Women in Biotech
Dr. Yang joined the Vyaire Medical, Inc. in April of 2017 as the Sr. Vice President, Quality and Regulatory Affairs. Prior to this, she served as Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs in Beckman Coulter; affiliate of Danaher Corp. since 2013. Dr. Yang brings nearly thirty years of experience in R&D, Operations, Regulatory and Clinical affairs, Quality Assurance, Quality Engineering and Quality Control. Previously, Dr. Yang served as Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality of Hologic/Gen-Probe from 2007 until 2013. Prior to that, Dr. Yang was the Vice President, Quality and Regulatory Affairs of Focus Diagnostics, owned by Quest Diagnostics, consisting of laboratory services, clinical trial and In Vitro Diagnostic manufacturing units with focus on infectious disease. Immediately prior, Dr. Yang held a variety of management positions in R&D, quality systems, diagnostic operations, and technical manufacturing. From 1987 to 1995, Dr. Yang served in quality control, biochemistry and allergy, and organic chemistry management positions at Diagnostic Products Corporation in Los Angeles. She has a B.S. in Biology from National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan and a Ph.D in Zoology with focus on Molecular Biology from Iowa State University, Iowa.
Dr. Yang is a Regulatory Affairs Certified (RAC), an ISO9000 certified lead auditor and a Certified Quality Auditor (CQA). Dr. Yang has been invited as the speaker in numerous international Quality and Regulatory Conferences. In 2015 and 2016, she was the chief instructor for cGMP and quality audit training hosted by CFDA in Beijing.
Dr. Yang is a Regulatory Affairs Certified (RAC), an ISO9000 certified lead auditor and a Certified Quality Auditor (CQA). Dr. Yang has been invited as the speaker in numerous international Quality and Regulatory Conferences. In 2015 and 2016, she was the chief instructor for cGMP and quality audit training hosted by CFDA in Beijing.
Dr. Yvonne Chen earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology. She received postdoctoral training at the Center for Childhood Cancer Research within the Seattle Children’s Research Institute, and at the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. Yvonne was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows prior to joining the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2013. The Chen Laboratory focuses on applying synthetic biology and biomolecular engineering techniques to the development of novel mammalian-cell systems, particularly cell-based immunotherapy for cancer. Dr. Chen has been a recipient of the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, the Hellman Fellowship, the ACGT Young Investigator Award in Cell and Gene Therapy for Cancer, and the NSF CAREER Award. Yvonne is also a Member Researcher in the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.
Helen Chen currently serves as the Chief Operations Officer for Ambryx Biotechnology, Inc. She manages Ambryx’s R&D strategy, operations, corporate development, and external collaborations. Prior to joining Ambryx, Helen was a project analyst at Beachhead Consulting, a leading strategic advisement firm to many of the companies specializing in drug discovery tools development. She was also the co-founder and partner of the Technology Evaluation Group, a consulting firm that specializes in the technology assessment of pharmaceutical compounds and medical devices for venture capitalists and biotech start-up companies.
Helen is also a recognized community leader, working with academic institutions, government entities and organizations in Southern California to create a vibrant hi-tech eco-system. As a member and former chairperson of the Riverside Technology CEO Forum, Helen helped the City of Riverside to garner ICF Foundation’s “The Most Intelligent Community” global award, for creating a knowledge-based workforce, spurring innovation and becoming effective marketers and advocates for their vision. Helen also serves on the advisory boards of University of California, Riverside and California Baptist University.
Helen is also a recognized community leader, working with academic institutions, government entities and organizations in Southern California to create a vibrant hi-tech eco-system. As a member and former chairperson of the Riverside Technology CEO Forum, Helen helped the City of Riverside to garner ICF Foundation’s “The Most Intelligent Community” global award, for creating a knowledge-based workforce, spurring innovation and becoming effective marketers and advocates for their vision. Helen also serves on the advisory boards of University of California, Riverside and California Baptist University.
Translational Research
David Hsu received his BS degree from Fu-Jen University, MS from University of Texas at Dallas and Ph.D. degree from University of California at Davis. His scientific training focused in the fields of molecular biology, cell biology and virology. During his professional career at Viagene, Chiron, Merck and City of Hope, his attention has been devoted in the process development and manufacturing of viral vectors and cellular products. At his current position as Sr. Director of Center for Biomedicine and Genetics (CBG) of City of Hope, he oversees the production of clinical grade viral vectors including lentivirus, adenovirus, MVA and recombinant Poxvirus in support of various trial studies, including CAR-T products for cancer immunotherapy.
Jean Claude Zenklusen was born 1964 in Visp, Switzerland. He earned a Master in Sciences (Biochemistry) from the University of Buenos Aires in 1990. He received his PhD in Cancer Biology & Genetics from The University of Texas, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, in 1995. In 1996, he took a post-doctoral position at the National Genome Research Institute where, while participating in the Human Genome Project, he cloned two novel Tumor Suppressor Genes. From 2003 until 2009, he was the Senior Staff Scientist at the Neuro-Oncology Branch of the National Cancer Institute directing the Glioma Molecular Diagnostic Initiative and its companion data portal, Rembrandt. From 2009 until 2013, he served as the Scientific Program Director of the Office of cancer Genomics, where he oversaw a variety of large-scale projects. In August 2013 he was named as Director of The Cancer Genome Atlas, the largest-scale cancer genomics project to date.
Justin Ichida completed his Ph.D. at Harvard Medical School and his postdoc at Harvard University. Since 2013, he has been an Assistant Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Southern California and a New York Stem Cell Foundation-Robertson Investigator. His current research is focused on using patient-specific disease models to define the mechanisms that lead to neuronal loss in ALS and frontotemporal dementia.
Entrepreneurs
Alex is a life sciences executive with over 25 years experience leading strategic initiatives that have transformed small companies and enabled large companies to penetrate new markets. Most recently, he was the Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Illumina, Inc. where his responsibilities included working with national governments and large institutions to develop precision medicine programs for healthcare systems. Previously he led the team that built Illumina’s cloud-based sequencing informatics platform, BaseSpace, now the world’s largest genomic database. Alex joined Illumina in 2010 when the company acquired Helixis, a molecular diagnostics company that he led as CEO after co-founding with Caltech Professor Axel Scherer and Nobel Laureate David Baltimore. Alex was previously the founder and CEO of Luxtera, the leading provider of silicon photonic cloud infrastructure. He began his career as a researcher at AT&T Bell Labs and has been awarded over 40 patents covering a range of inventions including the camera and fingerprint CMOS chip technologies widely used in today’s smartphones. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Adelaide, Australia, and an MBA from Columbia University in New York.
Michael Heltzen is known as an energetic leader, business developer, networker and entrepreneur, who enjoys building companies and new technologies together with groups of skilled people, and to go after otherwise insoluble problem and business opportunities. He start his BlueSEQ Innovation Inc. from 2010. Michael has a creative and fast paced, yet systematic and goal-oriented, work style. His focus not only covered in Genomics/ Omics/ Precision Medicine/ Software applications in the life science and bioinformatic fields but also expertise in business development, company creation and strategy development. He addressed himself in the attracted quotation “Gaining digital insight to biology and life itself is the biggest technology game-changer for the world in my generation.”
Dr. Nerenberg is a physician with training in internal medicine, molecular biology, clinical trials and diagnostics. He is the author of over 50 articles and 18 patents. Molecular Stethoscope is a molecular diagnostics company utilizing circulating cell free mRNA to develop assays for chronic metabolic and inflammatory diseases. Previously, Dr. Nerenberg was the head of Medical Affairs, research and Business Development at Genoptix Inc., a company that specialized in diagnosis of hematomalignancies for community oncologists. Prior to this, Dr. Nerenberg served as President of Molecular Reflections, Inc., a bioengineering design and discovery company that developed silicon based microsensors. He also ran Molecular Biology for Nanogen, Inc., a microarray company, prior to which he was a faculty member in the department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine at the Scripps Institute. He received his B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago and his M.D. from the Yale University School of Medicine, completed his residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and completed a fellowship at the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. David Schwartz is the co-founder and CEO of Cell IDx. Inc with over 30 years' experience in developing novel bioconjugation chemistries for both therapeutics and in vivo and in vitro diagnostics. Through research funded by an NCI Phase II contract, David discovered and patented Cell IDx’s hapten-based UltraPlex multiplex immunoassay technology that allows unlimited multiplexing with high sensitivity and specificity in immunoassays. Prior to founding Cell IDx, he founded Solulink Biosciences where, as Chief Science Officer, he invented the Schiff base-based conjugation chemistry. Through efforts at Dynavax, Genta, and Johnson Matthey, he applied his background in synthetic organic chemistry to medicinal chemistry and developed the novel bioconjugated reagents for both therapeutics and diagnostics.
A founding member of Nanomedical Diagnostics and the company’s CEO, Ross is a graduate of UCSD with an MBA from SDSU. Ross’s passion is precision execution, and he applies this to driving company direction and operations, raising capital funding, and developing strategic collaborations and partnerships. Ross brings business development, supply chain, finance, and operations expertise from 13 years of experience in industries ranging from consumer goods to defense manufacturing to financial services. At Bumble Bee Foods, Ross created and implemented cross-functional supply chain procedures that reduced processing hours while improving scheduling accuracy and decreasing cost. Prior to Bumble Bee at General Dynamics, Ross identified and negotiated business development projects that gained the company new opportunities in alternative energy, commercial construction, and heavy tool manufacturing. At UBS Financial Services, Ross created financial models to estimate future growth rates. Ross brings a demonstrated track record of successful implementation and a well-rounded background to his role as CEO of Nanomedical Diagnostics.
Industrial Veterans
Eric Gschweng earned his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles in the department of Microbiology, Immunology, & Molecular Genetics. In his dissertation work, under the supervision of Dr. Donald Kohn, he developed a model for transplant of engineered T-cell receptors using hematopoietic stem cells, and worked closely with Dr. Toni Ribas’ lab on research that is currently in clinical trials at UCLA. Following graduation, he took a scientist position at Kite Pharma in Santa Monica working on antigen receptor therapies for solid tumors. Eric currently leads his own team as a Senior Scientist, where his group is tasked with leveraging iPS cells with gene-editing to develop a “universal” T-cell product for patient transplant. This advance has the potential to increase potency, decrease time to therapy, and drastically reduced cost, broadening the availability of this transformative medicine to many more patients than currently possible.
Dr. Hann Wang received his Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles, his master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and his Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from National Taiwan University. Dr. Wang forayed into the field of Data Science and machine learning during his Ph.D. while studying high throughput cancer drug discovery and has been serving as a technical contributor of data science in the biotech industry.
Dr. Wang is currently the Principal Deep Learning Engineer at Roche Sequencing Solution Inc., providing core machine learning solutions to address challenges in single molecule sequencing. Prior to joining Roche, Dr. Wang was the Senior Data Scientist of Big Data Analytics at Genomic Health Inc. leading the data science team to develop the predictive analytics platform for internal process control, and was in charge of the data analysis pipeline of nonclinical biostatistics for several major projects in the R&D arm. Dr. Wang also served as Lead Data Scientist in Geneio Inc., a start up company dedicated to developing machining learning solutions to cancer drug discovery problems. He was in charge of building scalable cloud computing resources to enable parallel processing of massive molecular and drug screening dataset, and led the research effort of drug discovery.
Dr. Wang is currently the Principal Deep Learning Engineer at Roche Sequencing Solution Inc., providing core machine learning solutions to address challenges in single molecule sequencing. Prior to joining Roche, Dr. Wang was the Senior Data Scientist of Big Data Analytics at Genomic Health Inc. leading the data science team to develop the predictive analytics platform for internal process control, and was in charge of the data analysis pipeline of nonclinical biostatistics for several major projects in the R&D arm. Dr. Wang also served as Lead Data Scientist in Geneio Inc., a start up company dedicated to developing machining learning solutions to cancer drug discovery problems. He was in charge of building scalable cloud computing resources to enable parallel processing of massive molecular and drug screening dataset, and led the research effort of drug discovery.
Richard Lin is the Founder and CEO of Explora BioLabs, a San Diego-based preclinical contract research and pharmacology incubator company. As the CEO, Richard is responsible for the overall strategic development of the company business and vision, as well as overseeing the general operation of Explora’s pharmacology research facilities in San Diego. Since its 2004 founding, Explora has helped more than 150 biotech and pharmaceutical companies with their preclinical drug discovery research.
In addition to his role at Explora, Richard actively participates in local biotech community development. Serving an active role on the BIOCOM CRO committee, Richard helps develop bi-monthly CRO workshops and sponsors industry networking events. Richard also serves on the Industry Advisory Board of the Southern California Biotechnology Center, a state-sponsored training program to help train community college students and prepare them for working in the biotech industry. Prior to founding Explora BioLabs, Richard served in major research leadership positions in several biotech companies, including Ansata Therapeutics, Genset Corp, Corvas International and Axys Pharmaceuticals. Richard conducted his postdoctoral research at UC San Diego Cancer Center, and received his PhD in Zoology from UC Berkeley.
In addition to his role at Explora, Richard actively participates in local biotech community development. Serving an active role on the BIOCOM CRO committee, Richard helps develop bi-monthly CRO workshops and sponsors industry networking events. Richard also serves on the Industry Advisory Board of the Southern California Biotechnology Center, a state-sponsored training program to help train community college students and prepare them for working in the biotech industry. Prior to founding Explora BioLabs, Richard served in major research leadership positions in several biotech companies, including Ansata Therapeutics, Genset Corp, Corvas International and Axys Pharmaceuticals. Richard conducted his postdoctoral research at UC San Diego Cancer Center, and received his PhD in Zoology from UC Berkeley.
Career Development
Over 20 years of experience as a seasoned staffing and sourcing professional recruiting top talent locally, nationwide, and internationally. Broad and rich recruitment experience spent within large corporate settings, startups, top agency environments, and as a preferred independent consultant. Heavily recruited in the biotech/pharma and medical device industries, as well as finance, technology, entertainment and government spaces. Most recently, Suzanne has joined Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Specialty Diagnostics division and recruits primarily for the Transplant Diagnostics (TDX) business based in Canoga Park.
Eric is a senior engineer in Biogen focusing on biologics process development in Multiple Sclerosis, Hemophilia, and Alzheimer. His main role is to ensure large-scale manufacturing’s success in upstream and downstream as well as in clinical and commercial campaign (2000L to 15,000L). He also supported next-generation facility design focusing on continuous perfusion process. He leads several cross-companies projects including CMO partnership, raw material investigation, cell line robustness, medium optimization, instrument automation, product quality comparability, assay alignment in BIIB’s internal high titer development. Aside from the lab, he works closely with external partners in supporting domestic or international vendor qualification, raw material analysis and trace metal impurity to ensure supply chain consistency. Eric published several papers in mitigating the cell damaging and raw material qualification in collaboration with AD, QC, regulatory, supply chain, and external partners/vendors. He obtained BS degree in National Taiwan University and Ph.D. in SUNY Buffalo in gene therapy, regenerative medicine, and preclinical animal model.
Dr. Jie-Fu Chen is a physician-scientist currently receiving clinical training as a resident physician at Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine. He received his MD degree from National Taiwan University School of Medicine in Taiwan, and completed postdoctoral research training in University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in United States (CSMC). Dr. Chen’s research focuses on developing new blood-borne biomarkers and assays for detecting and monitoring aggressive cancers, unveiling the underlying cancer biology, and implementing new therapeutic strategies. During his time in Dr. Hsian-Rong Tseng's group at UCLA, he led the efforts to optimize generations of NanoVelcro Chips for detection, isolation and characterization of rare cells. This led to the use of NanoVelcro Assays for enumerating circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in prostate, pancreatic and lung cancers, as well as isolating fetal cells from maternal blood for prenatal diagnosis. Later in Dr. Edwin Posadas' laboratory, he continued to lead the translational research in enumeration and molecular characterization of CTCs from prostate cancer patients. He is known for the discovery of very-small-nuclear CTC and its association between visceral metastasis in prostate cancer, and the development of CTC-based RNA assay for subclassifying prostate cancer.
Dr. Fiacco is a founding member of EvoRx and serves as CEO where he oversees its general operations and business development. In this role, Dr. Fiacco has advanced the business through multiple negotiations of collaboration and license agreements with large and small pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Additionally, his team has received both Phase I and Phase II NIH SBIR grants and contracts. Dr. Fiacco is actively involved in the Los Angeles biotech community serving on the advisory board of Biocom LA and had previously served on the board of directors at Innovate Pasadena.
Prior to founding EvoRx, Dr. Fiacco was an integral member of the scientific team involved in inventing EvoRx’s platform technology and has been listed as an inventor on 7 patents and an author in 6 related publications. He earned his B.S. in Creative Studies Chemistry at UCSB, his M.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Cal Tech and his Ph.D. in Chemistry in the lab of Dr. Roberts at USC.
Prior to founding EvoRx, Dr. Fiacco was an integral member of the scientific team involved in inventing EvoRx’s platform technology and has been listed as an inventor on 7 patents and an author in 6 related publications. He earned his B.S. in Creative Studies Chemistry at UCSB, his M.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Cal Tech and his Ph.D. in Chemistry in the lab of Dr. Roberts at USC.