TBA

Dinesh de Alwis, PhD has over 25 years of global experience in the pharmaceutical industry, working with large and small molecules from discovery to regulatory filing and post marketing. He is currently SVP, Clinical Drug Development at Generate Biomedicines and has responsibility for all aspects of IND submissions and FIH / POC studies across immunology, infectious diseases, and oncology therapeutic areas.

He was previously an Associate Vice President in Quantitative Pharmacology within Oncology Early Development at Merck. During the 10 years at Merck, Dr de Alois played a significant part in the early oncology dose finding and registration of Keytruda for Melanoma, NSCLC and multiple other indications including the first tumor agnostic biomarker (e.g MSI-hi) approval for cancer using a basket trial design.

Before Merck, Dr de Alois held several leadership and scientific roles at Eli Lilly and Company for 15 years and led the PK/PD Group in the UK from preclinical to late development across several therapeutic areas Dr de Alwis has published over 50 peer reviewed papers and received his PhD from the University of Manchester (1997), UK in the field of Population PK/PD.

Aaron Cooper, PhD, is Vice President of Early Discovery at ArsenalBio, where he leads Synthetic Biology and Immunology teams in developing and applying synthetic receptors, logic gates, and other cell therapy technologies to enhance both product pipeline and platform capabilities. Dr Cooper has extensive experience in syn bio/gene therapy/cell therapy, and previously served as Head of Platform Development at Octant Bio, utilizing syn bio and multiplexing tech to create SM/protein therapeutics. He also worked on synthetic receptor technologies (including synNotch) and gene delivery platforms at Cell Design Labs/Kite Pharma/Gilead Sciences

Christine McLennan joined BioNTech during the global pandemic, as she was impressed with BioNTech’s passion and commitment to improving the health of people worldwide with innovative immunotherapies. Christine began her career as a clinical nutritionist at McMaster University, where compassionate, patient-centered care and evidenced-based medicine were fundamental to clinical practice. She then moved to the Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology at Boston University, where she managed NIH-funded research studies in heart disease, arthritis, and osteoporosis. Since 2008, she has directed oncology clinical trials of immune-based therapies. She is an accomplished research professional with over 20 years in clinical research and a strong passion to drive research policy and operations to incorporate the patients voice into clinical trial design and meaningful study endpoints. She is committed to implementing technology-based solutions to reduce respondent burden on patients and site research teams, which will ultimately enhance the overall efficiency of trial operations and bring new medicines to market more quickly. She is also actively engaged in efforts to address barriers to clinical trials, especially to underserved communities. Her goal as a healthcare professional is to engage in efforts that create access to effective and affordable health care for people across the globe.

Jannie Laursen is the Head of Patient Strategies & Insights at Novo Nordisk A/S,. Holding a PhD in Patient Engagement, she has dedicated her career to bridging the gap between scientific innovation and patient needs. Dr Laursen has played a pivotal role in establishing patient-centered initiatives within various healthcare organizations, emphasizing the importance of incorporating patient insights into strategic decision-making processes. Her expertise lies in developing robust governance models and frameworks for including patient insight, driving meaningful collaborations across multidisciplinary teams. Through her leadership, Dr Laursen continues to advocate for the advancement of patient-centric care, aiming to improve healthcare outcomes and experiences for individuals worldwide.

Swayampakula Ramakanth, PhD is a Managing Director of Equity Research at H.C. Wainwright whose research focuses on the healthcare sector. Dr. Ramakanth’s research covers companies operating in oncology, wound health, medical devices, spine health and AI based drug discovery. He possesses over twenty years of experience as a Life Sciences Equity Analyst as well as seven years of biotechnology industry experience.

Prior to joining H.C. Wainwright, Dr. Ramakanth worked as a Junior Analyst at both Jefferies and Merrill Lynch covering large cap pharmaceuticals. Dr. Ramakanth was also a Junior Analyst at both First Albany and Rodman & Renshaw where he focused on biotechnology companies. He also conducted bench research and directed a preclinical drug development group at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Dr. Ramakanth presented at various regional and international conferences and published in several peer-reviewed journals.
His educational background includes a Ph.D. in Pharmacology/Toxicology from the University of Utah, an MBA from Rutgers University, an M.S. in Pharmaceutics from Auburn University, and a B. Pharm (Hons.) from BITS, India. Dr. Ramakanth also held a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Abigail Newell, PhD is a Director of Research at Cancer Support Community (CSC). She received her PhD in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was an award winning undergraduate instructor and researcher.

Prior to joining CSC, she conducted mixed methods research on four interdisciplinary teams, performed program evaluation for a non-profit dedicated to ending health disparities, and served as an editorial assistant for Social Forces journal. Her research spans a variety of topics, including intersectional health disparities, healthcare policy, and program development and evaluation. At CSC, Dr Newell is responsible for designing and conducting mixed methodology research projects on health service delivery, patient and caregiver experiences, quality of life, and health equity. She is passionate about conducting rigorous research to ensure that CSC's programs and education continue to meet the diverse and dynamic needs of patients, survivors, and caregivers.

Dr Ann-Marie La Ronde-Richard is Director and Patient Engagement Lead in the Translational Clinical Sciences Unit in Pfizer Research and Development. Formerly Principal Scientist in the Internal Medicine Research Unit, Ann-Marie has been at Pfizer for a total of 17 years.

As Patient Engagement Lead, Ann-Marie is now in a unique position to bridge the gap between patients and those working to develop breakthrough therapies to improve their lives, ensuring that researchers better understand the experiences and unmet medical needs of diverse patient populations living with disease. Her role entails partnering with Patient Advocacy Groups, patients and their families to ensure that patients’ perspectives and needs are incorporated into the drug development strategy from beginning to end to ultimately improve health outcomes for all.

Dr La Ronde-Richard obtained her BS degree from Suffolk University in Boston and then completed her Doctorate in Pathology at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr La Ronde-Richard is also the cofounder of the Dominican Health and Education Initiative (DAHEI), a 501c3 organization founded in 2013, focused on improving the quality of life for Caribbean individuals, families and communities, including from her native island, Dominica, through enhancing education, healthcare and training.

Jin Kim is the CEO and Founder of Miracle, a platform helping biopharma companies accelerate clinical trials by replacing manual, spreadsheet-driven workflows with automated, real-time operational insights.

With a background in data integration, interoperability, and large-scale healthcare analytics, Jin has led major initiatives across pharmaceutical companies and health systems to unify data from historically siloed sources, such as EDC, IRT, RTSM, labs, safety/PV, and recruitment platforms. Through that work, he uncovered a universal industry problem: critical operational insights buried across disconnected systems, forcing teams into slow, reactive, and error-prone manual reconciliation.

Miracle was built to eliminate that bottleneck. Today, the platform powers dozens of Phase 1-3 trials across multiple therapeutic areas, giving teams clearer visibility, stronger oversight, and faster decision-making. Miracle customers routinely reclaim 30% of time previously spent on manual trackers, and several have completed studies 3-4 months ahead of schedule, enabling earlier program starts and extending precious runway.

Jin holds multiple degrees from MIT and is driven by a simple mission to bring automation and operational intelligence to clinical trials so life-saving therapies reach patients faster.

Dr. Harpreet Singh serves as Chief Medical Officer of Precision for Medicine, a global leader in biomarker-driven clinical research and development. Dr. Singh was previously an Oncology Division Director at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is responsible for medical strategy and oversight at Precision. She is an experienced leader with a demonstrated track record in building high performing cross functioning teams, developing, and maintaining excellent working relationships with colleagues in academia, industry, and international regulatory bodies. Motivated by a desire to accelerate breakthrough treatments in oncology and rare disease, Dr. Singh has a multi-dimensional understanding of drug development along with deep experience as a medical oncologist, having trained at the National Cancer Institute and the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Singh maintains an active public presence as a thought leader for important issues facing the life sciences industry.

Andy Kinley, Ph.D. is Vice President of Operational Strategy at Precision for Medicine. He is a clinical researcher with over 25 years of combined experience leading basic and clinical research in oncology and hematology. His early scientific career focused on cancer cell signaling, setting a foundation to complement his clinical research roles in trial design and implementation of effective strategies for oncology clinical trials. Dr. Kinley specializes in immuno-oncology trials (checkpoint inhibitors, T-cell agonists, bispecifics, cytokines, oncolytic viruses, neoantigen cancer vaccines), including autologous and allogeneic adoptive cell therapies (CAR-T, TCR, TIL, NK cells).

Scott Chetham PhD is an experienced healthcare entrepreneur who is currently the CEO and co-founder of Faro. Scott leads the strategy for the Faro platform, which is designed to power clinical development by connecting data to decision making in a fundamentally new way. Previously, he was the Head of Clinical Research Operations and Data Management at Verily Life Sciences, formerly known as Google Life Sciences. This multi-faceted strategic and operational role involved leading the clinical strategy, clinical teams, process development and operations for all clinical projects of the company, including Google and Google[x]. Scott has also served as a Venture Partner at Versant Ventures, CTO and Co-founder of Intersection Medical (sold to ImpediMed), and VP Clinical Affairs (ImpediMed). In these latter two roles he was responsible for clinical research strategy and operations.