Dr. John Maher is a clinical immunologist and immunopathologist who leads the CAR Mechanics research group within King’s College London. His research group is focussed on the development of adoptive immunotherapy using CAR-engineered and gamma delta T cells. He is also chief scientific officer of a spin-out company named Leucid Bio. In addition, he is a consultant immunologist within King’s Health Partners and Eastbourne Hospital.

Saso Cemerski, Ph.D. joined MRL Boston in 2014 and has contributed to advancing Merck’s anti-LAG-3 antibody (MK-4280) into Ph1 clinical trial. He is invested in co-leading Merck’s MK-1454 program from target validation to Ph1 clinical trial entry. Saso is closely involved with other accelerated MRL preclinical programs targeting novel and emerging molecules critical for mounting strong immune anti-tumour responses. Saso obtained his Ph.D. in immunology in Toulouse, France. He did his postdoctoral training at Washington University in Saint Louis and worked at Xencor (Monrovia, CA) and BMS (Lawrenceville, NJ) prior to joining MRL.

Charles obtained his Ph.D. from the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR, London, UK) studying T-cell development and homeostasis. He then did a postdoc at Emory Vaccine Center (Emory University, Atlanta, GA), studying dendritic cell biology in the context of vaccination and disease. This work led to the discovery of a novel function for mTOR in regulation of antigen presenting cell metabolism and allergic inflammation in lung. More recently, Charles joined a newly formed immunooncology group at AstraZeneca (Cambridge, UK), where he serves as lead bioscientist on early-stage small molecule drug discovery programs. In addition, he is working to understand the consequence of mTORi treatment in the context of immunooncology therapies and outcomes.

Maria Groves is the laboratory head of the innovative Cancer Research UK (CRUK) – MedImmune Alliance Laboratory with a multi-disciplinary team of scientists from both CRUK and MedImmune at a CRUK funded facility. The laboratory utilises Medimmune’s antibody discovery protein engineering capabilities to discover new medicines for the treatment of cancer. This innovative alliance works with the oncology principaI investigator (PI) network throughout the UK and is now extending interactions into Europe. Maria leads the Alliance team to work with selected PI’s on projects to generate novel antibody diagnostics and therapeutics for cancer therapy. Maria is an industry recognised expert and leader in the field of ribosome display and protein engineering. She joined the company (Cambridge Antibody Technology/MedImmune Ltd.) in 2000 and established herself as a recognised scientific expert in ribosome display. She continued to broaden her skill base to include antibody phage display and engineering, and hybridoma technology. As a project leader, she has also successfully led antibody therapeutics from research phase into clinical trials.

Armin Sepp is the scientific leader and GSK associate fellow at GlaxoSmithKline. He received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and enzyme kinetics, ‘The Reaction Mechanism of Chemically Modified Acetylcholinesterase’ from Tartu University in Estonia, Soros Scholar at Oxford University and MRC Immunochemistry Unit with Dr Alex Law, working on the chemical reactivity of complement factor C4. He has worked as a scientist at Gendaq Ltd, MRC LMB spinoff - protein engineering of Zn-finger proteins; senior scientist at Domantis Ltd, MRC LMB spinoff - protein engineering of domain antibodies using emulsion-based libraries; scientific investigator at GlaxoSmithKline, after acquisition of Domantis by GSK, working on domain antibody engineering but increasingly looking towards pharmacokinetics; and as a senior scientific investigator at GlaxoSmithKline, focusing on physiologically-based pharmacokinetics of biologics. He is now scientific leader and GSK associate fellow at GlaxoSmithKline.

Robert Jabulowsky has more than 9 years of experience in academic translational cancer research and industrial pharmaceutical development. Dr. Jabulowsky joined BioNTech AG (Mainz, Germany) in 2012. As senior project manager, he is responsible for the management and translation of innovative therapeutic concepts into clinical testing. Founded in 2008, BioNTech AG is an immunotherapy leader with bench-to-market capabilities, developing truly personalised, well-tolerated and potent treatments for cancer and other diseases. Established by clinicians and scientists BioNTech is pioneering disruptive technologies ranging from individualised mRNA based medicines through innovative chimeric antigen receptors /T-cell receptor-based products and novel antibody checkpoint immunomodulators. Robert Jabulowsky holds a diploma in biology and a Ph.D. in pharmacy from the University of Frankfurt, Germany.

Dr. Kandeepan Ganeshalingam received his medical degree from the University of Aberdeen and a Master of Science Degree from the Imperial College School of Medicine, University of London. He was also the Faraday Research fellow at the National Heart and Lung Institute, UK. Following a 10 year career as a physician in the National Health Service Hospitals, UK, he joined the oncology product development team at Roche in 2007. In this role, he played a significant rolein product development with several successful submissions to EMA and FDA. In 2010, he moved to Vifor Pharma, Switzerland to become the global head ofmedical and clinical drug safety, where he played a leadership role in clinical development, regulatory submissions and safety risk management. In 2012, hereturned to Roche Product Development Medical Affairs as senior medical director, in immunology and was subsequently promoted to group medical director in oncology, where he led the global medical team responsible for multiple haematology/oncology products. In this role, he was instrumental in building clinical trial collaborations with academic groups and external pharmaceutical companies. In 2016, he joined Merck Sharp Dohme as the executive director, oncology therapeutic area head, European clinical development.

Patricia Graef is a research scientist at Juno Therapeutics GmbH with a main focus on the processing of T-cells for adoptive cellular therapy. Prior to her three years at Juno and former Stage Cell Therapeutics, she received her Ph.D. in experimental medicine and immunology from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) for deciphering the stem cell-like properties of T-cells. She graduated in biochemistry with high extinction and was honoured from the TUM with the Jürgen Manchot study award.

Dr. rer. nat. Jennifer Altomonte is a research group leader in the Klinik und Poliklinik für Innere Medizin II at the Klinikum rechts der Isar in Munich, Germany. After completing her bachelor’s degree in microbiology at the Pennsylvania State University in the U.S.A, she carried out research work at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, where she first learned the basics of viral engineering and gene transfer in the context of gene therapy as a tool for elucidating the molecular pathogenesis of diabetes. She then went on to apply this knowledge to the field of oncology within the same research institute and began work on engineering oncolytic viruses to generate novel therapeutics with enhanced safety and efficacy over conventional cancer drugs. In parallel, she completed her master’s degree in forensic science at the City University of New York. She has since carried out her doctoral studies at the Technical University of Munich, during which time, she continued her work on oncolytic viruses and cultivated her passion for viral engineering and translational research. She aims to advance her scientific career further in this cutting-edge field and ultimately develop an improved oncolytic viral product for clinical translation as a novel immunotherapeutic for the treatment of cancers with limited treatment options. Dr. Altomon- te’s research is highlighted in numerous original research articles and scientific reviews in peer-reviewed journals, as well as several filed patent applications. In addition to her research goals, she enjoys mentoring young scientists and clinicians and motivating them to become creative, independent thinkers who can make their own contributions to the scientific community. She enjoys continuously expanding her growing networks and participating in multidirectional collaborations with international researchers working toward a common aim.

Matthias Miller started to work as a clinical project manager for the BioNTech AG in August 2014. Here, he is involved in the management of the first-in-human clinical trial utilising poly-epitopic RNA-vaccines targeting mutation-derived neoantigens. The clinical development of this so-called IVAC®-approach and the implementation of novel technologies into the process constitute his main area of work. Before he started his work at the BioNTech, he acquired his Ph.D. at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, where he also performed postdoctoral work in the Innate Immunity research group. During his time at the DKFZ, he investigated adaptive features of innate immune cells in the context of tumour immunotherapies. Matthias Miller studied biochemistry at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen and wrote his diploma thesis at the department of immunology focusing on the identification of T-cell epitopes from malignant melanoma.

Anja Urbank, RT is the associate director, scientific and medical services with PAREXEL Medical Imaging and Patient Technology Solutions. She is located in Berlin, Germany. Throughout her 12 year career with PAREXEL she has supported medical and scientific oncology imaging studies in several indications and with multiple assessment criteria, including RECIST, irRECIST, irRC, WHO, IWG criteria. Ms. Urbank is a certified radiology technician (RT) with experience in multiple imaging modalities including conventional radiology, CT, MRI and x-ray, nuclear medicine and radiation therapy. She has developed >300 study-specific imaging documents such as: imaging charters and guidelines for various indications and review criteria, and manages independent reads and readers. Ms. Urbank has published posters, articles in several journals and has presented at conferences with a focus on imaging in clinical trials.

Dr. Roger R. Beerli, Ph.D. (CSO, NBE-Therapeutics AG) has over 15 years of experience in discovery, engineering, and preclinical development of therapeutic antibodies. Previously, he has led R&D activities related to therapeutic antibody development at Cytos, Switzerland, and later at Intercell, Austria. Roger is a renowned expert in mammalian cell-based antibody expression and display for the discovery of fully human therapeutic antibodies. He was the main architect and inventor of Cytos’ eMAB® mammalian cell antibody development platform, which, under Roger’s leadership, was successfully used for the development of fully human therapeutic antibody candidates against numerous targets, including Nicotine and Influenza A, both at Cytos, and also later at Intercell, after the platform had been acquired by Intercell. Roger Beerli studied molecular biology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and obtained his Ph.D. for work at the Novartis-associated Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel, Switzerland, for research on ErbB receptor tyrosine kinases. Afterwards, he performed postdoctoral research at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, USA, in the lab of Prof. Dr. Carlos F. Barbas III. Here, he specialised in phage display for protein and antibody engineering and was among the first to demonstrate artificial regulation of endogenous genes using engineered transcription factors. Roger Beerli has published widely in the areas of protein discovery, protein engineering, and antibody development, and he is co-inventor on numerous patents and patent applications.

Erin joined Personalis as a Field Application Scientist in 2013 with research experience in the areas of molecular biology, genetics, and biotechnology. As the Senior Field Applications Manager, Erin’s team has the responsibility for providing both pre and post-sale technical support for the Personalis ACE Cancer Portfolio. She completed her postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) investigating candidate susceptibility genes for major psychiatric illnesses. Erin received her Ph.D. from the Ohio State University in Integrated Biomedical Science as a Presidential Fellow.