Bonnie J. Hammer, Ph.D. is the Vice President of Research and Development at Invenra, Inc. headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Invenra is focused on discovery and development of multispecific antibodies for immuno-oncology and autoimmune disorders. Invenra’s proprietary B-Body™, SNIPER™, and ClustR™ technologies are used to develop novel antibodies that can bind to two or more specific therapeutic targets or epitopes to enable new mechanisms of action. Dr. Hammer holds a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in Biochemistry and has over 20 years’ experience in cell biology, disease modeling, and assay development for drug discovery. In her current role, she focuses on pre-clinical in vitro and in vivo functional assays for therapeutic antibodies.
Dr Deonarain studied at Imperial College and Cambridge University where he carried out PhD research into protein engineering. From 1997-2011 Dr Deonarain was a Principle Investigator at Imperial College in Antibody Technology, which led to some novel technologies being developed commercially. Dr Deonarain now retains honorary links. He has published over 80 papers and patents in protein/antibody engineering/conjugates. In 2014, he co-founded Antikor Biopharma where he is the CSO leading a team of 15 to develop the next-generation of antibody-fragment based ADCs. Dr Deonarain is also Antikor’s CEO, driving the commercial development of Antikor’s OptiLink platform to develop FDC products for therapeutic applications
Executive leader with over a decade of experience leading worldwide pre-clinical and clinical programs in oncology, heading multi-disciplinary teams and managing multi-million-dollar budgets in private and publicly traded companies. CEO of KAHR, a privately-held biotechnology company developing a novel drug platform based on, bi-functional, immunotherapeutic fusion proteins, targeting multiple cancer indications. Prior to joining KAHR Medical, served as Chief Development Officer at Cellect Biotechnology (NASDAQ: APOP) and as Senior Director of Oncology at BioLineRx (NASDAQ: BLRX). Holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry from the Tel-Aviv University and was a post-doctoral fellow at Genentech, a leading biotechnology company, member of the Roche Group.
Serial entrepreneur that combines strong strategic, technological and managerial experience with proven track record of deal-making and fund-raising. During his career he achieved together with his different teams to bring four drug candidates from research to the clinics (up to phase IIb). Overall, Eric has raised as of now a total of more than €170 million from VCs and strategic partners in Europe, USA, Japan and Korea and have had numerous successes in the sale and initial public offering of biotechnology companies. He is CEO of the biotechnology company PDC*line Pharma and board member of Essenscia (Bio.be). Eric is co-founder of four biotechnology companies called Myosix (bought by Genzyme mid-2002), Murigenetics, HairClone and Digital Orthopaedics. He is co-Inventor of the first GMP approved mobile manufacturing unit for cell therapy. Eric worked for 12 years in the Healthcare and Life Sciences Practice of Arthur D. Little. Eric holds two master’s degrees in pharmacology and Molecular Biology and a MBA from ESSEC business school (Paris, France), with an advanced degree from the Health Care ESSEC chair.
Prof. Paul W.H.I. Parren is dedicated to translating antibody biology and immunotherapy knowledge into innovative therapeutics and technologies. Prof. Parren obtained his PhD at the University of Amsterdam in 1992 after which he studied correlates of protection against viruses by human antibodies at Scripps Research in La Jolla, CA. From 2002-2017, he headed preclinical R&D at Genmab leading to the development of the approved therapeutic antibodies ofatumumab (Arzerra (2009), KESIMPTA (2020)), daratumumab (DARZALEX (2015)) and teprotumumab (Tepezza (2020)) and clinically translated technologies to generate bispecific and effector-function enhanced antibodies. He is a tenured Professor of Molecular Immunology at the Leiden University Medical Center in Leiden and he leads Sparring Bioconsult, an independent biotech consulting company. Since 2018, he is EVP and head of R&D at Lava Therapeutics where he develops novel bispecific gamma-delta T-cell engagers for cancer therapy.
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Dr. Contag is an experienced senior executive for both public (President and CEO, Xenogen Corp., NASDAQ:XGEN), and private companies and is currently the CEO of BioEclipse Therapeutics. BioEclipse is entering a phase1, first in human clinical trial with a combination drug for therapy refractory solid tumors. In 2020 she joined the advisory board of the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Mn and is an Advisor to the Editorial board of Life Science Leader Magazine. As CEO of BioEclipse she was named in the top 100 most intriguing entrepreneurs of 2018 by Goldman Sachs and also ranked in the top 10 of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Women-Led most Funded Life Science Companies of 2020. While serving as CEO of Xenogen, the company twice received the R&D 100 award for achievements in Physics and Dr. Contag was named one of the "Top 25 Women in Small Business" by Fortune magazine. In 2011, Pamela was appointed by the White House to the Founding Board of the Startup America Partnership, an organization envisioned by the Case and Kauffman Foundations and The White House to identify, encourage and celebrate all entrepreneurs. Pamela was a National Director of Springboard Enterprises, a National Business Accelerator. She received her M.S. and PhD from the University of Minnesota Medical School in Microbiology and Immunology and completed her Postdoctoral Fellowship in1993 at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She has written over 60 publications and has over 40 patents issued as inventor.
Dr. Roxana Schillaci is a Principal Researcher from the Argentina National Council of Scientific Research (CONICET) in the Laboratories of Molecular Mechanisms of Carcinogenesis, at the Institute of Biology and Experimental Medicine (IBYME), CONICET, in Argentina. Dr. Schillaci works in the field of growth factor and cytokine signaling, and tumor immunology in breast cancer. Her finding contributed to dissecting the cross-talk between TNFɑ and HER2 signaling for disclosing new targets be able to overcome trastuzumab resistance in breast cancer. Her discoveries revealed that the glycoprotein
mucin 4 (MUC4) is an in vivo mechanism of trastuzumab resistance and that its expression can be modulated by TNFα. In addition she proved that MUC4+ expression is an independent biomarker of poor outcome in HER2+ breast cancer treated with trastuzumab in the adjuvant setting.
Paul Lammers, MD, MSc, joined Triumvira Immunologics as President and CEO in January 2018, for which he raised a $ 55 million Series A round of financing. Before Triumvira, Dr. Lammers served as President & CEO at Mirna Therapeutics, for which company he raised $160 million through venture capital and Federal and State government funding, as well as a public listing on NASDAQ. Previously, he served as Chief Medical Officer and Head of US Product Development for EMD Serono. During his early industry tenure, Dr. Lammers also held various executive/senior management positions in clinical development, medical and regulatory affairs, at different pharmaceutical companies, as well as at small public and privately held biotech companies. Dr. Lammers serves as Lead Independent Director for publicly-traded Salarius Pharmaceuticals, and as Director for private biotech company, Immunomet
Dr. Williams is the President and CEO of BriaCell Corporation, where he has shepherded Bria-IMT™ into the clinic, established positive proof-of-concept, forged a collaboration with Incyte for novel combinations and coordinated the development of an off-the-shelf personalized approach to cancer immunotherapy. While at Incyte Corporation as Head of Exploratory Development, he brought numerous molecules into the clinic and established proof of concept in several disease areas. At GlaxoSmithKline he worked to bring several molecules into the clinic, ran a biomarker laboratory and spearheaded initiatives to utilize emerging technologies in drug development. At the University of Pennsylvania, he developed novel methods of bioactive peptide design, ran a major research program in receptor biology, and was able to bring novel therapies into the clinic. He has been involved in several successful new drug applications, including drugs for lymphoma, ovarian cancer, osteoporosis, nausea and vomiting, myelofibrosis and polycythemia vera.
Stefan Glück, MD, PhD, FRCPC is medical oncologist and currently is VP, Head Oncology franchise in Medical affairs at Regeneron. He leads a fast growing team of internal experts in the field of Hematology and Oncology. Prior to that he was V.P. Global Medical Affairs, at Celgene Corporation since October 2014 until December 2019. He oversaw oncology activities worldwide, as well as the Immuno-Oncology program in solid tumors and hematology. He also contributed to activities of Celgene around Early Assets.
He previously served as a Sylvester Professor in the Department of Medicine at Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Florida until September 2014. From 2003–2008, he was the Clinical Director of the Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute, and from January 2009 - December 2010 Assistant Director of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and Associate Chief, Division Hematology & Medical Oncology. He has been a PI of 37 clinical studies of breast cancer in Miami, as well as investigator in numerous scientific, translational projects. Before his move to Miami, Dr. Glück was Director of Southern Alberta Breast Cancer Program at the Tom Baker Cancer Center, a Professor in the departments of oncology, medicine, pharmacology & therapeutics at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and Deputy Head, Dept. of Oncology at the University of Calgary. He completed his medical studies at the Free University of West Berlin, Germany. The internship in Berlin was followed by residency in internal medicine and fellowship in hematology at the Heinrich Heine Universität in Düsseldorf, Germany, and a medical oncology & bone marrow transplant fellowship at the Princess Margaret Hospital, University of Toronto, Canada.
Dr. Glück was presented the “America’s Top Oncologists” 2008 award from Consumers’ Research Council of America, as well as “Best Doctors in America” honor since 2006, and has annually earned that prestige every year to 2014. This award was warranted after less than 3 years of working in the United States.
Doctor in Immunology from the Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain), extensive international career in the biopharmaceutical industry at Astellas Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (USA). Experienced R&D leader in immune-oncology (IO). Previously, participated in preclinical development of CD28 biologic modulators for inflammatory conditions, small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors and fully human antibodies for advanced solid tumors. At Leadartis (www.leadartis.com), he advanced the company from start to capitalize on the immuno-oncology (IO) market. Evaluated and repositioned the platform technology to create IO bispecific antibody dominance and created a proprietary next generation product pipeline for clinical development.
Stephen P. Schoenberger is a translational immunologist working in the area of precision cancer immunotherapy. Leveraging insights made over more than 28 years of fundamental studies on the immunobiology of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, he now guides an integrated research consortium involving research scientists, physicians, and bioinformaticians working to identify neoantigens (NeoAg) through a novel functional strategy based on validation, rather than prediction. Two clinical trials involving personalized NeoAg-specific personalized cancer vaccines and adoptive cellular therapy are now underway at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center, with additional IIT’s scheduled for later in 2021.
Sari Pesonen gained her PhD in biology from the University of Turku, Finland in 2007. She continued her academic career at the University of Helsinki and was awarded a three-year post-doctoral research post by the Academy of Finland. Sari is a co-author in 60+ peer-reviewed research papers and inventor of patented adenovirus based cancer immunotherapy currently in multiple Ph2 clinical trials in the US and Europe. She has worked in biotech companies Oncos Therapeutics and Targovax in scientific lead positions before co-founding a Helsinki University spin out company Valo Therapeutics.
Dr. De Yang received his M.D. training at West China Medical School of Sichuan University (China) from 1979 to 1987, obtained his Ph.D. degree from Nagoya City University (Nagoya, Japan) in 1996, trained as a post-doc fellow at Toho University (Chiba, Japan) from 1996 to 1998, joined National Cancer Institute at Frederick (Maryland, US) in 1998 as a visiting fellow and presently working as a Staff Scientist. His research spans from Cytokines, Antimicrobial peptides & proteins, Chemokines, Alarmins, Dendritic cells, Innate and adaptive immune responses, with a particular emphasis on their interaction and contribution to immunity. Lately, he has been focusing on harnessing the alarmin HMGN1, TLR agonists, and inhibitors of immunosuppression to develop effective immunotherapies against tumors
Lindy is a Professor of Cancer Immunotherapy at the University of Nottingham and CSO of Scancell Ltd. She has developed a panel of mabs recognised tumour associated glycans and has pioneered a new antibody engineering technology which enhances the avidity of mabs, termed Avidimabs. This has been applied to the anti-glycan mabs resulting in direct killing mabs. These mAbs are also good at drug delivery making strong ADCs with duocarmycin and PBD payloads. She has developed two vaccine platforms ImmunoBodyTM and ModitopeTM which induce potent killer CD8 T cells and cytotoxic CD4 T cells to post-translational modifications respectively. The first ImmunoBodyTM, SCIB1, has completed a phase I/II clinical trial in which 14/16 patients with melanoma have been disease-free for five years. The first product from the ModitopeTM platform will enter the clinic next year. Lindy has over 150 peer-reviewed publications and is also the inventor of 66 patents. She was awarded the Waldenstrom Prize for cancer Immunotherapy in 2019.
Dr. Helena Kiefel is currently a Program Leader for the Immuno-Oncology program at Second Genome. She leads a cross-functional team focusing on the discovery and pre-clinical development of microbially derived immuno-oncology therapeutics. Dr. Kiefel holds a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from the University of Heidelberg, Germany and did her postdoctoral research in Dr. Eugene Butcher’s laboratory at Stanford University, where she gained extensive expertise in mucosal immunology and stromal cell biology.
Mark Exley is currently employed at Imvax Inc. as Chief Scientific Officer. Mark was previously VP, Cellular Immunology and currently consults for AgenTus Therapeutics Inc (subsidiary of Agenus Inc.). Mark is also currently Honorary Professor at the University of Manchester, UK and an honorary affiliate of The Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston. Mark was previously VP at Agenus Inc. Prior to these roles, Dr. Exley was Professor of Immunology at the University of Manchester. Mark was Assistant and then Visiting Professor at Harvard Medical School. Mark co-founded NKT Therapeutics Inc. in 2008 while Faculty at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. Mark was previously Scientist at Immulogic. Before this, Mark was Post-doctoral Fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston. Mark completed a PhD. in Cell Biology / Virology at The Institute of Cancer Research, U. of London. Additionally, Mark received a MS in Immunology from Kings College London. Mark also earned a BS in Biochemistry from Imperial College London.
Laura Codarri Deak has been carrying out research in the field of immunology since 20 years spanning from autoimmunity to viral-, transplant- and tumor-immunology. Since 2014 she is working in the field of Cancer Immunotherapy as Discovery scientist at Roche Innovation Center Zurich. Here she applies the gained knowledge to identify molecules with the greatest potential to become the next treatment for cancer patients.
My work has always focused on understanding the molecular pathophysiological mechanisms leading to autoimmunity and cancer development, investigating mechanism of action of newly developed molecules to treat such diseases. I started my career in 2006 when I moved to UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas (EEUU), to carry out my thesis in developing novel therapeutic antibodies in murine models of human autoimmune diseases. After obtaining my Ph.D., I combined two postdoctoral grants in Barcelona (Metastasis and Transformation group in Bellvitge Biomedical Research Center) and in Valencia (Autoimmune Pathology Lab in Principe Felipe Research Center). In between, I worked as a coordinator of an animal experimentation laboratory from a private company, developing novel therapeutic agents for autoimmune diseases and cancer. In 2015 I joined Ability Pharmaceuticals SL as a Director of Biological Research, coordinating the preclinical development of ABTL0812, and recently as the project manager of the company.
Working as a catalyst in the field to create new global business opportunities for PHC business units and PHCHD subsidiary companies. Working directly with pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, academic institutions, and the investment community; providing them with Medical Device, Lifescience, and Healthcare IT solutions. Furthermore working intimately with Regenerative Medicine KOL’s, and other leading academic institutions and entities that will help grow PHC Group businesses faster organically and inorganically while achieving the corporate mission of creating healthcare solutions that have a positive impact and improve the lives of people. Immediate past president of PHC Corporation of North America.
He has been working as Professor of Biostatistics at Hasselt University since 2002. He held a visiting professorship position at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Karolinska Institute (Sweden). He has been involved in interdisciplinary research in numerous biomedical studies and clinical trials. He serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the International Society for Clinical Biostatistics.
Dr Levitsky is a seasoned internationally recognized expert in immunology, oncology, T-cell immunotherapy and immuno-oncology with in-depth knowledge of preclinical, translational and early stage clinical drug development. He brings extensive experience in pre-clinical drug development of protein-based biologics and small molecules. Dr Levitsky is a medical doctor with a PhD in Virology and post-doctoral training in tumor biology at Karolinska Institute, Sweden. He spent the first 20 years of his career as an academic research scientist, including Associate Professor positions at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the USA. Before joining Targovax Dr Levitsky served as Tumor Immunology Leader and Senior Principal Scientist with Roche in Zurich, and his most recent position has been VP, Head of Oncology Research at Molecular Partners, Zurich, Switzerland.
Keith is a board-certified anatomic pathologist with diverse achievements in research and drug/diagnostic development. Leading Ultivue’s Assay Services Laboratory, he brings expertise in investigative pathology, multiplex microscopy and imaging, and digital pathology to our customers striving to realize the promise of personalized medicine. Most recently he was Senior Medical Director of Leica Biosystems, and prior to that he led and supported R&D, toxicology, biomarker, and clinical study teams in multiple therapeutic areas at Novartis and Biogen.
He earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arizona, and MD and PhD in Molecular Biology from UCLA, where he discovered the molecular basis of DNA recognition by bHLH-PAS transcription factors. Following residency and postdoc at Stanford, his lab at UT Southwestern characterized the Naked cuticle (Nkd) gene family as feedback regulators of Wnt-beta catenin signaling.
Dr. Jenna Frame has worked with mouse and zebrafish models in the hematology field for over 15 years. At Biocytogen, Jenna helps provide researchers with the information they need to select quality animal models and other preclinical services to advance their research pipeline.
Dr. John Burke is a Co-Founder and the President and CEO of Applied BioMath, LLC. He has over 24 years of mathematical modeling, analysis, and simulation experience in life sciences and mathematical biology, and over 18 years experience assisting pharmaceutical and biotechnology research, development, and clinical trial support. Prior to co-founding Applied BioMath, John served as the head of Systems Biology at Boehringer Ingelheim, where he was responsible for starting, implementing, scaling, and managing the strategy, portfolio, and efforts of Boehringer Ingelheim’s systems pharmacology initiative. Dr. Burke also worked at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, where he supported multiple biologics projects. He received his PhD in Mathematics from Arizona State University (ASU) in 2003. He received his BS and MS in Applied Mathematics from University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he is presently an Adjunct Professor at the Mathematics Department. Following his graduate work, Dr Burke joined Douglas Lauffenberger’s lab, in the Biological Engineering Dept, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Postdoctoral Fellow, and later as a Sr Fellow. After MIT, he joined Peter Sorger’s lab, in the Systems Biology Department, at Harvard Medical School, as Co-scientific Director of the Cell Decision Process, an NIH Center of Excellence. While at MIT and HMS, he provided systems math modeling and simulation consulting and advice for numerous biotechs and pharma, including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Momenta, and other companies
Dr. Chiriva Internati has served as our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since February 2018 and as our President since October 2019. Between December 2012 and September 2019, he served as Chief Scientific Officer. Between December 2012 and August 2018, he also served as our Director of Clinical Translation Research. Dr. Chiriva Internati has been an Associate Professor at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas since August 2019. Prior to that, he served as an Associate Professor at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center from September 2013 to June 2017. His research has led to the identification of novel cancer-testis antigens for the development of immunotherapeutic strategies against solid and non-solid tumors. This led to the development of the bioinformatic software Diamond CancerSplice, which is a key core platform of our company, leading to the discovery and prioritization of isoform antigens via insilico system. Dr. Chiriva Internati earned a PhD in Immunology from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. He also earned a PhD in Morphological Science from the Universit`a degli Studi di Milano, Italy, and a Doctoral Degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Milan, Italy. Dr. Chiriva- Internati was a PostDoctoral Fellow in Immunology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, earned a certificate in Artificial Intelligence from MIT Sloan School of Management and earned a certificate in Financial Technology from Oxford Saıd Business School.
Dr. Johnson joined Personalis, Inc. in 2015 as Field Applications Scientist with ten years of basic and translational research experience in cancer immunogenomics, metabolism, and metastasis. In her role at Personalis, Christelle provides scientific and technical support on the ImmunoID NeXT and ACE Cancer Product Portfolio. Prior to joining Personalis, Christelle completed her postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and Cornell University investigating the role of the tumor microenvironment in promoting disease progression. She received her PhD in Cancer Immunology from the University of Louisville School of Medicine.
Professor Hani Gabra joined BerGenBio in 2019 as Chief Medical Officer, based in Oxford UK. He has extensive experience of preclinical cancer biology and clinical drug development, having previously been Vice President in Early Clinical Development at AstraZeneca in Cambridge, UK, concurrently holding the positions of Professor of Medical Oncology at Imperial College London and Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (since 2003) and Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Cancer Biomarkers at University of Bergen (since 2016). He was previously Head of Medical Oncology, Director of the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre and Head of Imperial College Cancer Clinical Trials Unit, as well as Chief of Service of the West London Gynaecological Cancer Centre at Imperial College London. Prof Gabra is an internationally recognised leader in translational research and gynaecological oncology.
Reed has over 20 years of experience in the diagnostic and pharmaceutical industries commercializing innovative products and solutions that are at the leading edge of technology. Reed sees the rapidly growing field of combining precision NGS-based diagnostics, including liquid biopsy, with targeted therapeutics and immunotherapies as one of the keystone opportunities of making cancer a manageable condition. The knowledge we have of the genome is growing rapidly, and leveraging these insights in the clinic is transforming the cancer care landscape. Reed has a degree in biochemistry from the University of Michigan.
