Dear colleagues and friends,
We are delighted to announce that the 10th annual WuXi Global Forum will be held virtually on January 10, 2022 alongside the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.
In this special 10-year edition, we will focus on “impact.” What impact have we had on our patients during the past 10 years? How will technologies shape breakthroughs in the next decade? What can we do collectively and collaboratively to make a bigger social impact?
We will also pay special tribute to two industry giants and our past speakers, the late Jose Baselga and the late Tachi Yamada. Their impacts are far-reaching, and they are inspirations for us all.
Please stay tuned for more program details. For the convenience of our global audience, the program will be aired on Zoom at 8am – 11am PST (11am -2pm EST) and 7pm – 10pm PST (10pm – 1am EST), respectively. Click <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wuxi-global-forum-2022-advancing-breakthroughs-for-patients-tickets-196198855057">HERE</a> to reserve your complimentary event pass. To review past programs, click <a href="https://wxpress.wuxiapptec.com/category/wuxi-global-forum">HERE</a>.
We are grateful that more than 6,000 colleagues and friends signed up for our 2021 Forum, and look forward to your continued support. We hope this year’s WuXi Global Forum can further strengthen industry collaboration across borders and disciplines, inspire innovative thinking, and catalyze actionable solutions for patients.
We look forward to welcoming you to WuXi Global Forum 2022!

WGF2022_Banner_Final

Dr. Christiana (Chris) Bardon is Co-Managing Partner of BioImpact Capital, an affiliate manager of MPM and leads MPM’s public market investing as portfolio manager for BioImpact Equities (f/k/a Burrage Capital) and the Oncology Impact Funds.

Previously, Chris was a health care analyst at Fidelity Investments covering biotechnology, life-science tools and diagnostics, and she started her career as an analyst at MPM. She currently serves on the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows and is a Trustee of the American Association for Cancer Research Foundation.

Chris earned her M.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School and her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. While at Harvard Medical School, she was the recipient of a Howard Hughes fellowship, and she completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School. She received her M.S./B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Christiana Bardon

Manager of OIF public securities and BioImpact Equities

Debora Barton, MD, is a medical oncologist and the Chief Medical Officer of Carisma Therapeutics. She brings over 20 years of oncology experience, both in academia as a practicing physician and investigator in clinical trials, and in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry supporting the development of new drugs for the treatment of cancer. 
At Carisma, she is leading the clinical development of CT-0508, a HER2 targeted, first of its kind CAR-macrophage, as well as the planning of upcoming pipeline clinical trials including CAR-macrophages against new targets and combinations.
Most recently, she served in key senior executive positions in adoptive cellular therapy and radiopharmaceutical biotech companies including Iovance Biotherapeutics and Advanced Accelerator Applications (the latter being acquired by Novartis during Debora’s tenure). In her leadership roles, Debora built Clinical Development, Medical Affairs and Drug Safety teams setting up the infrastructure for the conduct of registrational clinical studies. She was instrumental in obtaining FDA Breakthrough Designation for a cell therapy product and in the marketing authorization of a radiopharmaceutical agent for the treatment of cancers by both FDA and EMA. 
Previously, Debora spent 10 years at Celgene and Novartis in Medical Affairs and Clinical Development roles of increasing responsibility, always focusing on improving the lives of cancer patients. She holds an MD from Pontificia Universidade Catolica Sao Paulo (PUC-SP) and completed her fellowship in Oncology at Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP) in Brazil.

Debora Barton

CMO, Carisma Therapeutics

David Berry is Founder and CEO of Valo Health.  He has served as a General Partner at Flagship Pioneering, having founded over 25 companies including Indigo Agriculture, Omega Therapeutics (NASDAQ: OMGA), Inari Agriculture, Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB), Repertoire Immune Medicines, Evelo Biosciences (NASDAQ: EVLO), Axcella Health (NASDAQ: AXLA), and Joule Unlimited.  David has been broadly recognized as a world-leading innovator: elected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, named as Innovator of the Year by Technology Review from amongst its Annual TR35 list, and selected as one of 12 Innovators Reshaping Reality by the U.S. State Department, alongside pioneers such as Tim Berners-Lee.  He holds over 200 patents and patent applications.  David and his companies have been awarded with over 150 additional awards and honors.  David currently serves on the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN SDSN), where he was a Founding Leadership Council Member.  David received his MD from Harvard Medical School and his PhD from MIT in Biological Engineering.

David Berry

Founder and CEO, Valo Health

John D. Carroll is a biotech analyst and writer with decades of prize-winning experience in journalism. A co-founder of Endpoints News, he has covered biopharma for the past 17 years. Aside from his daily industry coverage for FierceBiotech, where he was named editor in 2003, leaving in 2016, Carroll has been a regular speaker at biotech events around the globe. He’s been quoted by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Financial Times, The Times of London and more. He’s also keynoted at biotech gatherings around the world and addressed student audiences at MIT and Harvard. Carroll has contributed stories from Central America and Ireland to the Dallas Morning News and Time and wrote for the Houston Press. He spent 6 years as editor and publisher of the Dallas Business Journal, was publisher of Texas Business and early in his career was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team of reporters and editors at the Kansas City Star & Times.

John Carroll

Chief Editor & Founder, Endpoints News

Ryan founded Oxford Genetics (trading as OXGENE) in 2011, after earning a degree in genetics and a PhD in gene therapy from Oxford University. The idea behind the company was to simplify and standardise the process of DNA engineering using a proprietary DNA plasmid platform called SnapFast™. Ryan used his background in virology to guide and grow the business through a series of strategic changes that deployed the SnapFast™ technology for cell and gene therapy discovery and manufacturing applications. He has over 20 peer reviewed papers and is the inventor on more than 100 international patent applications. In 2021, Ryan led the sale of the OXGENE to WuXi Advanced Therapies. He is currently the Chief Scientific Officer for WuXi Advanced Therapies and OXGENE. 

Ryan Cawood

CSO, WuXi Advanced Therapies and OXGENE

Over 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical development and manufacturing. Played important roles in R&D and commercialization of multiple innovative drugs for global launches. Awarded by The Medicine Maker's 2019 & 2020 Power List as one of the global top inspirational medicine makers driving the industry forward. Formerly Director of Technical Operations at Vertex. B.S. in Chemistry from Peking University and Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Minnesota.

Minzhang Chen

minzhangChen

Co-CEO, WuXi AppTec

Jorge Conde is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz where he leads investments at the cross section of biology, computer science and engineering.

Prior to joining a16z, Jorge served as Chief Strategy Officer for Syros (NASDAQ: SYRS), which is advancing a new wave of medicines that control expression of disease-driving genes to treat cancer and other diseases. He previously served as the company's Chief Financial Officer and Chief Product Officer, leading the platform strategy for Syros' novel gene regulation technology. Jorge also cofounded Knome, a human genome interpretation company acquired by Tute Genomics in 2015. Earlier in his career, Jorge worked in marketing and operations at MedImmune and as a biotechnology investment banker at Morgan Stanley.

Jorge holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and a BA in Biology from Johns Hopkins University.

Jorge was named one of the top 35 young innovators in the world by the MIT Technology Review and is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. He previously served on the board of the Museum of Science, Boston.

Jorg Conde

Jorge Conde

General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz

British science writer Kevin Davies, Ph.D., is the author of EDITING HUMANITY: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing (Pegasus Books, 2020). Kevin’s latest book is the riveting story of the development of the Nobel Prize-winning technology for editing genes, driving breakthroughs in science, medicine, and agriculture, while igniting ethical controversies about designer babies and the future of humanity. Kevin won a Guggenheim Fellowship for science writing in 2017.

Kevin has 30 years’ experience in science publishing and public speaking. He is the founding editor of Nature Genetics and currently the Executive Editor of The CRISPR Journal. He is spearheading the launch of a new multidisciplinary journal called GEN Biotechnology, in 2022. Kevin’s previous books include Breakthrough: The Race for the Breast Cancer Gene; Cracking the Genome (translated into 15 languages), an inside account of the race for the Human Genome Project hailed by one reviewer as “A rollicking good tale about an enduring intellectual monument”; and The $1000 Genome, which details the revolution in personalized medicine and consumer genetics. He also collaborated with Nobel laureate Jim Watson and Andrew Berry on an updated edition of DNA: The Story of the Genetic Revolution.

Kevin graduated with a degree in Biochemistry from Oxford University and took his PhD in molecular genetics from the University of London. He hung up his lab coat after two inconsequential postdocs in Boston.

Kevin Davies

Executive Editor, The CRISPR Journal and GEN Biotechnology; Author, Editing Humanity

Jürgen Eckhardt is SVP and Head of Leaps by Bayer, the impact investment unit of Bayer. The mission of Leaps is to invest in breakthrough technologies and disruptive business models in the areas of healthcare and agriculture. Jürgen has been a venture investor since 2002 and currently serves on the board of Joyn Bio, Dewpoint, Century, Khloris, Oerth Bio, Immunitas, eGenesis, and others. Previously, Jürgen was a management consultant and Associate Partner with McKinsey & Co. and a member of McKinsey’s Healthcare Leadership Team. He began his career as a radiologist at the University Hospital of Basel, Switzerland. Jürgen received his M.D. from the University of Basel and his MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.

Jürgen Eckhardt

Juergen Eckhardt

SVP and Head of Leaps by Bayer

I lead Oncology R&D, early stage, and am responsible for research and early development from target selection to the initiation of pivotal trials.
I have over 20 years’ experience in drug discovery and development with a background as a Clinical Oncologist. I trained in medicine at Manchester and Cambridge Universities, was admitted to the Royal College of Physicians in 1992, and then trained in Clinical Oncology in London. I gained a Fellowship of the Royal College of Radiologists in 1997 and completed a PhD at the University of London involving translational work on a vascular-targeting agent. In 2017, I was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Medical Science from the Institute of Cancer Research, and in 2018 I was admitted to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

I moved from medicine to industry in 2001, to Bristol-Myers Squibb where I held increasing levels of responsibility becoming Vice President for the Clinical Discovery Oncology & Immunology and Clinical Biomarkers groups.
I joined AstraZeneca in 2010 as Head of Oncology in the IMED Biotech Unit. Since joining, four programmes have moved into Phase 3 trials; and two are now approved in many countries around the world.

A critical focus for me in the drug development process is on ensuring quality target selection and engagement and selecting the right patients for treatment. This has led to the successful development of several novel treatments and I am proud to have played a part in their development, together with a great team at AstraZeneca. I am also passionate about developing the next generation of scientists and on improving diversity via personal mentorship.

In addition to my role at AstraZeneca, I co-lead the Cambridge Cancer Centre Onco-Innovation group, connecting Cambridge scientists to the biotech and pharmaceutical companies in the region; I am the current Chair of the Board at Definiens AG, a Non-Executive on the Board of Horizon Discovery PLC, and on the Scientific Advisory Board of the ICR Cancer Research Centre of Excellence; and I serve on the AACR Finance Committee and the AACR Annual Meeting Scientific Program Committee.

Susan Galbraith

EVP, Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca

Todd Golub is director and a founding core member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Golub is a world leader in using genomics tools to understand the basis of cancer. He also pioneered the development of new cell-based approaches to drug discovery for cancer and other diseases.
 
Golub is also the Charles A. Dana Investigator in Human Cancer Genetics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Outstanding Achievement Award from the American Association for Cancer Research, the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, and the Daland Prize from the American Philosophical Society. In 2014 he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

Todd Golub

Todd R. Golub

Director, Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard

Dr. Houston is President and Chief Executive Officer of Arvinas. Previously, he was the SVP of Specialty Discovery at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). He spent more than 18 years at BMS in roles of increasing responsibility and had accountability for all Discovery Biology disease teams as well as various Discovery technology departments. Dr. Houston was a member of the BMS R&D Executive Leadership team and chaired the Target Portfolio Committee which had governance oversight in the discovery space. With his teams and research colleagues, he progressed over 200 compounds into early development, several of which advanced into late stage clinical trials, and toward commercialization.

He was also the principal architect and driver of the ‘Leveraging Technology’ initiative at BMS which oversaw the design and implementation of an industry-leading integrated lead discovery and optimization process. This initiative created revolutionary changes in the discovery process at BMS with significant improvements in capacity, speed and cost control resulting in marked increases in research productivity and success rates.

Dr. Houston has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Bristol-Myers Squibb, he worked at Glaxo Welcome Research and Development in the UK, where he served as head of the Lead Discovery Unit. Dr. Houston currently serves on the boards of directors of NextCure, Inc., Oerth Bio, Cybrexa Therapeutics and BioCT.

Dr. Houston obtained his B.Sc. degree in Medical Microbiology from Glasgow University and obtained his Ph.D. with Professor Brian Catley in Microbial Biochemistry from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. He also completed his post-doctoral studies on an MRC grant with Professor Julia Douglas at Glasgow University.

John Houston

President and CEO, Arvinas

Dr. Eric Kelsic is CEO and co-founder of Dyno Therapeutics and serves on its Board of Directors. 

Prior to founding Dyno, Eric led a team in Prof. George Chuch’s lab at the Wyss Institute of Harvard Medical School. There he measured the first comprehensive fitness landscape of the adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsid protein, co-discovered the AAV MAAP gene, and created the underlying technology for Dyno’s AI-powered engineering platform. Eric earned a PhD in Systems Biology from Harvard University and a BS in Physics from Caltech.
Dyno recently closed their $100M Series A fundraising led by a16z and was named one of Endpoint’s 11 Most Promising Startups in 2021 and Xconomy’s 2020 Startup of the Year. In 2021, Eric was also recognized as one of Endpoint’s 20 under 40 next-gen biotech leaders. Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, Dyno is empowering a diverse team of the best problem solvers to drive cutting edge science towards improving patient health. Visit www.dynotx.com for additional information. 

Eric Kelsic

Founder & CEO, Dyno Therapeutics

Laura Kleiman is the Founder and CEO of Reboot Rx, the nonprofit health tech startup dedicated to fast-tracking the development of affordable cancer treatments using repurposed generic drugs, AI technology, and innovative funding models. Laura’s career has focused on building collaborations across disciplines and sectors to expand treatment options for cancer patients. She holds a PhD in Computational and Systems Biology from MIT, was an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and most recently served as Scientific Research Director in the Department of Data Sciences at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Laura has been featured in Forbes and the Boston Business Journal, named a CHM Patrick J. McGovern Tech for Humanity Prize Changemaker finalist, and recognized with awards from Extraordinary Women Advancing Healthcare, 40 Under 40 in Cancer, the Massachusetts Next Generation Initiative, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Laura Kleiman

Founder and CEO, Reboot Rx

Diego Miralles is a veteran pharmaceutical and biotech leader who joined Flagship Pioneering in 2020, serving as CEO-Partner and CEO of Laronde. 

Diego was previously CEO of Vividion Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the creation of highly selective small molecule medicines that drug traditionally inaccessible targets. As CEO, he led a team that raised over $360 million in venture capital and two large partnerships with BMS/Celgene and Roche. Prior to this role, he was President of Adaptive Therapeutics, a division of Adaptive Biotechnologies focused on clinical therapeutic applications of TCR sequencing. 

Diego also spent eleven years at Johnson & Johnson, where he most recently served as Global Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation. Diego’s many achievements at J&J include leading Janssen’s Research and Early Development Unit in California and establishing the J&J Innovation Centers and Janssen/JLABS. Diego was also Vice President of Clinical Development at Tibotec, a J&J company, where he led a team that put six drugs in the clinic, ultimately garnering five approvals, including PREZISTA® and INTELENCE®. Earlier in his career, he served in R&D roles at Trimeris, Inc. and Triangle Pharmaceutical focusing on the development of antivirals. He worked on the clinical development of a total of 8 compounds, two of which made it to the market: Fuzeon and Emtriva. 

Diego began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at Duke University Medical Center, where he practiced as an HIV physician and conducted basic research in T cell development. He received an M.D. from Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina and conducted his residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and his fellowship in Infectious Diseases at New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center. 

Diego Miralles

CEO, Laronde

Dr. Perlmutter is President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of Eikon Therapeutics, Inc., a private biotechnology company that employs advanced imaging technologies to identify novel therapeutic candidates by virtue of their effects on protein dynamics in living cells.  A highly accomplished industry as well as academic leader with over 35 years of experience, Dr. Perlmutter was previously Executive Vice President, Merck & Co., and President of Merck Research Laboratories where he supervised the discovery and development of numerous lifesaving medicines including KEYTRUDA™ , Merck's foundational immuno-oncology therapeutic, which continues to transform cancer care throughout the world. Before this, Dr. Perlmutter spent 12 years as Executive Vice President and head of R&D at Amgen, Inc., where he is credited with having revolutionized the development of important biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of osteoporosis and cancer-related bone disease, and for the reduction of hypercholesterolemia-related cardiovascular risk.

Prior to assuming leadership roles in industry, Dr. Perlmutter was a professor in the Departments of Immunology, Biochemistry and Medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, and also served as Chairman of its Department of Immunology, where he was at the same time an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His research focused on understanding the signaling pathways that control lymphocyte activation. Prior to his role at the University of Washington, he was a lecturer in the Division of Biology at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. 

Dr. Perlmutter is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and both a Distinguished Fellow and past president of the American Association of Immunologists. 

Roger Perlmutter

Roger M. Perlmutter

Chairman & CEO, Eikon Therapeutics

Alice Pomponio is an impact investor and social innovation entrepreneur.  She currently serves as Managing Director of BrightEdge, American Cancer Society’s impact investment fund that fights cancer with patient-centric innovation by investing in early-stage oncology companies. Her American Cancer Society volunteer leadership includes past Chair Eastern New England Board of Directors and National Board Member of American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. She is on faculty at Harvard-MIT HST Sloan Healthcare Ventures where she teaches biomedical innovation and healthcare entrepreneurship. Before joining BrightEdge, Alice was an advisor at Red Sky Partners advising high-growth life sciences and health tech startup companies on business development and go-to-market strategies.

Alice held prior R&D and commercial leadership roles at Radius Health, AstraZeneca, and Sanofi Genzyme, where she launched multiple U.S. and global specialty products and championed orphan drug policy and health equity initiatives across the globe.  She led open innovation and public-private partnerships that have transformed specialty medicines development. Her public sector experience spans innovation, trade, and healthcare policy through roles in the UK Government and U.S. Office of Management and Budget. She holds a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from MIT. Alice serves on the Boards of Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, MassEcon, and PhagePro Inc.

Alice Pomponio

Managing Director, American Cancer Society BrightEdge

Dr. David M. Reese is executive vice president, Research and Development. In this role, Dr. Reese oversees Discovery Research, Global Development, Global Regulatory Affairs and Safety, as well as Global Medical. Dr. Reese joined Amgen in 2005 and has served in various leadership roles within the Research and Development organization. This includes most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Translational Sciences and Oncology where he oversaw the translation of Amgen’s medicines from the lab into the clinic and the overall oncology strategy. 

Prior to joining Amgen, Dr. Reese was director of Clinical Research for the Breast Cancer International Research Group (BCIRG) and a co-founder, president and chief medical officer of Translational Oncology Research International (TORI), a not-for-profit academic clinical research organization. Dr. Reese is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He completed training in Internal Medicine and Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine, and subsequently served on the faculty at UCLA and the University of California, San Francisco.

David Reese

David M. Reese

EVP of R&D, Amgen

Henrijette Richter is Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners. She joined the firm in 2014. Prior to that, she was part of the team that founded Novo Seeds in 2007, and as an Investment Director, was instrumental in the creation, financing and building of companies such as Orphazyme (ORPHA.CO; ORPH), Avilex Pharma, EpiTherapeutics (sold to Gilead), and Lysogene (LYS, Euronext Paris). Henrijette holds a combined Ph.D. and Industrial Scientist degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Copenhagen and Novo Nordisk A/S. She did her postdoctoral fellowship at the MIT Center for Cancer Research in Massachusetts. Her investments and board involvements include Asceneuron, Delinia (sold to Celgene), iOmx Therapeutics, Muna Therapeutics, Nodthera, Nitrome Biosciences, and Twentyeight-Seven Therapeutics.

Henrijette Richter

Managing Partner, Sofinnova Partners

At Adjuvant, Glenn oversees the firm’s investments in VitriVax (board member), Univercells (board member), Themis (acquired by Merck in 2020), X-Vax (board observer), InDevR (board member), and Codagenix (board member). He is also actively engaged with the Research Investment for Global Health Technology Fund (RIGHT Fund) as a board member and a champion of leveraging South Korea’s life sciences industry to bring new public health innovations to market. He is also on the board of WaterEquity.
Prior to Adjuvant, Glenn was a Managing Partner at the Global Health Investment Fund (GHIF), where he oversaw the fund’s investments in EuBiologics (KOSDAQ: 206650), AccessBio (KOSDAQ: 950130), and IanTech (sold to Carl Zeiss Meditec in 2018), among others.

Prior to GHIF, Glenn was an Executive Director in J.P. Morgan’s Social Finance unit, where he helped the firm’s non-profit clients maximize the financial resources available to advance their missions. 

Glenn earned an AB in public policy from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.

--
Adjuvant is a global life sciences investment company built to accelerate the development of new technologies for the world’s most pressing public health challenges. Backed by prominent healthcare investors and development finance institutions, Adjuvant invests in companies developing promising new vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and devices targeting high-burden infectious diseases, malnutrition, and maternal / child health, with a commitment to make these interventions accessible to those who need them most in low- and middle-income countries.

Glenn Rockman

Founder and Managing Partner, Adjuvant Capital

Dr. Devyn Smith brings significant cell and gene therapy development and platform expertise from his 20+ year career. Devyn joined Arbor Biotechnologies as Chief Executive Officer on April 27, 2021 after concluding his role as Chief Operating Officer of Sigilon Therapeutics. Prior to Sigilon, Dr. Smith worked in a variety of roles at Pfizer Inc., including COO of the UK-based Neusentis Unit focused on discovering and developing cell therapies. He received his Ph.D. in Genetics from Harvard Medical School. He is an inventor on multiple patents and has published in leading scientific journals throughout his career. Dr. Smith is a board member and officer for ARM (Alliance for Regenerative Medicine), the cell and gene therapy industry group.

Devyn Smith

CEO, Arbor Biotechnologies

James M. Wilson, MD, PhD, is a Professor in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where he has led an effort to develop the field of gene therapy. His research career spanning over 40 years has focused on rare diseases and ways to treat them by gene therapy. The Wilson lab identified a new type of vector based on novel isolates of adeno-associated viruses which have become best in class for gene therapy being used by over 40 companies. More recently Dr. Wilson’s laboratory has focused on improved vectors for gene therapy and clinical applications of genome editing and mRNA therapy.

James Wilson

Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics of Department of Medicine, and Director of Gene Therapy Program, University of Pennsylvania

Featured

WuXi AppTec

WuXi Global Forum

WuXi Global Forum 2022

8:00 Welcome 
<a href="#hui-cai">Hui Cai</a>, Forum Chair; VP and Head of Content Division, WuXi AppTec
8:05 Opening Remarks 
<a href="#steve-yang">Steve Yang</a>, Co-CEO, WuXi AppTec
8:10 Rising to the Challenge 
<a href="#michelle-mcmurry-heath">Michelle McMurry-Heath</a>, President &amp; CEO, Biotechnology Innovation Organization 
<a href="#steve-bates">Steve Bates</a>, CEO, BioIndustry Association 
<a href="#arnaud-bernaert">Arnaud Bernaert</a>, Global Head, Platform for Shaping the Future of Health and Healthcare, World Economic Forum 
Session Leader: <a href="#steve-yang">Steve Yang</a>, Co-CEO, WuXi AppTec
8:40 Better Medicines Faster 
<a href="#steve-hitchcock">Steve Hitchcock</a>, Head of Research, Takeda 
<a href="#bahija-jallal">Bahija Jallal</a>, CEO, Immunocore 
<a href="#ameet-nathwani">Ameet Nathwani</a>, CEO, Dewpoint Therapeutics 
<a href="#michael-rosenblatt">Michael Rosenblatt</a>, CMO, Flagship Pioneering 
Session Leader: <a href="#selina-koch">Selina Koch</a>, Executive Editor, BioCentury
9:20 The Path to Acceleration 
A conversation between <a href="#clifford-hudis">Clifford Hudis</a>, CEO, American Society of Clinical Oncology and <a href="#michael-varney">Michael Varney</a>, Chairman of R&amp;D, ERASCA; Senior Advisor, Frazier Healthcare
9:40 Innovation That Matters 
A conversation between <a href="#robert-nelsen">Robert Nelsen</a>, Co-Founder and Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners and <a href="#michael-martin">Michael Martin</a>, Global Head of Takeda Ventures
10:00 Day 1 Adjourns

Day 1 STATE OF INNOVATION 2021

8:00 Welcome 
<a href="#karen-chen">Karen Chen</a>, CEO, Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation 
<a href="#david-chang">David Chang</a>, CEO, WuXi Advanced Therapies, WuXi AppTec
8:05 Twenty Years of Progress in Cancer. What to Expect Next? 
A conversation between <a href="#jose-baselga">José Baselga</a>, EVP &amp; President, Oncology R&amp;D, AstraZeneca and <a href="#nina-kjellson">Nina Kjellson</a>, General Partner, Canaan Partners
8:25 The Aging and Brain Challenges: Are We at the Cusp of Breaking Through? 
<a href="#howard-federoff">Howard Federoff</a>, CEO, Aspen Neuroscience 
<a href="#howard-fillit">Howard Fillit</a>, Founding Executive Director and CSO, Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation 
<a href="#irene-griswold-prenner">Irene Griswold-Prenner</a>, CEO &amp; CSO, Nitrome Biosciences 
<a href="#rudolph-tanzi">Rudolph Tanzi</a>, Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School; Vice-Chair, Neurology, MGH 
Session Leader: <a href="#barbara-dalton">Barbara Dalton</a>, Managing General Partner, Pfizer Ventures; VP Worldwide Business Development, Pfizer
9:05 Delivering the Promise of Cell and Gene Therapies 
<a href="#jeffrey-bluestone">Jeffrey Bluestone</a>, President &amp; CEO, Sonoma Biotherapeutics 
<a href="#steve-harr">Steve Harr</a>, President &amp; CEO, Sana Biotechnology 
<a href="#sekar-kathiresan">Sekar Kathiresan</a>, CEO, Verve Therapeutics 
<a href="#kartik-ramamoorthi">Kartik Ramamoorthi</a>, Co-Founder &amp; CEO, Encoded Therapeutics 
Session Leader: <a href="#edward-hu">Edward Hu</a>, Vice Chairman of the Board and Global Chief Investment Officer, WuXi AppTec
9:45 Day 2 Adjourns

Day 2 WHEN PAST MEETS FUTURE

8:00 Welcome 
<a href="#annette-bakker">Annette Bakker</a>, President, Children’s Tumor Foundation 
<a href="#richard-soll">Richard Soll</a>, Head of WuXi AppTec’s Boston Office; Senior Advisor of Strategic Initiatives
8:05 Shaping the Next Twenty Years 
<a href="#robert-califf">Robert Califf</a>, Head of Clinical Policy and Strategy for Verily and Google Health 
<a href="#aviv-regev">Aviv Regev</a>, Head, Genentech Research and Early Development 
Session Leader: <a href="#amir-nashat">Amir Nashat</a>, Managing Partner, Polaris Partners
8:30 The New Era of Medicines 
<a href="#chris-chen">Chris Chen</a>, CEO, WuXi Biologics 
<a href="#yvonne-greenstreet">Yvonne Greenstreet</a>, President &amp; COO, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals 
<a href="#nello-mainolfi">Nello Mainolfi</a>, Co-Founder, President &amp; CEO, Kymera Therapeutics 
<a href="#laura-shawver">Laura Shawver</a>, CEO, Silverback Therapeutics 
Session Leader: <a href="#john-carroll">John Carroll</a>, Chief Editor &amp; Founder, Endpoints News
9:10 When Technology Meets Healthcare 
<a href="#kate-bingham">Kate Bingham</a>, Managing Partner, SV Health Investors 
<a href="#david-jaffray">David Jaffray</a>, SVP, Chief Technology &amp; Digital Officer and Professor, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center 
<a href="#vijay-pande">Vijay Pande</a>, General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz 
<a href="#daphne-zohar">Daphne Zohar</a>, Founder &amp; CEO, Member of the Board of Directors, PureTech Health                                         Session Leader: <a href="#michal-preminger">Michal Preminger</a>, Head, Johnson &amp; Johnson Innovation East North America
9:55 Closing Remarks 
<a href="#hui-cai">Hui Cai</a>, Forum Chair; VP and Head of Content Division, WuXi AppTec

Day 3 FROM SICK CARE TO HEALTH CARE

This year, the ninth annual WuXi Global Forum premiered virtually and concurrently during the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference week. With the theme of “Advancing Breakthroughs for Patients,” this year’s Forum included forty-three industry leaders on a total of 10 panels during three sessions, where they addressed key topics and questions relevant to the current and future state of the healthcare and biotechnology industry.
As speakers reflected upon issues such as 2020’s impact on our industry, current paths toward drug breakthrough acceleration, and the outlook for the next 20 years, their personal experiences and expertise promoted inspired thinking and engaging discussions.
At WuXi AppTec, we aspire to work collaboratively to solve industry-wide problems and bring transformational medicines and treatments to patients. We look forward to working alongside all of you to meet the challenges ahead in 2021.
Thank you for tuning into our programs, and a special thank you to our WuXi Global Forum 2021 partners: BioCentury, BioIndustry Association, BioWorld, Biocom, California Life Sciences Association, Children’s Tumor Foundation, Endpoints News, MBC BioLabs, Pharma Intelligence | informa, QB3 and Swiss Biotech Association.
The full event agenda and distinguished speaker bios can be found below. For more insightful content and upcoming events subscribe to <a href="https://wxpress.wuxiapptec.com/">WXPress</a> and follow @WuXi_AppTec.

KV-1152×648

Dr. Hui Cai joined WuXi AppTec in 2009 as Vice President of Business Development, and is currently Vice President of Corporate Alliances, and Head of PR and Corporate Communications. Prior to WuXi, Dr. Cai spent 10 years at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development leading multiple drug discovery programs in the therapeutic areas of inflammation and autoimmune diseases. She is a co-author and co-inventor to over 40 scientific publications and issued or pending patents. Dr. Cai is a Councilor of the American Chemical Society (ACS), a member of BayHelix, and a member of the UCSD Alumni Board. In her past capacity, she served as a Commissioner at the City of San Diego Science and Technology Commission, Chair of SABPA, and President of SDCA. Dr. Cai received her BS and MS in Chemistry from Peking University, PhD from The Scripps Research Institute, and MBA from UCSD Rady School of Management as a DLA Piper – Athena Scholar.

Hui Cai

hui cai

Forum Chair, VP and Head of Content Division, WuXi AppTec 

Dr. Steve Yang is Co-CEO of WuXi AppTec. He is also WuXi AppTec’ s Head of Research Service Division and Head of WuXi Testing. His responsibilities include management of multiple business units and commercial operation. WuXi AppTec provides a broad portfolio of R&D and manufacturing services that enable companies in the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries worldwide to advance discoveries and deliver groundbreaking treatments to patients.  

Dr. Yang is a pharmaceutical industry leader recognized for building R&D and service capabilities, delivering research and early development portfolios of drug candidates, and establishing R&D partnerships in US, Europe, China and other Asian and emerging markets. Before joining WuXi AppTec, Dr. Yang was Vice President and Head of Asia and Emerging Markets iMed at AstraZeneca, based in Shanghai. Previously, Dr. Yang served as Vice President and Head of Asia R&D at Pfizer based in Shanghai, and as Executive Director and head of Pfizer’s global R&D strategic management group based in the United States. 

Dr. Yang received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of California, San Francisco. He started his undergraduate study in Fudan University, China and completed his BS Summa Cum Laude from Michigan Technological University. He co-founded the BayHelix Group, a non-profit global professional organization of Chinese life science business leaders, and served as the chairman of the board for two terms.

Steve Yang

steve yang

Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath assumed the leadership of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) on June 1, 2020. A medical doctor and molecular immunologist by training, Dr. McMurry-Heath becomes just the third leader of the world’s largest biotechnology advocacy group since BIO’s founding in 1993. Based in Washington D.C., BIO represents 1,000 life sciences companies and organizations from 30 countries. 
McMurry-Heath has worked across academia, nonprofits, government, and industry, but her common focus has been broadening access to scientific progress so more patients from diverse backgrounds can benefit from cutting-edge innovation. Driven by her own past family experiences navigating clinical trials and funding challenges within the rare disease community, Dr. McMurry-Heath calls “the distribution of scientific progress the social justice issue of our age.”
She comes to BIO from Johnson & Johnson where she served as Vice President of Global External Innovation and Global Leader for Regulatory Sciences, leading an international team of 900 working in 150 countries. Earlier in her career, she served as a health and science adviser in the United States Senate. President Obama chose her to be a member of his science transition team before naming her associate science director in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health
McMurry-Heath received her MD/PhD from Duke University’s Medical Scientist Training Program, becoming the first African American ever to graduate from the prestigious dual-degree program.   She also spent 12 years as a laboratory scientist working at the research bench.


Michelle McMurry-Heath

Michelle McMurry

President & CEO, Biotechnology Innovation Organization

Steve Bates has been the CEO of the UK Bioindustry Association since 2012. He currently chairs the International Council of Biotech Associations and has been a Board member of Europabio since 2015. Steve is the visible face of the vibrant UK life sciences industry to government and media. He sits on the UK’s Life Sciences Council and Life Sciences Industrial Strategy Implementation Board. Steve has championed with government effective industrial incentives like the Biomedical Cataylst which have crowded-in private sector investment into UK SMES. He has forged links for the sector across the USA, Europe and in China. In his time at the BIA Steve has developed new member groups focused on cell and gene therapy, genomics and engineered biology. A strong advocate of partnership working, Steve champions sector collaboration with research charities and academia. Proud to lead an organisation with a diverse Board with over 40% female representation, Steve is committed to next generation talent and developing the skills needed for the sector to flourish. Before the BIA, Steve worked for Genzyme and as an advisor to the UK Government of Tony Blair. He was made OBE for services to innovation in 2017.

Steve Bates

CEO, BioIndustry Association 

When it comes to context, by 2050, the world’s population is
expected to rise to 9.7 billion, with 2 billion over the age of 60. The
world is ill-equipped to respond to this paradigm shift and the global
health system will have to undergo major transformation to provide
an environment in which people live healthier and longer lives with
health security across borders, and with access to affordable care.
Arnaud Bernaert believes indeed that in the next decade, Healthcare
delivery systems will have to transform radically. He believes that
capital intensive, hospital centric, interventions driven systems are
ones of the past, as they have demonstrated they are both
unsustainable and ineffective. His theory of change is that the Future
of Health and Healthcare resides into high-touch, data enabled
delivery systems, integrated across the continuum of care from
prevention to care delivery, with the patients becoming consumers of
most care services in non-acute care settings. He additionally
believes that complex care will be transformed by Precision Medicine
as enabled by progress in genomics, regenerative medicine and
clinical analytics. Finally he believes in a population based approach
to health promotion and disease prevention enabled by a transformed
global health architecture based on purposeful public and private
cooperation. 
An MBA graduate from HEC, Arnaud Bernaert dedicated his prolific career to strategy, partnerships, M&A and Healthcare policy matters.
He also published extensively on those themes and received
significant media coverage. This he has done first as a senior
executive in multinational organizations such as Baxter and Philips
Healthcare, then as the Global Head for Health and Healthcare
Industries at the World Economic Forum, Arnaud Bernaert has a
unique understanding of Global Health and Healthcare challenges. He
also maintains deep personal connections within a unique network of
industry CEO’s, policy makers, regulators, heads of international
organizations and civil society leaders.
As a member of the Executive Committee of the World Economic
Forum, Arnaud Bernaert has launched defining public private
coalitions in fields as diverse as epidemics preparedness, vaccines
and antibiotics innovation, value based healthcare, precision medicine
regulations, access to primary care, payment reforms, healthcare IT
just to name a few. On such matters and many others, he also
addressed as key note speaker, panelist, moderator or knowledge
expert the participants of the most prestigious global healthcare
gatherings in Davos, UNGA, Forbes conferences, World Health
Assembly week, World Health summit and many other conferences.

Arnaud Bernaert

Arnaud

Global Head, Platform for Shaping the Future of Health and Healthcare, World Economic Forum

Dr. Steve Hitchcock is Head of Research for Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd.  He joined Takeda in 2012 via Takeda’s acquisition of Envoy Therapeutics where he was Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery and also held the position of Adjunct Professor at The Scripps Research Institute. Prior to Takeda, Dr. Hitchcock had served in senior leadership positions in the research organizations at Eli Lilly and Amgen. He received a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from The University of Nottingham (U.K) and completed a NATO postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University. Over a career spanning 23 years in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology arena, Dr. Hitchcock has been fortunate to work with teams that have developed therapeutic drug candidates spanning a variety of disease indications. He places a strong emphasis on early establishment of pharmacodynamic-pharmacokinetic relationships and translational biomarkers, including the development of drug-target occupancy tracers, and is a recognized expert in the area of blood-brain barrier permeability and small molecule entry into the CNS. Dr. Hitchcock also has a keen interest in structure-based and computational property- and ligand-based drug design principles and applications of biophysics and fragment-based approaches to drug discovery. He is a co-author on over 70 patents, patent applications, papers and review articles.

Steve Hitchcock

Hitchcock

Head of Research, Takeda

Dr. Bahija Jallal is Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Board of Immunocore. Prior to joining Immunocore in January 2019, she was President of MedImmune, AstraZeneca’s global biologics research and development unit. She was also Executive Vice President of AstraZeneca and a member of its senior executive team.

Bahija serves on the Boards of Anthem, Inc. and Guardant Health. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Johns Hopkins University and the Board of Directors of the University of Maryland Health Sciences Research Park Corporation.

Bahija has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and has more than 15 patents. She is a Council Member of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. She is also the immediate past president of the Association of Women in Science. Bahija was named the 2017 Woman of the Year by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association.

Prior to joining MedImmune, Bahija was Vice President, drug assessment and development, at Chiron Corporation, where she successfully established the company’s translational medicine group. Prior to Chiron Corporation, she was part of the research team at Sugen, Inc.

Bahija received her PhD in Physiology from Université de Paris VI, France and conducted her post-doctorate work in molecular biology and oncology at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Germany.


Bahija Jallal

CEO, Immunocore

Ameet Nathwani, M.D., is the CEO of Dewpoint Therapeutics, the biomolecular condensates company, and has more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Ameet was most recently an Executive Committee member at Sanofi SA, where he served as Chief Medical Officer, Head of Medical, and Chief Digital Officer and was responsible for enhancing Sanofi’s strategy to integrate digital technologies and medical science to ultimately improve patient outcomes.
Prior to joining Sanofi, Ameet was the Global Head of Medical Affairs and a member of the Pharma Executive Committee at Novartis Pharma AG, where he led the establishment of a Real World Evidence Center of Excellence and Digital Medicine capabilities. Over his 11 years at Novartis, Ameet held a number of senior development and commercial positions including the Global Head of the Critical Care Business Franchise, Senior Vice President, and Global Development Head of the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Franchise. Prior to joining Novartis, Ameet held senior roles in R&D at GlaxoSmithKline, SmithKline Beecham, and Glaxo Group Research in both the UK and U.S.
Across his career in R&D, Ameet has been responsible for the development of over 20 drugs, four of which went on to become blockbusters
Ameet earned his medical degree from the University of London, specialized in cardiology and intensive care medicine, and holds an MBA. 


Ameet Nathwani

CEO, Dewpoint Therapeutics

Dr. Michael Rosenblatt’s career has been in academia, pharma and biotech/venture. He is a physician—scientist, now serving as Chief Medical Officer of Flagship Pioneering in Cambridge, MA, a firm that originates new biotech companies.  Previously, he was Merck’s Chief Medical Officer.   He also served as Dean of Tufts University School of Medicine, and before that, Robert Ebert Professor of Molecular Medicine and George R. Minot Professor at Harvard Medical School. He was President of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Director of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. 
At Merck, he co-led the worldwide development team for alendronate (FOSAMAX), Merck's bisphosphonate for osteoporosis and bone disorders.  He has been on the board of directors and scientific advisory boards, including Ferring Pharmaceuticals (U.S. Division), Rubius Therapeutics, Brooks Automation and several biotech start-ups.
He is a member of the Harvard Medical School (HMS) Board of Fellows and on research advisory committees of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Children’s Hospital (Boston), and is a member of the Cures Acceleration Network Review Board of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Rosenblatt received the Fuller Albright Award for his work on parathyroid hormone and the Vincent du Vigneaud Award in peptide chemistry and biology, and the Chairman’s Award from Merck. 
He graduated summa cum laude from Columbia, and received his M.D. magna cum laude from Harvard.  Internship, residency, and endocrinology training were all at the Massachusetts General Hospital. 


Michael Rosenblatt

CMO, Flagship Pioneering

Selina Koch is an Executive Editor for the biopharma business intelligence platform BioCentury Inc., where she manages deep-dive analyses into emerging trends in basic and translational science, biotech investments and deals, clinical development, regulatory innovation and market access. Her bylined articles in BioCentury’s publications often focus on neuroscience, a field in which she has a PhD from the University of California, San Francisco.



Selina Koch

Executive Editor, BioCentury

Dr. Hudis is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). He also serves as the Executive Vice Chair of its Conquer Cancer Foundation and Chair of ASCO’s CancerLinQ. Dr. Hudis previously served in a variety of volunteer and leadership roles at ASCO, including as its President during the Society’s 50th anniversary year (2013-14). Before coming to ASCO full-time, he was the Chief of the Breast Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City and Professor of Medicine at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. As CEO of ASCO, Dr. Hudis is responsible for delivering on the board’s strategic goals through education, research, and support for the delivery of the highest quality of care by the Society’s nearly 45,000 members.



Clifford Hudis

Hudis_Clifford

CEO, American Society of Clinical Oncology

Dr. Varney is an experienced drug discoverer and biotech leader. As one of the original fifteen employees at Agouron, a biotech based in San Diego, he built a team that developed protein-structure based design, a novel approach to drug discovery that is utilized globally by drug discovery teams today. In 1997, the Agouron team launched Viracept, an HIV protease inhibitor that achieved the highest first year launch sales of any biotech product at the time. Dr. Varney’s leadership at Agouron resulted in the discovery of a number of currently marketed anti-cancer agents including Xalkori and Inlyta, a drug that won the American Chemical Society’s Heroes of Chemistry Award in 2018.

In 2005, Dr. Varney was recruited to Genentech, the US based R&D organization of Roche, to expand the organization’s drug discovery capabilities to include small molecules. Focused on agility and pioneering science, Dr. Varney built a team-based organization that today produces more that 40% of Genentech’s development portfolio, including the marketed anticancer agents Erivedge and Cotellic.

In 2015, Dr. Varney was appointed Executive Vice President and Head of Genentech’s Research and Early Development (gRED) and a member of the Roche Corporate Executive Committee in Basel. In this role,  he was responsible for all aspects of gRED innovation, drug discovery and development. Dr. Varney also focused on building a team-based culture empowered to clear the path to patients. Under his leadership, gRED teams discovered and developed successful medicines that include Venclexta with AbbVie, the first bcl-2 inhibitor and Polivy, an antibody drug conjugate for the treatment of DLBCL. Pioneering molecules in the clinic include Mosunetuzumab, a bispecific antibody targeting CD20, and GDC-9545, a next generation estrogen receptor degrader. Dr. Varney retired from Genentech in July 2020, leaving a diversity of drug platform types that includes personalized therapeutic vaccines and cellular therapies. 

Dr. Varney holds a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from the California Institute of Technology, and was an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University.

Michael Varney

Mike_Varney

Chairman of R&D, ERASCA; Senior Advisor, Frazier Healthcare 

Robert Nelsen is a co-founder and a Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners. He joined ARCH at its founding and played a significant role in the early sourcing, financing and development of more than 100 companies, including twenty-three which have reached valuations exceeding $1 billion. His seed and early-stage investments include Illumina (ILMN); Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY); Juno Therapeutics (JUNO); Unity Biotechnology (UBX); Sienna Biopharmaceuticals (SNNA); Vir Biotechnology(VIR); Agios Pharmaceuticals (AGIO); Sage Therapeutics (SAGE); GRAIL; Ikaria; Kythera Biopharmaceuticals (KYTH); Receptos (RCPT); Aviron (AVIR); Denali Therapeutics (DNLI); Prime Medicine; Beam Therapeutics (BEAM); NetBot; Bluebird Bio (BLUE); R2 Technology; XenoPort (XNPT); Caliper Life Sciences (CALP); Trubion Pharmaceuticals (TRBN); Adolor (ADLR); deCODE Genetics; Array BioPharma (ARRY); Editas (EDIT); IDUN Pharmaceuticals; Classmates.com; Hua Medicine; Fate Therapeutics (FATE); Rubius Therapeutics (RUBY); KSQ Therapeutics; WuxiNextCODE; and Everyday Learning Corporation.
 
Mr. Nelsen is a director of Vir Bio, GRAIL, Sana Biotechnology, Beam Therapeutics, Prime Medicine, Lyell, Unity Biotechnology, Denali Therapeutics, Karuna Therapeutics, insitro, Maze Therapeutics, Inc., Encoded Therapeutics and serves as Chairman of Hua Medicine, among others. He previously served as a Trustee of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute, the Institute for Systems Biology, and was a director of the National Venture Capital Association. Mr. Nelsen holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.S. from the University of Puget Sound with majors in Economics and Biology.
 



Robert Nelsen

BobNelsen

Co-Founder and Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners

Michael Martin is the Global Head of Takeda Ventures, Inc. (TVI) and is based in San Diego, California. His professional background includes venture capital, pharma business development and broad R&D experiences with an integral role in the discovery and development of 17 innovative investigational drugs and 4 commercial products. Prior to joining TVI, Michael was most recently a member of Global Licensing and Business Development at Takeda, heading efforts for sourcing and transacting technologies and early stage pipeline programs. He has held executive and scientific roles with Intellikine (acquired by Takeda), TargeGen (acquired by Sanofi-Aventis), Arena Pharmaceuticals and Monsanto Corporation.  Michael earned his doctorate in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Illinois and holds a M.S. degree in analytical chemistry and B.S. degrees in Chemistry and Mathematics.



Michael Martin

Martin

Global Head of Takeda Ventures 

Karen Chen is the Chief Executive Officer of the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation, responsible for overseeing the full range of scientific and drug discovery programs, as well as managing the operations activities. Dr. Chen is a senior research scientist and manager with over 30 years of experience, including 15 years in the pharmaceutical industry, planning, directing, and conducting preclinical research. She has managed departments and groups working on a variety of projects for the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for neurological disorders. Dr. Chen joined the SMA Foundation from Roche Palo Alto where she was Director of Neurosciences and Head of the Alzheimer’s Disease and Neurodegeneration Group. Prior to Roche she was Director of Pharmacology and Head of the In Vivo Neurodegeneration and Behavior Groups at Elan Pharmaceuticals working primarily on therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease. Her post-doctoral training was obtained at Genentech investigating neurotrophic factors therapies for neurodegenerative conditions. Dr. Chen holds an A.B. from Harvard University, and obtained her Ph.D. in Neurosciences from the University of California, San Diego working with Dr. Fred (Rusty) Gage on the behavioral and morphological effects of fetal grafts and neurotrophin administration in models of age-related degeneration. She has over 50 scientific publications and several patents. Dr. Chen currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Bluefield Project and the N-Lorem Foundation, and is an advisor to several other non-profit organizations. Dr. Chen has served on the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) National Advisory Council. She also is the Chief Executive Officer and Cofounder of Imago Pharmaceuticals and on the Board of Directors of Nitrome Biosciences.

Karen Chen

CEO, Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation 

Dr. David Chang has 30-year industrial experience, and is currently the CEO of Wuxi AppTec Advanced Therapies Business Unit located in Philadelphia, PA.  Prior to current role, he was Corporate VP and Head of Cell Therapy Global Manufacturing, of Celgene Corporation; the Global Head of Engineering and Strategy at Roche based in Basel, Switzerland; the VP/Site Head of Roche Shanghai Technical Operations in China.  Earlier in his career Dr. David Chang worked at Genentech as the Senior Director of Global Manufacturing Science and Technology, and as the Director of Process Development in its Oceanside, CA site.  He was also formerly at Biogen Idec as Director of cell culture R&amp;D, at BASF Bioresearch as a cell culture group leader, and at Schering-Plough Research Institute as a process development engineer.
Dr. David Chang obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University in Taiwan, and the Master’s and PhD degrees in Biochemcial Engineering from MIT in Massachusetts, USA.





David Chang

CEO, WuXi Advanced Therapies, WuXi AppTec

Dr. José Baselga joined AstraZeneca (AZ) in January 2019 as EVP & President, Oncology Research & Development and is responsible for an industry-leading pipeline of pharmaceutical compounds from the discovery stage through to late-stage development. With a bold ambition to push the boundaries of science to ultimately eliminate cancer as a cause of death, José has reshaped the AstraZeneca Oncology R&D organization through a strategic focus on transformative medicines, innovative clinical strategy, and executional excellence. With an already diverse portfolio of five existing oncology medicines, and an industry-leading pipeline, José’s vision for transforming survival in cancer is based on treating earlier; delivering deeper responses; better monitoring for relapse; using AI and big data to map cancer inter-dependencies; and breaking the traditional treatment paradigms that currently restrict opportunity for patients. 

José has been instrumental in securing two landmark oncology collaborations with Daiichi Sankyo. This partnership has now delivered approval of Enhertu in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (as well as new data on 4 sub-types gastric cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, colorectal cancer and breast cancer) and most recently with the addition of DS-1062,  a high-potential second-generation antibody drug conjugate against TROP-2, secured the potential to redefine standards of care across a range of cancers.

In 2020 alone, the AstraZeneca Oncology R&D organization under José’s management delivered more than 10 oncology drug approvals and multiple submissions across a wide portfolio of clinical trials. And in  a year when the COVID-19 threatened to set cancer research back years, José made a commitment to clinical trial patients to provide the best possible care throughout. As a result, the R&D organization accelerated multiple ways of simplifying access to our trials and medicines, and capitalized on new digital ways of working. 

Prior to AstraZeneca, José served as the Physician-in-Chief at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College from 2012 to 2018.  MSK is the world’s oldest and largest private cancer center, with operating revenues of $3.5B and over 600,000 patient visits each year.  In this capacity, nearly 2,000 physicians and scientists reported to José , and under his leadership, MSK become the leader in early phase clinical trials for cancer therapies and diagnostic genetic sequencing.      
Prior to joining MSKCC,  José was Chief of the Division of Hematology / Oncology and Associate Director at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  He was also the Chairman of Medical Oncology and Founding Director of the Vall d ‘Hebron Institute of Oncology in Barcelona, Spain. As past President of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), José worked collaboratively with the AACR Board of Directors and the AACR membership to further the mission to cure cancer through research. 

He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and an elected Fellow of the AACR Academy. He is a past President of the European Society for Medical Oncology, where he was recently awarded their Lifetime Achievement Award, a past member of the Board of Directors for the American Society of Clinical Oncology and AACR, member of the Editorial Boards of Cancer Cell, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Clinical Cancer Research and was the founding Editor-in-Chief for the AACR flagship journal, Cancer Discovery.

Dr. Baselga’s long standing research interests are in the development of targeted agents for the treatment of breast cancer and in studying strategies to overcome mechanisms of resistance, with over 500 peer-reviewed publications to date.  His research and clinical achievements have led to the creation of a number of biopharmaceutical companies, and he is an international thought leader for innovation in cancer care and clinical research.  



José Baselga

Jose Baselga

EVP & President, Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca

Nina Kjellson has been a General Partner at Canaan since 2015 and invests in biopharma and digital
health start-ups that serve high unmet needs. She has 20 years of experience funding, growing and
transacting early-stage companies. Current Canaan investments include Pact Pharma, Tizona, Tyra and
Vineti. She also serves on the board of WellTok and previously served on the boards of Labrys (acquired
by Teva), Cidara (CDTX), Trius (TSX, acquired by Cubist), Eiger (EIGR), NovaCardia (acquired by Merck)
and co-sponsored investments into Paratek (PRTK), Tesaro (TSRO, acquired by GSK) and Aspreva (ASPV,
acquired by Galenia), along with numerous other ventures during her tenure at InterWest Partners. As a
leader of Canaan’s Women of Venture program, Nina is a vocal advocate for female entrepreneurs and
investors. She serves as an advisor to Springboard Life Sciences, Nina Capital (no relation), The Gates
Foundation and serves on the boards of Essential Access Health, Girl Effect and the Oliver Wyman
Health Innovation Center. Nina is a 2018 Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow. Prior to InterWest
and Canaan, Nina worked at Bay City Capital, Oracle Partners and the Kaiser Family Foundation. She
holds a B.A. in human biology from Stanford University. Nina is an avid reader, is active in nature, runs,
skis and loves to travel the world.

Nina Kjellson

General Partner, Canaan Partners 

Howard, a translational and clinical neuroscientist, most recently served as the Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and CEO of the UC Irvine Health System prior to joining Aspen in August 2019. Prior to that he was the Dean of the School of Medicine at UC Irvine in addition to serving as a Professor of Neurology. Before coming to UC Irvine, Howard served as the Executive Vice President for Health Sciences at Georgetown University and Executive Dean of Medicine at Georgetown University. He chaired the NIH RAC and AAHC Board of Directors. In addition to his academic roles, Howard has significant biotech industry experience including: co-founding MedGenesis Therapeutix (GDNF therapy for PD in late stage clinical development), co-founding Brain Neurotherapy Bio (AAV-GDNF gene therapy for PD), and he formed, secured funding, and led the U.S. Parkinson disease Gene Therapy Study Group (completed phase 1 trial at NIH). Howard received his MS, MD, and PhD degrees from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and did his internship, residency, and clinical and research fellowships at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Howard is an elected Fellow of the AAAS and National Academy of Inventors.

Howard Federoff

howard

CEO, Aspen Neuroscience

Howard Fillit, MD, Founding Executive Director and Chief Science Officer of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, is an internationally recognized geriatrician, neuroscientist, expert in Alzheimer's disease and an innovative philanthropy executive. The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation is a nonprofit whose mission is to rapidly accelerate the discovery and development of drugs to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease. 

Dr. Fillit has had a distinguished academic medicine career and is currently a clinical professor of geriatric medicine and palliative care, medicine, and neurosciences at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. He has previously held academic appointments at The Rockefeller University and the Weill Cornell School of Medicine. Throughout his career, Dr. Fillit has maintained a limited private practice in consultative geriatric medicine with a focus on Alzheimer’s disease. He has served as a consultant to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and health care companies.  

Dr. Fillit has received numerous awards and honors including the Rita Hayworth Award from the Alzheimer’s Association. He is a fellow of the American Geriatrics Society, the American College of Physicians, the Gerontological Society of America and the New York Academy of Medicine. He has authored or co-authored more than 350 scientific and clinical publications and is the senior editor of Brocklehurst’s Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology currently in its 8th edition.  


Howard Fillit

Founding Executive Director and CSO, Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation

Irene Griswold-Prenner, Ph D, is Founder and CEO/CSO of Nitrome Biosciences. Nitrome Biosciences is a platform company developing drugs against a newly identified class of enzymes, initially targeting Parkinson’s disease. The therapies that Nitrome is developing will target these enzymes and potentially help slow or halt the progression of diseases such as Parkinson’s. While the initial focus is on Parkinson's disease, the company aims to expand its proprietary platform to include other disease indications.  She was previously a Cofounder and the CSO of Imago Pharmaceuticals. Imago, a privately held pharmaceutical company, engaged in development of drug candidates directed against JNK for fibrosis and neurodegenerative disease treatment. Imago acquired Elan Pharmaceuticals’ preclinical assets, including JNK, from which all assets were developed and partnered or sold to biotech or pharmaceuticals to continue their development. She led iPierian’s research efforts when value creation was realized for up to $725 million from the BMS acquisition of iPierian for IPN007, the first tau therapeutic antibody to begin human testing. IPN007 was purchased by Biogen for up to $1.4 billion and is testing in Phase 2 studies for PSP and AD. IPN007 is also the first drug candidate into clinical trials where the discovery originated from an iPSC approach. Irene worked at Elan Pharmaceuticals, contributed to Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Multiple Sclerosis Programs. She received her BA from Colorado University in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Ph. D. from University of Chicago in Physiology and Cellular Pharmacology.

Irene Griswold-Prenner

CEO & CSO, Nitrome Biosciences

Dr. Rudolph Tanzi is the Director of  the Genetics and Aging Research Unit, Co-Director of the McCance Center for Brain Health, Co-Director of the MassGeneral Insititute for Neurodegenerative Disease, and Vice-Chair of Neurology (Research), at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Tanzi discovered several Alzheimer’s disease genes, including all three early-onset familial Alzheimer’s genes, and serves as director of the Alzheimer’s Genome Project, which identified the first innate immune AD gene, CD33. He is also developing therapies for treating and preventing AD using human brain organoid models of the disease. More recently, Dr. Tanzi introduced the “anti-microbial protection” hypothesis of AD implicating infection in the disease process. Dr. Tanzi has published roughly 600 papers, has received numerous awards including the Metropolitan Life Award, Potamkin Prize, Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award, and was on the 2015 TIME100 Most Influential People in the World list. Dr. Tanzi is a New York Times bestselling author, who has co-authored “Decoding Darkness” and three bestsellers with Deepak Chopra: “Super Brain”, “Super Genes”, and “The Healing Self”. He has hosted three Public Television shows, appears on various TV and internet news programs, and in his spare time, plays keyboards for Joe Perry, Aerosmith and other musicians. 

Rudolph Tanzi

Rudolph E. Tanzi

Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School; Vice-Chair, Neurology, MGH

Barbara has led the Pfizer Ventures since joining Pfizer in 2007.  The venture team has invested in ~100 companies and ~20 funds pursuing products, technologies and services, relevant to all aspects of Pfizer’s business, since inception in 2004. The team has been successful in fulfilling their goal of providing financial and strategic returns to Pfizer. Barbara’s pharmaceutical career started in the Immunology Division of Smith Kline & French Research Laboratories.  She moved to venture investing in 1993 when she joined their venture capital group, S.R. One, Limited. In 2000 Barbara became a General Partner in the private venture fund, EuclidSR Partners, that was supported by GSK (then SB) as a sister fund to S.R. One, Limited.   Barbara received her undergraduate degree from Penn State and Ph.D. from the Medical College of Pennsylvania (now Drexel University School of Medicine.)  She has overall responsibility for Pfizer Ventures and directly manages investments in all funds and  specifically the portfolio companies: Artios, Cydan, Imara, Ixchelsis, Levicept, Ravenna, Simcha, System 1.  In addition, she chairs the Healthcare Advisory Board of the Partnership Fund for NYC.  

Barbara Dalton

Managing General Partner, Pfizer Ventures; VP Worldwide Business Development, Pfizer

Dr. Bluestone is the President and CEO of Sonoma Biotherapeutics and the A.W. and Mary Margaret
Clausen Distinguished Emeritus Professor in the Diabetes Center at University of California San
Francisco. Dr. Bluestone has published more than 500 papers over four decades focused on
understanding the basic processes that control T-cell activation and immune tolerance in autoimmunity,
organ transplantation and cancer. His research has led to the development of multiple
immunotherapies, including the first FDA-approved drug targeting T-cell co-stimulation, Abatacept, to
treat autoimmunity and the first FDA-approved checkpoint inhibitor, Yervoy, for the treatment of
metastatic melanoma. He is a leading figure in the development of regulatory T cell therapies.
Dr. Bluestone has been an academic leader as Director of the Ben May Institute at University of Chicago
and the Diabetes Center as well as Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost at UCSF. He was the founding
Director of the Immune Tolerance Network, the largest NIH-funded multicenter clinical immunology
research program, testing novel immunotherapies in transplantation, autoimmunity and asthma/allergy.
He recently led the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy as founding CEO and President. He
served as a member of the Blue Ribbon Panel, appointed by then Vice President Joe Biden, to guide the
National Cancer Moonshot Initiative. Finally, Dr. Bluestone has been elected to the NAM, American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, was the Ludwig Professor at the University of Chicago and received
Guggenheim, Fogarty and American Cancer Society Fellowships.

Jeffrey Bluestone

President & CEO, Sonoma Biotherapeutics

Prior to co-founding Sana, Steve served as Chief Financial Officer and Head of Corporate Development for Juno Therapeutics until its acquisition by Celgene in early 2018. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Loxo Oncology prior to its acquisition by Eli Lilly in early 2019. Steve also was a co-founder and member of the Board of Directors of JW Therapeutics, a cell therapy company in China. Prior to joining Juno, Steve was at Morgan Stanley, most recently as Managing Director and Head of Biotechnology Investment Banking and previously as a biotech research analyst and co-head of global healthcare research.
Steve obtained a BA in Economics from College of the Holy Cross and an MD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He was an Internal Medicine resident at the University of California, San Francisco and performed research at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.


Steve Harr

President & CEO, Sana Biotechnology

Sekar Kathiresan is co-founder and chief executive officer of Verve Therapeutics and serves on the company’s board of directors. He is a preventive cardiologist who has made groundbreaking discoveries of cardioprotective genetic mutations, which confer resistance to cardiovascular disease. Prior to joining Verve, he served as director of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Genomic Medicine and was the Ofer and Shelly Nemirovsky MGH Research Scholar. He also served as director of the Cardiovascular Disease Initiative at the Broad Institute and was professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. His research laboratory focused on understanding the inherited basis for blood lipids and myocardial infarction and using these insights to improve preventive cardiac care. Among his scientific contributions, he has helped highlight new biological mechanisms underlying heart attack, discovered mutations that protect against heart attack risk, and developed a genetic test for personalized heart attack prevention. He was honored with a Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Heart Association in 2017 and the 2018 Curt Stern Award from the American Society of Human Genetics. In tandem with his research, his clinical focus was the primary prevention of myocardial infarction in individuals with a family history of heart attack. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in history from the University of Pennsylvania and received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He completed his clinical training in internal medicine and cardiology at MGH and his postdoctoral research training in human genetics at the Framingham Heart Study and the Broad Institute.



Sekar Kathiresan

CEO, Verve Therapeutics

Kartik Ramamoorthi, PhD, is Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of Encoded Therapeutics. Prior to Encoded, Kartik served on the team that launched Voyager Therapeutics, a gene-therapy company developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Kartik received his Ph.D. in Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience from MIT and his B.S. in Cell Biology and Neuroscience from Rutgers University.



Kartik Ramamoorthi

Kartik-Ramamoorthi

Co-Founder & CEO, Encoded Therapeutics

Vice Chairman and Global Chief Investment Officer at WuXi AppTec. Joined WuXi AppTec since August 2007, Mr. Hu has demonstrated his extraordinary leadership to expand WuXi's business globally. He is a strong business leader with broad experiences in operations management, new business creation and development, venture investments, merger and acquisitions and financial management. Prior to WuXi, Mr. Hu served as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Tanox. His earlier career spanned managerial and financial positions at Biogen and Merck respectively. Mr. Hu has an MBA and Master's degree in Chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University.

Edward Hu

Ed Hu

Vice Chairman of the Board and Global Chief Investment Officer, WuXi AppTec 

Annette, a PhD in Biochemistry, has leadership experience in both the academic and pharma/biotech research enterprise in Italy, Belgium, France, and the USA. Intrigued by the observation that the path from great basic discoveries to equally great clinical benefit is bumpy and often inefficient, she joined the Children’s Tumor Foundation (CTF) in order to try to smooth this path for neurofibromatosis, a rare genetic disorder. The team has built worldwide collaborative science networks, an open biobank, a centralized data collection and integration platform, a patient registry, a key opinion leader (KOL) network, a clinic network etc. Annette feels very strongly about the unique niche role of disease foundation in the R&D ecosystem and involving the patient voice in every initiative. CTF sees patients as partners rather than victims.  She hopes that the new CTF enterprise will not only benefit patients with NF, but may be of value to the larger rare disease community.

Annette Bakker

President, Children’s Tumor Foundation 

Dr. Richard Soll is presently Senior Advisor, Strategic Initiatives for the Research Service Division at WuXi AppTec and Head of the WuXi office in Boston, Massachusetts. He has held various leadership roles at WuXi as Senior Vice President including head of the medicinal chemistry unit known as the International Discovery Service Unit, business development, and corporate alliances. Dr. Soll’s contributions led to the discovery of the HCV NS5A inhibitor elbasvir (a component of Zepatier®) in the Merck-WuXi partnership, the JAK2 inhibitor fedratinib at TargeGen which formed the basis of the $7B partnership between Celgene and Impact Biomedicines, and more than 10 other clinical stage drugs throughout his career. Dr. Soll is currently a board member at Simcha Therapeutics, an board observer at the Accelerator Life Science Parnters, and an advisory board member with the Blavatnik Center for Drug Discovery at Tel Aviv University, the Children’s Tumor Foundation, and the Pistoia Alliance. Dr. Soll was CSO / VP of R&D at TargeGen and was VP of Chemistry at 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals. He started his career at Ayerst Research Labs and was trained as a synthetic chemist at Dartmouth and Harvard.

Richard Soll

Rich Roll

Head of WuXi AppTec’s Boston Office; Senior Advisor of Strategic Initiatives

Robert M. Califf, MD, MACC, is the Head of Clinical Policy and Strategy for Verily and Google Health for Verily and Google Health. Prior to this Dr. Califf was the vice chancellor for health data science for the Duke University School of Medicine; director of Duke Forge, Duke’s center for health data science; and the Donald F. Fortin, MD, Professor of Cardiology. He served as Deputy Commissioner for Medical Products and Tobacco in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 2015-2016, and as Commissioner of Food and Drugs from 2016-2017. A nationally and internationally recognized leader in cardiovascular medicine, health outcomes research, healthcare quality, and clinical research, Dr. Califf is a graduate of Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Califf was the founding director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute and is one of the most frequently cited authors in biomedical science.

Robert Califf

Robert M. Califf

Head of Clinical Policy and Strategy for Verily and Google Health 

Aviv Regev joined Genentech in August 2020 as Executive Vice President, Genentech Research and Early Development. In this role, she is responsible for the management of all aspects of gRED’s drug discovery and drug development activities. In addition, she is a member of the Genentech Executive Committee and a member of the expanded Corporate Executive Committee for Roche. 

Prior to Genentech, Regev served as Chair of the Faculty, Core Institute Member, founding director of the Klarman Cell Observatory, and member of the Executive Leadership Team of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, as well as Professor of Biology at MIT and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She is a founding co-chair of the Human Cell Atlas. 

Regev has served on multiple corporate advisory, scientific advisory, and journal editorial boards, including the advisory committee to the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health. 

Regev is a leader in deciphering molecular circuits that govern cells, tissues and organs in health and their malfunction in disease. Her lab has pioneered foundational experimental and computational methods in single-cell genomics, working toward greater understanding of the function of cells and tissues in health and disease, including autoimmune disease, inflammation and cancer. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine, and she is also a Fellow of the International Society of Computational Biology. In 2020, she was the recipient of several accolades including the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences, Massachusetts General Hospital’s Jonathan Kraft Prize, and the European Society of Human Genetics’ Mendel Award.

Regev has a Ph.D. in computational biology and a Master of Science from Tel Aviv University. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two children.

Aviv Regev

Aviv

Head, Genentech Research and Early Development

Amir is a managing partner in Polaris’ Boston office. He joined Polaris in 2002 and focuses on investments in healthcare.
Amir currently represents Polaris as a Director of AgBiome, CAMP4 Therapeutics, Dewpoint Therapeutics, Freenome, Metacrine Therapeutics, Morphic Therapeutic (NASDAQ: MORF), Scholar Rock (NASDAQ: SRRK), and Syros Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SYRS). 
Additionally, Amir has served as a director of Adnexus Therapeutics (Bristol Myers Squibb), Athenix Corporation (Bayer), Avila Therapeutics (Celgene), Fate Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FATE), Living Proof (Unilever), Promedior Pharmaceuticals, Receptos (Celgene), Selecta Biosciences (NASDAQ: SELB), Sun Catalytix (Lockheed Martin), and TARIS Biomedical (J&J). 
In addition to his investment role, Amir has served as the CEO of Dewpoint, Jnana, Living Proof, Olivo Labs, and Sun Catalytix. Amir also serves on the Partners Innovation Fund and the Investment Advisory Committee for The Engine at MIT, and helped launch the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund as its active president.
He has been named to the Forbes Midas List of “Top 100 Venture Capitalists.”
Prior to joining Polaris, Amir completed his ScD as a Hertz Fellow in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a minor in Biology under the guidance of Dr. Robert Langer. Amir also earned both his MS and BS in Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.


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