Sebastian Hein holds a master's degree in Medical Computer Science from the University of Heidelberg. He works as an IT Product Manager for Scientific Communications supporting Medical Affairs within Pharma and Diagnostics, practicing the Lean Startup Framework, through experimentation and short feedback cycles with the end users. 

As Co-Founder of Starmind, Marc Vontobel originally led the Product, Engineering, and AI teams in realizing the company’s vision of transforming the way the world works by freeing expert knowledge for everyone. As CEO, he is responsible for executing the Starmind vision and leading the company into the next growth phase. His main focus is on enterprise collaboration where the challenge for an employee to navigate through the organization’s knowledge is most demanding. 

Dr Shameer Khader is an Executive Director of Precision Medicine and Computational Biology at Sanofi. He leads a global team dedicated to utilizing trans-disciplinary big data and machine intelligence in drug target discovery, clinical development, and indication positioning. Before joining Sanofi, Dr Khader played a vital role in establishing the Data Science and Artificial Intelligence function at AstraZeneca. He has extensive experience working with leading organizations like Mayo Clinic, Philips Healthcare, Northwell Health, and Mount Sinai Health System, focusing on precision medicine projects.

Dr Khader holds a PhD in computational biology from the National Center for Biological Sciences in India and completed his post-doctoral training in computational genomics and precision medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. With over 125 peer-reviewed research papers, patents, and conference proceedings, his scholarly contributions have made a significant impact in domains like healthcare data science, bioinformatics, drug discovery, and precision medicine. His groundbreaking work has gained widespread recognition, receiving attention from reputable media outlets such as Forbes, Fast Company and Bloomberg News.

Acknowledged for his exceptional achievements, Dr Khader has received multiple awards and has been recognized as one of the 100 Artificial Intelligence Leaders in Drug Discovery & Healthcare by DKI Global in 2019. Recently, he was honored as one of the Most Influential AI & Analytics Leaders in the United States by AIM in 2023. Dr Khader’s dedication to advancing precision medicine and artificial intelligence has solidified his position as a prominent figure in the precision medicine and drug development communities.

Adam Kinsey is currently Associate Vice President and Regional Head of North America for Global Clinical Trial Operations (GCTO) at Merck Research Laboratories. Mr Kinsey has over 26 years of clinical research experience, with the last 8.5 years at Merck. He has been a key leader within GCTO, most recently serving as Executive Director, Clinical Sciences & Study Management and Therapeutic Area Section Head for Melanoma, Hepatobiliary Cancers, and Innovative Strategies. Previously, Mr Kinsey was Clinical Research Director in Oncology where he led country operations activities in the United States for Merck’s oncology pipeline. He started his career as a Clinical Research Associate (CRA) and has traversed through various roles in clinical operations of increasing responsibility and scope. Mr Kinsey also has experience across a wide array of therapeutic areas with companies of different sizes and operating models. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Rice University and completed post-baccalaureate coursework at Houston Baptist University as well as coursework towards a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston.

Wendy Komocsar, BS MT(ASCP) SI is currently a Senior Director in the GI Therapeutic Area – Immunology Business Unit at Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis, IN. As part of the medical team, Ms Komocsar leads the pediatric clinical development team for an asset being studied in both ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. This effort includes designing and leading clinical trials, achieving alignment with global regulatory agencies and merging scientific thinking and business needs to deliver strategic decisions involving multiple stakeholder and technical disciplines. Prior to this role, Ms Komocsar led the Immunotoxicology group at both Lilly and Pharmacia, evaluating the potential effects of therapeutic drug candidates on immune function in preclinical species. She is a board-certified medical technologist with specialty boards in Immunology and Flow Cytometry.

Bari Kowal joined Regeneron in 2015 and became Head of Global Clinical Operations in 2017. Ms Kowal currently serves as Senior Vice President, Development Operations and Portfolio Management and is responsible for clinical trial strategy and execution, along with overseeing our development shared services functions.

Prior to Regeneron, Ms Kowal was previously at Pfizer where she held the positions of Vice President, Business Operations and Analytics, and, prior to that, Vice President, Strategic Alliance and Development Operations Lead. Ms. Kowal also served as Vice President, Clinical Operations, on the clinical research organization side of the industry at a number of biotech organizations in a variety of clinical research roles early in her career. She holds a BS in Biology from the State University of New York at Binghamton and an MS in Neuroscience from New York University.

Dr Lynn Kramer is Chief Clinical Officer, ADBH (Alzheimer’s Disease & Brain Health) at Eisai and a member of the Eisai Company Ltd. Executive Committee. Dr Kramer oversees the product creation cycle including clinical introduction, and regulatory approval of innovative projects in the neuroscience and general medicine area globally. He recently received the 2022 Epilepsy Foundation Lifetime Accelerator Award.

In 2007, Dr Kramer started as the Executive Vice President of Global Clinical Research at Eisai and was promoted to the additional role of Chief Operating Officer of Eisai Medical Research. He was named Chief Clinical Officer and a member of the Executive Committee, Eisai Company, Ltd. in 2012. In addition to those roles Dr Kramer was named Chief Medical Officer of the Neuroscience Business Group in April 2016.

Before joining Eisai, Dr Kramer oversaw clinical development, pharmacovigilance, drug safety and medical affairs for PAR Pharmaceutical, Inc. Earlier in his career he held senior positions in drug development at Purdue Pharmaceuticals and was Vice President Clinical Research and Head of the Therapeutic Area Strategy Team at Novartis, and Vice President Clinical Research at the R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute.

Dr Kramer received his MD from Hahnemann Medical College. He has been Co-PI on several NIH grants: Clinical and Epidemiologic Studies of Human Epilepsies, Pharmacologic Prophylaxis of Post-Traumatic Epilepsy, and had a Master Agreement Evaluation of Investigational Antiepileptic Drugs prior to his move into industry. He also holds a BA degree from Lycoming College.

Mara Kramer has 20 years of extensive experience from Site, Country, Regional and Global Level. Ms Kramer’s experience in the study coordination, site management, regulatory environment and global feasibility matters allows her to include several perspectives and innovative approaches on the process.She considers that Human and artificial intelligence are complement factors of success supporting the objectives and vision of Sanofi.

Ms Kramer holds a BA in Nutrition from Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico. Previous roles include: Deputy Head Global Feasibility and Competitive Intelligence, Global Feasibility Lead, Cluster Regulatory Manager, Site Manager and Study Coordinator.

Sylvie Kruyner serves as Director, DCT Operations within Bayer’s DCT Strategy and Implementation Team. This highly specialized team evolved from a DCT innovation initiative, which was started in 2019. Their primary focus is to support clinical and operational teams to evaluate the implementation of Decentralized Clinical Trial elements and to support with operationalization of these elements. Up until today, Bayer has implemented DCT in multiple global clinical trials, inclusive of hybrid and fully remote designs.

Ms Kruyner joined Bayer in 2014. She has more than 10 years of operational and trial management expertise within CRO and sponsor organizations, holding different roles on both local and global levels in Europe and the US. Next to this, Ms Kruyner has also been involved in creating and providing intra-company trainings, several taskforce initiatives (related to customer-centricity, change management, monitoring, resourcing) and end-user-insight activities. She holds a Masters in Health Care Management and Policy from Ghent University, Belgium. She currently lives in Chicago, US.

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Lovisa Afzelius is an origination partner at Flagship Pioneering. A computational scientist by training, she brings to Flagship two decades of leadership experience in emerging biotechs and large pharma companies, and a passion for data-driven drug discovery. Dr Afzelius has served as CEO, co-founder, president, board chairman and executive director in emerging biotech and large pharma companies. She joined Flagship in early 2020, leading innovation as co-founder and founding CEO of Alltrna, Apriori Bio, Metaphore Biotechnologies and Prologue Medicines. Before joining the Flagship ecosystem, Dr Afzelius built and led Pfizer’s systems immunology function and served as executive director of clinical programs. In 2017, she co-founded Elsa.science, a digital health company for which she serves on the board. Dr Afzelius began her career at AstraZeneca and has received numerous accolades for her work, including being named one of the 100 “most influential persons under 40 in Sweden” by the business magazine, Affärsvärlden. In 2022, Dr Afzelius, was named one of the 20 women blazing trails in biopharma Endpoints for her work with companies using AI and machine learning to advance drug development. In 2023, Apriori Bio was named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and received an honorable mention for Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas list in the Rapid Response category. Apriori’s co-founder and CEO, including at Apriori. She holds a PhD in computational chemistry from Uppsala University, a Master of Science in integrative pharmacology from Gothenburg University as well as an MBA from MIT.

Vikram Agarwal completed his PhD in Dr David Bartel's lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he utilized computational approaches to study the principles of microRNA targeting. He completed his post-doctoral research in Dr Jay Shendure's laboratory at the University of Washington, where he applied deep learning methods and massively parallel reporter assays to investigate the mechanisms of transcriptional gene regulation. Transitioning into industry, Vikram worked at Calico Life Sciences LLC, an Alphabet company whose mission is to better understand the mechanisms underlying human aging. There he applied deep learning methods with Dr David Kelley to better understand transcriptional and post-transcriptional gene regulation as well as its link to human genetics. He is currently the Head of mRNA Platform Design Data Science at the mRNA Center of Excellence at Sanofi, where his team is applying machine learning and deep learning methods towards the design of enhanced mRNA therapeutics.