Nicole Sheetz serves as Sr. Director of Design & Innovation, an organization within Clinical Operations where she leads a team focused on the use of AI within Clinical Development. She has 24 years of experience including clinical program and trial design, decentralized clinical trials, digital health, data sciences, project management, and scientific communication. Nicole holds a PharmD from the University of North Carolina where she developed her passion for clinical research. She spent time at GSK, Lilly and Medidata leading clinical development programs, transformative initiatives, and strategic consulting design engagements. Nicole enjoys working on projects that have a big impact, and her primary focus is clinical design optimization with an eye towards making clinical research accessible for all people.

Armon Sharei, PhD, is the Founder and CEO of Portal Biotechnologies, a cell engineering platform company enabling next generation cell engineering and cell analytics across research and clinical applications. The company is implementing a simplified intracellular delivery approach, focused on accelerating advances enabled by the new generation of RNA, gene editing, and molecular design technologies. Armon was previously founder and CEO of SQZ Biotech and led the company from invention to post-IPO with over $300M in equity financing, a $1Bn Roche collaboration and three clinical trials. Armon received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Stanford and his PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT in the labs of Klavs Jensen and Robert Langer. Dr Sharei has authored 20+ peer-reviewed publications and is the inventor on 20+ patent families. He has been recognized in INC. Magazine’s 30 under 30, Endpoints 40 under 40, and Forbes Magazine’s 30 under 30 in Healthcare.

Vince Masciopinto is currently a Customer Solutions Director at SHL Medical, where he is responsible for supporting pharma and biotech customers in the adoption of customized, complex, and bespoke solutions. Vince works closely with business development, product management, and other teams to guide customers in selecting the right drug delivery solution. He brings with him decades of experience in the healthcare industry, having previously worked at companies like Eitan Medical and West Pharmaceutical Services.

S Chakra Chennubhotla, PhD earned his PhD from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto specializing in computer vision, machine learning and AI. Dr Chennubhotla was tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Computational and Systems Biology at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr Chennubhotla co-founded SpIntellx to actualize the translational potential of these Pitt IP-fueled platforms. Dr Chennubhotla’s experience encompasses years in both industry and academia. He was the lead PI on several National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation grants covering broad areas of bioimaging, molecular biophysics, computational and systems biology, and spatial intratumor heterogeneity. He holds several patents and has published extensively, appearing in Science Translational Medicine and Nature Communications, among other prominent journals.

Delfi Krishna, PhD, MBA joined Immatics in Jan 2021 and is responsible for late-stage development of cell therapies. Dr Krishna has nearly 20 years of experience from discovery to commercialization across 15 biologics and 11 different cell therapies. During her PhD at Georgia Institute of Technology, she designed efficient and targeted retroviral and lentiviral vectors for gene delivery in human cells. After she completed her post doctorate, she worked at GlaxoSmithKline in biologics and cell therapy development. She led large matrix teams to deliver process, product strategy and regulatory submissions for several monoclonal antibodies, domain antibodies and antibody drug conjugates. She executed strategies to reduce cost and increase speed and agility in all phases of development from pre-clinical, through clinical proof of concept, launch and post launch. She designed and delivered technology, portfolio, organizational and talent strategy for the cell therapy business unit. In her current role at Immatics she leads a cross functional medicine development team to bring autologous cell therapies to market. She has recently completed her MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management. Her leadership mission is to inspire colleagues to join her in bringing innovative medicines to patients and while they do so, to help them find their highest potential, their most confidence voice and have loads of fun while we break boundaries together. In her free time, she likes to run science experiments with her daughter and dream about doing T-cell experiments aboard the international space station.

Darren Quinn is the Head of Business Development at BDD Pharma where he leads the global business development and licensing activities.

Darren earned a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, where his industry experience began with a placement as an Organic Chemist at Technologie Servier. He furthered his career at Lonza and Next Pharma, where he specialized in oral solid dosage (OSD) formulation development of BCS Class II and IV molecules.

At BDD, Darren leverages his commercial and scientific expertise to address complex drug development challenges for BDD’s partners and clients.

Eileen Babcock PA-C, MBA is a Senior Director of Clinical Operations at AstraZeneca Biopharmaceuticals R & D. In this capacity she has engaged in the design and delivery of dozens of clinical trials across multiple therapeutic areas including cardiovascular, respiratory, immunology, infectious disease, oncology and most recently, rare diseases. In previous roles, Ms Babcock has worked in rural health delivery. As a representative of the Pharma industry, her passion is health equity and diversity. She has published on operational effectiveness and partnership models.

Marland May is the Associate Director of Clinical Trial Diversity & Patient Inclusion at AbbVie. He specializes in supporting territory development and new clinical investigator acquisition strategies. Through his efforts, AbbVie has established a streamlined process for identifying, training, and onboarding new investigators across the globe. Marland has over a decade of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with leadership roles in global site management, clinical study leadership, and diversity and patient inclusion. He is committed to paving the way for a more equitable healthcare ecosystem for all. Marland first started his career in the mental health field as a clinical therapist and has worked at all levels of education, from elementary to college. He is an advocate for ensuring diverse perspectives are reflected in drug development and promoting inclusivity in clinical research.

Dr Avi Kulkarni is the CEO of ThoughtSphere. Before ThoughtSphere he was President of Sales for Syneos’s $4b+ clinical business, SVP and head of Cognizant’s $b+ life sciences business, and head of Accenture’s global clinical business. Dr Kulkarni has been at the forefront of the drugs and diagnostics industry for three decades, managing clinical trials, launching new diagnostic tests, building cellular medicine capabilities, and publishing extensively in personalized medicine. Dr Kulkarni’s prior roles included: SVP and leader of IQVIA, a CRO, head of Life Sciences R&D at Booz & Co., a management consulting company, and CXO roles at multiple biotechnology start-ups funded by Sand Hill Road venture capital. Dr Kulkarni currently serves on the Board of Directors of Diaceutics. He is a pharmacist who holds a Ph.D. degree in pharmaceutics from Temple University, Pennsylvania, and an MBA from Stanford University, California. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and daughter.

TBA

Brian Weiss is the founder and CEO of Carebox (https://careboxhealth.com). The Carebox Connect platform connects patients and physicians seeking treatment options with clinical trials and is used by leading pharma companies, academic medical centers, and over 40 patient/physician groups. Brian is passionate about empowering patients as the best way to accelerate new treatments and more broadly advance healthcare. Prior to founding Carebox in 2014, he consulted for HL7 on healthcare data standards and led large software development/product organizations in publicly traded CRM and healthcare software vendors. Brian holds a master’s degree in software engineering from Columbia University in New York.

Christopher Kata is a dynamic networker and connector, known for his ability to build powerful, meaningful, and long-lasting industry relationships. His nearly 20 years of experience span the globe, encompassing clients from diagnostic start-ups to international pharmaceutical companies, CROs, and consultancies. In his career, Christopher has taken on various roles, including Chief Innovation Officer, and has extensive experience in sales and marketing within EDC companies. His deep knowledge of the industry and expertise across all EDC vendors in the market make him a valuable asset. He is actively involved in the sales and positioning of TrialStat’s EDC platform, competing with industry giants like Medidata Rave and Merative. Christopher's proactive, creative, and value-adding agility sets him apart. His unique and broad understanding of today’s evolving EDC market makes him an exceptional resource and thought leader. Don't miss the opportunity to connect with Christopher and gain insights from his extensive experience and industry knowledge.