Event Already in Full Capacity

For Delegate Please Press Request to Join and one of our project manager will contact you!

07
November

08:00 AM EST

Drug Discovery Biology

Name: Drug Discovery Strategy Meeting Boston
Start: 2023-11-15T08:00
End: 2023-11-15T17:50
Location: Le Méridien Boston Cambridge

Strategy Meeting East Coast USA 2023

Understanding Complex Structure, Properties and Dynamics of Biological Phenomena in Drug Discovery: Emerging Tools and Next Generation Drug Target Characterization, Validation and Safety Profiling

Le Meridien Cambridge Boston

A MEETING EXPERIENCE UNLIKE ANY OTHER

Fresh Biology Insights

Tired of the same conference experience? Real discussions and genuine networking are often promised, but not always delivered. Proventa International’s R&D Strategy Meetings are designed to avoid the pitfalls of a typical conference, by providing the right environment to make those important connections through interactive roundtable discussions, exclusive networking and keynote panel debates. Join Biology professionals from across the East Coast, in Boston MA, to discover new insights and take your company’s mission to the next level.

What makes our strategy meetings unique?

Roundtable Discussions

Intimate discussions led by renowned industry experts. Have your voice heard and debate alongside like-minded life science executives.

Unrivalled Networking

With senior delegation from big pharma and innovative biotech from across the East Coast, you can network with peers from different locations, all in one place.

Personalised Agenda

Choose the topics that matter to you. Reserve your place at the roundtable discussions and ensure your whole day delivers the insights you need to hear.

Solutions to your Problems

We’ve partnered with the best solution providers to solve your biggest challenges. Engage in pre-arranged, private meetings to address your specific needs and find a tangible solution.

Industry Researched Topics

We guarantee our agenda is up-to-date and mission critical because its designed by you. We speak to our extended network of senior decision makers to ensure the most important topics are discussed.

Senior Decision Makers

The entire strategy meeting is specifically tailored to the needs and challenges of senior life science professionals. Discover how your peers are dealing with the same challenges as you.

Meet Our 2023 Facilitators

Our panel of facilitators play a key role in shaping the agenda for the day. See who will be bringing their expertise to the table at our Drug Discovery Biology strategy meeting.

Brenda Wang

Senior Director / Subject Matter Expert In vivo Pharmacology Discovery Biology, WUXI AppTec

Zhifeng Yu

Director of Assay & DEL Screen WUXI AppTec

Carlos Pedraza

AVP Biology Sai Life Sciences

Christopher Locher

CEO Versatope Therapeutics

Diane Joseph-McCarthy

Executive Director, Bioengineering Technology & Entrepreneurship Center Boston University

Elina Lavit

Vice President of Business Development OncoNano Medicine

Huseyin Mehmet

Executive Director, New Ventures University of Massachusetts Medical School

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.

Jason Deng

Senior Director WuXi Apptec

Jim G. MacKrell

Associate Vice President, Head East Coast (US) Venture Science Team Eli Lilly and Company

Dr. Jim MacKrell is Vice President and Head of East Coast Venture Science within Lilly New Ventures at Eli Lilly and Company. He is responsible for supporting the strategy and implementation of Lilly’s early phase external innovation and partnering initiatives. Since joining Lilly in 2013, Dr. MacKrell has served roles in early discovery, strategy, external innovation, and as a leader of Lilly’s early trailblazer teams, championing innovative ways to bring Lilly science to patients with speed. He has led multiple programs through the portfolio, delivering several NMEs into clinical testing in the metabolic disease space. He is passionate about identifying emergent scientific assets, technologies, platforms and portfolio opportunities across the early biotechnology landscape. With goal to deliver novel science and innovation into Lilly’s portfolio, he strives to create opportunities for partnership. Dr. MacKrell holds a degree in biology and biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a doctorate in Molecule Physiology from the University of Michigan Medical School.

Joseph Mancini

Vice President-Research adMare BioInnovations

Karim Azer

Vice President, Head of Platform & Discovery Axcella

Dr. Karim Azer is the Vice President, Head of the Systems Biology Platform & Discovery at Axcella Therapeutics. He leads the data and discovery sciences organization at Axcella, bringing together innovations in data sciences and discovery sciences to advance novel pipeline opportunities through the application of systems biology, design of novel endogenous metabolic modulator combinations for new indications, and the translation of these combinations into the clinic. Prior to Axcella, Karim led quantitative sciences efforts at the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute where His work was focused on leveraging the spectrum of systems biology, including computational biology, systems pharmacology, modeling and data science, to address research and development needs of the institute, in the areas of tuberculosis, malaria, diarrheal and enteric diseases, and maternal neonatal health. Prior to that, Karim was at Merck and Sanofi, where he led and applied systems biology and pharmacology, and data science efforts towards advancing drug discovery and development programs across a wide array of therapeutics areas. Karim received his PhD in Applied Mathematics from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU, and holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Courant Institute at NYU, and B.S. degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from Rutgers University. He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry since 1997, employing a wide variety of systems biology approaches to address drug discovery and development initiatives in R&D.

Li Peng

Chief Scientific Officer Palleon Pharmaceuticals

Marcie Glicksman

Vice President, Biology Enclear Therapies

Marija Tadin-Strapps

Vice President & Head, Target Sciences Pfizer

Marija Tadin-Strapps is Vice President & Head, Target Sciences (TS). In this role Marija leads efforts to generate novel drug target hypotheses in areas of emerging science utilizing human genetics, functional genomics, AI/Machine Learning, and data mining tools, as well as experimental hypotheses validation to deliver differentiated targets. TS partners with other teams across ES&I, most notably the Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) as well as disease biology and technology line teams working across disease areas of interest to Pfizer. Marija brings over 15 years of industry experience in organizations ranging from early start up and small biotech to large pharma, spanning RNA therapeutics, cell therapy, and the use of human genetics and functional genomics for new target validation, biomarker discovery and translational research across multiple disease areas. Prior to joining Pfizer, Marija was at SQZ Biotechnologies after her stint as Head of Biology at Omega Therapeutics. Before Omega, Marija worked for ten years at Merck & Co. Marija earned her B.A. degree in Biology with honors from Goucher College and her Master and Doctorate degrees in Genetics and Development from Columbia University. She has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications on the use of chemically modified siRNAs and the use of human genetics for new target discovery.

Megan Gibbs, Ph.D., BscPharm, FCP

Vice President and Global Head, Clinical Pharmacology & Quantitative Pharmacology Astrazeneca

Megan Gibbs is currently the Vice President, Global Head of Clinical Pharmacology and Quantitative Pharmacology at AstraZeneca. In this role, she leads an organisation of R&D scientists that supports all ongoing clinical drug development programmes and global market applications across Oncology, Vaccines, Immune Therapy, Neurosciences, Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolic, Respiratory and Immunology across Gothenburg, Sweden, Cambridge United Kingdom, Gaithersburg, Maryland, Waltham, Massachusetts and Barcelona Spain. She also leads a group supporting ADC discovery and development.  Her key focus is clinical pharmacology and use of quantitative methods such as systems modelling and data and AI to impact drug development decision making across the drug discovery to development stages including submissions and post market and life cycle management.  Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Megan held positions of increasing responsibility at Pfizer and Amgen after completing her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from Drake University followed by a PhD in Pharmaceutics from the University of Washington.
Megan is a Fellow of American College of Clinical Pharmacology and has served on number of scientific boards including the American College of Clinical Pharmacology Board of Regents, University of Washington Corporate Advisory Board and University of Florida Systems Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics Leadership Council. She is an invited lecturer at Harvard School of Public Health and panellist at University of Cambridge Centre of AI in Medicine.  She also has over 100 posters, publications and invited presentations.
Megan lives in Boston with her family. Outside of work, she enjoys skiing, mountain biking and fishing.

Ming “Tommy” Tang

Director of Computational Biology, Head of CompBio Immunitas Therapeutics

Pedro Serrano

Senior Director, Head of RNA and Protein Modulation Takeda

Prashant Nambiar

SVP, Research and Development Strand Therapeutics

Robert Foti

Senior Director, Preclinical Development MERCK

Shane Hegarty

Chief Scientific Officer & Co-Founder AXONIS Therapeutics

Sridhar Prasad

Head of Protein Science Ventus Therapeutics

Stefan Kirov

Vice President, Head of Computational Biology Flare Therapeutics

Yi Xing

Senior Director of Drug Creation, Head of Structural Biology and Rational Design Seismic Therapeutic

First name	Last name	Job title	Company name	Photo URL	Bio Position
Brenda	Wang	Senior Director / Subject Matter Expert	In vivo Pharmacology Discovery Biology, WUXI AppTec	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Brenda-Wang.jpg	Dr. Brenda Wang is a Senior Director of Discovery Biology and a Subject Matter Expert – in vivo pharmacology at WuXi AppTec. Brenda prides herself in the scientific discussion with client to optimize preclinical designs related to in vivo pharmacology studies to bridge in vitro/in vivo/translational studies to accelerate preclinical to IND enabling studies. Prior to joining WuXi AppTec, Brenda worked at Pfizer, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Oncology for over 15 years. Brenda received her PhD in Microbiology and Molecular Biology from the University of Alberta and completed her pharmacology training at Johns Hopkins University Medical School.
Zhifeng	Yu	Director of Assay & DEL Screen	WUXI AppTec	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Zhifeng-Yu.jpg	Zhifeng Yu, Ph.D., is a biochemist with a background from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and postdoctoral training at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM). As an Assistant Professor at BCM, Dr. Yu played a pivotal role in establishing BCM’s DNA-encoded library (DEL) technology and leading drug discovery campaigns. Currently serving as the Director of Assay & DEL Screen at WuXi AppTec, Dr. Yu leverages 8 years of DEL experience to drive the development of cutting-edge DEL technologies and oversee the DEL service platform in the United States.
Carlos	Pedraza	AVP Biology	Sai Life Sciences	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Carlos-Pedraza.jpg	Carlos Pedraza, PhD. is an expert discovery biologist with over 16 years of experience in small molecule drug discovery in the fields of neuroscience, neurodegeneration, neuropsychiatry and neuroimmunology. Carlos’ work in the pharmaceutical industry has been focused in early target identification, scientific evaluation, feasibility assessment and experimental validation of novel, viable targets from concept to portfolio entry, IND and early clinical development. Carlos has extensive experience in collaborative interactions with CROs, academics, scientific groups and other institutions with continuous project management in company-sponsored research.
Christopher	Locher	CEO	Versatope Therapeutics	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Christopher-Locher.jpg	Christopher P. Locher, PhD is CEO and co-founder of Versatope Therapeutics, a preclinical-stage Massachusettsbased company currently focused on the development of technology platform using nano-vesicles. He previously led drug discovery projects for infectious diseases at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston, inflammatory diseases at Opsona Therapeutics in Ireland and malaria and alphaviruses vaccine development programs at Maxygen in California. He completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco, was a Fulbright Hayes Research Fellow at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium and received his PhD in Tropical Medicine and BA in Biological Sciences from the University of Hawai`i.
Diane	Joseph-McCarthy	Executive Director, Bioengineering Technology & Entrepreneurship Center	Boston University	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Diane-Joseph-McCarthy.jpg	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.
Elina	Lavit	Vice President of Business Development	OncoNano Medicine	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Elina-Lavit.jpg	Elina Lavit is VP of Business Development at OncoNano Medicine. OncoNano Medicine is a privately held, clinical stage Biotech company that advances therapeutics and technology platforms for solid tumors. Elina brings over 19 years of experience in leadership roles in organizations ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 corporations in various therapeutic areas, including oncology, neurology and cardiology. During her career, she has successfully negotiated in- and out-licensing transactions, from early-stage research technologies to clinical-stage assets. Previously, she served as Director of Program Management at Myokardia (acquired by BMS) and gained significant strategic Alliance and partnerships experience while working at Pharmacyclics, AbbVie, and Ethicon (JnJ). Elina earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Biology and Master of Science in Medical Science from Tel Aviv University
Huseyin	Mehmet	Executive Director, New Ventures	University of Massachusetts Medical School	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Huseyin-Mehmet.jpg	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.
Jason	Deng	Senior Director	WuXi Apptec	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/jason_deng.jpg
Jim	G. MacKrell	Associate Vice President, Head East Coast (US) Venture Science Team	Eli Lilly and Company	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Jim-G-MacKrell.jpg	Dr. Jim MacKrell is Vice President and Head of East Coast Venture Science within Lilly New Ventures at Eli Lilly and Company. He is responsible for supporting the strategy and implementation of Lilly’s early phase external innovation and partnering initiatives. Since joining Lilly in 2013, Dr. MacKrell has served roles in early discovery, strategy, external innovation, and as a leader of Lilly’s early trailblazer teams, championing innovative ways to bring Lilly science to patients with speed. He has led multiple programs through the portfolio, delivering several NMEs into clinical testing in the metabolic disease space. He is passionate about identifying emergent scientific assets, technologies, platforms and portfolio opportunities across the early biotechnology landscape. With goal to deliver novel science and innovation into Lilly’s portfolio, he strives to create opportunities for partnership. Dr. MacKrell holds a degree in biology and biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a doctorate in Molecule Physiology from the University of Michigan Medical School.
Joseph	Mancini	Vice President-Research	adMare BioInnovations	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Joseph-Mancini.jpg	Joseph Mancini has a PhD in Biochemistry from McGill University and began his career at Merck & Co where he was a key player in the discovery and development of selective Cyclooxygenase 2 inhibitors. He also led a team of 50 researchers on a PDE4 program and filed 4 INDs which demonstrated efficacy in asthma but had a low TI. He then moved to work on diabetes and obesity and soon after joined Vertex Pharmaceuticals. A major focus at Vertex was in the rare disease space and this resulted in new projects for both kidney and muscle diseases. Three years ago, Joseph joined adMare BioInnovations to help build up the biotech sector across Canada. Jospeh is presently VP of research at adMare which has sites in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
Karim	Azer	Vice President, Head of Platform & Discovery	Axcella	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Karim-Azer-1.jpg	Dr. Karim Azer is the Vice President, Head of the Systems Biology Platform & Discovery at Axcella Therapeutics. He leads the data and discovery sciences organization at Axcella, bringing together innovations in data sciences and discovery sciences to advance novel pipeline opportunities through the application of systems biology, design of novel endogenous metabolic modulator combinations for new indications, and the translation of these combinations into the clinic. Prior to Axcella, Karim led quantitative sciences efforts at the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute where His work was focused on leveraging the spectrum of systems biology, including computational biology, systems pharmacology, modeling and data science, to address research and development needs of the institute, in the areas of tuberculosis, malaria, diarrheal and enteric diseases, and maternal neonatal health. Prior to that, Karim was at Merck and Sanofi, where he led and applied systems biology and pharmacology, and data science efforts towards advancing drug discovery and development programs across a wide array of therapeutics areas. Karim received his PhD in Applied Mathematics from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU, and holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Courant Institute at NYU, and B.S. degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from Rutgers University. He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry since 1997, employing a wide variety of systems biology approaches to address drug discovery and development initiatives in R&D.
Li	Peng	Chief Scientific Officer	Palleon Pharmaceuticals	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Li-Peng.jpg	Li Peng is Chief Scientific Officer of Palleon Pharmaceuticals, a leading biotechnology company developing drugs that target glycan-mediated immune regulation to treat cancer and inflammatory diseases. Li has led the invention of EAGLE, CONVERGENCE, and HYDRA platform technologies and overseen research and early development at Palleon. Prior to joining Palleon, Li had worked at Medimmune/AstraZeneca for ten years in roles of increasing responsibility. She has published ~30 scientific papers and is an inventor on ~30 patents and patent applications. Li earned a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of California, Davis.
Marcie	Glicksman	Vice President, Biology	Enclear Therapies	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Marcie-Glicksman.jpg	Marcie Glicksman, Ph.D. Vice President, Biology at EnClear Therapies. For the past 30 years, Dr. Glicksman has been dedicated to developing better therapeutics for the nervous system and other therapeutic areas. Her efforts include 8 drugs entering the clinic and 2 marketed drugs. She has worked in both the biopharmaceutical industry and academics. In her career, she has broad experience including preclinical animal studies and toxicology. Dr. Glicksman received a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience from Washington University. Dr. Glicksman has over 80 publications and more than 16 issued patents.
Marija	Tadin-Strapps	Vice President & Head, Target Sciences	Pfizer	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Marija-Tadin-Strapps-1.jpg	Marija Tadin-Strapps is Vice President & Head, Target Sciences (TS). In this role Marija leads efforts to generate novel drug target hypotheses in areas of emerging science utilizing human genetics, functional genomics, AI/Machine Learning, and data mining tools, as well as experimental hypotheses validation to deliver differentiated targets. TS partners with other teams across ES&I, most notably the Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) as well as disease biology and technology line teams working across disease areas of interest to Pfizer. Marija brings over 15 years of industry experience in organizations ranging from early start up and small biotech to large pharma, spanning RNA therapeutics, cell therapy, and the use of human genetics and functional genomics for new target validation, biomarker discovery and translational research across multiple disease areas. Prior to joining Pfizer, Marija was at SQZ Biotechnologies after her stint as Head of Biology at Omega Therapeutics. Before Omega, Marija worked for ten years at Merck & Co. Marija earned her B.A. degree in Biology with honors from Goucher College and her Master and Doctorate degrees in Genetics and Development from Columbia University. She has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications on the use of chemically modified siRNAs and the use of human genetics for new target discovery.
Megan	Gibbs, Ph.D.,	Vice President and Global Head, Clinical Pharmacology & Quantitative Pharmacology	Astrazeneca	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Megan-Gibbs-1.jpg	Megan Gibbs is currently the Vice President, Global Head of Clinical Pharmacology and Quantitative Pharmacology at AstraZeneca. In this role, she leads an organisation of R&D scientists that supports all ongoing clinical drug development programmes and global market applications across Oncology, Vaccines, Immune Therapy, Neurosciences, Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolic, Respiratory and Immunology across Gothenburg, Sweden, Cambridge United Kingdom, Gaithersburg, Maryland, Waltham, Massachusetts and Barcelona Spain. She also leads a group supporting ADC discovery and development. Her key focus is clinical pharmacology and use of quantitative methods such as systems modelling and data and AI to impact drug development decision making across the drug discovery to development stages including submissions and post market and life cycle management. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Megan held positions of increasing responsibility at Pfizer and Amgen after completing her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from Drake University followed by a PhD in Pharmaceutics from the University of Washington. Megan is a Fellow of American College of Clinical Pharmacology and has served on number of scientific boards including the American College of Clinical Pharmacology Board of Regents, University of Washington Corporate Advisory Board and University of Florida Systems Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics Leadership Council. She is an invited lecturer at Harvard School of Public Health and panellist at University of Cambridge Centre of AI in Medicine. She also has over 100 posters, publications and invited presentations. Megan lives in Boston with her family. Outside of work, she enjoys skiing, mountain biking and fishing.
Ming	“Tommy” Tang	Director of Computational Biology, Head of CompBio	Immunitas Therapeutics	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Ming-Tang.jpg	Ming “Tommy” Tang serves as the Director of Computational Biology at Immunitas Therapeutics, an avant-garde start-up devoted to groundbreaking cancer therapeutics. In this role, he guides a skilled computational biology unit in scrutinizing single-cell genomic data to unveil the intricacies of immune cells within human tumors. By harnessing Google cloud computing and cutting-edge machine learning techniques, he identifies novel drug targets for immunotherapy. Endowed with extensive computational biology prowess, Tommy specializes in dissecting large-scale bulk sequencing, single-cell transcriptomic and epigenomic data, and spatial transcriptomics. A staunch advocate of reproducible research, he employs tools like Docker/Singularity and Rmarkdown notebooks to ensure the utmost transparency and replicability of his analyses.
Pedro	Serrano	Senior Director, Head of RNA and Protein Modulation	Takeda	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Pedro-Serrano.jpg	Pedro Serrano assembled and leads the RNA and Protein Modulation Unit (RPMU) at Takeda. The team develops novel small molecules regulating mRNA function or degradation of proteins of interest through a variety of mechanisms. Pedro joined Takeda in 2017, where he built and led the internal Biophysics team as well as an external network of collaborations to accelerate drug discovery programs across multiple therapeutic areas. Before joining Takeda, Pedro was an Assistant Professor at the Scripps Research Institute where he developed a variety of NMR methods to accelerate structure determination and studied a variety of protein and nucleic acids, including membrane proteins, splicing factors, and other biomolecules. Pedro holds a Ph.D. and a B.S. degree in Organic Chemistry by the University of Barcelona.
Prashant	Nambiar	SVP, Research and Development	Strand Therapeutics	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Prashant-Nambiar.jpg	Dr. Prashant Nambiar is a seasoned leader in the field of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. Currently serving as the Senior Vice President of R&D at Strand Therapeutics, he plays a pivotal role in overseeing Discovery, Nonclinical, Translational, and Data Science initiatives. Dr. Prashant’s journey in the industry began after an academic stint at MIT, where he earned his PhD in cancer biology. His career spans over 18 years, including influential roles at Genzyme, Pfizer, Bluebird Bio, and 2seventybio. With expertise in Translational Biology, Pathology, and Toxicology, he specializes in advancing groundbreaking therapies from lab bench to clinical application. Prashant’s dedication to harnessing data in drug R&D led to the establishment of a data operations team during his tenure at Pfizer. Additionally, he holds board certifications in Toxicology and Veterinary Pathology and earned an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Business.
Robert	Foti	Senior Director, Preclinical Development	MERCK	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Robert-Foti.jpg
Shane	Hegarty	Chief Scientific Officer & Co-Founder	AXONIS Therapeutics	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Shane-Hegarty.jpg	Dr Shane Hegarty is Chief Scientific Officer, Founder and IP Inventor at AXONIS Therapeutics, Boston-based biotechnology company. 13+ years of experience leading cutting-edge, award-winning neuro-protection, -modulation and -regeneration research for neurological disorders. As Research Fellow in Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, led genome-wide AAV-CRISPR screen for neuro-protection and -regeneration in vivo within Professor Zhigang He’s lab. Before U.S., was Faculty Member in Neuroscience Department of University College Cork, Ireland, and received prestigious Neuroscience Ireland Investigator Award. Highly-productive researcher with 30+ publications, >1,200 citations, h-index=16, and serial grant awardee. Experienced entrepreneur, innovator, editor, peer-reviewer, university lecturer, research supervisor, and team manager/mentor.
Sridhar	Prasad	Head of Protein Science	Ventus Therapeutics	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Sridhar-Prasad-1.jpg	Dr. Prasad is the Head of Protein Sciences at Ventus Therapeutics. Prior to Ventus, Sridhar was the cofounder and CSO of Plex Pharmaceuticals and led structural biology efforts for drug discovery programs at multiple organizations in various capacities. He was a member of the Nesina® discovery team at Syrrx, a diabetes drug and MK-4965 at Merck, clinical candidate for treatment of AIDS. Sridhar was Principal Investigator on a number of NIH SBIR and MJFF funded grants. Sridhar obtained his PhD from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India and Post-doctoral training from University of Minnesota Medical School and Scripps Research Institute, California
Stefan	Kirov	Vice President, Head of Computational Biology	Flare Therapeutics	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Stefan-Kirov.jpg	Dr. Stefan Kirov received his PhD degree in molecular biology from Medical University of Sofia. After his postdoc at ORNL/UT where he worked on pathway and regulatory site analysis. He entered industry in 2006 with Bristol Myers Squibb, where he built the enterprise NGS team and platform. His work had an impact on a number of programs, including nivolumab, ipilimumab, daclatasvir and a number of preclinical programs. Dr. Kirov joined Flare Therapeutics in 2022 to develop and lead the quantitative capabilities of the company, and support its PPARG inverse antagonist clinical trial in bladder cancer.
Yi	Xing	Senior Director of Drug Creation, Head of Structural Biology and Rational Design	Seismic Therapeutic	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Yi-Xing.jpg

Brenda Wang, Zhifeng Yu, Carlos Pedraza, Christopher Locher, Diane Joseph-McCarthy, Elina Lavit, Huseyin Mehmet, Jason Deng, Jim G. MacKrell, Joseph Mancini, Karim Azer, Li Peng, Marcie Glicksman, Marija Tadin-Strapps, Megan Gibbs, Ph.D., BscPharm, FCP, Ming “Tommy” Tang, Pedro Serrano, Prashant Nambiar, Robert Foti, Shane Hegarty, Sridhar Prasad, Stefan Kirov, Yi Xing

See the full agenda and facilitator line-up Download the strategy meeting brochure for full details

DOWNLOAD THE BROCHURE

Who Should Attend the Event?

Chief Scientific Officer

Vice President, Head Research Pharmacokinetics

Global Head, Modeling and Simulation

Vice President of Biology

Head of Discovery Chemistry, Screening Biology & Operations

Head of Discovery Biology

Head of Structural Biology & Biophysics

Head of Target Science, Target & Translational Science

Head of Protein & Structural Sciences

Head of Pharmacology

Discovery DMPK & ADME

Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics

See Which Topics Are Discussed at the Strategy Meeting

08:30 – 09:00

RNA Targeting Outside of Vaccines (Topic TBC)

Megan Gibbs Ph.D., BscPharm, FCP, Vice President and Global Head, Clinical Pharmacology & Quantitative Pharmacology Astrazeneca

09:00 – 10:00

Roundtable Tracks

TARGET IDENTIFICATION & HIT VALIDATION
Integrated Omics Approaches for Target Identification and Validation: Harnessing the power of integrative analyses that combine genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and other omics data to identify and validate drug targets

-Marija Tadin-Strapps
Vice President & Head, Target Sciences
Pfizer

DMPK / ADME & TOXICOLOGY
Integration of In Vitro and In Silico ADME Models: Combining in vitro ADME assays with computational models to enhance the prediction of drug properties and optimize drug discovery processes.

-Marcie Glicksman
Vice President, Biology
Enclear Therapies

IN VIVO AND IN VITRO PHARMACOLOGY
In Vivo-like In Vitro Systems: The Quest for More Physiologically Relevant Drug Screening

-Joseph Mancini
Vice President-Research
adMare BioInnovations

IN SILICO BIOLOGY
Unraveling Drug-Target Interactions: Advancements in In Silico Modeling and Simulation

-Karim Azer
Vice President, Head of Platform & Discovery
Axcella

STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY AND BIOPHYSICS
Structural Biology and Biophysics for the next generation of First-in-Class targets

-Sridhar Prasad
Head of Protein Science
Ventus Therapeutics

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS, INVESTMENT & COLLABORATIONS
Why integrating deep scientific expertise matched with operational and business strategy is key for attracting investment in early stage drug discovery

-Jim G. MacKrell
Associate Vice President, Head East Coast (US) Venture Science Team
Eli Lilly and Company

11:30 – 12:30

Roundtable Tracks

TARGET IDENTIFICATION & HIT VALIDATION
Biophysical Methods in the realm of “Target Identification & Hit Validation”

-Ishrat Jalal
Senior Scientist Discovery Biology Unit
WUXI AppTec

DMPK / ADME & TOXICOLOGY

IN VIVO AND IN VITRO PHARMACOLOGY
Preclinical Discovery Strategies for Enhanced Clinical Outcomes

-Brenda Wang
Senior Director / Subject Matter Expert
In vivo Pharmacology Discovery Biology, WUXI AppTec

IN SILICO BIOLOGY
Lipid Gpcrs Structural And Computational Approach: Advantages, Challenges, Limitations And New Modalities In Drug Discovery

STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY AND BIOPHYSICS

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS, INVESTMENT & COLLABORATIONS
The Client is Always Right = The Client is Never Wrong!

-Carlos Pedraza
AVP Biology
Sai Life Sciences

14:00 – 15:00

Roundtable Tracks

TARGET IDENTIFICATION & HIT VALIDATION
Targeting Undruggable Proteins: Exploring innovative strategies, including small-molecule approaches, PROTACs, and RNA-based therapeutics, for targeting traditionally challenging or “undruggable” proteins

-Huseyin Mehmet
Executive Director, New Ventures
University of Massachusetts Medical School

DMPK / ADME & TOXICOLOGY
Emerging Technologies for ADME and Toxicology: Highlighting cutting-edge technologies, such as high-content screening, omics-based approaches, and imaging techniques, for improved ADME profiling and toxicity assessment

-Robert Foti
Senior Director, Preclinical Development
MERCK

IN VIVO AND IN VITRO PHARMACOLOGY
Improving Translatable Pre-Clinic Models In-Vitro & In-Vivo Pharmacology for Better Characterization of Properties and Drug Leads

-Megan Gibbs, Ph.D., BscPharm, FCP
Vice President and Global Head, Clinical Pharmacology & Quantitative Pharmacology
Astrazeneca

IN SILICO BIOLOGY
“RWE and OMICs data analytics: Defining the Right Indication and Population and Increasing the Chances of Success.”

-Stefan Kirov
Vice President, Head of Computational Biology
Flare Therapeutics

STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY AND BIOPHYSICS
Advancing Drug Discovery Through Structural Biology: Exploring Structure-Guided Computational Approaches

-Diane Joseph-McCarthy
Executive Director, Bioengineering Technology & Entrepreneurship Center
Boston University

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS, INVESTMENT & COLLABORATIONS
Navigating The Constantly Changing Market To Raise Funds And Refine R&D Strategy

-Elina Lavit
Vice President of Business Development
OncoNano Medicine

15:30 – 16:30

Roundtable Tracks

TARGET IDENTIFICATION & HIT VALIDATION
Challenges and Opportunities of Targeting RNAs with Small Molecules

-Pedro Serrano
Senior Director, Head of RNA and Protein Modulation
Takeda

DMPK / ADME & TOXICOLOGY
Toxicity Biomarkers and Safety Assessment: Discussion of the latest advancements in identifying and validating toxicity biomarkers for early detection and prediction of drug induced toxicities

-Prashant Nambiar
SVP, Research and Development
Strand Therapeutics

IN VIVO AND IN VITRO PHARMACOLOGY
Predictive Models for Drug Efficacy in Neuropharmacology: Leveraging In Vivo and In Vitro Data

-Shane Hegarty
Chief Scientific Officer & Co-Founder
AXONIS Therapeutics

IN SILICO BIOLOGY
Artificial Intelligence in Drug Design: From Generative Models to Reinforcement Learning

-Ming “Tommy” Tang
Director of Computational Biology, Head of CompBio
Immunitas Therapeutics

STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY AND BIOPHYSICS
Structural Biology Beyond Purified Proteins -Leveraging Structure Predictive Technologies to Aid High-Resolution – Cryo-EM Based Technologies

-Li Peng
Chief Scientific Officer
Palleon Pharmaceuticals

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS, INVESTMENT & COLLABORATIONS
Maximizing Capital Efficiency By Balancing Internal Capabilities And External CRO’s

-Christopher Locher
CEO
Versatope Therapeutics

Why should you attend this meeting?

Understanding recent advances and alternatives for drug discovery stages discovery, development and preclinical stages that could lead to cost cutting, efficiency and early detection

Leveraging multi-omics analysis data, its advantages and limitations to further the possibilities for drug discovery applications

Exploring the discrepancy in drug metabolism between different genders and ethnic diversification that could lead to understanding the pharmacokinetics distinction between genders and ethnicity

Collaborative approaches and networking opportunities with different top-tier industry solution providers

Werngard Czechtizky

Executive Director, Head of Medicinal Chemistry, Respiratory and Immunology AstraZeneca

Andreas Bender

Professor, Molecular Informatics University of Cambridge

Ian Churcher

Chief Scientific Officer Amphista Therapeutics Limited

Garry Pairaudeau

Chief Technology Officer Exscientia

Garry Pairaudeau is currently Head of Hit Discovery at AstraZeneca; the group comprising HTS, Comp Chem, Virtual screening and DEL is responsible for generating high quality starting points for AstraZeneca. In addition, the group works extensively with academic centres of excellence through open innovation and strategic collaborations with groups such as MRC, CRUK, Life Arc and many others to help support academic drug discovery. Garry also chairs the Global Chemistry Leadership team in AstraZeneca responsible for chemistry strategy and has been particularly active in building Automation and Machine learning capabilities.
He has experience leading projects through all phases of Drug Discovery contributing to multiple clinical candidates in the respirator,y inflammation and CV areas. He has a long standing interest in lead generation, innovation, in chemistry, hit identification and diversity screening. Prior to taking up his current position in 2012 he was Director of Chemistry for the cardiovascular research area at Alderley Park.
Specialties: Medicinal Chemistry 
Lead Generation 
Leadership, Strategy and Change Management 
Innovation and Culture Change 
Building and managing external relationships

Marie Wikstrom Lindholm

SVP, Head of Molecular Design Silence Therapeutics

György Keseru

Principal Investigator Research Centre for Natural Sciences

Graham Simpson

SVP, Drug Discovery Dunad Therapeutics

A creative and passionate scientific leader with a strong track record of establishing, driving and delivering innovative drug discovery programs in pharma and biotech. Keen interest in, and appreciation of the broader business challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry; well networked throughout the global pharmaceutical and academic communities. Experienced and ambitious drug discovery leader with 12 years pharmaceutical industry experience. Recognised platform and programme leader, delivering multiple breakthrough innovations and successful discovery milestones. Broad therapeutic area experience and track record of innovation and delivery
Specialties: Chemistry Department Head/Leader, PROTACS, macrocyclic peptides, phenotypic screening, parallel synthesis, complex organic total syntheses, HTS analysis, rational medicinal chemistry and drug design, knowledge-based design, managing CRO workplans, innovative modalities, next-generation in-silico design, artificial intelligence.

First name	Last name	Job title	Company name	Photo URL	Bio Position
Werngard	Czechtizky	Executive Director, Head of Medicinal Chemistry, Respiratory and Immunology	AstraZeneca	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Werngard-Czechtizky-Edited-1-scaled.jpg	Werngard Czechtizky is Head of Medicinal Chemistry for Respiratory & Immunology at AstraZeneca. She has a track record of delivery of clinical candidates and lead compounds across several therapeutic areas (CV, Diabetes, Pain, CNS, Aging, Respiratory and Immunology). She implemented state of the art technologies into Medicinal Chemistry, e.g. ML/AI tools, New Modalities, chemical probes for target validation, automated synthesis and integrated physchem & eADME profiling workflows. Werngard serves on diverse scientific advisory boards and is co-/author of >100 publications and patents. She has studied at the Technical University of Graz, Austria, received a PhD from ETH Zürich and a postdoctoral training at Harvard University. Before joining AZ in 2017, she has been working at Aventis, then Sanofi at Frankfurt, Germany.
Andreas	Bender	Professor, Molecular Informatics	University of Cambridge	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/andreas-bender.jpeg
Ian	Churcher	Chief Scientific Officer	Amphista Therapeutics Limited	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Ian-Churcher.jpg
Garry	Pairaudeau	Chief Technology Officer	Exscientia	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Garry-Pairaudeau-New.jpg	Garry Pairaudeau is currently Head of Hit Discovery at AstraZeneca; the group comprising HTS, Comp Chem, Virtual screening and DEL is responsible for generating high quality starting points for AstraZeneca. In addition, the group works extensively with academic centres of excellence through open innovation and strategic collaborations with groups such as MRC, CRUK, Life Arc and many others to help support academic drug discovery. Garry also chairs the Global Chemistry Leadership team in AstraZeneca responsible for chemistry strategy and has been particularly active in building Automation and Machine learning capabilities. He has experience leading projects through all phases of Drug Discovery contributing to multiple clinical candidates in the respirator,y inflammation and CV areas. He has a long standing interest in lead generation, innovation, in chemistry, hit identification and diversity screening. Prior to taking up his current position in 2012 he was Director of Chemistry for the cardiovascular research area at Alderley Park. Specialties: Medicinal Chemistry Lead Generation Leadership, Strategy and Change Management Innovation and Culture Change Building and managing external relationships
Marie	Wikstrom Lindholm	SVP, Head of Molecular Design	Silence Therapeutics	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Marie-Wikstrom-Lindholm.jpeg	Marie W Lindholm joined Silence Therapeutics in December 2017 as Head of Innovation Technology, leading a skilled team focusing on fine-tuning design of GalNAc-conjugated siRNA and exploring extra-hepatocyte siRNA targeting. Marie got a PhD in Medical Chemistry from Uppsala University, Sweden and later became an Associate Professor in Experimental Cardiovascular Medicine at Lund University. In 2007 Marie joined Santaris Pharma, working on LNA oligonucleotide research. Santaris Pharma was acquired by Roche and Marie was appointed Expert Scientist in Discovery Technology and Head of Targeted Delivery of oligonucleotide conjugates. Marie has authored >50 patents and scientific publications, many in the fields of antisense drug design, safety, and function.
György	Keseru	Principal Investigator	Research Centre for Natural Sciences	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Gyorgy-Keseru.png	György M. Keserű obtained his Ph.D. at Budapest, Hungary. He worked for Sanofi, then moved to Gedeon Richter and was appointed as the Head of Discovery Chemistry. He contributed to the discovery of the antipsychotic Vraylar® (cariprazine) that has been marketed from 2016 in US and EU. In 2013 he established his Medicinal Chemistry Research Group at the Research Center for Natural Sciences, Hungary. He is a full professor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Recently he has been elected as corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His research interests include medicinal chemistry and drug design.
Graham	Simpson	SVP, Drug Discovery	Dunad Therapeutics	https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Graham-Simpson.jpg	A creative and passionate scientific leader with a strong track record of establishing, driving and delivering innovative drug discovery programs in pharma and biotech. Keen interest in, and appreciation of the broader business challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry; well networked throughout the global pharmaceutical and academic communities. Experienced and ambitious drug discovery leader with 12 years pharmaceutical industry experience. Recognised platform and programme leader, delivering multiple breakthrough innovations and successful discovery milestones. Broad therapeutic area experience and track record of innovation and delivery Specialties: Chemistry Department Head/Leader, PROTACS, macrocyclic peptides, phenotypic screening, parallel synthesis, complex organic total syntheses, HTS analysis, rational medicinal chemistry and drug design, knowledge-based design, managing CRO workplans, innovative modalities, next-generation in-silico design, artificial intelligence.

Werngard Czechtizky, Andreas Bender, Ian Churcher, Garry Pairaudeau, Marie Wikstrom Lindholm, György Keseru, Graham Simpson

Event Already in Full Capacity

Europe

USA East

USA West

Webinars

Dinners & Spotlights

R&D

R&D Boston - R&D

Drug Discovery Biology

Strategy Meeting East Coast USA 2023

<img class="lazy" decoding="async" src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E" data-src="https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/location.png" >Le Meridien Cambridge Boston

Fresh Biology Insights

What makes our strategy meetings unique?

Roundtable Discussions

Unrivalled Networking

Personalised Agenda

Solutions to your Problems

Industry Researched Topics

Senior Decision Makers

Meet Our 2023 Facilitators

Brenda Wang

Zhifeng Yu

Carlos Pedraza

Christopher Locher

Diane Joseph-McCarthy

Elina Lavit

Huseyin Mehmet

Jason Deng

Jim G. MacKrell

Joseph Mancini

Karim Azer

Li Peng

Marcie Glicksman

Marija Tadin-Strapps

Megan Gibbs, Ph.D., BscPharm, FCP

Ming “Tommy” Tang

Pedro Serrano

Prashant Nambiar

Robert Foti

Shane Hegarty

Sridhar Prasad

Stefan Kirov

Yi Xing

Who Should Attend the Event?

Chief Scientific Officer

Vice President, Head Research Pharmacokinetics

Global Head, Modeling and Simulation

Vice President of Biology

Head of Discovery Chemistry, Screening Biology & Operations

Head of Discovery Biology

Head of Structural Biology & Biophysics

Head of Target Science, Target & Translational Science

Head of Protein & Structural Sciences

Head of Pharmacology

Discovery DMPK & ADME

Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics

See Which Topics Are Discussed at the Strategy Meeting

BREAKFAST & REGISTRATION

OPENING KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

RNA Targeting Outside of Vaccines (Topic TBC)

Roundtable

Roundtable Tracks

REFRESHMENT BREAK

NETWORKING / 1-1 MEETINGS

NETWORKING / 1-1 MEETINGS

Roundtable

Roundtable Tracks

NETWORKING LUNCH

AFTERNOON KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

Roundtable

Roundtable Tracks

REFRESHMENT BREAK

NETWORKING / 1-1 MEETINGS

Roundtable

Roundtable Tracks

DRINKS & CANAPES RECEPTION

Why should you attend this meeting?

Our 2023 Lead Sponsor

Our 2023 Co-Hosts

Our 2023 Exhibitor

Le Meridien Cambridge Boston