Sam Barker is Chief Business Officer at ViaNautis Bio, where he leads the company’s commercial strategy, partnerships, and communications. ViaNautis is advancing polyNaut®; a novel non-viral delivery system for genetic medicines, designed for precise ex-hepatic, delivery to hard-to-reach tissues such as the brain and immune cells. The platform is helping to unlock new therapeutic opportunities in CNS and autoimmune diseases.

ViaNautis raised a $25 million Series A in 2023 and entered a strategic partnership with Eli Lilly in 2024, reflecting growing industry recognition of the platform’s potential. The company is actively working with partners to address long-standing delivery challenges in genetic medicine, particularly in extrahepatic tissues where alternatives to viral vectors and lipid nanoparticles are urgently needed.

With a background in molecular biology and a career spanning research, business development and strategy, Sam is passionate about translating platform innovation into clinical and commercial success. Prior to ViaNautis, he held roles in business development and drug discovery across both early-stage biotech and publicly listed companies.

He holds a PhD in Biological Sciences and has broad experience across early discovery, alliance management and therapeutic platform development.

Dr Todd Rudo is EVP and Chief Medical Officer at Clario, providing medical and scientific leadership across the organization. He has nearly 20 years of clinical cardiology and pharmaceutical research experience, with a career predominantly focused on drug safety. Dr Rudo has board certifications in cardiology, cardiac electrophysiology, nuclear cardiology, adult echocardiography and internal medicine. His team provides expert consulting to clients on scientific and regulatory strategy and ensures Clario’s product portfolio is scientifically robust, generating high-quality clinical trial endpoint data. Dr Rudo has a particular interest in applying innovative technologies to improve the scientific rigor of clinical trials, while maintaining focus on the customer experience, including minimizing patient and site burden.

Ngoc L. Thai, MD, PhD, is an internationally recognized transplant surgeon specializing in liver, kidney, and pancreas transplantation, and the founder, co-CEO, and CMO of Imagine Pharma, a biotech company focused on the commercialization of its novel IMG-1 polypeptide and its Oral Delivery Platform. Dr. Thai earned his MD/PhD at the University of Pittsburgh (UPMC) and completed his residency at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York, where he was Chief Resident. He completed a Transplant Surgery Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh’s Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute. Following his fellowship, Dr. Thai was instrumental in expanding the UPMC pancreas program and establishing Allegheny General Hospital's liver transplant program, transforming them both into nationally recognized comprehensive transplant programs. In 2018, he became Chair of Surgery at Allegheny Health Network.

Laxman Halleppanavar is currently the Head of Portfolio Strategy and Management at Credence MedSystems, leading the Injectable Device Portfolio Strategy and Management team for internal and external customer endeavors. Previously, Laxman was the Director & PharmSci Technical Team Lead at Pfizer. He came to Pfizer upon its acquisition of Hospira where Laxman was responsible for combination product development from early-stage development to manufacturing scale up leading to commercial launch. Prior to Pfizer, Laxman was the Program Manager at GE Healthcare Monitoring Solutions leading development, manufacturing, service engineering and commercialization of multiple medical devices / patient monitoring platforms namely, patient worn devices, blood pressure cuffs, bedside monitoring devices, networked central & remote monitoring stations.

I-hung Shih, PhD, MBA serves as Co-Portfolio Manager for Eventide’s Healthcare Strategy, as well as a Managing Director for Eventide Ventures.

Prior to joining Eventide, Dr. Shih was Co-Head of the Biotech Private Investments team at Wellington Management. She also served as Global Industry Analyst and Co-Manager for Wellington’s Small-cap and SMID Cap Biotech Strategies. Before her tenure at Wellington Management, Dr. Shih was a Senior Biotech Analyst at T. Rowe Price, covering US biotech companies and Co-Managing the Institutional US Structured Research Fund. She also served as the Lead Officer for US biopharma investment in public and private equity at Temasek International and as an Associate in investment banking on the Credit Suisse Biotech Team.

Dr. Shih holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, a PhD in Biochemistry from Duke University, and a BS in Chemistry from National Taiwan University. Additionally, she was a research fellow at the Whitehead Institute at MIT and the National Institutes of Health.

Jedd Wolchok, MD, PhD, FASCO, is the Meyer Director of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Wolchok was most recently Chief of the Immuno-Oncology Service and held The Lloyd J. Old Chair in Clinical Investigation at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and remains Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Wolchok is a clinician-scientist exploring innovative immunotherapeutic strategies in laboratory models, and a principal investigator in numerous pivotal clinical trials. Dr. Wolchok helped establish immunotherapy as a standard approach to cancer treatment and was instrumental in the clinical development leading to the approval of ipilimumab and the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab for advanced melanoma. He supervises an NIH R01-funded basic science laboratory which is focused on investigating novel immunotherapeutic agents in pre-clinical laboratory models. The focus of his translational research laboratory is to investigate innovative means to modulate the immune response to cancer as well as to better understand the mechanistic basis for sensitivity and resistance to currently available immunotherapies. Dr. Wolchok received his BA degree from Princeton University, and his MS, PhD and MD degrees from New York University. Dr. Wolchok has received numerous honors for his work including: American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Memorial Award, the Giants of Cancer Care in Melanoma Award, the Berson Alumni Achievement Award in Clinical and Translational Science and the Zelmanovich Young Alumni Achievement Award from NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the Alfred Taubman Prize for Excellence in Translational Medical Research (Univ of Michigan) and has been designated a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (FASCO). Most recently, he has been awarded the the Distinguished Alumni Award at MSK, the AACR-Joseph H. Burchenal Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research, the ESMO Award for Immuno-Oncology and the David Karnofsky Award from ASCO. Dr. Wolchok has served on the Board of Directors of ASCO and the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) and currently is the Treasurer of SITC. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and the Association of American Physicians (AAP) and is Chair of the Melanoma Committee for the ECOG-ACRIN NCI cooperative group. He is a full member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and center director for the Parker Institute of Cancer Immunotherapy.

Jatin Sood is an accomplished formulation scientist with over a decade of experience in the development of topical, transdermal, and oral drug delivery systems. Throughout his career, he has specialized in innovative dosage forms, with particular expertise in films, film-forming systems, and microemulsion systems. His primary focus has been on enhancing bioavailability to improve therapeutic outcomes. In his current role, he is dedicated to advancing film-based delivery systems for buccal, sublingual, and oral administration. Holding a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Jatin applies his deep knowledge of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics to design and optimize next-generation drug delivery platforms.

Brian Deighan is a seasoned clinical research professional with over 17 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry. As Program Director at Teckro, Brian leads strategic initiatives across several key accounts, helping global study teams adopt and optimize Teckro’s innovative platform to enhance site engagement and streamline clinical trial operations.

With a background spanning clinical operations, project management, and digital transformation, Brian brings a unique blend of technical expertise and operational insight to his role. He is passionate about modernizing clinical trials and is a strong advocate for leveraging technology to improve communication, compliance, and efficiency at research sites.

Prior to joining Teckro, Brian held leadership role at ICON plc, where he managed complex, multi-phase studies across therapeutic areas. His collaborative approach and deep understanding of site, CRA and sponsor needs have made him a trusted partner in driving trial success.

Brian regularly speaks to sponsors on topics such as site engagement, digital best practice in clinical research, and the evolving role of technology in patient-centric trials.

Dr. Lee began his research career in sustained-release injectable drugs delivery in 2006 as a formulation and process scientist. Over the past 19 years, he has led the development and clinical trials of various sustained-release injectable microsphere products. Leveraging this deep expertise, he joined G2GBIO in 2019, where he conceived and led the development of InnoLAMP, a proprietary microsphere platform design to overcome the key limitations of conventional PLGA-based technologies- namely, low bioavailability, high injection site reactions, and poor scalability. Dr. Lee has played a pivotal role in advancing once-monthly injectable formulations of donepezil and semaglutide using the InnoLAMP platform. Under his leadership, G2GBIO has expanded it’s business model from proprietary product development to include CDO/CDMO services, capitalizing on its large-scale GMP manufacturing infrastructure and technology capable of achieving peptide drug loading exceeding 50%.

• 19 years of experience in sustained-release drug delivery
• Ph.D in Pharmacy, Kyungsung University, South Korea
• Head of Business Strategy at G2GBIO, South Korea
   

Paul Diercksen is the Vice President of Business Development at Mural Health, a clinical trials technology company dedicated to making it easier to participate in clinical trials. Leveraging his experience driving expansion and growth across healthcare and life sciences organizations, Paul leads Mural Health's work to drive business growth by delivering patient-centric solutions in clinical trials. With kindness and compassion at its core, Paul and the Mural Health team created Mural Link, the industry’s first holistic participant management platform that makes clinical trial participation easier–for patients and caregivers alike–while delivering smoother operations for sites, strategic value for sponsors, and better recruitment and retention.

Benjamin Jackson (he/him) is Vice President of Commercial at Sano Genetics, where he leads sales, marketing, and strategic partnerships to scale patient-centric solutions in precision medicine and clinical trial matching. With a proven track record across commercial operations, customer success, and program governance, Ben ensures Sano delivers transformative results for global biopharma and research organizations.

Driven by a passion for aligning product–market fit and fostering meaningful collaboration, Ben helps design scalable recruitment strategies that connect trials with the right patients—faster and more efficiently. Prior to Sano, he served as EVP of Commercial at BC Platforms, where his customer-first mindset guided data‑driven programs in rare disease drug development. Earlier in his career at PatientKeeper (now Commure), Ben led implementation and change-management initiatives that improved operational efficiency and clinical quality across health systems.

Ben holds a B.S. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (with a minor in Philosophy) from Boston University, where he also contributed to marine biology research focused on immune pathways. An Enterprise CRO School alumnus and certified Scrum Master, he blends technical insight with agile leadership to drive innovation and growth.

As a founding board member of Elevate Youth and former Big Brothers Big Sisters volunteer, Ben brings empathy and community-rooted leadership to everything he does. At the 2025 panel on Clinical Trial Patient Matching, he’ll share insights on scaling patient-first operations in the evolving landscape of precision trials.

Todd McGrath has over 19 years’ experience in the clinical trial and life science industry across pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

Today, Todd is Chief Operating Officer and General Manager for MRN’s Home Trial Support solution. In this role he oversees all global operations for the company. Todd’s leadership has been instrumental to MRN’s pharma clients, guiding them through operational challenges to finding hybrid trial success and opportunities to maximize their return on investment. Todd’s passion for making trials more accessible and less burdensome for patients and their families, continues to drive MRN’s vision of allowing more people to participate in trials and getting drugs to the market and patients, faster.