Seth Crosby is the Director of Partnerships and Alliances in the Department of Genetics at Washington University. He works with groups within and outside the University to leverage technology to achieve research and clinical goals. He has been at Washington University for nearly 12 years. During that time, he directed the Department of Genetics Microarray Core, which is now part of GTAC and then GTAC, itself, during its first two years. Prior to that, he was the Director of Translational Research at the Genome Center (now the McDonnell Genome Institute). Prior to his tenure at Washington University, Dr. Crosby worked in the field of genomics and drug discovery at Abbott Laboratories, Pfizer, and Pharmacia.
Julius Goepp is the founder and CEO of Scaled Microbiomics, LLC, a pre-clinical stage biotech company focused on passive immunotherapy in the microbiome. Dr. Goepp trained in Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at Children’s Hospital, Boston, and in Pediatric Infectious Disease at Johns Hopkins, where he was active in the promotion of Oral Rehydration Therapy for childhood diarrheal disease. In 2017, he founded Scaled Microbiomics after recognizing the potential for microbiome modulation through the use of little-known avian antibodies, or IgY. Since that time, his energies have been devoted to exploring the characteristics of those antibodies and developing a drug discovery platform based on their use as selective immunomodulators of complex microbiome signaling pathways and event cascades. In addition to his work, Goepp is passionate about cooking, flying, and exploring the outdoors.
Prof. Dr. Arun K. Bhunia is a Professor of Food Microbiologyat the Department of Food Science and is affiliated with theDepartment of Comparative Pathobiology at the PurdueInstitute of Inflammation, Immunology, and InfectiousDisease (PI4D), and the Purdue University Life Scienceprogram (PULSe). He is Chair of the Interdepartmental FoodScience Graduate Program. His expertise covers microbialpathogenesis (host–pathogen interaction), probioticbioengineering, and foodborne pathogen detection. To date,he has co-authored more than 190 peer-reviewed researchpublications, two textbooks (Fundamental Food Microbiologyand Foodborne Microbial Pathogens—Mechanisms andPathogenesis), he has edited four books, and delivered over148 lectures. He teaches graduate-level courses on foodbornepathogens and the mechanisms of pathogenesis, microbialfoodborne pathogen detection techniques, and intestinalmicrobiology and immunology. He served on the USDANational Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria forFoods (NACMCF; 2013–2017) and has received the PurdueAgriculture Research Award (2003), Purdue Faculty Scholar(2005), Purdue Team Award (2006), IFT R&D Award (2009),Outstanding Graduate Educator Award at Purdue (2013),High-End Foreign Experts Recruitment Program (China)fellowship (2014–2016), Fulbright Specialist (2016–2021), andMaurice Weber Laboratorian Award from IAFP (2017).
Peter Leighton is the CEO of ProSperity Bioscience, engaged in the development and marketing of functionally targeted probiotic consumer products. Leighton is also the founder of Abunda, an integrated consulting practice. His 30+ years of executive experience at the intersection of consumer products and life science technology has leveraged emerging scientific research & discovery into engaging consumer brands. He has identified and executed novel marketing & commercialization strategies leading to the successful development and launch of hundreds of new products. Leighton has been a guiding light to entrepreneurial enterprises and companies facing a challenge. In the early 2000’s he orchestrated a 300% increase in stock valuation and sales growth at Natrol (NTOL). Leighton has held senior executive positions including VP Product Strategy at Complete Nutrition, CEO at Advana Science, VP Marketing & Product Development at Natrol (NTOL), Vice President at Galileo Laboratories, VP Marketing at Metabolife, SVP Marketing at Weider Nutrition (WNI) and Director of Marketing at InterHealth Nutraceuticals.
Maya Ivanjesku M.S. is a creative visionary, CSO and a formulation scientist at Dakota Biotech -The Live Probiotic Skincare company. With over 25 years of experience in developing products for the beauty industry, Maya is a formulation expert. Her career path started at Estee Lauder Companies where she was formulating products for Estee Lauder, Clinique, Origins, Bobby Brown, Aveda, LaMer etc. With her passion for science and nature, Maya also ventured into Biotech, OTC and topical Rx and Medical Device formulation and developed topical prescription formulas for numerous pharmaceutical companies. The diversity of her career path in formulating products, overseeing manufacturing, R&D and holding executive positions in numerous industries from cosmetic to pharmaceutical and biotech product launches, has lead Maya into an entrepreneurial opportunity at Dakota Biotech where LaFloreÒ Probiotic Skincare product line was born. Maya’s passion for wellness, education and helping people heal – naturally, is the main driver in developing performance focused products.
Tony Grover brings over twenty years of experience and expertise in business development, strategic partnerships, licensing, and reimbursement for diagnostic and medical device companies. He is currently the Global Director of Biomarkers and CDx at BD and is responsible for leading partnerships and collaborations with biopharma, CROs, and other stakeholders. Previously, Tony served as Chief Business Development Officer for Drawbridge Health, a remote blood collection device that enabled the shipment of dry blood spots to a central lab that was acquired by Thorne Health in 2021. Previously, he served as VP of Business Development for Banyan Biomarkers, where he was accountable for commercial activities in the US and global markets. The company received the first FDA approval for a blood test to diagnose mild TBI, or concussion and, under his leadership, executed numerous license deals with leading diagnostic companies. Banyan Biomarkers was acquired by bioMerieux in 2020. Tony is the current Chairman of the BIOCOM Medical Device and Diagnostics Committee and previously served as Chairman on the Board of Directors for the American Heart Association, San Diego. Tony has a B.S. in Biochemistry from Michigan State University and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business.
Deboleena is a Director of Business Development at Qiagen. She has 10 years of diagnostic business development, strategic alliance management and product development experience and has keen interests in using biomarkers to facilitate optimization of cancer and rare genetic disease patient care. Deboleena has led strategic alliances for diagnostic programs from biomarker hypothesis testing to clinical study and commercialization. At QIAGEN, she leads activities to identify and facilitate opportunities to create and grow partnerships with pharmaceutical, biotechnology and related industry manufacturing companies in the use of QIAGEN technologies, products and services for development of new Companion and Complementary Diagnostics.
Scott Jackson joined The National Institute of Standardsand Technology (NIST) in May 2014. At NIST, Scott is currentlythe leader of the Complex Microbial Systems Group in theBiosystems and Biomaterials Division. In this current role,Scott is leading international efforts to improve microbiomeand metagenomic measurements by organizing interlabstudies, developing reference materials and referencemethods, and developing in vitro tools that allow us to betterunderstanding and microbial community resilience andevolution.
Prior to joining NIST in 2014, Scott spent 11 years as a principalinvestigator with the FDA. At FDA, his research focusedon characterizing the global genomic diversity of entericpathogens, with applications for food safety, bio forensicsand public health.
Officer of Recondite Consulting, which works with thepharmaceutical industry to improve clinical outcomes byidentifying dietary and lifestyle factors affecting efficacyand safety. She is a board member of the NorthernIreland-based Covimro Ltd, an orthomolecular healthcare company, as well as the biotech company ScaledMicrobiomics in Maryland and the nonprofit AccessIntegrative Medicine Health Institute in Washington, D.C.She is the co-host of the GW Integrative Medicine Podcast.In 2021, the International Forum on Advancements inHealthcare named her among the Top 100 Health CareLeaders.Dr. Frame is building a GW Integrative Medicine researchprogram while directing the graduate educationprograms and the Office of Integrative Medicine andHealth. She is also the co-founder and Associate Directorof the GW Resiliency & Well-being Center. Her interestsinclude the role of the microbiome and nutrition in health,the consequences of malnutrition in obesity, vitamin D asan immune-modulatory hormone, research ethics, andsocial media..
Larry Weiss is the CEO and Founder of Weiss Bioscience, Inc., a San Franciscobased microbiome research and development company and the manufacturer of Symbiome Skincare products.
Yug Varma, PhD, is the cofounder and CEO of Phi Therapeutics, a venture-backed microbiome company focused on skin disorders based in San Francisco. He has an extensive background in bio-organic chemistry, microbiology, synthetic biology, and microbiome research. Yug received
his scientific training at several distinguished academic institutions, including Johns Hopkins University (PhD) and University of California, San Francisco
Nicole is a domain expert in the microbiome and data science who has spent the last 6 years in startups doing everything from marketing, business strategy, IP, data analysis, and fundraising. She studied at the University of Michigan and University of Chicago with Dr. Jack Gilbert, and was the first employee at Dr. Rob Knight’s microbiome startup Biota. She is cited more than 2000 times, published in prestigious journals such as Science and Nature, and is the author of several book chapters and patents. She also serves as an advisor to several other life science and biotech startups.
Ph.D. founded Primal Health, LLC in 2017 to focus on improving the dental health of both humans and animals by producing oral microbiome modulation products. She has spent 12 years developing SMMRT technology at Primal Therapies, Inc., which is focused on using metabolic influencers to re-engineer disease-causing bacterial biofilms into those that are health-promoting, to decrease inflammation and to improve outcomes. Prior to that, she spent 7 years as a research fellow at Stanford University in Rheumatology and Immunology focused on the neuro-endocrine-immune axis in autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases. She holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of California at Berkeley where she studied inter- and intra-cellular signaling pathways involved in stress response and community development in bacteria and received her B.S. in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Iowa where she studied the interaction between M. tuberculosis and innate immune cells.
Prof. Dr. Arun K. Bhunia is a Professor of Food Microbiologyat the Department of Food Science and is affiliated with theDepartment of Comparative Pathobiology at the PurdueInstitute of Inflammation, Immunology, and InfectiousDisease (PI4D), and the Purdue University Life Scienceprogram (PULSe). He is Chair of the Interdepartmental FoodScience Graduate Program. His expertise covers microbialpathogenesis (host–pathogen interaction), probioticbioengineering, and foodborne pathogen detection. To date,he has co-authored more than 190 peer-reviewed researchpublications, two textbooks (Fundamental Food Microbiologyand Foodborne Microbial Pathogens—Mechanisms andPathogenesis), he has edited four books, and delivered over148 lectures. He teaches graduate-level courses on foodbornepathogens and the mechanisms of pathogenesis, microbialfoodborne pathogen detection techniques, and intestinalmicrobiology and immunology. He served on the USDANational Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria forFoods (NACMCF; 2013–2017) and has received the PurdueAgriculture Research Award (2003), Purdue Faculty Scholar(2005), Purdue Team Award (2006), IFT R&D Award (2009),Outstanding Graduate Educator Award at Purdue (2013),High-End Foreign Experts Recruitment Program (China)fellowship (2014–2016), Fulbright Specialist (2016–2021), andMaurice Weber Laboratorian Award from IAFP (2017).
Peter Leighton is the CEO of ProSperity Bioscience, engaged in the development and marketing of functionally targeted probiotic consumer products. Leighton is also the founder of Abunda, an integrated consulting practice. His 30+ years of executive experience at the intersection of consumer products and life science technology has leveraged emerging scientific research & discovery into engaging consumer brands. He has identified and executed novel marketing & commercialization strategies leading to the successful development and launch of hundreds of new products. Leighton has been a guiding light to entrepreneurial enterprises and companies facing a challenge. In the early 2000’s he orchestrated a 300% increase in stock valuation and sales growth at Natrol (NTOL). Leighton has held senior executive positions including VP Product Strategy at Complete Nutrition, CEO at Advana Science, VP Marketing & Product Development at Natrol (NTOL), Vice President at Galileo Laboratories, VP Marketing at Metabolife, SVP Marketing at Weider Nutrition (WNI) and Director of Marketing at InterHealth Nutraceuticals.
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.
Dr. Bornheimer is Associate Director of Medical & Scientific Affairs at BD Biosciences, where he works on the development of new technologies and applications for single cell research, flow cytometry, patient diagnostics, and cell therapy. A major focus is on biomarker and CDx development programs with BioPharma, CROs, and academic medical centers, primarily in oncology and infectious diseases. Previously, he led the R&D effort to develop and commercialize an extremely easy-to-use IVD cytometry system for CD4, %CD4, and Hb measurements for HIV/AIDS patients in resource limited settings (BD FACSPresto). He also led scientific efforts for a COVID-19 diagnostic based on immune cell subsets, co-leads a novel TB diagnostic program, and had leadership roles in developing cell enrichment and isolation technologies based on acoustics, magnetics, and fluorescence-activated cell sorting. He joined BD to apply science and technology to directly impact patient lives, entering through the Technology Leadership Development Program. Dr. Bornheimer received a Ph.D. from UC San Diego in Chemistry and Biochemistry, under joint mentorship in the departments of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Bioengineering, where he investigated heterotrimeric G-protein signaling through computational modeling, development of new biosensors, and live cell fluorescent imaging approaches.
Heather Cohen, Ph.D. is the Director of Translational Sciences at Bicycle Therapeutics. Bicycle Therapeutics is a clinical stage biopharma company pioneering a unique class of chemically synthesized medicines based on its proprietary bicyclic peptide (Bicycle®) product platform to address therapeutic needs unreachable with existing treatment modalities. Bicycles are fully synthetic constrained peptides with antibody-like affinities that target selectively, readily penetrate tissue, and can be chemically linked together to generate multifunctional molecules. Bicycle’s internal focus is oncology where the company is developing Bicycle tumor-targeted immune cell agonists™ (Bicycle TICAs®) and cytotoxics (Bicycle Toxin Conjugates®) for the treatment of high unmet need cancers. Heather has more than 18 years of discovery and translational research experience including over 8 years in the biopharma industry. She holds a B.S. from the University of Minnesota in Genetics, Cell and Developmental Biology and a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Maryland, where she studied the development of immunosuppressive macrophages in infectious and inflammatory diseases. Prior to joining Bicycle Therapeutics in 2020, she was at EMD Serono and Jounce Therapeutics with increasing levels of responsibility developing immuno-oncology assets from target discovery through Phase 2 clinical trials.
Rakesh Dixit is a President & CEO, BIONAVIGEN, LLC, a biopharmaceutical virtual drug development company specializing in advising and consulting for all aspects of drug development, including discovery, preclinical development, CMC, translational sciences, clinical development and regulatory filing. Accomplished executive, inventor, and scientist with over 30 years of success with top biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Medimmune, AstraZeneca.
Dr Ghoddusi has over 15 years of experience in some of the most challenging areas of oncology with focus on drug discovery and clinical development. Dr Ghoddusi has broad and overarching insights into unmet therapeutic areas with expertise in translational sciences and clinical biomarker development which allows him to provide unique perspective on how to propel therapeutic projects from discovery to approval. Trained as a translational pathologist he has held numerous positions at large pharmaceutical and small biotech companies including Novartis, Celgene and Juno Therapeutics. His current focus is Gene and Cellular Therapy.
Desiree Schenk is currently a Principal Scientist in the Molecular Biology and Sequencing group at Gritstone bio, a company focused on developing vaccines for both oncology and infectious disease. Her work mainly focuses on using cfDNA to explore tumor mutation dynamics and changes in disease burden. She also works to develop assays to inform discovery efforts or incorporate new biomarkers with translational relevance. Prior to Gritstone, she received her Ph.D. from Purdue University and initially began her career at small startups focused on the development of easily accessible assays for clinical and research needs.
Dr. Zhan is the scientist of department of process development and manufacturing at Sorrento Therapeutics. He is passionate about platform, manufacturing, and marketing of cell and gene therapy. Prior to his current position, Dr. Zhan received 5 years postdoctoral training at UC Santa Barbara. It was there he used CRISPR genome editing to create the first mutant mosquitoes that cannot see hosts, which was interviewed by New York Times and other social media. He also collaborated with colleagues to identify novel taste receptors in mice and mosquitoes. Dr. Zhan holds a Ph.D. degree in Neurobiology from Chinese Academy of Science.
Craig is a founding member of the HGF IP Microbiome Team, one of the largest IP teams of its type in Europe. He has considerable experience in providing pragmatic, commercially focused advice to a wide-range of clients and in relation to biotechnological and pharmaceutical inventions. As well as patent drafting and prosecution, Craig advises on the development of company-wide IP strategies, preparing for or carrying out funding/acquisition due diligence, and advising on aggressive/defensive strategies in relation to third party IP. Craig regularly defends and attacks patents in European patent opposition proceedings. After having worked on matters in the field for more than 15 years, a particular focus of Craig’s practice relates to microbiome.
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.
Dr. Wehn is a Director of Companion Diagnostics at Merck. She is responsible for providing strategic guidance for biomarker incorporation into clinical trial designs and developing companion diagnostic strategies for global regulatory submissions. Dr. Wehn received her Ph.D. from University of Pittsburgh in Molecular and Cellular Biology and performed her postdoctoral studies at University of North Carolina prior to transitioning to industry. Dr. Wehn has spent the past seven years focused on oncology biomarker and companion diagnostic development at both device and pharma companies and has a track record of regulatory approvals in complicated global companion diagnostic submissions.
Julius Goepp is the founder and CEO of Scaled Microbiomics, LLC, a pre-clinical stage biotech company focused on passive immunotherapy in the microbiome. Dr. Goepp trained in Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at Children’s Hospital, Boston, and in Pediatric Infectious Disease at Johns Hopkins, where he was active in the promotion of Oral Rehydration Therapy for childhood diarrheal disease. In 2017, he founded Scaled Microbiomics after recognizing the potential for microbiome modulation through the use of little-known avian antibodies, or IgY. Since that time, his energies have been devoted to exploring the characteristics of those antibodies and developing a drug discovery platform based on their use as selective immunomodulators of complex microbiome signaling pathways and event cascades. In addition to his work, Goepp is passionate about cooking, flying, and exploring the outdoors.
Katrine is a biochemist interested in human associated microbial and viral communities. She uses metagenomics, metabolomics, microbial genetics and ecological statistics to answer questions about how microbes and viruses affect human health. She aims to understand how individual and persistent human-associated microbial and viral communities affect health. Specifically, she works to understand the role of persistent microbial colonization in triggering inflammatory episodes in Cystic Fibrosis patients. Understanding microbial interactions and changes in microbial physiology that are associated with changes in patient status may lead to the development of biomarkers to diagnose changes in infection earlier and more specifically. She is also interested in how phage shape dynamic hostassociated microbial communities, and in characterizing the function of the 70% of phage encoded genes with no known function.
Andrea is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Adjunct Associate Professor of Nutrition at UNC Chapel Hill. She is also the founding and current director of the UNC Microbiome Core, which has provided support to investigators interested in addressing the role of the hostassociated microbiota in health and disease for over 14 years, contributing to over 150 publications and as many grant proposals. Her research projects have focused on functional genomics of probiotics and gut microbiome modulation by prebiotics for over 20 years, resulting in over 100 peer-reviewed publications. She specifically aims to develop prebiotic and probiotic interventions as alternatives to traditional treatments for microbiotahealth related conditions, and to advance microbiotabased health surveillance methods.
Juliana Durack is the VP of Research and Product Development at Symbiome, a San Francisco- based microbiome R&D company and the manufacturer of Symbiome™ Skincare products. She has a PhD in Food Microbiology and a BS (Honors in Clinical Microbiology) in Biomedical Science from the University of Tasmania. Julia has clinical experience in diagnostics, having worked as a registered Medical Microbiologist at the Royal Hobart Hospital in Australia. She has had extensive research training at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco School of Medicine and has a track record of scientific impact in classical microbiology and the human microbiome.
Jan Struckmann Poulsen is a PhD fellow at Aalborg University. He has an engineering background in biotechnology. His research focuses on identifying and understanding key degraders of recalcitrant substrates. Identification of the organisms and their genetic repertoire provide valuable information to solve different environmental challenges (plastics, pollutants, phytochemical polymers, etc.). Information of the (novel) enzymes involved in the degradation pathways has be obtained using combinations of molecular techniques including stable isotopes, (meta)proteomics, (meta) genomics, Illumina sequencing, and long-read Nanopore sequencing.
Dr. Ace Hatch is an experienced biomarker scientist with a background in developing non-invasive biomarkers for diagnosing disease, selecting therapies, and monitoring therapeutic response. He has worked extensively in circulating blood-based biomarkers with a particular emphasis on oncology applications. At Owlstone Medical he helps investigators apply Breath Biopsy® technology in their trials to identify volatile breath biomarkers in multiple disease settings.
Dana has been using flow cytometry as a tool in cancer research and autoimmune disease for over 30 years. She develops and runs cell-based assays as a CRO to give companies access to high complexity flow cytometry. Dana also teaches flow cytometry to scientists around the world. For the past 8 years, she has been developing flow cytometry-based microbial assays as an improved alternative to CFUs. These assays include enumeration and health evaluation of probiotics at many different stages of development.
Prof. Dr. Robert H. Schiestl, Prof. emeritus of Pathology, Radiation Oncology, and Environmental Health Sciences at UCLA. 15 patents, 5 procedures and products. The company RadMit, Inc. produces a chemical which addresses at least 100 different diseases. The company Protecta-skincare, Inc. makes all people beautiful and cures all skin diseases. The company MicroBioPharma, Inc. prevents and treats Inflammation caused diseases, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity. With the products and procedures, I can heal at about 90% of all diseases of people and benefit 100% of all healthy people. Outstanding Leadership Award in Healthcare 2022. There are 14,000 pages online about me.
Seth Crosby is the Director of Partnerships and Alliances in the Department of Genetics at Washington University. He works with groups within and outside the University to leverage technology to achieve research and clinical goals. He has been at Washington University for nearly 12 years. During that time, he directed the Department of Genetics Microarray Core, which is now part of GTAC and then GTAC, itself, during its first two years. Prior to that, he was the Director of Translational Research at the Genome Center (now the McDonnell Genome Institute). Prior to his tenure at Washington University, Dr. Crosby worked in the field of genomics and drug discovery at Abbott Laboratories, Pfizer, and Pharmacia.
Dr. Robert Hettich is a distinguished research scientist & leader of the Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Group of the Biosciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a joint faculty member in the Microbiology Department at the University of Tennessee. He has over 34 years of experience in biological mass spectrometry. His research interests involve the development and demonstration of advanced mass spectrometry technology for characterizing complex biological mixtures, such as microbial proteomes, and for examining higher order protein structures. He has authored more than 270 publications, and is active in mentoring graduate students, as well as teaching analytical technology and advanced biological mass spectrometry classes. He is an associate editor for Microbiome, a member of the editorial advisory boards of Mass Spectrometry Reviews, BMC Genomics, and Journal of Integrated Omics, and is an active review member on several NIH review study sections, in particular for NIH-GM and NIH-NCI-IMAT.
Dr Mitra is a University Academic Fellowwith expertise in in metagenomics, bioinformatics andbiostatistics. She has 30 publications and 4501 citationsand has secured over £2.9M in total as Co-I from charity,government, and industrial funding sources in last 4 years.Several of her publications in bioinformatics pipeline andmethod development have >100 citations. She has 15+ yearsof experience in leading bioinformatics team, methodsdevelopment, handling next generation sequencing dataand applying statistical methods to the analyses. Currentlyshe is Bioinformatics Lead in a major colorectal cancercohort study (COLO-COHORT) that aims to develop a “riskstratification tool” to help identify which patients are athighest risk of having adenomas or bowel cancer. Thisstudy aims to explore the significance of the gut bacteriacomposition in patients with adenomas or cancer tohelp inform this risk model using metagenomics shotgunsequencing.
Ravichandra Vemuri is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He is one of the initiating members of the Center for Microbial Ecology and Emerging Diseases at Wake Forest University. Ravi completed his PhD at the University of Tasmania, Australia. His research interests lie in the microbiome and understanding its role in aging, diet, probiotic supplementation, hypertension and obesity. He has collaborated actively with researchers in several other disciplines, particularly to understand the host-microbe interactions. Ravi published 42 journal articles and serves as an editor and reviewer in several high-quality journals.
Manish is an Oncologist with 23 years of experience who focusses on merging biotechnology fields that involve bio-engineering, devices, AI-based algorithms with cancer genomics and other “omic” platforms for patient care and entrepreneurial advancement. In order to have successful application of this type of “convergence sciences” He also build teams that focus on health economics and outcome research (HEOR) to derive the value of merging cancer omics with AI and/or bio-engineering devices for practicing precision medicine. His roles have ranged from leading as Director of Personalized Medicine Institutes to conducting individualized medicine clinical trials. He also holds several AI-based patents.
Mike Milburn is President and CEO at GeneCentric Therapeutics since 2018 and leads the commercialization and business partnering of GeneCentric’s growing pipeline of RNA gene expression tests. He previously held senior R&D positions at Metabolon, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Plexxikon, Structural Genomix and GlaxoWellcome. Dr. Milburn has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles and received his PhD in biophysical chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School.
George Pell is the Principal and Chief Strategy Officer of Thirty-Six, an innovation studio bringing a series of ventures to life for advancing neuroscience, medical intelligence, and human potential. George brings over 20 years from this space, where emerging technologies are first crafted and brought to life, including several which have helped shape the landscape of AI for the life sciences, such as discovery, augmented intelligence, and other cognitive technologies. He has made a multi-billion dollar impact in a range of innovation, strategy, and transformation roles for some of the world’s largest companies in the most high stakes of circumstances. George has invested his most recent 14 years in the life sciences space, where he brings a multidiscipline of advanced biology together with discovery and intelligence technologies, for next-gen applications in neuroscience and precision medicine.
Shannon Muir is a co-director of the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine in the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, and leads their work in cancer disparities and precision mental health. Dr. Muir previously served as a director of UC San Diego’s Research Proposal Development Services in the Office of Research Affairs, and as a senior program associate for the California Council on Science and Technology where she coordinated state government affairs for the four Department of Energy and two NASA laboratories located in California. She was previously a science and technology policy fellow in the California Senate Committee on Health. Dr. Muir received a PhD in biomedical sciences from UC San Diego, a master’s degree in pharmacology from Tulane University, and a bachelor’s degree in psychobiology from UCLA.
Mason has served in the oncology diagnostics field for the past 8 years and is currently a Regional Medical Affairs Director at Mirati Therapeutics. Prior to Mirati, Mason worked as a medical science liaison at Foundation Medicine as well as Biotheranostics. Before entering industry, Mason received a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from UC San Diego and was an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine. He currently lives in Seattle, WA.
Dr. Ginette Serrero is Chief Executive Officer of Precision Antibody, a custom antibody development company, expert in the design, development, characterization and production of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment and diagnosis of human diseases. She draws on biotech management and research expertise in Oncology and biomarker discovery to guide the company's strategy in both the service division and R&D department for the development of biological targeted therapies with companion tissue and serum diagnostics for breast cancer. Her laboratory discovered Progranulin (GP88) as a marker of recurrence, drug resistance and tumor aggressiveness for several cancers including breast and lung cancer. This led to the development of two companion diagnostics that have been clinically validated for disease prognosis and monitoring of breast and lung cancer patients. She is a trained Biochemist with expertise in target discovery, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Oncology. She is Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center.
She is inventor on several worldwide patents for targets in Oncology and authored 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications and reviews.
Dr. Hideki Furuya is Assistant Professor at Cedars- Sinai Medical Center who focuses on multiplexed protein biomarkers for genitourinary cancers, specifically bladder cancer. His team has developed Oncuria, a multiplexed immunoassay to detect, predict and monitor bladder cancer, which is already available as a LDT.
Maria Wang is a Scientific Director of Translational Pathology within the Oncogenesis Thematic Research Center at Bristol Myers Squibb, where she works closely with investigators from Discovery, Translational and Clinical to develop assays and implement biomarkers for targeted protein degradation and CAR T cell therapy programs. Prior to this, Maria worked at Ventana Medical Systems/Roche on the Pharma Services and diagnostic product development teams. She obtained a MD from Shanghai Medical University, a PhD from University of Southern California, and postdoctoral training from UCLA.
