2022_Speaker - 10th International mRNA Health Conference

SPEAKERS

Keynotespeaker

Pieter R. Cullis

British Columbia, Canada

Pieter R. Cullis

Pieter R. Cullis, PhD, FRSC, FNAI (USA), OC, Director, Nanomedicines Research Group, Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia. Dr. Cullis and co-workers have been responsible for fundamental advances in the development of nanomedicines employing lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology for cancer therapies, gene therapies and vaccines. This work has contributed to five drugs that have received clinical approval. Dr. Cullis has co-founded eleven biotechnology companies that now employ over 300 people, has published over 350 scientific articles (h index 128) and is an inventor on over 60 patents. He has also co-founded two National Centre of Excellence networks, the Centre for Drug Research and Development (now AdMare) in 2004 and the NanoMedicines Innovation Network in 2019. These not-for-profit networks are aimed at translating basic research into commercially viable products. Dr. Cullis has received numerous awards including the Order of Canada in 2021 and the VinFuture Prize (Vietnam), the Prince Mahidol Award (Thailand), the Tang Award (Taiwan) and the Gairdner International Award (Canada) in 2022. Two recently approved drugs that are enabled by LNP delivery systems devised by Dr. Cullis, members of his UBC laboratory and colleagues in the companies he has co-founded deserve special emphasis. The first is Onpattro which was approved by the US FDA in August 2018 to treat the previously fatal hereditary condition transthyretin-induced amyloidosis (hATTR). Onpattro is the first RNAi drug to receive regulatory approval. The second is Comirnaty, the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech that has received regulatory approval in many jurisdictions including Canada, the USA, the UK and Europe. Comirnaty is playing a major role in containing the global Covid-19 pandemic with approximately 3B doses administered worldwide in 2021.

Robert S. Langer

Massachusetts, USA

Robert S. Langer

Robert Langer is one of 12 Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); being an Institute Professor is the highest honor that can be awarded to a faculty member. He has written over 1,500 articles, which have been cited over 368,000 times; his h-index of 301 is the highest of any engineer in history and the 3rd highest of any individual in any field. His patents have licensed or sublicensed to over 400 companies; he is a cofounder of a number of companies including Moderna. Dr Langer served as Chairman of the FDA’s Science Board (its highest advisory board) from 1999-2002. His over 220 awards include both the United States National Medal of Science and the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation (he is one of 3 living individuals to have received both these honors), the Charles Stark Draper Prize (often called the Engineering Nobel Prize), Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, Albany Medical Center Prize, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Kyoto Prize, Wolf Prize for Chemistry, Millennium Technology Prize, Priestley Medal (highest award of the American Chemical Society), Gairdner Prize, Hoover Medal, Dreyfus Prize in Chemical Sciences, and the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine. He holds 39 honorary doctorates, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Northwestern, and has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors.

Speakers

Hiroshi Abe

Hokkaido, Japan

Hiroshi Abe

Professor Hiroshi Abe, raised up in Hokkaido, Japan, got BS from Hokkaido University (1991-1996), MS from Hokkaido University(1996-1998), PhD from Hokkaido University (1998-2001). Postdoc Associate in Massachusetts Institute Technology (2001-2002). Postdoc Associate in Stanford University (2002-2005). Senior Research Scientist, RIKEN Advanced Science Institute (2005-2013). Associate Professor, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hokkaido University (2013-2015). Professor, Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University (2015-current).

Research Interests:
1) Medicinal Chemistry of Nucleic Acid
2) RNA function (translation)
3) Synthesis of long nucleic acids

Important papers:
1. N. Abe, M. Hiroshima, H. Maruyama, Y. Nakashima, Y. Nakano, A. Matsuda, Y. Sako, Y. Ito, H. Abe, “Rolling circle amplification in a prokaryotic translation system using small circular RNA”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 7004-7008
2. N. Abe, K. Matsumoto, M. Nishihara, Y. Nakano, A. Shibata, H. Maruyama, S. Shuto, A. Matsuda, M. Yoshida, Y. Ito, H. Abe, “Rolling Circle Translation of Circular RNA in Living Human Cells.”, Scientific Reports, 2015, 5, 16435.
3. Z. Shu, I. Tanaka, A. Ota, D. Fushihara, N. Abe, S. Kawaguchi, K. Nakamoto, F. Tomoike, S. Tada, Yo. Ito, Y. Kimura, H. Abe, “Disulfide-unit conjugation enables ultrafast cytosolic internalization of antisense DNA and siRNA”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2019, 58, 6611-6615.
4. N. Abe, A. Imaeda, M. Inagaki, Z. Li, D. Kawaguchi, K. Onda, Y. Nakashima, S. Uchida, F. Hashiya, Y. Kimura, H. Abe, “Complete Chemical Synthesis of Minimal Messenger RNA by Efficient Chemical Capping Reaction” ACS Chemical Biology DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.1c00996,(2022)

Hayat Bähr-Mahmud

Mainz, Germany

Hayat Bähr-Mahmud

Dr. Hayat Bähr-Mahmud is Co-Senior Director of the Bispecific Antibodies Unit at BioNTech SE. She received her biology diploma from Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. Her Ph.D. research at the Institute for Tumor Biology and Experimental Therapy (Georg-Speyer-Haus), Frankfurt, focused on anti-cancer humanized immunotoxin-like molecules. In 2009, she joined Ugur Sahin’s research group at the Mainz University Medical Center as a post-doc, where she started working on the development of RNA-encoded therapeutic antibodies (RiboMabs). She and her group later transitioned to BioNTech in 2014 to establish a unit specializing in the RiboMab platform, whose efforts have brought the first cancer-directed antibody-encoding RNA therapeutic to clinical trials.

James Byrne

Ana Jaklenec

Massachusetts, USA

Ana Jaklenec

Dr. Ana Jaklenec is a Research Scientist and co-Principal Investigator at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Langer at the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Her group is focused on engineering delivery systems for global health. Dr. Jaklenec has over 10 years of experience in the area of bioengineering, materials science, micronutrient and vaccine stabilization and delivery. Dr. Jaklenec holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Brown University. She is the recipient of the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Jaklenec was elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows in 2022 for her work in controlled delivery of vaccines and heat-stable micronutrients for global health that can change the world. She was also elected to the Controlled Release Society (CRS) College of Fellows in 2022 for her research at the interface of engineering and immunology that utilizes precise fabrication and design of materials at the nano- and micro-scale for use in controlled drug delivery for global health. She has supervised over 50 pre- and postdoctoral students and has written over 30 articles in high impact journals and has over 20 issued and pending patents worldwide. She is an active member of the Biomedical Engineering Society, Controlled Release Society, and the Society for Biomaterials.

Anastasia Khvorova

Massachusetts, USA

Elizabeth Rosado Balmayor

Anastasia Khvorova, Ph.D., has more than 20 years of experience developing oligonucleotide technology and therapeutics. She is a professor in the RNA Therapeutics Institute and Program in Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) (Chan Medical School, where her lab brings together hardcore organic and oligonucleotide chemists with RNA biologists and pharmacologists to develop novel approaches and solutions to understanding natural and therapeutic RNA trafficking and delivery. Dr.

‘Khvorova founded the UMass Nucleic Acid Chemistry Center, the only nonprofit facility in /North America capable of gram-scale synthesis of modified oligonucleotides.

Prior to UMass Chan Medical School, Dr. Khvorova spent 12 years in industry in different executive positions. She has co-founded several biotechnology companies.

Dr. Khvorova is named as inventor on more than 150 patents and 300 patent applications and has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, including seminal articles in Cell, Nature, and Nature Biotechnology, defining the field of RNAi drug design and development. Dr. Khvorova is principal investigator on three major National Institutes of Health grants. She has served as a director of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society and currently is Director-at-Large and Scientific & Research Council Chair of the American

Kristin Koutmou

Michigan, USA

Kristin Koutmou

Dr. Kristin Koutmou is the Seyhan N. Ege Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Michigan. She began her scientific career at the University of Colorado at Denver where she obtained her B.S. in Chemistry. Dr. Koutmou then moved to the Department of Chemistry at the University of Michigan for her doctoral work. During her time at Michigan she trained in mechanistic enzymology with Professor Carol Fierke, studying how bacterial ribonuclease P binds and matures precursor tRNAs. Following her PhD studies, Dr. Koutmou joined the laboratory of Professor Rachel Green at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine as a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. In the Green lab, Dr. Koutmou investigated the molecular level details of translation elongation and termination. In 2016, Dr. Koutmou returned to the University of Michigan to begin her independent career. Her laboratory is in the Department of Chemistry, and she also holds affiliations with the Program in Chemical Biology graduate program and Department of Biological Chemistry. Dr. Koutmou’s lab studies the post-transcriptional control of gene regulation by the ribosome. Work in the Koutmou lab broadly seeks to understand how mRNA and tRNA modifications are incorporated, and to uncover their consequences on protein synthesis.

Lena Kranz

Mainz, Germany

Lena Kranz

Focus on preclinical research on RNA vaccines, RNA-based immunomodulators, combination therapy.

BioNTech, Mainz
2020 to present | Director Cancer Vaccines

BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals, Mainz
2018 to 2020 | Head of Cancer Vaccines

BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals, Mainz
2017 to 2018 | Scientist

University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
2015 to 2017 | Scientist

University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
2011 to 2015 | PhD in Immunology

Hyukjin Lee

David Lockhart

Julius Lucks

Illinois ,USA

Julius B. Lucks

Julius B. Lucks is Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern
University. Lucks received his PhD in chemical physics from Harvard University and
transitioned to synthetic biology as a Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley. He is an award-winning
leader in RNA research and synthetic biology, focusing on developing technologies that
tackle global challenges, most recently in the area of global water insecurity. He is also the
PI of the first NSF graduate training program in synthetic biology. Professor Lucks has
been recognized with a number of awards including a DARPA Young Faculty Award, an
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship, an ONR Young Investigator Award, an
NIH New Innovator Award, an NSF CAREER award, the ACS Synthetic Biology Young
Investigator Award, a Camille-Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award, a finalist for the Blavatnik
Awards for Young Scientists, and was most recently inducted into the American Institute of
Medical and Biomedical Engineers. He is a founding member of the Engineering Biology
Research Consortium, and co-founded the Cold Spring Harbor Synthetic Biology Summer
Course. He is also a co-founder of Stemloop, Inc. which aims to use cell free biosensing
technology to empower people to make meaningful community health decisions.

Rachel Niederer

Michigan, USA

Rachel Niederer

Rachel Niederer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry, a Faculty Scholar of the Center for RNA Biomedicine and member of the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center. She received B.S. degrees in Biochemistry and Cell Biology and Genetics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2009. For her PhD she worked with David Zappulla at Johns Hopkins were she examined the cellular response to short telomere induced senescence as well as structure function relationships within telomerase RNAs. She performed her postdoctoral work with Wendy Gilbert at Yale University developing a high-throughput method to measure ribosome recruitment to thousands of RNAs in parallel. She is broadly interested in how RNA features affect biological processes. Currently, her group uses a combination of high-throughput methods and classical biochemistry to identify and characterize RNA regulatory features with the goal of engineering improved mRNA therapeutics.

Steve Pascolo

Paris, France

Steve Pascolo

Trained as an immunologist at the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France), Dr. Steve Pascolo used mouse models to test and develop mRNA-based vaccines (direct injection of mRNA) during his post-doc in Tuebingen, Germany from 1998 till 2000. In 2000, he co-founded CureVac with Dr. Hoerr and Dr. von der Mulbe. Dr. Pascolo was Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of the company and responsible of pharmaceutical production of mRNA from 2000 till 2006, developing the technology, implementing the worldwide first GMP production of mRNA and performing in 2003 the worldwide first clinical studies where humans (including himself) got injections of in vitro transcribed mRNA. In 2006, he joined the oncology department of the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland and continued the development of immunotherapies based on RNA. In 2008, he founded Miescher Pharma to support this work. In 2017, Dr. Pascolo implemented in Zurich an academic ivt mRNA platform https://www.cancer.uzh.ch/en/Research/mRNA-Platform.html. In collaboration with several research and clinical departments in Zurich he optimizes, tests and implements mRNA based vaccines and therapies.

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, the biggest university in Israel. From 2017, he is the Founding and Managing Director of the SPARK program, Center for Translational Medicine at TAU.

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 that induce therapeutic gene expression of desired proteins. This strategy has enormous implications in cancer ,inflammation and infection 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.

Recently, his lab was the first to show systemic, high efficiency, cell specific, therapeutic genome editing in cancer. Prof. Peer has more than 130 pending and granted patents. Some of them have been licensed to several pharmaceutical companies. In addition, based on his work, four spin-off companies were generated aiming to bring innovative personalized medicine into clinical practice. Prof. Peer is a scientific advisory board member in more than 15 companies and on the scientific advisory board of more than 20 journals.

Joseph Puglisi

California, USA

Joseph Puglisi

Joseph (Jody) Puglisi is Jauch Professor an CZO Biohub Investigator in the Department of Structural Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine. His work focuses on the biophysical and structural analysis of RNAs and RNA-protein Interactions and his group use broad biophysical and biochemical methods to understand the interplay of the structure and dynamics in a variety of systems, in particular translation. Born and raised in scienic New Jersey, he received a B.A degree in Chemistry in 1984 from the Hohn Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in Biophysical Chemestry from UC Berkeley in 1989 working with Ignacio Tinoco, Jr. After postdoctoral research in Strasbourg and MIT, he joined the faculty at UC Santa Cruz in Chemistry and Biochemistry in 1993. He moved to Stanford University in 1997, where he was Chair of the Department of Structural Biology from 2004 to 2014. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Bali Pulendran

California, USA

Bali Pulendran

Violetta L. Horton Professor, Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection, Department of Pathology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Fellow at ChEM-H (Chemistry, Engineering and Medicine for Human Health), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford University.

Bali Pulendran is the Violetta L. Horton Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and a member of the Institute for Immunology, Transplantation and Infection, and the Departments of Pathology and Microbiology & Immunology at Stanford University. He is also an adjunct professor at Emory University and the Yerkes National Primate Center, and director of the NIH Center for Systems Vaccinology, at Emory University in Atlanta. He received his undergraduate degree in the Natural Sciences Tripos from Queens’ College, Cambridge University, and his Ph.D., from the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia, under the supervision of Sir Gustav Nossal. He then did his post-doctoral work at Immunex Corporation in Seattle. Dr. Pulendran’s research is focused on understanding the mechanisms by which the innate immune system regulates adaptive immunity and harnessing such mechanisms in the design of novel vaccines. More recently, his laboratory pioneered the use of systems biological approaches to predicting the efficacy of vaccines and deciphering new molecular correlates of protection against infectious diseases. Dr. Pulendran’s research is published in front line journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, Nature Medicine, and Nature Immunology. Furthermore, Dr. Pulendran is the recipient of numerous grants from the National Institutes of Health, and from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, serves on many editorial boards, and is the recipient of two concurrent MERIT awards from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Pulendran serves on many advisory boards including that of Keystone Symposia and on the Immunology Network of GSK. He is listed on Thomson Reuter’s list of Highly Cited Researchers (ranked amongst top 1% of researchers most cited for their subject during the past decade).

Elizabeth Rosado Balmayor

Aachen, Germany

Elizabeth Rosado Balmayor

Elizabeth Rosado Balmayor is currently University Professor for Experimental Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery at the RWTH Aachen University Hospital (Germany). She is the head of the newly created Teaching and Research Area at the Department of Orthopaedic, Trauma, and Reconstructive Surgery. She was trained as a Chemist and earned an M.Sc. in Materials Science and Technology at the University of Havana (Cuba). She received a Marie Curie scholarship in the area of Biomaterials and completed her Ph.D. in 2009 with Prof. Rui Reis at the 3B’s research group (Portugal). Elizabeth obtained her assistant professorship in Experimental Trauma Surgery from TUM (Germany) in 2017. Thereafter, she moved to the MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine at the Maastricht University (the Netherlands) where she was the Principal Investigator of the research group “Molecular Transfer and Therapy” until early 2022. She is an associate researcher with Prof. Chris Evans at the Mayo Clinic (USA) and holds visiting professorships at the Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia and the UNESCO Biomaterials chair of the University of Havana. Her achievements have been recognized with awards and grants, including the Hans-Liniger-Award by the German Society for Trauma Surgery, and projects from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the European H2020 funding scheme, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health – NIH. She has obtained over 3.5 million euros from competitive grants for her research.
A powerful breakthrough in Elizabeth’s research is the development of a chemically modified mRNA encoding BMP-2 as an alternative to traditional gene therapy for bone healing. She is a pioneer in the application of this novel technology to tissue regeneration and holds a patent on this discovery. She was part of the team of scientists that started Ethris GmbH (Germany), a company that develops chemically modified mRNA for therapy. Recently, the journal Science Advances published a compendium of Elizabeth’s results and the first demonstration of a critical-sized bone defect fully healed with chemically modified mRNA in a rodent model.
Elizabeth has published 66 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and authored 7 book chapters in books with international circulation. She is the author of 2 patents. In addition, she is the associate editor of several journals in the field of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. She is an active member of the Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS), the European Orthopaedic Research Society (EORS), and the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS).

Bijoyita Roy

Massachusetts, USA

Bijoyita Roy

Dr. Bijoyita Roy received her Ph.D. at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she explored the effects of mRNA 5’ leader sequences on translation initiation. Following her doctoral studies, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Allan Jacobson at UMass Chan Medical School to understand the interrelationship between mRNA stability and translation readthrough. She then pursued her interests in RNA biology at PTC Therapeutics, investigating the mechanism of action of Ataluren during translation readthrough. Dr. Roy then went on to New England Biolabs Inc. where she led a research group focused on developing novel tools and methods for RNA synthesis and understanding the consequences of introducing chemical modifications in synthetic mRNAs. Dr. Roy is currently leading the RNA Process Sciences group at Moderna Therapeutics.

Joel Rurik

Pennsylvania, USA

Joel Rurik

Joel Rurik is a fourth year PhD candidate in Dr. Jonathan A. Epstein’s laboratory at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He studied molecular biology and history at George Fox University, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in 2016. His current research is focused on using novel RNA delivery technologies to generate immuno-medicine therapeutics in vivo and is investigating how the cardiac mesenchyme interacts with the immune system following injury. Long-term, Joel is fascinated by the adaptive immune system and wants to leverage these powerful cells for human health.

Robin Shattock

London, UK

Robin Shattock

Robin Shattock has over 30 years’ experience in research and development of vaccines
and antiviral therapeutics. He is a Professor of Mucosal Infection and Immunity at Imperial
College, London. The focus of his research is the development of vaccines to prevent
pandemic threats and poverty related diseases. His publications include over 250 peerreviewed
scientific papers published in a range of peer review journals. Prof Shattock has
led large multi-centre programs funded by the Wellcome Trust, MRC, EPSRC, CEPI, NIH,
European Commission, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. His academic
research portfolio includes vaccine projects on SARS-CoV2, HIV, Ebola, Lassa fever,
Marburg and Rabies viruses and Chlamydia. He has a strong track record of translation
research having taken a wide range of vaccine products through from discovery into
clinical testing. The Shattock group was the first in the world to publish on the evaluation of
a self-amplifying RNA vaccine against COVID-19 in phase I/II clinical trials. Robin leads
the EPSRC Future Vaccines Manufacturing Research Hub at Imperial college. He is
Founder of VaxEquity Ltd an Imperial spin-out focused on development of RNA vaccines
against human infectious diseases. Robin is an elected fellow of the Academy of Medical
Sciences.

Giovanni Traverso

Massachusetts, USA

Giovanni Traverso

Prof. Traverso is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in the Division of Gastroenterology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Harvard Medical School. Prof. Traverso grew up in Peru, Canada and the United Kingdom. He received his BA from Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK, and his PhD from the lab of Prof. Bert Vogelstein at Johns Hopkins University. He subsequently completed medical school at the University of Cambridge, internal medicine residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his gastroenterology fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital, both at Harvard Medical School. Prof. Traverso’s previous work focused on the development of novel molecular tests for the early detection of colon cancer. For his post-doctoral research, he transitioned to the fields of chemical and biomedical engineering in the laboratory of Professor Robert Langer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he developed a series of novel technologies for drug delivery as well as physiological sensing via the gastrointestinal tract.

His current research program is focused on developing the next generation of drug delivery systems to enable efficient delivery of therapeutics through the gastrointestinal tract as well developing novel ingestible electronic devices for sensing a broad array of physiologic and pathophysiologic parameters. Additionally, Dr. Traverso continues his efforts towards the development of novel diagnostic tests that enable the early detection of cancer.

Wensheng Wei

Hani Zaher

Missouri, USA

Hani Zaher

Dr. Hani Zaher was born and raised in Lebanon. He received his B.Sc and PhD from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia Canada. There he worked under the supervision of Dr. Peter Unrau investigating the catalytic properties of RNA. The ‘RNA World’ hypothesis suggests that RNA catalysts should be capable of replicating an RNA genome directly from small molecular building blocks. Motivated to isolated polymerase ribozymes, he developed a novel strategy to isolate an important RNA polymerase ribozyme and study its ability for self-replication. In 2007, he moved to Rachel Green’s laboratory for his postdoctoral studies to study ribosome mechanics. There, he uncovered a quality control mechanism on the ribosome that takes place after peptide-bond formation, which contributes to high-fidelity protein synthesis. In 2012 he accepted a position in the Department of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. His research group is interested in understanding the mechanisms that govern translational fidelity and quality control processes associated with defects during protein synthesis on the ribosome. In addition, his group is interested in exploring the role of the ribosome itself in the translational control of gene expression and in particular how its function is modulated in response to the varying environment. In addition to its role in regulating the translation of the mRNA, the ribosome is critical for ensuring the quality of mRNA is maintained. Indeed, all known mRNA-surveillance pathways take advantage of the ribosome to recognize aberrant mRNAs. His group was one of the first to dissect the role of these various quality control processes in dealing with damaged mRNA. Emerging from these studies is that most adducts on the mRNA stall translation, activating the process of no-go decay (NGD) in eukaryotes and trans translation in bacteria. Furthermore, they recently identified ribosome collision as the signal for NGD.

Industry sponsored speaker

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 & Manufacturing 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.

Jayesh Kulkarni

British Columbia, Canada

Jayesh Kulkarni

Dr. Kulkarni obtained his PhD from the University of British Columbia and has over 10 years of academic and industry experience in the nanoparticle drug delivery field. He has published over 35 peer-reviewed articles in prestigious journals and co-inventor on 14 patents. He has held many awards, including the inaugural Nanomedicines Innovation Network’s postdoctoral fellowship in gene therapy. Dr. Kulkarni’s research has focused on the role of the various lipid components in LNP and the biophysics that governs particle formation. His work has contributed to clinical translation, including scale-up and manufacturing of LNP systems in accordance with GLP and GMP regulations. Dr. Kulkarni is a leader in the design and development of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulations of small molecule and nucleic acid therapeutics. He currently serves as the Chief Scientific Officer of NanoVation Therapeutics, an LNP-RNA formulation developer.

Tim Leaver

Bristish Columbia, Canada

Tim Leaver joined Precision NanoSystems in 2011, shortly after the company was founded. Initially brought on for his expertise in microfluidics, Tim went on to set-up and lead various functions from research and development to 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 PNI’s NxGen technology. In his current role as Strategy Lead, he is responsible for working with internal and external partners to ensure PNI offers the solutions the field needs to create transformative medicines.

Kelly Lindert

Massachusetts, USA

Kelly Lindert

Kelly Lindert is the Chief Development Officer, Vaccines. She has 20 years of experience in pharma and biotech industries and spent nearly ten years working on vaccines, including pandemic vaccines, at Acambis and Novartis. At Novartis she rose to serve as Head of Development and led the team for the approval of Fluad® and the first quadrivalent cell-based influenza vaccine in the US. More recently she worked at Moderna Therapeutics. She received her medical degree at the University of Chicago and trained in Urology at Stanford.

Thomas Madden

British Columbia, Canada

Thomas Madden

President & CEO of Acuitas Therapeutics, Dr. Thomas D. Madden is a world-renowned expert in the area of nanotechnology. He co-founded Acuitas in February 2009 and has led the company into a position of global leadership.

Dr. Madden obtained his BSc. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of London, U.K. He has held several senior academic and industry positions including Assistant Professor in Pharmacology at the University of British Columbia and Senior Director, Technology Development and Licensing at Tekmira Pharmaceuticals.

At Tekmira, Dr. Madden was responsible for the development of several liposomal anticancer agents including Marqibo™ (liposomal vincristine), Alocrest™ (liposomal vinorelbine) and Brakiva™ (liposomal vinorelbine). All of these were subsequently licensed to Talon Therapeutics. He headed the team that developed the cationic lipid MC3 and the LNP carrier used by Alnylam Pharmaceuticals for Onpattro™. Recently, Dr. Madden led the development of the LNP carriers used in COMIRNATY^®, a highly effective and safe COVID-19 mRNA vaccine produced through a partnership with BioNTech and Pfizer.

Dr. Madden has earned a reputation for collaboration. He credits the success of Acuitas Therapeutics and its exceptional standing on the world stage to the team’s commitment to excellence.

Dr. Madden has over 60 publications in peer-reviewed journals relating to LNP technology and the development of pharmaceutical products, including recent publications in Nature. In 2020, Dr. Madden was made a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) in recognition of his contributions to the field of nucleic acid delivery.

Julian Mochayedi

Damstadt, Germany

Julian Mochayedi

Julian is the strategic marketing manager for mRNA solutions and responsible for the strategy development and positioning of the mRNA CDMO offering based on the acquisition of AmpTec GmbH, a leading mRNA CDMO. Prior to joining Merck KGaA in Darmstadt, Germany, he gained experience in translational research with profound expertise in the areas of novel modalities and in vivo gene editing. Julian holds a M.Sc. in bioprocess development and a Ph.D. in translational immunology from Heidelberg University.

Evan Myers

North Carolina, USA

Evan Myers

Evan Myers is the Associate Director of Process Development at TriLink BioTechnologies, where he oversees the development of mRNA and pDNA. Evan has extensive experience in this area, having held various positions in mRNA and oligonucleotide manufacturing, GMP, and process development, where he supported several drug substances. His expertise spans biologics through synthesis, chromatography, scale-up, and process optimization covering development, manufacturing, and analytical testing.

Scott Ripley

Uppsala, Sweden

Scott Ripley

Scott Ripley is the General Manager of the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics business for Cytiva, leading the global commercial go-to-market strategy. Scott has over twenty years of experience across research and bioprocess businesses including a recent focus on the mRNA domain.

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.

SPEAKERS

Keynotespeaker

Pieter R. Cullis

British Columbia, Canada

Robert S. Langer

Massachusetts, USA

Speakers

Hiroshi Abe

Hokkaido, Japan

Hayat Bähr-Mahmud

Mainz, Germany

James Byrne

Ana Jaklenec

Massachusetts, USA

Anastasia Khvorova

Massachusetts, USA

Kristin Koutmou

Michigan, USA

Lena Kranz

Mainz, Germany

Hyukjin Lee

David Lockhart

Julius Lucks

Illinois ,USA

Rachel Niederer

Michigan, USA

Steve Pascolo

Paris, France

Dan Peer

Tel Aviv, Israel

Joseph Puglisi

California, USA

Bali Pulendran

California, USA

Elizabeth Rosado Balmayor

Aachen, Germany

Bijoyita Roy

Massachusetts, USA

Joel Rurik

Pennsylvania, USA

Robin Shattock

London, UK

Giovanni Traverso

Massachusetts, USA

Wensheng Wei

Hani Zaher

Missouri, USA

Industry sponsored speaker

Andreas Kuhn

Mainz, Germany

Jayesh Kulkarni

British Columbia, Canada

Tim Leaver

Bristish Columbia, Canada

Kelly Lindert

Massachusetts, USA

Thomas Madden

British Columbia, Canada

Julian Mochayedi

Damstadt, Germany

Evan Myers

North Carolina, USA

Scott Ripley

Uppsala, Sweden

Andreas Wagner

Vienna, Austria

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