Dr Giovanna Lombardi

Giovanna Lombardi is Professor of Human Transplant Immunology in the Division of Transplantation Immunology and Mucosal Biology, MRC Centre for Transplantation, at King’s College London (since 2005). From 1987 to 2005 she was based at the Department of Immunology at the Hammersmith Hospital and before that at the University of Rome, Italy.

Her research has focused on the mechanisms of transplant rejection and tolerance as well as on the phenotype and function of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in health and disease, both in the murine system and in man. Recently her laboratory has established a clinical protocol to expand Tregs in vitro. Tregs has been used in two clinical trials in renal transplant patients as part of a large EU cell therapy consortium and in liver transplant patients supported by the MRC. In parallel, her group has demonstrated that adoptive cell therapy using alloantigen-specific regulatory T cells can offer an advantage compared to polyclonal Tregs for preventing chronic allograft rejection. A GMP compatible cell sorter to generate highly pure Tregs is under validation and this approach will open the possibility of using alloantigen-specific Tregs for future clinical trials within the next few years.

Claudia Zylberberg, PhD

Professor Ulrike Koehl

Ulrike Köhl is a full professor and director of the Institute of Cellular Therapeutics at Medical School Hannover, Germany. Previously she worked at MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, USA and at the University Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany. All her goals are focused on the development and manufacturing of cell-based therapies including Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs) and the improvement of cell processing strategies. She has a specific focus on primary human NK cells including chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) expressing NK cells. She is a member of numerous national and international societies and is serving as a reviewer for the European Medicine Agency.

Currently: Primo loco for a W3 professorship for immune oncology at the University Hospital Leipzig in personal union as the director of the Fraunhofer Institute of Cellular Therapeutics and Immunology in Leipzig.

Dr David Sourdive, PhD

David Sourdive, Ph.D., is a co-founder of Cellectis and joined the Board of Directors in 2000. Dr. Sourdive holds the position of Executive Vice President, Technical Operations, with the mission to develop the Company’s industrial and technological basis as well as to deploy its operations in the pharmaceutical arena. Dr. Sourdive combines a strong scientific expertise with experience in managing industrial programs bringing innovative technologies to industrial fruition. He served as Executive Vice President, Corporate Development, from 2008 to 2016. In addition to his role at Cellectis, Dr. Sourdive has also served on the board of directors of the Mediterranean Institute for Life Sciences. David Sourdive graduated from École Polytechnique, received his Ph.D. in molecular virology at Institut Pasteur and completed a research fellowship in the Emory University Department of Microbiology and Immunology. His management training is from the HEC (Challenge +) and his decade-long experience in industrial program management was acquired at the French Department of Defense (DGA) prior to Cellectis’ inception.

More speakers to be announced soon - watch this space!

Michaela Sharpe, PhD

Michaela Sharpe is the Head of Nonclinical Safety and Immunotherapy Strategy at the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult. Michaela has over fifteen years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry both in the biotechnology sector and large pharma where she has specialised in the nonclinical development of cell based therapies and therapeutic vaccines. She was Head of the Stem Cell Safety Group at Pfizer and prior to joining the Catapult she ran her own consultancy business. Michaela oversees Immunotherapy Strategy for the Catapult as well as leading a team with significant expertise in the design of non-clinical safety programmes and the development of specialist clinical assays. She has implemented nonclinical development programmes for pluripotent stem cell therapies, somatic cell therapies, immune therapies, genetically modified cell therapies and tissue engineered products.

Simon Mason

Michael Hemprich

Dr. Michael Hemprich has almost 20 years experience in the Animal Health Industry and prior to joining IDT-Biologika in March, 2014, he was Manager of Business Development and country Manager for Germany and Austria at Dechra Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Dechra, he held senior management positions including Vice President Global Business Development & R&D at LAB International (Montreal, Canada), Regulatory Affairs Manager at Intervet Innovation GmbH and International Technical Manager for Bremer Pharma GmbH.

Michael graduated as veterinary surgeon from the University of Giessen and earned a doctorate degree of Veterinary Medicine from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. He is also a Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and has an executive MBA in Biotechnology.

Matthias Hofer

Matthias Hofer is the Managing Partner at Stonehaven Consulting AG with over 15 years of experience in Animal Health. He served on the executive committees of two major Animal Health companies for a total of 7 years. Between 2009 and 2013 he led the global Aqua Health business at Novartis Animal Health (NAH). Later on, he was Global Leader Emerging Business at Elanco and a member of Elanco’s global executive committee. During 2014 and with Elanco’s intention to buy NAH, Matthias served as overall pre-merger integration leader on the Novartis side. In that role, Matthias led a large team and efforts to prepare integration pre-closing overall including carve-out preparations of operations linked to Novartis.

Maarten Goossens

Maarten is a Co-founder and Principal at Anterra Capital. He began his investing career as an Analyst within the Rabo Ventures team in 2009 and was primarily responsible for deal sourcing and execution, and portfolio management. 

Prior to joining Rabo Ventures, Maarten was an Analyst in the Rabobank-Rothschild M&A joint venture in London, where he focused on transactions in Food & Agriculture. 

Maarten holds a Masters of Business Administration from the Free University of Amsterdam, and has studied at the London School of Economics.