Feedback from last year's event:
"...An OUTSTANDING job on the speaker line-up (KOLs and excellent diversity
across the life sciences innovation field; blend of keynotes and panels)."
"...an exceptionally good job designing the day with good refreshments and
reliable breaks between sessions to allow for networking and connections."
"...We all attend lots of conferences and I would give this one an A+++.
Great job!!!"
"...Was a good mix of new science and venture education. I would definitely
attend again- the level of presenters and attendees was really good."
"...Absolutely great conference. I think it's now the best emerging life science
conference on the East Coast all year."
"....Outstanding show ... fantastic science and compelling speakers. A
complete ecosystem that promotes thought leadership and innovation."
Mohamad Ali is Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategy, Avaya. Avaya is a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services. He is responsible for Avaya's mergers & acquisitions, major partnerships, corporate strategy, research labs and emerging products. Before joining Avaya, Mohamad was Vice President of Business Development & Strategy for IBM's Information Management Division where he led and integrated many key acquisitions, including IBM's acquisition of Cognos Incorporated ($5 billion), FileNet Corporation ($1.6 billion) and Ascential Software ($1.1 billion). As IBM's senior state executive he was responsible for IBM's 5,000 employees in Massachusetts. In addition, Mohamad served as Vice President of the EDA software business unit, Vice President of the Information Applications software business unit, Director of the Engineering & Technology Services hardware systems business, Program Director of the GSM semiconductor business unit, and Director of Corporate Development and Strategic Investments. In the Corporate Development and Strategic Investments role, he co-led IBM's $3.5 billion acquisition of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting. Prior to joining IBM, Mohamad held a series of business development and software engineering positions in companies including Adobe Systems and Neural Applications Corporation, an artificial-intelligence start-up. He holds master's and bachelor's degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He serves on the boards of Ember Corporation and the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. He was named to Boston Business Journal's 2008 "40 Under 40" list.
Richard Anders, is an lawyer turned entrepreneur. In 1984 he founded Jurisoft, which he later sold to Lexis/Nexis. He later was the publisher of Boston Digital Industry and New York Digital Industry, and currently is Managing Director of Rubin/Anders Scientific. Richard is a trustee of the Boston Museum of Science, a member of the MIT/Harvard Medical School HST program advisory council where he helps teach a course on the biomedical enterprise, and a trustee of the Boston Biomedical Research Institute. He is a member of the Institutional Review Board at the Dana Farber Cancer Center. He founded the angel groups Launchpad and in 2008, MA Medical Angels (MA2), one of the country's only angel groups focused exclusively on life sciences. Richard is a graduate Summa Cum Laude in mathematics from Harvard and holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Dr. Anderson graduated from MIT, and then received his MD degree magna cum laude from the joint MIT-Harvard medical program, Health Sciences and Technology. After completing his dermatology residency and an NIH research fellowship at Harvard, he joined the faculty where he is now Harvard Medical School Professor in dermatology, Director of the Wellman Center for Photomedicine; and adjunct Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at MIT. Dr. Anderson conceived and developed many of the non-scarring laser treatments now widely used in medical care. These include treatments for birthmarks, microvascular and pigmented lesions, tattoo and permanent hair removal. He has also contributed to treatment for vocal cords, kidney stones, glaucoma, heart disease, photodynamic therapy for cancer and acne, and optical diagnostics.
Dr. Anderson's research has advanced the basic knowledge of human skin photobiology, drug photosensitization mechanisms, tissue optics, and laser-tissue interactions. In addition to research at the Wellman Center, he practices dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital and teaches at Harvard and MIT. Active research includes diagnostic tissue imaging and spectroscopy, photodynamic therapy, mechanisms of selective laser-tissue interactions, adipose tissue biology and novel therapy for skin disorders. Dr. Anderson has been awarded over 60 national and international patents, and has co-authored over 250 scientific books and papers.
Edward M. Brown is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Head of the Calcium and Bone Section at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College, summa cum laude, and his M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School, cum laude. He has worked in the field of calcium homeostasis for 35 years and has published over 300 peer-reviewed publications and 100 scholarly reviews. His longstanding research interest has been in understanding the mechanisms by which the body maintains virtual constancy of the blood calcium concentration, which is essential for life. His early studies suggested the existence of a "receptor for calcium ions" (the "calcium-sensing receptor" or CaSR) on the surface of specialized cells, which enables them to monitor the level of calcium in the blood and correct it when it diverges from normal. He led the team that isolated and characterized the CaSR by molecular cloning techniques and also played a key role in the identification of at least 6 acquired or inherited disorders in the CaSR. He also collaborated closely with NPS Pharmaceuticals, who developed the first pharmacological activators of the CaSR, the so-called "calcimimetics". A second generation calcimimetic, Sensipar of Cinacalcet HCl, is currently widely utilized in patients receiving dialysis for chronic renal insufficiency. Its introduction into the clinic has enabled better control of the metabolic complications found in this patient population, which contribute to their high morbidity and mortality, particularly from cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Cohen brings 15 years of experience working in several executive positions at Novartis. Among her positions, Dr. Cohen served as Vice President & Global Head for Strategic & Enabling Technologies and Molecular Medicine, at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research (NIBR). Dr. Cohen has established, and served as global head of the Functional Genomics Department at NIBR, where she led multidiciplinary teams in Switzerland and the United States. In addition, She has served as a member of the Novartis Research Board as well as Executive Director and Senior Expert, Molecular and Cellular Biology, at Novartis Research. From 1992-1996, she was a Research Fellow in the Oncology Department at Sandoz Pharmaceutical Corporation. Dr. Cohen served on the Board of Directors for the SNP Consortium and is an Adjunct Professor at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She is the author of over 50 scientific articles. Dr. Cohen received her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the Faculty of Medicine at Technion, Israel Institution of Technology.
As President and CEO of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, Bob's mission is to foster a positive environment that enables each biotechnology company to achieve its full potential in Massachusetts, making the state a world center for biotechnology. He is very familiar with all areas of the Massachusetts life sciences super cluster and is a passionate advocate for research and the biotechnology community. Bob has spent his career in both the public and private sectors, most recently serving as Undersecretary of Economic Development within Governor Deval Patrick's administration in 2007. Prior to that, he was elected as State Representative to the 11th Norfolk district for three terms. In the legislature both healthcare and economic development were his priorities. In the world of business he specialized in the environmental services industry and moved on to capital management and venture capital. He has held senior executive positions in both fields. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy where he majored in Marine Engineering, and is a Lieutenant in the United States Naval Reserve. Coughlin has also been active in the community, having served on the boards of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital. He has served as the honorary chairman of the Great Strides Cystic Fibrosis Walk since 1996. In 2009 he co-chaired the Children's Hospital Boston signature event, Champions for Children's.
Bob is Managing Director for the Partners Innovation Fund at Partners HealthCare, where he oversees the creation and launching of new ventures generated from Partners innovative research discoveries.ob has spent more than twenty-five years commercializing new technologies and promoting emerging businesses, including fifteen years early stage venture capital investing experience and culminating in his 2004 appointment by Partners to establish the Center for Innovative Ventures. In 2007, Bob and his team led the launch of the Partners Innovation Fund to accelerate technologies to market. Previously, he was a general partner at Egan-Managed Capital, a $150 million dollar Boston-based venture fund, after having served as Vice President of the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation, a 25-year-old early stage venture firm that funds technology-based companies in Massachusetts. Earlier in his career, he gained strategic operating expertise as a COO/CFO with start-up ventures and as a management consultant with Control Data Business Advisors. He holds an AB in Economics from Holy Cross College and an MBA from Suffolk University.
While serving in a leadership role on the boards of portfolio companies and developing strong relationships with co-investors from New England and across the country, Bob has reviewed more than 2000 business plans and invested in more than 40 companies. His portfolio has included companies developing leading-edge technologies in semiconductors, software, telecommunications, medical devices, manufacturing and advanced materials. He has extensive experience putting together syndicates of investors, corporations and third parties to fund technology companies through investment, partnership, joint development and research agreements.
Dr Draetta is a Dana Farber Presidential Scholar, Chief Research Business Development Officer and Deputy Director of the Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science (CACS) at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. The Belfer Institute is dedicated to discovering cancer genes essential for tumor maintenance, and to translating these basic discoveries into new therapies for cancer. The integration of basic research and drug discovery programs at the Belfer Institute has provided Dana-Farber with a unique opportunity to convert critical basic discoveries in the laboratory into novel targeted therapies that may prolong the lives of cancer patients. This represents a new academic concept that provides an unprecedented opportunity to change the way anti-cancer therapeutics are discovered and developed.
Dr. Draetta received his MD and post-graduate degrees from the University of Naples Medical School, Italy. He was an investigator at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany and at the European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy. He also held appointments at Mitotix, a biotechnology company he co-founded, and at Pharmacia and Merck, as Vice-President and Worldwide Head of Oncology Drug Discovery. During the time spent in pharmaceutical R&D organizations, he contributed to the discovery of numerous novel clinical candidates including among others inhibitors of cyclin dependent kinases, aurora kinases, histone deacetylases, receptor-tyrosine kinases, and of developmental pathway inhibitors, many in clinical trials, two of which now commercial products. Over the years Dr. Draetta emphasized the need to support in parallel - for each mechanism being targeted - both the discovery of novel pharmaceutical entities as well as the identification of responder tumor subpopulations (through both human tumor mapping and pathway analysis in model systems).
Mr. Emmens is Chairman, President and CEO of Vertex. He has over 33 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including roles at Shire Pharmaceuticals Group plc and businesses operated by Merck KGaA and Merck & Co. He became Vertex's Chairman, President and CEO in 2009 and has been a member of the company's Board of Directors since 2004.
Mr. Emmens is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Shire and was its Chief Executive Officer from March 2003 through June 2008. Before joining Shire in 2003, Mr. Emmens served as president of Merck KGaA's global prescription pharmaceuticals business in Darmstadt, Germany. In 1999, he joined Merck KGaA and established EMD Pharmaceuticals, its United States prescription pharmaceutical business. Mr. Emmens held the position of President and Chief Executive Officer at EMD Pharmaceuticals from 1999 to 2001. Earlier, Mr. Emmens held various positions, including Chief Executive Officer, at Astra Merck, Inc. as well as several positions at Merck & Co., Inc. Mr. Emmens received a B.S. degree in business management from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Dennis Fowler completed his surgical training with a Surgical Endoscopy Fellowship in 1980 at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Since that time, he has practiced and advanced the treatment of gastrointestinal and other general surgical problems by developing and utilizing a minimally invasive approach. In 1991, he pioneered several laparoscopic techniques and was the first surgeon in the world to complete a sigmoid colectomy laparoscopically. For the next 15 years he focused on teaching and further developing techniques in minimal access surgery. His research focused not only on new techniques and technologies, but also on the best methods for teaching surgery and has published extensively on the topics of minimally invasive surgery, technology development, and surgical education.
As Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery in Pittsburgh between 1997-2000, Fowler developed a curriculum for teaching residents laparoscopic surgery. In 2000, his interest in surgical education brought him to New York Presbyterian Hospital where he developed and taught a laparoscopic curriculum for the residents at both Cornell and Columbia between 2000 and 2004 and for the residents at Columbia between 2004 and 2008. Since 1997 he has been a fellowship director and primary instructor for 18 laparoscopic fellows. Many are now in prominent positions in academic medical centers. In addition to these formal graduate surgical training responsibilities, he participated as lecturer, lab instructor, proctor, course director, or as surgeon performing live surgery in hundreds of courses and training sessions throughout the world. These training sites included local and regional courses in the U.S., national meetings in the U.S., and international courses in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Most recently, Fowler has committed time and effort to developing the newest methods and technologies for minimally invasive surgery. In March 2007, he was a member of the team of surgeons who performed the first natural orifice access surgery in North America (transvaginal cholecystectomy). He has been the principle investigator on 3 peer-reviewed grants (two from the National Institutes of Health) that have funded the development of insertable robotic devices for further reducing the invasiveness of surgery while at the same time increasing the safety and improving the outcomes of surgery.
In addition to his clinical and research activities from 2004-2008, Fowler was V.P.-Medical Director of Perioperative Services at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia where he was responsible for all aspects of perioperative services. Among other innovations during that time, he began a program of team training for all operating room personnel and enhanced the IT infrastructure for information delivery and asset tracking in the operating rooms.
Fowler has ongoing grant support to develop technology to further reduce the invasiveness of surgery and is also leading a major project in systems-based healthcare research. He is committed to pursuing, facilitating, and combining research in both of those arenas.
Karin Hehenberger, M.D., Ph.D., is the Senior Vice President, Strategic Alliances, for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, where she manages JDRF's scientific, financial and commercial partners. Most recently, Dr. Hehenberger served as Vice President, Metabolics Strategy and Business Development for Johnson & Johnson. In this capacity, Dr. Hehenberger developed the strategic framework for Johnson & Johnson's global metabolic disease efforts. Previously, Dr. Hehenberger was a consultant at McKinsey & Co., where she focused on projects related to diabetes. She has experience in the financial sector, both as a buy-side analyst covering healthcare equities, and as a partner at a global venture capital firm focusing on healthcare. Dr. Hehenberger worked for Eyetech Pharmaceuticals prior to and during its IPO, and on the approval and launch of its product for age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Dr. Hehenberger holds M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. She continued her research as a post-doctoral fellow at the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hehenberger is on the Board of The Rolf Luft Foundation for Diabetes Research and The Core Sight Council associated with the Lighthouse foundation.
Dr. Karp is an Assistant Professor at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Department of Medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and a Principal Faculty member at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. He has published 40 peer reviewed papers, 12 book chapters, 50 abstracts, and has 25 issued or pending patents, a number of which have been licensed by biotech companies. Dr. Karp obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto at IBBME/Chem Eng where he worked with Professor John Davies and Molly Shoichet. Upon graduation, he was awarded the Paul B. Madsen Award. He joined MIT as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow working in Institute Professor Robert Langer's laboratory for 3 years. In 2005 he won first prize at an MIT Chemical Engineering Research Competition for his work on enhancing the differentiation efficiency of human embryonic stem cells. Dr. Karp's work has been recognized by CNN, NPR Science Fridays, ABC News, MSNBC, CBC Quirks and Quarks, CanadaAM, BBC, Forbes, CBS Brink, Popular Science, the Washington Post, the New York Post, and by Wired Magazine. His gecko mimicking biomedical adhesive work was recently selected as one of Popular Mechanic's "Top 20 New Biotech Breakthroughs that Will Change Medicine. In 2007 he was invited as one of the top engineers in the US between the ages of 30-45 to attend the National Academy of Engineering US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium at Microsoft in Seattle. In 2008 he was selected as the Outstanding Faculty Undergraduate Mentor among all Faculty at MIT and recently has won the 2010 HST McMahon Mentoring award for being the top mentor among all faculty who mentor Harvard-MIT students. Dr. Karp was recently recognized as being one of the top innovators in the world under the age of 35 by MIT's Technology Review Magazine (TR35). He currently serves as the Biology and Medicine Section Editor for the Journal Nanotechnology.
Dr. Kerslake leads Boston Scientific's R&D portfolio management process and the company's efforts to ensure disciplined execution of its committed investments. Dr. Kerslake most recently held the position of EVP & COO at MDdatacor, an innovative venture-backed cardiology company based in Atlanta, GA and started by the founder of WebMD. Previously, he was a Senior Leader at The Monitor Group, a global strategy consulting firm, where his practice addressed the creation and architecture of corporate and R&D strategies with clients in the pharmaceutical, device and broader life sciences. Before Monitor, Dr. Kerslake worked in the pharmaceutical industry as Senior Scientist and as Head of Formulation for Allergan (NYSE:AGN) at its European R&D Headquarters in the south of France, the R&D/manufacturing facility in Italy, and subsequently at its headquarters in California. While at Allergan, Dr Kerslake invented and holds the patents protecting Allergan's Alphagan P Glaucoma portfolio (a ~$400M/yr suite of products). Qualified as a pharmacist in the UK, Dr. Kerslake subsequently received a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Controlled Drug Delivery - Transdermal Systems) and an M.B.A. from the University of California-Irvine.
Scott Kirsner's column, Innovation Economy, appears in the Globe every Sunday, and he also maintains a companion blog at innoeco.com. Kirsner's writing has also appeared in BusinessWeek, Variety, The New York Times, and other publications.
Kirsner is the author of the book "The Future of Web Video," editor of "The Convergence Guide: Life Sciences in New England," and a contributor to "The Good City: Writers Explore 21st Century Boston." Kirsner was part of the founding team of Boston.com in 1995, and he is a graduate of Boston University's College of Communication.
Dr. Kuliopulos received his MD-PhD from Johns Hopkins in their Medical Scientist Training Program and performed his postdoctoral training with Dr. Christopher Walsh at Harvard Medical School. During his period at Harvard in collaboration with Bruce and Barbara Furie he gained expertise in the mechanisms of thrombosis and hemostasis. Since 1994, he has been a faculty member of the Tufts Department of Medicine and studies the signaling mechanisms of protease-activated receptors in vascular biology and cancer. Athan Kuliopulos is best known for his work identifying an enzyme that activates a receptor that results in cancer cell invasion and tumor growth. Kuliopulos' team was then able to block the spread of breast cancer in animals using special compounds that act on the inside surface of the cell, downstream from the enzyme and receptor. Now an associate professor of medicine, biochemistry and genetics and director of the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Laboratory at Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston, Kuliopulos was a postdoctoral student in the Department of Biological Chemistry and the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at Johns Hopkins from 1989 to 1990. He was nominated by Albert Mildvan, professor emeritus of biological chemisty and chemistry; Paul Talalay, the John Jacob Abel Distinguished Service Professor of Pharmacology; and Philip Cole, the E.K. Marshall and Thomas H. Maren Professor of Pharmacology and director of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences.
Dr. Kurtz is a Program Director in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Development Center at the National Cancer Institute. His management portfolio includes both grant and contract awards to support the pre-clinical development of novel oncology therapeutics, including small molecules, biologics, and multifunctional therapeutics based on nanotechnology. From 2005-2007, Dr. Kurtz was a NIH/AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow, serving on the management team of The Cancer Genome Atlas Pilot Project and also assisting in the development of several program enhancements to help advance NIH-funded SBIR projects toward commercialization. Prior to coming to NIH, Dr. Kurtz conducted basic research in DNA repair, mutagenesis and carcinogenesis. He held a previous position as Research Associate at Cedra Corporation, a Contract Research Organization that provides GLP bioanalytical services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Dr. Kurtz received a B.S. in Chemistry from The University of Texas at Austin, and a Ph.D. in Human Biological Chemistry & Genetics from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
Dr. Allison Milutinovich is the Program Manager for the Peer Reviewed Orthopaedic Research Program (PRORP), one of several research funding programs within the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) of the Department of Defense (DOD). The PRORP funds innovative, clinically relevant research for the treatment and rehabilitation of combat-related musculoskeletal injuries. Dr. Milutinovich oversees the entire program cycle, which includes developing a funding strategy for each fiscal year, writing and release of program announcements, and conducting a two-tiered model of scientific and programmatic review, culminating in proposal funding decisions. She also coordinates CDMRP's involvement in the Army Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Program, which includes the generation of solicitation topics, technical evaluation of submitted proposals, and technical guidance during contract administration. Prior to taking on the role of Program Manager in 2008, Dr. Milutinovich worked as a Grants Manager with CDMRP for over three years, and managed a portfolio of grants focused on basic, translational and clinical breast cancer research.
Prior to moving into science administration, Dr. Milutinovich conducted basic research in genetics, developmental and cell biology, and authored or co-authored several peer-reviewed publications. She also volunteered in the Washington, D.C. office of Maryland Representative Elijah Cummings, answering healthcare- and science-related constituent concerns and drafting Congressional floor statements. Dr. Milutinovich received a B.S. in Biology from the College of William and Mary and a Ph.D. in Biology from Johns Hopkins University.
Throughout his public career, Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray has taken on the tough challenges of economic development, improving public education, protecting the environment and making government more responsive to every citizen.
Prior to his election as Lieutenant Governor, Tim was first elected to the Worcester City Council in 1997 and became mayor in 2001. He served as mayor of Massachusetts' second largest city for three terms. Under Tim's leadership, Worcester experienced unprecedented progress, with $1 billion of new economic development projects that are helping to transform an older industrial city into one that is well-positioned to lead and grow in the new economy.
As Mayor, Tim chaired the Worcester School Committee and helped make that city's schools among the best urban school systems in the nation. Tim built community partnerships to lower drop-out rates, launch school-based health initiatives and expand after-school programs to support working families.
As Lieutenant Governor, Tim works closely with Governor Patrick on the important issues facing our Commonwealth. Tim is the liaison to cities and towns and is working hard on transportation issues, particularly the improvement and expansion of commuter rail, disaster recovery policy and brownfields redevelopment. He is also a member of the National Lieutenant Governor's Association.
Tim is a member of the National Lieutenant Governor's Association (NLGA) and was elected as the Eastern Region Chair on the NLGA Executive Committee. The NLGA is made up of the Lieutenant Governors or second in command officials from all 50 states and the U.S. territories.
Tim is a Worcester native. He attended Worcester public schools and went on to St. John's High School in Shrewsbury. Tim earned his bachelor's degree at Fordham University, and then put himself through law school attending classes at night while working days as a substitute school teacher and an advocate for homeless families. Tim earned his law degree from the Western New England College School of Law in Springfield and became a partner in the Worcester firm of Tattan, Leonard and Murray.
Prior to his elective service, Tim was active for many years in a wide range of community initiatives. He served on the boards of the Worcester Public Library, Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester Community Action Council, the Worcester Working Coalition for Latino Students and Preservation Worcester.
Dr. Adil Najam is the Frederick S. Pardee Professor of Global Public Policy at Boston University. He also serves as the Director of the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and a Professor of International Relations and of Geography and Environment.
Prof. Adil Najam has served as a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), work for which the IPCC was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore. In 2008 he was nominated by the United Nations Secretary General to serve on the United Nations Committee on Development Policy (UN CDP). In 2009 he was awarded one of Pakistan's highest civil awards, the Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) medal by the President of Paksitan.
Prof. Najam has also taught at MIT, University of Massachusetts and at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. His research focuses on issues of global public policy, especially those related to South Asia, Muslim countries, environment and development, and human well-being.
Prof. Najam has written nearly 100 scholarly papers and book chapters, and his recent books include: Pakistanis in America: Portrait of a Giving Community (2006); Trade and Environment Negotiations: A Resource Book (2006); Envisioning a Sustainable Development Agenda for Trade and Environment (2006); Environment, Development and Human Security: Perspectives from South Asia (2003); and Civic Entrepreneurship (2002).
He is a past winner of MIT's Goodwin Medal for Effective Teaching, the Fletcher School Paddock Teaching Award, and the Stein Rokan Award of the International Political Science Association, the ARNOVA Emerging Scholar Award, and the Pakistan Television Medal for Outstanding Achievement. Prof. Najam also serves on the editorial boards of various scholarly publications, including Global Governance, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, The Journal of Ecological Economics, Annual Editions: Environment, and The Encyclopedia of Earth. Prof. Najam is frequently interviewed by and writes for the popular media and is the founding editor of the blog Pakistaniat.com.
Adil Najam is an expert in international diplomacy and development. His research interests include sustainable development, Muslim and South Asian politics, environmental politics in developing countries, and philanthropy among immigrant communities in the United States. Much of his work has focused on longer-term global policy problems, especially those related to human well-being and sustainable development. He contributed to Pakistan's first environmental policy document, as well as to that country's report to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, has worked closely with governments and civil society in both industrialized and developing countries, and regularly collaborates with the United Nations. Prof. Najam is a Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), a Visiting Fellow at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), and serves on the Boards of the Pakistan Institute for Environment-Development Action Research (PIEDAR) and the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, Canada.
Dr. Namchuk received his BSc with honors in Chemistry from the University of Alberta. He then studied Bio-Organic Chemistry with Steve Withers at the University of British Columbia, where he received his Ph.D. Upon completion of his graduate work, Dr. Namchuk moved to California where he was a HFSP Fellow at UCSF studying autoantigens associated with Type I diabetes. In 1996, he accepted a position with Cubist Pharmaceuticals as the head of the Enzymology group. At Cubist, he built a group responsible for assay development and enzyme QC for screening and counter screening purposes. In January of 1998, Dr. Namchuk joined Vertex Pharmaceuticals. He has held several positions at Vertex, including the Head of High Throughput Screening and the Worldwide Head of research for the Vertex/ Novartis Kinase Program. In this capacity, he has lead numerous drug discovery programs that focused mainly in the areas of infectious disease, inflammation and oncology. In 2005, Dr. Namchuk took on his current role as Vice President of Research for Vertex in Cambridge.
Jim O'Mara has served as Ironwood's vice president of business development since January 2006, and has been a leader in business development since joining the Company in October 2001. Prior to joining Ironwood, O'Mara was vice president of corporate development at Cozint Interactive, a healthcare marketing services company. He also served as a vice president for MPM Capital where he managed business development strategies and interactions for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Earlier in his career, O'Mara held different sales and marketing positions at both Merck and Centocor. O'Mara earned a B.S. in pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy.
Dr. Rodriguez specializes in infectious disease and HIV medicine, with a focus on global issues. He has supported national health care programs for HIV, TB and malaria treatment and diagnostics in resource-poor settings for the US CDC's Global AIDS Program in Vietnam, the National Institutes of Health, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Health Organization. Dr. Rodriguez served as the Chief Medical Officer for the William J. Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative, with responsibility for the Foundation's programs to support delivery of drugs, diagnostics and clinical programs in 63 countries and launched the Foundation's operations research program. Most recently, he is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, where he helped launch the Global Health Delivery Project, and co-founder of Daktari Diagnostics, Inc., focused on the development of point-of-care diagnostics for global health. He is a graduate of Brown University and the Yale University School of Medicine.
Aaron Sandoski is the Managing Director of Norwich Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm special-izing in medtech. He is involved in all facets of the investment process and draws from a broad background in healthcare and start-up operations to support portfolio companies.
Prior to founding Norwich Ventures, Aaron worked for DEKA, the engineering think tank of Dean Kamen, where he helped develop partnerships and formulate business plans for emerging technologies. Aaron has also worked in start-up operations where he helped launch a subsidiary of Express Scripts and helped launch a venture-backed payments company. Both companies were acquired in transactions totaling over $500 million. He began his career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he advised healthcare clients ranging from leading medical device companies to a rural hospital system.
Aaron serves as a board member of MedTech IGNITE, an initiative of the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC) for nurturing early-stage medical device entrepreneurs. He is also co-author of How the Wise Decide, a book on decision-making in business (Crown Business, 2008).
Aaron earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College with a double A.B. in Chemistry and Economics.
Anupendra Sharma is Partner at Siemens Venture Capital investing in healthcare (devices, diagnostics, software and services). Anupendra is an investor in BioImagene, China Diagnostics and Cylex. He is a former investor in Sequenom (NASD: SQNM). Prior to Siemens Venture Capital, Anupendra helped companies go public and raise capital, and completed $5 billion in M&A transactions at JPMorgan, Salomon Smith Barney and Siemens. Anupendra also worked in strategy consulting for McKinsey London, and Product Development Finance for Ford Europe, where he was a member of the core team that set-up Ford in China and India.
Anupendra is a Charter Member of TiE Boston, Founder of The Leadership Program for Entrepreneurial CEOs of the future, and mentor to early-stage life sciences companies in New England. Anupendra founded the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at BITS Pilani, and is Founding Advisor to Peking University's Venture Capital Association. He also started the Massachusetts Life Sciences Startup Initiative to accelerate the pace of startups in the Commonwealth, and advises government and related agencies on policy matters related to startups in the Commonwealth.
Anupendra holds an MBA from Cornell University, MS in Accounting & Finance from Manchester Business School, Masters in Economics and Bachelors in Instrumentation Engineering from BITS Pilani, India.
Nathaniel Sims, MD, is a clinician, teacher, cardiac anesthesiologist, and medical advisor to Biomedical Engineering at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He is also an Assistant Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sims is a strategic and hands-on innovator who has developed numerous technologies that make patient care safer and more efficient. Working in interdisciplinary teams involving biomedical engineering, nursing, and various hospital departments, Dr. Sims and colleagues have pioneered improvements in patient monitoring, patient transport, and error-free intravenous drug delivery systems. The overall focus is developing advanced systems technologies to improve safety and patient care while reducing cost. Dr. Sims holds numerous US patents (rights assigned to MGH). He is now working through CIMIT on projects that move innovative technology into patient care. Dr. Sims is the 2006 winner of the AAMI Foundation Laufman/Greatbatch Prize, the highest honor given by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, honoring an individual that has made a unique and significant contribution to the advancement of medical instrumentation. His development of "smart drug infusion pump" technology and "flexible monitoring" systems are the contributions in patient safety technology recognized in the awarding of the prize.
Dr. Li-Huei Tsai was born in Taipei, Taiwan. In 1986, she started her Ph.D. at the University of Texas Southwestern. Under the direction of Bradford Ozanne, she graduated in 1990 and joined Ed Harlow's laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Massachusetts General Hospital for postdoctoral training. She was appointed Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School in 1994, elected Investigator of Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1997, and promoted to Professor of Pathology in 2002. In 2006, she relocated her lab to MIT and became the Picower Professor of Neuroscience. Li-Huei began directing the Neurobiology Program at the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research in 2007 and she was named Director of the Picower Institute for Learning & Memory in 2009.
Li-Huei is on numerous editorial boards, has been awarded the Young Investigator Award from Metropolitan Life Foundation, the Outstanding Contributor Award from the Alzheimer Research Forum. She serves on the China Strategy Working Group and the Neuroscience Council, as well as for NIH Study Sections. In addition to being a member of The Republic of China's Academia Sinica, Li-Huei sits on the scientific advisory boards and committees for NINDS, Gruber Foundation, Alzheimer Research Forum Foundation, and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary, among other organizations. She was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2008.
Malinckrodt Professor of Immunopathology, Harvard Medical School
Dr. von Andrian is an internationally recognized expert in the basic exploration of immune responses to exogenous and endogenous challenges, such as infections, immune deficiencies, tumors and immune diseases. Using in vivo microscopic imaging technologies developed in his laboratory, Dr. von Andrian has identified how different immune cells migrate and communicate in living tissues and how immunomodulatory drugs and vaccines can be designed to control and modify these events. He co-founded Selecta Biosciences to apply these insights to the development of rationally engineered targeted synthetic vaccine particles (tSVP) for the treatment and prevention of human diseases. Dr. von Andrian received his M.D. from Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany. He did postdoctoral work at the La Jolla Institute for Experimental Medicine and at Stanford University in California. He then went onto Harvard in 1994 as an Assistant Professor of Pathology at HMS, and Junior Investigator at the Center for Blood Research (now called The Immune Disease Institute). He is currently Professor of Pathology at HMS, and Senior Investigator at The Immune Disease Institute. Dr. von Andrian is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and a recipient of meritorious career awards for outstanding research from several professional societies, including the American Society for Investigative Pathology, the American Society of Physiology, the American Association of Immunologists, and the Microcirculatory Society.
On May 28, 2008, Dr. Susan Windham-Bannister was appointed by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Board of Directors to be the Center's first President and CEO. She officially assumed that position in July, 2008.
The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center is a quasi-public entity created by the Legislature in 2006 to promote the life sciences within Massachusetts. The Center is at the heart of the state's new $1 billion life sciences law and is fast becoming the hub of connectivity for all sectors of the life sciences community - encouraging unprecedented public-private collaboration among industry, research, academia and government. The Center is making strategic investments in our life sciences workforce and in translational research at critical stages of the development cycle. These investments will foster and grow the Massachusetts life sciences Super Cluster, cultivating innovation at institutions whose research, development and commercialization of therapies, products and cures hold great promise for improving and saving lives.
Dr. Windham-Bannister is former Managing Vice President of the Commercial Strategy Group for Abt Bio-Pharma Solutions Inc. In that capacity, she managed a research-based consulting business that provides consulting services to firms in the life sciences -- health care delivery, pharmaceuticals, biotech, diagnostics, devices and healthcare information technology.
Dr. Windham-Bannister was a member of Abt Bio-Pharma Solutions' corporate management team, and a founding member of the commercial division of Abt Associates, the parent company.
Dr. Windham-Bannister has 35 years of consulting experience in life sciences and has worked with companies that represent all major industry sectors. A partial list of her clients includes Siemens Diagnostics, Roche, Pfizer, Genzyme, Eyetech, Sopherion, Sanofi, Novartis, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Tufts Medical Center, GE Healthcare, The American Cancer Society and The W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Within her client organizations, Dr. Windham-Bannister most often works with executive level management and/or Boards of Directors on assessment of market opportunities and commercialization strategy.
Dr. Windham-Bannister has co-authored two books: Competitive Strategy for Health Care Organizations and Medicaid and Other Experiments in State Health Policy. She also has written several articles on competition in today's health care marketplace.
She sits on a variety of Boards of Directors and is a frequent speaker and panelist at conferences on competitive strategy.
Dr. Windham-Bannister holds a B.A. from Wellesley College, a doctorate in health policy and management from the Heller School at Brandeis University, and was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School. She completed her doctoral work under a fellowship from the Ford Foundation.
Dr. Gordon Wong has been a Vice President in Biogen Idec's corporate venture group, New Ventures, since 2005. From 2002 to 2004, he was co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at Compound Therapeutics (re-named Adnexus Therapeutics in 2005), a protein engineering company focused on the design of therapeutic proteases and antibody like protein antagonists. From 1983 to 2000, Dr. Wong served in positions of staff and senior scientist, project leader, scientific fellow and senior director of research at Genetics Institute/Wyeth generating over 35 issued US patents and over 75 scientific publications. Dr. Wong graduated from Oxford University where he attended as a Rhodes Scholar receiving a D.Phil. in Biochemistry. Additionally he recently completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School. Currently Dr. Wong sits on the board of CalciMedica and holds board observer seats with Cambria Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Virdante Pharmaceuticals, Inc
Dr. Zon is internationally recognized for his pioneering research in the new fields of stem cell biology and cancer genetics. His current research focuses on two critical avenues of investigation: identifying the genes that direct stem cells to become cancers or to develop into more specialized blood or organ cells and developing chemical or genetic suppressors to cure cancers and many other devastating diseases. Dr. Zon is the Grousbeck Professor of Pediatric Medicine at Harvard Medical School, an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and director of the Stem Cell Program at Children's Hospital Boston. He received a B.S. in chemistry and natural sciences from Muhlenberg College and an M.D. from Jefferson Medical College. He subsequently did an internal medicine residency at New England Deaconess Hospital and a fellowship in medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Zon is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the founder and past president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, past president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the principal faculty as well as chairman of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute's Executive Committee.
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