Dr Per Walday is the CEO of EXACT Therapeutics since June 2022, a listed clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing a unique platform technology for ultrasound-based drug delivery. He has extensive experience spanning from research to commercialization of in vivo diagnostics, therapeutics and medical devices globally, including drug-device combinations within the field of oncology. As CEO of biotech organizations, Dr Walday has built effective organizations progressing drug delivery platform technologies into pipelines of assets, including late-stage clinical programs through FDA and EMA regulatory paths. Prior to this, he spent almost two decades in different positions within Nycomed Imaging, Amersham Health and GE Healthcare, spanning a range of positions, including Global Head Project Management, with responsibility for all development programs of new pharmaceutical products. These included R&D efforts within the field of ultrasound and microbubbles which paved the way for what would become years later EXACT Therapeutics Acoustic Cluster Therapy (ACT®). Dr Walday has an MSc in biology and a PhD in neurophysiology.

Jessica Walsh, the founder and CEO of Rx Bandz, is a seasoned entrepreneur with decades of experience in the development and implementation of game-changing technologies.

Her leadership led to the creation of a portfolio of patents, including MiniJect—the world's smallest auto-injector, setting new standards in size, performance, and durability. This versatile drug delivery platform is designed to administer a wide range of injectable medications and increase patient compliance.

Supported by a world-class team that shares her mission to save lives, Rx Bandz is leading the shift in emergency auto-injectors and advancements that redefine our perception of these critical medical devices. Rx Bandz is currently licensing its device to pharmaceutical companies, making their innovative drug delivery platform available to increase patient compliance and help save lives around the world. 

As interim CEO and one of three SpheroFill co-founders, Dr Paul Weinberger is a nationally recognized airway reconstruction surgeon, scientist, and healthcare leader. In addition to his leadership role at SpheroFill, he is the Medical Director of Specialty Physicians at Deaconess Clinic in Evansville, Indiana. His undergraduate training was at Georgia State and Emory University, followed by medical school at the Medical College of Georgia and subsequent residency and fellowship training programs at Georgia Health Sciences University, Yale University, and the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital and University College of London. His peer-reviewed scientific publications have been cited in more than 10,000 unique journal articles, and he is named inventor of 6 awarded patents. He has received numerous national awards, including the Fanconi Award from the American Head and Neck Society, the Farr Award from Yale School of Medicine, and the National Leadership Award from the American Medical Association.

David Westberg, CEO at Nanexa since 2015, has many years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including roles at Pharmacia, Pharmacia-UpJohn and Orexo. He has worked as a global project manager for development projects and was Head of Product Development (Pharmaceutical and Analytical Development) at Pharmacia amongst many other roles. Mr Westberg was also the main project manager who was responsible for taking two major Orexo products (Edluar and Zubsolv) from the early development phase through formulation development and clinical studies and onto registration and market approval with the FDA in the US.

Dr Ashley Williams is the Director of Research and Development. He has over 15 years of experience studying the molecular biology and genetics of Escherichia coli. His research has spanned a spectrum of diverse fields that recent research has revealed are remarkably intertwined, including DNA damage and repair, cell cycle control, host-pathogen interactions, immune DNA sensing, and systemic inflammatory responses. Before joining SiVEC Biotechnologies, Dr Williams studied aging and aging-related diseases at the CECAD Research Center at the University of Cologne in Cologne, Germany. Dr Williams received his Bachelor of Science and PhD in Microbiology from Indiana University and completed post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard University and the University of Southern California.

TBA

Dr Tal Zaks is a Venture Partner with OrbiMed. Dr Zaks was recently the Chief Medical Officer at Moderna, where he led the development of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine and other key programs. Previously, Dr Zaks held senior leadership positions in drug development at major pharmaceutical companies, including Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline. Dr Zaks received his MD and PhD from the Ben Gurion University and conducted post-doctoral research at the US National Institutes of Health.

Haiming Wu is the Head of New Device Technology Research and Innovation at Sanofi responsible for early-stage device technology development and innovation to meet emerging medical device needs of Sanofi portfolio. He started his career in the technology sector with HP and Texas Instruments and has since transitioned to medical device design and technology development. Over the years, he has developed expertise on a variety of drug delivery devices working at Baxter, BD and Biogen before joining Sanofi, and produced over 20 patents many of which have turned into commercial products. Direct CNS drug delivery to by-pass blood-brain barrier has been a major focus of his research and development efforts to enable and optimize delivery of new therapeutic modalities such as Antisense Oligonucleotides and Gene Therapies for neurological disorders. Other targeted drug delivery and IV infusion innovation are also major areas of his recent focus. He holds an MS degree from Boston University and an MBA from Babson College.

Dr Brandon Wustman is a seasoned R&D executive with experience throughout his nearly 20-year career across many phases of R&D including discovery, clinical development, and the launch of new therapeutic platforms.

Prior to joining ReCode Therapeutics (and its predecessor, TranscripTx) in 2015, he had positions of increasing responsibility, including senior director, Preclinical Biology, at Amicus Therapeutics from 2002 to 2014. At Amicus, Dr Wustman established a new lab focused on protein therapeutic discovery and production. He was also instrumental in leading the discovery and preclinical development of pharmacological chaperones used alone and in combination with enzyme replacement therapies for seven different preclinical programs. Dr Wustman received his BS and PhD from Michigan Technological University. He was an Alexandar Humboldt Fellow at the University of Cologne, Germany and a postdoctoral fellow at New York University from 2000 to 2002. Dr Wustman has published more than 20 peer-reviewed scientific articles and is also the inventor on nine issued US patents.

Yuhong Zeng received her PhD in Analytical Chemistry in 2006 from the University of Kansas (KU). She then had her postdoctoral training followed by holding a Research Associate position at the Macromolecule and Vaccine Stabilization Center at KU. In 2011, she joined the formulation group at Alcon/Novartis and worked on both early- and late-stage antibody drug product development for ophthalmic use. Between 2016-2018, she worked at Vaxess Technologies and led formulation efforts in development of microneedle patches for vaccine delivery. In 2018, she joined ReForm Biologics, now Comera Life Sciences, working on technologies and pipeline development that transform essential biopharmaceutics from IV to SQ delivery.