Digital WuXi Global Forum 2023

Dr. Hui Cai joined WuXi AppTec in 2009 as Vice President of Business Development, and is currently Vice President and Head of Content Division.

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 50 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.

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.

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.

John J. Ngai, Ph.D., is the Director of the NIH’s Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative, where he oversees the long-term strategy and day-to-day operations of this ground-breaking enterprise. Dr. Ngai earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biology from Pomona College, Claremont, California, and Ph.D. in biology from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. Prior to joining NIH, as a UC Berkeley faculty member for over 25 years Dr. Ngai trained 20 undergraduate students, 24 graduate students and 15 postdoctoral fellows in addition to teaching well over 1,000 students in the classroom. His work has led to the publication of more than 75 scientific articles in some of the field’s most prestigious journals and 10 U.S. and international patents.

Vijay Pande, PhD, is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he focuses on investments in biopharma and healthcare. As the founding investor of a16z’s Bio Fund, Vijay leads the firm’s investments at the cross section of biology and computer science, including applications in computation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in healthcare; digital therapeutics; diagnostics; and other novel transformative scientific advances applied to industry that take bio beyond healthcare. Op-eds by Vijay defining trends and issues in this emerging space have been published by The New York Times, Scientific American, and Forbes, among others. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University.

Previously, Vijay was the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Structural Biology and of Computer Science at Stanford University, where he led a team of researchers pioneering computational methods and their application to medicine and biology (resulting in over 300 publications, two patents, and two novel drug candidates). Vijay was also concurrently the director of the Biophysics program at Stanford, where he led a team of more than 50 faculty members and propelled the program to the top in the country.

During his time at Stanford, Vijay co-founded Globavir Biosciences, where he translated his research advances into a successful startup that aimed to discover cures for Dengue Fever and Ebola. Vijay also founded the Folding@Home Distributed Computing Project for disease research, which pushed the boundaries of computer science techniques (distributed systems, machine learning, and exotic computer architectures) into biology and medicine, in both research as well as the development of new therapeutics.

Vijay holds a BA in Physics from Princeton University and a PhD in Physics from MIT. He has been awarded the DeLano Prize in Computation; a Guinness World Record for Folding@Home; the American Chemical Society Thomas Kuhn Paradigm Shift Award; and was selected for MIT TR10. In his teens, Vijay was the first employee at video game startup Naughty Dog Software, maker of Crash Bandicoot.

Pande serves on the boards of Apeel Sciences, BioAge, Devoted Health, Freenome, Insitro, Nobell, Omada Health, Q.bio, and Scribe Therapeutics.

Aviv Regev is the head of Genentech Research and Early Development. Prior to Genentech, Regev served as Chair of the Faculty and Core Member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and 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 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 a Fellow of the International Society of Computational Biology. She is a recipient of multiple prizes and honors, including the Overton and Innovator Prizes from the International Society of Computational Biology, the Paul Marks Prize, the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences, and the Keio Medical Science Prize.

Michael Severino has served as Chief Executive Officer of Tessera Therapeutics and CEO-Partner of Flagship Pioneering since June 2022. Mike has more than two decades of biopharmaceutical leadership experience and has made significant contributions to the research, development, registration, and commercialization of more than a dozen approved therapies.

Mike joined from AbbVie where he was Vice Chairman and President responsible for research and development and the corporate strategy office. During his tenure at AbbVie, Mike oversaw a rapid expansion of AbbVie’s pipeline and built critical new capabilities in areas such as genetics and genomics, computational biology, and precision medicine. Under his leadership, AbbVie achieved several important new molecular entity approvals and built leading franchises in hematologic oncology, immunology, and neuroscience.

Prior to joining AbbVie, Mike served in roles of increasing responsibility at Amgen, Inc., leading to his appointment as Senior Vice President, Global Development, and Chief Medical Officer. Mike was previously Senior Director at Merck & Co., Inc. where he was responsible for conducting research in areas, including clinical genomics, molecular profiling, and experimental medicine.

Mike earned his B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Maryland, College Park, where he graduated summa cum laude and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He earned his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University and completed his residency and post-doctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In addition to serving on the board of Tessera as a director, Mike also serves on the Board of Directors for Avantor.

Mathai's mission is to inspire teams to create, make and commercialize medicines and vaccines of unequivocal benefit for humanity. Mathai is in transition from EVP J&J Pharmaceuticals, R&D, where his team has fueled the growth of Janssen over the last five years to be one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Eight major new drugs have been launched over five years, with many more in the next several years, and a stellar pipeline created by a stellar team. Janssen’s approach to medicines balances focus across both individual diseases and biological pathways with an emphasis on immunology. The team is deeply invested deeply in data science in every aspect of R&D and across Janssen. Prior to joining Janssen, Mathai was Senior Vice President at Merck Research Laboratories, responsible for research in the areas of Cardiovascular, Metabolic and Renal Diseases, Oncology/lmmuno¬-Oncology and Immunology. His team initiated numerous new programs and progressed eight into early clinical development. Prior to Merck, Mathai led R&D at Theravance, a company he co-founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1997 based on his work at Harvard University. On the Executive Committee, Mathai created a winning culture. His talented team of 200 scientists nominated 31 development candidates and created five approved products (VIBATIVTM, BREOTM, ANOROTM, TRELEGYTM, YUPELRITM). In 2014, the company was divided into lnnoviva (INVA) and Theravance Biopharma (TBPH). Mathai has more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and patents and serves on various boards and advisory committees. He received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts Institute of Technology (HST program) and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University's Department of Chemistry, working with George Whitesides.

Ros Deegan is CEO OMass Therapeutics, a biotechnology company identifying new medicines against highly validated but inadequately drugged targets in immunology and rare diseases; using novel biochemistry techniques, native mass spectrometry and custom chemistry. Ros joined OMass Therapeutics as CEO in May 2019 from Bicycle Therapeutics where she served as President, Chief Business Officer and a Director of the US subsidiary of the Company. Ros established the Bicycle’s Boston-based subsidiary and over a three-year period led three major transactions and grew the US organisation to more than 20 employees. Prior to that Ros served as Senior Vice President, Business Development and Operations at Trevena, Inc, where she had previously held the role of Head of Finance and Operations. During Ros’ tenure at Bicycle and Trevena, the companies moved four programmes into the clinic, and raised over $300 million in private and public financings. In her earlier career, Ros was Director of Business Development at GSK in the US and, prior to that, she served as Director of Operations for GSK’s Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEED) and as Marketing Manager for GSK’s UK launch of Bonviva for post-menopausal osteoporosis. Ros is a graduate of Cambridge University and received her MBA with distinction from INSEAD.

Dan Nomura is a Professor of Chemical Biology and Molecular Therapeutics in the Department of Chemistry, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology in the Division of Molecular Therapeutics, and the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology at the University of California, Berkeley and an Investigator at the Innovative Genomics Institute. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UCSF. Since 2017, he has been the Director of the Novartis-Berkeley Translational Chemical Biology Institute focused on using chemoproteomic platforms to tackle the undruggable proteome. He is Co-Founder of Frontier Medicines and the Founder of Vicinitas Therapeutics. He is also on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research. He earned his B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology and Ph.D. in Molecular Toxicology at UC Berkeley with Professor John Casida and was a postdoctoral fellow at Scripps Research with Professor Benjamin F. Cravatt before returning to Berkeley as a faculty member in 2011. Among his honors include the National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award, Searle Scholar, and American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award and the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research ASPIRE award.

Nancy K. Pryer, Ph.D. is a translational scientist with a passion for leading collaborative teams advancing targeted therapy from discovery through exploratory clinical development in oncology and rare diseases.

Nancy is Chief Scientific Officer at Ambagon Therapeutics, an early stage company discovering and developing small molecule stabilizers of protein-protein interactions as novel oncology medicines. Prior to that she held executive positions at Nurix Therapeutics and Day One Bio, led Translational Sciences at Biomarin, and led scientific teams at Onyx, SUGEN and Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. She has contributed to the discovery of nine marketed drugs benefiting patients in need.

LANCE STEWART, PH.D., MBA, is the Chief Strategy and Operations Officer of the Institute for Protein Design (IPD), at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine. Since 2013, Dr. Stewart has been a key member of the IPD leadership team, responsible for revenue generation activities as well as providing support for numerous collaborative research projects. He also manages the IPD’s Translational Investigator Research Program, including protein/peptide production technology transfer activities. He has co-founded several Seattle-area biotechnology companies, is an active angel investor, and has served on the board of directors for Tetra Discovery Partners (Grand Rapids, MI, acquired in 2020 by Shionogi). Dr. Stewart earned a PhD in virology and biochemistry at Cornell University, and later an executive MBA from the UW Foster School of Business.

As Head of Discovery and Preclinical Research, Karen guides BioCentury’s coverage of emerging biology and technologies. She has written extensively about immunology, synthetic biology and data science, covering innovative breakthroughs in industry and academia, and dissecting trends in company formation and investments around new science. She coordinates activities and interactions with BioCentury’s Scientific Advisory Board.
Karen joined BioCentury in 2015 after a postdoctoral research fellowship in Stanford University's Department of Chemical and Systems Biology. She holds a Ph.D. in Immunology from Weill Cornell Medicine and a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California Berkeley.

Tom is a veteran entrepreneur who has turned creative scientific visions into successful businesses for both startups and established organizations for over 20 years and has co-founded or helped launch several companies, including Intellia Therapeutics and Eleven Biotherapeutics.

While at Intellia Therapeutics, a CRISPR/Cas9 company which Tom joined as Chief Scientific Officer, he helped build the research team, raise funds (including an IPO), and provide a vision for technology extension. He played a significant role as the corporate spokesperson to lay and industry press, and to governmental and non-governmental organizations on the rapidly evolving and intensely followed CRISPR landscape. Tom has wide-ranging knowledge of biological systems through his work across diverse platforms including gene editing, genomics and gene discovery, small molecule drug repositioning, and protein engineering.

He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge and completed research fellowships at Harvard Medical School and McGill University. He is currently also an Executive Partner at MPM.

John Mendlein, Ph.D., joined Flagship as executive partner in February 2019. A longtime member of Flagship’s broader ecosystem of companies, John is an experienced biotech leader and has served in numerous executive and board roles. At Flagship, John contributes to Flagship’s strategic and operational objectives, including the origination of new Flagship Labs companies. He also serves on the boards of Flagship’s companies and works with portfolio company CEOs and their teams to achieve the best attainable value for each organization.

Throughout his 23+year career in biotech, John has helped start and lead numerous innovative life sciences companies with product platforms. Prior to joining Flagship, John served as president of corporate and product strategy at Moderna Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MRNA), a Flagship Pioneering company, focusing on enterprise and portfolio strategy, program development, partnering, legal, and platform/product protection. He led the cross-functional team responsible for ensuring Moderna’s readiness for its initial public offering in 2018. John was also a member of Moderna’s board of directors from 2012-2018.

He has also held leadership roles at multiple additional biotech enterprises. John was chief knowledge officer and general counsel at Aurora Biosciences (acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals) where he also served as a board member; CEO of Adnexus Therapeutics, a Flagship company (acquired by BMS); executive chairman, founder, and interim CEO of Fate Therapeutics (a publicly traded immuno-oncology cell therapy platform company); and executive chairman and CEO of Affinium Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Debiopharm Group).

John is co-author or co-inventor of over 210 publications and published patents. He is a founder and board member of Homes for Sudan, a non-profit in Boston, and a scientific advisory board member for Ocean Discovery Institute, a non-profit in San Diego. He has served on the boards of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), as well as Flagship’s companies: Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Axcella Health and Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT). John currently serves on the boards of Flagship companies Omega Therapeutics, Laronde, Harbinger Health, and Senda Biosciences Biosciences.

John holds a Ph.D. in physiology and biophysics from the University of California, Los Angeles, a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and a B.S. in biology from the University of Miami.

Dr. Subramanian joined Ascidian from Dyne Therapeutics, which he founded, and where he served as Chief Scientific Officer and CEO. Prior to Dyne, he co-founded Translate Bio (formerly RaNA Therapeutics), which was acquired by Sanofi. Dr. Subramanian has held numerous scientific leadership and advisory positions in RNA therapeutics and currently serves on the advisory board of the Harvard Medical School Initiative for RNA Medicine. He holds a B.S. degree from Loyola College, an M.S. degree from Duke University, and a Ph.D. from Emory University.

Michelle C. Werner is a seasoned pharmaceutical executive with more than 20 years in the industry spanning both commercial and research & development (R&D) responsibilities. Prior to Alltrna, Michelle served as Worldwide Franchise Head, Solid Tumors at Novartis Oncology, where she was responsible for delivering the disease area strategies across multiple tumors and led business development efforts resulting in a doubling of long-term portfolio value for the franchise. Previous to Novartis, Michelle was a senior leader at AstraZeneca and as Global Franchise Head in Hematology, she was critical in launching multiple indications worldwide for CALQUENCE®. Prior to this, Michelle was Head of US Oncology, where she led the business through dramatic growth in both team and revenue through eight-plus product launches. Previous to AstraZeneca, Michelle was with Bristol-Myers Squibb for 10 years in various positions of increasing responsibility including roles in sales, marketing, and market access in the US and UK, and above market in Europe (based in France) and global almost exclusively in oncology. Michelle started her professional career in R&D, working hands-on with patients at the Oncology Clinical Trials Unit at Harvard Medical School before moving into industry in clinical operations. Outside of her corporate responsibilities, Michelle is a wife and mother to three children and is a member of the rare disease community. She is currently serving a Board appointment for the non-profit organization Rare Disease Renegades, a purpose that fuels her passions both personally and professionally.

Nina Kjellson is a General Partner at Canaan Partners, where she invests in biopharma and digital health companies that serve unmet therapeutic and access needs. She is a director of Tyra Biosciences (NADSAQ: TYRA), Panacea Acquisition II (NASDAQ: PANA) and of private biopharmaceutical firms, PACT, Rondo, Sardona, Tizona (optioned by Gilead), and Trishula (optioned by AbbVie). Prior to Canaan, Nina was a General Partner at InterWest Partners where she supported many companies including Aspreva (ASPV; acqd by Galenica); Cidara (CDTX); CNS Therapeutics (acqd by Mallinckrodt), Eiger (EIGR), Labrys (acqd by Teva) Novacardia (acqd by Merck), Paratek (PRTK), Tesaro (TSRX, acqd by GSK) and Trius (TRSX, acqd by Cubist). As a founder of WoVen: Women Who Venture, Nina is a vocal advocate for women entrepreneurs and investors. She is a Health Innovators Fellow of the Aspen Institute and serves as a director of Essential Access Health, Life Sciences Cares Bay Area, Girl Effect and is a member of the Leadership Council of the Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Center. She holds a B.A. in human biology from Stanford University.

Ken Drazan MD is co-founder, CEO, and Chairman of ArsenalBio. Immediately prior to Arsenal, Ken held the position of President of GRAIL where he was an early employee. Prior to GRAIL, Ken founded and was a Board Director of Verb Surgical (Acquired by JNJ). Ken also co-founded and had been remaining a GP of Bertram Capital, a $1.4B AUM private equity firm. Ken is a Board certified liver transplant surgeon with previous faculty appointments at Stanford and UCLA.

Keith Gottesdiener, MD is President and CEO of Prime Medicine and has served as a member of the Company’s Board of Directors since July 2020.

From October 2011 until March 2020, Dr. Gottesdiener served as CEO and a director of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics in rare genetic obesity. During that time, Rhythm submitted a New Drug Application for setmelanotide in two indications, for which setmelanotide was subsequently approved.

Dr. Gottesdiener joined Rhythm after 16 years at Merck Research Laboratories, where, starting in 1995, he held positions of increasing responsibility, including serving as a leader of Merck’s late clinical development organization and leading Merck’s early clinical development across all therapeutic areas. In such roles, Dr. Gottesdiener oversaw, led, or played a lead role in the development of many of Merck’s approved therapeutics and vaccines.

Dr. Gottesdiener received his B.A. from Harvard College and his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his residency and fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital-Beth Israel Medical Center-Dana Farber Cancer Institute Children’s Hospital programs. After his fellowship, Dr. Gottesdiener did postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Jack Strominger at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He then joined the faculty as an assistant professor at Columbia University, where he started an independent research laboratory with NIH RO-1 funding, ending his academic career as Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the time he left to join Merck in 1995.

Dr. Gottesdiener is also a director at Intercept Pharmaceutics, and at Cardurion Pharmaceuticals.

Laura Shawver is Capstan’s President and CEO. Laura most recently served as CEO of Silverback Therapeutics and President and CEO of Synthorx (acquired by Sanofi) and has more than two decades of experience in executive leadership positions, as well as serves on the Board of Directors of public and private companies. She is also founder and director of The Clearity Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving treatment options for women with ovarian cancer.

Catherine is Chief Executive Officer at Chroma Medicine and an Advisor at Atlas Venture. She also serves as an Independent Board member at Generation Bio, Tenaya Therapeutics and Dyne Therapeutics, Inc. Previously, she was Chief Research and Development Officer at Obsidian Therapeutics where she led discovery efforts for their engineered cell and gene therapies. Prior to Obsidian Therapeutics, Catherine was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Atlas Venture and Chief Medical Officer at Sarepta Therapeutics. In addition, Catherine held various leadership roles at Regeneron and Amgen. Catherine received her M.D. from the University of Chicago and trained as a nephrologist and earned her M.S. in epidemiology at University of Washington.

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 AppTec'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 AppTec, 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.

Giulio Draetta, M.D., Ph.D., is senior vice president and chief scientific officer at MD Anderson. Dr. Draetta is also a member of MD Anderson’s faculty as a professor of Genomic Medicine and the Sewell Family Distinguished University Chair. He provides leadership for the institution’s diverse laboratory and clinical research faculty, advocating for both individual- and team science-based innovation, and fostering strong partnerships with the cancer research community worldwide. He also leads the regulatory infrastructure related to research integrity and protocol governance.

Dr. Draetta was a founder and co-leader of the institution’s internationally recognized Moon Shots Program, which today has expanded to include 13 teams focused on specific cancer types and 12 research platforms with expertise and state-of-the-art approaches to support translation of discoveries into therapeutics.

Dr. Draetta is an accomplished scientist and continues running a lab. Focus areas for his research lab include tumor heterogeneity, oncogenic reprograming of epigenetic and metabolic pathways, and mechanisms of disease adaptation and evolution.

Stephen L. Hauser, M.D. is director the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, linking the clinical and basic neurosciences at UCSF to accelerate research against neurologic diseases. Dr. Hauser’s research has advanced our understanding of the genetics, immunology, and treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). His work led to the development of B cell therapies for MS patients, representing a powerful new approach for relapsing forms of the disease and the first therapy of proven value for progressive MS.

Dr. Hauser is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Physicians. He is an editor of the textbook Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. Previously chairman of the Department of Neurology at UCSF for 25 years, he has also served as President of the American Neurological Association, President of the Medical Staff at UCSF, Chair of the Research Advisory Committee for the VA, and editor-in-chief of Annals of Neurology. He also served the Obama administration as a member of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues charged with advising the President on issues that may emerge from advances in biomedicine and related areas of science and technology.

Dr. Hauser has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award; John Dystel Prize for Multiple Sclerosis Research (2008); Charcot Award (2013); Taubman Prize for Excellence in Translational Medical Research (2017); and Scientific Breakthrough Award from the American Brain Foundation (2022).

Joseph C. Wu, MD, PhD is Director of Stanford Cardiovascular Institute and Simon H. Stertzer, MD, Professor of Medicine and Radiology at Stanford University. His lab works on genomics and stem cells. The main goals are to (i) understand basic disease mechanisms, (ii) implement “clinical trial in a dish” concept, and (iii) provide precision medicine treatments for patients. Dr. Wu has published >500 manuscripts with H-index of 115 on Google scholar. He is listed as top 1% of highly cited researchers by Web of Science for past 4 years (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021).

Dr. Wu is co-founder of Greenstone Biosciences, a startup company focusing on using clinical genomics, patient-specific iPSCs, and AI & ML for accelerating drug discovery. Dr. Wu serves on the FDA Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee. He is President-Elect of the American Heart Association.

Dr. Wu is an elected member of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Association of Physicians (AAP), Academia Sinica, and National Academy of Medicine (NAM).

Dr. Christiana (Chris) Bardon is Co-Managing Partner of BioImpact Capital, an affiliate manager of MPM, and leads the firm’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.

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 Dewpoint, Metagenomi, Khloris, Oerth Bio, ADA, and Triumvira. 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.

Sofia Ioannidou joined Andera Partners in 2009 and is a Partner in the Andera Life Sciences team.

Prior to Andera Partners, Sofia was part of the Life Sciences team of L.E.K. Consulting London, from 2006 to 2008, having started her career in R&D with Boston-based Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, Inc., from 2003 to 2006.

Since 2009, she has actively contributed to a number of investments, trade sales and IPOs. Sofia currently serves on the board of Tubulis, Tricares, Avalyn, and Exciva and has previously served on the boards of LogicBio, Sanifit and PegaOne.

She holds a PhD in Cell Biology from Cancer Research UK and an MBiochem from the University of Oxford.

Carol Suh is a Partner with ARCH Venture Partners. She joined the company in 2018 as an Associate and was named Partner in 2021. Carol focuses on identifying and evaluating new life science technologies as well as creating and building new companies. She is a stem cell biologist by training and combines her scientific expertise with experiences on the business side of biotech. Carol is a co-founder and SVP, Strategy at Neumora Therapeutics. She is also a co-founder and Director of Orbital Therapeutics and is a Director of HI-Bio. Carol has helped to build Sana Biotechnology, Autobahn Therapeutics and Boundless Bio among others.

Prior to ARCH, Carol helped launch Magenta Therapeutics, a biotech company transforming the way bone marrow stem cell transplants are performed. Previously, she was a consultant at Trinity Partners, working with a wide range of biotech and pharma companies on corporate strategy, market research, and business development. Carol began her career in R&D Strategy with GlaxoSmithKline’s Regenerative Medicine group. For her work, she was recognized on the 2015 Forbes 30 Under 30 list in Healthcare.

Ms. Suh holds an A.B. in Molecular Cellular Biology from Harvard University, where she trained under Dr. David Scadden at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. She also holds a M.Phil from Yale University and was awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She completed her M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Prof Tan is currently the Assistant Chief Executive of A*STAR's Innovation and Enterprise (I&E) Group, leading the I&E Group in steering efforts to translate A*STAR’s R&D to market so as to enable research-fuelled economic and social impact.

Prof Tan has been various leadership roles in A*STAR from 2009 to date, supporting and leading both the Biomedical Research Council (BMRC) and Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC).
Prof Tan is an Adjunct Professor of Nanyang Technological University's School of Chemical and Bioengineering and Lee Kong Chian Medicine, Adjunct Professor at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore.
Prof Tan is also a member of the Singapore National Eye Centre's Ophthalmic Incubator Board.

Prof Tan was formerly the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Rockeby biomed Limited. Prior to joining Rockeby, he was the Asia-Pacific Associate Regional Medical Director for Mead Johnson Nutritionals, a division of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company from 1997 to 2001.

Prof Tan is a council member of the Singapore Medical Association, as well as SMA Charity Pte Ltd. He was a former Nominated Member of Parliament of Singapore, and a recipient of Friend of Labour Award and the Public Administration Medal (Silver). Prof Tan graduated with MBBS from NUS, and attained his MBA from Warwick University, UK. He attended the Stanford Executive Programme at the Stanford Graduate School Business. Awarded a certificate of completion for the Senior Fellowship in Public Service Programme, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He is an affiliate member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, Royal College of Physicians, UK.

Michal is Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, East North America. Located at the J&J Innovation Center in Cambridge, she leads the J&J Innovation team to build, advance, and manage the External R&D portfolio of co-investments spanning across pharmaceutical, consumer health and medical devices.
Prior to joining J&J, Michal served as the Executive Director of Harvard University’s Office of Technology Development (OTD) Harvard Medical School site, where she was responsible for development and commercialization of technologies emerging from research at HMS laboratories and for the strategy and execution of all industry collaborations. She negotiated agreements with major biopharma, life sciences, food and cosmetics companies to advance the translation of discoveries into products and create a revenue-generating product pipeline and worked with scientific founders and investors to create new startup companies.

Before joining Harvard University’s OTD in 2005, Michal held a number of senior business and technology development leadership positions in the biotech and tech industries and co-founded a biotechnology startup.

Michal serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards FutuRx Accelerator, and, prior to joining J&J was a member of the SAB of a Member of the Board of Directors of a number of not-for-profit entities and companies, including Prize4Life, Compugen Ltd and Alma Lasers.

She holds a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the Weizmann Institute of Science, an MBA from INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France, and a BA in Medicine from Hadassah Medical School, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Dr. Steve Yang is Co-CEO of WuXi AppTec. He is also WuXi AppTec’ s Head of WuXi Biology 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.