RNA药物讨论：下一个创新突破、下一个重磅产品 | 2024 BioSpark年会

Isabel Aznarez is senior vice president of Discovery Research and a co-founder at Stoke Therapeutics. Isabel has extensive experience in human genetics, RNA metabolism and modulation of RNA processes using antisense oligonucleotides. Prior to founding Stoke Therapeutics, she was a research investigator with Professor Adrian Krainer, whose lab she joined as a postdoctoral fellow in 2008. Previously, Isabel was a researcher at the Hospital for Sick Children with Professor Lap-Chee Tsui, where she focused on the effect of cystic fibrosis mutations on the splicing of the CFTR gene. Isabel holds a Ph.D. in molecular and medical genetics from the University of Toronto and a B.Sc. in biology and human genetics from the University of Uruguay.

Kasper Roet, PhD, is CEO and co-founder of QurAlis Corporation. He is also co-founder and serves on the board of directors of EnClear Therapies. Kasper is a passionate neuroscientist and therapy developer who specializes in gene therapies and stem cell technology-based precision medicine solutions for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative diseases. Kasper’s work at the Netherlands Brain Bank emphasized the need for effective treatments for patients and their families. Upon seeing the incredible achievements in stem cell modeling and gene discoveries in ALS, Kasper realized that this is the time to make a real difference for patients. 

He decided to move to Boston from the Netherlands with his wife, and work with two visionary leaders in ALS stem cell disease modeling, Harvard professors Clifford Woolf and Kevin Eggan with whom he co-founded QurAlis to bring breakthrough precision therapies for ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases. Kasper was trained by industry thought leaders at Johnson & Johnson along with forward-thinking scientific and business thought leaders at Harvard University. Kasper obtained his PhD degree at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and the Free University of Amsterdam and obtained a master’s degree with honors from the University of Amsterdam. Kasper was awarded the Milton Safenowitz postdoctoral fellowship from the ALS Association. With QurAlis, Kasper won two Golden Tickets (Amgen 2017 and Pfizer 2018), became a JLabs member in 2018, won the Fierce15 Biotech award in 2020, and was awarded the 2022 Henri Termeer Transatlantic Connections Award.  

Paul joined Alnylam in March 2018 and is responsible for leading the Discovery and Translational Research function. He has overall responsibility for new target identification/validation, biomarkers and all preclinical drug discovery programs. Building on his depth of prior experience, he also leads the Alnylam Human Genetics center which focuses on identification of new drug targets from large genotype-phenotype datasets.

Paul has over 18 years of biotech and pharma experience. He joined Alnylam following a tenure at Amgen and deCODE genetics where he held roles of increasing responsibility. Most recently he was Director of the Translational Systems Biology group and led a large team that was focused on making discoveries from human genetics to influence target selection.

Paul obtained his academic training at the University of Edinburgh (BSc, Pharmacology) and the University of Dundee (PhD, Molecular Biology).

Dr. Qinghong (Avery) Yan is the Co-Founder, President and CSO/COO of Leverna Therapeutics, a Boston-based startup company focusing on developing antisense oligonucleotides and small molecules for RNA targeting. Avery was the Head of Biology at FUSION BioVenture of Fosun Pharma USA. Prior to joining FUSION Bioventure in 2020, she was the Cell and Molecular Biology team lead at the Translational Systems Biology group at Amgen. Avery obtained her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Stony Brook University and completed her postdoctoral research at Columbia University.

Avery has extensive experience in R&D, investment, business development and start-up incubation in biotech and pharma companies. Her drug development experience includes a broad range of modalities including small/large molecule, ASO, siRNA, CAR-T, TCR-T and PROTAC programs. She has a track record of leading projects, closing deals, attracting talents and building teams. 

Avery is also the co-founder and President of BioSpark Group.

Simon has 20 years of drug discovery experience in top pharmaceutical companies and academic institutes. Simon helped conceptualize the initial scientific strategy for Rgenta and has led the development of the discovery platform since its launch. Prior to Rgenta, Simon was the head of genomics and computational biology group at Abbvie Foundational Neuroscience Center where he established the genomics platform and computational biology function for target discovery and validation. Before Rgenta, Simon was an accomplished scientist and group leader at Pfizer, where he led multiple novel therapeutic targets into Pfizer’s discovery portfolio and established close collaborations with academic institutions. Simon has co-authored more than 30 research publications and is currently an adjunct faculty at Brandeis University and a principal investigator in the GTEx Consortium

Tasuku Kitada is President and Head of R&D of Strand Therapeutics. He co-founded Strand and serves on its Board of Directors. Prior to Strand, Tasuku was Senior Biotechnology Analyst at Candriam Investors Group, where he conducted due diligence for the company’s multi-billion-dollar biopharma public equity investment strategy. At Candriam, he focused on cell and gene therapy companies, and also covered numerous oncology companies. Currently, Tasuku continues to serve Candriam Investors Group as an advisor. Prior to Candriam, Tasuku was a researcher at the Synthetic Biology Center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he became the first scientist to create synthetic gene circuits using synthetic mRNA. This was the first demonstration of post-transcriptional circuits that can be “wired” to create a variety of networks of increasing complexity, which enabled cell type specific expression as well as small-molecule based control of gene expression from synthetic mRNA. This important research led to publications in Science, Nature Biotechnology, and Nature Chemical Biology. The mRNA synthetic biology platform developed from this research has been exclusively licensed to Strand. Tasuku holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from University of California, Los Angeles and a B.S. in Biophysics and Biochemistry from University of Tokyo.