Abhijit (Abhi) Bhat, PhD is Director of Chemistry at CovX, a division of Pfizer Biotherapeutics Research. He joined CovX in Feb 2003 as one of the early employees and helped establish and build the chemistry group at CovX. During his tenure at CovX and previously Ontogen, Abhi has managed preclinical discovery programs in diverse disease areas such as Diabetes, Wound healing, Pain, HIV and Oncology and has a successful track record of rapidly advancing programs to deliver development candidates. Abhi has the unique experience of managing a project from early discovery stage through clinical development as he was the project leader for both the preclinical and the clinical teams for CVX-060, an anti angiopoietin-2 targeting CovX-Body that is currently in Phase II trials for treatment of renal cell carcinoma. Abhi has made key contributions on the technology front that have resulted in bifunctional biologics CVX-241 and CVX-426 that are currently in clinical development. Abhi received a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from Ohio State Univ. and conducted postdoctoral research at the Univ. of Arizona exploring therapeutic applications for carbohydrates

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Adam is a PhD candidate at the UC San Francisco/UC Berkeley Joint Graduate Group in Bioengineering, class of 2010. In his first summer pursuing his PhD in 2006, Adam was awarded an NSF fellowship to research in Japan with Kyoto University’s Department of Drug Delivery Research. Upon returning from Japan, Adam joined the Therapeutic Micro and Nanotechnology by Laboratory at UCSF headed by Professor Tejal A. Desai, where he is currently researching new treatment options for Type I diabetes through the immunoisolated transplantation of insulin-producing cells. Also during his second year in the PhD program, Adam joined Venture Innovation Program (VIP) in Life Sciences as a fellow. Adam is completing his Management of Technology certificate through the Haas school of business. Prior to graduate school, Adam spent two years with Advanced Bionics, a Boston Scientific Company, where he successfully developed a piezoresistive pressure sensor and an overfill safety valve that became part of an implantable drug delivery pump. Additionally, Adam obtained extensive project management experience and medical device development documentation experience including quality control considerations, FMEA, and IQ/PQ/OQ authoring. Adam holds a B.S. in Physics and a B.A. in Music - Piano Performance from UCLA, where he also co-founded a co-ed professional business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi.

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Ali Munawar is the founder of an antiviral drug discovery company developing a first-in-class, antiviral approach that is applicable to all medically relevant viruses. The company has two compounds in preclinical development that treat HIV and HBV infections respectively. Raised $1.2MM+ in VC and attracted successful pharmaceutical executives to lead the drug discovery program. His prior background includes technology consulting as well as conducting biomedical research at Harvard and MGH. Ali discovered and validated a novel class of antiviral drug targets as a researcher that lead to the founding of Molecmo (now Novira) at the age of 23. He is the recipient of the Gates foundation grant for novel anti-HIV drug development, and holds the distinction of being the youngest Pakistani biotech entrepreneur. Ali holds a Bachelors from Ithaca College and a Masters from Harvard University.He turned down Columbia Medical School to pursue his dream of starting his biotech company.

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Alison is co-founder and CSO of a Hibergenica, which aims to commercialize a novel organ preservation solution for organ transplantation. Hibergenica has been recognized as having excellent potential, having been featured in the Boston Business Journal and MIT Technology Review. She is currently a Postdoc Research Fellow in Molecular and Integrated Physiological Sciences at Harvard School of Public Health. Her work focuses on figuring out the physiological processes involved in obesity and how they impact the lung. She enjoy leadership positions and am the President of the HSPH Postdoctoral Association, and currently leads an 8-member council to help enhance the professional careers of 220+ Postdocs at the School, through workshops and networking events. In the past year Alison has negotiated minimum hire salaries, removal of caps for raises, a 20% discount in cafeterias and founded 4 monetary awards for Postdocs to travel to conferences. Alison holds a PhD in Respiratory Medicine from the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London and a BSc. from King’s College London, UK.

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Amy Hiddessen Ph.D. is currently co-founder, CTO and VP of Product Development at Purigen Biosystems, a new start-up venture focused on the developing and commercializing next-generation sample preparation technology. Previously, Amy served as Director of Product Development at Bio-Rad, following the 2011 acquisition of start-up biotech company, QuantaLife, Inc., which launched the third generation of PCR (droplet digital PCR (ddPCR)). Before joining Quantalife, Amy served as Principal Investigator of her own cell and molecular biology laboratory at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where she raised multimillion dollar budgets and directed teams for pathogen-host cell invasion, stem cell, bioenergy and viral detection projects. She is co-author of 9 filed patents (6 as lead inventor) and numerous peer-reviewed publications. She received her B.S. in Chemical engineering from Stanford University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. She is 2013 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Silicon Valley.

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Ashok Chander is the Founder & CSO of Cellanyx, which is working on epithelial-born cancers towards the development of a more sensitive in vitro cancer prognostic. Ashok has been engaged in academic research on one level or another since the age of 16 - advised by two Nobel laureates along the way. In addition to oncology research, Ashok has been engaged in research relevant to multi-drug resistance, learning & memory, and alzheimer's.Experienced in academic research and entrepreneurship spanning the life sciences, oncology, medical device, healthcare, and information technology industries. He is passionate about quality, execution, and effectively presenting conclusions based on quantitative analysis. Ashok has been engaged in cancer research since 1996. Ashok holds a PhD from MIT. He is a 2013 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Boston.

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Benjamin Perrone is an experienced scientist and biomedical engineer, with seven years of lab work and multiple publications. He has two years of experience in building companies around novel biomedical technologies. Benjamin Perrone holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University. He also holds BA in physics from University of Chicago. He is a 2014 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Boston.

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Brian Mayers is VP of Technology Development at Nano-Terra Inc., which he joined as the Founding Scientist. He was selected as a 2010 Fellow of the Startup Leadership Program in Boston.He earned his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Washington, Seattle and worked as a Research Assistant at NASA’s AMES Center, before joining Harvard University as a postdoctoral fellow working in Professor George Whitesides’ group on a range of collaborative interdisciplinary research projects in assembly, nanotechnology, bioengineering and applied optics.

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Camille was a Ph.D. student doing research in Synthetic Biology and the metabolic engineering of microorganisms for biofuel production at Harvard Medical School.Camille was currently a director of external outreach for the Harvard Biotech Club. He has had a long-standing interest in translational research and the management of innovation. Camille is passionate about clean energy, education and how to bridge the gap in between academia and the industry. Prior to graduate school he worked at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris to foster Biotech in the developing world. Camille holds a M.S from the ParisTech Institute, majoring in bio-engineering and a M.S. with honors from Paris Descartes University majoring in molecular biology. In 2013 he was Advising the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) about Synthetic Biology at the European Commission. He has been an integral part of Startup Leadership as the and is an honorary member.He is now working on his two startups; SynBio Consulting and Afineur. SynBio Consulting works with leading organizations across the private, public and social sectors – organizations eager to change and get an edge in Synthetic Biology and the ever changing landscape of Life Sciences. Afineur develops disruptive fermentations to tailor and enhance food flavor and nutritional values.

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Carolina Salvador Morales, PhD, is originally from Mexico City, and is a published author. She received her BSc degree in physics (2001) from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City, and her MSc degree in biochemistry (2003) from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. She earned her PhD in chemistry (2007) at the University of Oxford. Since 2007, she has been conducting her postdoctoral work in the area of immunoengineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Carolina's current research focuses on the study of the immunocompatibility properties of novel nanotherapeutics for cancer therapy, and the development of new types of vaccines based on nanoparticle platform technology. During her scientific career, Carolina has authored and coauthored several peer-reviewed papers in multidisciplinary fields including medical physics, material sciences, biochemistry, chemistry and immunology. In her doctoral studies, she pioneered innovative immunological research topics on carbon nanotubes. In her postdoctoral studies, she has made advances in the study of the biocompatibility of different nanomaterials. Her recent work concentrates on the modulation of complement system activation. Her fundamental and translational work shows remarkable potential to further various medical fields such as cancer therapy and vaccinology. In the future, Carolina aspires to use her expertise to open new avenues in the field of immunoengineering, and thus foster fruitful merging of scientific investigation with business and social development.

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Ezhil Subbian is the founder and CEO of String Inc, a biotech company developing disruptive technologies to accelerate the biobased revolution. Ezhil is an innovator, leader, and passionate scientist, who is driven to solve the bottlenecks in biotech. She made her foray into the industry through Gevo Inc, a biobutanol company, where she was one of the earliest employees. From there, she moved on to lead the cellulosic ethanol project with Codexis Inc, under the Shell-Iogen Energy collaboration. She currently works as a technical consultant for synthetic biology/biotechnology companies. Ezhil has personally experienced the challenges of solving today’s problems with yesterday’s tools and is driven to change the status-quo. She has several key patent applications related to biofuels and biobased chemicals. Ezhil received her Bachelor’s in Industrial Biotechnology from Anna University in India, and her PhD in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Oregon Health & Sciences University. To recharge her batteries Ezhil relies on yoga, and enjoys the science of cooking and home-brewing. She is a 2013 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Silicon Valley.

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Howard Chou is Chief Scientist at Cathay Industrial Biotech and has a PhD from the UC Berkeley & UCSF Bioengineering Graduate Program. He is recipient of the NIH Graduate Fellowship in Genomics and the Anselmo John Macchi Engineering and Science Fellowship. His research focuses on engineering enzymes for the production of small molecules, such as pharmaceuticals and biofuels. He received his M.Eng. in Computer Science, B.S. in Computer Science, and B.S. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Previously, Howard has participated in several business plan competitions. His team was awarded 2nd place at the Bears Breaking Boundaries Competition – Solar Fuels in 2006 and 3rd place at the Global Venture Business Competition in 2008. His team was awarded the QB3 Catalyst Grant ($50K) to continue work on their startup idea. Howard has also mentored other graduate students in entrepreneurship through the Cleantech to Market program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

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Jahnavi is a Senior Scientist (Bioinformatics) at Modular Genetics Inc. Previously he was scientist at Biogen Idec. He was selected to be a 2008 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Boston. Jahnavi holds a Ph.D. from Boston University in Bioinformatics and a B.Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology in Biochemical Engineering. He is currently Publicity officer and acting secretary of Boston chapter of Association for India’s Development (AID).

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Ji Li is a PhD candidate in Genetics & Development at Columbia University. His thesis focuses on the roles of microRNAs and Notch signaling in cell fate specification. He interned with the New York City Investment Fund (NYCIF), where he was responsible for evaluating technology proposals and conducting due diligence for the BioAccelerate NYC Prize. He also interned with Columbia Technology Ventures, where he facilitated technology development for a biotech startup in China. Ji served as President of Columbia Biotechnology Association, and volunteered for Wokai, a nonprofit microfinance organization focusing on China, and and co-founded a city-wide club dedicated to graduate students interested in patent law. Ji holds a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Peking University. He enjoys Chinese calligraphy, photography, reading, and traveling.

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Joanna is the Director of Academic Computing and Digital Library Projects at Wesleyan University, and was healthcare consultant with Strategic Advisor division at Leerink Swann in New York. Her work pharmaceutical and emerging biotechnology companies has encompassed diverse therapeutic areas, including cardiology, gastroenterology, and oncology. Her work has analysis has helped inform clients’ launch/marketing strategies, new product planning, and growth strategies in emerging areas of drug innovation. Prior to joining Leerink Swann, Joanna was a member of the founding team at Angstrom Medica (now Pioneer Surgical). She worked on new developing product platforms for novel synthetic ceramics for orthopedic devices, scale-up manufacturing, clinical and regulatory strategy, and business development. Her work led to the regulatory approval of NanOssTM, a synthetic calcium phosphate. Joanna has also been actively involved in supporting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s research initiatives. She was selected as a 2008 Fellow of the Startup Leadership Program in Boston.

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