Bernd Kullmann is the Head of Supply Chain at Sigilon Therapeutics, Inc. Bernd is responsible for leading Sigilon’s Supply Chain organization including oversight of demand forecasting, supply planning, external manufacturing, and management of distribution activities. Prior to joining Sigilon, Bernd held Head of Supply Chain positions at BeiGene, Ltd. and Medivation, Inc., where he built global Clinical and Commercial supply networks, and held various supply chain roles at Biogen, Inc. Bernd started his career in Turnaround Consulting at KPMG and Mesirow Financial Consulting working with companies to diagnose and address operational causes of underperformance.

Bernd earned his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Norwich University.

Dr. Bruce Levine, Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy, is the Founding Director of the Clinical Cell and Vaccine Production Facility (CVPF) in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. He received a B.A. (Biology) from Penn and a Ph.D. in Immunology and Infectious Diseases from Johns Hopkins.

First-in-human adoptive immunotherapy trials include the first use of a lentiviral vector, the first infusions of gene edited cells, and the first use of lentivirally-modified cells to treat cancer. Dr. Levine has overseen the production, testing and release of 3,000 cellular products administered to >1,200 patients in clinical trials since 1996. He is co-inventor of the first FDA approved gene therapy (Kymriah), chimeric antigen receptor T cells for leukemia and lymphoma, licensed to Novartis.

Dr. Levine is co-inventor on 27 issued US patents and co-author of >180 manuscripts and book chapters with a Google Scholar citation h-index of 84. He is a Co-Founder of Tmunity Therapeutics, a spinout of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Levine is a recipient of the William Osler Patient Oriented Research Award, the Wallace H. Coulter Award for Healthcare Innovation, serves as President Elect of the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy and serves on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine. He has written for Scientific American and Wired and has been interviewed by the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, Time Magazine, National Geographic, Bloomberg, Forbes, BBC, and other international media outlets.

Dr. Francesco Curcio, Medical Degree, University of Napoli Medical School and Specialty Degree in “Biologia Clinica (Clinical Biology) is Full Professor of Clinical Pathology at Dipartimento di Area Medica, Università di Udine – School of Medicine.

Areas of research:
Pathophysiology of diabetes: effects of insulin on splancnic and peripheral glucose metabolism; effects of non-enzymatic glycosylation on the functions of several plasma proteins in diabetic patients and in opiate addicts and regulatory effects by drugs; effects of high glucose-generated oxidative stress on cardiovascular complications of diabetes.

Tissue Engineering: intra- and inter- specific hybridizations; obtainment, characterization and utilization of normal, continuous cell strains expressing tissue-specific functions in vitro, such as a rat parathyroid epithelial cell line, a rat parathyroid endothelial cell line, a bovine bone endothelial cell line and rat olfactory neuron cell lines; production of monoclonal antibodies to tissue specific proteins; in vitro tissue reconstruction; microenvironmental influence on the expression of tissue specific functions in culture; establishments of in vitro conditions to culture various human differentiated cells (Islet, liver, thyroid, parathyroid, parotid, muscle, endothelial and bone cells).
Design, development, test and use of different models of bioreactors for automated cell culture.

Jim Faulkner is a venture partner at ATP. A highly experienced biopharmaceutical development leader with specialist skills in gene and cell therapy, he has been significantly involved in taking more than 25 different medicines into the clinic, including multiple CAR-T assets. Prior to ATP, Jim headed Product Delivery for Autolus Ltd, a clinical-stage CAR-T company spun out of University College London. Prior to that, Jim held various leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline, including overseeing the chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) development and supply for their Rare Diseases Unit. Jim has a Degree in Biotechnology and completed his PhD in Molecular Biology.

Dr. Niss has served as Chief Technology Officer since March 2018. Dr. Niss joined Mustang in March 2017 as Vice President of Operations, where he initiated and oversees the establishment of Mustang’s cell therapy manufacturing facility. Prior to Mustang, Dr. Niss was Cell Therapy Asset Leader at Biogen, where he oversaw CMC-related activities for gene-edited hematopoietic stem cell and lentiviral gene therapy programs for sickle cell disease and hemophilia, respectively.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Niss was Senior Technical Project Leader at Novartis’ cell therapy manufacturing facility in Morris Plains, New Jersey, where he directed the transfer and implementation of the CTL019 process from Penn to Novartis. He also served as Senior R&D Program Manager at EMD Millipore, where he established processes for the large-scale expansion of adult and pluripotent stem cells.

Dr. Niss began his career in senior research positions in Pfizer’s Regenerative Medicine and Immunology groups. He holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Humboldt University of Berlin, and an M.S. in microbiology from the University of Göttingen in Germany. Dr. Niss completed his postdoctoral research at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

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Dr. Scott Olson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatric Surgery, Children’s Program in Regenerative Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Dr. Olson completed his doctorate in the lab of Dr. Darwin Prockop at Tulane University’s Center for Gene Therapy studying novel methods by which mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) can contribute to tissue repair. At University of California at Davis’s Health Sciences Institute for Regenerative Cures, Dr. Olson worked to apply MSC as a platform to develop new treatments for Huntington’s Disease. Dr. Olson joined the faculty of UT Health in September 2011 and has published over 40 papers on adult stem cell biology. At UTHealth, Dr. Olson works as a pre-clinical translational biologist in collaboration with clinicians, clinician-scientists, regulatory scientists, cell manufacturers, and a number of industry partners to advance various cell therapies from research labs to clinical trials.

Born in Lodi (Italy) 1972. MD degree at the University of Pavia in 1996. Post-graduate internship at the Vienna University (Austria). Residency in Hematology at the University of Ferrara. Post-Doctoral Associate at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis (USA, 2000-2003).

Currently, Associate Professor, Director of the Residency School of Medical Oncology, Director of the Division of Medical Oncology and of the Program of Cellular Therapy and Immuno-oncology at the University Hospital of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy).

Since 2005 he is heading the Laboratory of Cellular Therapies. Over 160 papers with more than 22000 citations, 12 patents, five book chapters published, three books published. 22 grants as principal investigator with 11 on competitive calls, 10 grants as co-investigator all on competitive calls, 11 grants from biotech industries for sub-contracting investigations with a total of 14,6 Mio € since 2004.

Founder of the university start-up Rigenerand raising 12,5 Mio € since 2009. Co-founder and coordinator of the Mirandola Science & Technology Park. 170 invited lectures as plenary speaker between national, international meetings and for University lectures, 14 peer reviewed oral communication and 31 posters presented in international meetings. Berlucchi Award for Research in Oncology (2012); “Fanfullino della Riconoscenza Premio Città Di Lodi” (2017); International Award Pico della Mirandola (2017). Referee and advisor for 16 research founding Bodies. He has been co-founder of the Forum of Italian Researcher on MSC (FIRST), board member of JACIE, WBMT and scientific advisor for the Italian Minister of Health.

He has been member of ISCT, ASH, ESCGT, IFATS, IPLASS. Consultant for the WHO INN for cellular therapies. He has been President of ISCT 2014-2016, now member Emeritus, Member of the Strategic Advisory Council and Chair of the ISCT Presidential task-force on unproven cell and gene therapies.

Michael O’Dwyer is an experienced Clinician Scientist with a strong track record in clinical and translational research in blood cancers and has been involved in the clinical drug development of many ground-breaking treatments. He is a Founder of ONK Therapeutics and has been the company’s CSO since its inception in 2015.

Michael is also a Professor of Hematology at the National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway. In recent years his main research focus has been on Multiple Myeloma where he is studying the immune microenvironment, the impact of glycosylation on cell trafficking and immune evasion and the genetic modification of Natural Killer (NK) cells to enable cell therapy for cancer.

He has approximately 100 peer reviewed publications and is listed as an inventor on more than 10 patents.

He is a member of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the European Hematology Association (EHA) Scientific Working Party on Immunotherapy of Hematologic Malignancies and the International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG).

Earlier in his career Michael was Assistant Professor at Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU), Portland, USA, where he worked on the development of imatinib.

Michael has an MD degree from NUI Galway and undertook training in Hematology in Ireland followed by a Fellowship in Hematology  and Medical Oncology at OHSU.

Niamh holds a BSc/PhD in Pharmacology from University College Dublin where her area of research was in the field of innate immunology. Since 2007, Niamh has been a  pharmaceutical assessor with the HPRA where she is responsible for quality assessment of biological medicinal products including ATMPs. Her work includes assessment of quality aspects of centralised product dossiers, scientific advice as well as clinical trials. Niamh has been the Irish alternate member of the EMA committee for advanced therapies (CAT) since 2016.

Nisha Durand is currently a Sr. Research Fellow at the Human Cell Therapy Lab within the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Mayo Clinic Florida. She has a Ph.D in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

At the Center for Regenerative Medicine, Nisha is responsible for translating research processes into the cGMP environment, developing processes and techniques in support of all phases of cellular product development, and Stem Cell Production in support of multiple phase I clinical trials.

In addition, she is also actively involved in the regulatory process with responsibility for generating pre-clinical safety and efficacy data and CMC development

Dr. Hanley is an assistant research professor of pediatrics and Director of the Cellular Therapy Laboratory at Children’s National Hospital. He oversees processing for standard of care stem cell transplantation as well as the development, manufacture, and testing of novel cell therapies for patients enrolled on clinical trials. Trained as an Immunologist, Dr. Hanley has an extensive background and interest in cellular therapy and is passionate about improving regulations for cellular therapy, training the next generation of cell therapists, and facilitating the translation of new therapeutics. Over the past 14 years he has helped to translate more than 20 cell therapy protocols – ranging from mesenchymal stromal cells to cord blood virus-specific T cells and tumor-associated antigen specific T cells – into the clinic.

Dr. Hanley is on the board of directors of the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT), is an active inspector, is chair of FACT’s education committee, serves on their accreditation committee and is also on the immune effector cell standards subcommittee. He serves on the editorial boards of the journals Cytotherapy and Molecular Therapy: Methods and Clinical Development. In 2017, along with Drs Catherine Bollard and Russell Cruz, he founded Mana Therapeutics, a biotech company aimed at educating immune cells and eliminating cancer. In his free time he enjoys playing soccer, cooking, and traveling.

Qasim Rafiq is an Associate Professor of Cell and Gene Therapy Bioprocess Engineering at University College London and Programme Director of a new MSc programme focused on the Manufacture and Commercialisation of Stem Cell and Gene Therapies. He is a multidisciplinary engineer working at the life science, engineering and commercial interfaces with a research focus on the bioprocessing, automation and biomanufacture of cell and gene-based therapies. He has a specific interest in addressing the large-scale manufacturing challenges and enhancing process and product understanding to enable the successful translation of therapeutics from the laboratory to the clinic.

Qasim is both a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and Chartered Scientist (CSci) and sits on multiple scientific and engineering committees including the UK Society for Cell Culture Biotechnology (ESACT-UK) where he is the Scientific Programme Lead, the IChemE Biochemical Engineering Subject Interest Group, British Standards Institute Biotechnology Committee and the BioIndustry Association’s Cell and Gene Therapy Advisory Committee.

He has won awards for his research and public engagement activities and in 2020 was recognised as one of the top 20 influential and inspirational individuals in Advanced Medicine by The Medicine Maker listed amongst Nobel Laureates, multi-national CEOs and leading scientists.

Dr. Roisin O’Cearbhaill, MB BCh BAO, MRCPI, MRCPUK, is the Clinical Director of the Solid Tumor Program, Cellular Therapeutics Center and Research Director of the Gynecologic Medical Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, with a joint faculty appointment at Weill Cornell Medical College. She is the Director, Patient and Family Centered Care Grant initiative and the Vice-Chair, Investigational New Drug/Device committee at MSKCC. She has extensive clinical and research experience in the treatment of gynecological cancers. Her research focuses on the development of novel targeted and cellular and immune-based approaches to improve outcomes for these cancers. She has been appointed to several international committees and is Chair, Developmental Therapeutics, NRG Oncology and serves on the Solid Tumor Task force for the Center for International Blood and Bone Marrow Transplant Research. She has received numerous awards for her work, including a Conquer Cancer Foundation Career Development Award, Young Investigator Award from the Kaleidoscope of Hope Foundation, Excellence in Research Award from MSKCC and Excellence in teaching award from Weill Cornell Medical College.

Shirley co-founded Avectas in 2012 and is the company’s CSO, in addition to serving on the Board of Directors. She is charged with evaluating, overseeing and implementing both the internal and external scientific programs.

With an accomplished scientific career in cell biology extending over 25 years, prior to co-founding Avectas Shirley completed research fellowships at University of Edinburgh Medical School and also served as a Principal Investigator for several industry collaborations.

Shirley has extensive experience in leading large scientific groups from her tenure as Associate Professor and PI at Maynooth University.