June 30
Hertzelia, IL
Program Committee
Alexis Borisy, Partner, Third Rock Ventures
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 such as Foundation Medicine, Blueprint Medicines, and CombinatoRx. Alexis is a Partner at Third Rock Ventures, where he focuses on the formation, development and strategy of new companies. 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.
Gabi Barbash, M.D., Director General, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center
Gabi Barbash, M.D., Director General, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center
Prof. Gabi Barbash has been Director General of the Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center since 1999. From 1996 to 1999, Prof. Barbash served as Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Health. From 1995 to 1998, he was a Member of the Scientific Committee of the Interdisciplinary Center for Technological Analysis and Forecasting at Tel-Aviv University. From 1993 to 1996, Prof. Barbash was the Director General of the Sourasky Medical Center. From 1986 to 1993, Prof. Barbash was the Deputy Director of the Sheba Medical Center and from 1990 to 1993, he was Director of the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Sheba Medical Center. Prof. Barabash has been Chairman of the Board of 3DV Systems Ltd. since 2005. He has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Teuza Venture Capital Fund since 2000. From 1998 to 2000, Prof. Barabash served as Chairman of the Israeli National Transplant Center. He has been a Director of Elron Electronic Industries Ltd. since May 2003. He serves as a Director of Clal Bio-technology and Poalim Ventures. Prof. Barbash holds an M.D. from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Hadassah Medical School and a Masters degree in Public Health from Harvard University.
Iris Grossman, Ph.D., Global Head of Personalized Medicine & Pharmacogenomics, Teva
Iris Grossman, Ph.D., Global Head of Personalized Medicine & Pharmacogenomics, Teva
Iris Grossman is the CEO and president of IsraGene, Ltd., a clinical trials pharmacogenetics and management consultancy dedicated to the successful development of drugs worldwide. Under her leadership, IsraGene provides its services to Big Pharma, as well as to small biotechnology companies, in various therapeutic areas. Before taking the helm at IsraGene, Dr. Grossman focused her research career in both industry and academia on advancing personalized medicine. Her most recent position was Director, pharmacogenetics, at Cabernet Pharmaceuticals Inc., where she spearheaded pipeline pharmacogenetic programs throughout the continuum of drug development programs in different therapeutic areas. During this time she managed clients in industry (most prominently Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals and Zinfandel Pharmaceuticals), as well as academia, primarily in neurosciences and oncology. Before joining Cabernet, Dr. Grossman managed pharmacogenetic programs at GlaxoSmithKline, with emphasis on its application to infectious and neurological diseases. In her most recent academic position, she acted as a research associate in the laboratory of Professor David Goldstein at the Center for Population Genomics and Pharmacogenetics, Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, Duke University. Dr. Grossman holds academic research degrees (Medical Sciences) from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and her PhD research, conducted in collaboration with the Weizmann Institute for Science, investigated pharmacogenetic markers of multiple sclerosis treatment response.
Laurence Marton, M.D., Program Committee Chairman, PMWC
Laurence Marton, M.D., Program Committee Chairman, PMWC
Dr. Marton serves as a consultant to industry and to governmental and academic institutions. In recent years he has been a founder, director, CEO, CSO, and CMO of the SLIL Biomedical Corporation, and CSO of both Cellgate and Progen Pharmaceuticals. These companies were, or are, focused on the discovery and development of novel 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 the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he was a Professor in the Departments of Laboratory Medicine and Neurological Surgery. He remains an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at UCSF. He is a leading expert with extensive experience in the fields of cell growth and drug development. His work is focused on the use of polyamine analogs in treating human diseases related to aberrant cell growth and epigenetics, including cancer and other diseases. Dr. Marton serves as a director on the Boards of the California Heart Center Foundation and Cancer Commons, and as a trustee of the American Association for Cancer Research Foundation. He is on the Board of Directors of TOMA Biosciences, is Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of PharmaJet, and is on the Advisory Boards of Ruga Corp and Contrast Therapeutics. Dr. Marton received his MD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and his BA from Yeshiva University.
Patrick F. Terry, Chairman, Grey Group Ventures, Inc.
Patrick F. Terry, Chairman, Grey Group Ventures, Inc.
Patrick is a serial 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 translational medicine. Some of his 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 MeMed Diagnostics (Israel-based Company), PXE International, and GRAND Therapeutics. He has also helped found the following organizations: US Personalized Medicine Coalition, 21st Century Medicine Coalition, European Personalized Medicine Diagnostic Association, PXE International, Genetic Alliance BioBank, BioLogos Foundation, Coalition for Research on the Eye, International Genetic Alliance, and GRAND Therapeutics, National Association of Healthcare Reimbursement, and Technic Solutions.
Peter Yu, M.D., Director of Cancer Research, Palo Alto Medical Foundation
Peter Yu, M.D., Director of Cancer Research, Palo Alto Medical Foundation
Dr. Peter Paul Yu is in clinical practice and is also Director of Cancer Research at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF), a multi specialty medical group serving the San Francisco Bay area. Dr. Yu graduated from the combined undergraduate and medical school Program in Medicine at Brown University. 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 and as co-chair of the ASCO-NCI CORE project.
Ralph Snyderman, M.D., Chancellor Emeritus, Duke University
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.
Shai Shen-Orr, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Technion
Shai Shen-Orr, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Technion
Shai Shen-Orr is a data scientist specializing in biology. He received his B.Sc.degree in Information Systems (1999) at the Technion, staying away from Biology as much as he can. As often happens, a twist of fate led him to fall in love with Biology in his senior year and has pursued his interest in it ever since. He received an MSc in Bioinformatics (2002) from the Weizmann Institute of Science and a PhD in Biology (2007) from Harvard University. This was followed by postdoctoral studies in Systems Immunology at Stanford University, where he was a postdoc and Research Associate (2007-2011), with Prof. Mark Davis and Prof. Atul Butte.
Shai Yarkoni, Ph.D., M.D., President and CEO, CELLECT
Shai Yarkoni, Ph.D., M.D., President and CEO, CELLECT
Shai Yarkoni brings a unique blend of life sciences experience, combining medical practice (Israeli Board-certified Ob/Gyn) and science (cellular and molecular biology) with executive management at various biotech start-up companies and international co development ventures. Dr. Yarkoni presently has founded and currently acts as the director General of BioNegev, an Israeli Innovation cluster founded to expedite the establishment of the Israeli life science industry. Concomitantly Dr. Yarkoni heads G.A.S.R Biotechnologies, a Biotech company dedicated to restarting promising Biotech ventures that failed due to non technological reasons. G.A.S.R holds commercializing rights of projects and IP that have raised >$15M in the past. Prior to that, Dr Yarkoni served as the CEO of Target-In (fusion proteins for targeted cell suicide) and CTO of Collgard Biopharmaceuticals (small-molecule with anti fibrotic and anti angiogenic activity). In both companies Dr. Yarkoni and his teams developed the drug candidates from the academic bench to human clinical trials in USA, EU, UK and Israel. Previously Dr. Yarkoni served for 10 years on the faculty of the Ob-Gyn dept. at the Sackler School of medicine in Tel-Aviv University, concomitantly founding and leading the Onco-Genetic service and Research Unit at the Sapir Medical Center, Israel. Dr. Yarkoni has been involved in a number of international biotech activities, including a leading a co-development team with Boston Scientific from USA as well as Century Pharmaceuticals from India, the Steering Committee of a FP6 sponsored European Research Consortium (AMIS), as chair of the Healthcare Sector Advisory Committee to the Israel Export and international collaborations Institute, as a member of the Council of European BioRegions (CEBR) and Dr. Yarkoni holds MD and PhD degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he published over 40 papers in peer review journals and holds 14 issued patents.
Zeev Zelig, Former President, Genzyme, Israel
Zeev Zelig, Former President, Genzyme, Israel
Before joining Genzyme in 1994, Zeev worked for Fissons and for Mediline. He was responsible for the establishment of the Genzyme subsidiaries in the Middle East, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, and Romania, and held the position of Genzyme Corporation Patient Coordinator, coordinating between Genzyme and the various Patient Associations. Zeev was the Chairman of the Board at Pharma-Israel, a founding member of ILSI (Israeli Life Science Industries). He is a member of the Board of the Merage Foundation which trains young Israeli Life Sciences managers, and a member of AMCHAM (America-Israel Chamber of Commerce) where he is active in the promotion of Israel-US cooperation in the Life Sciences Field. Zeev is a member of the Israeli Export Institute Life Sciences Advisory Committee. He served on the Steering Committee of the first Life Sciences Baltics Conference.
Track 2 Screening Committee
Stacy Feld, Partner, Physic Ventures
Stacy Feld, Partner, Physic Ventures
Stacy Feld, J.D., is a Partner at Physic Ventures. Stacy focuses on personalized health solutions to improve and transform care for the health consumer. Specifically, Stacy is interested in life science opportunities offering more precise prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic disease. She is on the board of T2 Biosystems and an observer on the boards of On-Q-ity and Own.
Thomas A. Raffin, M.D., General Partner, Telegraph Hill Partners
Thomas A. Raffin, M.D., General Partner, Telegraph Hill Partners
Tom spent 24 years on the faculty at Stanford University School of Medicine where he remains the Colleen and Robert Haas Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Biomedical Ethics, former Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and Co-Founder and Director Emeritus of the Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics. He has written over 200 articles, chapters and books. Over the past two decades he has worked extensively in the healthcare and medical device sectors and is a co-founder of Rigel Pharmaceuticals. Tom has represented THP on the boards of AngioScore, Confirma (acquired by Merge), LDR, PneumRx and Freedom Innovations. He is an observer on the boards of Estech and Vidacare. Tom received a BA from Stanford University and an M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine and medical residency at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.
