Dr. Peter Hirth is a luminary in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical discovery and development field, with over 30 years of experience. His most notable achievement is as the co-founder and CEO of Plexxikon, where he pioneered a novel, structure-guided drug discovery platform. This innovation led to the development of several new chemical entities, including Zelboraf®, a groundbreaking therapy for metastatic melanoma. Prior to Plexxikon, Dr. Hirth co-founded Sugen, a company significant for advancing several kinase inhibitors in oncology, including Sutent®, a drug for gastrointestinal cancer, which went public and was later acquired by Pharmacia/Pfizer.
Dr. Hirth’s earlier roles include serving as Vice President of Research at Boehringer Mannheim, leading to the successful approval of the erythropoietin program, and work at the Max Planck Institute and the University of California, San Diego. He obtained his PhD in Molecular Genetics from Heidelberg University, Germany. Currently, he holds positions as the chairman of IO Biotech and director on the boards of several biotech companies, including Iconic Therapeutics, Escient Pharmaceuticals, Vaxcyte, Trex Bio, and Aligos Therapeutics.
As an advisor, Dr. Hirth’s extensive experience in drug discovery and development, combined with his proven leadership in successful biotech startups, would be invaluable. His expertise in steering companies from inception through to clinical trials and commercial success would provide strategic insights, helping to identify and nurture promising biotechnological advancements and investments.
Prof CB. Sanjeevi is Vice Chancellor of Sri Sathya Sai Institute it Higher Learning (Deemed-to-be-University) in Puttaparthi, AP, India and Senior Scientist at the Dept of Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Dr. Sanjeevi heads the research Group ‘Diabetes-Immunology’ at the Center for Molecular Medicine in Karolinska University Hospital Campus. The group focuses its research on Autoimmune diabetes. His group’s main interest lies in the understanding of the biomarkers, immunogenetic factors and especially the structural and functional aspects of these genes, in the understanding of the etiology of the disease and for finding ways to predict, and possibly prevent the disease.
He has won many awards. The recent one was Pravasi Bharathiya Samman Award for 2017, which he received from the President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee. It is the highest award given to a Person of Indian Origin by the Government of India for his excellence in the field of Medicine. Carani has served as a member of the Editorial board of several Journals and as Editor for the ‘Immunology of Diabetes’ series published by the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (USA).
He has served in the Board of Cadila Pharma Sweden AB, Oncology Ventures, Danmark and in the Scietific Advisory Board of Allarity Therapeutics (Danmark), Diamyd (Sweden) and Seraxis AB, USA. He also served as Senior Advisor to the Innovation Office of Karolinska Institute, Senior Investment Advisor in Life Science in the Invest in Sweden Agency, Invest Sweden and Business Sweden, TATA Capital Healthcare Private Equity Fund in Mumbai and HBM Bioventures in Zug, Switzerland.
Harald has over thirty years’ experience in corporate finance, capital markets, venture capital and start-ups. He is the co-founder and CFO of Voyomotive, a leading connected vehicle platform that provides advanced telematics data for the development of new products and services for fleets, service & repair, insurance, and smart cities. Between 2007 and 2012, Harald was one of the founding Partners of The Column Group, a San Francisco based venture capital firm investing in early stage biotechnology companies. Prior to The Column Group, he was a Partner of Three Crowns Capital, a Bermuda based investment-banking firm. He started his career at Goldman Sachs and Nomura Securities in London. Harald was born in Sweden and has a B.S. degree in Economics and Business from the Stockholm School of Economics. He lives in Sarasota, Florida.
Morten Meldal is a Danish chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2022, together with Carolyn Bertozzi and K. Barry Sharpless, for his work on click chemistry and biorthogonal chemistry. Morten Meldal was born on January 16, 1954, and obtained his Master degree in chemistry from the University of Copenhagen in 1980 and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the Technical University of Denmark in 1983. After working as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge, he joined the faculty of the University of Copenhagen. After 23 years from 1988 at Carlsberg Laboratory as Principal Scientist and Adjunct Professor he returned to University of Copenhagen in 2011 where he is currently Professor of Chemistry.
Meldal’s research has focused on the development of new chemical reactions that are highly selective and efficient, particularly in the context of biomolecular systems. His work on click chemistry has had a significant impact on the fields of chemical biology and medicinal chemistry, while his contributions to the development of biorthogonal chemistry have been recognized as groundbreaking.
Meldal has also made significant contributions to the development of new synthetic methods of the preparation of complex organic molecules and to the development of new materials for use in sustainable technologies. Meldal’s work has been recognize with numerous awards and honors, including the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2022 and the H.C. Ørsted Gold Medal. He has also been a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters since 2005, a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States since 2014 and member of UK’s Royal Chemical Society since 2023.
Thomas completed his undergraduate studies at Stockholm University and received his PhD from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, in 1991. After postdoctoral work at the Salk Institute in San Diego, California, Thomas established his independent research as an assistant professor at the Karolinska Institutet where he currently holds a full professorship at the department of Cell and Molecular Biology. Thomas is interested in the development of the central nervous system and in regenerative medicine. His lab has discovered novel mechanisms influencing the development and survival of mesencephalic dopamine neurons, cells that degenerate in Parkinson’s disease. Thomas received the Eric K. Fernström prize to young investigators in 1997, the Göran Gustafsson prize in Molecular Biology in 1999, Hilda and Alfred Eriksson’s prize in 2016, and he received the Torsten Söderberg Academy Professorship in medicine in 2017. He is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization since 2003, a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences since 2008 and a member of the Nobel Assembly since 2006. He became a co-opted member of the Nobel Committee at Karolinska Institutet 2008, a full member in 2012, and was elected Secretary General in 2016.