Co Chair & Moderator: Dr. Beate Bittner
In her role as Product Optimization Franchise Leader, Beate drives the multidisciplinary development of strategic options and the commercial value assessment for product optimization opportunities across the Roche portfolio. Activities include leading global cross-company strategic initiatives in matters relating to product optimization (i.e. drug administration strategy, fixed dose combinations, subcutaneous drug delivery, global device strategy, cross-therapeutic area technology platform strategy). Focus is on regulatory and health economic strategies, target product profiles, nonclinical and clinical studies, technical plan, and business case.
Beate joined Roche in 1998 and held numerous positions of increasing responsibility including Preclinical DMPK Project Leader, Laboratory Head Preformulation, Clinical Pharmacologist, Clinical Team Leader, Global Development Team Leader, Global Project Leader, and Product Optimization Director. Since 2012 Beate has been a Lecturer at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University in the field of Personalized Health Care, Developing New Drugs, and Pharmacology.
Beate is trained as a Pharmacist with a PhD in Pharmaceutical Technology & Biopharmaceutics from the University of Marburg, Germany, and holds a Diploma in European Market Access from the Aix-Marseille University, France.
Co Chair & Moderator: Dr. Simon Matoori
Simon Matoori is a pharmacist by training and an assistant professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy at University of Montreal (Quebec, Canada). His research interests are in formulation science and biomedical engineering with an emphasis on diagnostics and biodetoxification. His research has been funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Giovanni Traverso
Prof. Traverso is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in the Division of Gastroenterology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Harvard Medical School. Prof. Traverso grew up in Peru, Canada and the United Kingdom. He received his BA from Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK, and his PhD from the lab of Prof. Bert Vogelstein at Johns Hopkins University. He subsequently completed medical school at the University of Cambridge, internal medicine residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his gastroenterology fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital, both at Harvard Medical School. Prof. Traverso’s previous work focused on the development of novel molecular tests for the early detection of colon cancer. For his post-doctoral research, he transitioned to the fields of chemical and biomedical engineering in the laboratory of Professor Robert Langer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he developed a series of novel technologies for drug delivery as well as physiological sensing via the gastrointestinal tract.
His current research program is focused on developing the next generation of drug delivery systems to enable efficient delivery of therapeutics through the gastrointestinal tract as well developing novel ingestible electronic devices for sensing a broad array of physiologic and pathophysiologic parameters. Additionally, Dr. Traverso continues his efforts towards the development of novel diagnostic tests that enable the early detection of cancer.
Eric Schiller
Eric has 25+ years in new product development across semiconductor, medical device, and biopharma combination product industries. His roles have spanned research, development, tech transfer, commercialization and life cycle management. In his current role, Eric is responsible for Sanofi’s Vaccine device portfolio as well as development of drug delivery technology supporting all Sanofi business units.
Dr. Chris Franzese
Dr. Chris Franzese is Principal & Clinical Leader at Matchstick. He manages a team of clinicians supporting combination product development and usability testing, leads the company’s clinical training, and is accountable for making clinical knowledge accessible and relevant to client projects. He also directs the company’s postdoctoral Clinical Fellowship program.
An experienced clinical trial researcher, Chris has served on numerous clinical studies, encompassing early- and late-phase pharmaceutical development, diagnostic development, and medical device validation.
He has published more than 40 peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, articles, and scientific presentations spanning a wide variety of topics, including connected medical devices, digital health, human factors, COVID-19 therapeutics, IV oncology preparation, clinical pharmacology, interventional cardiology, biomarkers, and diagnostics. He has 15+ patents pending and over 40 invention disclosures for pharmaceutical clients.
Chris has a BS in Biology from Loyola University with coursework at Monash University, an MHS in Health Informatics and PharmD, both from Fairleigh Dickinson University School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and graduate certificates in Biologic Therapeutic Drug Development and Clinical Pharmacology from the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy and National Institutes of Health, respectively. He completed his clinical pharmacy training during a PGY1 residency at Atlantic Health System, where he continues to practice, and is an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy.
Leo Hofmann
Leo Hofmann received his master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences at ETH Zurich. In his master’s thesis, he optimized TS-01, an ammonia assay based on polymersome technology. In his later role as R&D Project Lead at Versantis AG, he continued the optimization of TS-01 and currently works on its implementation in a point-of-care device.
Dr. Thierry Bettinger
Thierry Bettinger holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaco-chemistry (Strasbourg University, France) in the field of non-viral vectors for DNA and RNA delivery. He joined Bracco Suisse in 2001 (Geneva, Switzerland) exploiting gas microbubbles for various diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Since 2017, he leads the R&D group composed of 50 researchers. He has more than 35 publications in peer-review journals and is co-inventor in 5 patents (granted and pending) in the field of microbubble for molecular imaging and drug delivery.
Dr. Davide Brambilla
Prof. Brambilla is associate professor of drug delivery at the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Université de Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Prof. Brambilla completed his PhD in pharmaceutical technologies at the School of Pharmacy of the University of Paris-Sud (now Paris-Saclay) under the supervision of professor Patrick Couvreur on the design of nanoparticles for drug delivery applications. In 2012, he joined the laboratory of JC Leroux at Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) where, after 3 years of post-doctoral stay, he was promoted group leader. In 2017, he was appointed Assistant Professor at the Université de Montréal, where he started his research laboratory focused on micro and nanotechnology-based drug delivery tools and diagnostic devices, and teaches the development of biological drugs and pharmacokinetics. He is a junior research fellow of Québec Research Fund, the biotherapy research Chair from the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association and Biosimilars Canada, and the current president of the Canadian chapter of the Controlled Release Society. He co-authored over 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals and filed 2 patents.
Dr. Matthew Burton
Dr. Matthew Burton is Chief Technology Officer at Detact Diagnostics. His role encompasses leading the Innovation Team and building IP and regulatory strategy. Prior to joining Detact, Matt worked in consulting in the fields of medical devices, biotech, food & pharma. Matt gained his Master in Chemistry and PhD in Chemical Biology (2009), both from Durham University, UK, and did postdoc research at Laboratory of Chemical Biology, TU Eindhoven, Netherlands. Matt passed law exams in 2016 to qualify as a European and Dutch patent attorney. He is also a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK).
Dr. Christine Allen
Dr. Christine Allen is the inaugural Vice-President of Ecosystem Development at adMare Bioinnovations.In this role, she is continuing adMare’s leadership of Canada’s life sciences ecosystem through providing state-of-the-art infrastructure, scientific and commercial expertise, and investment capital to companies, enabling them to grow and maintain operations in Canada. Dr. Allen also oversees the adMare Academy, building the talent that the Canadian ecosystem needs to drive the growth of the life sciences sector. Dr. Allen is a full professor at the University of Toronto (UofT) where she has spent 20 years and held senior leadership roles including most recently Associate Vice-President of Strategic Initiatives. Dr. Allen is an expert in drug formulation with more than 150 publications in this area. She is the co-founder of Nanovista Inc., a company focused on high-precision, image-guided cancer therapy. She is a fellow of AIMBE, CRS, CSPS, and CAHS as well as the incoming President of CRS.
Dr. Natalie Boehnke
Natalie Boehnke received her B.S. in chemistry from Purdue University in 2012. Natalie then obtained her Ph.D. in organic and polymer chemistry from UCLA in 2017, working with Prof. Heather Maynard on the synthesis and characterization of biodegradable hydrogels and nanogels. After graduation, Natalie joined Prof. Paula Hammond’s group at MIT to develop toolsets to integrate biology and engineering approaches for accelerated translation of nanomedicine. During her postdoc, Natalie received a Department of Defense Horizon Award and NIH/NCI K99 Pathway to Independence Award for her work. She joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota in summer 2022, where her group uses high throughput screening and machine learning to understand how biological heterogeneity affects nanoparticle delivery and efficacy.
Dr. Christine-Maria Horejs
Christine started at Springer Nature in 2017 as an editor for Nature Reviews Materials, where she handled the topics of biomaterials, nanomedicine and bioengineering. From July 2019, she moved to be a senior editor at Nature Nanotechnology, where she was primarily responsible for the areas of nanomedicine, drug delivery and nanobiotechnology. In January 2021, she became chief editor of Nature Reviews Materials, and since January 2022, she has been heading the launch of Nature Reviews Bioengineering. Christine has an MSci and PhD in nanobiotechnology from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria. She did her postdoc in the lab of Molly Stevens at Imperial College London, UK, investigating the extracellular matrix and cell–material interactions, and she conducted research at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, where she studied anti-fibrotic biomaterials in vivo. Christine is based in Berlin, Germany.
Dr. Joshua Horvath
Josh Horvath is a Senior Director at Genentech in the Device and Packaging Development organization. His team focuses on the development of novel device technologies for early stage clinical trials and the Port Delivery System ocular implant. He joined Genentech in 2013 and previously spent seven years with Becton Dickinson in variety of R&D and product development roles. Josh holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Dr. Daniel Reker
Daniel Reker holds a BSc degree in Computer Science from TU Darmstadt and an MSc degree in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics from ETH Zurich. He completed his Ph.D. at the Pharmaceutical Science Department of ETH Zurich and his postdoc as a Swiss National Science Foundation fellow with Professor Robert S. Langer at MIT. Daniel Reker’s laboratory at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University develops active machine learning-guided experimental workflows to develop novel small molecular drugs and drug delivery solutions.
Dr. Maksim Khotimechneko
Dr. Maksim Khotimchenko has been working as active pharmacology researcher focusing on the discovery and development of small molecule drug compounds from natural sources and their derivatives. He had got defended his Ph.D. degree in pharmacology and clinical pharmacology devoted to the agents protecting against environmental pollutants. Then the main research areas were the development of antitumor drug compounds and therapeutics for the treatment of brain disorders. For the last few years, Maksim has been working as DMPK scientist implementing AI-driven models for accelerated drug development.
Dr. Felix Schumacher
Felix Schumacher holds a BSc and MSc in Biochemistry from the Technical University of Munich and a Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from the University College London. He is co-founder of Thiologics, a small London-based biotech company that works in the field of bioconjugation. He joined Roche pRED/ LMR in 2013 where he and his team supported early phase development projects with molecular assessment and biochemical method development. In 2020 Felix joined TMo’s Targeted Therapeutics Initiative which he supports as a matrix leader driving the design and realization of innovative drug delivery approaches. Felix lives in Weil am Rhein/ Germany and works at the Roche Innovation Center Basel/ Switzerland.
Dr. Manuel Sanchez-Felix
Dr. Manuel Sanchez-Felix is a Senior Fellow with the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Profiling (CPP) group at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research in Cambridge, MA. He is a scientific leader with over 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development where he co-invented and contributed to the successful development and launch of various pharmaceutical products.
At Novartis, Dr. Sanchez-Felix leads a cross-functional group from Discovery and Development that is responsible for the evaluation and implementation of external Novel Delivery Technologies. His previous position at Novartis involved heading a group of scientists at the interface between Research and Development, establishing physicochemical and biopharmaceutical properties, and combining this information to initiate development strategy and formulation design. Prior to joining Novartis, Manuel was at Eli Lilly & Company for 20 years. His area of expertise includes Biopharmaceutics, drug delivery and patient-centered formulation design. Areas of drug discovery where he has developed products include CNS, infectious diseases (specifically TB, Malaria and Rheumatic fever), oncology, bone regeneration, and diabetes.
Dr. Sanchez-Felix received his B.Sc. Honors degree and Ph.D in Chemistry from the University of Surrey, UK. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy at Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Recently, he has joined the Advisory Board of both the Biomedical Programs at Middlesex Community College and Northeastern University who have a program supporting students from minority communities.
Dr. Dennis Lee
Dennis Lee is a Senior Program Officer in Chemistry Manufacturing & Controls at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He began his career in 1992 as a medicinal chemist with SmithKline Beecham, and in 1999 joined Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, a start-up that developed molecular fragment-based approaches for drug discovery. He returned to the newly-merged GSK in 2001 and led a chemistry department in cardiovascular and urogenital diseases. Over the next several years, his group progressed a number of compounds into clinical development. Subsequently, Dennis headed Chemistry and Preclinical Development in the new Ophthalmology unit (2008) and was Director of Drug Delivery, Platform Technology and Sciences (2014), a newly-formed drug delivery group whose mission was to seek and develop novel drug delivery technologies that align with GSK’s portfolio.
He relocated to Seattle to join the Gates Foundation in 2018 to support novel drug delivery technologies, which included an extensive portfolio of long-acting contraceptive and HIV prevention products and nucleic acid vaccine/therapeutic programs for global health. Recently, he transitioned to a new role within the foundation in the Biotech Accelerator, developing early-stage innovation in areas such as in vivo gene editing.
Dr. Wei Gao
Wei Gao is an Assistant Professor of Medical Engineering and Ronald and JoAnne Willens Scholar at the California Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego in 2014. In 2014-2017, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. He is an Associate Editor of Science Advances. He is a recipient of NSF Career Award, IAMBE Early Career Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, Sloan Research Fellowship, MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35, and World Economic Forum Young Scientist. His research interests include wearable biosensors, digital medicine, micro/nanorobotics, and nanomedicine.
Dr. Rushdy Ahmad
Rushdy has over 18 years of experience as a biomarker hunter with the goal of translating the biomarkers into live saving diagnostics that deliver outcome and save lives. Therefore, it’s quite natural for him to be at the Wyss to help lead and promote the Wyss Diagnostics Accelerator (Wyss DxA). Prior to this he was a neutrino hunter as an experimental physicist and helped solve the long-standing solar neutrino problem which garnered his project director, Art MacDonald, the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics. But leaving a potentially promising career in physics wasn’t difficult because of his growing desire to help people in need of life saving interventions. To this end, he was able to hone his skills in biomarker discovery and diagnostics as a post-doctoral fellow at Boston University School of Medicine and then at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where he practiced clinical proteomics and biomarker discovery in all types of diseases for 12 years.
In between academic careers he worked in the software industry, built companies and charitable organizations, while never forgetting to dedicate time and resource to serving the underserved, the underprivileged, the disenfranchised. Therefore, his mission at the Wyss is clear, since it’s indeed a privilege to be here and with that privilege comes great responsibility to deliver outcome to those who need it. He joined the Wyss few days before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown in March of 2020 and was able to jump into the worldwide battle and effectively lead the direct-to-consumer (DTC) diagnostics working group for the Mass General Brigham Center for COVID Innovation (MGBCCI). With the successful launch of the Brigham-Wyss DxA and the Industrial Participant Program (IPP) in 2021, the task of accelerating the delivery of diagnostics is coming into focus. Rushdy received his PhD from Brown University.
