Gisela started her career as an oncology and hematology nurse at the Dutch Oncology Institute (NKI) in the Netherlands, where she worked for almost 10 years, including 6 years as a bone marrow transplant coordinator and as a clinical trial research nurse. Her career in rare diseases started at Genzyme where she was responsible for setting up home Enzyme Replacement Therapy products for various Lysosomal Storage Diseases such as Pompe, Fabry and Gaucher disease. As Patientcare Manager she was involved in various projects to support and empower patients and their communities, and bolster awareness and knowledge of the patient experience, both in- and outside the company. In 2016, Gisela became Head of Patient Advocacy in Rare Diseases at Sanofi Genzyme for the EU, later expanding to Patient Advocacy Head for Global, EU and US regarding Pompe and ASMD. During her time there, she developed patient engagement strategies and built relationships with patients and patient organizations in the EU, US, and around the world. In 2022, Gisela brought to current position at Azafaros more than 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with a focus on genuine patient engagement in clinical development in all study stages. Her aim is to bolster the patient’s voice, experience and influence in the development of clinical studies and sustainable access to various treatments.

TBA

Finn McCartney is the HTA4Patients Project Coordinator at EUPATI, a non-profit that provides educational and trainings to patients, patient organisations and other stakeholders in the healthcare space. The focus of his project has been the creation of training resources on the EU HTA regulation to prepare and build capacity in the patient community.

TBA

Dr. Temi Olonisakin is a medical and aesthetic doctor who has been living with type one diabetes for 13 years. Since 2020, she has been producing educational content about diabetes and chronic conditions, motivated by the lack of representation online. As a British-Nigerian, she focuses on breaking down common stigmas within African communities. In addition to her educational efforts, Dr. Temi organises regular events for people with diabetes to connect and support each other. Through her work, Dr. Temi aspires to empower others and foster a more inclusive and supportive space for people living with chronic conditions.

Laura Renton is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in clinical operations, and digital process optimization. Currently serving as the Digital and Process Optimization Manager at GSK since June 2021, Laura plays a pivotal role in implementing Decentralized Clinical Trial (DCT) elements and process and digital solutions for clinical trial operations. Her responsibilities include ensuring the flawless execution of process improvements and optimization solutions to enhance patient satisfaction and clinical efficiency. 

Prior to her current role, Laura served as a Veeva Clinical Operations Vault Subject Matter Expert at GSK from 2020 to 2022, providing critical input on process, training, and implementation, and ensuring cross-functional coordination and alignment. Laura's journey at GSK began in March 2015 as a Senior Clinical Research Associate, managing various clinical trial activities. Prior to joining GSK, Laura worked at Novartis as a Senior CRA, and at a number of CROs in various clinical operations roles. She holds a BSc in Natural Sciences from The Open University.

Connie Takawira has been working at Medicines Discovery Catapult as a partnership manager for the CF AMR Syndicate since early 2022. She plays a key role in overseeing programme-level management, governance, and external engagement activities for the CF AMR Syndicate. Her current focus is on supporting delivery across multiple areas of the programme and progressing cross-collaborative medicines and diagnostics discovery efforts. Connie has a background in clinical pharmacy, working both in the UK and New Zealand where she specialised in respiratory medicine. She holds an MSc  in Global Health from Gothenburg University.

Bert Santy studied Biomedical Sciences, Business Economics and Hospital and Healthcare Management at the University of Leuven. He has been working in Clinical Development and Operations for 19 years. 8 years on the CRO-side as CRA and project manager in trials with pharmaceuticals and with medical devices. And now for 11 years at Boehringer Ingelheim in local and regional functions in the Clinical Development and Operations and Patient Engagement teams. As of February 2022, he took on the role as global Trial Patient and Site Engagement Lead Oncology.

TBA

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