SPEAKER OF THE 2023 CONFERENCE
Keynote Speaker
Virginia, USA
Philip Felgner
Dr. Felgner’s work is rooted in biophysics, structure, and hydrodynamic properties of bilayer membranes conducted at the University of Virginia. In 1984 there were no positively charged bilayer forming lipids available in nature to prepare positively charged lipid vesicles. He collaborated with chemists at Syntex Research Institute to synthesize and characterize a series of positively charged bilayer forming lipids. When these vesicles interact with negatively charged nucleic acid the lipids and the nucleic acid reorganize together and assemble into a new structure, he called ‘Lipoplex’ capturing 100% of the input nucleic acid. Lipoplexes are synthetic virus-like lipid nanoparticles, that deliver functional nucleic acid into cultured cells and ‘Lipofection’ has since become the most widely used in vitro transfection method.
Felgner published a highly cited report in 1990 showing functional gene transfer of plasmid DNA and mRNA into mouse muscle in vivo. This was followed in 1993 by a paper showing protective immunity against influenza after injection of a nucleic acid vaccine. This work spawned a separate field of non-viral gene therapy and nucleic acid vaccine science. He was a founding member and inaugural chairman of the NIH “Genes and Drug Delivery” study section on this topic. Years later, continuity of the science culminated in the development of the COVID LNP mRNA vaccines.
Currently Felgner is Director of the University of California Irvine Vaccine R&D Center. There he developed a protein microarray platform to measure vaccine induced antigen specific antibody levels against thousands of individual antigens from dozens of bacteria, parasites and viruses. During the COVID outbreak his Coronavirus Antigen Microarray was used to measure virus exposure prevalance among 10,000 Orange County residents and predict the gradual development of herd immunity from natural exposure. Then he witnessed the spectacular immunity induced by the mRNA vaccines.
He has 50 issued US patents, is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and recipient of the Robert Koch Award for infectious disease and vaccine science, and the Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research. His work chronicles a remarkable period of non-viral nucleic acid delivery and vaccine science, breaking the mRNA tabu, and culminating in the phenomenal success of mRNA vaccines important to the world today.
Katalin Kariko
Pennsylvania, USA
Katalin Karikó
Katalin Karikó is professor at University of Szeged and adjunct professor of neurosurgery at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, where she worked for 24 years. She is former senior vice president at BioNTech SE, Mainz, Germany, where she worked between 2013-2022. She received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from University of Szeged, Hungary, in 1982. For four decades, her research has been focusing on RNA-mediated mechanisms with the ultimate goal of developing in vitro-transcribed mRNA for protein therapy. She investigated RNA-mediated immune activation and co-discovered that nucleoside modifications suppress immunogenicity of RNA, which widened the therapeutic potentials of mRNA. Her patents, co-invented with Drew Weissman on nucleoside-modified uridines in mRNA provided the foundation to create the FDA-approved COVID-19 mRNA vaccines by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna.
Ilke Aernout
Ghent, Belgium
Ilke Aernout
Ilke Aernout is a PhD student in the Vaccine Delivery Group embedded in the Ghent research Group on Nanomedicines (Ghent University, Belgium, www.drugdelivery.be) where she explores adjuvanted mRNA-LNPs for vaccination against multidrug resistant intracellular bacteria. Her particular interest is to develop an mRNA vaccine against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Promising protective responses were demonstrated in a proof-of-concept study in the Listeria monocytogenes model (Mayer et al., Nat Commun. 2022) showing effective protection after prophylactic vaccination with an immunopeptidomics-based and α-GalCer adjuvanted mRNA vaccine platform (Verbeke et al. ACS Nano 2019). In the context of Mtb, this particular adjuvanted mRNA vaccine was capable of inducing robust cellular responses against the Mtb antigen, ESAT-6.
Recently, the group was granted an EU-funded project (Baxerna2.0) to further develop novel mRNA vaccines against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium ulcerans and Acinetobacter baumannii using an immunopeptidomics approach, in collaboration with various experts in the field (https://www.baxerna.eu/).
Clay Alspach
Washington, D.C., USA
Clay Alspach
Clay Alspach is a principal at Leavitt Partners based in Washington, D.C. Clay specializes in preparedness federal health care policy and advocacy related to the FDA, Medicare, Medicaid, private health insurance, digital health, and pandemic. Before coming to Leavitt Partners, Clay served as Chief Health Counsel for Chairman Fred Upton of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee. During his seven years in that position, Clay managed, provided strategic direction to, and served as the principal representative for the Committee on all of its health care-related work. Clay spearheaded legislative initiatives that successfully reformed the SGR (MACRA); reauthorized FDA user fees (FDASIA); established a national system for drug supply chain security (Drug Quality and Security Act); strengthened the nation’s preparedness for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats, natural disasters, and emerging infectious diseases (Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013 (PAHPRA)); and advanced medical research to foster a new era of medical innovations (21st Century Cures Act). Clay also led the Committee’s legislative accomplishments on public and private medical research and on controlled substance and DEA matters. Prior to this service for the Committee, Clay clerked for the Honorable Ronald L. Buckwalter of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and worked as a litigator in private law practice. He also worked as a legislative clerk at the House E&C Committee from 1999 to 2000 under Chairman Thomas J. Bliley (R-VA). Clay received his Bachelor of Arts cum laude from the University of Richmond and holds a J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.
Jeffrey Chao
Basel, Switzerland
Jeffrey Chao
Jeffrey Chao obtained his PhD from The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA where he worked with James Williamson on the structure and function of RNA-protein complexes.
His postdoctoral studies with Robert Singer at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY focused on understanding RNA localization and developing fluorescent microscopy
techniques for imaging single mRNAs. In 2013, he established his own group at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel, Switzerland. His group combines biochemistry, structural biology and single-molecule imaging to investigate the mechanisms that control post-transcriptional regulation in the cytoplasm.
Guillermo Garcia-Marquina
Massachusetts, USA
Guillermo Garcia-Marquina
Guillermo García-Marquina is a Postoctoral Scientist in New England Biolabs Inc. He is currently working in the development of immobilized enzymes to optimize different nucleic acid manufacturing reactions relevant to the industry. His research is mostly focused in driving a solid-phase enzymatic platform to achieve in vitro transcription for mRNA vaccine production in a more sustainable and economic way.
He obtained his PhD in Chemistry in the University of La Rioja in 2022. His research was focused in the design of acyltransferases involved in the biosynthesis of cholesterol-lowering drugs. During his thesis, he used both computational tools and protein immobilization techniques to develop the aforementioned novel biocatalysts. He gained the expertise in working with immobilized enzymes during his 2-years stay in the biomaterials research center CIC biomaGUNE in San Sebastian.
Andrew Geall
California, USA
Andrew Geall
Dr. Andrew Geall is the Chief Development Officer at Replicate Bioscience and cofounder of the company. Dr. Geall has over 20 years of professional experience in the development of drug delivery systems and is a pioneer in the fields of mRNA vaccines and nucleic acid delivery. He is an inventor on 41 patent families, with 505 applications and 203 issued patents in multiple jurisdictions. Prior to joining Replicate, Dr. Geall was Chief Scientific Officer at Precision NanoSystems Inc. (PNI). Here, he was focused on the creation of transformative nanoparticle medicines using their proprietary LNP delivery systems and microfluidic formulation platform. He has also held positions as Vice President of Formulations, Analytics and Chemistry at Avidity Biosciences, where he pioneered the development of their antibody-oligonucleotide conjugate delivery platform. As a member of the Executive Management, he helped raise over $100 million in venture capital and take the company public in June 2020 with an initial public stock offering of $259 million. Prior to Avidity, he led mRNA vaccines in the Vaccine division of Novartis. Over 7 years, he created a global team and was Principal Investigator on a Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) contract to develop self-amplifying mRNA vaccines. Dr. Geall also had a two-year tenure at Novartis Pharmaceuticals AG, where he was the Global siRNA Formulation Team Leader, responsible for the design and implementation of the siRNA delivery strategy. Dr. Geall received his pharmacy degree from the University of Bath in the UK and went on to do his pre-registration training, as a hospital Pharmacist, in the aseptic dispensing unit at St Helens and Knowsley Trust Hospitals. He then obtained his PhD at University of Bath in non-viral gene delivery.
Benjamin Goldman-Israelow
Connecticut, USA
Benjamin Goldman-Israelow
Dr. Benjamin Goldman-Israelow is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine in the section of Infectious Diseases at Yale University. He obtained his AB in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis and his MD and PhD degrees from The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He completed internal medicine residency and Infectious Diseases fellowship training at Yale. During fellowship, Dr. Goldman-Israelow joined the laboratory of Dr. Akiko Iwasaki for his postdoctoral studies. There, he studied SARS-CoV-2 infection, pathogenesis, and immunity in both patients and pre-clinical models. His work led to one of the first mouse models to study SARS-CoV-2, the identification of immunologic factors contributing to COVID-19 pathogenesis and protection, and the development of a novel mucosal vaccine strategy that protects against pathology and transmission. His laboratory focuses on understanding the development of mucosal immune memory to emerging and endemic respiratory pathogens. Working through the lenses of natural infection and vaccination, the Israelow lab aims to better understand the correlates of protection and transmission of pandemic-associated pathogens, and to leverage this research to develop next-generation vaccines and therapeutics. For his work, Dr. Goldman-Israelow has received the Iva Dostanic Physician-Scientist Award and the American Society for Clinical Investigation Young Physician-Scientist Award.
Magnus Hoffmann
California, USA
Magnus Hoffmann
Dr. Hoffmann is the Merkin Institute Fellow at the Merkin Institute for Translational
Research at the California Institute of Technology. Based on his graduate work in Pamela
Bjorkman’s laboratory at Caltech, he received the Milton and Francis Clauser Prize for the
best PhD thesis across all disciplines, and he was awarded an NIH Director’s Early
Independence Award to launch his own laboratory as an independent postdoctoral scholar
at Caltech. Dr. Hoffmann’s research focuses on the development of innovative vaccine
technologies and gaining a deeper understanding of the immunological mechanisms that
shape vaccine-induced immune responses. He developed the EABR technology, an
innovative approach to genetically encode nanoparticles for vaccine applications. This
vaccine platform combines features of mRNA- and protein nanoparticle-based vaccines
resulting in superior neutralizing antibody responses against original and variant SARSCoV-
2 in mice. Ongoing and future research in his group focuses on the continued
optimization, evaluation, and application of this technology.
Liang Huang
Oregon, USA
Liang Huang
Liang Huang (PhD, Univ. of Pennsylvania, 2008) is a Professor of Computer Science at Oregon State University, and co-founder of Coderna.ai. Until recently, he was also a Distinguished Scientist at Baidu Research USA. He also worked at Google Research, USC, and City Univ. of New York. He was trained as a computational linguist where he was recognized at ACL 2008 (Best Paper Award) and ACL 2019 (Keynote Speech), but in recent years he has been applying his expertise in computational linguistics to computational biology (RNA folding and RNA design). This line of interdisciplinary work was fruitful during COVID, resulting in PNAS (2021) and Nature (2023) papers. His Nature paper on mRNA design has been covered by numerous media reports and the technology has been licensed (non-exclusively) to Sanfoi.
Muthusamy Jayaraman
Massachusetts, United States
Muthusamy Jayaraman
Dr. Muthusamy Jayaraman (MJ), Ph.D., is an accomplished professional in drug discovery and delivery, with a track record of significant contributions in both industry and academia. Currently, as Senior Vice President at ReNAgade Therapeutics, Dr. Jayaraman spearheads the full spectrum of chemistry and delivery efforts, playing a pivotal role in propelling this notable biotech startup toward groundbreaking discoveries.
At CRISPR Therapeutics, Dr. Jayaraman served as Senior Director, heading the non-viral delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 cargo. His leadership extended to managing a diverse team of scientists and researchers focused on lipid and nucleoside synthesis, oligo synthesis, analytical and bioanalytical chemistry, formulation science, and biology.
Previously, MJ held multiple senior scientific roles at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, and was instrumental in bringing the first siRNA-LNP product, ONPATTRO, to market. MJ played a key role in the discovery and development of the renowned MC3 lipid, and he pioneered the field of ionizable lipids through his discovery of “biodegradable lipids”, which laid the foundation for all current LNP delivery technologies.
Dr. Jayaraman’s academic journey commenced at the prestigious National Chemical Laboratories in Pune, India, where he earned his Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry.
Zoltán Kis
London, UK
Zoltán Kis
Dr. Zoltán Kis is a Lecturer at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at The University of Sheffield, and an Honorary Lecturer at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London.
Zoltan is leading a multidisciplinary team that is innovating and digitalising RNA vaccine and therapeutics production platform technologies. His work is addressing the challenges of producing large volumes of RNA-based vaccines and therapeutics, rapidly, at high quality and at low cost in a disease-agnostic manner.
Zoltán has previously worked as a Research Associate in the Future Vaccine Manufacturing Hub at Imperial College London. He obtained his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Imperial College London, UK, holds an M.Sc. in Applied Biotechnology and a B.Eng. in Chemical with Biochemical Engineering.
Wigard Kloosterman
Utrecht, Netherlands
Wigard Kloosterman
Wigard Kloosterman is appointed as Senior Director Cancer Antigen Discovery & Validation at CureVac. Before his role at CureVac Dr. Kloosterman was CSO of Frame Cancer Therapeutics, an immunotherapy start-up in Amsterdam, which was acquired by CureVac in 2022. He holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology (2007) from Utrecht University and until 2019, he was an Associate Professor at the Department of Genetics at the University Medical Center Utrecht, leading a research group in cancer genomics. Furthermore, Dr. Kloosterman is a leading expert in genome sequencing technology, including computational analysis, and he is at the forefront of implementing third-generation nanopore sequencing technology in research and clinical settings.
Kieu Lam
British Columbia, Canada
Kieu Lam
Kieu Lam serves as the Senior Director of Technology Development at Genevant
Sciences, where she leads the LNP platform research team. She has over 20 years of
experience in the field of nucleic acid delivery and LNP formulation development. Prior to
Genevant, Kieu spent 15 years at Arbutus Biopharma, Tekmira Pharmaceuticals, Protiva
Biotherapeutics, and Inex Pharmaceuticals, covering early discovery to pharmaceutical
development of lipid-based delivery platforms. She has helped advance more than a
dozen LNP candidates into clinical development and is an inventor on Genevant’s LNP
delivery technology.
Florian Leuschner
Heidelberg, Germany
Florian Leuschner
Dr. Leuschner is an interventional cardiologist and director of the catheter-based valve
replacement (TAVR) program at the University Hospital Heidelberg, Germany. He holds a
Heisenberg Professorship for Immunocadiology (W3), is a Principal Investigator of the
German Centre for Cardiovascular research (DZHK, partner site Heidelberg), and serves
as the European Lead Coordinator for the Leducq FoundationTransatlantic Network of
Excellence Program entitled “The Inflammatory-Fibrosis Axis in Adverse Cardiac
Remodeling: translating mechanisms into new diagnostics and therapeutics (IMMUNO-FIB
HF)”. Dr. Leuschner studied medicine in Ulm and pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at the
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/ Harvard Medical School. His research focusses
on cardiac inflammation and the amelioration of adverse remodeling.
Ajit Magadum
Philadelphia, USA
Ajit Magadum
Dr. Ajit Magadum, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, USA. He received his Ph.D. from the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Germany.
During his postdoctoral tenure at Mount Sinai in New York, Ajit delved into the innovative realm of modified mRNA (modRNA) as a potent gene therapy tool for combating cardiovascular and metabolic diseases (CVMD). He made significant strides in designing modRNA delivery systems tailored for the cardiovascular system, employing various carriers, to ensure robust and enduring modRNA expression within cardiac tissues. Ajit’s groundbreaking work unveiled a treasure trove of novel genes (6 targets), delivered as modRNA to the heart, inducing cardiomyocyte proliferation and cardiac regeneration, inhibits cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis offering promising avenues for treating CVMD and fibrotic conditions. Ajit is celebrated for pioneering the development of cell-specific mRNA delivery platforms known as SMARTs (Specific Modified mRNA Translation System) in the context of CVD in 2016. This innovation allowed for the precise targeting of modRNA expression exclusively in cardiomyocytes or non-cardiomyocytes within the heart, opening up new horizons for cell-specific mRNA therapeutics in the realm of CVMD. He has published over 20 papers, along with the successful filing of 3 patents, which have been licensed and sublicensed to leading biotechnology companies. He won the Outstanding Research Innovation Award from Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, in 2017 for his contributions to mRNA therapeutics development for CVMD. Ajit received the esteemed ISHR-NAS Young Investigator Award (YICA, runner-up) in 2022 and the prestigious Melvin L. Marcus Early Career Investigator Award from the American Heart Association (AHA) in 2022.
At present, Ajit’s research endeavors continue to revolve around leveraging modRNA and cell-specific modRNA as innovative therapeutic modality to target CVMD.
Anshul Mangal
Texas, USA
Anshul Mangal
Anshul is a biotech entrepreneur, experienced president and attorney. He is the founder, president and general counsel of Project Farma (“PF”). Anshul founded and grew PF into a leading worldwide biologics and advanced therapy engineering consulting firm. In addition, Anshul has served as general counsel and managed all corporate legal transactions. Under Anshul’s leadership, PF pioneered the industrialization of advanced therapies including two FDA-approved cell and gene therapies and created PF’s Advanced Therapy Manufacturing Playbook. This playbook helped develop the largest cell and gene therapy manufacturing footprint in the world. In addition to PF, Anshul is an investor and founder of several biotechs, real estate and hospitality companies. Prior to PF, Anshul was a patent litigator at Jones Day and a consultant at Morgan Stanley & Discover Financial Services.
Dal-Hee Min
Seoul, South Korea
Dal-Hee Min
Dal-Hee Min is a Professor at Seoul National University and co-founder & CTO of Lemonex. She received her Ph.D in Chemistry from the University of Chicago. After post-doctoral research at MIT, she started her academic career at KAIST (Korea) as an Assistant Professor in 2007 and moved to Seoul National University in 2011.
Her research focuses on drug delivery systems with a collective understanding of nano-surface chemistry and diverse biomedical applications of nanomaterials including mRNA vaccines and gene therapies.
She received various prestigious awards including ‘The KCS-Wiley Young Chemist Award’, ‘The Korea L’Oreal UNESCO Fellowship Award for Women in Science’ and ‘The order of Science and Technological Merit (Do-Yak Medal)’ from the Korea Government.
Lemonex, co-founded with Dr. Cheolhee Won (CEO, PhD in pharmacology), is a pharmaceutical company developing safe and effective RNA therapeutic agents based on innovative non-viral, non-LNP drug delivery system (DDS). The core DDS platform technology, ‘DegradaBALL®’, is a novel porous nanoparticle-based global first-in-class DDS that maximizes therapeutic efficacy and minimizes systemic side effects, while enabling fast manufacturing and efficient global distribution without cold chain issues. Lemonex finished the Phase I clinical trial of the first RNA therapy using DegradaBALL in healthy humans and more recently, obtained an IND approval of an mRNA vaccine based on DegradaBALL. DegradaBALL would be considered the most advanced DDS that can replace LNPs.
She is actively involved in many global activities. For highlighted activities, she gave two invited talks at the World Economic Forum in 2018 where she introduced DDS technology-‘Miniaturizing Biotechnology’ in sessions ‘Bio-Inspired Drug Delivery’ and ‘Harnessing Nature for Technology ‘. She also gave talks about drug delivery platform technology at mRNA health conference, PODD, JP Morgan and BIO USA.
Jordan Minnell
Wellington, New Zealand
Jordan Minnell
Jordan Minnell is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Malaghan Institute of Medical research in Wellington, New Zealand. His research is focussed on designing/testing mRNA vaccines that induce CD8 tissue resident memory T cell populations to establish in the liver. This is achieved by the inclusion of chemical agonists for type-1 Natural Killer T cells into the vaccine formulation, an approach that was recently shown to be protective against malaria challenge in pre-clinical models.
Janine Mühe
Tübingen, Germany
Janine Mühe
Janine Mühe, is a senior scientist in the infectious diseases research department at CureVac SE. She received her Ph.D. in virology from RWTH Aachen, Germany, where she characterized glycoproteins of Epstein-Barr virus. Dr. Mühe performed her postdoctoral studies at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, where she evaluated whether neutralizing antibodies can protect from lymphocryptovirus infection. Dr. Mühe joined CureVac in 2019 to apply her expertise in virology to the development of prophylactic vaccines.
Andre E. Nel
Andre Nel
Andre Nel is a Distinguished Professor of Medicine at UCLA, where he has successfully established a large federally funded nanotechnology research program. Dr. Nel is also board-certified as a physician in Medicine and the subspecialty of Allergy and Immunology. The UC Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (UC CEIN) emerged as one of the premier think tanks for the safe and sustainable implementation of nanotechnology in the US, while the team science efforts he has put together as Research Director of the California Nanosystems Institute is spearheading nanomedicine translation and commercialization on the UCLA campus. Professor Nel is a recipient of the Harry Truman Award and received the 2013 California Governor’s Environmental Economic Leadership Award. He plays national leadership roles in science, biomedical research, nanotechnology, and policy. He has served as the Chairs of a number of NIH study sections and was also included as a NSF panel member for producing a comprehensive US Government blueprint to further develop the Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) from 2010-2020. He served as a member of the US Bilateral Presidential Commission for technology cooperation with Russia and served as a panel member on Pres. Obama’s PCAST panel for strategizing the NNI technological innovation and commercialization. Dr Nel has represented the US State Department and the NIH in cooperative research agreements with Japan and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in which he was recognized as Honorary Foreign Professor. In addition to groundbreaking work in nanotechnology, Dr Nel co-directed a leading EPA Particle Center studying the impact of air pollution on asthma. Dr. Nel has been peer selected as one of the Best Doctors in America and received the John Salvaggio Award for outstanding service to the American Academy of Asthma Allergy and Immunology. He has been included as a Highly Cited Scientist (top 1% in the world of chemistry) by Clarivate analytics and is frequently invited to deliver keynote or plenary talks at international forums. He is a serial inventor with numerous patents, some contributing to the launch of startup companies.
Hamideh Parhiz
Pennsylvania, USA
Hamideh Parhiz
Hamideh Parhiz, PharmD, Ph.D. is a Research Assistant Professor in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where she leads the targeted LNP delivery program. Her expertise is developing novel nucleic acid delivery systems including a new generation of targeted LNP-mRNA therapeutics for a variety of non-vaccine applications such as blood gene disorders, cancer, fibrosis, and acute inflammatory conditions. Hamideh’s work has resulted in the publication of more than 40 papers including two papers in Science magazine and several patents. Her work in designing an efficient targeted LNP-mRNA platform is now the basis for industrial product developments as well as academic programs.
Dan Peer
Tel Aviv, Israel
Dan Peer
Dan Peer is a Professor and the Director of the Laboratory of Precision NanoMedicine at Tel Aviv University (TAU). He is also the Vice President for Research and Development in Tel Aviv University.
Prof. Peer’s work was among the first to demonstrate systemic delivery of RNA molecules using targeted nanocarriers to the immune system and he pioneered the use of RNA interference (RNAi) as drug discovery tools in immune cells. In addition, his lab was the first to show systemic, cell specific delivery of modified mRNA in animals. This strategy has enormous implications in cancer, inflammation, and infectious diseases. His lab developed one of the largest lipid library with unique properties and strategies to immobilized natural ligands and antibodies on the surface of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for cell specific delivery of RNA payloads.
His lab was also the first to show systemic, high efficiency, cell specific, therapeutic genome editing in cancer. Recently, his lab also showed the first bacterial mRNA vaccine that opened new potential field of increasing the arsenal of vaccines against antibiotic resistance strains.
Prof. Peer has more than 130 pending and granted patents. Some of them have been licensed to several pharmaceutical companies and his innovations have now been tested in more than 10 different clinical trials. In addition, based on his lab work, four spin-off companies were generated aiming to bring innovative personalized medicine into clinical practice. In 2014, he was elected to the Israel Young Academy. In 2023, he was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering.
Colin Pouton
Melbourne, Australia
Colin Pouton
Colin Pouton is Professor of Pharmaceutical Biology at Monash Institute of
Pharmaceutical Sciences, Melbourne, Australia. Pouton is a pharmaceutical scientist with
broad experience in drug discovery, delivery and product development. He began his
postdoctoral career at the University of Bath, UK, where he remained before moving to
Monash University in 2001. Pouton is best known for his continued program of research
on delivery systems to enhance the oral bioavailability of poorly absorbed small molecule
drugs. Since the mid 1990’s he has directed two other academic research programs in
parallel, on nucleic acid therapeutics and pharmaceutical applications of stem cell
technology. In 2017 his research group moved away from attempting to enhance nuclear
delivery of DNA to focus on in vivo delivery of mRNA. He now runs a collaborative
program to foster early proof-of-concept studies to study the potential of mRNA for
vaccination, therapeutic use in chronic diseases, and treatment of genetic diseases by
genome editing. In response to COVID, Pouton’s research group developed mRNA
vaccines encoding membrane-anchored variant RBDs (RBD-TM) of the SARS-CoV-2
Spike protein. A Phase 1 study using this vaccine platform using a Beta variant was
completed in 2022. The RBD-TM platform is currently being evaluated as a potential
basis for broad spectrum multivalent COVID vaccines.
Ni Qianqian
Singapore
Ni Qianqian
Dr. Ni Qianqian is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at National University of Singapore (NUS). She obtained her B.S. and PhD from Nanjing University, China. She did PhD and postdoc training at National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Institutes of Health (NIH) before joining National University of Singapore. Her research over the past five years focused on applying nanotechnologies for DNA/RNA delivery: 1) nucleic acid nanomedicine for cancer theranostics and cancer immunomodulations, 2) novel lipid nanoparticle technologies and DNA/RNA modification techniques for mRNA therapy and gene editing. She has published > 40 papers and filed 2 patents applications. Her research has been granted by multiple research fundings from NUS, Ministry of Education (MOE), National Medical Research Council (NMRC) and National Research Foundation (NRF), Singapore.
Jamile Ramos da Silva
São Paulo, Brazil
Jamile Ramos da Silva
Jamile Ramos da Silva obtained her Ph.D. from the Biomedical Sciences Institute at the
University of São Paulo, Brazil, where she worked with Dr. Luís Carlos de Souza Ferreira
on the development of therapeutic vaccine strategies for the control of human
papillomavirus (HPV)-induced tumors. During her doctoral work, she spent a year in Dr.
Norbert Pardi’s Lab in 2019-2020 and spearheaded the development of mRNA-based
vaccination strategies to control HPV-related tumors in mouse models. Although her
research has been focusing on cancer vaccines, she is also interested in the development
of mRNA vaccine candidates against infectious diseases.
Benjamin Rengstl
Frankfurt, Germany
Benjamin Rengstl
Dr. Rengstl is a trained physician and biochemist. Since 2009, he is exploring the potential of the immune system to combat cancer and infectious diseases. Between 2014 and 2016, he received his approbation as well as PhD and MD degree from the University of Frankfurt, Germany. During his postdoctoral training, he developed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered T-cell therapies against lymphomas and got trained in clinical pathology. In 2017, he joined BioNTech SE located in Mainz to develop a clinical CAR-T cell candidate for treatment of solid tumors.
To improve CAR-T cell therapy, Dr. Rengstl’s team pioneered an in vivo expansion concept based on a liposomally formulated RNA vaccine for systemic delivery of CAR antigen (CAR-T cell Amplifying RNA Vaccine, CARVac). A FIH clinical trial assessing BioNTech´s novel CLDN6-specific CAR in combination with CARVac is currently ongoing. Furthermore, he is leading multiple programs to develop next generation cell- and RNA-based immunotherapies and further takes technology agnostic approaches to create new strategies for controlled modulation of the immune system.
Steve Roffler
Taipei, Taiwan
Steve Roffler
Dr. Steve Roffler received his B.S. degree from the University of Washington and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently a Distinguished Research Fellow and the Cancer Division Chief in the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan. Steve has published more than 165 papers and been awarded over forty patents. His lab developed the first monoclonal antibodies that specifically bind to polyethylene glycol, which changed the way that pegylated medicines are developed in the clinic. A range of anti-PEG monoclonal antibodies and humanized antibodies developed in his lab have been used by nearly 300 companies and labs to accelerate the development of new pegylated medicines. Steve has received several awards including the Ministry of Science and Technology Outstanding Research Award, the Ministry of Economic Affairs Innovation Award and the Ministry of Education Annual Academic Award. Steve’s major areas of research include anti-PEG antibodies, antibody engineering, targeted nanomedicines, and cancer prodrug therapy.
Selected Recent Publications
WA Chen, DY Chang, BM Chen, YC Lin, Y Barenholz, SR Roffler*. Antibodies against poly(ethylene glycol) activate innate immune cells and induce hypersensitivity reactions to PEGylated nanomedicines. ACS Nano 17: 5757–5772 (2023)
BM Chen, TL Cheng, SR Roffler*. Polyethylene glycol immunogenicity: Theoretical, clinical, and practical aspects of anti-polyethylene glycol antibodies. ACS Nano 15:14022-14048 (2021)
Chen E, Chen BM, Su YC, Chang YC, Cheng TL, Barenholz Y*, Roffler SR*. Premature drug release from polyethylene glycol (PEG)-coated liposomal doxorubicin via formation of the membrane attack complex. ACS Nano 14: 7808-7822 (2020)
YC Su, PA Burnouf, KH Chuang, BM Chen, TL Cheng* and SR Roffler*. Conditional internalization of PEGylated nanomedicines by PEG engagers for triple negative breast cancer therapy. Nat. Comm., 8:15507 (2017)
Morrie Ruffin
Maryland, USA
Morrie Ruffin
- Mr. Ruffin has more than 25 years of experience in the regenerative medicine, biotech, and healthcare industries. Prior to founding Adjuvant Partners, he was the Chief Executive Officer of LifeTech Innovations, LLC, a business development consulting firm based in Bethesda, MD. Prior to his position at LTI, Mr. Ruffin was Executive Vice President of Capital Formation and Business Development at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the largest trade organization representing the biotech and drug development industries. Joining BIO in 1994 as one of its original employees, Mr. Ruffin was responsible for building the organization’s global business development and investor outreach programs focused on helping companies raise capital and identify strategic partnering and licensing opportunities. This BIO business development franchise is now the largest in the world, with operations in the US, Europe, and Japan.
- Mr. Ruffin also founded and led several other key industry organizations in the life sciences sector with a primary focus on cell and gene medicine and the application of artificial intelligence in healthcare. He is the co-founder of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM), the global organization representing the interests of the cell and gene therapy and tissue engineering communities. Mr. Ruffin built the organization and let it to its international prominence today as the leading global organization representing cell and gene medicine. He now serves as Executive Director of the ARM Foundation for Cell and Gene Medicine which he led the effort to establish in January of 2018. He is also co-founder of the Standards Coordinating Body for Regenerative Medicine and was founder and board member of the Interoperable Informatics Infrastructure Consortium (I3C), an international standards setting body for the bioinformatics industry.
- Prior to his work in the private sector, Mr. Ruffin worked for US Senator Arlen Specter for five years as his senior legislative assistant. In his early career he worked for the Systems Planning Corporation International and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Mr. Ruffin received his MA in International Studies & Economics from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and his BA from the University of Virginia.
Gaurav Sahay
Oregon, USA
Gaurav Sahay
Gaurav Sahay is Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and co-Director for the Center of Innovative Drug Delivery and Imaging (CIDDI), at the College of Pharmacy at Oregon State University. Dr. Sahay’s lab is developing novel nanotechnology-based platforms including lipid-based nanoparticles for effective delivery of messenger RNA therapeutics for treatment of cystic fibrosis, retinal degeneration and against SARS-CoV2. He has done pioneering work to dissect the intracellular transport essential for nucleic acid delivery to the cytosol and developed methods to overcome endosomal barriers. He has more than 60-peer-reviewed publications in top tier journals including Science Advances, Nature, Nature Communications, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Nanotechnology, Journal of Controlled Release, Nano Letters etc. He is the winner of a 2013 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Postdoctoral Fellow Award, the 2015 Controlled Release Society (CRS) T. Nagai Award, a 2016 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) New Investigator Award, a 2019 Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU) Distinguished Faculty Senate Award for Collaboration, 2020 Phi Kappa Phi OSU Emerging Scholar Award and 2020 CMBE Young Innovator Award. He serves as the Principal Investigator on awards funded through the National Institutes of Health, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and biotech companies. He serves as a consultant and scientific advisory board member to several biotech and venture capital firms. He is co-founder of Enterx Bio and RNAvax Bio. He was the Chair of the 2018 NanoMedicine and Drug Delivery Symposium (NanoDDS, Portland, OR) and is standing section member for Innovative in NanoSystems and Nanotechnology. Dr. Sahay completed his postdoctoral research with Prof. Robert Langer and Prof. Daniel Anderson at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT and received his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska Medical Center under the mentorship of Prof. Alexander Kabanov.
Sara Singleton
Washington, D.C., USA
Sara Singleton
Sara Singleton is a principal at Leavitt Partners based in Washington, D.C. Sara is an advisor to the National Alliance to impact the Social Determinants of Health (NASDOH) and advises clients throughout the health care sector on federal health care policy issues including research and drug development, public health, and the Affordable Care Act. Prior to joining Leavitt Partners, Sara was a Senior Director of Policy & Advocacy at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation where she oversaw the Foundation’s strategy for engagement with Congress and executive branch agencies and directed the Foundation’s policy agenda to support medical research, drug discovery and development and adequate insurance coverage. Prior to that, she was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Legislation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services where she served as the department’s liaison to Congress and as an advisor to the Secretary on legislative matters affecting the department. She played a leading role in the department’s work on the 21st Century Cures Act, development of the opioids initiative, and securing supplemental funding from Congress to fight the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and Zika virus in 2016. Sara has significant experience on Capitol Hill, through her roles as a Policy Advisor with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee under Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA), as a Legislative Assistant for Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), and as a Public Health Policy Fellow on the HELP Committee under Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-MA). Sara has also held positions in grants management at Harvard Medical School and the National Institutes of Health. She holds a Master of Public Health degree from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia.
Satoshi Uchida
Tokyo, Japan
Satoshi Uchida
Dr. Satoshi Uchida is a Professor at Medical Research Institute, Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU), engaging in research focused on mRNA-based therapy and delivery systems. Additionally, as a co-founder of Crafton Biotechnology, he plays a pivotal role in driving the clinical translation of mRNA therapeutics.
He earned his M.D. from the University of Tokyo in 2007 and later completed his Ph.D. in medicine at the Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo, in 2013. During his Ph.D. program, he initiated research into mRNA delivery and therapeutics utilizing polymeric micelles. These micelles demonstrated their capability to facilitate in vivo protein expression while minimizing tissue damage and inflammatory responses. Drawing on his expertise as a medical doctor, he applied this system to diverse disease models, including pancreatic cancer, fulminant hepatitis, brain ischemia, spinal cord injury, and osteoarthritis. mRNA therapeutics for osteoarthritis are currently advancing to a pre-clinical stage.
Currently, his primary focus is on the development of mRNA vaccine. In the realm of cancer vaccines, he leverages his proprietary mRNA engineering technology to enhance the adjuvanticity, thereby augmenting the efficacy of several lipid- and polymer-based mRNA vaccine formulations. This approach is shedding new light on the interplay between mRNA engineering and vaccine development (PNAS 2023; 120: e2214320120).
In the field of infectious disease vaccines, he devotes his efforts to mitigating their reactogenicity by avoiding the use of delivery materials, such as lipid nanoparticles. Notably, jet injection of naked mRNA has demonstrated remarkable efficiency in COVID-19 vaccines, both in mouse models and non-human primates. This system is currently undergoing clinical development.
Balachandran Vinod
New York, USA
Vinod Balachandran
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center – New York, NY
Vinod Balachandran completed his BA in Physics at Cornell University, MD at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and surgical oncology training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In 2015 he joined MSK as faculty, where he is a laboratory head in the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program and an attending hepatopancreatobiliary surgeon in the Department of Surgery. His lab aims to discover new immunotherapies for pancreatic cancer.
In 2017, Vinod’s group made the striking observation that rare exceptional survivors of pancreatic cancer have immune-activated “hot” tumors that recognize highly immunogenic mutation-derived neoantigens. As pancreatic cancers phenocopy the ~80% of cancers that resist first-generation immunotherapies, this biological evidence of spontaneous neoantigen-specific T cell immunity in pancreatic cancer has spurred efforts to identify, validate, and therapeutically deliver the minority of immunogenic neoantigens for cancer therapy. His group has translated immunological insights from exceptional pancreatic cancer survivors, with a recent clinical trial of mRNA neoantigen vaccines for pancreatic cancer that has ignited global interest in mRNA cancer vaccination.
For his work, Vinod has received a Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award, a National Cancer Institute Cancer Moonshot Award, the Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators, and the Louise and Allston Boyer Young Investigator Award for Cancer Research, among others.
Selected Recent Publications
Rojas L…Balachandran VP. Personalized RNA Neoantigen Vaccines Stimulate T Cells in Pancreatic Cancer. Nature 2023 May;618:144-150.
Łuksza M…Balachandran VP. Neoantigen quality predicts immunoediting in pancreatic cancer survivors. Nature 2022 Jun;606:389-395.
Moral JA… Balachandran VP. ILC2s amplify PD-1 blockade by activating tissue-specific cancer immunity. Nature 2020 Mar;579(7797):130-135.
Balachandran VP…Leach SD. Identification of unique neoantigen
Zefeng Wang
Shanghai, China
Zefeng Wang
Zefeng Wang is a principal investigator in CAS Shanghai Institute for Nutrition and Health, and scientific founder of CirCode BioMed and Enzerna Bioscience Inc. Zefeng received his bachelor degrees as double major in Biological Science and Computer Technology from Tsinghua University, and a PhD at Johns Hopkins University. He did a post-doc fellow at MIT, and became a tenured faculty at UNC at Chapel Hill with tenure. In 2015, he moved his lab to Shanghai and became the director of CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology (PICB), a partner institute jointly run by Chinese Academy of Science and Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, which was merged to SINH. He is also the director of key lab for computational biology in Chinese Academy of Science.
Zefeng’s research focuses on RNA system biology. He has made significant contribution to the RNA filed by developing a series of genomic approaches to study RNA splicing and dysregulation in a systematic fashion. His lab is the first group to discover that circular RNAs can be translated inside cells, and further studies the regulatory mechanism of circRNA translation. He has also pioneered the filed of engineering RNA binding proteins to specifically manipulate RNA metabolism, which can be used as a research tool or potential therapeutic reagents. His work is recognized by several research awards, including RNA Society/Scaringe Young Scientist Award, Alfred Sloan Research Fellow, Beckman Young Investigator, Kimmel Scholar Award, Jefferson-Pilot Fellowships in Academic Medicine, CAS Pioneer Hundred Talent, Max-Plank Fellow, Mercator fellow, National high level talents special support plan, etc.
Qiaobing Xu
Massachusetts, USA
Qiaobing Xu
Dr. Qiaobing Xu is currently a professor in Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University. He also holds an adjunct position in Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and School of Medicine at Tufts University. He obtained his B.S. from Jilin University, China, and PhD from Harvard University, USA. He did postdoc training at MIT before joining Tufts as an assistant professor in September, 2010. He was promoted to full professor in 2021. His current research interests lie at the intersection of material science engineering, specifically micro/nanoscience, and biomedical application. His work involves using combinatorial methods to develop novel materials for the delivery of therapeutic biomacromolecules and using nanotechnology to develop novel biomaterials for tissue engineering. He received Charlton Award from Tufts University School of Medicine and National Science Foundation CAREER Award. He was named the Pew Scholar for Biomedical Sciences from Pew Charitable Trusts and was elected as a Fellow of AIMBE, class of 2020. Dr. Xu is the founder of Hopewell Therapeutics Inc.
Jack Yoon
Atlanta, USA
Jack Yoon
Jack Yoon is Project Director at Vernagen, where he primarily focuses on developing mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases as well as advancing mRNA therapeutics. He holds a PhD in Cell Biology from Duke University.
While at Emory University, he made significant contributions to the pharmacological approach to infectious diseases by creating in vitro assays for various viruses, including HIV, Norovirus, influenza, and Zika virus, which opened the door to potential drug treatments. Before joining Vernagen, Dr. Yoon also worked at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, where he established colon and liver organoid systems to deepen our understanding of carcinogenesis in both human and animal models.
At Vernagen, he continues to pursue innovative solutions to critical health challenges by advancing mRNA-based therapies with the potential to transform healthcare and benefit society.
Magdalena M. Żak
New York, USA
Magdalena M. Żak
Dr. Magdalena M. Żak is an Instructor at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York where she works on mRNA therapeutics.
Magdalena is leading a research project which focuses on expanding possibilities of mRNA technology by working on cell-specific mRNA therapeutics for systemic delivery, and developing mRNA-derived antibodies for cancer.
During her PhD at the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) in Madrid, where she was awarded the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Early-Stage Researcher fellowship, she used viral vectors for gene delivery in cardiovascular disease. She then realized the advantages of using mRNA for gene delivery, and continued her postdoctoral studies at the Zangi Lab, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she was trained in mRNA production and its implementation in protein replacement therapies with direct injections in cardiovascular disease.
Her current work focuses on cell specificity and antibody production to expand the mRNA therapeutics toolbox.
Industry sponsored speaker
Marco Ciufolini
Michigan, USA
Marco Ciufolini
Dr. Ciufolini obtained his PhD in chemistry at the University of Michigan and after postodoctoral studies at Yale University, he became an academic. He held faculty positions at Rice University, Houston, TX (1984-1998), the Université Claude Bernard and ESCPE in Lyon, France (1998-2004), and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (2004-2021). Marco Ciufolini have over 30 years’ experience as consultant to the pharmaceutical industry, and contributed to the development of 3 commercial pharmaceuticals, including Onpattro.® He is a co-founder of NanoVation Therapeutics (NTx), and 6 other companies, and he is the author of more than 160 technical papers and 45 patents.
Oladimeji Fashola
Illinois, USA
May Guo
With a wealth of experience spanning over 15 years in Operations, Strategic Business Development, and Process Development, Oladimeji Fashola brings a strong foundation in chemical engineering to his extensive career in diverse industries. His professional journey has encompassed various sectors, from heavy chemicals to pharmaceuticals, with his most recent focus centered on biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.
Oladimeji has had the privilege of contributing to groundbreaking market applications, resulting in the approval of life-saving vaccines and advancements in cell and gene therapy. Currently, Oladimeji Fashola is deeply committed to enhancing and streamlining Quantoom’s technology, with the ultimate goal of increasing the affordability and accessibility of biologics for all.
In his leisure time, you’ll frequently find Oladimeji Fashola unwinding by immersing himself in documentary films or embarking on exploratory journeys to new destinations.
Contact Details: info@quantoom.com
Website: https://www.quantoom.com/
Régis Gervier
Lyon, France
Régis Gervier
Régis is responsible for creating and leading the Sanofi’s mRNA Center of Excellence, which is key to accelerating the development and delivery of prophylactic and therapeutic solutions based on mRNA technology. The mRNA Center is a fully integrated organization with teams dedicated to mRNA & LNP Research, CMC activities, GMP manufacturing and Applied Data Sciences. The Center of Excellence is located both in the USA and France.
Régis started his career at Sanofi 28 years ago in the R&D Dpt as Biotechnology Process Development Scientist & has since held successive leadership positions at Sanofi and Sanofi Vaccine in R&D and Industrial Operations worldwide. Before assuming his role at the CoE, Régis was leading the global Evolutive Vaccine Facility (EVF) program for France and Singapore. Biotech Engineer by training, he holds complementarily a Master in Microbiology and an MBA from McGill University.
Andreas Kuhn
Mainz, Germany
Andreas Kuhn
Andreas Kuhn has worked with RNA for almost thirty years. This started with his diploma and PhD theses on the structure and function of small non-coding RNAs using biochemical and molecular biology methods. In his post-doctoral work, Andreas studied RNA-protein interactions in the spliceosome in yeast and later worked on small molecules to affect pre-mRNA splicing. His work on mRNA-based immunotherapies began in 2007 in the academic group of Ugur Sahin at the University Clinic Mainz, and Andreas joined BioNTech SE shortly after its founding in 2008. In his current role as Senior Vice President RNA Biochemistry & CMC Development the main focus is expanding proprietary technologies to increase the efficacy of mRNA-based therapies and to develop and optimize GMP-compatible manufacturing processes and analytical methods for RNA. He has co-authored numerous publications and patents ranging from basic research on RNA to its application as a therapeutic agent and vaccine.
Romain Micol
Massachusetts, USA
Romain Micol
Dr. Romain Micol has been President, co-founder, and Chief Executive Officer of Combined Therapeutics since 2016. Previously, he held several positions in R&D and Business Development across the Institut Mérieux group: ABL Inc (USA), Shantha Biotechnics (India), and Transgene (China and France). Dr. Micol helped to set up the first reference center for primary immunodeficiency in France in 2005. Dr. Micol is an entrepreneur with affiliations to six famous universities (Massachusetts Institute of Technology or MIT in the U.S., LSE in the UK, Paris VI, Paris V, Paris Dauphine in France and Global LBS in the UK). Dr. Micol obtained his Medical Degree (two specializations in Infectious Diseases and Public Health) from Pierre et Marie Curie University, his Ph.D. in Communicable Diseases from Paris Descartes University, his Master of Business Administration from Hult International Business School and his LLM (Corporate Law – Intellectual Property) from the London School and Economics, and his Advanced Management Program from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Venkata Indurthi
Massachusetts, USA
Venkata Indurthi
Venkata Indurthi, Ph.D. is Aldevron’s Chief Scientific Officer, where he provides essential leadership and structure while focusing on strategic opportunities to further strengthen our position across all platforms with a special emphasis on RNA-focused developments.
Indurthi earned a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology from SRM University, Chennai, India, and his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Science from North Dakota State University, Fargo, N.D. He has published several scientific papers and has presented at multiple conferences and symposiums.
Indurthi has been a member of the Aldevron team since 2016, holding a variety of positions that increased in responsibility and focus across production, quality and R&D.
Martin Rabel
Leipzig, Germany
Martin Rabel
Martin Rabel, Dipl.-Pharm., Ph.D. currently works as a Senior Field Application Scientist for Precision NanoSystems ULC supporting clients in Central Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). He obtained his pharmaceutical license as well as a postgraduate diploma from the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena working on Bacterial Nanocellulose (BNC) nanoparticles for gene delivery applications. His Ph.D. research focused on the development of animal-free simulation models for the development of complex diagnostic nanoparticles (IONP) and other nanomedicines as well as nanoparticle characterization and manufacturing methods. He joined Precision NanoSystems ULC in 2019 as Field Application Scientist. He is specialized in the development of novel nanomedicines using PNI´s microfluidic NanoAssemblr platform and gene delivery reagents. His expertise spans formulation development, optimization as well as scale-up including GMP manufacturing.
Scott Ripley
Uppsala, Sweden
Scott Ripley
General Manager, Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, Cytiva
Scott Ripley, PhD, leads the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics team at Cytiva, which is focused on supporting the clinical manufacture of mRNA and other nucleic acid–based therapies. He is deeply involved in both the strategic and tactical aspects of evolving and driving forward products and services that support advanced therapeutic manufacturing.
With over twenty years of experience in the life sciences industry, Scott’s guiding principle has always been “eye on the customer.” In this spirit, the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics unit is now focused on helping enable the promise of mRNA and oligonucleotides by continuously monitoring trends in the global genomic medicine market, looking for unmet customer needs, and working on a strategic road map to support future customer needs.
Igor Smolenov
Massachusetts, USA
Igor Smolenov
Igor Smolenov is the Chief Development Officer of Arcturus Therapeutics. Dr. Smolenov is a recognized leader in clinical development with a proven record of accomplishment in small biotechnology and large pharmaceutical companies. He contributed to the successful development and licensure of several innovative vaccines.
Before joining Arcturus, Dr. Smolenov was the Executive Vice President at Clover Pharmaceuticals, where he built a strong team able to rapidly generate pivotal clinical data leading to COVID-19 vaccine authorization and the product launch. Before that, Dr. Smolenov served as Therapeutic Area Head, leading the development of several seasonal influenza vaccines in Seqirus (CSL), and Head of Clinical Development in Moderna Therapeutics, managing the initiation of the first clinical trials of mRNA vaccines in humans. At Novartis Vaccines, Dr. Smolenov contributed to the development and global licensure of meningococcal vaccines (Menveo, Bexsero, and MenABCWY) and the overall commercial success of the meningococcal vaccines franchise.
Igor Smolenov graduated from Volgograd State Medical University, Russia, and holds MD, Ph.D., and Doctor of Science (Habilitation) degrees from this university. Before starting his industry carrier, he passed multiple academic steps from junior researcher to professor and head of the Allergy/immunology department of the university. He is the author of more than 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals in clinical pharmacology, infectious disease, and vaccine development.
Ying Tam
Vancouver, Canada
Ying K. Tam
Chief Scientific Officer of Acuitas Therapeutics, Dr. Ying K. Tam, is a globally respected expert in the areas of nanotechnology and immunology. He obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Developmental and Molecular Biology from the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, ON prior to his post-doctoral fellowship in cancer immunotherapy at the BC Cancer Agency in Vancouver, BC. Dr. Tam has held several academic positions including Instructor and Assistant Professor in the Department of Hematology/Oncology at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago, IL, overseeing the translational stem cell transplant immunotherapy research program. He also served as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of British Columbia.
Prior to Acuitas, Dr. Tam led a program developing a lipid nanoparticle (LNP), nucleic acid-based immunostimulatory drug. Dr. Tam is a founding scientist at Acuitas and helped the company to become a global leader in the application of LNP technology for the delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics. This includes the development of the LNP carriers used in ONPATTRO® and COMIRNATY®, a highly effective and safe COVID-19 vaccine produced through a partnership with BioNTech and Pfizer.
Dr. Tam oversees the scientific program at Acuitas and has guided both internal research programs as well as external programs with partners and collaborators. He has authored more than 75 peer-reviewed studies, including several in high-impact journals such as Nature and Nature Biotechnology, and has contributed to grant applications to secure millions of dollars in funding.
Shigetomo Tsujihata
Kanagawa, Japan
Shigetomo Tsujihata
Shigetomo Tsujihata joined Fujifilm Corporation in 2000 and have been involved in R&D related to nanoparticle formulation and dispersion. He has more than 10 years of experience in nano-DDS, with a particular focus on lipid nanoparticles. He manages CDMO projects on LNPs and his team is responsible for molecular design of ionizable lipids, formulation of LNPs, and process development.
Andreas Wagner
Vienna, Austria
Andreas Wagner
Dr Andreas Wagner is currently the Head, Liposome Technology at Polymun Scientific GmbH. He has significant expertise in incorporation and optimization of hydrophilic, lipophilic and amphipatic substances into liposomes and LNPs and development for clinical use. He studied Biotechnology in Vienna, Austria.. Dr Andreas Wagner is listed as inventor on several patents, like the liposome technology and some product patents of liposomal formulations. Furthermore, he has published several peer reviewed articles dealing with liposomes, the technology, products thereof and their application in preclinical and clinical studies.
Khaled Yamout
California, USA
Khaled Yamout
Khaled Yamout is the Senior Director, Analytical Services and Quality Control at TriLink Biotechnologies where he oversees all analytical aspects of method development and validation to product release and stability to support regulatory filings for both small and large molecules. Prior to TriLink, Khaled held various positions in Quality Control, Research and Development, and Manufacturing where he supported a number of Drug substances and Drug products (both small molecules and biologics) from clinical phase to commercial. These include diverse experience and expertise ranging from discovery to manufacturing with Fortune 500 firms, as well as small entrepreneurial businesses in the areas of synthetic, analytical, colloidal, surface modification, protein, and antibody modification and purification covering both manufacturing and analytical testing and characterization.
Markus Zettl
Heidelberg, Germany
Markus Zettl
Markus Zettl, PhD has more than 15 years experience in research and development in the area of Immuno-Oncology bringing multiple drug candidates to the clinic as well as providing preclinical and translational support for Phase 1 to 2 clinical studies. Before joining CureVac as Vice President leading the Oncology Research & Development organisation, he worked at Boehringer Ingelheim and the mid-size Pieris Pharmaceuticals. Furthermore, he held academic positions at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) Cambridge and performed his Ph.D at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Heidelberg and CRUK, London. Throughout his career he published several high impact publications including Cell and Science and is an inventor on multiple patents.
Xiao Xiao
Nanjing, China
Xiao Xiao
Xiao Xiao is the Chief Product Officer for Synthgene, a company dedicated to develop and produce novel and high quality starting materials for mRNA, gRNA, siRNA and oligos. He is passionate about new technologies and discoveries, particularly in the area of treating cancer and rare diseases. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical biology from Nanjing University. With rich experience in biochemistry at university and extensive knowledge of mRNA, CRISPR, siRNA and LNP, Xiao Xiao is in a marvellous position to bring solutions to customers and connect people in the industry.
Jing Zhu
Massachusetts, USA
Jing Zhu
Jing Zhu is the Vice President, Nucleic Acid & Viral Vector Technology, at ReciBioPharm, responsible for overseeing process development activities and technology platform establishment.
Before joining ReciBioPharm, Jing was the Director, Process and Analytical Development at a number of biotech startups, leading the development of new technology platforms for gene therapy applications, and steering CMC activities for several IND enabling projects. He also led the Phase I clinical trial of a mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
Prior to this, Jing was the R&D Manager of Pharma Purification Analytics at ThermoFisher, with a special focus on gene therapy applications. He led R&D efforts for different ATMP modalities, including CaptureSelect AAV affinity solutions and POROS Oligo dT 25 capture solutions for mRNA purification.
