Stefano Baila received his PhD in 2007 based upon translational research and development of gene therapies for hemophilia at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Since that time he has been actively involved in the process development and manufacturing of advanced therapeutic medicinal products through business development and strategic marketing roles at Areta International, a CDMO, and by leading field implementation and commercialization activities for the cell processing unit of Terumo BCT. Stefano also worked as Industrialization Manager at Celyad where he led process development and automation efforts for CAR-T. Now he serves as Director of Operation and BD for Anemocyte
A well-known international expert in cell therapy with extensive knowledge of the industry. Dr Karnieli is the founder and CEO of Adva Biotechnology, a leading automation platform for cell and gene therapy. Dr Karnieli was the founder and former President of Atvio Biotech, a specialized cell and gene therapy innovation center which was sold to Orgenesis Inc. Former VP of Technology & Manufacturing at Pluristem Therapeutics, and the former VP medical device at Goji solutions. Dr Karnieli served as the chair of several industry committees such as the process & product development committee of the International Society for Cellular Therapies, expert member in the ISO TC276 Biotechnology standard committee and the former chair of the science and technology committee of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine. Furthermore, Dr Karnieli serves as an advisor and board member to several of the lead cell therapy developing companies. Dr Karnieli earned his PhD on Cell and Gene Therapy in the Sackler School of Medicine of the Tel Aviv University. Furthermore, he holds an MBA from the Haifa University business management school.
He worked on early stage product development of AAV mediated gene therapy for diseases such hemophilia, neuronal and eye disorders. He successfully developed the pilot scale manufacturing platforms using suspension cell lines in upstream and chromatography in downstream process. He also contributed for assay development. He served as Research Scientist from 2015 to 2017 and as Senior Research Scientist from 2017 to 2019. He also developed early stage designs and assays for CAR-T research. In 2018 to 2019, he completed Diploma in International Business Management from Ahmedabad Management Association in affiliation with California State University. In 2019, he joined Immuneel Therapeutics as Head of Vector & CAR-T Manufacturing. His work encompasses the process development and GMP grade manufacturing of autologous CAR-T cells for clinical trials. The disease areas mainly include the leukemias and lymphomas. He has 7 peer reviewed publications in the field of gene therapy and functional genomics.
Over the course of her distinguished career with more than 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry Barbara Kraus made significant impact to multiple viral vector, vaccine and recombinant therapeutic protein programs. Her expertise is spanning from cell culture medium development, optimization and development of host cell lines, design and improvement of upstream and separation processes to scale up and process transfer to clinical pilot plants and industrial manufacturing plants. During her career she was also in charge of clinical manufacturing of virus and cell banks under GMP conditions and contributed to the successful submission of vaccines and gene therapy products. Currently Barbara holds the position „Head of Gene Therapy Process Development” within the R&D organization at Takeda. She earned her PhD in Biotechnology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria.
Emilie Gauthy is a Bioengineer by training. She earned her PhD in 2013 at the De Duve Institute in Brussels where she focused on cancer immunology and specifically on the modulation of regulatory T cells function by micro-RNAs. Since then, she had diverse experiences in the pharmaceutical industry covering roles such as QC scientist for biologics, QA supervisor at GlaxoSmithKline’s Industrialization department for the development of new vaccines and CMC project manager for oncological sterile product manufacturing in a CDMO. She joined Celyad Oncology in 2018 within the Industrialization team to oversee CMOs & CROs work and act as the Raw and Starting Materials Site Matter Expert. She is currently leading a scientific team within the R&D Department focused on Process and Analytical Development of next generation allogeneic CAR-T products.
James L. Sherley, M.D., Ph.D. is the founder and CEO of Massachusetts stem cell biotechnology company Asymmetrex, LLC. Asymmetrex develops and markets technologies for advancing stem cell medicine, including the first method achieving specific and accurate certification of the dosage of therapeutic tissue stem cells, called kinetic stem cell counting. Asymmetrex’s kinetic stem cell counting platforms are also used to optimize manufacturing of therapeutic stem cells and for evaluations of drug effects on tissue stem cells. Dr. Sherley is a graduate of Harvard College, with a B.A. degree in biology, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, earning joint M.D. and Ph.D. degrees. Prior to founding Asymmetrex, he held academic research appointments at the Fox Chase Cancer Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Boston Biomedical Research Institute. Dr. Sherley’s professional awards include Pew Biomedical Research Scholar, Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar in Aging Research, and NIH Director’s Pioneer Award.
Mr Vishal Gandhi Is The Founder & CEO At Biorx Venture Advisors Pvt. Ltd. He Has An Overall 20 Plus Years Of Strong Experience Of Strategic Advisory Deals In Terms Of Investments, Mergers And Acquisitions, India Entry Strategy And Due Diligence Process Exclusively For Healthcare & Agri Sector. He Is Amongst The Top 20 Dedicated Healthcare Investment Bankers In The Country.
Biorx Has Helped 75 Private Companies And 8 Foreign Mnc Into Their India Foray Since Its Inception In 2012 Towards Venture Creation, Scale-up And Investable Business Models Companies Ranging From Pharmaceuticals,Biotechnology, Contract Research, Medical Devices, Digital Healthcare, Hospitals Including Super And Single Speciality. He Has Been Often Quoted In Business Papers For His Views Given His Superior Understanding Of The Healthcare Sector.
Prior To Biorx, Vishal Has Held Top And Mid Management Positions In Yes Bank, Ranbaxy Research Laboratories,, Oncquest (Intrapreneur, Started Venture With Dabur Support And Is Now Rs 500 Crores Plus Revenue Venture Catering To Niche Molecular Diagnostics Services For Cancer) And Dabur Research Foundation.
Vishal Holds A Management Degree FROM XLRI, JAMSHEDPUR and MASTER DEGREE IN BIOTECHNOLOGY from the UNIVERSITY OF HYDERABAD.
Vishal Is A Member Of Various Task Forces Of Industry Chamber FICCI, CII, ASSOCHAM AND PHDCCI Also He Has Been Mentoring Startups at CIIE OF IIM AHEMDABAD AND IIT DELHI For A Decade Now And Now Has Been Actively Associated With Many Life Sciences Focused Incubators And Has A Niche Experience Of Policy Advocacy And Has Had Contributed To First-ever National Biotech Strategy Document Published By DEPARTMENT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY, GOVT OF INDIA Through FICCI In The Year 2005.
Dr. Fabio D’Agostino brings extensive experience in cell and gene therapy to Claris Ventures, where he recently joined as Venture Partner. In 2013, he joined the Parenteral Drug Association (PDA) Cell and Gene Task Force (members include executives from GSK, Novartis, Lonza, Johnson & Johnson, Adaptimmune, Takeda, Bluebird Bio) with the aim to develop a manufacturing control strategy for cell and gene based medicinal products. His areas of expertise also include Lean Six Sigma (IASSCTM Certified Black Belt). Fabio started his career at the medical device company Sorin Group (now LivaNova) after a BSc and a MSc with honours in Biomedical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin (Italy). Later, he moved to Newcastle (UK) to take an Engineering Doctorate in Biopharmaceutical Process Development at Newcastle University. One of his main projects was the Multifactorial Analysis of Mesenchymal stem cell properties for storage and transportation.
Prabhu Chandra Mishra, has marked his own place with his continuous efforts in the field of stem cells and anti-ageing in India and is today not just recognized nationally, but also internationally for his endeavours. He is President, CEO & Founder- StemGenn Therapeutics, Managing Director- StemMax Research & Therapeutics PVT LTD President- International Association Of Stemcell & Regenerative Medicine Ex Secretary General - Stem cell society of India, Founder President - Anti ageing Foundation, Ex-Vice President- Indian Stem cell study Group. Graduated in Chemistry (Hons) 2003, PG Diploma In Chemoinformatics, Jamia Handard. PG Diploma In Molecular & Biochemical Technology, Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University, M.Sc Biotechnology, M.Sc Molecular Medicine & Stemcell Technology . Awarded Doctoral Degree. Certificate course in Stemcell & Regenerative Medicine- Kaprodinsky University, Athens. Stem cell advance course - Pasteur Institute- France. Introductory course on Translational Medicine- Rochester University, Drug Discovery Training - UCSD. Certificate course in Nanomedicine - Technion Institute Israel. Training in Cancer Biology - John Hopkins . MBA- Institute Of Berlin- Germany . 12 Publications in National & International Journals . 11 Trademarks registered. Organised 8 international conferences on stemcell & Regenerative medicine . Started Journal Namely- AAF Journal of Regenerative Aesthetic & Functional Medicine. Started Health Magazine - ME.
Duncan Borthwick has a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Since hanging up his lab coat 20+ years ago, Duncan has worked in the development of novel instrumentation and products. He heads the Product Management group at Solentim working closely with the R&D, biology and commercial teams working to define the next set of products to support the cell therapy community
John Lamb is an Application Scientist at Namocell. John works with customers to develop specific selection criteria for single cell isolation. He has worked with a broad range or cell types including algae, bacteria, stem cells, yeast, clinical samples and immortalized cell lines. Prior to joining Namocell, he worked at ProterixBio in assay development, screening antibody pairings and optimizing binding kinetics. John has over 12 years of experience as a bench scientist and is especially passionate about high throughput FRET based target identification. John holds a PhD in biomedical engineering and biotechnology at University of Massachusetts where he focused on the disease pathology of neurodegeneration following tau and β-amyloid protein migration.
Dr. Elsa Abranches has a PhD in Stem Cell Biotechnology and over 17 years of research expertise working in the pluripotent stem cell field. Since December 2015, Dr. Elsa has joined the UK Stem Cell Bank team and as of January 2019, she has been appointed as the Group Leader of the Section of Stem Cell Biology and Director of the UK Stem Cell Bank. Her primary focus is developing and delivering a programme of standardisation and research & development that assures the quality of both research and clinical grade human pluripotent stem cell lines.
Prabuddha has studied from IIT-Bombay. His specialization is in protein therapeutics and scale up of biomolecules and biosimilars, and MAbs. He has over 20 years of experience in various companies, and positions, including establishment of production facilities, for therapeutics and biologicals, vaccines and blood derived products. In his most recent role, as an entrepreneur, he has co-founded Premas Biotech 15 years ago, along with the team. At Premas, he has managed mutli-group specialties, including manufacturing, and business development, with a keen understanding of the bio-market in India and USA. Premas has become of the top protein research and manufacturing companies in India and globally. Apart from his other business interests, he is most interested in process efficiency enhancement, and has been very actively involved and implemented "Lean Management" at Premas Biotech, or the "Toyota production Process" one of the first company in India for the biology sector, along with electronic information acquisition and documentation. This provides entire bandwidth of traceability, information management and process deliveries. He has over 22 publications in international journals, 8 US patents pending, and 4 patent applications
