Dr. Lokesh Agrawal at NCI, directs and leads projects on biospecimen integrity and understanding the role of biospecimens in biomarker development by studying pre-analytical variables using molecular approaches. Currently at NCI he also leads and directs a Cancer Moonshot Biobanking program. Dr. Agrawal has expertise in biomarker development including clinical laboratory science and regulatory experience to strengthen programs in biospecimen acquisition and biospecimen research. Before joining NCI in 2012, Dr. Agrawal worked at MedImmune Inc./ Astrazeneca, and Rapid pharmaceuticals where he was a team leader on various projects involving pre-clinical/clinical biomarker assay development/validation and managed several cross functional teams across to qualify and validate clinical biomarker assays in oncology, vaccine and infectious diseases space. Dr. Agrawal also led and directed several gene therapy NIH-sponsored projects at Thomas Jefferson University and did his postdoctoral fellowship at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI, where he discovered the role of CCR5 Delta32 protein in HIV pathogenesis. He earned his Ph.D. from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India and has authored and co-authored several manuscripts in high impact journals. Dr. Agrawal current main interests include development and validation of predictive and prognostic biomarkers using biospecimen science for cancer treatment and diagnosis.
Colin J.H. Brenan is a serial life sciences entrepreneur who is presently the CEO of Kibur Medical Inc., an early-stage company commercializing a proprietary approach to precision cancer therapies and personalized diagnostics (www.kiburmed.com). Previously he was Founder/CEO and Director of the single cell instrumentation company 1CellBio; Founder/Chief Commercial Officer and Director of antibody drug developer HiFiBiO Ltd; and, Managing Director of the Monsanto-Atlas Seed Fund Alliance at Atlas Venture. Prior to Atlas, Dr. Brenan was Director of Strategic Relationships for the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT) and previously he was Founder, CTO, SVP, Business Development and Director of BioTrove Inc. (Woburn, USA). Dr. Brenan is the inventor on 26 US patents and published +50 peer-reviewed journal articles. He received his B.Sc. (Honours Physics), M. Eng. (Electrical), and Ph.D. (Biomedical Engineering) from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and completed post-doctoral training at MIT (Cambridge, USA).
Dr. Heckmann is a principal investigator at the USF Health Neuroscience Institute and serves as the director of the Center for Spatial Biology & Neuroimmunology with academic faculty appointments at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine and the University of South Florida College of Engineering. In addition to his academic appointments, Dr. Heckmann is the Chief Scientific Officer at Asha Therapeutics. Dr. Heckmann’s major scientific discoveries and advancements include the discovery and characterization of LC3-associated endocytosis (LANDO) in immune regulation in neurodegenerative diseases, neuroinflammation, and neuro-oncology research published in journals including Cell and Science Advances. Dr. Heckmann has received multiple awards and honors including a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, a National Cancer Institute Award in Pediatric Oncology, an Excellence in Science Award from the AAAS, and is an International Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Ian Pike is the Chief Scientific Officer at Proteome Sciences and has over 30 years’ experience working in the diagnostics and biotechnology sectors. Since joining Proteome Sciences in 2002 he has held a number of roles covering intellectual property management, business development, operational management and is now focused on leading the Company’s scientific strategy to offer clients a flexible, high-quality service.
Jessica McDonough is a co-founder and VP at Attivare Tx, a new immunotherapy company developing technology from the Wyss Institute at Harvard. Jessica joined Attivare Tx in July of 2021 to develop innovative immunotherapies. Prior to joining Attivare, Jessica was a Business Development Lead at the Wyss Institute at Harvard from 2014-2021. Jessica was responsible for translating technologies in the areas of synthetic biology and molecular robotics. She also managed a venture capital alliance with Northpond Ventures. Prior to joining Wyss, Jessica worked at Decision Resources (now Clarivate) as a Principal in their custom consulting division. She worked with top pharmaceutical and biotech companies on over fifty engagements including topics such as therapeutic area landscapes, opportunity assessments, and valuations focusing on both the major and emerging markets. Jessica holds a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Cellular and Molecular Medicine. While at Hopkins, her research focused on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and development of assays for sensitive detection of drug-resistant HIV variants. Jessica also holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
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.
Sam Shrivastava is the Chairman, Founder, and CEO of Asha Therapeutics, a neuro-centric biotechnology company creating de novo compounds through its proprietary AI-driven tech platform. Asha’s lead assets have demonstrated efficacy in murine models and human cells for indications including AD, PD, ischemic stroke, and cancer.
Losing both of her parents to cancer at a young age, Dr. Jen Elliott has devoted her career to advancing oncology research and enhancing the patient experience. With over 23 years’ experience spanning the Human Genome Project, the launch of gene editing and global companion diagnostics implementation Jen welcomes the opportunity to explore the latest breakthroughs and challenges in the liquid biopsy landscape at the annual NGIO event.
Rajkumar Noubade is an Immunologist and Senior Scientist in Oncology department at Amgen San Francisco. His lab focusses on investigating ways to exploit components of tumor microenvironment to potentiate anti-tumor immunity.
Dr. Sarbajit Mukherjee is a gastrointestinal medical oncologist with a research focus on novel clinical trials and cancer immunotherapy. During his fellowship at University of Oklahoma, Dr. Mukherjee also earned a Master’s degree in clinical and translational science. His current work involves understanding the biology of gastrointestinal cancers and designing novel clinical trials to improve patient outcomes. He has led over a dozen clinical trials as a Principal Investigator (PI) and received six grants as a PI or co-investigator. Many of his clinical trials are investigator-initiated and grant-funded through national agencies. His work has resulted in several national/international presentations, awards, and peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Mukherjee frequently serves on national/international guidelines panels and grant review panels. He is invested in teaching and mentoring his junior colleagues as well as organizing and moderating educational and scientific meetings.
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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. Alison Crawford is an Associate Director of immuno-oncology at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. She has >18 years of immunology research experience, including > 9 years in the pharmaceutical industry. At Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, her team is responsible for IND-enabling studies as well as mechanistic studies using bispecific antibodies for oncology indications. She led the in vivo pre-clinical research efforts on REGN4018 (MUC16xCD3) and REGN5668 (MUC16xCD28) to advance the antibodies through to IND submission. Dr. Crawford completed her BSc in Immunology from Glasgow University before being admitted to the Wellcome Trust Ph.D. program at Edinburgh University where she focused on T cell memory. Her post-doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania examined T cell exhaustion during chronic viral infection and the use of checkpoint blockade to alleviate this exhaustion.
John M Rossi is Vice President of Translational Medicine at Syncopation Life Sciences. John is an experienced Cell Therapy and Biotechnology leader with over 22 years of experience building robust clinical pharmacology, predictive biomarker, and correlative science processes to support oncology drug development. Most recently John was Senior Vice President of Research and Head of Translational Medicine at CERo Therapeutics. At CERo, John helped to guide Research, Process Development and Vector Sciences teams to advance preclinical initiatives. Prior to CERo, John was Senior Director and Head of Clinical Pharmacology at Kite, a Gilead Company. At Kite, John played an instrumental role in supporting global approvals of both Yescarta® and Tecartus® as well as IND approvals to advance investigational autologous T cell therapy products (KITE-363 and KITE-222). Among John’s notable achievements at Kite, he has represented the organization through numerous external scientific presentations and collaborative manuscripts with leading academic researchers in the cell therapy field. Significant scientific accomplishments include the discovery of novel metrics to characterize CAR T cells based on functionality and fitness, novel biomarker knowledge helping to elucidate CAR T-cell mechanism of action in humans, mechanistic information on CAR-related toxicities, novel insights into the biology of the tumor immune microenvironment, and the pivotal role of IL-15 in the context of CAR T-cell function. John began his tenure in clinical pharmacology and biomarker development at Amgen in 2002, leading global biomarker development for Phase III registrational trials in oncology (trebananib, AMG386), and preclinical, first-in-human and Phase II clinical trials (AMG780, AMG224 and AMG176). John has co-authored over 35 publications in the field of cell therapy and is co-inventor on 9 issued or submitted patents. John earned his Master of Science degree in Molecular Biology at Portland State University and his B.S. degree in Biology at Pitzer College in Claremont CA.
Stefan Glück, MD, PhD, FRCPC is medical oncologist and 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.
He has authored or co-authored over 275 articles. In addition, Dr Glück has written or co-written several book chapters and numerous abstracts and has presented more than 500 papers at national and international meetings.
Sebastien Tabruyn holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Liege (Belgium). After 10 years of experience as Project leader in renowned international academic research institutes including UCSF (California, USA), the Centre for Cancer Biology (Adelaide, Australia) and the University of Maastricht (Netherlands), he joined TransCure bioServices in 2013 as Head of Molecular Biology and Oncology. Sebastien Tabruyn published 30 peer-reviewed publications in the field of Oncology, Angiogenesis, Inflammation and Immunity
Jérôme Galon is the Director of Research at Inserm and Head of the Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology, in Paris, France. He is Associate Director and Co-Founder of the European Academy of Tumor Immunology (EATI), board member of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC). He was the Chief Scientific Officer of Immuno-Oncology at HalioDx, which is now part of Veracyte. His work on the comprehensive analysis of the tumor microenvironment led to the concept of immune contexture in cancer.Jérôme Galon pioneered Immunoscore and is the Principal Investigator of the Worldwide Immunoscore Consortium. His contributions have been recognized with numerous awards, including the William B Coley Award, USA (2010), the European Patent Office (EPO, EU) as European Inventor 2019 for Immunoscore®, and the Senior Research Prize Jean Valade from the Fondation de France (2020). On January 1st, 2020, he was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honour by Presidential decree.
Dr. Matthew Poulin received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in 1992 in the Department of Molecular Genetics and served as a consultant to various biotech companies such as Verigen Inc. and Schleicher & Schuell. Dr. Poulin was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in the Department of Molecular Physiology from 1999-2001. Prior to participating in the establishment of EpigenDx in 2007, he taught at several institutions in Massachusetts. In 2007 Dr. Poulin participated in the founding and establishment of EpigenDx Inc. as Senior Scientist, and currently serves as Scientific Director. Dr. Poulin’s expertise includes the development and validation of bisulfite sequencing assays, isolation, and analysis of nucleic acids from challenging tissue sources such as FFPE cores and plasma and serum, and development and validation of real-time PCR and High-Resolution Melt (HRM) assays. Dr. Poulin has been a participating member of AACR since 2009.
Dr. Rekdal is currently acting as the CEO of Lytix-Biopharma. He is one of the two inventors of the company`s technology platform and co-founder of Lytix Biopharma. Dr. Rekdal holds a PhD in tumor immunology, and his research on oncolytic molecules and their abilities to induce potent tumor specific immune responses formed the basis of Lytix Biopharma’s technology platform. Dr. Rekdal has both acted as Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Research and Development prior to the current CEO role. He has an extensive network within the field of intra-tumoral and cancer immunology world-wide and is regularly invited to international cancer conferences as a speaker. Dr. Rekdal has published 65 research papers and is listed as co-inventor of 65 patents.
Matt Davis PhD joined Gritstone Oncology (NASDAQ: GRTS) in 2015 and is currently the Director of Molecular Biology and Sequencing responsible for various neo-antigen discovery and translational genomics efforts. Prior to Gritstone, Dr. Davis conducted post-doctoral research at Warp Drive Bio in the discovery biology group. He holds a PhD in Genetics from Yale with thesis research under the supervision of Dr. Joseph Schlessinger and previous to his graduate work he conducted cancer genomics research at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute.
