Nobel-Linus-Pauling Biotech Pharma Symposium Speakers

Dr. Seng-Lai (Thomas) Tan, PhD

Senior Research Leader Inflammation and Autoimmunity Hoffman-La Roche Inc.

The Biopharma Dilemma: Unprecedented Challenges and Opportunities

Dr. Seng-Lai (Thomas) Tan received his PhD in Microbiology from the University of Washington School of Medicine, where he is a recipient of the Helen Riaboff Whiteley Endowed Fellowship for outstanding graduate student achievement. In 2000, Thomas joined Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis as a Research Scientist and became an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Indiana University School of Medicine. He joined Amgen in 2006 as a Principal Scientist in the Department of Oncology and is currently a Senior Research Leader in the Autoimmune Disease Discovery Group at Roche.

Formally trained as a molecular biologist and specialist in virus-host interactions and interferon biology, Thomas has led cross-functional teams in both large and small molecule drug discovery programs in the disease area of oncology, inflammation, and virology. He is well versed in the development, validation and implementation of drug hunting flow scheme, including high throughput enzymatic and cell-based assays, lead generation and optimization, in vivo pharmacology models, and molecular and genomic approaches for biomarker and patient stratification strategies.

Thomas has published over 45 scientific papers, review articles, and book chapters that address fundamental issues of virus-host interactions, interferon biology, translational control, and PKC immunobiology, and has edited two HCV books. He is a recipient of the Milstein Young Investigator Award from the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research.

Dr. Yupeng David He, PhD

Abbott Laboratories

Dr. Yupeng (David) He is Senior Research Virologist, Infectious Disease Research at Abbott Laboratories, Chicago. Dr. He is originally from mainland China and finished his undergraduate study there, with a B.S. in Biology from Nankai University. He came to the U.S. to pursue his graduate training, first obtaining a M.A. in Biochemistry from the University of Kansas, followed by a PhD in Microbiology from Dr. Michael Katze's lab at the University of Washington.

Dr. He became highly interested in virology during his graduate study and focused his PhD dissertation on virus-host cell interaction of hepatitis C virus (HCV). Dr. He was hired as a Senior Research Cell/Molecular Biologist by Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, IL) after he received his PhD, and he works on anti-HCV drug discovery in the Infectious Disease Research Division of the company. Dr. He is the author of about 30 papers, reviews, and meeting presentations."

Dr. Grace Wong, PhD, CEO,

ActoKine Therapeutics, Boston, USA
(Ex- Genentech, Millennium, AstraZeneca and Serono)

1st Title: AK-1 for radioprotection and AK-2 for protection against virus infection
2nd Title: Ying and Yang: academia vs. biotech/pharma industry for new drug discovery

Dr. Grace has spent her entire career on biologics, specifically on cytokines, at Genentech, Millennium, AstraZeneca and Serono. Her PhD project was on biologics at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Australia. Her post-doc projects were also on biologics with Dr. David Goeddel (who cloned and expressed human insulin, human growth hormone, tissue plasminogen activator, interferon-alpha and interferon-gamma etc) at Genentech. She continued working on biologics in a variety of diseases at Genentech, Millennium, AstraZeneca and Serono.

Dr. Grace successfully shepherded basic research discoveries to product development at Genentech in 1993 and was appointed Head of Apoptosis Research at Millennium in 1996. Grace joined AstraZeneca as Section Head of Molecular Genetics for Alzheimer’s disease. At Serono, Grace was Director of Cytokine Genomics for infertility and Women’s diseases. Her work with biologics have made her valuable to biotech and pharma, receiving also job offers from Glaxo, Biogen, Human Genome Sciences and Cell Therapeutics, in addition to the positions she was able to accept.

Dr. Grace has been invited to present at 167 international conferences including the Nobel Symposium in Sweden in 1994. Grace received 13 scholarships and 5 Recognition Awards from Genentech. She published 93 papers (including 3 Nature, 1 Science, 3 Cell, 5 PNAS and 7 J. Immunol) and an inventor for 28 patents. Dr. Grace founded ActoKine Therapeutics to discover new biologics for radioprotection and protection against a board spectrum of viral infection (www.actokine.com). She also founded Student Vision (www.studentvision.org) and Nobel-Pauling (www.pauling.us & www.nobel-pauling.org) to inspire students of all ages in biotechnology. She originated a Dim Sum Symposium to give students, postdocs and scientists who cannot be with their families for Christmas, the opportunity to gather together to mix business with science and share the holiday.

Dr. Zhijian Lu, PhD,

China Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research

Seminar title: Biologics: past, present and future

Dr. Zhijian Lu got his Bachelor’s degree in 1982 from Jilin University, China. He went to Boston University in 1985 to work in Dr. Richard Laursen’s lab on topics in protein chemistry to determine the immunogenic sites in proteolipid protein, and got his PhD degree in 1991. Then he carried out his post-doctoral studies in Dr. Gobind Khorana’s lab in MIT on structure-function relationship of rhodopsin.

In 1993 Dr. Lu joined Genetics Institute, where his researches were in the areas of peptide display, cytokine structure/function studies, and signal transduction/functional proteomics. After Genetics Institute was integrated into Wyeth in the late 90's Dr. Lu's focus shifted to the discovery of biotherapeutics including recombinant proteins and monoclonal antibodies. He led a number of technology platforms for biotherapeutic discovery, and managed protein drug projects from inception, to hit generation and to candidate identification. His tenure in Pfizer also included focused exploration of potential collaborations in Asia Pacific area for novel methods used in biotherapeutic discovery.

Currently Dr Lu leads the Novartis biologics discovery group in Shanghai. Dr Lu has authored and co-authored many scientific publications and patents. Some of his advice can be found in NatureBiotechnology (2009) Biotech scientists bank on big pharma's biologics push. 27, 293-295.

Dr. Li Xing

Senior principal scientist, Pfizer

Dr. Xing is a senior principal scientist at Pfizer worldwide research and development. Upon fourteen years of pharmaceutical research experience Dr. Xing specializes in computer-aided drug design, medicinal chemistry, and PK-PD optimization. As a principal investigator she is a major contributor to the discovery of seven clinical candidates targeting biological interventions as cures of several inflammatory diseases. A renowned leader in the scientific community, Dr. Xing has given many invited speeches at international symposia, and has published more than forty scientific journal articles and patents. She holds a Ph.D in Polymer Science from the University of Akron, and Bachelor degrees with a major in solid state physics and minor in electrical and computer engineering from Tsinghua University.

Dr. Zhenping Zhu, MD, PhD

Executive VP, Kadmon Corp. General Manager, Kadmon China

Seminar title: “Antibody-based therapeutics: an introduction”

Dr. Zhenping Zhu is currently Executive Vice President, Global Biopharmaceuticals, Kadmon Corporation, New York, and President and CEO of Kadmon China. Prior to joining Kadmon, Dr. Zhu was Vice President and Global Head, Protein Sciences and Design, at Novartis Biologics. At Novartis, Dr. Zhu managed research groups globally in Basel (Switzerland), Cambridge (US), and Shanghai (China), and was responsible for the discovery, design and selection of novel biologics medicines that address various diseases of high unmet need. Prior to Novartis, Dr. Zhu worked over 12 years at ImClone Systems as Vice President of Antibody Technology and Immunology, and has successfully led research teams that discovered and engineered several novel antibodies that are currently in clinical development for various oncology indications.

From 1996 to 2006, Dr. Zhu held an adjunct professorship at the Institute of Hematology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Dr. Zhu has been working in the biopharmaceutical industry for over 20 years, and has published over 180 peer-reviewed scientific articles, including original research papers, invited reviews and book chapters. He is listed as the inventor or co-inventor for over 50 US and international patents and patent applications.

Dr. Zhu earned his medical degree from Jiangxi Medical College (Nanchang, China), passed USMLE and is certified by US ECFMG. He received his MSc in Pharmacology from the Institute of Hematology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College (Beijing, China), and his PhD in Immunology and Pathology from Dalhousie University (Halifax, Canada). Dr. Zhu performed his postdoctoral work in antibody/protein engineering at Genentech Inc.

Dr. Allan Riting Liu, VP

Wanbang Biopharmaceutical Group, China

Title: China's innovative new drug development and its models.

Dr. Allan Riting Liu is currently the vice president/senior advisor at Wanbang Biopharmaceutical Group(a subsidiary of Fosun Pharma)for new drug/business development. After graduating from Sun Yat-sen Medical University in 1989, he worked as a sales manager at Xian-Janssen (a J&J). In 1993, he worked as a visiting scholar for developing monoclonal antibodies at New York Medical College. Then he did Ph.D. studies in biochemistry at University of Texas/M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. After his post-doctoral research at University of Delaware, he worked as a scientist at Eli Lilly’s headquarter for developing osteoporosis and cancer drugs. He also attained an MBA at Purdue University receiving the best MBA scholarship offer. In 2006 after he came back to China, he worked as the director of business development at Fosun Pharma.

Dr. Liu is an internationally well-known professional and among the most outstanding experts in China on pharmaceutical licensing and new drug development. He led to complete about 10 international deals of licensing/technology transfers including the licensing deals for glargine and rh insulin from India, a co-development deal for a FDA phase III potential blockbuster for stroke from Israel, and a co-development deal for four therapeutic monoclonal antibodies with Chemo from Spain. He also developed many new drug proposals for in-house R&D and leads the preclinical research, clinical trials and new drug registration for the in-licensed development products.

At a doctoral research at UT’s department of integrative biology (chaired by the Nobel Prize winner Dr. Ferid Murad), he became the first scientist in the world to discover that psychosine can mobilize intracellular calcium. For his contribution to science, Dr. Liu was offered a National Interest Waiver for a fast-track green card by the U.S. government at the recommendations of more than twenty leading scientists from ten countries including U.S.A., Japan, Germany, France, and Italy. In 2003, he received an honor/award as Guidant Scholar offered by Guidant Foundation (U.S.). In 2008, he received an honor as One-Million-Yuan-Subsidized Top Talent offered by Jiangsu Provincial Government of China.

Dr. Michael Yu, PhD, President and CEO,

Innovent Biologics, Suzhou Industrial Park

Seminar title: Development of anti-angiogenic agents for therapeutic use

Michael Yu, Ph.D., has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Innovent Biologics since its inception in 2011. Prior to the position, Dr. Yu was a co-founder, President and CEO and Board member of Chengdu Kanghong Biotech (Kanghong Biotech) since its inception in 2006 until August of 2010. During his tenure at Kanghong Biotech Dr. Yu built Kanghong Biotech to be one of the most promising biopharmaceutical companies in China by securing $60 million in funding and rapidly conducting clinical development of four novel antibody products with an anticipation of a first BLA filing in 2011.

In 2006, Dr. Yu co-founded a joint venture (Kanghong Sagent Pharmaceuticals, “KSP”) between Kanghong Group (China and Sagent Pharmaceuticals (USA) with an initial investment of $100 million to develop and manufacture injectable drugs for the US market. Dr. Yu served as President, CEO and Board member from 2006 to 2009. Prior to founding Kanghong Biotech and KSP, Dr. Yu was Vice President of Research and Development at Applied Genetics (USA) and Calyon (USA). The latter was acquired by Cell Genesys (USA) in 2001 where he worked for three years following the acquisition.

Dr. Yu received his doctorate degree in Molecular Genetics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and completed his post-doctoral training at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) where he worked for two years following. Dr. Yu is the inventor of the world’s first oncolytic virus product, Oncorine (an oncology product) and an anti-angiogenic agent Conbercept (a drug for ocular dieses and oncology). He is also an inventor of 48 issued patents and pending patents. Dr. Yu has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Currently Dr. Yu is a professor at Sichuan University and a guest professor at Zhejiang University. Dr. Yu is a member of China 1000 Talents Program and deputy Director of the National Committee of Biochemical Specifications.

Prof. Yong X. Wang, PhD & MD

Professor, King's Lab, Shanghai Jioa Tong University School of Pharmacy

Seminar title: Discovery of spinal DAAO as a target molecule for the
treatment of cancer pain and morphine tolerance

Prof. Yong X. Wang got his MD and PhD in Pharmacology from Anhui Medical University, China and The University of British Columbia, Canada, respectively, followed by post-doctoral training in the field of Clinical Pharmacology at Stanford University, USA. He worked at Elan Pharmaceuticals in USA for approximately 10 years as Senior Scientist and Group Leader, with major achievements of pharmacological studies of ziconotide (Prialt®), resulting in its approval for the treatment of intractable pain including neuropathic pain and cancer pain, marketed in the USA and Europe.

Dr Wang is Professor of Biotechnology and Pharmacology and Head of King’s Lab at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Pharmacy, Shanghai, China. His research focuses on Translational Pharmacology in the areas of pain, metabolic diseases including diabetes and obesity, and cancers, as well as DNA methylation gene silencing technology, funded by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China, National High-Tech “863” Program of Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the Mega New Drug Development Program of China, and the Novel Drug Program of Shanghai Science and Technology Administration.

Dr. Wang has published approximately 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers in reputed journals such as Pain, BJP, JMC and JPET, several monograph chapters and many PCT patents. He is frequently invited to present at domestic and international scientific conferences and won Science and Technology Awards from Chinese Pharmaceutical Association and Shanghai Pharmaceutical Association, respectively. Dr. Wang also serves on a number of professional society committees, international and domestic journal editorial boards and Section Editors such as “Amino Acids”, and advisory boards of domestic and international biotech and pharmaceutical companies.

Prof. Dong-Qing Wei, PhD

Professor, B Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiaotong University

Seminar title: Structural Bioinformatics and Chinese Traditional Medicine
Database For Drug Design and Personalized Medicine

Prof.Dong-Qing Wei, obtained his Ph.D. at the age 24, is the acting head, Department of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, College of Life Science and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, a member at the State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, editor-in-Chief, “Interdisciplinary Sciences- Computational Life Sciences”, chairman, International Association of Scientists in the Interdisciplinary Areas (IASIA), also a member of editorial board of 10 international journals. Prof. Wei’s research is in the general area of structural bioinformatics and computer aided drug design.

Prof. Wei developed tools of molecular modeling and various databases and applied them to study biological systems with relevance to computed aided drug design and structural biology with emphases on antiviral drugs and drug metabolism. He made the first computational work that provides both kinetic and thermodynamic energy information on the drug binding sites in the M2 proton channel. Our results give a theoretical framework to interpret and reconcile existing and often conflicting results regarding these two binding sites, thus helping to expand our understanding of M2 drug binding, and may help guide the design and screening of novel drugs to combat the virus (JACS, 133, 10817 (2011)). A new agonist of a7nAChR, gx50, was designed and tested in vitro experiments that gx50 could combine with a7nAChR on nerve cells, induce depolymerization of Aß, inhibit Aß-induced neurocyte apoptosis, and suppress the release of TNF-a and IL-1ß from microglia. In vivo experiments showed that it could improve the cognition ability in APP-Transgenic Mice. These results suggest that gx50 is a promising drug candidate for AD treatment.

With more than 150 journal papers, 6 monographs, 3000 SCI citations and a H factor of 33, he is becoming a leading figure in the area of structural bioinformatics and computational physics. Prof. Wei organized a few important international conferences recently, for example, International Conference on Computational and System Biology, 2009-2011, Shanghai, China, Theory and Application of Computational Chemistry, Sept. 23-27, 2008, Shanghai, China, 2nd IEEE Conferences on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering, May 16-20, 2008, Shanghai, China.

Dr. Jian Ni, CEO & Chief Scientist

Human Antibodomics Inc, China

Seminar title: Study Novel antibody target for Cancer

Dr. Jian Ni obtained his M.D. from Second Military Medical University and Ph.D. from University of Cambridge. Dr. Ni was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the National Cancer Institute and University of California, Irvine. He is an American Society of Clinical pathologists board certified Specialist in Immunology.

Dr. Ni was a Senior Scientist of Human Genome Sciences, Inc., and has many years of experience in biomedical research, immunology, oncology and protein chemistry, and industrial experience in functional genomics, therapeutic protein and antibodies discovery and development. He has published more than 90 scientific articles in top scientific journals (IF >600), Inventor of 179 issued US patents, three of the HGS genomic derived clinical trial antibodies were based on his patents. A few apoptosis related genes discovered by Dr. Ni and his collaborators were reviewed by Science Journal as top ten breakthroughs of the year 1996.

Dr. Jian Ni, CEO and Chief Scientist,Human antibodomics (Suzhou Industrial Park) Inc, SuZhou, China,Chairman, Committee of Interferon and Other Cytokines, Executive Director, Chinese Society of Microbiology, Chairman, Committee of Medicine and Pharmceuticals,Vice President, Biotechnique Association of Jiangsu, Director, Committee of Monoclonal Antibody, China Medicinal Biotech Association, Co-Chairman, Committee of Key Laboratory of Antibody Technique, Ministry of Health, President, Chinese Biopharmaceutical Association, USA, 2001-2003, Director, Chinese Biopharmaceutical Association, USA, 1999-2007. He received many honors and awards, such as Award for national outstanding returned scholars, 2003, Shanghai excellent returned scholars, Scientific foresight advisor for Shanghai government, Privileged expert of China Department of State (2005), Award for outstanding achievement in development of Pudong New Area (2005), Award for GuSu Leading Talent (2007), Award for JiangSu Leading Talent (2007). He served as an advisor to several government and professional organizations, has been frequently invited to be Meeting Chair, Session Chair or Committee Member for several major international conferences for Biopharma and Antibody. He is currently a Visiting Professor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Second Military Medical University and Nanjing Medical University.

Jason Christopher Wong, PhD

Head of External Alliance, Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, China

Seminar title: The Challenge and Promise of Personalized Healthcare

Dr. Jason C. Wong obtained his B.S. in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in chemistry under the mentorship of Stuart L. Schreiber at Harvard University.

After a brief visiting professorship at Oberlin College and a short stint as a Mandarin language student at Fudan University, Jason joined the Roche R&D Center in Shanghai in 2006, where he currently leads the external and academic alliance department. He has led several drug discovery projects in oncology and is co-author of twenty-one publications and patents.

He currently lives near the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in Shanghai with his wife, Susan, and 19 month-old daughter, Joelle. In his free time, he enjoys jazz and classical music.

Hamilton J. Lenox

Director - Business Development, Neuland Laboratories Limited, India

Hamilton J. Lenox joined Neuland Laboratories in May 2010 as Director of Business Development, and is responsible for sales, business development and strategic partnerships for Neuland’s Contract Research and Manufacturing Division in North America. Hamilton’s background is in chemistry and biochemistry, with a BS from DePaul University and a MS from Northwestern University. After working as a bench chemist for several years Hamilton moved into business development, and for the past 10 years he has helped Pharma and Biotech companies advance their drug development programs, from the pre-clinical out through commercial stages.

Kevin Zhou, MBA

CEO, SSTK Biotech, Shenzhen, China

Mr. Kevin Zhou, MBA, is the founder and CEO of SSTK Biotech in Shenzhen, China. Sino-Swedish TongKang Biological Technology Inc. (SSTK) is a collaborative enterprise involving Chinese and Swedish researchers engaged in developing new devices and reagents for biotechnology research and clinical applications. SSTK is the developer and sole global supplier of anti-thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) antibody, which is used in diagnosis and prognosis in cancer patients. Kevin has received Project Management Professional training in USA and an MBA degree from the Tsinghua University in China.

n 2002, Kevin founded SSTK biotech in Shenzhen Science Park. Kevin’s CTO is Dr. Sven Skog (Professor of Biochemistry and Cell biology, Karolinska Institute, Sweden) who has Published 93 papers and is an inventor of TK1 international Patent. Recently, Kevin obtained $2M USD investment from a well known Venture Capital company.

Dr. Benjamin Lee, PhD

CEO, Comprehensive Drug Enterprises, Hong Kong

Dr. Lee is managing partner for a new biotechnology venture, Comprehensive Drug Enterprises Limited in Hong Kong focusing on advance drug delivery. He is also an adjunct member of the Faculty of Medicine at the Chinese University in Hong Kong School of Pharmacy. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Houston College of Pharmacy and a Doctorate from the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. He trained under Drug Development and Clinical Research Fellowships at Glaxo Wellcome and the University of North Carolina School Of Pharmacy, where he also served as an Instructor. Upon completion of his Fellowships, Dr. Lee joined Glaxo Wellcome as a Senior Research Scientist, rising to Lead Scientist in the Respiratory Medicine Development Center at GlaxoSmithKline. He has participated in the development of several of the GlaxoSmithKline respiratory drugs currently on the market and has authored numerous articles on respiratory disease therapeutics.

Dr. Mike Liu, PhD., MBA

Head, Global Business Development Hengrui Pharmaceuticals

Dr. Liu has more than 20 years of experience in licensing & business development, market development, and biomedical research. He was on the Executive Committee of Sino-American Pharmaceutical Professionals Association (SAPA) from 2004 to 2010. He is a member of BayHelix, a prestigious organization for Chinese business leaders in life sciences.

Dr. Liu recently joined Hengrui Pharmaceuticals as the Head of Global Business Development. At Hengrui, he is in charge of all business development initiatives in both top-tier and emerging markets, including multiple biologics development projects. Prior to Hengrui, Dr. Liu held increasing responsibilities for global commercial development at Alexion Pharmaceuticals and licensing & business development at Purdue Pharma L.P., a leading private pharmaceutical company in the U.S. He closed multiple deals in commercialization partnering, product acquisition, licensing, and research alliance.

In his earlier academic career, Dr. Liu conducted translational medical research at Yale University School of Medicine.

Dr. Wenzhi Tian, MD, MSc.

CEO, Huabo Biopharm (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

Dr. Wenzhi Tian is the co-founder and CEO of HuaBo Biopharm Co., Ltd, a newly established drug discovery and development company in China, with a main focus of its R&D on anti-tumor antibody and protein drugs that will fit unmet medical needs both in China and global market.

Dr. Tian received his Bachelor degree in clinical medicine in 1987 from Henan Medical University and then Master degree in tumor immunology in 1990 from the same university. He has worked from 1990 to 1993 as a teacher at the department of microbiology and immunology of Henan Medical University. From December of 1993 to July of 1995, Dr. Tian joined to the marketing department of Pfizer pharmaceutical company (Dalian) with responsibility for business development in Henan province. Dr. Tian went to Sweden in October of 1995 as a Ph.D. candidate and moved to New York in October of 1997 for a postdoctoral position in the department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology of North Shore University Hospital affiliated to NYU medical school. From April of 2001 to July of 2005, Dr. Tian worked as a research associate at the division of immunology, department of medicine, Weill Medicall College of Cornell University. From August to December of 2005, He worked as CSO in a biotech company in Shenzhen, China.

Dr. Tian joined ImClone Systems in January of 2006 as Research Scientist and resigned in April of 2011 at the position of Principal Research Associate. During the period of five years and three months at ImClone, Dr. Tian worked on several antibody drug candidates of which two were granted with IND by FDA. Dr. Tian filed five patents, one in US, and four in China.

Reinhard Ebner, PhD

VP of Biomarkers, ActoKine Therapeutics

Having served as a research manager and senior investigator in both academic and corporate settings, Dr. Reinhard Ebner has extensive scientific, technical and strategy experience, combined with a broad knowledge of modern biology and the biomedical and biotechnology industry, with a recent focus in contemporary oncology.

He received his undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Regensburg and his doctorate in Microbiology and Genetics from the University of Osnabrück, Germany, where he then served on the faculty of the Genetics department.

In 1989, Dr. Ebner was awarded a research fellowship to work as a visiting scientific specialist at Genentech, Inc. in San Francisco. There, he identified and cloned the long elusive first type I TGF-b receptor. He was first to show TGFß-induced epithelial-mesenchymal-transitions (EMTs) in cells in culture and, in the years following, made a series of substantial contributions to the fields of cytokine biology, receptor-ligand interactions and intracellular trafficking, cell differentiation, early development and tissue repair, first at Genentech and then at the University of California, San Francisco and at Stanford University Medical School.

After moving to Human Genome Sciences in 1995, Dr. Ebner became one of the most productive novel gene finders there and the inventor of all the HGS targets now in clinical trials and discovered many other important proteins around which HGS established pre-clinical and clinical development programs, including such molecules as DR4, the first and long sought after receptor for the cytotoxic ligand TRAIL, as well as LIGHT, IL-17B and its receptor, BlyS and TR6. In 2000, he joined Avalon Pharmaceuticals – hired as the first scientist following the company founders, where he was instrumental in the initiation of intramural and external research programs and contributed to corporate and scientific infrastructure development, working predominantly in the fields of chemical genomics, cancer research, data mining and HTS assay development. He also coordinated the company’s therapeutic antibody target discovery alliances and has a long-standing interest in alternative and novel drug discovery paradigms and development strategies.

Dr. Ebner is a frequently invited plenary speaker at national and international conferences and member of several scientific advisory panels and has served on state and national study sections.He has authored more than 50 original research publications, with several thousand citations by others. He is a recipient of grant and manuscript peer review service awards and society memberships, an ad hoc reviewer and editor for scientific journals, has over 44 issued US patents and is the primary inventor on more than 600 patent applications world wide. Several of his discoveries have led to new therapeutics now in the clinic or on the market.

Since 2008, he has consulted with a variety of public and private laboratories and institutions, providing assistance on business strategy, investment decisions, competitive and intellectual landscape analyses, technology development and other science projects, drawing from his expertise in genomics, biomarkers, personalized medicine, stem cells, small molecule as well as biologics drug development, alternative energy generation and general cell biology.

Dr. Makarand Jawadekar

former Pfizer

Dr. Mak Jawadekar was formerly a Director, Portfolio Management & Analytics, Pfizer, Inc. at Groton-New London, CT. In the recent past, he was responsible for Benchmarking R & D Portfolio for Pfizer, working with Benchmarking Forums (CMR/KMR), Drug Delivery Technology Assessment function involving external ‘Drug Delivery’ technologies. He has extensive experience in creating and cultivating external partnerships and alliances for drug delivery technologies for Pfizer Global R & D. He began his professional career at Pfizer Central Research in early 1982, after having completed his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics at the University of Minnesota.

He has continuous twenty-eight plus years of experience with Pfizer Inc. (Includes R & D and Worldwide Pharmaceutical organization). R & D areas include heading Solids R&D, Drug Product formulation/ Dosage Form/ Drug Delivery research & development, Clinical Trials Supply Manufacturing and Packaging, Scale-up and Technology Transfer as well as Pharmacy (CMC) areas. He managed several functions/groups within Pharmaceutical R&D for many years. In the recent past, he had been also been engaged in creating new alliances, JVs, partnerships and M& A of companies with Pharmaceutical manufacturing, R & D activities with external partners/service providers. He was presented with the "M.L. Khorana Memorial Lecture of the Year Award" at the Indian Pharmaceutical Congress held in New Delhi, India, in December 2001 for his Presentation on 'Advances in Drug Development and Delivery Systems with a Focus on Protection of Intellectual Property Rights'. He has presented at many professional meetings and has participated in various Panel Discussions/Round Tables. He was one of the invited guests for a ‘Leadership Summit’ held by the President of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam during 2003. He was also one of the invitees to join President George W. Bush’s trade delegation to India in March 2006. During December 2007, Mak accompanied Dr. John LaMattina (former Pfizer President) to India on his official trip to India, where President of India, Mrs. Pratibha Patil invited both of them to the President’s Palace (Rashtrapati Bhavan) in New Delhi. He also recently accompanied Pfizer R & D President Dr. Martin Mackay during Feb 2009 to India for participating in Bio Asia 2009.He served as a Vice president of Asia CRG at Pfizer Inc. He recently (Feb 2011) received an honorary Doctorate from DYP Mumbai University.

He also serves on the prestigious global "Judging Panel"/ Executive Review Board instituted by IBC/ Informa Pharma Group for their Annual Pharmaceutical Annual Achievement Awards, as well as European Outsourcing Awards by Via-Media Ltd.

He currently serves as a member on the Editorial boards for ‘Bio/Pharmaceutical Outsourcing Report’ as well as for "Contract Pharma" a monthly publication. He also is on the Editorial Advisory Board for monthly publication namely, "Pharmaceutical Technology Europe".

Dr. Tara Devi S. Ashok

University of Massachusetts Boston

Dr. Tara Devi S. Ashok is presently teaching at the University of Massachusetts Boston and is doing collaborative research with Dr. Andrew Grosovsky, Dean College of Science and Mathematics on developing novel sample preparation techniques. From 1997 - 2003, she was doing research at The Harvard School of Public Health in the field of Cancer genetics. In 1990 was awarded a Biotechnology overseas Associateship by the Department of Biotechnology, India to carry out work on Hemoglobinopathies and Radiation biology at Leiden State University, The Netherlands. From 1985 - 1993 was a faculty in the Department of Genetics, Delhi University South Campus, India and in 1992 was appointed the Chair of the Department of Genetics. She was awarded a PhD degree in 1981, on the study of Genetics of Mental Retardation. Today, Tara is passionately involved in educating students about science by offering courses on Developmental biology, Biochemistry, Biology , Biological anthropology, Human origins to name a few. Recently in 2011 she was awarded the "Teaching with Technology Award for Innovation & Creativity" at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Dr. Jorge Andrade, PhD

Associate Director, DEPT. of Pharma & Biotech Cooperation, Research & Cooperation Division, BGI-Shenzhen

After several successful years working as a Systems Engineer and Information Technology manager, Dr. Jorge Andrade decided to extend his experience and interests into research and biotechnology. Dr. Jorge Andrade joined the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and received his PhD in Biotechnology in 2007, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the prestigious Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

After his training, Dr. Andrade entered the biotechnology industry, working in and managing multi-national research and development projects. Specializing in sequencing technologies and bioinformatics, Dr. Jorge Andrade was chosen in 2011 as the Associate Director of Research and Development in the Department of Pharmacogenomics at the Beijing Genome Institute, Shenzhen, China.