmithKline), where he held positions of increasing responsibility related to the development of their oncology pipelines.  Fields of industry focus include colorectal cancer, lymphoma, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), ovarian cancer, breast cancer, melanoma, and renal cell cancer. Earlier in his career, Dr. Dezube was an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where he served as an Attending Physician for more than 20 years.  There he served on the Board of Trustees and was the Director of the Experimental Therapeutics/Phase 1 unit, Director of AIDS Oncology, and Deputy Director of the Cancer Center Clinical Trials Office.  He is triple board certified- internal medicine, hematology, and oncology and has authored more than 200 publications on PubMed.  He completed his internal medicine residency training at Tufts/New England Medical Center and hematology-oncology fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School.

Dr Drew Dietz leads clinical development and research at Ensoma, where he brings extensive expertise in clinical development, regulatory affairs, and research, with a particular focus on gene and cell therapy and RNA editing technologies. Prior to joining Ensoma, he led these functions for Shape Therapeutics, where he was instrumental in advancing the company’s preclinical pipeline, which includes innovations in RNA editing, next-generation AAVs, and gene therapy manufacturing.

Dr Dietz earned his medical degree from the University of Minnesota, followed by a pediatric residency at Seattle Children’s Hospital and a fellowship in hematology, oncology, and stem cell transplantation at the University of Minnesota. He spent six years in clinical and academic research, where he oversaw pediatric stem cell transplants, designed clinical trial protocols, and served as an investigator in early CAR T-cell trials for pediatric leukemia.

Transitioning to the biotech industry, Dr Dietz joined bluebird bio, where he played a critical role in the late-stage clinical trials that led to the regulatory approval of ex vivo lentiviral vector gene therapies in both the U.S. and EU. Dr Dietz has also contributed to the development of regulatory strategies and serves as a member of the ARM Gene Therapy Advisory Group and the ASGCT Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.

Joseph Elassal, MD is Chief Medical Officer of Ankyra Therapeutics. He has over a 15 year career in the pharmaceutical industry with his most recent position serving as a Senior Director for Medical Affairs at Regeneron where he was leading efforts on cemiplimab and other immunotherapy approaches for patients with cervical and non-melanoma skin cancer. He has also served as Senior Medical Director at Replimune overseeing early stage clinical development of oncolytic viruses in a variety of solid tumors. Prior to that, he served as Deputy Vice-President at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) where he lead regulatory policy efforts for biosimilars as well as cell and gene therapies including implementation of the Biosimilars User Fee Act (BsUFA II). Dr Elassal earned his MD from Eastern Virginia Medical School and MBA from Columbia Business School. He completed his internship and residency at Columbia University/New York Presbyterian Hospital and is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Peter Francis is a highly experienced biotechnology executive and an ophthalmologist clinician- scientist with expertise in ophthalmic genetics and retinal disease. He graduated from medical school in the U.K. and undertook residency in London. He obtained his PhD in ophthalmic genetics from University College, London and is fellowship trained in Retina. Peter has almost two decades of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries where he has led a number of gene therapy products from discovery to early-stage clinical development. Most recently he served as Chief Scientific Officer at 4D Molecular Therapeutics, a leader in AAV-based gene therapy and was prior, their first Chief Medical Officer and Head of Translational Research. Previously, Peter was Chief Medical Officer at RetroSense Therapeutics, the first visual optogenetics company which was successfully sold to a large pharmaceutical company. Peter is a member of the Macula Society, the American Ophthalmological Society and the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He has held academic faculty positions at St. Thomas’ Hospital, London and Casey Eye Institute, OHSU, Portland, OR. He has published about 100 peer-reviewed articles.

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Dr Anna Frostegård is a globally educated, board-certified physician holding MD summa cum laude. She obtained her PhD in Experimental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Dr Frostegård served as Assistant Professor at the Unit of Immunology and Chronic Disease at Karolinska Institutet. She has an active career in both medical science and biotech. She is the co-founder and currently the Chief Scientific and Medical Officer in Annexin Pharmaceuticals AB (publ), a First North/Nasdaq listed biotech company. Dr Frostegård has over 15 years of “first-hand” leadership experience in discoveries of biologic drug candidates and transition of academic inventions into a drug development process, biotech startups, IPO, financing, pre-clinical and early clinical development of biologic drug candidates as well as in strategic work related to building asset and intellectual property portfolios, in- and out licensing. Therapeutic areas of expertise are inflammation & immunology, autoimmunity and cardiovascular disease. She is the co-inventor on several granted patents and patent applications related to therapeutic use of Annexin A5 in human disease. She has co-founded 5 companies within EU. She is a board member in 4 companies. She consults academic researchers and investors on effective interactions between academic inventors and biotechnology industry. She advises on early stage investments in biotechnology. Dr Frostegård holds several awards for scientific communication. She is a professional member of the American Heart Association.

Dr Eva Gallagher is a nurse practitioner with a PhD in nursing from the University of Minnesota. Currently serving as Vice President, Head of Global Medical Affairs at Agios Pharmaceuticals, Dr Gallagher is responsible for oversight of Scientific Communications, Publications, Patient Advocacy, Medical Information, Operations and Medical Science Liaisons supporting rare genetic diseases with teams in the US, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the MENA region. Additionally, she is responsible for driving medical strategy and oversight of a team of medical directors across multiple therapeutic areas including pyruvate kinase deficiency, thalassemia, sickle cell disease, and myelodysplastic syndrome.

Kenneth A. Getz, MBA, is the Executive Director and Professor at the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, Tufts University School of Medicine, where he conducts research focusing on drug development management and operating strategies and tactics; protocol design practices; and global outsourcing, investigative site and patient recruitment practices and policies. He is also the chairman of CISCRP – a nonprofit organization that he founded to educate and raise public and patient awareness of the clinical research enterprise. A well-known speaker at conferences, symposia, universities, investor meetings and corporations, Mr Getz has published extensively in peer-review journals, books and in the trade press and writes a bi-monthly column nominated for a Neal Award in Applied Clinical Trials. He holds a number of board appointments in the private and public sectors including WCG and ORA and serves on the editorial boards of Pharmaceutical Medicine and Therapeutic Innovation and Regulatory Science. Mr Getz received an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree, Phi Beta Kappa, from Brandeis University. Mr Getz is the founder of CenterWatch, a leading publisher in the clinical trials industry.

Dr Sarah Gheuens joined Agios in December 2019, became chief medical officer in September 2021 and took on the additional role of head of R&D in August 2022. She previously served as Agios’ head of clinical development for the genetically defined disease programs, as well as the interim head of regulatory affairs. She has been instrumental in completing the pivotal Phase 3 program for pyruvate kinase deficiency and leading simultaneous regulatory submissions to the FDA and EMA in this indication, as well as designing the pivotal programs for thalassemia, sickle cell disease and the pediatric indications.

Prior to joining Agios, Dr Gheuens worked at Biogen, where she held roles of increasing responsibility in safety, medical affairs and clinical development. Her work was critical for the approval of SPINRAZA®. Before joining Biogen, Dr Gheuens worked at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), taking care of patients with HIV and neurological complications and doing research on progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. Dr Gheuens received her medical degree from the Free University of Brussels (VUB), Belgium, and completed her neurology residency at the University Hospital of the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, followed by an HIV/neurology fellowship at BIDMC, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She also holds a PhD in Medical Sciences from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and a Master’s in Medical Sciences from Harvard Medical School.

John Goldberg is the Chief Medical Officer for Rafael Holdings, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on investing in and developing novel therapies for cancer. Prior to this role, John was the Chief Medical Officer at Oncorus, an oncolytic virus and RNA medicine oncology drug developer. In collaboration with the scientific and manufacturing teams, he was responsible for driving the clinical studies of Oncorus’ viral immunotherapies, and for ongoing development and regulatory strategies. He is a seasoned biotech executive and drug developer with 18 years of clinical trials experience across academia and industry. Other prior roles include Senior Medical Director at H3 Biomedicine, where he led the clinical trial of H3B-8800 (first spliceosome modulator in clinic), clinical development at Agenus, and the leadership of the pediatric oncology Phase 1 program at the University of Miami. John’s immunotherapy experience includes first-in-human neo-antigen vaccines, dendritic cell vaccine and GVAX trials, as well as checkpoint inhibitors and costimulatory agonists. He is a  pediatric oncologist with 18 years of experience treating children with cancer and enrolling patients in clinical trials. John received his pediatric hematology oncology training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital Boston, and his general pediatrics training at the University of Rochester. John is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the college of the University of Chicago where he concentrated in the biological sciences.

Aiken has over two decades of experience in government relations. She began her career as a young aide for a D.C.-based boutique lobbying firm focused on agriculture, she soon after pivoted to health care where she has spent close to two decades. The confluence of agriculture and health care provide unique insight and an extensive network for her work at BIO. Aiken joined BIO in 2018 as the Director of Federal Government Relations and in 2024, she was promoted to Senior Vice President of Federal Government Affairs. Throughout her tenue at BIO, she has played a significant role in developing and driving BIO’s federal advocacy and political strategy in areas of patient access and affordability, regulatory affairs, infectious diseases policy, agriculture, intellectual property, and capital formation. Prior to joining BIO, Aiken spent more than a decade in various government affairs roles within the physician community, both in Washington and Atlanta, GA, including the American Medical Association, the American College of Rheumatology, and the Medical Association of Georgia. In those roles, Hackett built and assembled coalition networks to advance advocacy efforts by bringing together providers, patient advocacy organizations and key external stakeholders. An Atlanta native, Hackett received a B.A. in both history and political science, and a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy, from the University of Georgia. She resides in Washington, D.C.

Scott Harris has served as Chief Medical Officer of Altimmune (NASDAQ: ALT), a publicly traded company developing next generation peptide therapeutics for obesity and liver disease, since 2019. He has 20 years of experience of development in gastroenterology, hepatology and metabolism therapeutics. He co-founded Lyric Pharmaceuticals in 2015, where he raised a $20.8 M Series A financing round and served as its Chief Medical Officer. Dr Harris also served as Chief Medical Officer of Avaxia Biologics and Ocera Therapeutics, and he headed clinical development at Napo Pharmaceuticals, where he authored the ADVENT study, the first Phase 2/3 adaptive trial to result in a drug approval (Mytesi®, 2012). He has collaborated with the FDA Division of Gastroenterology and the American Gastroenterological Association on sponsored forums on drug development and clinical trial design. Dr Harris has an MD from Harvard Medical School. He completed medical residencies at John Hopkins Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania and a Gastroenterology and Hepatology Fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine. He serves on the scientific advisory board of Protagonist Therapeutics and RedHill Biopharmaceuticals and holds a seat on the faculty of Georgetown University School of Medicine, where he teaches a graduate course in drug development.

Donna Higgins is Founder & CEO of The Higgins Group, Inc, one of the oldest and most successful search firms in the life sciences. Founded in 1998, the firm has grown exclusively through referrals as a result of Ms Higgins’s simple but powerful business philosophy: to develop lasting relationships with a select group of clients by doing great work. This drive for excellence infuses every aspect of the firm’s work due to a culture that values superior results, exceptional teamwork and doing the right thing. Although her team has diverse backgrounds and experiences, all of The Higgins Group consultants, researchers and associates share Ms Higgins’s energy, optimism, integrity and grit.

Over her 30 years’ in the life sciences, Ms Higgins has gained a global reputation for her insight, expertise and integrity. Prior to starting her own firm, Ms Higgins was Vice President & Life Science Practice Lead for Howard Fischer Associates International where she rapidly built the life science practice by consistently exceeding her clients’ expectations. Before becoming a search professional, Ms Higgins worked on commercial teams at both ends of the life sciences spectrum, dividing a decade between Abbott Laboratories, a Fortune 50 pharmaceutical company, and Immunex, an emerging biotech company at the time.

Ms Higgins holds an MBA from Drexel University and a BA from Penn State University. Committed to lifelong learning, she joined the Coaching Certification Program at Columbia University to continue sharpening the strategic coaching she provides to clients and candidates. She is an Advisory Board member for Life Sciences Cares and the Association of Women Entrepreneurs, and a Board member for Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence Region and AchieveAbility. She also serves as adjunct faculty at the Center for Positive Leadership, where she is a frequent speaker on women in business. Ms Higgins divides her time between the company’s Philadelphia and Boston offices.

Dr. Jeff Humphrey is an oncologist and physician-scientist with longstanding experience in big pharma and biotechnology. Currently, he is CMO at Lantheus, the leading radiopharmaceutical-focused company using diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals to find, fight, and follow disease in oncology and neurology. Dr Humphrey previously co-founded Charged Biotherapeutics and served as CMO of Constellation, Magenta, and of Kyowa Kirin where he also served as Chief Development Officer and President of the US and EU research organizations. He previously held executive development and medical affairs positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, and Bayer. Dr. Humphrey has 30 years of cancer research and drug discovery experience, with 20 years of experience leading departments and organizations developing drugs from pre-IND to post-launch. Dr Humphrey has been involved in numerous IND and NDA/BLA/MAA regulatory submissions in the US and EU leading to FDA and EU approvals from Nexavar® to Poteligeo®, Nourianz®, and Crysvita®. He has over 60 publications* in molecular biology and clinical research during his industry and academic career. Dr. Humphrey is a graduate of Harvard and CWRU medical school. He completed his medical residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and post-doctoral fellowships in human genetics and medical oncology at the US NIH and NCI.

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qk1zVkAAAAAJ&hl=en

Daniela embodies leadership and expertise in Life Science Recruiting, with an impressive 21-year tenure marked by continuous success and industry accolades. Daniela’s career reflects her commitment to excellence and client satisfaction, making her a standout leader in the industry.

Daniela’s background in executive management across Organizational Development, Process Improvement, Human Resources and Finance, combined with her academic credentials— a BS in Business Administration and an MA in Organizational Management—provide a solid foundation for her strategic approach to solving the challenges her clients face. Her comprehensive methodology, which integrates deep market understanding with client-candidate alignment, has solidified her reputation as a trusted advisor and valued partner.

Specializing in startup to midsized Life Sciences companies, Daniela has built enduring relationships with clients and candidates, many of them spanning decades. Her ability to identify and secure impactful executives who drive organizational success and shape company culture is unmatched, positioning her as a reliable mainstay within her sector.

Dr. Vijay Kasturi began his role as Chief Medical Officer of CG Oncology in early August, 2023, where he is part of the executive leadership team. He previously served as Vice President, Clinical Development and Medical Affairs with AVEO Oncology and also managed Pharmacovigilance. Prior to that he was Senior Vice President of Scientific Affairs at FerGene where he led Medical Affairs, Clinical Operations, Regulatory and Clinical Development in connection with the nadofaragene program. Earlier, he led U.S. Medical Affairs, Oncology for EMD Serono, where he had broad leadership responsibilities including developing and managing the global medical strategy and launch plan for an anti-PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor in bladder and kidney cancers. His 5 years at EMD Serono included 2 years as the Global Medical Affairs lead for avelumab and he led the global launch of avelumab in merkel cell cancer, the global investigator sponsored trial program and the expanded access program for avelumab. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Kasturi was Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology and Program Leader for Genitourinary Oncology at the University of Massachusetts cancer center. He completed his Hematology/Oncology fellowship training at the National Cancer Institute, NIH.

Dr. Katz is currently Chief Medical Officer and SVP of Translational Research for Shinobi Therapeutics. He has more than 15 years of experience in clinical oncology leadership, immunotherapy translational science, and clinical development of immunotherapeutics, including cell therapy for solid tumors in the US and Japan. As a CMO, he has led multiple immunotherapy clinical trials, built immune correlative biospecimen programs, helped secure IND clearance for complex drug-device trials, helped secure a CMS reimbursement code for cancer therapeutic delivery procedures, and supported a Nasdaq listing. As a scientist, he has developed novel immunotherapy approaches for liver and pancreatic tumors, including cell therapy constructs and innovative combinatorial strategies. Two major areas of focus have been development of solutions for solid tumor microenvironment challenges and drug delivery barriers.

He previously served as Chief Medical Officer for TriSalus Life Sciences, focused on developing novel immunotherapy approaches for liver and pancreas tumors, combining innovative delivery approaches with an innate immune stimulator. He maintains a part- time role as a surgical oncologist at Brown University. Dr. Katz attended the New York University School of Medicine, receiving the Alpha Omega Alpha Award for graduating with the top academic average in his class. He then completed his general surgery residency at the New York University Medical Center. Dr. Katz completed Fellowships in Immunology and Surgical Oncology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he served as the Chief Administrative Fellow. 

His overarching career goal is to develop novel cell therapy treatments for presently incurable solid tumors, and difficult to treat autoimmune diseases.

Dr. Randall Kaye has over 30 years of experience in the medical field and has served as Chief Medical Officer since March 2022. Prior to joining Longboard, Dr. Kaye was Chief Medical Officer of Neurana Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company focused on the treatment of neuromuscular conditions.  He previously served as Chief Medical Officer of Click Therapeutics, Inc., a leader in digital healthcare innovation, where he was involved in the development of software as a prescription medical treatment for a number of chronic debilitating conditions. Prior to Click, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of SSI Strategy Holdings LLC, where he oversaw clinical development, medical affairs and pharmacovigilance. In conjunction with his role at SSI Strategy, he was Chief Medical Officer of Axsome Therapeutics, Inc. Earlier in his career, Dr. Kaye held the positions of Chief Medical Officer of Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co.) and Vice President, Medical Affairs of Scios Inc. (acquired by Johnson & Johnson) and InterMune, Inc. (acquired by Roche Holding AG). He also held clinical development and medical affairs positions at Pfizer Inc. Dr. Kaye earned an M.D., M.P.H. and B.S. at George Washington University, completed his pediatric training at UMASS Medical Center and finished his academic training as a postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School.

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Dr. Aaron Koenig is the Chief Medical Office of Delix Therapeutics, a neuroscience company developing novel neuroplasticity-promoting therapeutics for psychiatric and neurological conditions. Dr. Koenig received his MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed a residency in Adult Psychiatry at Western Psychiatric Institute & Clinic, where he also served as a Chief Resident for Research. Dr. Koenig completed a clinical fellowship in Geriatric Psychiatry at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, followed by a post-doctoral research fellowship in Psychiatric Genetics and Translational Research at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. A diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN), Dr. Koenig has been involved in clinical and translational research throughout his career, with a particular focus on the development of treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders with high unmet need. Prior to joining Delix, Dr. Koenig served as Vice President of Early Medical Science at Sage Therapeutics and helped oversee clinical-stage programs targeting a range of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Prior to Sage, Dr. Koenig served as a clinical investigator at the Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and practiced as a clinician in the MGH Memory Disorders Unit in the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Kartik Krishnan joined OncoNano Medicine as their first CMO in June of 2022. He has over 20 years of experience with experimental therapeutics in cancer as both an investigator and sponsor. Prior to OncoNano, Dr Krishnan was CMO of Arcus Biosciences, a discovery and clinical development company focusing on combination therapies in immuno-oncology. At Arcus, Dr Krishnan oversaw a portfolio of agents including both biologics and small molecules at multiple phases of development from first-in-human to Phase 3 and led a diverse group of functions. Prior to Arcus, Dr Krishnan had spent time in clinical development and pharmacovigilance at Astex, FivePrime Therapeutics, BioMarin, Genentech Roche and Amgen. Before joining the biotechnology industry, Dr Krishnan held a faculty position in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Arizona, with both clinical and primary research responsibilities. Dr Krishnan received his BA in History (with Distinction) from the University of Virginia. He completed his MD and PhD in Cellular, Molecular and Biophysical Studies at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. His PhD studies were completed in the lab of Dr John Krolewski, focusing on JAK/STAT signaling in the interferon pathway. Dr Krishnan trained in pediatrics at UCLA and in pediatric hematology and oncology at Johns Hopkins University and the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Krop is a seasoned physician executive with a breadth of drug development experience across multiple therapeutic indications in both pre- commercial and commercial organizations. Most recently, she served as the Chief Medical Officer at Pure Tech Health plc (Nasdaq:PRTC), a clinical stage biotherapeutics company dedicated to discovering, developing and commercializing highly differentiated medicines for people living with high unmet need orphan conditions. Prior to assuming her position with PureTech Health, Dr. Krop served as Chief Medical Officer of Freeline Therapeutics (Nasdaq:FRLN), a clinical stage gene therapy company and the Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Development, at AMAG Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AMAG) where she successfully oversaw three FDA drug approvals. Previously, Dr. Krop served as the Vice President of Clinical Development for Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX) where she led development for their Hepatitis C franchise and designed the first proof of concept studies for their pain programs.  Dr. Krop received her B.A. from Brown University and her M.D. from Brown University School of Medicine. She completed her fellowship in the Department of Endocrinology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she was also a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar.  Dr Krop has extensive experience successfully designing and executing clinical development programs from early-stage development through FDA approval, and has held senior leadership roles across clinical development, regulatory affairs, clinical operations, pharmacovigilance, medical affairs and program management during her career.  She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Aquestive Therapeutics (NASDAQ AQST) and is a member of the FDA Pulmonary-Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee.

Dr David Lebwohl is chief medical officer at Intellia Therapeutics, a genome editing company. In that role, he and his team brought to the clinic two in vivo gene knock out therapies: NTLA-2001 targeting TTR for ATTR-amyloidosis and NTLA-2002 targeting prekallikrein for hereditary angioedema. Both are now in phase 3 registrational studies. Dr Lebwohl’s career spans three decades in the biopharmaceutical industry, successfully bringing novel medicines through all phases of clinical trials and global regulatory approvals. During his career, he oversaw multiple full-scale development programs with more than 200 clinical studies across myriad indications. Before Intellia, Dr Lebwohl was chief medical officer at Semma Therapeutics, where he was leading the company’s regenerative medicine efforts. Prior to Semma, Dr Lebwohl held senior-level positions leading drug development at Novartis Pharmaceuticals. While there, Dr Lebwohl served as senior vice president and franchise global program head and was responsible for the development of the breakthrough therapy Kymriah® (tisagenlecleucel), approved for the treatment of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and diffuse large B cell lymphoma, and for Afinitor®, approved for tuberous sclerosis and multiple oncology indications. Dr Lebwohl received an undergraduate degree from Harvard College and M.D. from Yale University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Mr James Lewis has over 18 years’ experience as a specialist Contract Recruiter.

Mr Lewis has placed over 600 Contractors in over 30 Countries globally.

For the last 7 years, Mr Lewis has led the Global Contract Division at Barrington James. Focusing on niche positions, rather than volume recruitment, Mr Lewis has built a team of Market Specialist consultants, who recruit through a personal network rather than a Database and Social Media.

The Barrington James Medical Division places CMO’s, Senior Clinical Development professionals, Research Physicians and MSL’s across the Americas, throughout Europe and The APAC Region. Our Network is built on face to face relationships as long term sponsors and members of the BIO International and Bio-Europe community. We have unrivaled global access to the top talent in the Biotech space.

Dr Gen Li is the President and Founder of Phesi Inc., the clinical data science company that helps the biopharmaceutical industry deliver smarter trials and faster cures. Dr Li has extensive experience in clinical development, having previously worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer and Pharmacia, where he significantly contributed to the Centre for Medicines Research (CMR) International database for pharmaceutical R&D performance. He was the first to drive the implementation of Balanced Scorecard in a top clinical development organization. His work inspired him to create Phesi - ensuring the insights held from historical data, or data collected from failed clinical trials were not lost. Under Dr Li’s leadership, Phesi has supported a number of landmark trials including Keytruda with its integrated solutions that accelerate drug development and commercialization. Phesi continues to disrupt the industry with its AI-driven Trial Accelerator™ platform that harnesses the industry’s largest database of global real-world patient data to generate Digital Patient Profiles, Digital Twins and External Control Arms. Phesi delivers actionable insights for trial design, planning and execution, enabling pharma and biopharma companies to optimize protocol design, improve enrollment and reduce patient and investigator site burden and cycle times.

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.

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Michael E. Meyers, is Vice Chairman, Head of M&A and Strategic Advisory Services at H.C. Wainwright & Co. Mr. Meyers has ~30 years of public health, investment banking, venture capital, asset management and operating experience in healthcare, with an emphasis on the life sciences and health care delivery. Over the course of his career, Mr. Meyers has advised on ~ $150 billion of strategic and financial transactions, the latter spanning the capital structure, including royalty financings. Previously, Mr. Meyers was Head of Investment Banking with T.R. Winston & Company; CEO and CIO of Arcoda Capital Management; Managing Director, Partner and Member of the Board of Global Biomedical Partners AG, a life sciences venture capital firm; Director of healthcare investment banking with Merrill Lynch & Co.; Vice President of Health Care Investment Banking with Cowen & Company; and a research associate with Hambrecht & Quist. Mr. Meyers serves on the Board of Trustees of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, and the University of Southern California’s Board of Councilors for the Stevens Center for Innovation and School of Dramatic Arts. Mr. Meyers holds an M.P.H. in Health Policy and Management from Columbia University, and an A.B. in Biology from Brandeis University.

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Dr Michael Murphy is the Chief Medical & Scientific Officer for Worldwide Clinical Trials, an international, multiservice , therapeutically focused clinical research organization providing research services for devices and pharmaceutical products across all phases of clinical development. During a career of 30 years, discovery and development activities emphasized the integration of medical and scientific acumen with operational excellence. Approximately 130 publications span diverse subjects from clinical trial methodology through commercialization. He is the sponsor of the Michael F. Murphy Clinical Research Methodology Fellowship Program at Worldwide Clinical Trials.

Prior to joining Worldwide, Dr Murphy was Chief Medical Officer, and Senior Vice President of Discovery and Development at TorreyPines Therapeutics Inc. Contributions emphasized translational research for small molecules in neurodegeneration and analgesia (GWAS, γ secretase modulator, AMPA/kainate receptor antagonists, selective M1 agonists). He served as President and Chief Medical and Scientific Officer of a Clinical Research Organization within UnitedHealth Group. During his tenure, this CRO was rated "number one" in the United States by CenterWatch.

Dr Murphy has participated in the preIND, IND/CTA application process for multiple small molecules ,biologics, and advanced therapy medicinal products. Product registration for which he is had direct responsibility exist in depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and narcolepsy [PROVIGIL® (modafinil)].

He is boarded in psychiatry and has a doctorate in pharmacology, with training at Tulane University, Stanford University, and the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. He is a Founder, and Research & Development Editor for American Health & Drug Benefits™ a publication which focuses upon cost, quality, and access in the transition of novel diagnostics and therapeutics from discovery to commercialization. For 25 years, he has been a lecturer within the Clinical and Translational (C/T) Research Academy, Harvard Medical School, the Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center and contributes to a curriculum focusing on innovative trial methodology within clinical development.

He is the recipient of the Clinical Research & Excellence (CARE) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. The award is presented annually to an extraordinary individual with exceptional contributions and a consistent history of service to the clinical research industry throughout their career. PharmaVoice selected him as one of 2017’s 100 Most Inspiring People in the life-sciences industry.

Natalia "Natasha" Muehlemann, MD, MBA has over 20 years of experience in General Management, Clinical Development, Business Development & Licensing in Life Sciences across several therapeutic areas.

In her position of VP, Strategic Consulting at Cytel, Natalia focuses on the on the integration of innovative adaptive frequentists and Bayesian designs, Machine Learning methods and RWE into comprehensive clinical development strategies. Prior to Cytel, Natalia was global Category Head, Acute Care – Oncology – Devices at Nestle Health Sciences. Natalia has been acting as Expert Jury member for European Commission's Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency and other Investors forums.

Natalia holds an MD and MBA from IMD, and professional certifications in statistics, data science and AI/ML from Stanford, IBM and MIT.

Kemi Olugemo, MD, is a Neurologist and Physician Scientist with a passion for health and gender equity. As Chief Medical Officer at Korro Bio, Dr Olugemo leads cross-functional teams in developing therapies for rare and prevalent diseases using the companies’ proprietary RNA-editing platform. Dr Olugemo brings over 20 years of clinical research and biopharmaceutical industry experience, with experience in rare and orphan disease, nucleic acid therapies, biologics and other modalities. Prior to joining Korro, Dr Olugemo was Vice President Global Clinical Development at Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, and has held positions of increasing responsibility at Parexel, Ionis Pharmaceuticals and Laronde. Dr Olugemo is the recipient of the Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences Alumni Award from the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, Leadership in Action Award from Women of Color in Pharma, and the 2023 Extraordinary Women Advancing Healthcare in Massachusetts Award from the Women’s Edge. She is founder and president of Zebulon Foundation and holds leadership positions at the International Society for CNS Clinical Trials and Methodology (ISCTM) as well as Clinics IV Life.

Joseph M. Palumbo, MD, LFAPA, MACPsych, is Executive Vice President (EVP), Head of Research & Development (R&D) and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of BioVie Inc., a clinical-stage company developing innovative drug therapies for the treatment of neurological and neurodegenerative disorders and advanced liver disease. In addition to his role at BioVie, Palumbo is a Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and a Fellow of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology. He is also involved in academia, serving as a member of the American College of Psychiatrists along with sitting on the Dean’s Council of Advisors at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Prior to joining BioVie, Dr. Palumbo served as CMO for Zynerba, developing therapeutics for autism and other rare neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions of adults and children. He previously held senior worldwide governance roles at Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma in both the United States (US) and Japan, where he led medical science and translational research across multiple therapeutic areas, and guided successful registrational programs for RADICAVA® (edaravone) for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in the US, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, South Korea, and other countries. Palumbo also served as Global Head and Franchise Medical Leader for Psychiatry, and the Interim Head of Global Neuroscience at Johnson & Johnson, where he led the medical teams who achieved successful global registrations in multiple neuropsychiatric conditions for RISPERDAL® (risperidone), CONCERTA® (methylphenidate HCL) and INVEGA® (paliperidone). He has also served on the executive teams of international pharmaceutical companies including Sanofi-Synthelabo and Cephalon, as well as senior leadership roles at prestigious academic institutions including Yale University, Cornell University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Palumbo holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a Doctor of Medicine from the George Washington University School of Medicine. He was a Biological Sciences Training Program Fellow of the National Institutes of Health, a research mentor of junior faculty at both the APA and the Society of Biological Psychiatry, and served as Chief Resident for the Abraham Ribicoff Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit at Yale University. Dr Palumbo has also received Board Certification in Psychiatry and Addiction Psychiatry.

Dr Pryluk is the co-founder & CEO of PhaseV, a technological company that developed a causal-ML-based platform for the design and execution of adaptive clinical trials. He has over a decade of experience as a technological leader in the advanced technological defense industry, after which he transitioned into the health-tech industry and joined Immunai as SVP of Operations and Analytics. Dr Pryluk holds a BSc and MSc in engineering from the Technion (Cum Laude) and PhD in computational neuroscience from the Weizmann Institute (Magna Cum Laude, John F. Kennedy Prize).

Ravi Rao is the Chief Medical Officer at Sitryx Therapeutics, a Venture Partner at SV Health Investors and an independent board director of DBV Technologies. He was previously Head of R&D and CMO at Swedish Orphan Biovitrum, where he led the development and approval of several medicines in rare diseases across immunology and haematology. Prior to that, he was Chief Medical Officer of Aeglea Biotherapeutics, a company specialising in rare metabolic diseases. Previously, he held several senior positions in R&D at GlaxoSmithKline in immunology and specialty medicines and was an immunology Group Medical Director at Roche Genentech. He has worked in discovery medicine, early and late-stage development as well as global medical affairs. Ravi was an academic rheumatologist and physician-scientist at Imperial College, London. He is a Member of the Royal College of Physicians, London and an Honorary Member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine. He received his medical degree from Cambridge University and his Ph.D. from Imperial College, completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School in the field of vascular biology and inflammation.

Dr Rosen, MD, is a physician-scientist and has broad experience in biopharmaceutical oncology and hematology product development, including global clinical development, global medical affairs, translational medicine, patient advocacy, and health economics and outcomes research (HEOR). He is passionate about successful translation of data from bench to bedside to develop medicines that address unmet medical needs. Prior to joining Akamis Bio, he served as President and CMO at DynamiCure as well as CMO of SQZ Biotechnologies and Deciphera Pharmaceuticals. At SQZ, his work led to achieving proof of concept in the clinic for an autologous PBMC-based antigen presenting cell platform and a red blood cell-based cancer vaccine. At Deciphera, he took four small molecules into the clinic, and his work led to the full approval of QINLOCK™. Before joining Deciphera, Dr Rosen held senior clinical development and medical affairs roles including at Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company and Genentech.

Dr Rosen received his medical training in oncology and hematology at the University Hospital Charité in Berlin. His academic career focus was on the first applications of autologous stem-cell transplants in patients with refractory autoimmune diseases and on the systematic administration of prophylactic donor lymphocyte infusion after allogeneic stem cell transplantation in adults with hematological malignancies. Prior to his clinical training, Dr Rosen participated in a post-doctoral program in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Hamburg and holds an MD from the University of Cologne, Germany.

Dr. Howard Rutman is the CMO of Xalud Therapeutics where he oversees the development of plasmid-DNA based therapies for inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases. Since joining Xalud in April 2021, Dr Rutman has been responsible for the development program for XT-150, an IL-10 based transgene therapy that has completed 5 clinical trials for arthritic conditions. The clinical neuroinflammation program targeting ALS has recently begun with an ongoing Phase 1 study. Dr Rutman serves as the scientific face of Xalud in discussions with investors and potential partners. He has appeared on numerous biotech panels related to gene therapy development programs. 

Prior to joining Xalud, Dr Rutman was VP of Medical Affairs for Daiichi Sankyo US. In that role, he led the Medical Affairs group across all therapeutic areas to enhance the awareness of Daiichi Sankyo approved and clinical stage products through the generation, interpretation and exchange of high quality medical and scientific information for internal and external stakeholders. While at Daiichi Sankyo he had a leadership role in launches across multiple therapeutic areas including cardiovascular thrombosis, pain and oncology. Previously, Dr Rutman was at Pfizer as Global Medical Affairs lead for multiple monoclonal antibody biosimilars that were developed in oncology and immunology. 

Dr Rutman began his career as a New York-based academic cardiologist with a focus on managing patients with chronic congestive heart failure. He received a BA in Biochemical Sciences and Molecular Biology from Harvard, an MD from Johns Hopkins and an MBA from NYU-Stern. Dr Rutman completed his medical residency at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and his cardiology fellowship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He remains on the teaching faculty of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Holly Schachner, M.D., is the Chief Medical Officer, Deerfield Discovery and Development and joined the Firm in 2023. Prior to Deerfield, Dr. Schachner was the Head of Clinical Development at North Sea Therapeutics, B.V. and she was the Chief Medical Officer at Double Rainbow Biosciences. Before these roles, she was the Senior Vice President, Clinical Development and Therapeutic Area and Innovative Trial Design Head for Myokardia-BMS and the Chief Medical Officer, Global Specialty Medicine for Allergan. Dr. Schachner also spent five years at Sanofi in various roles of increasing leadership, six years at Bayer Diabetes Care as Senior Director, Head of Global Medical Affairs, and five years at Pfizer. Prior to industry, Dr. Schachner received her training in pediatric endocrinology at Mount Sinai and led the Pediatric Diabetes program at Columbia University. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University Of Michigan and an M.D. from SUNY at Stony Brook School of Medicine.

Priya Singhal, M.D., M.P.H is an accomplished physician scientist and business C-suite leader committed to developing drugs across diverse therapeutic areas that can transform the lives of patients and their caregivers.  Since January 2023 she is the Executive Vice President (EVP), Head of Development for Biogen.  In this role Priya has accountability of the entire Biogen clinical and marketed portfolio.  Dr. Singhal rejoined Biogen in 2020 to lead Global Safety & Regulatory Sciences as well as Japan and China R&D.  She had several roles of increasing responsibility at Biogen during her prior tenure from 2012 – 2018 and made significant leadership and technical contributions to the Biogen portfolio, R&D strategy and governance as well as the filings and approvals of nine products.  Prior to her return to Biogen in 2020, Dr. Singhal served as Head of R&D and Manufacturing at Zafgen Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leveraging its proprietary knowledge of MetAP2 systems biology to develop novel therapies for patients affected by a range of metabolic diseases.  From 2008-2012 she held roles of increasing seniority at Vertex Pharmaceuticals managing the Hepatitis C portfolio and served as the Vice President, Medical Affairs for HCV and Cystic Fibrosis portfolio.  She began her drug development career at Millenium Pharmaceuticals where she led benefit-risk for Velcade and other projects in the development portfolio.  Preceding her career in the Biotechnology Industry, Dr. Singhal completed her M.P.H. in International Health at Harvard School of Public Health and obtained her training in Internal Medicine in Mumbai, India.  Priya is an invited speaker at Academic and Industry Forums for Drug Development and a guest faculty member at Harvard Medical School. 

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

Catherine Stehman-Breen, MD, is the former Chief Executive Officer at Chroma Medicine and an Advisor at Atlas Venture. She also serves as an Independent Board member at Generation Bio, Tenaya Therapeutics and Dyne Therapeutics, Inc. Previously, she was Chief Research and Development Officer at Obsidian Therapeutics where she led research and discovery efforts for their engineered cell and gene therapies. Prior to Obsidian Therapeutics, Dr Stehman-Breen was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Atlas Venture and Chief Medical Officer at Sarepta Therapeutics. In addition, she held various leadership roles at Regeneron and Amgen. Dr Stehman-Breen received her M.D. from the University of Chicago and trained as a nephrologist and earned her M.S. in epidemiology at University of Washington.

Norman L. Sussman, M.D., FAASLD, joined DURECT as Chief Medical Officer in November 2020. He has extensive clinical experience and expertise in the field of liver disease and brings over 30 years of clinical research and development experience in academia and industry. Prior to joining DURECT, he was an Associate Professor of Medicine and Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine and a faculty member of Baylor College of Medicine from 1985 to 1990 and again from 2003 to 2020 with some time also spent as the Chief of Hepatology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. During his academic career, he served as a principal investigator for research focused on the assessment and management of acute liver failure and artificial liver support. Dr. Sussman gained leadership experience in industry as the Founder and Vice President of both Amphioxus Cell Technologies from 1995 to 2003 and Hepatix, Inc. from 1993 to 1995. Most recently, he has also served in senior leadership roles as a member of the Baylor Faculty Senate and as director of the telehealth program, Project ECHO®, at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center. Dr. Sussman received his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He then completed his residency at St. Louis University Hospital and his postdoctoral fellowship at Washington University. He is board certified in internal medicine, gastroenterology, and transplant hepatology. Dr. Sussman is also a fellow of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, which is a designation that recognizes his superior level of professional achievement in the field of hepatology.

Dr Barry Ticho is the Chief Medical Officer at Stoke Therapeutics, where he is helping to lead the company’s efforts to develop first-in-class therapeutics to treat rare diseases. Prior to joining Stoke, Barry was Head of Development of mRNA treatments for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases at Moderna Therapeutics. Previously, he was Head of External R&D Innovation for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases at Pfizer, and prior to that he was Vice President of Clinical Development at Biogen. Barry obtained his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Chicago and completed pediatrics training at Northwestern University and a cardiology fellowship at Children’s Hospital in Boston. He was on clinical staff at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital and conducted laboratory research on the regulation of cardiac development.

Barbara Troupin is a serial Chief Medical Officer, C-suite/VC advisor, entrepreneur, and public-company independent board director. She currently sits on the Board and is member of the Nomination and Governance Committee for Equillium Bio (NASDAQ:EQ), is an Entrepreneur in Residence at UCSF assisting a founder in developing a gene editing company, and serves as an advisor to venture funds and emerging companies in the therapeutics space. Over her 20+ years as a life science executive, her roles have spanned Clinical Development, Medical Affairs, Regulatory, Operations and Strategy functional areas, and she has worked at both private and public biotech or small pharma companies. She has a strong preference for emerging companies where she can have a real impact on corporate strategy and external narrative, decision making processes to drive internal clarity and effectiveness, and in setting a work culture which is engaged, empowered, and inclusive. She helps companies scale in a stage- and resource-appropriate manner focusing on best strategies for value creation. She holds an MD from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. She has been a member of the Athena Alliance since 2018 and currently runs their Peer Group in the Life Sciences, was selected for the 2019 Women in Bio Boardroom Ready cohort and participated in Harvard’s executive education for Women on Life Science Boards. She is broadly curious, an avid mentor and connector, and values relationships where mutual learning and growth occurs.

Dr. Edwin J. Tucker MD is a highly accomplished and respected medical professional with a diverse background in medicine, business, and leadership. He is Chief Medical Officer for Jasper Therapeutics, a biotech focused on the development of briquilimab, a novel antibody therapy targeting c-Kit (CD117) to address mast cell driven diseases such as chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) and chronic inducible urticaria (CIndU), His career spans over 30 years beginning with medical practice in the UK. He acquired increasingly senior leadership roles in large Pharma with Bayer, JNJ and Genentech/Roche before moving to start-up biotech with Acerta (COO, final role), then CMO at Mirum, CMO at Goldfinch before joining Jasper. He has served as a clinical advisor and a consultant to several biotech and investment companies. He earned his MD from Leeds University medical school; an MBA from UConn; and is Member of the Royal College of Physicians (UK). His passion is creating high performance teams and companies to improve healthcare outcomes for patients globally.

Christopher Turner, M.D. is the CMO for Nuvalent and is an experienced oncology drug developer and executive with over 22 years of clinical and pharmaceutical experience in early and late-stage oncology drug development. Nuvalent is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on creating precisely targeted therapies for patients with cancer and is advancing a robust pipeline with parallel lead programs in ROS1-positive and ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer, a program in HER2 Exon 20 insertion-positive cancers, and multiple discovery-stage research programs.

Prior to joining Nuvalent, Dr. Turner was Vice President of Clinical Development at Blueprint Medicines where he led the clinical development of GAVRETO (pralsetinib) in RET altered lung and thyroid cancers.

Dr. Turner has also held oncology clinical development leadership positions at Celldex Therapeutics and ARIAD Pharmaceuticals and was involved with the clinical development of the oncology drugs ICLUSIG(ponatinib) and ALUNBRIG (brigatinib).  Prior to that, Dr. Turner was Director of the Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Outcomes Clinic at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Children’s Hospital Boston and an Instructor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Turner is board certified in both Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology and Oncology and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He received his M.D. from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, New York. He completed fellowships in both Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Pediatric Neuro-Oncology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. 

Roger is a Board-certified Medical Oncologist with over 25 years’ experience supervising the delivery of complex oncology patient care and palliative medicine in teaching hospitals and developing new drugs in oncology and in malaria at large pharma. Roger is currently the Chief Medical Officer of Indaptus, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a novel broad agonist of both innate and adaptive immune systems. Prior to Indaptus, Roger served as CMO from 2019-2023 for Molecular Templates, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing several novel, targeted immunotoxins. Prior to Molecular Templates, Roger was the CMO from 2017-2019 at Rgenix/Inspirna developing a novel immune- oncology compound and a metabolic inhibitor. Previously, he was CMO/CSO for Jaguar Health from 2016-2017, developing first-in-class, FDA-approved botanicals as novel antidiarrheals. Roger spent over nine years at Novartis, lastly as Global Program Head responsible for all early and late-stage development activities of antimalarials, including Coartem and two compounds in Phase 2 development, including generating a collaboration agreement with Medicines for Malaria Venture and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Previously, Roger was responsible for Global Clinical Development activities for several oncology compounds including the successful NDA filing of Jakavi, and successful sNDA applications for Glivec and Tasigna. For nearly 12 years, Roger worked as a clinical medical oncologist and clinical researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, and Saint Vincents Cancer Center, all in New York. He held academic positions as Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and New York Medical College. Roger received his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Brown University in Providence, RI with honors in American Literature. He also received his medical degree from Brown University School of Medicine and completed his internship and residency at Harvard’s Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, MA. He completed his fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in hematology and oncology. He graduated with an MBA from Columbia University in New York.

TBA

Qing Yu Christina Weng, MD is a physician-scientist and Chief Medical Officer of Pelage Pharmaceuticals, a regenerative medicine company developing innovative treatments for hair loss by targeting stem cell metabolism. She is also a board-certified dermatologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital and faculty at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Weng brings a background in business development and corporate startup strategy as Head of Business Development & Strategy of Kira Pharmaceuticals, a global company developing complement therapeutics. She co-founded Mymiel, a high-performance clean skincare line, where she served as Chief Strategy Officer. She is on the Board of Directors for the Dermatology Innovation Forum and the Dermatology Summit. She is on the Advisory Board for Immunis, a regenerative medicine company developing secretomes for age-related dysfunction. Dr. Weng holds an undergraduate degree from the California Institute of Technology, MD Magna Cum Laude from Harvard, and she completed dermatology residency, postdoctoral training, and fellowship at Harvard. She has received research grants and awards from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, American Skin Association, American Dermatological Association, and National Institutes of Health.

Dr Laura Williams is a life science executive with extensive experience as a pharmaceutical drug developer, portfolio strategist and patient advocate. She is a results-oriented, accomplished, executive leader with 25 years of pharmaceutical drug development experience, spanning all clinical phases and across numerous therapeutic areas. She has a proven track-record in drug development, as indicated by her contributions on key regulatory approvals for 8 marketed products, and has strong leadership skills, exemplified in both large and small pharma settings within matrix cross-functional organizations. Dr Williams currently serves as CMO at Ardelyx, where she provides strategic and tactical leadership for clinical development, medical affairs, and patient advocacy, while partnering to assist with regulatory, pharmacovigilance and other business-critical activities. Previously, at AMAG Pharmaceuticals, she served as SVP and Head of Clinical Development and Biostatistics, where she was responsible for two on-market compounds and four investigational-staged assets. Prior to AMAG, she served as VP, Clinical Development at Myovant Sciences, where she oversaw clinical development for an infertility treatment and co-led business development activities to expand the women’s health pipeline. Finally, in her 18-year career at Abbott/AbbVie, she held roles of increasing responsibility, leading clinical development programs across multiple therapeutic areas that spanned all phases of drug development and contributed to the regulatory approval of five investigational compounds. Dr Williams is an Independent Director on the Board of Imara Therapeutics. She also serves as Director on the Advisory Board of the National Kidney Foundation (West Coast), and is a member of Black Women on Boards, Athena Alliance, Chief and National Association of Corporate Directors. Dr Williams received a BS from Mississippi State University and an MD from the University of Iowa. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at University of Michigan, where she also served as the first Black Chief Resident in the Internal Medicine Program. She received a MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Washington, where she also completed subspecialty training in Infectious Diseases, with a focus on HIV and STIs.

Dr. Wooldridge is the Chief Medical Officer for Immunitas Therapeutics and has 25 years of drug development experience in academia and industry. He received a medical degree from Tulane University and completed post-graduate training in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He spent the first 7 years of his career as a clinical and translational cancer researcher in academia, followed by more than a decade in drug development at Eli Lilly and Company. At Lilly, he led several early phase cancer clinical research programs, Oncology US Medical Affairs, and ultimately served as the Chief Scientific Officer for Immuno-oncology Clinical Development. He was Chief Medical Officer for Aeglea BioTherapeutics, where he oversaw the cancer and rare disease clinical development of pegzilarginase, which received Breakthrough Designation for Arginase 1 Deficiency, and has since been approved in Europe. He was also Chief Medical Officer for Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, where he was integral in a Series C financing, taking the company public, and leading the development of vidutolimod in registration-directed and expanded proof-of-concept studies until the company was acquired in 2022.

Arvin is the Chief Medical Officer at Pheon. He was previously the CMO at Mersana in addition to spending over a decade at Bristol Myers Squibb in a variety of leadership roles focused on early and late-stage clinical development of oncology, hematology, and immuno-oncology therapies. Arvin received a B.A. from Rutgers College and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and completed training in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess, Harvard Medical School and in oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

John Yee MD, MPH, currently serves as Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs, at Apnimed, Inc., a company developing oral drugs for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. He has more than 25 years of leadership experience at leading biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and health care technology companies, and at a major academic medical center. Dr. Yee has expertise in all aspects of drug development and commercialization, including clinical development, medical affairs, pharmacovigilance, regulatory affairs, and patient advocacy. He has provided medical leadership for more than 10 new product launches and label expansions. Dr. Yee has served in senior medical leadership roles at Genzyme Corporation, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, Intarcia Therapeutics, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Flexion Therapeutics, and Sobi North America. Dr. Yee serves on the scientific advisory board for Comera Life Sciences, and previously served as a non-executive director on the board of directors. Dr. Yee earned an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, an M.P.H. in Health Care Management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and an A.B. in History and Science from Harvard College. He completed his pediatric residency and fellowship training in rheumatology, immunology and health services research at Boston Children’s Hospital. Prior to joining the industry, Dr. Yee held leadership roles at Boston Children’s Hospital and served as a faculty member at Harvard Medical School.

Steven Zelenkofske DO currently is principal consultant for SLZ consulting LLC, board director for Dinaqor AG and Cadrenal Therapeutics and chief strategy officer for Dinaqor AG. Dr Zelenkofske brings more than 20 years of industry development experience, most recently as Chief Medical Officer of SwanBio therapeutics, a gene therapy company specializing in neurodegenerative diseases. Previously he served as Chief Medical Officer of Achillion Pharmaceuticals and Regado Biosciences. He has also held leadership positions at Astra-Zeneca, Sanofi-Aventis, Boston Scientific and Novartis. Dr Zelenkofske has been responsible for multiple NDA filings and has worked across multiple therapeutic areas including cardiovascular, metabolic diseases, diabetes, nephrology, hematology, immunology and neurology. Dr Zelenkofske completed his residency training at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, followed by fellowships in cardiology and electrophysiology at The Graduate Hospital, Philadelphia, and St Luke’s Hospital, New York, respectively. He is a graduate of Emory University, where he also earned a Master of Science degree in immunopharmacology. He earned his Doctor of Osteopathy from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Chest Physicians, and the American College of Osteopathic Internists.