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Aditya |
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Ambade, Ph.D |
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Director Business Development Discovery Biology |
SAI Life Sciences |
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Aditya has a Ph.D. in cancer biology, a post-doc from UMASS Med School and has over 15 years of experience in drug discovery. As director of business development, he leads strategic partnerships and drives growth across early-stage therapeutic innovation. |
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Ajita |
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V. Singh, |
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Associate Director, Discovery Biology |
SAI Life Sciences |
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Ajita V. Singh received a Ph.D.in Medicinal Chemistry and has over 18 years of experience in drug discovery. She completed her postdoctoral training at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and served as Faculty at Harvard. With more than 15peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals, her experience spans a broad range of therapeutic areas, including oncology, immuno-oncology, women’s health, autoimmune diseases and rare diseases. |
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Atli |
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Thorarensen |
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Vice President, Head of Chemistry |
Cellarity |
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Atli Thorarensen is Vice President of chemistry at Cellarity. There he oversees medicinal chemistry DMPK and computational chemistry platform. His research interest includes use of advanced computational methods to accelerate medicinal chemistry in both lead identification as well as lead optimization. Prior to joining Cellarity he was at Pfizer as a medicinal chemist in various roles resulting in several clinical candidates such as Ritlecitinib. Atli holds a PhD in chemistry from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. |
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Bill |
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Jackson, Ph.D |
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Founder & CEO |
Base Pair Biotechnologies, Inc. |
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As CEO of BasePair Biotechnologies, Bill has been leading the development and commercialization of aptamer-based diagnostics and therapeutics since 2012. In addition to private capital, Dr. Jackson has also secured significant non-dilutive funding through government grants and contracts as well as revenue from earlystage products and services. He has served as principal investigator on more than 20 federally funded research projects and established collaborations with clinicians and researchers at world-class research institutions and universities. Bill also serves frequently as a panel reviewer regarding molecular diagnostics and related tools, environmental monitoring, and biodefense. His stated mission is to leverage the potential of aptamers to create innovative solutions for global health and environmental challenges, and to advance the field of aptamer science and technology. |
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Charles |
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Sinclair |
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Vice President, Translation Sciences |
Pioneering Medicines |
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Christina |
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Ansted |
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Senior Managing Partner |
RCP Venture Capital |
https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Christina-Ansted.jpg |
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Dan |
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Rozelle |
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Vice President, Data Analytics |
Rancho Biosciences |
https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Dan-Rozelle.jpg |
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David |
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Sherris |
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CEO |
Attivare Therapeutics |
https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/David-Sherris-1.jpg |
Session – Next Generation OV and New Combinational Approaches for Treatment of Solid Tumors
Dr. Sherris has over 30 years’ experience in translational medicine involving basic research, pharmaceutics and diagnostics. Dr. Sherris has been a successful serial entrepreneur developing biotechnology companies from the ground up, devising corporate strategy, enacting programs and carrying companies through funding and acquisition. Dr. Sherris prides himself as a “roll up your sleeves” CEO, entrepreneur, business development officer, drug developer and scientist, not simply a delegator. Dr. Sherris has worked with venture capital companies where he has both advised and raised finances for biotech companies. Dr. Sherris has been employed by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to manage external (academic groups and contract research organizations) and internal (directly manage, augment and expand internal scientific programs) research and development. Dr. Sherris has been a frequently invited guest speaker at biopharmaceutical business and scientific conferences, a published author and holder of patents in a wide range of therapeutic areas including oncology, ophthalmology, dermatology, neurology, gene therapy and infectious disease. Dr. Sherris has held positions of increasing responsibility in public and private companies. Dr. Sherris has developed drugs from the bench to the clinic, partnered technologies to pharmaceutical companies and raised capital for companies at the triple digit million dollar levels. |
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Diane |
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Joseph-McCarthy |
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Executive Director, Bioengineering Technology & Entrepreneurship Center |
Boston University |
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Diane Joseph-McCarthy is the Executive Director of the Bioengineering Technology & Entrepreneurship Center and Professor of the Practice in Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. Prior to that, she was a senior life science executive with over 20 years of drug discovery, development, and leadership experience. She was SVP of Discovery & Early Development at EnBiotix, a bioengineering company focused on respiratory and rare disease. She was an Associate Director at AstraZeneca, where she led a global team and task forces to transform Infection’s early portfolio. At Wyeth, she held positions of increasing responsibility. Diane received her PhD from MIT and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University/Harvard Medical School. |
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Eric |
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Ma |
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Senior Principal Data Scientist |
Moderna |
https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Eric-Ma.jpg |
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Fatemeh |
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Mojtabai |
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Founder and CEO |
Novatarg Theranostics |
https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Fatemeh-Mojtabai.jpg |
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Govinda |
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Bhisetti |
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Vice President and Head of Computational Chemistry |
Cellarity |
https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Govinda-Bhisetti-1.jpg |
Govinda Bhisetti got his Ph.D. from the Indian I at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. in 1990 and worked in the Computational Sciences department for 22+ yenstitute of Science, Bangalore, in 1986. He joined the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA, as a postdoctoral fellow in 1987. His work at Scripps involved the use of Cray XMP supercomputers to simulate protein-ligand interactions and design novel inhibitors. From there, he went to workars, where he led molecular modeling and drug design efforts on several drug discovery projects. His research at Vertex led to the discovery of three FDA- approved drugs: two AIDS drugs, Agenerase (amprenavir) and Lexiva (fosamprenavir), and one hepatitis C drug, Incivek (Telaprevir). He is a co-inventor of these drugs and has been named an inventor on 26 patents. He published 72 research papers, including review articles and book chapters. |
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Huseyin |
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Mehmet |
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Executive Director, New Ventures |
University of Massachusetts Medical School |
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Huseyin Mehmet is a drug hunter and research scientist with >35 years’ experience in basic and clinical academic research and in pharmaceutical / biotechnology drug discovery. He received his PhD from the Medical Research Council in the UJ and went on to work at University College London, the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now Cancer Research UK), Cold Spring Harbor Lab, USA and then took a faculty position at Imperial College School of Medicine. There his work focused on cerebral hypoxic ischemic injury in neonates and he was part of the team that developed mild hypothermia for the treatment of birth asphyxia. In 2006 Huseyin left the UK to join Merck and Co, in the USA. He worked in biomarker discovery, target identification and several drug discovery programs up to clinical candidate selection. For the next few years, he took on roles with increasing responsibility in several biotech companies and also consulted for a number of start-up companies working with prominent VC firms (e.g. Atlas Ventures and Versant Ventures). Since 2021, Huseyin has led the New Ventures team in the BRIDGE Innovation and Business Development office at UMass Chan Medical School, where he is responsible for the scientific partnering of intellectual property arising from faculty discoveries. |
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Julia |
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Fox |
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Director |
Takeda |
https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Julia-fox-1.jpeg |
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Lakshmi |
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Muthuswamy |
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Senior Director and Head, Computational Biology and Data Science |
Blueprint Medicines |
https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Lakshmi-Muthuswamy.jpg |
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Larry |
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Mulcahy, Ph.D. |
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Product Manager, Biologics |
Revvity Signals |
https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Larry-Mulcahy.jpg |
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Lijuan |
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Jiang |
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Vice President, DMPK & Bioanalysis |
Enanta Pharmaceuticals |
https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Lijuan-Jiang.jpg |
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Michael |
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Janes |
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Co Founder – Chief Revenue Officer |
RCP Venture Capital |
https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Michael-Janes.jpg |
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Mohamed |
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Kassam |
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Head, Bioinformatics |
Zifo |
https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Mohamed-Kassam.jpg |
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Nathan |
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McBride |
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Chief Information Officer |
Xilio Therapeutics, Inc. |
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Nathan McBride is a healthcare CIO with 25 years of experience leading IT teams in the Life Sciences, an advisory consultant, a DX evangelist, and the author of “Life Sciences IT Survival Guide” and “The Calculus of IT”. |
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Prasoon |
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Chaturvedi |
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Vice President, Head of DMPK |
C4 Therapeutics, Inc. |
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Prasoon Chaturvedi, Ph.D., currently leads the DMPK efforts in the protein degrader space as Vice President, DMPK, at C4 Therapeutics in Watertown, MA. Over the last two decades, Prasoon has worked with numerous cutting-edge technologies to drive drug development endeavors in multiple therapeutic areas including infectious disease, oncology, hematology, cardiovascular, inflammation and rare diseases leading to multiple successful IND, CTA, and NDA filings and has made key DMPK contributions for several marketed drugs including NUZYRA® and ONPATTRO®. Prasoon holds a Ph.D. from IIT, Roorkee (India), and did his post-doctoral training at E.K. Shriver Center of Harvard Medical School, MA. |
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Prateek |
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Katti |
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Investor |
Newpath Partners |
https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Prateek-Katti.jpg |
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Richard |
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Heidebrecht |
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Vice President of Research and Development |
Glycologix |
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Rich Heidebrecht is currently the Vice President of Research and Development at Glycologix. He started his career at Pfizer and Merck before making a transition to Biotech via the Broad Institute. Rich has gained expertise in medicinal, process and analytical chemistry and has worked on diverse therapeutic modalities such as small molecules, cell therapies, medical devices, and polymers including oligonucleotides. Over the course of his career, Rich has contributed to 35 patent/patent applications, 16 papers, two clinical programs and one marketed drug. Doctor Heidebrecht completed his undergraduate work at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and his graduate work at Indiana University with David R. Williams. His postdoc with Stephen Martin at the University of Texas at Austin rounded out two natural product synthesis projects – one total, one formal. |
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Shengwen |
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Zhang |
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Executive Director |
QLD Biotherapeutics |
https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Shengwen-Zhang.jpg |
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Zev |
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Wisotsky |
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Director, Drug Discovery New Modality Solutions |
Revvity Signals |
https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Zev-Wisotsky.jpg |
Zev Wisotsky is Director of Drug Discovery Informatics at Revvity Signals. His scientific training and research background includes neuroscience, biochemistry, molecular biology and drug discovery. He has spent more than eight years in software in go-to-market teams across industries with a heavy focus on biopharma/biotech R&D. |
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Winnie |
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Tam |
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Scientific Director, Head of Precision Medicine Immunology Translation Research |
AbbVie |
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