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Dr. |
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Tao Guo |
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SVP and Head |
WuXi AppTec |
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Dr. Tao Guo is SVP and Head of WuXi Chemistry – Research Chemistry Services Business Development and Integrated Program Management, WuXi AppTec. He has over 30 years of experience in drug discovery. He was trained as an organic chemist with PhD from Columbia University and PostDoc from UC Berkeley. He is the recipient of 43 issued US patents and an inventor of 10 clinical candidate compounds with 1 approved by FDA. |
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Andreas |
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Schoops |
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Head of Medicinal Chemistry |
WuXi AppTec |
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Greg |
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Makara |
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CEO |
ChemPass |
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Onur |
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Atasoylu |
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Director, Head of Computational Chemistry |
Incyte |
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Onur Atasoylu obtained his Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania in organic chemistry and undertook postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford, UK. He held various academic and industry positions in medicinal chemistry before joining Incyte Corporation in 2015. As the Head of Computational Chemistry at Incyte his research focuses on the design of small molecule inhibitors of targets in oncology and immunology. |
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Matt |
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Bursavich |
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Associate Vice President, Chemical Sciences |
Eli Lilly |
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Heather |
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Carlson |
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Vice President Chemical Data Sciences |
Odyssey Therapeutics |
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Carlson received her Ph.D. with Prof. William L. Jorgensen at Yale. She studied protein simulations with Prof. J. Andrew McCammon at UCSD. Carlson began her academic career at the University of Michigan in 2000 as the John Gideon Searle Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry. She was promoted in 2011 to Professor of Medicinal Chemistry (College of Pharmacy). She has published over 90 papers and received over $17M in grant funding. She was Chair of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry from 2021-2022. In January 2022, Carlson began her transition to biotech. She currently works for Odyssey Therapeutics in Ann Arbor, MI. |
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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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Jason |
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Imbriglio |
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Vice President, Head of Discovery Chemistry |
Roivant Discovery |
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Jason brings more than 16 years of drug discovery and medicinal chemistry expertise to Roivant Discovery.
Prior to joining Roivant, Jason was a recognized leader in Merck’s global discovery chemistry department where he held positions of increasing responsibility, most recently as director of chemical biology, leading teams across all levels of preclinical discovery including target identification, target validation, lead identification and lead optimization. Jason was a founding member of Merck’s chemical biology group and a co-lead of Merck’s targeted protein degradation group. Jason contributed to the discovery of five development candidates, three INDs and was a co-inventor in the discovery of the beta-lactamase inhibitor Relebactam.
Jason has authored over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and holds 12 patents spanning a diverse set of therapeutic areas. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in biology and bachelor of science degree in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass. where he was a recognized Howard Hughes Undergraduate Research Fellow, a doctor of philosophy degree in organic chemistry from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Az. and a National Institute of Health Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellowship at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass. |
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Kevin |
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Kreutter |
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Vice President, Drug Discovery |
Empress Therapeutics |
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Kevin began his Drug Discovery career at 3DP, then Janssen, before moving to the Boston area. Formerly at Nimbus and now at a Flagship NewCo, he’s worked across therapeutic areas and is co-inventor of three clinical candidates, including the gut tissue-restricted pan-JAK inhibitor lorpucitinib. He’s currently VP of Drug Discovery at VL54 Toran + VL55 Empress and his team uses med chem, chemoproteomics, and synthetic biology to help develop novel therapeutics based on co-evolved, human-experienced molecules that play a privileged role in human health. |
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Stephanos |
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Loannidis |
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EVP Drug Discovery |
Exo Therapeutics |
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Dr. Loannidis has over 20 years of experience in oncology, neuroscience, and inflammation drug development with a particular focus in early discovery to delivery of IND. Prior to joining Exo, Dr. Ioannidis was Executive Vice President, Head of Discovery at IFM Therapeutics where he led the company’s drug discovery group focused on innate immune system therapeutics. Dr. Ioannidis has also held roles of increasing responsibility at H3 Biomedicine, FORMA Therapeutics, and AstraZeneca R&D. Dr. Ioannidis earned his PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine at University of London and completed his postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. |
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Kristen |
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Marino |
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Senior Scientist II, Computational Chemistry |
Cellarity |
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Andrew |
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McRiner |
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Vice President, Head of Drug Discovery |
Auron Therapeutics |
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Dr. McRiner joined Auron Therapeutics in December 2020 as VP, Head of Drug Discovery. Prior to this, he was Director and Head of MedChem at X-Chem Pharmaceuticals, developing a portfolio of 8 small molecules and 8 degrader programs derived from DEL screening. In total, Dr. McRiner has almost 20 years of experience leading drug discovery programs at pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis, Schering-Plough, and Merck, and biotechs such as Helicon Therapeutics (renamed as DART Neuroscience) and Forum Pharmaceuticals (originally Envivo Pharmaceuticals). He has experience leading projects in multiple therapeutic areas, is co-inventor on over 25 patent applications, and has contributed to the nomination of 12 compounds for clinical development. |
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Benoit |
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Moreau |
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Head of Medicinal Chemistry |
Remix Therapeutics |
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Benoit Moreau is the head of medicinal chemistry at Remix Therapeutics, a biotech focused on controlling gene and protein expression through modulation of RNA processing. He has over 15 years of experience in drug discovery, building and leading teams in medicinal chemistry at Boehringer Ingelheim, Tarveda and Syros. He contributed to the discovery of several clinical candidates on projects across virology, oncology and rare genetic diseases. He received his PhD in synthetic chemistry from Université de Montréal and completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard University. |
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Robb |
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Nicewonger |
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Senior Director, Medicinal Chemistry |
Cellarity |
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Ed |
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Olhava |
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Senior Vice President, Preclinical Development |
IFM Therapeutics |
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Over his nearly 20 year career in mid and early-stage biotech, Ed Olhava has invented and progressed multiple compounds through discovery and into clinical development. He has focused on discovering first-in-class small molecule modulators of new biological pathways, closely integrating medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, safety and CMC to enter clinical trials with these novel entities.
Before joining IFM, Ed was a strategic advisor at Third Rock Ventures, where he developed the strategic and operational plans for the drug discovery groups of two Third Rock seed companies, both of which were successfully funded and launched. Prior to Third Rock, he was a founding scientist at Epizyme, joining the company as the first medicinal chemist. He started the medicinal chemistry group and invented Epizyme’s first clinical compound and the first clinical histone methyltransferase inhibitor, EPZ-5676, leading activities from hit finding to filing the Investigational New Drug application. Before joining Epizyme, Ed began his medicinal chemistry career at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he co-invented NINLARO, approved in 2015 for the treatment of multiple myeloma, and MLN-4924.
Ed obtained his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Harvard University and B.S. in chemistry from Stanford University. He is co-author/inventor on more than 40 papers and patents. |
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Lewis |
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Pennington |
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Senior Director. Head of Platform Chemistry |
Kymera Therapeutics |
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Lewis D. Pennington is Senior Director and Head of Platform Chemistry at Kymera Therapeutics. His research interests include drug discovery and defining strategies and tactics for multiparameter optimization in small molecule drug design. He previously served a variety of roles as a synthetic and medicinal chemist at Alkermes in Waltham, Massachusetts, Amgen in Thousand Oaks, California, Array BioPharma in Longmont, Colorado, and Eli Lilly & Co. in Indianapolis, Indiana. He earned a B.S. in Chemistry (with Highest Honors in Chemistry) under the guidance of Professor Masato Koreeda at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan and a Ph.D. in Chemistry under the mentorship of Professor Larry Overman at the University of California in Irvine, California. |
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Nisha |
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Perez |
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Senior Director, Head of DMPK |
ROME Therapeutics |
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Nisha Perez is the Senior Director and Head of DMPK at Rome Therapeutics in Cambridge, MA. Formerly, she worked at Blueprint Medicines as Director of DMPK and Clinical Pharmacology and before that, she spent 12 years at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals. She has worked across multiple therapeutic areas including cancer, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, fibrosis, inflammation, women’s health, and GI. She has contributed to multiple program strategies and regulatory filings. She has had the honor of following several candidates into the clinic, through approval and post-marketing requirements. She holds 2 patents, one being an LCMS diagnostic biomarker method. |
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Jennifer |
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Petter |
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Founder and Chief Scientific Officer |
Arrakis Therapeutics |
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Dr. Jennifer Petter is the Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Arrakis Therapeutics. Previously she was Vice President of Chemistry at Celgene, Vice President of Drug Discovery at Avila Therapeutics, Vice President of Research at Mersana Therapeutics, Director of Small Molecule Drug Discovery at Biogen, Section Head in Oncology Chemistry at Sandoz/Novartis, and Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Petter graduated from Dartmouth College with an AB in chemistry, earned her PhD in organic chemistry at Duke University with Ned Porter, and was a post-doctoral fellow in Ron Breslow’s group at Columbia University. She has ushered multiple compounds into the clinic for the treatment of cancer, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, and sepsis. |
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Daniel |
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J. Price |
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Executive Director, Head of Computational Chemistry |
Nimbus Therapeutics |
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Dr. Daniel Price is Executive Director and Head of Computational Chemistry at Nimbus Therapeutics. Before joining Nimbus, he a Senior Director in Computational Sciences at GlaxoSmithKline, where he led a small team of computational chemists, chemoinformaticians and data scientists operating across diverse areas of structure- and ligand-based drug design, high-content screening analytics, predictive ADME, predictive synthesis, and chemogenomics. He has led drug discovery programs, contributed to 4 clinical candidates, led the development of GSK’s first-generation R&D “data lake”, and authored/co-authored 25 publications. Dr. Price received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from University of Colorado at Boulder followed by his Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry from Yale University with Prof. Bill Jorgensen. He completed an NIH postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Charlie Brooks, III at The Scripps Research Institute prior to joining GSK. |
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Aimee |
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Usera |
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Senior Vice President Drug Discovery |
Odyssey Therapeutics |
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Aimee Usera is a synthetic organic chemist who obtained her PhD from Johns Hopkins University under Professor Gary Posner, and her post doc at MIT working with Professor Sarah O’Connor. Aimee began her career at Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research (NIBR) where she invented new protein chemistry and half-life extension methods, as well as discovered chemical biologic therapeutic clinical candidates. Aimee gained experience across disease areas and modalities, more recently leading the global NIBR Targeted Protein Degradation Initiative. Aimee is currently vice president of chemistry at Odyssey therapeutics where she is focusing on enabling sciences to accelerate the project portfolio. |