Nerissa has decades of expertise in rare disease drug development, including extensive experience in clinical development, medical affairs, and regulatory strategy across both early- and late-stage programs. She is an accomplished physician executive and pediatric endocrinologist with a distinguished career in biotechnology, spanning leadership roles in both private and public biotech companies. Nerissa has been instrumental in the development and commercialization of therapies for rare diseases across therapeutic areas, including neuromuscular, metabolic, and lysosomal storage disorders.Prior to Alltrna, Nerissa served as CMO at Entrada Therapeutics, where she led clinical and regulatory strategy, medical affairs, and patient advocacy efforts. She has also held CMO roles at Tiburio Therapeutics and AVROBIO, where she oversaw clinical development for multiple gene therapy programs. Earlier in her career, she served as Global Head (VP) of Clinical and Medical Affairs at Zafgen and held key roles at Shire and Enobia Pharma. She also played a pivotal role in Alexion’s $1B+ acquisition of Enobia Pharma.Nerissa currently serves as an independent board member of Rezolute Bio and holds an M.D. from East Carolina University School of Medicine, an M.S. in Clinical Research from Indiana University, and an Executive MBA from Northeastern University. She is certified in Pediatric Endocrinology by the American Board of Pediatrics.

Dr Tesi has been President, Chief Executive Officer and acting Chief Medical Officer since the formation of INmune Bio (NASDAQ: INMB) in September 2015. Prior to his role at INMB, he held leadership positions in both development and commercial sides of the business with responsibility for all phases of drug development, product positioning and launch, post-approval marketing support while supporting the companies in investor relations and business development. Dr Tesi received his MD degree from Washington University School of Medicine in 1982 after majoring in skiing at Utah State University. As an academic transplant surgeon, he was active in kidney, pancreas, liver and intestinal transplantation. Dr Tesi has been a licensed physician since 1982 and Fellow of the American College of Surgery since 1991. Dr Tesi is an avid court tennis player with a handicap of 52. He is always looking for games.

Ray Dorsey, MD is the David M Levy Professor of Neurology  at the University of Rochester. The Center seeks to provide care and research opportunities to anyone anywhere. Dr Dorsey and his colleagues have written Ending Parkinson’s Disease, a book that provides a prescription for ending this debilitating condition.

Dr Dorsey previously directed the movement disorders division and neurology telemedicine at Johns Hopkins and worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company. His research has been published in leading medical, neurology, and economic journals and has been featured on National Public Radio, in The New York Times, and in The Wall Street Journal. In 2015, the White House recognized him as a “Champion for Change” for Parkinson’s disease.

Hussein Ezzeldin, PhD earned his PhD in 2012 from the University of Maryland, College Park. He joined the FDA, Office of Biostatistics and Pharmacovigilance (OBPV) in the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) in 2013. Dr Ezzeldin worked on multiple modeling and risk assessment, policy, and research projects. Dr Ezzeldin works on advancing the science of patient input as part of the FDA regulatory-science strategic goals, and he is leading the natural history study for metachromatic leukodystrophy, HOME. Currently, Dr Ezzeldin co-leads the Biologics Effectiveness and Safety Innovative Methods Initiative (BEST IM), which aims to develop new and innovative methods for a semi-automated adverse events (AEs) reporting system for CBER-Regulated Biological Products. Dr Ezzeldin is the acting CBER Lead for the digital health technology review team (DHT-RT), supporting the use of DHTs in regulatory submissions.  

Sophia Davis has 30+ years in the biopharmaceutical industry, with most of that time dedicated to recruiting physician executives as well as other leadership team members. Since founding BioDirectors in 2014, and her role as a Principal in BioPharm Physicians from 2015-2021, her professional focus has been finding Board Members and Chief Medical Officers for biotech companies. She has recruited high caliber Board Members for growing biotech and pharma companies ranging from Pre-Series A all the way through publicly traded commercial stage companies with multiple marketed products.

Shafaat Ali Khan, MBBS is a seasoned clinical research professional with a passion for revolutionizing the way clinical trials are conducted. As a Clinical Research Lead in Lilly’s Site and Investigator Engagement organization, Dr Khan spearheads efforts to operationalize and execute highly decentralized clinical trials, driving efficiency and innovation in the field. He also leads multidisciplinary teams at Lilly to closely collaborate with sites and investigators to drive innovation across the drug development lifecycle.

With a strong focus on patient empowerment, Dr Khan is on a mission to enhance patient education and improve access to novel investigational therapies and diagnostics. By leveraging advanced technologies and patient-centric approaches, Mr Khan strives to break down barriers and ensure that more individuals can benefit from cutting-edge treatments.

Dr Khan received a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree from Baqai Medical University and continued on to complete a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cardiovascular Science Research from Emory University School of Medicine.

Dina Katabi is the Thuan and Nicole Pham Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. She is also the director of the MIT’s Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Award. Professor Katabi received her PhD and MS from MIT in 2003 and 1999, and her Bachelor of Science from Damascus University in 1995. Katabi's research focuses on innovations in digital health, applied machine learning and wireless sensors and networks. Her research has been recognized with ACM Prize in Computing, the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, two SIGCOMM Test-of-Time Awards, the Faculty Research Innovation Fellowship, a Sloan Fellowship, the NBX Career Development chair, and the NSF CAREER award. Her students received the ACM Best Doctoral Dissertation Award in Computer Science and Engineering twice. Further, her work was recognized by the IEEE William R. Bennett prize, three ACM SIGCOMM Best Paper awards, an NSDI Best Paper award and a TR10 award. Several start-ups have beenspun out of Katabi's lab such as PiCharging and Emerald.

Maria Koehler, MD, PhD has served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer of Repare Therapeutics since May 2019. Prior to joining Repare Therapeutics, from September 2017 to April 2019, Dr Koehler served as the Chief Medical Officer of Bicycle Therapeutics Limited. From March 2009 to September 2017, Dr Koehler served as Vice President of Strategy, Innovation and Collaborations for the Oncology Business Unit at Pfizer Inc. Prior to joining Pfizer, Dr Koehler was the group leader for the Medicine Development Center of GlaxoSmithKline Oncology.

Prior to that, Dr Koehler was a Senior Medical Director for oncology research and development at AstraZeneca plc. Dr Koehler has also served as the clinical director of Bone Marrow Transplantation at University Hospital in Pittsburgh as well as the director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Program and associate professor at St Christopher’s Hospital in Philadelphia.

Dr Koehler is a board-certified hematology/oncology physician. Dr Koehler received her MD and PhD from Silesian School of Medicine in Katowice, Poland.

Caroline Stout is a Partner at EcoR1 Capital. She also serves as the Chief Investment Officer of Panacea Acquisition Corp II. At EcoR1, she has led several of the firm’s investments in the biotechnology sector. Caroline is on the Board of Directors of Neogene, Affinia, Neurogene and Notch Therapeutics, and serves as a Board Observer at Tectonic, Accent and Affinivax. Ms Stout previously worked as an Investment Banking Analyst at Credit Suisse in New York. Ms Stout is a Baker Scholar and graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University.

Casey Orvin has a long and exemplary career history in pharmaceutical research services. Most recently, he was serving as the Senior VP of Pharmaceutical Relationships at StudyKik, a full-service patient recruitment and retention technology company. Mr Orvin is also serving as the Honorary President of the Society for Clinical Research Sites (SCRS), a global organization representing nearly 10,000 clinical research sites in 47 countries within the pharmaceutical industry. Mr Orvin began his career leading a large pharmaceutical research site network, Research Solutions. In 2007, he was recruited to join Clinical Research Advantage/Radiant as Executive Vice President of Business Development and successfully led a network of over 75 research sites conducting clinical trials for pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and medical devices. Under Mr Orvin’s leadership, several crucial partnerships were formed with major pharmaceutical companies which fueled the company’s rapid growth both geographically and within the medical community. Mr Orvin facilitated the acquisition of two competitors, securing the company’s spot as what was at the time the largest clinical research site network in the US. In 2015, Casey and the executive team at Radiant merged with Synexus, a division of PPD. With Mr Orvin’s guidance, Synexus continued to expand to 215 global clinical sites in 4 continents and over 15 countries. Mr Orvin is passionate about representing the site voice within the industry while ensuring every research patient’s journey is a positive one. As a thought leader in the industry, Mr Orvin is regularly invited to be a keynote speaker and panelist and is often quoted by the leading publications covering the clinical research landscape. In 2020, he was recognized in PharmaVoice as one of the 100 Most Inspiring People in the industry. Mr Orvin currently leads the commercial team for Alcanza, a large owned and integrated network of research sites dedicated to reducing barriers to clinical research with sites located in underrepresented patient populations across the US and Puerto Rico.

Debbie Profit, PhD, began her career at Otsuka over two decades ago in Clinical Operations and has since held progressive leadership roles in R&D, as the Vice President of Otsuka Information Technology (R&D, Enterprise and Commercial) and now as the VP of Clinical Management and Applied Innovation. Dr Profit has played a key leadership role in driving novel solutions and real time data visualization of clinical trial data into Otsuka’s day to day processes. Dr Profit leads collaborations to disrupt clinical research by partnering with the likes of Verily, Amazon and Spenser Health to truly democratize clinical trials. She also contributed significantly to the clinical operations and development of digital medicine (“Abilify MYCITE”) to successful FDA submission and subsequent approval in November 2017. She possesses undergraduate degrees in both nursing and psychology, a Master of Science in Regulatory Affairs – Drugs, Biologics and Medical Device and earned her Doctorate in Leadership Studies – with a concentration in Innovation and Creativity.

Krista Russell is a clinical researcher and digital health scientist, eager to bring digital capabilities to solve complex challenges. She is passionate about improving health outcomes for patients through the adoption of the right technology solutions.

Ms Russell is Head of the Digital Health Solutions team at Takeda. Her team is partnering with teams to take on fundamental challenges to further Takeda’s vision of streamlining Digital, Data and Technology in clinical trials. Prior to Takeda, Krista developed, validated, and managed business and clinical technology tools.

Ms Russell’s passion for technology began with her career in the United States Navy. Her career passion for the use of high-quality, safe technology for patient care began while working with Veterans at high risk for suicide. She has worked extensively with patients and sites to implement and validate new technology solutions over the past two decades. She is a certified clinical research coordinator and clinical project manager, having spent over a decade conducting and managing hundreds of clinical trials before transitioning to sponsor work. Ms Russell holds a BS in Health Information Management from Saint Louis University and an MS in Health Informatics from Liberty University.