Afreen Allam, the Founder and CEO of SiNON Nano Sciences, has extensive experience in nanomedicine research and a background in nanotechnology. She received her MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and completed a double major in microbiology and biochemistry at North Carolina State University. Additionally, she holds a master’s degree in finance and banking.

Afreen’s research on the applications of carbon nanotechnology in drug delivery and bio-imaging led to the patent of the Carbon Dot in 2013. She has conducted cell-line studies at Johns Hopkins, and has presented her research at numerous prestigious biomedical conferences, including the Drugs & Diagnostics Conference, Biotech Research Symposium, Partnerships Opportunities in Drug Delivery, and National Tech Connect Conference. Afreen was also invited to moderate at a large innovation conference.

An accomplished researcher, Afreen published her first DNA sequence at the age of 17 and filed a patent at the age of 20. Her exceptional work has been recognized, and she has been named one of the 10 Bustle Upstart Awardees in 2017, a finalist for Forbes 30 under 30 in 2018, and a Triangle Women in Business Future Star for 2019. Additionally, she was selected as a Forbes Next 1000 list-maker.

Alvaro Amorrortu is an experienced leader with deep background in large-scale transformations and infrastructure build-outs. His experience is drawn from his work across different functions; from manufacturing and process development to marketing and human resources.

Alvaro is the CEO of Mediphage Bioceuticals, a Toronto based start-up that is developing a novel non-viral gene therapy platform, leveraging its ministringDNA (msDNA) technology. Prior to Mediphage, he was the COO of Solid Biosciences, where he was responsible for building the infrastructure to execute Solid’s clinical trial (gene therapy for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy patients). Prior to joining Solid Biosciences, Alvaro spent more than a decade as a management consultant advising biopharmaceutical and other companies on a variety of strategic challenges. His career as a strategist started at the Monitor Group, and then continued for a few years at Syneos Health before moving to the biotech world. In addition, he has hands on experience managing operations. He held leadership positions in Bunge Group and Cargill subsidiaries, where he was responsible for designing and running complex engineering projects in manufacturing facilities.

Alvaro received his M.B.A. with a major in Finance from The Wharton School and graduated from the Instituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires, Argentina with an MS in Industrial Engineering. An avid traveler, he has lived and worked in Argentina, Paraguay, Spain, Switzerland and the United States.

Lavi Erisson, a translational physician, is the co-founder and CEO of Gensaic, a redosable,non-viral, gene delivery company that pioneers a new class of gene delivery called genetically-encoded nanoparticles. Lavi was previously Chief Medical and Head of Business Development at Iterative Health, where he led clinical development to successful clearance of Skout (TM). Earlier in his career, Lavi held various roles at Teva pharmaceuticals, translating over 10 novel assets from Development Candidates through First-In-Human, and investing over $300M through Teva’s corporate venture group. Lavi has always been passionate about global health and public policy, volunteering as a physician in refugee camps on the border of Thailand and Myanmar, as well as advising Israel’s ministry for foreign trade on bi-national R&D funds. Lavi received his Medical Degree and Public-Policy degree, Summa Cum Laude, from Tel-Aviv University. More recently, he earned an MBA from MIT Sloan, where he was a Sloan Fellow.

Dr. Natalie Galant is the CEO and co-founder of Paradox Immunotherapeutics, a pharmaceutical company dedicated to the creation of antibody therapies for the treatment of rare protein misfolding diseases, especially those characterized by amyloidosis, using a platform with a proven track record of success. Prior to this role, Natalie received her PhD from the University of Toronto’s Department of Medical Biophysics, where her PhD work helped lead to the development of a monoclonal antibody currently in FDA clinical trials for the treatment of cardiac amyloidosis. She is the recipient of numerous academic fellowships, awards, and has co-authored several scientific publications in research areas ranging from chemical informatics to immunotherapy drug development.

Dr. Michael Goldberg is Founder and CEO of SURGE Therapeutics. Previously, he was an assistant professor of Cancer Immunology & Virology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Goldberg graduated Summa Cum Laude with an Hon. B.Sc. in Biological Chemistry from the University of Toronto and received an M.Phil. in BioScience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge. Dr. Goldberg completed his Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under the mentorship of Robert Langer and his post-doctoral training in the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT under the mentorship of Phillip Sharp.

Dr. Goldberg has won more than 25 awards and been recognized repeatedly for his leadership skills, including winning the Harvard Medical School Dean’s Community Service Award and being selected for the Harvard Medical School Leadership Development for Physicians and Scientists. Dr. Goldberg’s research has been published in Cell, Nature, Science, Nature Biotechnology, and Science Translational Medicine, but he left academia because he felt compelled to focus all of his time and energy on translating intraoperative immunotherapy to patients in need.

Rob Johnson, CEO of Adrestia Therapeutics,  is a seasoned business leader with experience in founding and growing life science companies. Before joining Adrestia, Rob was Founder and Chief Business Officer at Affinia Therapeutics, a Boston-based AAV gene therapy company backed by NEA, Atlas and F-Prime. The company is pioneering a shift to a new class of rationally designed gene therapies that treat rare and prevalent diseases.

Prior to Affinia Therapeutics, he was Founder, President, and Managing Partner of Alacrita, a transatlantic management consulting firm specializing in corporate strategy and business development for the biopharma industry. Over 10 years at Alacrita, Rob led or oversaw consulting projects across several therapeutic areas, serving biopharma clients in the US, EU and beyond.

Before this, Rob held multiple roles in business development at Onyvax, an SR One and 3i portfolio company developing cell-based products to treat cancer.

Rob received his BS Hons in Molecular Cell Biology from the U. Nottingham.

Parastoo Khoshakhlagh, PhD is the CEO and co-founder of GC Therapeutics, Inc. GCTx is a VC-backed cell therapy company based on a technology that Dr. Khoshakhlagh co-invented during her postdoctoral research in Professor George Church’s Lab at Harvard Medical School and co-authored in Nature Biotechnology. GCTx was the recipient of grant awards from the Harvard Biomedical Blavatnik Accelerator in 2017 and 2018, received the Massachusetts Life Sciences Innovation Day Prize in 2018 and was among the winners of the Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge in 2019 and MIT 100K in 2020. GCTx’s technology was also featured in Nature Biotechnology’s News Feature and in NBC’s 60 minutes. Prior to this, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Ali Khademhosseini at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Dr. Khoshakhlagh is also the co-founder, co-inventor and former CSO of Tympanogen, Inc., a woman-led company which is developing Perf-Fix, the first non-surgical, minimally invasive 3D hydrogel patch to heal chronic eardrum ruptures. Tympanogen has won multiple national and international awards such as the NASA Earth / Space Life Science Innovation Award and the nCourage Courageous Women Entrepreneur Prize. Dr. Khoshakhlagh and her co-founder worked with NASA and the Center for Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), the manager of the International Space Station, to investigate the effect of microgravity on hydrogel structure and drug release capabilities which was launched into space on the SpaceX Dragon Cargo Ship in a first-of-its-kind experiment. She completed her PhD in Biomedical Engineering in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Moore, a Langer laboratory alumnus, at Tulane University. Her work during her PhD led to her being a co-inventor on a U.S. patent application that resulted in the creation of Axosim, a start-up that develops drug screening nerve-on-a-chip products. In addition, Dr. Khoshakhlagh has previously received a prestigious award from the NIH, the Avon Foundation and the Center For Advancing Innovation for creating a commercialization pathway for a reconstructive scaffold for breast cancer.

Jason Kralic, Ph.D. is a neuropharmacologist and business developer with broad experience in technology innovation, R&D, licensing and company creation. Jason co-founded Tellus Therapeutics with Duke neonatologist and stem cell biologist, Eric Benner, MD/PhD, focused on the development of treatments for unmet needs in newborns. Jason founded Innervate BD Solutions in 2015, an advisory firm helping clients realize the full potential of their science and business through planning and execution of objective-driven strategies.

Jason was previously Associate Vice President of Technology Innovation at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center where he facilitated the evaluation, protection, development and licensing of therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics and digital health technologies aimed at improving human health.

Prior to Wake Forest Innovations, Jason was Vice President of Business Development at Opexa Therapeutics and Head of Business Development for Neurosciences R&D at GlaxoSmithKline responsible for setting the BD strategy, leading licensing and M&A activities and facilitating relationships with alliance partners. Jason has also served in scientific licensing roles at UCB Pharma and Schwarz Biosciences.

Jason holds a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed post-doctoral training at the University of Zurich. Throughout his career, Jason has been a strong advocate for STEM education and growth of biotechnology in North Carolina.

Daniel J. Mandell, PhD is CEO and Co-Founder of GRO Biosciences. A scientist and entrepreneur, Dr. Mandell is a leading expert in synthetic biology and protein engineering. Together with Dr. George Church, he leveraged genomically recoded organisms (GROs) to produce the first proteins with stability and function dependent on non-standard amino acids. Dr. Mandell completed his research fellowship in genetics at Harvard Medical School where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow of the Life Sciences Research Foundation. Dr. Mandell completed his PhD at University of California, San Francisco, his MSc at University of Edinburgh, and his undergraduate degree in Symbolic Systems at Stanford University. Dr. Mandell currently serves as a member of the BIO (Biotechnology Innovation Organization) Early-Stage Advisory Council and as a mentor for the iGEM and Nucleate programs. Prior to his role at GRObio, Dr. Mandell served as a consultant with Warp Drive Bio.

June Park is CEO of siRNAgen Therapeutics, an RNA platform products company developing treatments for immunology and CNS indications. siRNAgen is pioneering the extrahepatic delivery of RNAi using the SAMiRNA™ platform. siRNAgen’s lead program SRN-001 for IPF entering clinical trials in Australia this year has the potential to provide a disease-modifying therapy and improve patient burden significantly.

June holds a B.Sc. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from MIT, where she helped develop siRNA delivery technologies at the Langer Lab. As a Gates Cambridge Scholar, June received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge, developing supramolecular biomaterials for regenerative medicine. June has worked as a healthcare consultant to various large biopharmaceutical companies while at Putnam Associates and currently serves as an Executive Director of Bioneer. As a proud proponent of equal opportunities, June has co-founded and led various educational and STEM organizations, including Kepler Lab in Rwanda and Girls in STEM at the University of Cambridge. June likes to play the violin, run, cycle, and host dinner parties outside of work.

Safia K. Rizvi, PhD, MBA is a life science business executive and entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience in all aspects of the Biotech/Pharma value chain, from drug discovery to commercialization. A former computational biologist with a deep understanding and appreciation of AI, data, and informatics tools for optimizing drug discovery, clinical trials, and market access, she is highly skilled at transitioning scientific concepts into the product pipeline.

During her career, Safia has closed deals worth a combined $12B, managed P&L of up to $1 billion, and launched 10 products in the US, EU, and Asia Pacific —each with different regulatory, market access, business environments, and culture. She has been recognized for building and leading highly engaged, multidisciplinary teams with cross-cultural sensitivity.

Safia is currently the CEO of CILA Therapeutics or CILA (www.cilatx.com), a Boston-based company developing first-in-class therapies for airway-obstructive lung diseases like Cystic Fibrosis, Bronchiectasis, COPD, and severe Asthma, leading with an orphan disease Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD). CILA’s lead drug candidate is expected to enter the clinical trial next year. CILA was the Audience Choice Winner for the Launch Bio Pitch competition and Finalist for Lab Central ‘s Golden ticket competition. Safia is also a member of the Board of Directors of Kermode Biotechnologies, a vaccine company.

She previously served as the founding Chief Operating Officer of CARAVAN BIOLOGIX (www.caravanbio.com), a cell therapy platform company, and Managing Director of The Blue Group – a strategic advisory practice for CEOs and leadership teams of biopharma companies. Before that Safia worked for GlaxoSmithKline, MedImmune (Astra Zeneca), UCB Inc, and Galderma Laboratories spanning roles of increasing responsibility from drug discovery scientist to General Manager of country affiliates and large business units. Safia is experienced in multiple therapeutic areas including Vaccine, Immunology, Oncology, CNS, and Dermatology, and has worked on iconic brands, including Wellbutrin XL™, Keppra™, Oracea™, Soolantra™, and FluMist™.

Prior to joining the industry, Safia held the position of Research Faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School studying protein structure and function.

Safia cares deeply about the empowerment of women in the developing world.  In 2001, she co-founded a not-for-profit (501 c3), eLIT — to advance education, computer literacy, and information access for economically disadvantaged women and children. She now serves on the Board of Directors of eLIT. She also mentors multiple female life science professionals.

Safia received her MBA in Health Care Management from the Wharton School of Business and holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Oklahoma. She has authored numerous articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals is an and inventor of more than 20 patents in the US and Europe for small molecules, biotherapeutics and CAR-T delivery technology.

Among her awards are a fellowship from the American Heart Association, the American Red Cross Spectrum “Rising Star Award“, “National Working Mother of the Year Award” and E&Y’s “Woman of Distinction Award“ Award.

Dr. Nele Van Dessel is the CEO of Ernest Pharmaceuticals since 2018. Ernest Pharmaceuticals is a biotech startup that seeks to create a novel bacterial platform to revolutionizes the treatment of solid tumors through innovations in intracellular protein delivery. Dr. Van Dessel created the platform during her postdoctoral fellowship in the Forbes Lab at UMass Amherst. She co-founded Ernest Pharmaceuticals to develop this technology into a clinical therapy and has received up to $2M in non-dilutive funding. She received her M.S. in Bioengineering and her Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from KULeuven in Belgium.

Dr. Cinzia Silvestri, CEO and co-founder of BIOND Solutions BV (known as Bi/ond) believes that as every person is unique, our medicine should also reflect that. She is a resilient and creative entrepreneur who brings real and inclusive innovation to society by applying her passion and knowledge in microelectronics.

She is the founder and CEO of Bi/ond, a deep-tech company that empowers diversity in biological studies by engineering microchips.

Before going “Bi/ond”, she did her Ph.D. in microelectronics at the Technical University of Delft. During her academic experience, she realized that her mission was to shorten the distance between academics and industry.

She built up a diverse and multidisciplinary team to address the significant challenges in the Organ-on-Chip field. In 2018, she was named one of the 50 most inspiring women in Italy’s technology sector and in 2022 among the top young talents in the Netherlands by Het Financieele Dagblad. Thanks to her vision, Bi/ond has been included in the Fund Right Initiative both as a women-led company and diversity in the team.

If you want to know more about Bi/ond mission and Cinzia’s vision, watch her TEDx titled: “Your drugs are average”.