Here you can get an overview of the speaker of the 2024 conference.
Keynote Speaker

Peter Marks
USA
Peter Marks, MD, PhD
Director, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, FDA
Peter Marks received his graduate degree in cell and molecular biology and his medical degree at New York University and completed Internal Medicine residency and Hematology/Medical Oncology training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He has worked in academic settings teaching and caring for patients and in industry on drug development and is an author or co-author of over 100 publications. He joined the FDA in 2012 as Deputy Center Director for CBER and became Center Director in 2016. Over the past several years he has been integrally involved in the response to various public health emergencies, and in 2022 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Drew Weissmann
Pennsylvania, USA
Drew Weissman
Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, is the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research and director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovation in Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine. He is recognized for his work alongside Katalin Karikó in discovering the modified mRNA technology, which has launched a new era of vaccine development. Their mRNA research breakthrough has been used in both the BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines and has revolutionized the field of vaccine development. Dr. Weissman’s current research focuses on developing a pan-coronavirus vaccine to stop the next coronavirus epidemic, a universal flu vaccine, cancer therapeutics, and a vaccine to prevent herpes.
Dr. Weissman earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biochemistry and enzymology from Brandeis University in 1981 and his M.D. and Ph.D. in immunology and microbiology in 1987 at Boston University School of Medicine. Following a residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, he took a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, where he worked with Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Dr. Weissman hold many patents and has published over 200 papers. He has been recognized with numerous awards including the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, and the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology.

Hiroshi Abe
Nagoya, Japan
Hiroshi Abe
Hiroshi Abe is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Japan. He is a leading researcher in the field of chemical biology of nucleic acids and RNA therapeutics. Professor Abe received his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Hokkaido University under the supervision of Professor Akira Matsuda. He also holds an M.S. and B.S. from Hokkaido University’s School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.Before joining Nagoya University in 2015, he served as an Associate Professor at Hokkaido University (2013-2015) and as a Researcher at RIKEN (2005-2013). His postdoctoral research was conducted under the guidance of Professor Eric Kool at Stanford University (2002-2005) and Professor Joanne Stubbe at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2001-2002).
Professor Abe’s work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Incentive Award of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (2010), the Japanese Society of Nucleic Acid Medicine Award for Chemistry-Based Nucleic Acid Drug Research (2020), and the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry Corporate Endowed Award, Kaneka Life Science Award (2024).
His research has led to significant advancements in RNA therapeutics and chemical biology. Some of his notable works include studies on cap analogs with hydrophobic photocleavable tags, complete chemical synthesis of minimal messenger RNA, and chemical modification of mRNA for more efficient protein synthesis. He has founded Crafton biotechnology.
Professor Abe can be contacted at abe.hiroshi.p4@f.mail.nagoya-u.ac.jp, and his office is located at the Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8602, Japan.

Parinaz Aliahmad
San Diego, USA
Parinaz Aliahmad
Dr. Parinaz (Paris) Aliahmad is Head of Research and Development at Replicate Bioscience. She has expertise in drug development, including both small molecules therapeutics and vaccines (inclusive of nucleic acid, protein, and viral vector-based platforms) and comprehensive knowledge of the immune system as it relates to establishing host immunity with vaccines and immunotherapies, as well dampening inflammation in autoimmune disease.
Prior to Replicate Bioscience, Dr. Aliahmad has held positions at both Janssen and Synthetic Genomics, leading translational studies of a self-replicating RNA platform asset for infectious disease and oncology vaccines.
Dr. Aliahmad is an inventor on multiple patents for applications of synthetic biology and use of novel technologies for vaccines and therapeutics. She received a Ph.D. in Immunology from Scripps Research. Prior to this, she earned a M.S. in Immunology from the University of Toronto and a B.S. in Microbiology & Immunology from McGill University.

Daniel G. Anderson
Cambridge, USA
Daniel G. Anderson
Daniel G. Anderson is the Joseph R. Mares (1924) Professor of Chemical Engineering, a core member of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and an intramural member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. He is a leading researcher in the fields of nanotherapeutics and biomaterials. His work has led to advances in a range of areas, including medical devices, cell therapy, drug delivery, gene therapy and material science, and has resulted in the publication of more than 500 papers, patents, and patent applications. He has founded several companies, including Living Proof, Olivo Labs, Crispr Therapeutics (CRSP), Sigilon Therapeutics, Verseau Therapeutics, oRNA, VasoRx, and Souffle Therapeutics. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology, a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and is an affiliate of the Broad and Ragon Institutes.

Elena Atochina-Vasserman
Pennsylvania, USA
Elena Atochina-Vasserman
Dr. Elena Atochina-Vasserman is a Research Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Penn Institute of RNA Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania. With extensive expertise in the targeted delivery of mRNA therapeutics to the lungs, Elena plays a pivotal role in advancing treatments for pulmonary diseases. She has made significant contributions to the field, authoring over 100 published papers and holding several patents.
Dr. Atochina-Vasserman earned her M.D. from Tomsk Medical School and her Ph.D. from the Cardiology Research Center in Moscow, Russia. Elena’s early research focused on the targeted delivery of therapeutics to the pulmonary angiotensin-converting enzyme, laying the groundwork for her ongoing commitment to understanding and treating pulmonary diseases.
In 2018, Dr. Atochina-Vasserman joining Dr. Drew Weissman’s laboratory, marking a critical expansion of her research into novel mRNA-based therapeutic delivery systems targeting the lung. Elena’s innovative approach led to a collaboration with Dr. Virgil Percec from the Department of Chemistry. Together, they have pioneered the development of one-component particles, specifically ionizable amphiphilic Janus dendrimers (IAJD). This innovative approach offers a promising alternative to traditional four-component lipid nanoparticle (LNP) systems and holds the potential to revolutionize mRNA therapeutics delivery, opening new avenues for treating pulmonary diseases.

Nuthan V. Bathula
Vancouver, Canada
Nuthan Vikas Bathula
Nuthan Vikas Bathula is a 4th year PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia, working under the supervision of Prof. Anna Blakney. He holds a master’s degree in Immunotherapeutics from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and a bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from Osmania University, India. His PhD research focuses on the therapeutic potential of Self-Amplifying RNA (saRNA) for protein replacement therapies, a field with transformative potential in addressing various diseases. Nuthan’s work explores the influence of key factors such as the route of administration, delivery systems, and the gene of interest being encoded on saRNA’s in situ activity and overall performance. He is also developing immuno-modulatory formulations to reduce saRNA-related reactogenicity while leveraging saRNA’s replicating nature to improve its effectiveness in protein replacement, particularly for short half-life proteins.

Tim Beissert
Mainz, Germany
Tim Beissert
Tim Beissert studied biology at the Technical University Darmstadt, Germany, where he received his diploma in 1999. Next he did his PhD thesis at the University Clinic Frankfurt, Germany, where he investigated the mechanism of resistance of Philadelphia-chromosome positive leukemia towards Imatinib. After continuing in the field of leukemia as a postdoc for 4 years, he changed his field of research in 2008 by joining the lab of Ugur Sahin in Mainz, Germany. Since then Tim is working on the improvement of RNA vectors, and since 2010 he is heading the Vectors team at the Mainz-based research Institute TRON. Tim and his team have been developing and improving trans-amplifying RNA for the use as vaccine platform.

Sven Even Borgos
Trondheim, Norway
Sven Even Borgos
Sven Even Borgos is a senior research scientist at SINTEF in Trondheim, Norway. His research is addressing development and advanced characterization of nanomedicines for gene delivery, with a particular emphasis on physicochemical analyses and the development and assessment of novel analytical assays. This includes also collaborative efforts with regulatory authorities (FDA), metrology institutes (NIST), academia and industry towards formal standardization of analytical methods.
He has an undergraduate in biophysics and a PhD in molecular genetics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, a post doc in systems biology and almost two decades of experience with advanced analytical chemistry in SINTEF. Funding include European and national collaborative projects as well as numerous direct projects with industry, and he is leading SINTEFs strategic initiative on mRNA therapeutics.

Ling-Ling Chen
Shanghai, China
Ling-Ling Chen
Ling-Ling Chen carried out doctoral and post-doctoral work in Biomedical Science at UConn Health, USA from 2004 to 2010. She also completed an MBA degree in Management at the UConn Business School in 2009 and was promoted to Assistant Professor in Residence at UConn in 2010. Chen moved to the Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science (a.k.a. Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, SIBCB), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) as an independent PI in 2011. She was selected as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) International Research Scholar in 2017, and as a New Cornerstone Investigator in 2022. She has been appointed as the Associate Director, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology from 2017 to 2022, and as the Director of the Key Laboratory of RNA Innovation, Science and Engineering (RISE), CAS since 2022. Her group now continues efforts on elucidating the biogenesis and function of regulatory RNAs in different cellular contexts and in relevant human diseases.

Moore Chen
Melbourne, Australia
Moore Chen
Moore Zhe Chen is a 3rd year doctoral student in Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne Australia. She received her master’s degree from University of Melbourne. Later, she joined Associate professor Angus Johnston’s group in Monash University working as Research Assistant before her PhD.
Moore Chen’s research project is focusing on developing the next generation of targeted lipid nanoparticle delivery system for the precise targeting delivery of mRNA in vivo. This system incorporates an optimal orientated nanobody that can capture antibody via its Fc domain. This approach greatly enhanced the efficiency of the delivery in vitro and in vivo and simplifies the process of manufacturing the targeted LNP. The result demonstrated that this technique can be used to rapidly screen a range of antibodies for optimal specificity and expression efficiency. Using these actively-targeted LNPs, she successfully transfected specific cell populations (T cells or B cells) of primary human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) ex vivo, with minimal off-target expression. Furthermore, she demonstrates systemic in vivo targeting of T cells in the liver, spleen, lung, circulating blood, and lymph nodes, with minimal delivery to other immune cells, compared to control particles. Additionally, this antibody-capturing LNP system showed no obvious toxic effects, as assessed by cytokine release profiles and spleen/liver histopathology imaging.

Jeff Coller
Baltimore, USA
Jeff Coller
Jeff Coller holds the esteemed position of Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of RNA Biology and Therapeutics at Johns Hopkins University. With over three decades dedicated to RNA and mRNA biology, his research has been pioneering, focusing notably on messenger RNA stability and translation. Dr. Coller earned his Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin and conducted postdoctoral research at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Arizona.
Before joining Johns Hopkins, Dr. Coller directed the RNA Center at Case Western Reserve University, where he also held the Henry Willson Payne Distinguished Professorship. His research delves into the core of life itself—the translation of the genetic code. His groundbreaking discoveries have reshaped understanding of gene expression, revealing that the genetic code profoundly influences mRNA fate.
Beyond academia, Dr. Coller is a Co-founder of Tevard Biosciences, recognized in 2018 with Pfizer’s Golden Ticket award for its promising neuroscience innovations. Moreover he is a founding member of the Alliance for mRNA Medicines and severs on their Board of Directors. Lastly he sits on multiple Scientific Advisory Boards for patient advocacy groups. His contributions extend to over 6000 citations in scientific literature and multiple patents in the realm of RNA-based therapeutic applications.

Xiaole Cui
Ghent, Belgium
Xiaole Cui
Xiaole Cui received his master degree from Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Agriculture Science. In his master thesis he compared the immunogenicity of live attenuated and inactivated H5N1 influenza vaccines in chicken. After his master he joined the mRNA team of Prof. Dr. Niek Sanders (Ghent University, Belgium). His PhD research focuses on the self-amplifying (sa) RNA platform for vaccination against H5 high pathogenic avian influenza virus. In more detail he designed and investigated the immunogenicity and biodistribution of several H5 saRNA vaccines in mice and chicken. For the delivery of the saRNA he made several lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) using commercial or in-house synthesized ionizable lipids and evaluated their delivery efficacy in mice. The past year Xiaole Cui thoroughly investigated in mice the influence of pre-existing immunity against the Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) replicase on the efficacy of the VEEV based self-amplifying RNA vaccine platform.

Stefaan De Koker
Zwijnaarde, Belgium
Stefaan De Koker
Stefaan De Koker holds a master in Bio-engineering and obtained his PhD at the lab for Molecular Immunology at Ghent University. Throughout his career, Stefaan has had a keen interest in understanding how activation of the innate immune system shapes the adaptive immune system and in translating this knowledge into improved vaccines and immunotherapies. Stefaan became early involved in the mRNA therapeutics field and published seminal papers on the mode-of-action of mRNA vaccines, on the usage of mRNA for intratumoral immunomodulation and on the development of novel delivery vehicles for mRNA therapeutics. September 2016, Stefaan joined eTheRNA where he leads the Technology and Innovation team. His focus is currently on the design of customized mRNA lipid- based nanoparticles (cLNPs) for extrahepatic delivery, immunomodulation and gene editing. Stefaan has authored over 60 publications and is co-inventor on >15 patent applications.

Yizhou Dong
New York, USA
Yizhou Dong
Yizhou Dong is a Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. His research focuses on the design and development of biotechnology platforms for the treatment of genetic disorders, infectious diseases, and cancer. Dr. Dong has authored over one hundred papers and patents. Over seventy of his patents have been licensed by biotech companies and are currently under development as drug candidates for clinical trials. He serves as a scientific advisory board member for Arbor Biotechnologies and Sirnagen Therapeutics. Dr. Dong is the recipient of multiple awards, such as Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Emerging Leader Award. Dr. Dong is an elected fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and also an elected fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

Norman Drzeniek
Berlin, Germany
Norman Drzeniek
Norman Michael Drzeniek MD PhD (pronounced Jenn-Yak) is a physician-scientist and bioengineer at the BIH Center for Regenerative Therapies at Charité Berlin, Germany, and the Charité Dept. of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology.
During his PhD in the labs of Hans-Dieter Volk at Charité, Germany and Shay Soker at Wake Forest University, NC, USA, Norman developed biomaterial- and mRNA-based approaches for non-viral cell engineering. As a post-doctoral fellow (associated with the lab of Manfred Gossen at Helmholtz Center Hereon, Institute of Active Polymers) he characterized cellular immune responses toward mRNA therapeutics.
Currently, Norman serves as a physician-scientist and clinical immunology fellow. In the rheumatology department, he is involved in pioneering CAR-T cell therapy for patients with autoimmune disease. His engineering team advances technologies for tissue-targeted immunotherapy, including mRNA, LNPs and hydrogel matrices.

Xuan Du
Tokyo, Japan
Xuan Du
Xuan Du is a 3rd-year PhD student in Prof. Keiji Itaka’s research group at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU), where she also earned her Master of Engineering degree. Her research interest lies in mRNA-based therapies and drug delivery systems. During her master’s program, Xuan investigated the therapeutic potential of mRNA encoding Dp140, an isoform of dystrophin missing in the brains of individuals with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). In her PhD research, she conducted a comprehensive evaluation of different mRNA delivery platforms, comparing lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) and polyplex nanomicelles, a proprietary mRNA carrier, to assess their safety and efficacy for muscle-targeted delivery. Xuan’s current work focuses on developing a novel mRNA-based therapy for DMD to enhance muscle damage resistance and improve overall muscle function.

Ali Ellebedy
Washington, USA
Ali Ellebedy
Ali H. Ellebedy, Ph.D., Leo Loeb Endowed Professor in the Department of Pathology and Immunology, and the Co-Director of the Center for Vaccines and Immunity to Microbial Pathogens at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He is a viral immunologist with 16 years of experience studying murine and human B cell responses to viral infections and vaccination. Over the past ten years, he has been directly involved in the design and execution of over 20 vaccination studies in humans. He was the study PI of half of these studies. The focus of his research has been on viral pathogens, including seasonal and avian influenza, Ebola, Lassa, Chikungunya, and SARS-CoV-2. He has a unique expertise in the evaluation of B cell and antibody responses to vaccination that will guarantee the successful completion of the goals of this application.
Dr. Ellebedy earned a bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Cairo University School of Pharmacy, Cairo, Egypt in 2004 and his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee in 2011.
Throughout his career, Dr. Ellebedy has demonstrated his expertise through numerous publications and has received recognition with various prestigious awards.

Andrew Ferguson
Hingham, USA
Andrew Ferguson
Andrew Ferguson, PhD is Vice President, Clinical Development at Gritstone bio leading clinical development for Gritstone’s oncology focused programs. He lead development of GRANITE, an individualized neoantigen-targeting immunotherapy, from a first-in-human study through an ongoing randomized Phase 2 study. He also lead SLATE, an off-the-shelf shared antigen immunotherapy, from first-in-human through tumor-specific expansion cohorts. Prior to Gritstone, Dr. Ferguson was in the clinical development group at Tesaro working on first-in-human studies for TSR-042 (the anti-PD-1 antibody dostarlimab) and TSR-022 (an anti-TIM-3 antibody). Dr. Ferguson studied tumor immunotherapy in the laboratory of Victor Engelhard with a focus on vaccination and T cell differentiation and migration into the tumor microenvironment. He has previously held positions in clinical development at Sanofi Oncology and Genzyme in the fields of tumor immunotherapy, hematology, and solid organ transplantation.

Erol Fikrig
Connecticut, USA
Erol Fikrig
Erol Fikrig leads a research team studying the molecular immunopathogenesis of arthropod-borne diseases. Lyme disease, caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, is the most common tick-borne illness in North America. Both B. burgdorferi, and the Ixodes scapularis ticks that harbor the spirochete, are major long-standing interests of his group. Studies are directed at understanding the interactions between pathogen, vertebrate host, and arthropod vector that result in virulence and transmission. Additional areas of investigation include the molecular basis of disease in animal models and patients with Lyme disease.

Francis Impens
Ghent, Belgium
Francis impens
Francis Impens holds an MSc (2005) in biomedical sciences and a PhD (2010) in the field of mass spectrometry-based proteomics, both obtained at Ghent University, Belgium. He then moved to the Pasteur Institute in Paris for a 4-year postdoc where he applied his proteomics expertise to study bacterial infection by the foodborne model pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. In 2015 Francis moved back to Belgium to lead the Proteomics Core at VIB-UGent and in 2016 he started his own research group supported by an Odysseus starting grant. His research aims to better understand the fundamental principles of bacteria-host interactions and to develop novel antimicrobial approaches. Francis is a VIB group leader since 2016 and a Full Professor at Ghent University since 2022. His current projects focus on the development of novel antibacterial nanobodies and mRNA vaccines and in 2023 he was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant to investigate rare diseases triggered by infection.

Keiji Itaka
Tokyo, Japan
Keiji Itaka
Keiji Itaka MD, PhD is professor at Institute for Biomaterials and Bioengineering, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, and concurrently professor of Center for Integrated Education and Research on Infectious Diseases (CiDER), Osaka University. He graduated from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine in 1991, and worked as an orthopedic surgeon for nine years. After graduating from Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo in 2003, he had been working on research for DDS and gene therapy at the University of Tokyo. In April 2017, he became professor at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, and in August 2022, he also became professor at Osaka University.
He has been conducting research on mRNA therapeutics, including the development of mRNA design and delivery system. POC studies of mRNA therapeutics for regenerative medicine were awarded in this International mRNA Health Conference as the presentation award in 2015 and 2016. He was involved in establishing a venture company, AccuRna Inc. (now NANOMRNA Co., Ltd.), with whom he is aiming to start a clinical trial of an mRNA medicine for osteoarthritis.

Moritz K. Jansson
Rostock, Germany
Moritz Jansson
Moritz Jansson graduated from the University of Lübeck, Germany, in 2015 with a degree in medicine and completed his doctoral thesis at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Afterward, he joined the Rostock University Medical Centre, where he worked in internal medicine within the Department of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases. Currently, he specializes in clinical microbiology at the Institute of Medical Microbiology, Virology, and Hygiene (IMIKRO), where he manages the biosafety level 3 lab. In 2021, Moritz earned an MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). He and his team are working on an mRNA-based approach to target bacterial infections caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, a leading cause of bacterial respiratory disease worldwide which has been placed on the WHO 2017 and 2024 Bacterial Priority Pathogens List (BPPL). Expanding on this work, Moritz’s team is developing cell culture-based screening methods to test mRNA-based antibacterial substances.

Woojung Jung
Seoul, South Korea

Christian Kastrup
Wisconsin, USA
Christian Kastrup
Dr. Christian Kastrup is a Senior Investigator at the Versiti Blood Research Institute and a Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. His appointments are in the Department of Surgery, Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, and the Departments of Biochemistry, Biomedical Engineering, and Pharmacology and Toxicology. Additionally, he is an Affiliate Professor at The University of British Columbia and is a Co-founder of NanoVation Therapeutics, SeraGene Therapeutics, and CoMotion Drug Delivery Systems. Christian is a biochemist specializing in biotechnology and genetic medicines. He earned his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Chicago and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Bioengineering at MIT in the lab of Dr. Robert Langer. His research is centered on understanding and controlling blood coagulation and fibrinolysis proteins. He is driven by the potential to improve health outcomes of young people by addressing the impact of hemorrhage during trauma and childbirth, as well as thrombosis-related conditions such as strokes and deep vein thrombosis. In his laboratory, Christian’s team creates RNA therapeutics, lipid nanoparticles, advanced drug delivery systems, and new blood products for transfusion medicine. They work in close collaboration with a variety of stakeholders, including the Canadian Armed Forces, the US Army, blood centers, and others within and beyond the field of blood research. This research is currently funded by the NIH, US Department of Defense, Canadian Department of National Defence, American Heart Association, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and others. Christian has trained and supervised over a hundred scientists and clinicians in his laboratory with these shared goals.

Katia Lemdani
Paris, France
Katia Lemdani
Katia Lemdani, pharmacist, holds a PhD in the field of immunology at Paris Saclay university (2018). Afterward, she joined Sanofi for 3-year postdoc where she worked on collaboration with the institute of infectious Diseases Models for Innovative Therapies (IDMIT) on the development and understanding of mRNA vaccine mechanisms. Katia is R&D group leader Since 2021 at Neovacs SA biotech company in France. She and her team are working on mRNA-based approaches for the targeting of self-proteins in auto-immune diseases and allergy.

Xizhen Lian
Baltimore, USA
Xizhen Lian
Xizhen Lian is an Assistant Research Scientist at Johns Hopkins University. He received a PhD in chemistry from Texas A&M University studying the enzyme encapsulation and delivery by metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and the biomedical applications. He conducted postdoctoral training at UT Southwestern Medical Center under the advice of Prof. Daniel Siegwart on lipid nanoparticle (LNP) engineering for in vivo mRNA delivery and gene editing, with a specific focus on bone marrow and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). At JHU, he bridges the effort of Whiting School of Engineering and School of Medicine to pursue the clinical translation of LNP and in vivo gene editing technologies.

María José Limeres
Mainz, Germany
María José Limeres
María José Limeres completed both studies in Biochemistry and Pharmacy in the School of Pharmacy and Biochemistry at the University of Buenos Aires and after working for three years for the National Regulatory Authority of medicines in Argentina (INAME – ANMAT) at the Service of applied immunology, she decided to do her PhD at University of Buenos Aires in the vaccinology field. Throughout her PhD fellowship, she has learned to carry out several steps regarding the upstream and downstream processes for the development of novel protein- and genetic-based anti-hepatitis B vaccine formulations. She also did a research internship for 15 months in the group of ´Vehiculation and transport of drugs´ in the School of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the University of Barcelona and in the Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicine ´López-Neyra´, Granada, Spain, where she designed, developed and characterized different nanotechnological formulations for the delivery of nucleic acids for the potential development of genetic vaccines. Before finishing her PhD, she attended to a life-changing intensive course in Vaccinology at the Pasteur Institute in Paris for one month, where she had the opportunity to interact with actors from large pharmaceutical companies to National Regulatory Authorities from all over the world, which made her realize that she wanted to develop her research in the needy field of vaccinology.
As a result of her experience acquired during her PhD, in 2021 she was hired as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Children’s Hospital, University Medical Center Mainz of the Johannes-Gutenberg University in Germany by Univ. Prof. Dr. med. Stephan Gehring, who is the head of the Research Laboratory in Pediatric Immunology and Infectious Diseases. The main focus of her research at the Children’s Hospital in Mainz aims to develop a prophylactic and therapeutic hepatitis B vaccine for the pediatric population that focuses primarily on the T-cell immune response to overcome liver tolerance in chronic hepatitis B.

Hai-Quan Mao
Baltimore, USA
Hai-Quan Mao
Hai-Quan Mao is the Director of the Institute of NanoBioTechnology (INBT) and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University. He holds a joint appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and is a core faculty of the Translational Tissue Engineering Center and at the School of Medicine. He received B.S. degree in Chemistry and Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry from Wuhan University in China in 1988 and 1993, respectively. He completed his postdoctoral training in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 1995 to 1998, and worked as a co-principal investigator at Johns Hopkins in Singapore from 1999 to 2003. Dr. Mao joined the faculty of Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in 2003. Dr. Mao’s research focuses on establishing scalable manufacturing platforms for nanotherapeutics to deliver nucleic acid and protein therapeutics, developing nanofiber-hydrogel composites for soft tissue remodeling and delivery of stem cells, and engineering biomimetic matrix to program immune responses. Dr. Mao is an associate editor for Biomaterials and serves on the editorial boards of ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering and Journal of Materials Chemistry B. Dr. Mao was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Craig Martin
Amherst, USA
Craig Martin
Professor of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Ph.D. California Institute of Technology; Postdoctoral: Yale University
The Martin Lab has studied structure and function of T7 RNA polymerase for more than three decades and has recently pivoted towards exploiting that expertise towards designing truly novel approaches to RNA synthesis and manufacturing across all scales, from R&D and Discovery, to clinical trials, to production, and in personalized mRNA therapeutics. Recently published approaches are accessible to bench syntheses and simplified platforms for manufacturing are in development. The primary goal is much higher purity RNA (e.g., eliminating dsRNA at synthesis), produced under more native conditions, but the advances will also lead to dramatically reduced costs of production. Towards demonstrating the improvements in quality, the lab is also developing analytics that go beyond low sensitivity approaches currently in use and that will be meaningful at all RNA lengths. We aim to raise the quality bar and then beat it.

Michael J. Mitchell
Pennsylvania, USA
Michael J. Mitchell
Michael J. Mitchell is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Lipid Nanoparticle Delivery Systems Group Leader at the Penn Institute for RNA Innovation. He received a BE in Biomedical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in 2009, a PhD in Biomedical Engineering with Prof. Michael King from Cornell University in 2014. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Chemical Engineering with Prof. Robert Langer at MIT from 2014-2017, prior to pursuing his independent career at University of Pennsylvania in 2018. The Mitchell lab’s research broadly lies at the interface of biomaterials science, drug delivery, and cellular and molecular bioengineering to fundamentally understand and therapeutically target biological barriers. Specifically, his lab engineers new lipid and polymeric nanoparticle platforms for the delivery of different nucleic acid modalities to target cells and tissues across the body. His lab applies their research findings and the technologies developed to a range of human health applications, including the engineering of CAR T cells for cancer immunotherapy, mRNA vaccines, genome editing, cardiovascular disease, and in utero therapeutics to treat disease before birth.
Mitchell has received numerous awards as an independent investigator, including the National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award, the Rising Star Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Career Award at the Scientific Interface from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and the Research Scholar Award from the American Cancer Society. In 2022 Mitchell was named “Emerging Inventor for the Year” by Penn’s for Innovation in recognition for his lipid nanoparticle technologies and received the Young Investigator Award from the Society for Biomaterials, the T. Nagai Award from the Controlled Release Society, and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award. In 2023 he was named a Young Innovator in Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering, and in 2024 he received the Controlled Release Society Young Investigator Award. He is a co-founder of Liberate Bio, a biotechnology company focused on developing non-viral delivery technologies for genetic medicines, and serves on Scientific Advisory Board of numerous biotechnology companies.

Ritam Neupane
Michigan, USA

Paula Muresan
Tübingen, Germany
Paula Muresan
Dr Paula Muresan is a Research Scientist in the Formulation Technology group at CureVac SE, in Tübingen, Germany. Her research is focused on the design and development of novel lipid nanoparticle (LNP) systems for the delivery of mRNA therapeutics. Her interests also lie in the structural characterization of LNPs through advanced analytical techniques and the optimization of LNP manufacturing processes.
Paula obtained a PhD from the University of Nottingham, Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Therapeutics and Nanomedicines in 2021, where her doctoral studies focused on the development of formulations for poorly soluble drugs for delivery to the central nervous system. Prior to this she obtained an MSc in Pharmacology from King’s College London.

Serena Omo-Lamai
Pennsylvania, USA

Yusuke Sato
Sapporo, Japan
Yusuke Sato
Yusuke Sato is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hokkaido University, Japan. He is a researcher in the field of drug delivery system (DDS) of nucleic acid therapeutics. Professor Sato received his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Hokkaido University under the supervision of Professor Hideyoshi Harashima. He also holds an M.S. and B.S. from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Hokkaido University. His work has been recognized with the Incentive Award of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (2021).
He has developed lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) capable of functional delivery of antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), siRNAs, mRNAs and CRISPR/Cas RNPs to liver (parenchymal cells, vascular endothelial cells and activated stellate cells), spleen, lung and tumor by constructing several unique ionizable lipid libraries. Based on this fundamental technology, he is pursuing industry-academia collaboration with domestic and international startups, chemical manufacturers, and pharmaceutical companies to commercialize the technology.
Yusuke Sato can be contacted at y_sato@pharm.hokudai.ac.jp, and his office is located at the Laboratory for Molecular Design of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hokkaido University, Kita-12, Nishi-6, Kita-Ku, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan.

Elias Sayour
Florida, USA
Elias Sayour
Elias Sayour, M.D., PhD, is an Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at the University of Florida (UF) and Co-Leader of the UF Health Cancer Center’s Immuno-Oncology and Microbiome (IOM) Program. He completed undergraduate training at Fordham University, received his medical degree from the University at Buffalo, and his doctorate from Duke University.
After finishing his pediatric residency at the Cohen’s Children’s Medical Center in NY, he completed a hematology-oncology fellowship at Duke University Medical Center before accepting a faculty position at the University of Florida. Dr. Sayour is currently an NIH funded investigator, and a board certified pediatrician and oncologist. He has extensive translational experience having served as sponsor of multiple FDA-IND submissions and as PI/Study Chair on first-in-human clinical trials. He serves as institutional PI for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium (PBTC) and Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium (PNOC) and has spearheaded creation of the UF Pediatric Cancer Immunotherapy Initiative (PCI2) and UF Large Animal Comparative Oncology Initiative. He serves as principal investigator of the RNA Engineering Laboratory where he has been the primary inventor on a number of pending patent applications concerning the immunologic treatment of cancer.

Viviana Simon
New York, USA
Viviana Simon
Dr. Viviana Simon is a Professor of Microbiology, Medicine and Pathology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) in New York City, USA. She co-directs the Mount Sinai Center for Vaccine Research and Pandemic Preparedness. Professor Simon is an international leader in virology and infectious diseases. She is an Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and serves as an Editor for the Journal of Virology. Her work has shaped our understanding of HIV persistence, virus-host interactions and immune responses to viral infections and vaccines. Her group has been at the forefront of SARS-CoV-2 research since the very beginning of the pandemic when NYC emerged as an early epicenter.

Yuichi Suzuki
Sapporo, Japan
Yuichi Suzuki
Yuichi Suzuki is 3rd year doctoral student in Faculty of pharmaceutical sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo Japan. He received his Bachelor from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Hokkaido University. He is currently a doctoral student in the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Hokkaido University under the supervision of Assistant Professor Yusuke Sato. He is adopted as a Research Fellowship for Young Scientists, and his research is supported by the JSPS.
He has developed mRNA-loaded lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), constructed unique ionizable lipid libraries, and found LNPs that deliver mRNA to the spleen. LNP targeting splenic B cells has potential clinical applications as an mRNA-based cancer vaccine. His work has been recognized with The Kawahara Award from the Nucleic Acids Therapeutics Society of Japan (2023). He also developed CRISPR/Cas RNP-loaded LNPs (Y. Suzuki et al, J Control Release, 2021).
He can be contacted at the following email address: Yuio123@pharm.hokudai.ac.jp.

Le Van Toan
Kanazawa, Japan
Le Van Toan
Le Van Toan is a researcher in the field of bioengineering for immunotherapy. He was trained as a general doctor at Hanoi Medical University and received his master’s degree-resident doctor at the same institute. Currently in his third year of doctoral studies in the Department of Immunology at Kanazawa University under the guidance of Professor Hanayama. He received a doctoral scholarship from the Wise Program Scholarships for his course.
His research focuses on engineering exosomes and utilizing messenger RNA (mRNA) to activate and expand endogenous antigen-specific T cells, as well as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, aiming to enhance the treatment of cancer and immune diseases. His work aims to significantly advance the treatment of cancer and immune diseases through innovative immunotherapy approaches.
For more information, contact Professor. Hanayama via email at hanayama@med.kanazawa-u.ac.jp ,Dr. Le Van Toan at vantoan@stu.kanazawa-u.ac.jp, or visit the Hanayama Lab at Kanazawa University (13-1 Takara, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-8640, JAPAN) Lab web: https://immunology.w3.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/index2.html.

Allen Tseng
Boston, USA
Allen Tseng
Allen Tseng is Principal Scientist of Synthetic Biology at Strand Therapeutics, working on the application of programmable genetic circuits to develop precision mRNA therapies. Prior to Strand Therapeutics, he was in the Research and Development group at Solid Biosciences, where he worked on gene therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Allen received postdoctoral training in synthetic biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he engineered mammalian cells using genetic circuits to control cellular processes such as glycosylation. He obtained his B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Delaware and earned his Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology from Harvard University, where he studied the involvement of an innate immune pathway in age-related macular degeneration.

Pieter Vervaeke
Merelbeke, Belgium
Pieter Vervaeke
After completing his Master’s in Veterinary Medicine, Pieter Vervaeke aimed to contribute significantly to advanced therapeutics in human medicine. In Niek Sanders’ Laboratory of Gene Therapy at Ghent University, he explored advanced therapeutic platforms, including messenger RNA, circular RNA, and self-amplifying RNA. Here, he developed a keen interest in the underlying mechanisms of self-amplifying RNA, host-RNA interactions, and their influence on RNA drug efficacy and safety.
Committed to the belief that science should serve society, Pieter continuously strives to translate his research findings into real-world products.

Xiao Wang
Cambridge, USA
Xiao Wang
Xiao Wang is a core institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at MIT. She started her lab in 2019 to develop and apply new chemical, biophysical, and genomic tools to better understand tissue function and dysfunction at the molecular level. Xiao conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University with Prof. Karl Deisseroth. She received her B.S. in Chemistry and Molecular Engineering from Peking University in 2010 and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago in 2015 mentored by Prof. Chuan He.

John Wherry
Pennsylvania, USA
John Wherry
Dr. E. John Wherry is the Barbara and Richard Schiffrin President’s Distinguished Professor, Chair of the Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics in the Perelman School of Medicine and Director of the UPenn Institute for Immunology and Immune Health (I3H). He is also the leader of the Colton Center for Autoimmunity at Penn, which joins centers at NYU, Yale and Tel Aviv to for the Colton Consortium and transform the landscape of autoimmune health. Dr. Wherry received his Ph.D. at Thomas Jefferson University in 2000 and performed postdoctoral research at Emory University from 2000-2004. Dr. Wherry has received numerous honors including the Distinguished Alumni award from the Thomas Jefferson University, the Cancer Research Institute’s Frederick W. Alt Award for New Discoveries in Immunology, the Stanley N. Cohen Biomedical Research Award from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, was inducted as an AAAS Fellow in 2021, was awarded the AACR-CRI Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology in 2022, elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023 and Elected as a Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research in 2024. As of January 2024, Dr. Wherry has over 330 publications, an H-Index of 132, and his publications have been cited over 100,000 times.
Dr. Wherry helped pioneer the field of T cell exhaustion, which studies the mechanisms by which T cell responses are attenuated during chronic infections and cancer. He helped identify the role of the “checkpoint” molecule PD-1 and others for reinvigoration of exhausted T cells in cancer. Dr. Wherry’s work has defined the underlying molecular and epigenetic mechanisms of exhausted T cells. His laboratory has also recently focused on applying systems immunology approaches to define Immune Health in patients across a spectrum of diseases. In 2020-2021, Dr. Wherry’s laboratory focused considerable efforts on the immunology of COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, including establishing a new Immune Health Project to interrogate and use immune features to identify novel treatment opportunities.

Anders Wittrup
Lund, Sweden
Anders Wittrup
Dr. Anders Wittrup is a medical doctor and clinical oncology specialist with a sub-specialization in neuro-oncology. A. Wittrup received an M.D. in 2010, became licensed to practice medicine in 2014, and obtained a specialist degree in clinical oncology in 2023. A. Wittrup received his Ph.D. in 2009 from Lund University, where the research focused on endocytosis mechanisms of large, charged macromolecules, particularly nucleic acids, under the mentorship of Prof. Mattias Belting.
A. Wittrup pursued postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School in Boston, working in the laboratory of Prof. Judy Lieberman from 2012 to 2014. The postdoctoral research was centered on the critical issue of endosomal escape, a major bottleneck in RNA therapeutics. During this time, A. Wittrup developed a pioneering confocal microscopy-based technique for visualizing endosomal escape and discovered that galectins act as sensors for this process for RNA therapeutics.
Since establishing an independent research laboratory at Lund University in 2017, Dr. Wittrup has continued to explore endosomal escape mechanisms. The lab is one of the leaders in the field, contributing several innovative techniques for both detection and improvement of endosomal escape. The current work in the lab focuses on live-cell detection and visualization techniques, advancing our understanding of RNA delivery and cellular uptake pathways.
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Jose Castillo
José Castillo
José Castillo co-founded Univercells in 2013 and still serves as the company’s Chief Technology Officer today. Under his leadership, Univercells has become a pioneering force in the biopharmaceutical industry, with highly efficient production processes that aim to make biologics available and affordable for all. His goal was to disrupt the industry and position Univercells as a leader in comprehensive manufacturing solutions.
In June 2021, building on his success at Univercells, José founded Quantoom Biosciences, a cutting-edge biotech with a mission to remove the barriers to making mRNA-based vaccines and therapeutics, from sequence up to mass production. As the CEO of Quantoom Biosciences, José continues to drive innovation and create solutions that have the potential to revolutionize mRNA production.
As a recognized technology leader in the biopharmaceutical industry, José brings a strong track record in innovative process design and successful commercialization. Previous accomplishments include the start-up of Artelis, where he designed and developed bioreactors that transformed industrial operations – the iCellis system is now considered standard in the vaccines and gene therapy industry. The technology was industrialized at ATMI LifeSciences and Pall Lifesciences, where José held the position of Cell Culture Technologies Director. Before Artelis, José was Head of Viral Vaccine Industrialization at GSK Vaccines.
With a background in Chemical Engineering, Jose’s education includes a PhD in Applied Sciences from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, and an entrepreneurship degree from the Solvay Business School.
Contact Details: info@quantoom.com
Website: https://www.quantoom.com/

Helen Cho
Helen Cho
Helen Cho, PhD is the Head of global R&D of Samyang Holdings Corporation and President of Samyang Biopharm USA Inc. In 2024 Samyang celebrates a century of business growth and expansion in the sectors of Chemical, Packaging, Food and Biopharmaceutical. R&D of Biopharmaceutical division is strategically focused on products for medical surgical care, medical aesthetics, anti-cancer pharmaceuticals and delivery systems for nucleic acid therapeutics, positioning the company as a key player of healthcare industry.
Prior to Samyang, Helen served as the program director for immuno-oncology programs as a member of the Vaccine and Immunotherapeutics Department at Pfizer Inc. She led multidisciplinary R&D programs from discovery, platform development, to early clinical advancement for developing drugs for oncology and CVMED diseases.
She received her Ph.D. in molecular biology and biochemistry from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and completed her postdoctoral training

Patrick Finn
Patrick Finn
As Vice President of Rare Disease Research and Preclinical Development at Moderna, I bring over 15 years of experience in leading drug discovery and early clinical development. I oversee a diverse portfolio of rare disease programs, driving them from late-stage research through early clinical trials. My expertise lies in strategic leadership, pipeline management, and scientific collaboration—directing multidisciplinary teams across research, CMC, regulatory, and clinical functions to ensure program success. I am committed to addressing unmet medical needs in the rare disease space, focusing on innovative mRNA and gene therapies, while also contributing to business development and leading bioanalytical efforts supporting preclinical and GLP studies.

Régis Gervier
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 29 years ago as Process Development Scientist within Sanofi & 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.

Regina Heidenreich
Regina Heidenreich
After studying human biology at the Philipps University of Marburg, the focus of my work at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research was the analysis of the functionality of vascular endothelial growth factor and the development of endothelium-specific anti-angiogenic therapies of experimental tumors. Following my doctoral thesis, I worked as a research assistant at the St. Elizabeth Medical Center, Division of Cardiovascular Research in Boston on the characterization of endothelial progenitor cells. After my return to Germany, I took over the leadership of the experimental angiology working group at the University Dermatology Clinic in Tübingen with focus on evaluating the contribution of the immune system to therapeutic efficacy in murine tumor model systems. In 2010 I joined the Oncology Research Department at CureVac leading the preclinical development and evaluation of mRNA-based cancer vaccines.

Tim Leaver
Tim Leaver
Tim Leaver is focused on developing and bringing together solutions that accelerate new medicines by enabling any scientist to be a genomic medicine developer. Cytiva’s Genomic Medicine Toolbox offers scientists and drug developers access to development and manufacturing services, delivery systems and a scalable manufacturing platform for mRNA LNPs. Since joining the company as one of the earliest employees, Tim has led teams across Product Development, Operations and Commercial. Tim holds a degree in Engineering Physics from the University of British Columbia and is a graduate of the adMare Bioinnovations Executive Training Institute. He is a co-inventor on various patents including Cytiva’s NxGen technology.

Tao Lu
Tao Lu
Tao Lu is Senior Director of RNA Product at Aldevron, bringing over a decade of diverse experience from leading Danaher Life Science companies like Cytiva, Pall Life Sciences, and Beckman Coulter Life Sciences. His broad roles in product management, sales, marketing, and operations have equipped him with a multidisciplinary approach essential for advancing RNA technologies. At Aldevron, Tao is at the forefront of developing the innovative Sequence-to-Vial Drug Product offering and spearheading RNA product innovations.
Before his time at Danaher, he was a case team leader at Monitor Deloitte. Tao holds a bachelor’s degree in Statistics from Fudan University and an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. His passion for innovation and collaboration drives him to deliver differential value to clients and improve outcomes for patients in the RNA space.

Sara Nogueira
Sara Nogueira
Sara is the Head of Innovation mRNA Delivery in mRNA services at MilliporeSigma. She leads the development of new ionizable lipid libraries for mRNA delivery. Previously, Sara conducted her doctoral studies in the RNA formulation group at BioNTech, where she focused on revealing structural-function correlations and designing novel lipid nanoparticles for mRNA delivery. Sara holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacy from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and an M.Sc. in Biophysics and Bionanosystems from the University of Minho, Portugal.

Stephanie Ramos
Stephanie Ramos
Stephanie Ramos has extensive R&D experience in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry at several stages of drug development, from preclinical discovery and nonclinical IND-enabling through clinical assay development and product characterization. Her expertise includes nucleic-based vaccines and immunotherapeutics, small molecules, and biologics, all for a variety of disease indications including autoimmunity, infectious diseases, and cancer. Stephanie is currently VP of R&D Biology at TriLink, leading a team developing innovations in the mRNA space. Prior to joining TriLink, Stephanie spent over 15 years in R&D in different San Diego/Southern California area companies, both small VC-funded startups mid-sized biotech. She received her B.S. in Molecular Biology from UC San Diego and her PhD in Molecular Biology, Genetics and Biochemistry from UC Irvine.

Sönke Stocker
Sönke Stocker
Sönke Stocker is working as Execute Director, Innovation & Strategic Growth at Lonza. He is a trained biotechnologist with an MBA and has a proven track record in commercial development, sales, strategy, and innovation leadership roles. Sönke is passionate about emerging technologies and new market applications. To differentiate the mRNA platform for Lonza, he creates an ecosystem of innovative technology solutions leveraging internal R&D as well as external innovation options.

Ying Tam
Ying Tam
Ying Tam, M.Sc., Ph.D.
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 100 peer-reviewed studies, including several in high-impact journals such as Nature, Science and Cell, and has contributed to grant applications to secure millions of dollars in funding.

Shigetomo Tsujihata
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 15 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
Andreas Wagner
Dr Andreas Wagner
is Head of Liposome Technology at Polymun Scientific GmbH. He has significant expertise formulation of liposomes and LNPs and development of the respective processes for their clinical use. He and the team at Polymun Scientific have significantly contributed to the 1st successful mRNA vaccine Comirnaty by optimizing and up-scaling the LNP process as well as by supporting clinical and early market supply of the successful Covid-19 vaccine.
Dr Andreas Wagner studied Biotechnology at the University of Applied Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria and earned his Master and Ph.D. degrees in the field of biopharmaceutical technology. Dr Wagner is listed as inventor on multiple 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.

Javier Giménez Warren
Javier Giménez Warren
Dr. Javier Giménez Warren is an expert in Organic Chemistry, specializing in oncology therapeutics and vaccine innovation. At Certest Pharma, he directs lipid discovery for next-generation RNA-based therapies.
With a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Zaragoza, Dr. Giménez has developed two international patents in ionizable lipids, highlighting his significant contributions to pharmaceutical advancements.
As Manager of the Lipid Department and Chief Technological Officer, he oversees the transfer of processes to CDMOs, ensuring high-quality production of LNP components. He also engages directly with clients and partners as a Product Manager.
Dr. Giménez’s blend of scientific expertise and managerial skills makes him an asset to Certest Pharma and the biotechnology industry.

Jing Zhu
Jing Zhu
Jing Zhu is the Vice President, Head of Process Development, at ReciBioPharm, overseeing ATMP process development activities and technology platform establishment. He has 15+ years of experience in process and analytical development, chemistry manufacturing controls (CMC) program steering within the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining ReciBioParm, Jing has been at various leadership roles crossing biotech pharma and vendor companies in nuclei acid and viral vector fields.

Adam Zuiani
Adam Zuiani
Adam Zuiani is a Senior Scientist at BioNTech US. His background is in immune responses to viruses, completing his PhD in Immunology at Washington University in St. Louis in 2016. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School he transitioned to mRNA vaccine development at BioNTech. He is currently the pre-clinical lead for BNT166, BioNTech’s mpox vaccine program.