AGENDA
8:00 AM - 8:05 AM
Welcome
Hui Cai, Program Chair, VP and Head of Content, WuXi AppTec
8:05 AM - 8:10 AM
Opening Remarks
Minzhang Chen, Co-CEO, WuXi AppTec
8:10 AM - 8:45 AM
Opening Plenary: Changing the Games of R&D Productivity
David Berry, Founder and CEO, Valo Health
Diego Miralles, CEO, Laronde
Roger Perlmutter, Chairman & CEO, Eikon Therapeutics
Henrijette Richter, Managing Partner, Sofinnova Partners
Session Leader: Jorge Conde, General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz
8:45 AM - 9:10 AM
A Special Tribute to Dr. José Baselga
A Conversation between Susan Galbraith, EVP, Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca and David Reese, EVP of R&D, Amgen
9:10 AM - 9:30 AM
A Special Tribute to Dr. Tachi Yamada
A Conversation with James Wilson, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics of Department of Medicine, and Director of Gene Therapy Program, University of Pennsylvania. Moderated by John Carroll, Chief Editor & Founder, Endpoints News
9:30 AM - 10:10 AM
Investing for Social Impact
Christiana Bardon, Co-Managing Partner of BioImpact Capital, MPM Capital
Jürgen Eckhardt, SVP and Head of Leaps by Bayer
Alice Pomponio, Managing Director, American Cancer Society BrightEdge
Glenn Rockman, Founder and Managing Partner, Adjuvant Capital
Session Leader: Laura Kleiman, Founder and CEO, Reboot Rx
10:10 AM - 10:50 AM
Delivering on the Promise of New Modalities
Debora Barton, CMO, Carisma Therapeutics
John Houston, President and CEO, Arvinas
Eric Kelsic, Founder & CEO, Dyno Therapeutics
Devyn Smith, CEO, Arbor Biotechnologies
Session Leader: Ryan Cawood, CSO, WuXi Advanced Therapies and OXGENE
10:50 AM - 11:10 AM
Closing Keynote
A Conversation with Todd Golub, Director, Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard. Moderated by Kevin Davies, Executive Editor, The CRISPR Journal and GEN Biotechnology; and Author, Editing Humanity
SPEAKERS
Hui Cai
PROGRAM CHAIR, VP AND HEAD OF CONTENT, WUXI APPTEC
Dr. Hui Cai joined WuXi AppTec in 2009 as Vice President of Business Development, and is currently Vice President and Head of Content Division.
Prior to WuXi, Dr. Cai spent 10 years at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development leading multiple drug discovery programs in the therapeutic areas of inflammation and autoimmune diseases. She is a co-author and co-inventor to over 50 scientific publications and issued or pending patents. Dr. Cai is a Councilor of the American Chemical Society (ACS), a member of BayHelix, and a member of the UCSD Alumni Board. In her past capacity, she served as a Commissioner at the City of San Diego Science and Technology Commission, Chair of SABPA, and President of SDCA. Dr. Cai received her BS and MS in Chemistry from Peking University, PhD from The Scripps Research Institute, and MBA from UCSD Rady School of Management as a DLA Piper – Athena Scholar.
Minzhang Chen
CO-CEO, WUXI APPTEC
Over 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical development and manufacturing. Played important roles in R&D and commercialization of multiple innovative drugs for global launches. Awarded by The Medicine Maker's 2019 & 2020 Power List as one of the global top inspirational medicine makers driving the industry forward. Formerly Director of Technical Operations at Vertex. B.S. in Chemistry from Peking University and Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Minnesota.
David Berry
FOUNDER AND CEO, VALO HEALTH
David Berry is Founder and CEO of Valo Health. He has served as a General Partner at Flagship Pioneering, having founded over 25 companies including Indigo Agriculture, Omega Therapeutics (NASDAQ: OMGA), Inari Agriculture, Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB), Repertoire Immune Medicines, Evelo Biosciences (NASDAQ: EVLO), Axcella Health (NASDAQ: AXLA), and Joule Unlimited. David has been broadly recognized as a world-leading innovator: elected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, named as Innovator of the Year by Technology Review from amongst its Annual TR35 list, and selected as one of 12 Innovators Reshaping Reality by the U.S. State Department, alongside pioneers such as Tim Berners-Lee. He holds over 200 patents and patent applications. David and his companies have been awarded with over 150 additional awards and honors. David currently serves on the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN SDSN), where he was a Founding Leadership Council Member. David received his MD from Harvard Medical School and his PhD from MIT in Biological Engineering.
Diego Miralles
CEO, LARONDE
Diego Miralles is a veteran pharmaceutical and biotech leader who joined Flagship Pioneering in 2020, serving as CEO-Partner and CEO of Laronde.
Diego was previously CEO of Vividion Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the creation of highly selective small molecule medicines that drug traditionally inaccessible targets. As CEO, he led a team that raised over $360 million in venture capital and two large partnerships with BMS/Celgene and Roche. Prior to this role, he was President of Adaptive Therapeutics, a division of Adaptive Biotechnologies focused on clinical therapeutic applications of TCR sequencing.
Diego also spent eleven years at Johnson & Johnson, where he most recently served as Global Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation. Diego’s many achievements at J&J include leading Janssen’s Research and Early Development Unit in California and establishing the J&J Innovation Centers and Janssen/JLABS. Diego was also Vice President of Clinical Development at Tibotec, a J&J company, where he led a team that put six drugs in the clinic, ultimately garnering five approvals, including PREZISTA® and INTELENCE®. Earlier in his career, he served in R&D roles at Trimeris, Inc. and Triangle Pharmaceutical focusing on the development of antivirals. He worked on the clinical development of a total of 8 compounds, two of which made it to the market: Fuzeon and Emtriva.
Diego began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at Duke University Medical Center, where he practiced as an HIV physician and conducted basic research in T cell development. He received an M.D. from Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina and conducted his residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and his fellowship in Infectious Diseases at New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center.
Roger Perlmutter
CHAIRMAN & CEO, EIKON THERAPEUTICS
Dr. Perlmutter is President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of Eikon Therapeutics, Inc., a private biotechnology company that employs advanced imaging technologies to identify novel therapeutic candidates by virtue of their effects on protein dynamics in living cells. A highly accomplished industry as well as academic leader with over 35 years of experience, Dr. Perlmutter was previously Executive Vice President, Merck & Co., and President of Merck Research Laboratories where he supervised the discovery and development of numerous lifesaving medicines including KEYTRUDA™ , Merck's foundational immuno-oncology therapeutic, which continues to transform cancer care throughout the world. Before this, Dr. Perlmutter spent 12 years as Executive Vice President and head of R&D at Amgen, Inc., where he is credited with having revolutionized the development of important biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of osteoporosis and cancer-related bone disease, and for the reduction of hypercholesterolemia-related cardiovascular risk.
Prior to assuming leadership roles in industry, Dr. Perlmutter was a professor in the Departments of Immunology, Biochemistry and Medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, and also served as Chairman of its Department of Immunology, where he was at the same time an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His research focused on understanding the signaling pathways that control lymphocyte activation. Prior to his role at the University of Washington, he was a lecturer in the Division of Biology at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.
Dr. Perlmutter is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and both a Distinguished Fellow and past president of the American Association of Immunologists.
Henrijette Richter
MANAGING PARTNER, SOFINNOVA PARTNERS
Henrijette Richter is a Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners and an active member of the Capital Funds team, the venture capital firm’s flagship fund dedicated to early-stage biotechs and medtechs. She joined Sofinnova in 2014 and her investments and board involvements include Mozart Therapeutics, Muna Therapeutics, Nitrase Therapeutics, Nodthera, Twentyeight-Seven Therapeutics, Asceneuron, Delinia (sold to Celgene), and iOmx Therapeutics.
Prior to Sofinnova, Dr. Richter was part of the team that founded Novo Seeds in 2007, and as an Investment Director, she was instrumental in the creation, financing and building of companies such as Orphazyme (ORPHA.CO; ORPH), Avilex Pharma, EpiTherapeutics (sold to Gilead), and Lysogene (LYS, Euronext Paris). Dr. Richter holds a combined Ph.D. and Industrial Scientist degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Copenhagen and Novo Nordisk A/S. She did her postdoctoral fellowship at the MIT Center for Cancer Research in Massachusetts.
Jorge Conde
GENERAL PARTNER, ANDREESSEN HOROWITZ
Jorge Conde is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz where he leads investments at the cross section of biology, computer science and engineering.
Prior to joining a16z, Jorge served as Chief Strategy Officer for Syros (NASDAQ: SYRS), which is advancing a new wave of medicines that control expression of disease-driving genes to treat cancer and other diseases. He previously served as the company's Chief Financial Officer and Chief Product Officer, leading the platform strategy for Syros' novel gene regulation technology. Jorge also cofounded Knome, a human genome interpretation company acquired by Tute Genomics in 2015. Earlier in his career, Jorge worked in marketing and operations at MedImmune and as a biotechnology investment banker at Morgan Stanley.
Jorge holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and a BA in Biology from Johns Hopkins University.
Jorge was named one of the top 35 young innovators in the world by the MIT Technology Review and is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. He previously served on the board of the Museum of Science, Boston.
Susan Galbraith
EVP, ONCOLOGY R&D, ASTRAZENECA
I lead Oncology R&D, early stage, and am responsible for research and early development from target selection to the initiation of pivotal trials.
I have over 20 years’ experience in drug discovery and development with a background as a Clinical Oncologist. I trained in medicine at Manchester and Cambridge Universities, was admitted to the Royal College of Physicians in 1992, and then trained in Clinical Oncology in London. I gained a Fellowship of the Royal College of Radiologists in 1997 and completed a PhD at the University of London involving translational work on a vascular-targeting agent. In 2017, I was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Medical Science from the Institute of Cancer Research, and in 2018 I was admitted to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
I moved from medicine to industry in 2001, to Bristol-Myers Squibb where I held increasing levels of responsibility becoming Vice President for the Clinical Discovery Oncology & Immunology and Clinical Biomarkers groups.
I joined AstraZeneca in 2010 as Head of Oncology in the IMED Biotech Unit. Since joining, four programmes have moved into Phase 3 trials; and two are now approved in many countries around the world.
A critical focus for me in the drug development process is on ensuring quality target selection and engagement and selecting the right patients for treatment. This has led to the successful development of several novel treatments and I am proud to have played a part in their development, together with a great team at AstraZeneca. I am also passionate about developing the next generation of scientists and on improving diversity via personal mentorship.
In addition to my role at AstraZeneca, I co-lead the Cambridge Cancer Centre Onco-Innovation group, connecting Cambridge scientists to the biotech and pharmaceutical companies in the region; I am the current Chair of the Board at Definiens AG, a Non-Executive on the Board of Horizon Discovery PLC, and on the Scientific Advisory Board of the ICR Cancer Research Centre of Excellence; and I serve on the AACR Finance Committee and the AACR Annual Meeting Scientific Program Committee.
David Reese
EVP OF R&D, AMGEN
Dr. David M. Reese is executive vice president, Research and Development. In this role, Dr. Reese oversees Discovery Research, Global Development, Global Regulatory Affairs and Safety, as well as Global Medical. Dr. Reese joined Amgen in 2005 and has served in various leadership roles within the Research and Development organization. This includes most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Translational Sciences and Oncology where he oversaw the translation of Amgen’s medicines from the lab into the clinic and the overall oncology strategy.
Prior to joining Amgen, Dr. Reese was director of Clinical Research for the Breast Cancer International Research Group (BCIRG) and a co-founder, president and chief medical officer of Translational Oncology Research International (TORI), a not-for-profit academic clinical research organization. Dr. Reese is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He completed training in Internal Medicine and Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine, and subsequently served on the faculty at UCLA and the University of California, San Francisco.
James Wilson
PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE AND PEDIATRICS OF DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE, AND DIRECTOR OF GENE THERAPY PROGRAM, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
James M. Wilson, MD, PhD, is a Professor in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where he has led an effort to develop the field of gene therapy. His research career spanning over 40 years has focused on rare diseases and ways to treat them by gene therapy. The Wilson lab identified a new type of vector based on novel isolates of adeno-associated viruses which have become best in class for gene therapy being used by over 40 companies. More recently Dr. Wilson’s laboratory has focused on improved vectors for gene therapy and clinical applications of genome editing and mRNA therapy.
John Carroll
CHIEF EDITOR & FOUNDER, ENDPOINTS NEWS
John D. Carroll is a biotech analyst and writer with decades of prize-winning experience in journalism. A co-founder of Endpoints News, he has covered biopharma for the past 17 years. Aside from his daily industry coverage for FierceBiotech, where he was named editor in 2003, leaving in 2016, Carroll has been a regular speaker at biotech events around the globe. He’s been quoted by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Financial Times, The Times of London and more. He’s also keynoted at biotech gatherings around the world and addressed student audiences at MIT and Harvard. Carroll has contributed stories from Central America and Ireland to the Dallas Morning News and Time and wrote for the Houston Press. He spent 6 years as editor and publisher of the Dallas Business Journal, was publisher of Texas Business and early in his career was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team of reporters and editors at the Kansas City Star & Times.
Christiana Bardon
CO-MANAGING PARTNER OF BIOIMPACT CAPITAL, MPM CAPITAL
Dr. Christiana (Chris) Bardon is Co-Managing Partner of BioImpact Capital, an affiliate manager of MPM and leads MPM’s public market investing as portfolio manager for BioImpact Equities (f/k/a Burrage Capital) and the Oncology Impact Funds.
Previously, Chris was a health care analyst at Fidelity Investments covering biotechnology, life-science tools and diagnostics, and she started her career as an analyst at MPM. She currently serves on the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows and is a Trustee of the American Association for Cancer Research Foundation.
Chris earned her M.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School and her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. While at Harvard Medical School, she was the recipient of a Howard Hughes fellowship, and she completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School. She received her M.S./B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Jürgen Eckhardt
SVP AND HEAD OF LEAPS BY BAYER
Jürgen Eckhardt is SVP and Head of Leaps by Bayer, the impact investment unit of Bayer. The mission of Leaps is to invest in breakthrough technologies and disruptive business models in the areas of healthcare and agriculture. Jürgen has been a venture investor since 2002 and currently serves on the board of Joyn Bio, Dewpoint, Century, Khloris, Oerth Bio, Immunitas, eGenesis, and others. Previously, Jürgen was a management consultant and Associate Partner with McKinsey & Co. and a member of McKinsey’s Healthcare Leadership Team. He began his career as a radiologist at the University Hospital of Basel, Switzerland. Jürgen received his M.D. from the University of Basel and his MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.
Alice Pomponio
MANAGING DIRECTOR, AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY BRIGHTEDGE
Alice Pomponio is an impact investor and social innovation entrepreneur. She currently serves as Managing Director of BrightEdge, American Cancer Society’s impact investment fund that fights cancer with patient-centric innovation by investing in early-stage oncology companies. Her American Cancer Society volunteer leadership includes past Chair Eastern New England Board of Directors and National Board Member of American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. She is on faculty at Harvard-MIT HST Sloan Healthcare Ventures where she teaches biomedical innovation and healthcare entrepreneurship. Before joining BrightEdge, Alice was an advisor at Red Sky Partners advising high-growth life sciences and health tech startup companies on business development and go-to-market strategies.
Alice held prior R&D and commercial leadership roles at Radius Health, AstraZeneca, and Sanofi Genzyme, where she launched multiple U.S. and global specialty products and championed orphan drug policy and health equity initiatives across the globe. She led open innovation and public-private partnerships that have transformed specialty medicines development. Her public sector experience spans innovation, trade, and healthcare policy through roles in the UK Government and U.S. Office of Management and Budget. She holds a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from MIT. Alice serves on the Boards of Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, MassEcon, and PhagePro Inc.
Glenn Rockman
FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER, ADJUVANT CAPITAL
At Adjuvant, Glenn oversees the firm’s investments in VitriVax (board member), Univercells (board member), Themis (acquired by Merck in 2020), X-Vax (board observer), InDevR (board member), and Codagenix (board member). He is also actively engaged with the Research Investment for Global Health Technology Fund (RIGHT Fund) as a board member and a champion of leveraging South Korea’s life sciences industry to bring new public health innovations to market. He is also on the board of WaterEquity.
Prior to Adjuvant, Glenn was a Managing Partner at the Global Health Investment Fund (GHIF), where he oversaw the fund’s investments in EuBiologics (KOSDAQ: 206650), AccessBio (KOSDAQ: 950130), and IanTech (sold to Carl Zeiss Meditec in 2018), among others.
Prior to GHIF, Glenn was an Executive Director in J.P. Morgan’s Social Finance unit, where he helped the firm’s non-profit clients maximize the financial resources available to advance their missions.
Glenn earned an AB in public policy from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.
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Adjuvant is a global life sciences investment company built to accelerate the development of new technologies for the world’s most pressing public health challenges. Backed by prominent healthcare investors and development finance institutions, Adjuvant invests in companies developing promising new vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and devices targeting high-burden infectious diseases, malnutrition, and maternal / child health, with a commitment to make these interventions accessible to those who need them most in low- and middle-income countries.
Laura Kleiman
FOUNDER AND CEO, REBOOT RX
Laura Kleiman is the Founder and CEO of Reboot Rx, the nonprofit health tech startup dedicated to fast-tracking the development of affordable cancer treatments using repurposed generic drugs, AI technology, and innovative funding models. Laura’s career has focused on building collaborations across disciplines and sectors to expand treatment options for cancer patients. She holds a PhD in Computational and Systems Biology from MIT, was an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and most recently served as Scientific Research Director in the Department of Data Sciences at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Laura has been featured in Forbes and the Boston Business Journal, named a CHM Patrick J. McGovern Tech for Humanity Prize Changemaker finalist, and recognized with awards from Extraordinary Women Advancing Healthcare, 40 Under 40 in Cancer, the Massachusetts Next Generation Initiative, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Debora Barton
CMO, CARISMA THERAPEUTICS
Debora Barton, MD, is a medical oncologist and the Chief Medical Officer of Carisma Therapeutics. She brings over 20 years of oncology experience, both in academia as a practicing physician and investigator in clinical trials, and in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry supporting the development of new drugs for the treatment of cancer.
At Carisma, she is leading the clinical development of CT-0508, a HER2 targeted, first of its kind CAR-macrophage, as well as the planning of upcoming pipeline clinical trials including CAR-macrophages against new targets and combinations.
Most recently, she served in key senior executive positions in adoptive cellular therapy and radiopharmaceutical biotech companies including Iovance Biotherapeutics and Advanced Accelerator Applications (the latter being acquired by Novartis during Debora’s tenure). In her leadership roles, Debora built Clinical Development, Medical Affairs and Drug Safety teams setting up the infrastructure for the conduct of registrational clinical studies. She was instrumental in obtaining FDA Breakthrough Designation for a cell therapy product and in the marketing authorization of a radiopharmaceutical agent for the treatment of cancers by both FDA and EMA.
Previously, Debora spent 10 years at Celgene and Novartis in Medical Affairs and Clinical Development roles of increasing responsibility, always focusing on improving the lives of cancer patients. She holds an MD from Pontificia Universidade Catolica Sao Paulo (PUC-SP) and completed her fellowship in Oncology at Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP) in Brazil.
John Houston
PRESIDENT AND CEO, ARVINAS
Dr. Houston is President and Chief Executive Officer of Arvinas. Previously, he was the SVP of Specialty Discovery at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). He spent more than 18 years at BMS in roles of increasing responsibility and had accountability for all Discovery Biology disease teams as well as various Discovery technology departments. Dr. Houston was a member of the BMS R&D Executive Leadership team and chaired the Target Portfolio Committee which had governance oversight in the discovery space. With his teams and research colleagues, he progressed over 200 compounds into early development, several of which advanced into late stage clinical trials, and toward commercialization.
He was also the principal architect and driver of the ‘Leveraging Technology’ initiative at BMS which oversaw the design and implementation of an industry-leading integrated lead discovery and optimization process. This initiative created revolutionary changes in the discovery process at BMS with significant improvements in capacity, speed and cost control resulting in marked increases in research productivity and success rates.
Dr. Houston has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Bristol-Myers Squibb, he worked at Glaxo Welcome Research and Development in the UK, where he served as head of the Lead Discovery Unit. Dr. Houston currently serves on the boards of directors of NextCure, Inc., Oerth Bio, Cybrexa Therapeutics and BioCT.
Dr. Houston obtained his B.Sc. degree in Medical Microbiology from Glasgow University and obtained his Ph.D. with Professor Brian Catley in Microbial Biochemistry from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. He also completed his post-doctoral studies on an MRC grant with Professor Julia Douglas at Glasgow University.
Eric Kelsic
FOUNDER & CEO, DYNO THERAPEUTICS
Dr. Eric Kelsic is CEO and co-founder of Dyno Therapeutics and serves on its Board of Directors.
Prior to founding Dyno, Eric led a team in Prof. George Chuch’s lab at the Wyss Institute of Harvard Medical School. There he measured the first comprehensive fitness landscape of the adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsid protein, co-discovered the AAV MAAP gene, and created the underlying technology for Dyno’s AI-powered engineering platform. Eric earned a PhD in Systems Biology from Harvard University and a BS in Physics from Caltech.
Dyno recently closed their $100M Series A fundraising led by a16z and was named one of Endpoint’s 11 Most Promising Startups in 2021 and Xconomy’s 2020 Startup of the Year. In 2021, Eric was also recognized as one of Endpoint’s 20 under 40 next-gen biotech leaders. Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, Dyno is empowering a diverse team of the best problem solvers to drive cutting edge science towards improving patient health. Visit www.dynotx.com for additional information.
Devyn Smith
CEO, ARBOR BIOTECHNOLOGIES
Dr. Devyn Smith brings significant cell and gene therapy development and platform expertise from his 20+ year career. Devyn joined Arbor Biotechnologies as Chief Executive Officer on April 27, 2021 after concluding his role as Chief Operating Officer of Sigilon Therapeutics. Prior to Sigilon, Dr. Smith worked in a variety of roles at Pfizer Inc., including COO of the UK-based Neusentis Unit focused on discovering and developing cell therapies. He received his Ph.D. in Genetics from Harvard Medical School. He is an inventor on multiple patents and has published in leading scientific journals throughout his career. Dr. Smith is a board member and officer for ARM (Alliance for Regenerative Medicine), the cell and gene therapy industry group.
Ryan Cawood
CSO, WUXI ADVANCED THERAPIES AND OXGENE
Ryan founded Oxford Genetics (trading as OXGENE) in 2011, after earning a degree in genetics and a PhD in gene therapy from Oxford University. The idea behind the company was to simplify and standardise the process of DNA engineering using a proprietary DNA plasmid platform called SnapFast™. Ryan used his background in virology to guide and grow the business through a series of strategic changes that deployed the SnapFast™ technology for cell and gene therapy discovery and manufacturing applications. He has over 20 peer reviewed papers and is the inventor on more than 100 international patent applications. In 2021, Ryan led the sale of the OXGENE to WuXi Advanced Therapies. He is currently the Chief Scientific Officer for WuXi Advanced Therapies and OXGENE.
Todd Golub
DIRECTOR, BROAD INSTITUTE OF MIT & HARVARD
Todd Golub is director and a founding core member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Golub is a world leader in using genomics tools to understand the basis of cancer. He also pioneered the development of new cell-based approaches to drug discovery for cancer and other diseases.
Golub is also the Charles A. Dana Investigator in Human Cancer Genetics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Outstanding Achievement Award from the American Association for Cancer Research, the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, and the Daland Prize from the American Philosophical Society. In 2014 he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Kevin Davies
EXECUTIVE EDITOR, THE CRISPR JOURNAL AND GEN BIOTECHNOLOGY; AUTHOR, EDITING HUMANITY
British science writer Kevin Davies, Ph.D., is the author of EDITING HUMANITY: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing (Pegasus Books, 2020). Kevin’s latest book is the riveting story of the development of the Nobel Prize-winning technology for editing genes, driving breakthroughs in science, medicine, and agriculture, while igniting ethical controversies about designer babies and the future of humanity. Kevin won a Guggenheim Fellowship for science writing in 2017.
Kevin has 30 years’ experience in science publishing and public speaking. He is the founding editor of Nature Genetics and currently the Executive Editor of The CRISPR Journal. He is spearheading the launch of a new multidisciplinary journal called GEN Biotechnology, in 2022. Kevin’s previous books include Breakthrough: The Race for the Breast Cancer Gene; Cracking the Genome (translated into 15 languages), an inside account of the race for the Human Genome Project hailed by one reviewer as “A rollicking good tale about an enduring intellectual monument”; and The $1000 Genome, which details the revolution in personalized medicine and consumer genetics. He also collaborated with Nobel laureate Jim Watson and Andrew Berry on an updated edition of DNA: The Story of the Genetic Revolution.
Kevin graduated with a degree in Biochemistry from Oxford University and took his PhD in molecular genetics from the University of London. He hung up his lab coat after two inconsequential postdocs in Boston.
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