
Program Committee |
|
|
|
 |
|
Edward Abrahams, Ph.D. President, Personalized Medicine Coalition |
|
|
|
Edward Abrahams, Ph.D., is president of the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC). Representing a broad spectrum of academic, industrial, patient, provider and payer communities, PMC seeks to advance the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts and products for the benefit of patients. It has grown from its original 18 founding members in November 2004 to over 175 today. Previously Dr. Abrahams was Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association, where he spearheaded the successful effort that led to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s investment of $200 million to commercialize biotechnology in the state. Earlier he had been Assistant Vice President for Federal Relations at the University of Pennsylvania and held a senior administrative position at Brown University. Dr. Abrahams worked for seven years for the U.S. Congress, including as a legislative assistant to Senator Lloyd Bentsen, an economist for the Joint Economic Committee under the chairmanship of Representative Lee Hamilton, and as a AAAS Congressional Fellow for the House Committee on the Interior. The author of numerous essays, Dr. Abrahams serves as senior editor of Personalized Medicine and has also taught history and public policy at Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
In Memoriam: Michael Amos Biosciences Advisor to the Director of the Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Technology Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce |
|
|
|
Dr. Michael D. Amos has held various industry research, marketing and business development positions in the fields of biopharmaceuticals, neutraceuticals, drug delivery, transgenics, immunodiagnostics, molecular biology and molecular pathology. He is also a founder of two biotechnology companies. Dr. Amos joined NIST in 2002 as a Program Manager and Biologist in the Chemistry and Life Sciences Office of the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), an extramural funding arm of NIST. Mike joined CSTL in 2006, and serves as biosciences advisor to Dr. Willie May as a liaison to industry, academia and other government agencies in the bioscience and health care areas. Dr. Amos serves as the Department of Commerce representative on the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Genetic, Health and Society (SACGHS). Dr. Amos is a leader in the field of autoimmune immunodiagnostics and serves on the Autoimmune Disease Coordinating Committee of the National Institutes of Health. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Mara Aspinall President, Ventana Medical Systems |
|
|
|
Mara G. Aspinall is President and CEO of Ventana Medical Systems. Previously, Mara was President and CEO of On-Q-ity, Inc. an innovative diagnostics company focused on informing and transforming the cancer patients' treatment cycle through circulating tumor cell diagnostics. For the past seven years she was President of Genzyme Genetics, a leading provider of testing services in the oncology and reproductive markets, Prior to that, Mara was President of Genzyme Pharmaceuticals and began her business career with Bain & Company. Mara has an appointment as Lecturer in Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, serves as a Board member of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Vice Chairman of the Personalized Medicine Coalition, and is a member of the federal HHS Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Tal Behar Founder and Executive Director, Personalized Medicine World Conference |
|
|
|
Tal Behar is the Founder and Executive Director of the Personalized Medicine World Conference (PMWC). She has also been the Executive Director of Silicom Ventures, the largest angel and venture capital investor forum, since 2001. Tal founded the PMWC with the mission to enable a platform which aids in the accelerated adoption of Personalized Medicine on a global-scale. Tal has extensive experience in event organization and production. Under her leadership Silicom Ventures launched over 160 high technology events located in Silicon Valley and abroad. Tal was instrumental in helping Silicom Ventures grow from 25 to over 250 members. Tal's duties as Silicom Ventures' Executive Director involve marketing, business development, and operations - often, she is the voice of Silicom Ventures to some of the most prominent players in the investment, business and political worlds. Prior to Silicom Ventures, Tal was a Law student at Tel Aviv University in Israel. Previously she was a senior officer in the IDF for over three years. |
|
|
|
 |
|
Brook Byers Partner, KPCB |
|
|
|
Brook Byers has been a venture capital investor since 1972. He has been closely involved with more than fifty new technology based ventures, over half of which have already become public companies. He formed the first Life Sciences practice group in the venture capital profession in 1984 and led KPCB to become a premier venture capital firm in the medical, healthcare, and biotechnology sectors. KPCB has invested in and helped build over 110 Life Sciences companies which have already developed hundreds of products to treat major underserved medical needs for millions of patients. Brook was President and a Director of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists. He is a currently a Board member of the University of California at San Francisco Medical Foundation, the New Schools Foundation, Stanford’s Bio-X Advisory Council and the Stanford Eye Council. In 2007, he was awarded the “UCSF Medal” as their honorary degree equivalent. In 2008, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2009, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Venture Capital Association. In May, 2010, he received an Honorary Ph.D. from Georgia Tech. |
|
|
|
 |
|
Brett Davis Senior Director, Oracle Health Sciences |
|
|
|
Brett Davis is a Senior Director in Oracle's Health Sciences Global Business Unit. In this role, Brett is responsible for shaping and driving Oracle's personalized healthcare strategy and solutions. He works closely with leaders in healthcare and life sciences to help them leverage innovative information technologies and applications to innovate and grow. In addition to his role at Oracle, he is on the Board of Directors of the Personalized Medicine Coalition, served on the US Department of Health and Human Services HRSA’s Genetic Services Policy Project Advisory Panel, is a Strategic Advisor for the Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation for glioma research, and has been an invited speaker at industry meetings on information technology’s transformative role in the health sciences. Prior to joining Oracle, Brett was a Business Unit Executive in IBM's Healthcare and Life Sciences business. In this role, he was involved in helping shape IBM’s strategy for health analytics, clinical genomics, high performance scientific computing, biobanking and translational medicine. Prior to joining IBM, Brett led business development and marketing efforts at Genstruct, Inc., a Cambridge, MA based biotech. Previously he served as Senior Product Manager and Director of Marketing for Viaken Systems, Inc., where he helped develop and market bioinformatics and knowledge management solutions for pharmaceutical research. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D. President, Institute for Systems Biology |
|
|
|
Dr. Hood’s research has focused on fundamental biology (immunity, evolution, genomics) and on bringing engineering to biology through the development of five instruments; the DNA and protein sequencers and synthesizers and the ink-jet oligonucleotide synthesizer (making DNA arrays) for deciphering the various types of biological information (DNA, RNA, proteins and systems). These instruments constitute the technological foundation for modern molecular biology and genomics. He has applied these technologies to diverse fields including immunology, neurobiology, cancer biology, molecular evolution and systems medicine. Dr. Hood is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Association of Arts and Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Hood is one of only 7 (of more than 6000 members) scientists elected to all three academies (NAS, NAE and IOM). Dr. Hood has also played a role in founding more than 14 biotechnology companies, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Systemix, Darwin and Rosetta. He is currently pioneering systems medicine and the systems approach to disease and has recently cofounded the company Integrated Diagnostics—that hopefully will become a platform company for P4 medicine. |
|
|
|
 |
|
Lawrence Lesko, Ph.D. Professor, College of Pharmaceutics, University of Florida |
|
|
|
Lawrence J. Lesko, Ph.D., F.C.P. is a Professor of Pharmaceutics at the Univeristy of Florida. He was previously Director of the Office of Clinical Pharmacology (OCP) in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Lesko was Chair of the FDA Pharmacogenomics Working Group and the Clinical Pharmacology Section of the Medical Policy Coordinating Committee in CDER, both of which are responsible for the development of guidances for industry and enabling of innovative technologies for drug development. He has received the ASCPT Rawls-Palmer Progess in Medicine Award in 2007 and the Gary Neil Prize for Innovation in Drug Development in 2010, was honored with the University of North Carolina (UNC) Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy Award for Clinical Service in May 2007, and was awarded the Nathaniel T Kwit Memorial Distinguished Service Award from ACCP in September 2007. He has authored over 160 peer-reviewed manuscripts and is a frequent invited speaker nationally and internationally. |
|
|
|
 |
|
Laurence Marton Program Committee Chairman, Personalized Medicine World Conference |
|
|
|
Dr. Marton serves as a consultant to industry and to governmental, not-for-profit, and academic institutions. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). In recent years, Dr. Marton has served as CSO of Progen Pharmaceuticals and of Cellgate, and as a founder, director, CSO, CMO, and CEO of the SLIL Biomedical Corp. These companies focused on the discovery and development of novel polyamine analogs and other compounds for the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases. Before moving from academia to industry, Dr. Marton was Dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School and previously Chaired the Department of Laboratory Medicine at UCSF, where he was a Professor in the Departments of Laboratory Medicine and Neurological Surgery and a Senior Investigator in the Brain Tumor Research Center. He is a leading expert with extensive experience in the fields of cell growth and drug development. His research has resulted in more than 185 original publications, 60 scientific reviews and chapters, four books, numerous patents, and his work has been acknowledged internationally. Dr. Marton serves on the Board of the California Heart Center Foundation, is an advisor to the American Association for Cancer Research, and served on the Wisconsin Technology Council. He is Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of PharmaJet, is on the Advisory Board of Ruga Corp, and is a member of the Advisory Board of Silicom Ventures. Dr. Marton received his MD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Barbara Ralston Vice President Guest Services and International Medicine Stanford Hospital & Clinics |
|
|
|
Barbara Ralston is the Vice President for Guest Services and International Medicine at Stanford Hospital and Clinics. She is responsible for strategic planning and implementation of programs for in- and out- patient and visitor services that translate to a reputation of world-class service for Stanford Hospital and Clinics. Stanford’s Executive Health, Corporate Partners, and Aging Adult Programs are key components of her operation. Barbara has been at Stanford Hospital since 1989. Her background is in health and administration. Previously a consultant with Arthur D. Little, Inc., she holds a B.S. in Medical Microbiology from Stanford University, an MT(ASCP) clinical laboratory certification, and an M.Sc. in Demography and Public Health from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Sue Siegel Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures |
|
|
|
Sue Siegel is a Partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, a top-tier Silicon Valley venture firm. She leads investments in companies focused on personalized medicine, enabling platform technologies for biomedical research, and innovative healthcare companies with disruptive business models. Prior to joining MDV, Sue was President and Director of Affymetrix, Inc., (NASDAQ: AFFX) a company that pioneered GeneChip® technology, which helped accelerate the advent of personalized medicine in modern medicine. Sue serves on the board of directors of Pacific Biosciences, Navigenics, Crescendo Biosciences, Corventis, RainDance Technologies and On-Q-ity. As a member of the Presidents’ Circle of the National Academies, Sue serves as an advisor to the Institute of Medicine. She is board member emeritus of The Silicon Valley Tech Museum, serves on The Gladstone Institutes Advisory Council and the Stanford ITI Council, is a YPO member, and a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute. As part of the Crown Fellowship, Sue and her husband co-founded with Stanford Hospital, Checking-In™, an organization dedicated to serving our aging population. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Ralph Snyderman, M.D. Chancellor Emeritus, Duke University |
|
|
|
Dr. Snyderman is Chancellor Emeritus, Duke University and James B. Duke Professor of Medicine in the Duke University School of Medicine. He is currently a visiting professor in the Global Health Science Center of the University of California at San Francisco. From 1989 to July 2004, he served as Chancellor for Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine. During this period, he oversaw the development of the Duke University Health System, one of the few fully integrated academic health systems in the country, and served as its Chief Executive Officer. The health system provides not only leading edge care, but is also developing tomorrow's models of health care delivery. Dr. Snyderman has been a leading proponent of a new approach to health called "Prospective Care." This model envisions each individual receiving a personalized health plan based on their own risks and needs. This will give people far more control of and responsibility for their own health as well as opportunities to improve it. Prospective Care combines the best in science and technology with humanistic medical practice and relies on integrative medicine to do this. Dr. Snyderman is the recipient of numerous honors, including the highest awards in the field of inflammation research, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Arthritis Foundation and the first Bravewell Leadership Award for outstanding achievements in the field of integrative medicine. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and American Academy of Arts & Sciences, past chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges and immediate past president of the American Association of Physicians. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Patrick Terry Principal of Pricing and Reimbursement/Market Access Practice, Scientia Advisors, Co-founder of Personalized Medicine Coalition |
|
|
|
Patrick F. Terry was recently appointed as Principal of Pricing and Reimbursement/Market Access Practice at Scientia Advisors. Terry is a social entrepreneur who has founded a series of philanthropic, research, and commercial organizations based on the life sciences, applied technology, and social-network theory. He co-founded Genomic Health [NASDAQ: GHDX] and was former Director at the pioneering personalized medicine company based in California. He has published dozens of peer-reviewed scientific papers, articles, and book chapters in the fields of genetics, rare disease, and personalized medicine. Some of his recent activities included leadership positions on numerous trade associations, professional societies, corporate boards, and federal advisory bodies. He has experience coordinating genetics research, conducting research on rare diseases, and managing a life sciences patent portfolio. He has received many honors and awards in the business and scientific communities in the U.S. and internationally. He is currently a Director at Sirius Genomics, TcLand Expression, BioLogos Foundation, and GRAND Therapeutics.Patrick has also helped found the following organizations: Personalized Medicine Coalition, 21st Century Medicine Coalition, PXE International, Genetic Alliance BioBank, International Genetic Alliance, European Personalized Medicine Diagnostic Association, and GRAND Therapeutics. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Peter Yu, M.D. Director of Cancer Research, Palo Alto Medical Foundation |
|
|
|
Dr. Peter Paul Yu is in clinical practice at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF), a multi specialty medical group serving the San Francisco Bay area. Dr. Yu is Director of Cancer Research at PAMF and graduated from the combined undergraduate and medical school Program in Medicine at Brown University. He is Board Certified in both Medical Oncology and Hematology. Dr. Yu has served as co-chair of the Commission for Certification of Health Information Technology (CCHIT) Oncology work group, co-chair of the AMA-RAND Clinical Decision Support Oncology work group under contract to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, co-chair of the ASCO-NCI CORE project and has participated in several Institute of Medicine health information technology workshops. |
|
Advisory Board Committee |
|
|
|
 |
|
Alexis Borisy Partner Third Rock Ventures |
|
|
|
Alexis Borisy is a successful biotechnology entrepreneur with 20 years of experience building and operating innovative science based organizations. Alexis is a Partner at Third Rock Ventures, where he focuses on the formation, development and strategy of new companies, including Foundation Medicine for which he served as the Founding CEO and is currently Chairman, and for Blueprint Medicines for which he was a Founder and serves on the Board. Prior to joining Third Rock Ventures, Alexis founded CombinatoRx in 2000, serving as its CEO, and bringing the company public on the NASDAQ in an IPO. He has raised $750 million in financing and business development deals, and has authored numerous scientific papers and patents. Trained in chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard where he was a Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellow, Alexis was honored as the MIT Technology Review Innovator of the Year. He was also chosen as the New England Entrepreneur of the Year in Life Sciences and was honored as a Presidential Scholar. Alexis's undergraduate degree in chemistry is from the University of Chicago, and he did his graduate work in the laboratory of Dr. Stuart Schreiber at Harvard University. Alexis serves on the Board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, is an Overseer at the Boston Museum of Science, and is the Chairman of Forma Therapeutics. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Michael Penn, M.D. Business Development Genentech |
|
|
|
Dr. Michael L. Penn, Jr. is responsible for diagnostics and small molecule drug discovery transactions within Genentech’s Business Development group. His efforts help advance innovation in personalized medicine and drug development and result in getting the right medicines to the right patients. In 2003, he launched his career at Genentech as a marketing product manager for Herceptin--the groundbreaking personalized therapy for women with HER2+ breast cancer. Over the next 3 years, in roles of increasing responsibility, Dr. Penn leveraged his technical background and business acumen to explore and develop new areas of growth for Herceptin. During his tenure on the Herceptin team, the brand’s revenues tripled from $400M to over $1B. Dr. Penn was also appointed by former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown to the Health Commission, the policy-making board for the Department of Public Health, and served as a Commissioner from 2002 to 2004. Michael graduated from Morehouse College with a BS in Biology and received his MD-PhD at the University of California, San Francisco in 2003. His graduate research in HIV pathogenesis was completed at the Gladstone Institute for Virology and Immunology under the guidance of Dr. Mark A. Goldsmith. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Ryan Phelan Founder and CEO DNAdirect (acquired by Medco) |
|
|
|
Ryan Phelan started DNA Direct in 2003 as a company that provides direct-to-consumer genetic testing and related consumer oriented genomic services. Phelan has been a strong consumer health advocate for the past 25 years, having started the first medical library for consumers in 1978. As Founding Director of Planetree, a nonprofit consumer health care organization, she helped create a national model for humanizing hospitals and a national model for providing health information to the public, the Planetree Resource Center. In 1995 she founded Direct Medical Knowledge (DMK). DMK was an extensive consumer health web site highly regarded for its unique content depth and innovative search interface. DMK developed proprietary software that enabled users to drill down through the most current medical literature and retrieve personalized health and medical information. As CEO of DMK, Ms. Phelan forged alliances with major medical institutions, national health care plans, publishers, and consumer groups. In 1999 Direct Medical Knowledge was acquired by WebMD, and DMK's content became the backbone of WebMD's consumer health site. Phelan is also a co-founder of the ALL Species Foundation, a global science initiative to discover all life on Earth in the next 25 years. In 2002, Phelan served as CEO for the ALL Species Foundation and continues her involvement today by serving on the Governing Board of Directors. She graduated from UC Berkeley. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Michael Shuster, Ph.D. IP Partner & Life Sciences Group Co-chair, Fenwick & West LLP |
|
|
|
Dr. Shuster provides strategic intellectual property legal services to biotechnology and chemical/pharmaceutical companies. His practice includes patent prosecution, portfolio analysis, due diligence, litigation and opinion work. His clients include start-up and established biotechnology companies, venture capital firms and research universities and hospitals. Dr. Shuster’s career experience has included graduate research in the laboratory of Professor Eric Kandel at Columbia University as part of a team focused on discovery of mechanisms by which short-term memories are stored, research for which Professor Kandel was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Dr. Shuster then moved to the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, where he pursued his interests in ion channel biophysics and protein structure. Dr. Shuster received his B.A. from Brandeis University in 1981, magna cum laude and his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1986. He received his J.D. cum laude from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1997. In 2009, Dr. Shuster was listed as one of the Daily Journal's Top 25 Intellectual Property Portfolio Managers. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Anne Wojcicki President and Co-Founder, 23andMe |
|
|
|
Anne brings to 23andMe a 10-year background in healthcare investing, focused primarily on biotechnology companies. Anne left the investing world with the hope that she could have a positive impact on research and medicine through 23andMe. From her vantage point, Anne saw a need for creating a way to generate more information - especially more personalized information - so that commercial and academic researchers could better understand and develop new drugs and diagnostics. By encouraging individuals to access and learn about their own genetic information, 23andMe will create a common, standardized resource that has the potential to accelerate drug discovery and bring personalized medicine to the public. (Plus, getting access to her own genetic information and understanding it has always been one of Anne's ambitions.) Anne graduated from Yale University with a B.S. in biology. |
|
|
|
|