Irene is the Vice President of Technology Development and New Ventures at Boston Children’s Hospital, leading the Technology & Innovation Development Office (TIDO). TIDO is responsible for commercializing discoveries and innovations developed by researchers and clinicians at Boston Children’s Hospital. Irene is also the Managing Director of the Technology Development Fund. Prior to joining Boston Children’s, Irene was an Executive Director at Partners Healthcare Innovation, responsible for commercializing technology from Massachusetts General Hospital. Before joining Partners, Irene was the Associate Provost for Innovation at Brandeis University and founded the Brandeis Virtual Incubator. Prior to joining Brandeis, Irene was a Senior Technology Licensing Officer at M.I.T., where she focused on licensing biotech inventions for M.I.T., the Whitehead Institute and the Broad Institute. Irene did her undergraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania and her graduate work at the Johns Hopkins University and M.I.T. Irene is the past President of the Massachusetts Association of Technology Transfer Offices, the founder of T3, a networking organization for technology licensing offices from small New England research institutions, and a former Vice President of the Associate of University Technology Managers.

Robert (Bob) Alexander, M.D. received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Chicago. He completed an internship in Internal Medicine at the New England Deaconess and a residency in Adult Psychiatry at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Following residency, Bob was a fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) with the late Richard Wyatt and at Columbia University (in Medical Genetics). As part of his NIMH fellowship he spent one year in the laboratory of Dr. David Sachs of the National Cancer Institute learning positional cloning and other molecular biology techniques. The focus of Bob’s fellowships and early research was in schizophrenia (including investigations into proposed etiologic causes such as the viral and autoimmune hypotheses) and genetics of psychiatric disorders (in particular, genetic animal models informative for addiction and psychosis). Bob was on the faculty of Thomas Jefferson University from 1992 to 1995 and then worked at the University of Pennsylvania, where he developed expertise in the treatment of substance abuse. During his career, Dr. Alexander has held a number of academic positions and hospital appointments and is currently a Staff Psychiatrist at McLean Hospital. Bob is currently the Vice President and Head, Clinical Science, Neuroscience Therapeutic Area Unit at Takeda. Prior to Takeda, Bob was Vice President and Head of Clinical for the Neuroscience and Pain Research Unit; Vice President, Clinical, for CNS and Pain Innovative Medicines Unit (iMed) of AstraZeneca; Vice President and Head of Discovery Medicine and Chief Medical Officer of the Neurosciences Centre for Excellence in Drug Discovery at GlaxoSmithKline; and Senior Director in Clinical Neuroscience and Clinical Pharmacology at Merck Research Labs. Bob is an expert in psychopharmacology and have conducted clinical studies in a broad range of neurologic and psychiatric and targets, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson’s dise

Thirty years of experience in the support of tech innovation and innovation ecosystems. Trained in mechanical engineering (B.Sc.) and in economic development/technology transfer (Ph.D.)– both degrees from the University of Edinburgh (UK). Previous positions include: UCSD CONNECT at the University of California, San Diego (1990-2001): various roles, including Director of Programs (assisting early-stage tech companies and collaborating in the development of the San Diego area as a leading tech ecosystem). The von Liebig Center, Jacobs School of Engineering, UCSD: Founding Managing Director (2001-2004). Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center (MTTC), University of Massachusetts, President’s Office, Boston: Founding Director (2004-2018). Office of Technology Commercialization and Ventures (OTCV), University of Massachusetts, President’s Office, Boston: Interim Executive Director (2015-2018). In other capacities, Dr. Barrow is on the Board and is Chair of VentureWell (formerly the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance), encouraging and assisting student inventors. Further affiliations include the Program Committee of BIO (the Biotechnology Industry Organization); New York State Energy Research Agency’s Advisory Board for Proof of Concept Centers; reviewer for state and federal agencies for major commercialization program funding awards, as well as for technology development and prototyping grants.

Ms. Bergsteinsson joined Morgan Stanley in 2005. She is a Managing Director in Equity Capital Markets; she joined Morgan Stanley in the Mergers & Acquisitions department and has since been at Morgan Stanley for 14 years. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Ms. Bergsteinsson worked as an associate at SOFTBANK’s emerging markets venture fund and as an analyst at Deutsche Bank Alex Brown. She graduated with a BSE in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and has an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Appointed by Governor Charlie Baker in 2015, Commissioner Monica Bharel serves as the Commonwealth’s chief physician. She is dedicated to reducing health disparities and developing datadriven, evidence-based solutions for keeping people healthy and is helping lead the state’s aggressive response to the opioid crisis. In 2017, Massachusetts was among few states to see a reduction in opioid overdose deaths, thanks to a variety of new programs and initiatives. As Commissioner, Dr. Bharel oversees a public health workforce of nearly 3000 and an expansive department addressing issues, from environmental health to injury prevention to infectious diseases. In 2017, Massachusetts was named the healthiest state in the nation by America’s Health Rankings Report. Dr. Bharel is a board certified internist who has practiced general internal medicine for more than 20 years, and has been recognized for her dedication to underserved and vulnerable populations. Prior to becoming Commissioner, she was Chief Medical Officer of Boston Health Care for the Homeless. She holds a Master of Public Health degree through the Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship and a medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine.

Lauren Bombardier Weeks is thriving with cystic fibrosis. From the day she was diagnosed at 3 years old, her parents decided their little girl wasn't going to live in a bubble. If her life would be short, at the very least, they would allow her to live her best life possible. Now, thanks to the benefits of exercise and life changing medical treatments, she is doing everything she never thought she would be alive and healthy enough to do. Lauren is a skier, a hiker, and a runner, with a goal to run the Boston Marathon next year. She spends the rest of her time speaking and advocating for cf, working for a pharmaceutical company full time, and going on adventures with her husband and golden retriever, Nugget. Lauren blogs about her life with cf at TheSoWhatLife.com and her memoir, Growing Up Sick details how her parents guided her from a toddler who ran away at the mention of “treatment time,” to an adult who chose to say “so what?!” when faced with the prospect of a short life.

Mike Bonney is Executive Chair of Kaleido Biosciences’ Board of Directors. Previously, Bonney was CEO and Director of Cubist Pharmaceuticals from 2003 until 2014. Under his leadership, Cubist grew from a struggling micro-cap to the world’s leading antibiotic company, and was acquired by Merck early in 2015 for $9.5 billion. Prior to Cubist, Bonney was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Biogen where he built the company’s commercial infrastructure for the launch of its first product. Before joining Biogen, he spent 11 years at Zeneca Pharmaceuticals in a range of commercial, operating and strategic roles, ending his career there as National Business Director. Bonney also chairs the boards of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Magenta Therapeutics and Bates College. He is a member of a number of other boards, including Celgene Corporation, Sarepta Therapeutics, and Syros Therapeutics. Bonney spends much of his time identifying and mentoring the next generation of life science leaders. Bonney was a regional winner and national finalist (2013) in the life science segment of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year and was one of six executives nationwide named as Marketwatch’s CEO of the Year (2011). He received his undergraduate degree in economics from Bates College.

Bruce Booth is a partner and focuses on the discovery and development of novel medicines and therapeutic platforms. Bruce is currently chairman of Arkuda Therapeutics, Hotspot Therapeutics, Kymera Therapeutics (NASDAQ: KYMR), Matchpoint Therapeutics, Nimbus Therapeutics, and Vigil Neuroscience (NASDAQ: VIGL). He also serves on the boards of Lifordi Immunotherapeutics and Sionna Therapeutics, and several seed stage companies. He previously served on the boards of past Atlas companies Avila (acquired by Celgene), Lysosomal Therapeutics (acquired by Bial), Padlock Therapeutics (acquired by BMS), Prestwick (acquired by Biovail), Rodin Therapeutics (acquired by Alkermes), Stromedix (acquired by Biogen), and a number of other ventures. Bruce serves or has served as an advisor in various capacities to Takeda, UCB, the Gates Foundation, Dana Farber’s Binney Street Capital, and the Penn State Research Foundation. He also serves on the board of New England Disabled Sports, a charity dedicated to adaptive sports. Bruce blogs about biotech and venture capital topics at LifeSciVC.com. Prior to joining Atlas in 2005, Bruce was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, as well as an investor for Caxton Health Holdings. As a British Marshall Scholar, Bruce received a D.Phil. (PhD) in molecular immunology from Oxford University. He received a BS in biochemistry, summa cum laude, from The Pennsylvania State University.

Katrine Bosley is the Chief Executive Officer of Editas Medicine Prior to joining Editas, Katrine was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at The Broad Institute, a biomedical and genomic research center, and before that, she was the CEO of Avila Therapeutics (acquired by Celgene). Katrine was also Vice President, Business Development at Adnexus Therapeutics and then Vice President, Strategic Operations after Adnexus’ acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb. Earlier, Katrine held several positions at Biogen in Business Development, Commercial Operations, and Portfolio Strategy and was part of the healthcare team at the venture firm Highland Capital Partners. She is a graduate of Cornell University. In addition to her role at Editas, Katrine currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Genocea Biosciences (NASDAQ: GNCA) and is a member of the Board of Directors of Galapagos NV (EURONEXT and NASDAQ: GLPG), of BIO – the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, and of Massachusetts Eye and Ear.

Christine has over 15 years in the life-science industry including business development, corporate strategy and venture investing. She is currently Partner at MRL Ventures Fund (MRLV). She was previously on the board of Altimmune (NASDAQ:ALT) and an observer on the boards on a number of companies including ROX Medical, Innocrin Pharmaceuticals, Quartet Medicine and Viamet Pharmaceuticals. She is currently responsible for MRLV’s investments in Entrada Therapeutics, Alector (NASDAQ:ALEC) and Translate Bio (NASDAQ:TBIO). Prior to MRLV, she was Principal at the Novartis Venture Fund from 2013-2017 and Chief Business Officer at Vitae Pharmaceuticals from 2010-2013. She also held positions in business development and marketing at small biopharmaceutical and large pharmaceutical companies. Christine received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Dartmouth Medical School and did post-doctoral research in developmental neurobiology at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Bry Directs the Massachusetts Host-Microbiome Center and has held a longstanding interest in host-commensal interactions, particularly through using genetically tenable microbes to probe host responses. Her group actively develops commensal microbial consortia for experimental and clinical applications, including therapeutic uses as immunomodulators, and to provide defenses against gut pathogens. In addition, she oversees a multi-institutional pathogen genomic sequencing program that monitors genomic causes of multi-drug resistance in patient isolates. The program was the first CLIA lab to join the FDA GenomeTrakr program and has developed real-time sequencing and functional studies to define host range and risks for pathogen transmission in carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) through to dynamics of Clostridium difficile infection in hospitalized patients. Dr. Bry did her undergraduate work at Cornell University, studying classical bacterial genetics in Bacillus subtitles. She completed medical and graduate work in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Pathogenesis at Washington University in St. Louis and was the first microbiology student to work in Dr. Jeffery Gordon’s laboratory, developing the host-microbial symbiotic model between Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and its capacity to induce gut epithelial fucosyltransfases. After completing the Clinical Pathology residency program at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, she was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship to study mucosal immunology in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Brenner where she defined mucosal and systemic immune responses needed to control infections with attaching and effacing pathogens.

Dr. Campbell is responsible for preclinical and early stage development R&D at Axial. He brings 25 years of drug discovery and development experience across multiple therapeutic areas and treatment modalities. He has built and led R&D teams involved in a variety of environments from early stage research through to advanced clinical development in small start-ups to mid-sized companies. Prior to joining Axial, Dr. Campbell held various leadership roles at biopharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing companies including Corden Pharma, Surface Logix and Insmed Inc. At Corden Pharma, Dr. Campbell served as Head of Product Management and Business Development for Carbohydrates and Lipids and as Head of Operations for Corden Pharma’s Woburn, MA manufacturing site. Prior to Corden Pharma Dr. Campbell served as Vice President of R&D at Ancora Pharmaceuticals, a synthetic vaccine company, successfully triaging Ancora through the acquisition by and integration into Corden Pharma. While at Surface Logix and Insmed, Dr. Campbell played an integral role in the discovery and development of five clinical stage drug candidates, including small molecules and biotherapeutics. He holds a BSc with Honours in Chemistry from St. Francis Xavier University, a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Queen’s University, and did post-doctoral research in natural product synthesis at Duke University. He has consulted for several start-up companies in multiple technology and therapeutic areas in the Greater Boston area and is co-inventor on 18 issued patents.

George M. Church, PhD ’84, is professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, a founding member of the Wyss Institute, and director of PersonalGenomes.org, the world’s only open-access information on human genomic, environmental, and trait data. Church is known for pioneering the fields of personal genomics and synthetic biology. He developed the first methods for the first genome sequence & dramatic cost reductions since then (down from $3 billion to $600), contributing to nearly all “next generation sequencing” methods and companies. His team invented CRISPR for human stem cell genome editing and other synthetic biology technologies and applications – including new ways to create organs for transplantation, gene therapies for aging reversal, and gene drives to eliminate Lyme Disease and Malaria. Church is director of IARPA & NIH BRAIN Projects and National Institutes of Health Center for Excellence in Genomic Science. He has coauthored 450 papers, 105 patents, and one book, “Regenesis”. His honors include Franklin Bower Laureate for Achievement in Science, the Time 100, and election to the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering.

Barbara has led the Pfizer Ventures since joining Pfizer in 2007. The venture team has invested in 65 companies and ten funds pursuing products, technologies and services, relevant to all aspects of Pfizer’s business, since inception in 2004. The team has been successful in fulfilling their goal of providing financial and strategic returns to Pfizer. Her pharmaceutical career started in the immunology division of Smith Kline & French Research Laboratories. She started venture investing in 1993 when she joined their venture capital group, S.R. One, Limited. Barbara received her undergraduate degree from Penn State and Ph.D. from the Medical College of Pennsylvania (now Drexel University School of Medicine.)

Jeff Elton, Ph.D., is CEO of Concerto HealthAI, a rapidly growing Precision Oncology company with facilities in New York, Philadelphia, Los Altos, and Bangalore that recently moved its headquarters to Boston. Concerto HealthAI is a partner with the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s CancerLinQ program, working with that group and U.S. FDA to advance the use of real world data for pre- and post-approval regulatory submissions, outcomes studies, and value-based care. Previously, he was Managing Director, Accenture Strategy & Predictive Health Intelligence, global COO of Novartis’ Institutes for BioMedical Research and a McKinsey partner in Pharmaceuticals & Medical Products. Dr. Elton co-authored, “Healthcare Disrupted: Next Generation Business Models and Strategies” in 2016, creating an industry roadmap for AI, advanced analytics, real-world data and digital medical solutions.

Juan Enriquez is a leading authority on the economic impact of life sciences on business and society and is a respected business leader and entrepreneur. Juan represents Excel on the boards of Open Water, Synthetic Genomics, WellDoc, and Zipongo. Prior to Excel, Juan was the founding Director of the Harvard Business School's Life Sciences Project, with many of his innovative thoughts captured in his bestselling book, As The Future Catches You, which provided an accurate blueprint of how a bio-based economy changes industries and corporations. His most recent publication is Evolving Ourselves: How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation are Changing Life on Earth which he co-authored with Steve Gullans, which describes a world where humans increasingly shape their environment, themselves, and other species. Following HBS, Juan became an active angel investor and founder of Biotechonomy Ventures which invested in BioTrove, Xcellerex, and Synthetic Genomics, a company he co founded with Drs. J. Craig Venter and Hamilton Smith to apply synthetic biology solutions to address global energy, medicine, clean water, and food challenges. As a business leader, advisor, and renowned speaker, Juan works directly with the CEOs of a number of Fortune 50 companies, as well as various heads of state, on how to adapt to a world where the dominant language is shifting from the digital towards the language of life. Mr. Enriquez serves on a number of boards including Cabot Corp., the Public Interfaces Steering Committee of the Division of Earth & Life Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences, The Genetics Advisory Council of Harvard Medical School, and the Visiting Committee of Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center. He graduated from Harvard with a B.A. and an M.B.A., both with honors. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Fruehauf is a physician-scientist and life science entrepreneur. He is the President and CEO of Biolabs, the national network for biotech co-working spaces and the Executive Director of LabCentral, the largest co-working space for life-science companies in the Boston area. Together, these organizations span all of the major biotech markets in the US and comprise a large number of startup companies (over 150 currently, over 200 companies graduated). The concept of these facilities is built around openness, transparency and shared resources and has changed the way biotech companies are built in the US. Companies launched at Biolabs/LabCentral have raised over $2bn in venture capital financing since 2010. Dr. Fruehauf is a General Partner at BioInnovation Capital, an early stage venture capital fund providing capital to startup companies in the life sciences. Dr. Fruehauf studied Medicine in Germany and France. He practiced medicine (internal medicine and OB/Gyn) for several years in Germany before coming to Boston for a post-doc at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School. He is an author of 30 peer reviewed articles in the medical literature and inventor on numerous issued and pending patents, mostly on drug delivery and RNAi technologies.

Felice J. Freyer covers addiction, mental illness, and brain science for the Boston Globe, where she has been a staff writer for five years. Throughout that time she has chronicled the opioid crisis in Massachusetts, revealing the pitfalls in the treatment system, the efforts to address them, and the unintended consequences for pain patients. Previously, she was the medical writer for the Providence Journal in Rhode Island. Freyer is active in the 1,400-member Association of Health Care Journalists.and currently serves as its vice president.

Nicole Gaudelli received her B.S. degree in biochemistry from Boston College in May of 2006. While at Boston College she conducted research under the guidance of Prof. Steve Bruner to elucidate the enzymatic mechanisms of an aminotransferase involved in neocrazinostatin biosynthesis and a non-heme iron oxygenase involved in vancomycin assembly. She then joined the laboratory of Prof. Craig Townsend at Johns Hopkins University where she studied a non-ribosmal peptide synthetase (NRPS) implicated in the biosynthesis of the β-lactam antibiotic nocardicin. In her doctoral work she elucidated the mechanism through which monobactam anitbiotics are biosynthesized. She next pursued postdoctoral work at Harvard University in the laboratory of Professor David R. Liu where she expanded the capabilities of base-editing technology by creating an adenine base editor (ABE), through 7 rounds of evolution and engineering, which cleanly converts A•T base pairs to G•C base pairs in a programmable manner, with low indel %, and without double-stranded DNA breaks. She joined Beam Therapeutics where she is the Head of the DNA Editing Platform in order to further expand and apply base editing technology to human genetic diseases. Nicole was a recipient of the 2018 American Chemical Society's “Talented 12” award and also recognized as a 2018 STAT Wunderkind.

Vikas is a founder and Managing Partners of Trekk Venture Partners, an emerging biotech venture capital fund. He has been working in the biotech industry for 20 years, with a particular focus on corporate strategy, capital formation, corporate partnerships, and M&A for early stage therapeutics companies. Prior to co-founding Trekk, Vikas was Senior Vice President of Business Development for Pandion Therapeutics. He initially joined Pandion as a Board member and Series A investor before ultimately joining full-time in 2019. Vikas led Pandion through a research collaboration with Astellas, an IPO, and the company’s acquisition by Merck for $1.85 billion in 2021. Prior to Pandion, Vikas worked as an investor at SR One. During his time at SR One, Vikas invested in and served on the boards of 19 early stage biotech companies including Morphic Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MORF), River Vision Development (acquired by Horizon), Nimbus Therapeutics (Tyk2 program acquired by Takeda), Turning Point (acquired by BMS), Spero Therapeutics (tebipenem pivoxil HBr acquired by GSK) and Pandion (acquired by Merck). River Vision and Horizon developed Tepezza (teprotumumab) a new standard of care in the treatment of Grave’s Orbitopathy and the first therapy ever approved for the indication. Previously, Vikas was a Consultant at McKinsey & Co’s Pharmaceutical practice in New Jersey, a co-founder of Extera Partners, and a Business Development Manager at Infinity Pharmaceuticals. He is a member of the Kauffman Fellows Society (Class 17). Vikas earned an MBA in Health Care Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Neurobiology from Harvard University. Vikas truly believes that partnerships can be critical to the successful development of new medicines. In his free time, he hosts an interview series on the Timmerman Report with biotech business development executives about the deals they have worked on and lessons learned. Vikas lives in Somerville with his wife (who also works in the biotech industry) and two daughters.

Luba Greenwood is a distinguished executive, investor, and company builder with over 20 years of leadership in healthcare and technology, and extensive global board experience. She is the CEO of Gallop Oncology, a clinical stage biotech. She has founded and served as Managing Partner of Dana Farber Cancer Institute venture fund, and CEO and board chair of multiple life sciences companies including Kojin Tx. She is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at PureTech, where she plays a key role in advancing oncology programs. Luba has a proven track record of building world-class teams and companies, leading over $15B in deals and investments across therapeutics, diagnostics, and life sciences globally. She has held leadership roles at Google (Verily) and Roche, where as VP of Global Business Development & M&A, she spearheaded diagnostics BD and established the East Coast Innovation Hub. Recognized as an industry thought leader, she advises CEOs of top academic institutions, including Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Wyss Center. She serves on the Investor Committee for National Cancer Institute and contributes to NEJM Catalyst. Luba is a strategic leader in digital transformation, AI, M&A, financing, and governance, with expertise in scaling companies, guiding high-impact transactions, and driving innovation at the intersection of biotech and technology. A former lawyer at WilmerHale, Luba is an expert in regulatory, IP, and corporate law. She has served as a Harvard University lecturer and sits on multiple public and private boards, including In8Bio, BenchSci, Stalicla, Abcam (where she led its sale to Danaher), Closed Loop Medicine, and MassBio.

Sheela Hegde has 20 years of experience in advising senior executive teams on corporate strategy. Sheela co-leads Health Advances’ Biopharma Practice, helping companies maximize the value of their assets and build winning market positions. Sheela brings a cross-sector lens to providing strategic advice to her clients, which include the leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as well as financial investors. Experienced in multiple therapeutic areas, Sheela has particular expertise in metabolic, CNS, and autoimmune fields. At Health Advances, Sheela heads the Metabolics, Autoimmune, and Drug Delivery sub-practices. Sheela joined Health Advances in 2005 with a background in corporate strategy and health care provider operations. Prior to Health Advances, Sheela worked at The Advisory Board where she managed client relationships and led research teams in areas related to hospital care delivery and new payment models. She also previously worked at Novartis Pharmaceuticals in the Cardiovascular Business Franchise and with the Japan affiliate. Sheela earned a BA in human biology with university distinction and Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard University.

Scott Helfstein, PhD is Co-Head of Market Research and Strategy as well as Head of Thematic Portfolios at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. He is responsible for developing and communicating global investment advice as well as building and managing thematic portfolios focused on technological disruption. Scott is an Adjunct Scholar at the Modern War Institute at West Point and Senior Fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at The George Washington University (GW). Before joining Morgan Stanley Wealth management, Scott was Senior Investment Strategist and Deputy to the Chief Market Strategist at BNY Mellon Investment Management leading global macro and relative value analysis. He served as the Director of Research at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center and as Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Science at the United States Military Academy from 2008 to 2014. He holds a Joint Doctorate in Public Policy and Political Science from the University of Michigan and a Master’s Degree in War Studies from King’s College, London. From 1999 to 2002, Scott was an investment banker at Credit Suisse First Boston. He also worked at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 1997 to 1999. Scott holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from GW, is a member of the Economic Club of New York, and was a Term Member in the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Joseph Higgins, M.D., joined uniQure in March 2018 as Vice President of Clinical Development and is responsible for the early development of clinical gene therapy trials for neurological disorders. Dr. Higgins serves as the lead for our Huntington's disease clinical program. The Company’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application for AMT-130 has been cleared by the FDA allowing uniQure to begin its planned dose-escalating, randomized and controlled Phase I/II clinical trial to assess the safety, tolerability and efficacy of a one-time treatment of AMT-130 in patients with Huntington’s disease. Prior to joining uniQure in 2018, Dr. Higgins was responsible for all neurological diagnostic testing at Quest Diagnostics and was the federal CLIA-license holder for a specialty laboratory. He was formerly a Professor at Weill Cornell Medical College where he was the principal investigator on several private foundation and NIH research grants focused on clinical neurogenetics. He held senior leadership positions in genomic medicine at the federal and state governments including the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH). At NIH he was part of the Human Genome Project and teams that initiated the first-in-human enzyme replacement and gene therapy clinical trials. He led the Human Genetic Initiative at the NYSDOH. He discovered the genes or loci for several diseases including Parkinson disease, essential tremor, ataxia, intellectual disability (ID), and metabolic disorders. He created a transgenic mouse model for proof-of-concept studies to treat non-syndromic ID. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology with board certifications in Pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics and Neurology with Special Qualification in Child Neurology by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He has authored more than 100 peer‐reviewed publications, book chapters, and reviews articles in the field of neurogenetics. He

Chris Howerton joined Jefferies in April of 2014 as part of the Biotechnology equity research team covering small/mid-cap names. Prior to Jefferies, he headed the Microbiome Discovery Platform at Assembly Biosciences. Chris’s academic training includes post-doctoral research fellow in Neuroscience at both Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania and he received a BS in Animal Science, a MS in Animal Biology and a PhD in Behavioral Sciences, all from the University of California, Davis.

Johnny joined Omega Funds in 2018, where he focuses on private company investing, with a focus on new therapeutic modalities. He is especially interested in gene and cell therapies due to his previous work in the space. Prior to Omega, Johnny completed his PhD at Harvard University as a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellow and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in the labs of David Liu and George Church. His thesis project focused on using directed evolution to evolve new gene editing tools and was published in Nature. Previously, he also interned with Vida Ventures, PureTech Health, RA Capital, and Genentech. Johnny earned his MPhil as a Gates Cambridge Scholar from the University of Cambridge and his AB summa cum laude in Chemical and Physical Biology from Harvard University.

In August 2016, Allie Hunter became the first Executive Director of the Police Assisted Addiction & Recovery Initiative (PAARI), a movement of law enforcement agencies that believe in treatment over arrest. As Executive Director, Allie is responsible for program expansion and effectiveness as well as organizational growth and sustainability. To date, Allie has helped launch more than 300 non-arrest community policing programs nationwide. Allie came to PAARI with over 12 years of experience in nonprofit management and leadership. Allie holds a bachelor’s degree in politics and international relations from Ursinus College and a master’s degree in international development from Ohio University, where she focused on community health and behavior change. She also earned a certificate from the Institute for Nonprofit Practice at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. In spring 2017, Allie received a Nonprofit Excellence Award and was named young professional of the year by the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network. In fall 2018, Allie also accepted an AmeriCorps Excellence Award for Best New Program for PAARI’s first-of-its-kind program to embed AmeriCorps members in police departments to address the opioid epidemic. Allie is based in Boston, Massachusetts and spends much of her time traveling around the country to support current and prospective law enforcement partners. Like many, Allie has been personally touched by the disease of addiction and has a close family member who is in recovery from an opioid use disorder.

Laura Indolfi is the Founder & CEO of PanTher Therapeutics, a spin-out of MIT and MGH that provides superior drug delivery technologies for revolutionizing the treatment of locally advanced solid tumors. Her scientific expertise covers a broad range of therapeutic areas (cardio, cancer, regenerative medicine) and approaches (drug delivery, cell therapy, implanted devices). Together with her strong technical background, Laura has hands-on business and managerial know-how developed during her biomedical business training at Sloan and Harvard Business schools, combining the science and business knowledges to drive the company’s vision. Prior to PanTher, she was a research associate at Harvard-MIT IMES, and served as entrepreneur-in-residence at MGH Cancer Center. She is a TED Fellow, one of 21 people chosen annually by the TED organization who are considered to be the most disruptive and transformative change-makers in the world. In 2017, she attended the prestigious conference “Fortune: Most Powerful Women – Next Gen”, an invite-only summit hosted by Fortune gathering a stellar group of game-changing executives, entrepreneurs and innovators. Laura is also one of the 5 women selected by Massachusetts Life Science Center and Takeda for their inaugural class in 2018 of MassNextGen program, honoring exceptional leaders in the biotech industry.

Irena Ivanovska, Ph.D., Site Head/Boston and Director, Celdara Medical, leads the development of therapeutic programs in several disease areas, is responsible for operations of the Boston office, as well as sourcing and vetting of new pipeline assets. In addition, she serves as an Alliance Manager in support of Celdara’s Pipeline Development Service partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. She also leads Celdara’s due diligence efforts. Prior to Celdara, Irena was a Senior Research Biologist at Rosetta Inpharmatics, LLC (a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck and Co.), where she identified and validated cell cycle microRNAs as targets for oncology, developed siRNA delivery methods to physiologically-relevant primary cell systems and identified gene expression disease biomarkers. As an associate principal investigator in the Respiratory and Immunology department at Merck-Boston, she led a cross-functional team that delivered a validation package and a small molecule lead for an autoimmune disease target. Irena received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University for discovering new structural and signaling pathways that regulate yeast cell division. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute of MIT, she identified a new histone modification critical for proper chromosome structure. She received an NIH National Research Service Award and a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Career Development Fellowship to pursue these studies. Irena has been a member and a volunteer in several biotechnology professional organizations, including HBA, WEST and AWIS. Irena has been developing Celdara’s presence in and relationships with the Boston biotech and academic communities since 2017.

Linda Ji has extensive experience representing domestic and international clients in connection with a wide range of business matters, with a particular focus on cross-border corporate and commercial transactions between China and the United States. Linda represents clients ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies in myriad industries, including life sciences, health care, technology, real estate, consumer products, manufacturing and private equity.

Sally's group provides in-vivo and in-vitro models, technologies and analytics to support the discovery and development from identification of new targets through to understanding genetic variability in drug response and patient stratification.. Sally is a passionate advocate of the value of human genetics to support early drug discovery and is an active champion of open innovation and collaboration in the field of genomic and contributes to and organizes events aimed at fostering a deeper interaction between academia and industry. Prior to joining Biogen in 2014, she was Head of Clinical Genetics and Bioinformatics at Pfizer. She gained a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Manchester, UK. She began her academic career studying the genetic basis of rheumatoid arthritis, focusing on genomic analysis in the context of epidemiological studies.

Sven Karlsson, CFA, MBA, is co-founder, chief operating officer, and chief business officer of Platelet BioGenesis, the only company in the world manufacturing functional human platelets. At PBG, he has grown the company from one employee to 25, raised more than $20 million in venture capital and non-dilutive grants, and advanced the company’s scalable, cGMP-compliant platelet bioreactor. PBG is developing a platelet platform to create an entirely new class of therapeutics: designer platelets to treat cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The company plans to enter the clinic with its first product, donor-independent platelets for transfusion, in 2021. Earlier in his career, Karlsson held a variety of board-level and senior positions in the renewable energy field, helping a variety of green energy startups raise their first financing rounds, find their first customers, and scale to profitability. Karlsson started his career as a senior analyst for M&A and business development at JPMorgan and also held positions at a number of asset management firms.

A 2x CEO, is the principal founder and CEO of Prapela, Inc., a company focused on helping opioid-exposed newborns and their caregivers with a novel, drug free solution. John previously held leadership and executive positions at 4 different Fortune 200 companies and one FTSE 100 company. He has led or assisted in the generation of more than $5.4 billion in revenue and launched over 100 products. His experience includes work in biologics, implants, capital equipment, disposables, durable medical equipment, lab testing, field service and contract manufacturing. For over 35 years he has worked closely with Physicians and leaders in the Pediatrics, Sports Medicine, Pain Management, Ob/GYN and Cardiology. Starting out in marketing, John's career led to additional roles in business development, operations, product development, sales and general management. John holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Duquesne University and an MBA from the University of Colorado.

Alison Lawton has served as Kaleido’s Chief Executive Officer, President and as a member of the Board of Directors since August 2018, after initially joining the company as President and Chief Operating Officer in December 2017. Ms. Lawton has more than 30 years of experience in a range of executive and operating roles in the biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Kaleido, she was COO at Aura Biosciences, and previously held the same role at X4 Pharmaceuticals and OvaScience. Ms. Lawton spent more than 20 years at Genzyme Corporation and subsequently at Sanofi following its acquisition of Genzyme. She served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Sanofi Biosurgery, a $750 million business that included surgical, orthopedics, and cell therapy and regenerative medicine franchises. Earlier, as SVP of Global Market Access for Genzyme, Ms. Lawton led global functional organizations, including regulatory affairs and quality systems, public policy, health outcomes and strategic pricing, product safety and risk management. Additionally, Ms. Lawton worked for seven years in the U.K. at Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis. She previously served two terms as the industry representative on the Food & Drug Administration’s Cell & Gene Therapy Advisory Committee and as Chairman of the Board of the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS). She is currently an independent Director of ProQR Therapeutics and Verastem, Inc., and was previously a director on the boards of Cubist Pharmaceuticals, CoLucid Pharmaceuticals, and Magenta Therapeutics. Ms. Lawton earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacology from King’s College London.

Dr. Jeremy Levin is the Chairman and CEO of Ovid Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: OVID) a public company developing novel medicines for orphan and rare diseases of the brain. Dr. Levin has deep experience in the global biopharmaceuticals industry, leading companies and people to develop and commercialize medicines that address medical needs worldwide. He has been voted one of the 25 most influential people in the biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to Ovid, Dr. Levin served as President and CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA) the world’s largest generics drug company. Previously, he was a member of the Executive Committee of Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) where he had global responsibilities for strategy, alliances and transactions. In this role, he devised and led the BMS “String of Pearls” strategy, which resulted in the transformation of the company. Prior to BMS, he was Global Head of Strategic Alliances at Novartis (NYSE: NVS). In this role, he established and managed strategic collaborations with multiple companies around the world. Dr. Levin has served on a number of public and private company boards over the years, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of BIO, Biocon, Ltd (NSE: BIOCON) and Lundbeck (OMX: LUN). Dr. Levin is the recipient of a number of awards including the Kermode Prize for work on novel hypertension drugs, the Albert Einstein Award for Leadership in Life Sciences, the B’nai B’rith Award for Distinguished Achievement for commitment to improving global health care. Dr. Levin holds a Bachelors Degree in Zoology and was awarded a Masters of Arts in the structure of Chromatin from the University of Oxford in 1978. He also received degrees of Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Cambridge in 1981. He has practiced internal medicine at University Hospitals in England, Switzerland and South Africa. Born on a farm, Dr. Levin farms cattle in Connecticut in his spare time.

Dr. Calum Archibald MacRae is Chief, Cardiovascular Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and an expert member of BWH’s Cardiovascular Genetics Program, which comprehensively evaluates, diagnoses and manages care for inherited cardiac disorder patients. In addition, he is a leading investigator at the BWH Genomics Center and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He received his medical degree from University of Edinburgh College of Medicine. He completed two internal medicine residency programs: one at Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging in London and the other at BWH. He then completed a fellowship in cardiovascular disease at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. MacRae is board certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease. Dr. MacRae is a cardiologist and geneticist whose clinical interests include investigating new phenotypes and how research findings—including genomics discoveries—can be systematically implemented into clinical care. His research focuses on the biology and genomics of cardiovascular disease, specifically the biological basis of different arrhythmia susceptibilities. He holds five patents, has authored over 160 peer-reviewed publications and received research funding from the National Institutes of Health’s National Human Genome Research Institute.

Since 2002, Dr. John Maraganore has served as the CEO and a Director of Alnylam. Prior to Alnylam, Dr. Maraganore served as an officer and a member of the management team for Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. As Senior Vice President, Strategic Product Development for Millennium, he was responsible for the company’s product franchises in oncology, and cardiovascular, inflammatory, and metabolic diseases. He was previously Vice President, Strategic Planning and M&A and, prior to that, he was General Manager of Millennium BioTherapeutics, Inc., a former subsidiary of Millennium. Before Millennium he served as Director of Molecular Biology and Director of Market and Business Development at Biogen, Inc. At Biogen, Dr. Maraganore invented and led the discovery and development of ANGIOMAX® (bivalirudin) for injection, formerly HIRULOGTM and currently marketed by The Medicines Company. Prior to Biogen, Dr. Maraganore was a scientist at ZymoGenetics, Inc., and the Upjohn Company. Dr. Maraganore received his MS and PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Chicago. He is the Chair of the Board for Agios Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Maraganore is Chair of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Board, and is a member of the BIO Executive Committee.

Erin Mistry brings 15 years experience in helping manufacturers evaluate their pricing, value and access portfolio strategies across global markets. She is currently Senior Managing Director, Head of Value, Access & HEOR at Syneos Health, a 23,000 + global organization that combines both clinical trial and commercial development services. Erin spent many years working with healthcare systems establishing quality metrics and leading clinical teams that feed into value-based care initiatives and patient engagement strategies while finding the pricing and access niche at Medimmune. She has worked extensively across a variety of therapeutic areas and global markets to build value messaging and demonstration, evidence requirements, pricing strategies, contracting opportunities, and stakeholder engagement plans across the commercial development spectrum. Erin enjoys the dynamic policy environment and the direct interaction with Payer decision makers that influence today’s access decisions.

Hussain brings more than 25 years of experience in manufacturing, supply chain, enterprise technology, and launching next gen therapy products. He works closely with senior executives from global life sciences companies, implementing end-to-end ERP and other technology-enabled transformations (APS, MES, S&P, etc.). He has both deep experience in SAP and Oracle enabled global transformations focused on realizing business value for organizations. He also has M&A experience, and has worked numerous acquisitions and divestitures. Hussain leads Deloitte’s Next Gen Therapy practice and Clinical Supply work.

Dr. Murphy is the Chief Research Information Officer at Partners HealthCare, is a Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, and serves as Associate Director for the Laboratory of Computer Science at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He received his BS in Chemistry from the University of Notre Dame, and his Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Physiology and MD from the University of Chicago. Dr. Murphy’s research interests include the creation of query methods for healthcare data that enable them to be directly used by scientists even when the data is extremely large. Dr. Murphy has created high impact and widely accepted open source projects that focus on the integration of highly diverse phenotypic, imaging, and genomic data such that new discoveries can be visualized and produced from secondary use of routinely collected healthcare data and be applied to new methods of providing clinical decision support in a learning healthcare system.

Lita Nelsen spent 30 years in the Technology Licensing Office of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 25 of them as director of the office. During that time, the MIT TLO licensed over 500 startup companies based on MIT research technology. She is the author of many articles and book chapters on technology transfer. During her tenure at the MIT TLO she was invited to lecture and consult in tech transfer and university-based entrepreneurship in over 20 countries around the world. She was a co-founder of Praxis (now Praxis-Auril) a UK non-profit company for training tech transfer professionals, or which she was awarded a Member of the British Empire (MBE) by the UK government. Having retired from MIT, Lita is now a consultant for young startups licensing technology from universities. She volunteers as a mentor in the MIT Sandbox Program, mentoring undergraduate and graduate students working on starting companies. Lita’s education is all from MIT: B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering, and an MBA as a Sloan Fellow at the MIT Sloan School of management. Her first job after MIT was in her MS thesis advisor’s startup company; she spent 15 years working in industry in the fields of membrane separations and biotechnology, before joining the MIT TLO.

In 2003, Dr. O’Neill joined Biogen as an associate director of clinical development, making the transition from practicing neurology full-time at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to industry. During his 15-year career with Biogen, Dr. O’Neill held leadership roles of increasing responsibility in clinical research and development. From November 2016 to June 2018, Dr. O’Neill served as Biogen’s senior vice president, late-stage clinical development and oversaw development programs for Alzheimer’s disease, movement disorders, acute neurology, multiple sclerosis, pain, neuromuscular disease, gene and cell therapy, and rare diseases. He played a leadership role in seeking, receiving and maintaining global marketing approvals for Tecfidera®, Zinbryta®, Plegridy® and Spinraza®. Dr. O’Neill is a member of the American Academy of Neurology and a board-certified neurologist (ABPN), licensed to practice medicine in the state of Massachusetts. He served as director of the leukodystrophy service and chief resident in neurology during his time at MGH as full-time physician, and has maintained his clinical appointment at MGH with a sub-specialty interest in neuromuscular diseases and inherited leukodystrophies. From 1997 to 2015, he served as a clinical instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. O’Neill also serves on the board of directors of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio). Dr. O’Neill received a Bachelor of Medicine degree at University College Dublin and a Master of Medical Sciences degree from Harvard University. He is the recipient of numerous awards in science and medicine, including the Lefler Fellowship in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. O’Neill is the author of numerous publications on multiple sclerosis, has served as a neurology peer reviewer for medical literature, and lectures in the United States and globally on advances in neurology and neurological research.

Amy K. O'Sullivan, Ph.D. is Vice President of Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) at Alkermes, Inc. O'Sullivan is a health economist with over 20 years of experience conducting health economics and outcomes research for the pharmaceutical industry. Over the course of her career, O'Sullivan has led the development and conduct of burden-of-illness studies, retrospective database analyses, patient-reported outcomes research, trial-based economic evaluations, and pharmacoeconomic models. Her research has been global in nature and spans a wide range of therapeutic areas including autoimmune conditions, cardiovascular disease, central nervous system/behavioral health disorders, metabolic disorders, musculoskeletal conditions, oncology, respiratory disease, women's health, and rare diseases. Prior to joining Alkermes, O'Sullivan held senior leadership positions at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, IMS Health, and OptumInsight, where she led research teams and provided scientific expertise on a range of outcomes research studies in support of product reimbursement in jurisdictions around the world. O'Sullivan has authored research studies published in Pharmacoeconomics, Value in Health, Managed Care, Journal of Medical Economics, International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, and American Journal of Managed Care, among others. She has presented the results of her research at pharmacoeconomic and clinical congresses around the globe. O'Sullivan holds a BA in Economics and English from Boston College and Ph.D. in Health Economics from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She also holds an adjunct faculty position at the Boston University School of Public Health.

Dr. Pirhaji is Founder and CEO of ReviveMed with a Ph.D. in Biological Engineering from MIT. During her Ph.D. at Prof. Ernest Fraenkel Lab at MIT, Leila developed pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) platform to overcome the difficulties of leveraging metabolomics for drug discovery, which was published in Nature Methods. She then founded ReviveMed to bring this technology to the market and make an impact in people’s lives. Currently, ReviveMed is a venture-backed startup, based in Cambridge MA, focusing on discovering therapeutics for metabolic diseases using AI. Previously, Leila worked at top-notch research institutes, such as ETH Zurich, as well as large pharmaceutical companies, including Merck and Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Her innovative work has received several prestigious awards, and featured in media outlets including TechCrunch.

Dr. Ragan is a founder, as well as the Chief Executive Officer and President of X4. She has more than 19 years of experience building companies in the biotechnology industry. Most recently, Dr. Ragan consulted as Chief Business Officer at Lysosomal Therapeutics Inc (LTI), an Atlas Venture portfolio company, where she led the company’s business development activities. Prior to LTI, Dr. Ragan held leadership roles in corporate development and operations at Genzyme/Sanofi where she led strategic partnering efforts for Genzyme’s Rare Disease business and headed the supply chain planning for Genzyme’s flagship commercial products. Other professional roles include business roles at Hydra Biosciences, Oscient Corporation and Celera Corporation. Dr. Ragan received her BS in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University and her PhD from MIT. She completed post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School.

WilmerHale partner Rosemary G. Reilly is a seasoned corporate lawyer with more than 20 years of experience advising life sciences companies on corporate and securities matters. She provides ongoing counsel for clients ranging from startups and emerging companies to mature public companies, investment banks and venture capital firms. Drawing on her experience as in-house counsel, she has a unique understanding of the legal and business challenges faced by her clients. In addition to advising clients on a wide range of corporate and securities matters, Ms. Reilly has significant experience with private and public securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, venture capital and strategic financings, and SEC compliance. She regularly advises boards in connection with securities transactions and general corporate matters, and provides advice on governance and commercial transactions. Ms. Reilly is a frequent speaker on topics relating to corporate and securities transactions, and was selected by peers for inclusion in the 2019 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the areas of biotechnology and life sciences.

Issi Rozen is a General Partner at Google Ventures, where he primarily focuses on the formation of new companies and early-stage investments. Issi is an experienced biotech executive and a serial entrepreneur who co-founded multiple startups, including GV portfolio company Verve Therapeutics. “My background is quite unusual for life sciences,” he explains. “I started in music, got excited about biotech in business school, led strategy and business development efforts at several biotech companies, and then spent a decade at the Broad Institute, spinning out more than 20 companies and co-founding another five.” Issi served as the Chief Business Officer and a member of the executive leadership team at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where he led the creation of the Office of Strategic Alliances and Partnering. He was responsible for developing innovative scientific and business collaborations, initiating and establishing new ventures around novel technologies, and overseeing strategy and licensing of the Institute’s intellectual property portfolio. “I’ve seen many different shades of companies, and I’ve always loved the opportunity to partner with founders and experiment with different structures to advance early-stage science,” he says. “Closely following the many startups spinning out of the Broad helped me learn to identify why some did better than others when all had potential.” An accomplished jazz guitarist who spent his early career touring and recording, Issi is a former professor at Berklee College of Music. “Working with great jazz musicians is very similar to working with successful founders and academics,” he says. “They are extremely talented, passionate, and dedicate their lives to one particular thing. That love drives them, and they are willing to invest everything to make it happen.” Issi earned his MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Lisa Schaefer is the Director of Financial Services and Tax Policy at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO). In this role, Lisa develops policy solutions to facilitate capital formation for emerging biotechnology companies. Prior to her current role, she served as the Assistant Vice President for Public Policy & Advocacy at the Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) focusing on cross-border financial services issues. Prior to joining SIFMA, Lisa lived in Hong Kong for three years coordinating ASIFMA’s response to post-crisis financial reforms across the Asia-Pacific region. Previously, Lisa promoted trade and investment in emerging markets around the world at Delphos International, a boutique consultancy, as well as for the U.S. Embassy in Argentina. She also served as an aide in Washington, DC to then-Congressman Brian Bilbray from her home state of California. Lisa holds an undergraduate degree in Political Science from San Diego State University and a Masters in International Trade and Investment Policy from the George Washington University. She serves on the Board Advisory Committee for Village Focus International, a social impact organization based in Vientiane, Laos working to end human trafficking.

Stanley Y. Shaw, MD PhD is the inaugural Associate Dean for Executive Education at Harvard Medical School. In this role, he designs and directs a growing portfolio of programs for companies and executive leaders from diverse sectors of health care, from small biotechs to Fortune 100 companies. Dr. Shaw is also the Chief Scientific Officer for One Brave Idea (at Brigham and Women’s Hospital), an initiative funded by the American Heart Association, Verily and Astra Zeneca to understand and treat the earliest changes in coronary heart disease. His research seeks to understand how digital health, bioinformatics, the gut microbiome and patient-reported data can be leveraged to better assess health and disease. Previously, he co-founded the Center for Assessment Technology and Continuous Health (CATCH) at Massachusetts General Hospital, and his team led the development of one of the first ResearchKit iPhone apps in partnership with Apple. Dr. Shaw received his AB in Chemistry & Physics from Harvard College, and his MD and PhD (in Biophysics) from Harvard. He completed his clinical training in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Barbara Tate is a neuroscientist who has worked in both large and small pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining DDF, she was Vice President and Head of Biology at Rodin Therapeutics, an Atlas Venture company, where she also consulted on other portfolio companies. Prior to Rodin, Barbara was Vice President for Research at Satori Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company developing a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Barbara also worked at Pfizer, where she managed the neurodegenerative disease area group in Groton, CT. Prior to working in industry, Barbara was an academic researcher at Brown Medical School and Harvard Medical School. Barbara has a BA in Biology, a PhD in Physiology, and she was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. The Dementia Discovery Fund (“DDF”) is a highly innovative new fund backed by the UK Government, Alzheimer’s Research UK and seven of the world’s leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies. The DDF is funding the discovery and development of new disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia with the intent to dramatically improve the quality of life for the growing number of dementia sufferers and their families.

Megan Thielking is a reporter at STAT, where she covers mental health, science, and medicine. Megan graduated from Northwestern University and has previously written for Vox and Mental Floss.

Tamar Thompson is a health policy and reimbursement strategist with extensive experience working with governmental agencies, private payers, Congressional leaders, and patient advocacy groups to improve patient access to existing and new medical therapies. She has more than 20 years of leadership experience in health care, including the ability to develop strategic and tactical recommendations to ensure optimal reimbursement and market access for products. Tamar currently serves as executive director, state government affairs/alliance development and federal payment for Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and she also serves as the Chair for Healthy Women. Prior to joining Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Mrs. Thompson served a strategic policy advisor and consultant for three premiere Washington DC based firms, ADVI, Kimbell & Associates and Avalere Health, where she managed a diverse portfolio of clients, including medical device, biotech, pharmaceutical, and specialty drug, companies. Preceding her time in Washington DC, Ms. Thompson was Director of Health Policy & Reimbursement at Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals (MIP) where she was charged with developing and launching reimbursement strategy for cutting-edge molecular diagnostic and therapeutic treatments options. She has also held health policy and reimbursement leadership strategy roles at GE Healthcare and Bracco Diagnostics. Tamar has also served as claims operations director and benefit plan manager in the managed care sector for Humana and ValueOptions. Tamar holds a M.S. in Health Sciences with a concentration in Public Health from Trident University in Cypress California. She also has an Executive Leadership certificate from Columbia University (in partnership Bristol-Myers Squibb Company), and maintains active certifications from the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) as a Certified Coding Specialist (CCS) and Certified Coding Specialist – Physician Based (CCS-P).

John Torous, MD MBI is director of the digital psychiatry division, in the Department of Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Harvard Medical School affiliated teaching hospital, where he also serves as a staff psychiatrist and academic faculty. He has a background in electrical engineering and computer sciences and received an undergraduate degree in the field from UC Berkeley before attending medical school at UC San Diego. He completed his psychiatry residency, fellowship in clinical informatics, and master's degree in biomedical informatics at Harvard. Dr. Torous is active in investigating the potential of mobile mental health technologies for psychiatry and has published over 75 peer reviewed articles and 5 books chapters on the topic. He serves as editor-in-chief for an academic journal on technology and mental health, JMIR Mental Health, currently leads the American Psychiatric Association’s work group on the evaluation of smartphone apps, and is an advisor to the smartphone mood study within the NIH's one million person All of Us research program.

Thermo Fisher Scientific is the world leader in serving science, helping our customers accelerate life science research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics, deliver medicines to market and increase laboratory productivity. Our company mission is to enable our customers to make the world, healthier, cleaner and safer. As Vice President of Product Management and Platform Strategy for Digital Science, Anthony Uzzo focuses on Thermo Fisher’s digital strategy. Helping to drive digital transformation initiatives across the company and leading the product management organization for the Digital Science business, Anthony brings over 20 years of scientific and engineering experience to his role.

Ms. Varanasi is a co-founder, President and CEO of X-Biotix Therapeutics, a biopharma company based in the Boston area and focused on the discovery and development of novel antibiotics to combat the ever-increasing global issue of multi-drug resistance caused by “Superbugs”. Being attracted to mission-driven initiatives, Ramani has operated with an entrepreneurial vision and passion for launching, building and being part of successful organizations by integrating research and business strategies focused on innovative medicines and solutions having a global impact. She is an accomplished business executive, with over 20 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience and a distinguished track record in structuring, negotiating and executing successful strategic alliances, licensing agreements and M&A transactions as well as providing business development, management and strategic leadership to organizations. She has held Research and senior level positions in Business & Corporate Development including at Merck, Millennium (now Takeda), Momenta, and Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, to name a few. Over the course of her career, Ramani has been involved in the formation of strategic partnerships with companies and research organizations globally, including in emerging markets such as Asia - and continues to have a keen interest in bridging the research and business gap and fostering collaboration between enterprises in this global marketplace. Her broad experience in the areas of early stage company formation and financing, including dilutive and non-diluting funding initiatives, has enabled her to execute deals with total value in excess of several billion dollars. Ramani holds a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. from McGill University in Microbiology & Immunology and Biochemistry, respectfully, and an MBA in General Strategy from Northeastern University.

Dr. Gregory Verdine is a leader in the discovery, development and commercialization of new drug modalities. A passionate and accomplished inventor of novel approaches and drug classes to engage targets widely believed intractable, Dr. Verdine coined the phrase “drugging the undruggable” to describe his life mission. LifeMine is the brainchild of Dr. Verdine, who as a venture partner of WuXi Healthcare Ventures, led the founding team that brought the company from concept to reality. In his role as President, CEO and CSO of LifeMine, Dr. Verdine is leading the company through its ramp-up and march toward the clinic. Dr. Verdine is highly regarded for having moved seamlessly between roles as an academic scientist, biotech entrepreneur, investor, and company executive. As Erving Professor at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, he made seminal contributions to understanding mechanisms of DNA repair and epigenetic DNA methylation and he invented a new drug modality called stapled peptides. As an entrepreneur, Dr. Verdine has founded multiple, public biotech companies including Variagenics, Enanta, Eleven Bio, Tokai, Wave Life Sciences, and Aileron, and a private company, Gloucester Pharmaceuticals, that was acquired by Celgene. These companies have succeeded in achieving FDA approval for three marketed drugs. Dr. Verdine has served on the board of directors of Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Wave Life Sciences, Warp Drive Bio, and FOG Pharmaceuticals. Having led the formation and financing of Wave Life Sciences, Warp Drive Bio and FOG, Dr. Verdine took a role in managing these companies as their president, chief executive officer and chief scientific officer. Dr. Verdine earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia University, a B.S. in chemistry from St. Joseph’s University and served as an NIH postdoctoral fellow in molecular biology at MIT and Harvard Medical School.

As the Chief Regulatory Officer for Flexion, Ms. Wentworth is responsible for Regulatory Affairs, Government Affairs and Policy, Quality, and Pharmacovigilance. Ms. Wentworth has 25 years of experience in both domestic and international Regulatory Affairs that spans early and late development across multiple therapeutic areas. Ms. Wentworth joined Flexion Therapeutics in 2014 where she was responsible for leading the company’s first NDA successfully through the FDA approval process. Prior to joining Flexion, Ms. Wentworth served as Vice President, Clinical, Regulatory and Quality at Agenus, Inc., where she was responsible for leading all global regulatory and clinical development efforts for 10 years. Previously, Ms. Wentworth led the Regulatory and Quality function for Genelabs Technologies, Inc. and prior to that held positions of increasing responsibility within Regulatory Affairs at Genzyme. Ms. Wentworth holds a BS in pre-veterinary medicine from the University of New Hampshire.

Practice Steve Wilcox focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, corporate financing transactions (including public offerings and venture capital investments) and licensing and collaborations. Most of his clients are engaged in the biotech, medical device and pharmaceutical industries. In addition to transactional work, he regularly counsels companies on a range of federal securities and corporate governance matters. Steve is a founder and former chair of the firm’s life sciences practice group. Representative Clients and Matters Steve has been counsel to some of the world’s leading companies including Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Fresenius, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Millennium, Pfizer, Schering Plough, Smith & Nephew and Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Steve has also represented medical research institutions such as Cleveland Clinic, The Massachusetts General Hospital and Rockefeller University in connection with the spin-off or commercialization of their promising technologies. Steve has represented a number of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in the life sciences industry, and the companies they have created, including AgeneBio, Alzheon, Blossom Innovations, Eléme Medical, InfoBionic, Normoxys, Percardia, pHLIP, Inc., Point Therapeutics, Salient Surgical, Vapotherm and Verax Biomedical.

Leslie J. Williams is a seasoned biopharmaceutical leader with extensive experience in founding and leading biotech companies. As Co-Founder, President, and CEO of HC Bioscience, she is pioneering the development of new genetic medicines utilizing engineered tRNA to target nonsense mutations responsible for 10-15% of genetic diseases. Previously, Leslie was Founder and CEO of ImmusanT, advancing immunotherapies for autoimmune diseases. She has also served as CEO of Ventaira Pharmaceuticals, where she helped develop pulmonary drug delivery technology, and was a founding member of the team at INO Therapeutics, which developed a treatment for pulmonary hypertension. Leslie currently serves on the Board of Directors for Ocular Therapeutix (Nasdaq: OCUL), Windtree Therapeutics (Nasdaq: WINT), Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), and CSCRI (Coral Sea Clinical Research Institute) as well as the Board of Advisors of Life Science Cares and the Editorial Advisory Board of Life Science Leader. She is also a founding Ambassador of BioBoost and a mentor at the GLG Institute. Williams holds an MBA from Washington University, John Olin School of Business and a bachelor’s degree nursing from the University of Iowa. Before entering the biopharmaceutical industry, Leslie was a critical care nurse at Duke University, Medical College of Virginia, and the University of Iowa. Leslie has been recognized for her contributions with numerous awards, including Distinguished Alumni and Honorary Alumni honors from the University of Iowa.

Steve is a Scientific Director in the Neuroscience Department at Amgen where he leads a team of scientists focused on discovering and developing therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases. Over the last 25 years, Steve’s primary scientific focus has been Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Prior to joining Amgen, Steve worked at SmithKline Beecham where he and colleagues helped elucidate the mechanisms of abnormal protein aggregation, a common pathology across numerous neurodegenerative disorders. Steve has led drug development programs at all stages, from basic discovery to early clinical development and is currently the head of Amgen’s Alzheimer’s Discovery Research group.

Dr. Zion was President and CEO of SmartCells, Inc., developer of SmartInsulin, from its founding through its sale to Merck & Co., Inc. in 2010. He earned his doctorate in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At M.I.T., Todd won the Robert P. Goldberg Grand Prize in the 2003 M.I.T. $50K Entrepreneurship competition. Prior to enrolling at M.I.T., he worked as a polymer development engineer at Eastman Kodak. Todd graduated from Cornell University summa cum laude with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering.