Jillian Agnew, RN, CCRC, is the Senior Clinical Research Nurse at St. Johns Center for Clinical Research in St. Augustine, Florida. She received her Certification in Clinical Research (CCRC) in 2021 and is currently the lead study nurse for all cardiovascular trials at her site.

Prior to research, Ms Agnew worked in multiple areas of nursing including Emergency, Home Health, Public Health and Trauma Critical Care at the University of Maryland R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Critical care will always be near and dear to her heart, but research has quickly become her favorite kind of nursing. “I really enjoy the relationships I develop with my research patients. I love seeing pictures of their kids, grandchildren, pets, etc. It shows how much they appreciate the amount of time you are investing in them. I also love that I have a career that brings me so much job satisfaction. Every day, I feel like I am making a difference and working towards a larger goal for the greater good.”

Outside of work, Ms Agnew and her family enjoy geocaching, game nights with friends and spending time at the beach.

Yaping Shou, M.D., Ph.D., is the Founder and CEO of Wells Therapeutics, Inc. and a Venture Partner at Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV). Yaping has over 20 years of global clinical development experience in both pharma (GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Takeda) and biotech (Trillium) companies. Yaping was the chief medical officer of Trillium Therapeutics, and prior to that, the executive medical director with Takeda Pharmaceuticals. She has made critical contributions to the development and approval of multiple oncology drugs including lapatinib, pazopanib, nilotinib, sonidegib, and ixazomib. She also led significant clinical progress at Trillium in recent years which formed the strong basis for Pfizer's $2.3b acquisition of Trillium in 2021. In her current role at LAV, Yaping leverages her development expertise to support investment decisions. She also provides strategic guidance to help businesses achieve clinical development success, financial growth, and optimal organizational performance. She founded Wells Therapeutics Inc. in June 2022 with the goal to accelerate globalization of regionally sourced therapeutics for the benefit of patients worldwide. Yaping holds a MD degree from Zhejiang University School of Medicine and a PhD degree in cellular and molecular biology from Drexel University. She also received post-doctoral fellowship training at the Genetic Branch of NCI. As a female executive, Yaping graduated from a 12-month woman leadership program for high-potential women led by WOMAN Unlimited, Inc., and received leadership training at SAID Business School of Oxford and MIT Sloan School of Management.

Neely Mozaffarian, MD, PhD, is the chief medical officer at Atomwise, a privately held company based in San Francisco that is developing novel, AI-driven therapies for autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases. Prior to Atomwise, Dr. Mozaffarian was CMO at GentiBio, Pathway Area Stronghold Leader and VP Immunology at Janssen/J&J, and led teams in global drug development for large and small molecules across clinical trial phases 1-4 at Ichnos/Glenmark, Gilead Sciences, Eli Lilly & Co., and AbbVie/Abbott. She received her MD and PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in NY, followed by Internal Medicine residency and Rheumatology fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she performed research on immune abnormalities in systemic lupus erythematosus and other autoimmune diseases.

Emily Adney-Holt, PhD, serves as a Technical Sales Specialist at Lunaphore Technologies. Within the Lunaphore commercial team, Dr Adney-Holt collaborates with scientists, delving into the intricacies of their instruments. She provides valuable support to researchers in implementing experiments that harness the full potential of Lunaphore's cutting-edge technology for advancing spatial biology studies.

Drawing on her extensive background as a genome scientist, biophysicist, and molecular biologist, Dr Adney-Holt is deeply committed to propelling scientific understanding in cellular biology to new heights.

Dr Adney-Holt earned her PhD in Human Genetics from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and holds a master's in Molecular Biophysics from Johns Hopkins University. Her academic journey reflects a strong foundation in both genetics and biophysics, contributing to her multifaceted expertise in the field.

April Lewis is a 25-year veteran of clinical R&D, with proven success leading global teams focused on innovating and disrupting clinical trial operations. Ms Lewis has served as a key leader on large transformational initiatives including the Quintiles/IMS merger, and GSK’s “Future Ready” Vx/Rx integration strategy. Currently, Ms Lewis leads Innovative Health at Johnson and Johnson, responsible for the development and scaling of novel and innovative solutions for use across Global Development. Ms Lewis holds an MS in Organizational Psychology. Ms Lewis is a proud girl mom, with 3 college-aged daughters.

Jeremy Sokolove, MD is the Chief Medical Officer In-Residence at Roivant Sciences, supporting business development and operational efforts to rapid, efficient, and high quality development of new biotech and healthcare technology ventures. Previously, he served as Chief Medical Officer at Odyssey Therapeutics, where he led clinical and translational strategies across immunology and oncology, advancing their lead asset in IBD to Phase 2 trials. At GSK, Jeremy was Senior Vice President and Head of Clinical Pharmacology and Experimental Medicine, overseeing early and translational development for Specialty Pharma. Under his leadership, nearly 20 INDs/CTAs were filed, and multiple programs progressed to late-stage clinical development. Earlier in his career, Jeremy headed Immunology Translational Science at AbbVie, developing portfolio-wide strategies across all development phases and leading several early-phase programs and phase 3 registrational studies and supported the global filing of upadacitinib (Rinvoq). Before AbbVie, he was a Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University, Principal Investigator at the VA Palo Alto, and co-founder of several biotech companies including Atreca (NASDAQ: BCEL). Jeremy has over 90 peer-reviewed publications and several textbook chapters in rheumatology and immunology. For 18 years, he maintained a broad clinical practice in Rheumatology, Internal Medicine, and Emergency Medicine, earning multiple teaching awards for his contributions to education. He completed his residency and chief residency at Boston University Medical Center, followed by fellowship and post-doctoral training in Rheumatology and Immunology at Stanford.

Bruce Thompson, PhD, is the CEO of Kincell Bio, bringing over 28 years of experience to his position. Prior to his role with Kincell Bio, LLC., Dr Thompson was Vice President and Technical Lead for the Cell Therapy Franchise at Resilience, Inc., where he helped to build the development and GMP manufacturing capabilities and served as a technical advisor both internally and externally.

He has over 18 years of CMC strategy, product development and cell therapy manufacturing experience. In his first startup role, he was Vice President of Process Sciences at Lyell Immunopharma, where he was responsible for Process and Analytical Development, as well as tech transfer of processes and methods to a newly built state-of-the-art cGMP facility. Prior to Lyell,  Dr Thompson served as the Sr Director of the Therapeutic Products Program at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC), where he led GMP manufacturing of cell and gene therapy products. He was responsible for supporting >15 active clinical programs and contributed to the filing of 6 INDs for various cell therapy programs.

As part of his early career development,  Dr Thompson spent nearly 10 years at Pfizer in the Pharmaceutical Sciences division where he gained expertise in analytical and process development.

Dr Thompson received his BA in Biology, an MS in Biochemistry from The Ohio State University and PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Louisville.

Dr. Alison Schecter, MD, is a physician scientist and world-renowned immunologist/cardiologist. With over 20-year experience, Dr. Schecter is a strategic highly effective operational global executive in biotech and large pharma, and as of 2023, President of R&D of Axcella, a Flagship company. Recently Dr. Schecter founded Molecules to Medicine (MTM) Advisory Group, a boutique consulting service providing unique strategic/regulatory/ fund raising/ clinical development guidance for PEs/VCs/Biotechs. She completed internal medicine training from Johns Hopkins, fellowship training at MGH in Cardiology and continued basic science training at Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM). As an academic physician tenured Associate Professor in Cardiology, and Immunology, Dr. Schecter built and co-directed the MSSM CV Research Center. Upon moving to Pharma, she led Translational Medicine in CV at Novartis, demonstrating the NLRP3 signaling pathway, via inhibition of IL-1β, with canakinumab, is a validated target for treating cardiovascular disease. This proof-of-concept trial led to the $1B ph3 CANTOS trial, and the 1 st demonstration that inhibition of inflammation, reduces CV morbidity and mortality. As being a seasoned CMO, Dr. Schecter has led multi-functional global teams to effect novel translational and BD approaches to expedite medicines to critical milestones and was instrumental in raising over $250M. As Head of Early Development for Rare Diseases at Sanofi/Genzyme, Dr. Schecter lead the Niemann-Pick Disease Team to garner the approval by the FDA, EMA, and PMDA and launch of Xempozyme, the 1 st treatment for Niemann-Pick Type B and A/B and was awarded the 2018 Cambridge Chamber of Commerce Visionary Award.

Vanessa Hiratsuka, PhD, MPH, is the Co-director of Research and Evaluation, Center for Human Development; Assistant Professor, College of Health; Co-director, National Resource Center for Alaska Native Elders at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA).

She is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and is also Winnemem Wintu. Dr Hiratsuka is a public health researcher with over 20 years of mixed methods research experience within the American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) community in the discipline of public health. For 13 years, she conducted research in the Southcentral Foundation (SCF) Research Department overseeing research in behavioral, medical, dental and health services divisions addressing health disparities through clinical and community-based interventions and health services research projects. While at SCF, she explored the interplay between patient and provider characteristics impacting health services utilization and health outcomes in screening, brief intervention, and treatment of chronic diseases and behavioral health conditions of AI/AN adults. Dr Hiratsuka led health services research projects using a community-based participatory approach within the Alaska Tribal Health System for the past decade while also completing a post-doctoral fellowship through the University of Washington/University of Colorado Native Investigator Development Program and the University of Colorado Denver’s Native Children’s Research Exchange. As a mixed-methods researcher leading studies addressing Alaska Native health disparities, she has been the lead qualitative analyst, quantitative lead, and mixed methods studies using various research approaches. Since 2012, Dr Hiratsuka has worked on the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of genomic and precision medicine research in AI/AN populations. These efforts were conducted using community-based participatory research (CBPR) practices to design a deliberative process that elicited the views of AI/AN leaders about the potential value and ethical conduct of precision medicine research. In 2020, Dr Hiratsuka transitioned from a community-based research department in a tribally managed health care organization to a university-based center of excellence in developmental disabilities at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). She conduct applied research and program evaluation of programs and services for individuals with intellectual, developmental and physical disabilities across the lifespan.