Why Attend
The Onco Cell Therapy Summit (OCTS), is an event that brings the industry together to share novel research, manufacturing techniques, and regulatory best practice. Each session of OCTS 2021 is dedicated to the process of translating R&D into commercially viable oncological therapies.
OCTS brings together the key decision-makers for T cell-based therapies as well those interest in harnessing alternative cell therapies in cancer treatments including macrophages and NK.
As well as increasing the efficacy of cell therapies, the other pillar of research is into driving a more affordable therapy. The other tracks will delve into best practices in the logistics and manufacturing of immuno-oncological cell therapies.
Each day of the summit will break down the key challenges in major topics within R&D and the Vein to Vein process.
Our 2020 Speakers

Carl June

Adlai Goldberg
Keenly focused on capturing opportunities and managing impacts created by the digital megatrend for the life sciences clients.
As EY Global Life Sciences Digital, Social and Commercial Innovation Leader, Adlai is focused on developing the necessary digital infrastructure to support emerging, next-generation forms of individualized therapies to tackle cancer and rare diseases.
Having a keen interest in different cultures, he has chosen to spend his career living and working around the world in many markets including Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ukraine, Russia and Switzerland.
With more than 28 years of professional experience in media, communications and consulting to his credit, Adlai helped establish EY global social media services and analytics hub. Additionally, he has also helped launch the world’s first interactive television platform in Hong Kong.
Adlai earned an MBA in Marketing and Real Estate from Southern Methodist University and a BS in Accounting from Metropolitan State College. How Adlai is building a better working world “I have been blessed with two opportunities to make important contributions to this world. First, I helped directly support the reconstruction and rehabilitation of communities affected by the tsunami in 2004 that hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
For three years, I worked with donors and helped nongovernmental organizations manage their financial resources in order to provide the greatest support possible. I also design and help manage a tsunami commemoration program on behalf of the Republic of Indonesia.
Second, I helped design the necessary digital infrastructure needed to support emerging individualized therapies that may, one day, help cure cancer and rare diseases.”

Knut Niss
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.

Peter Emtage
Dr. Emtage currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer at Cell Design Labs, Inc. (CDL). Prior to joining CDL, he was Vice President of Synthetic Immunology at Intrexon Corporation and was Vice President of Immune Mediated Therapy in the Oncology Innovative Medicines group at Medimmune. At Medimmune, Dr. Emtage designed and implemented a comprehensive immune therapy cancer strategy. He has over sixteen years of biologics development experience in the fields of oncology, autoimmunity, infectious diseases, and inflammation. Dr. Emtage holds a B.S. and M.S. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Guelph and received his Ph.D. in Molecular Virology, Immunology and Inflammation at McMaster University. At the beginning of his career, he also was a post-doctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health and held roles at Aventis Pasteur and Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Christina Coughlin

Caron Jacobson

Orlando Serani
As of May 2018, Orlando leads the program strategy for the recently announced Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cells therapeutic area. This includes digital strategies, supply chain network design, and supply chain capability development for this therapy platform, currently targeted as a last line of defense for multiple myeloma.
Previously, Orlando was Vice President, Information Technology, Customer and Logistics Services: the logistics and customer services organization which serves all Johnson & Johnson businesses globally. Additionally, he also led the technology organization of the Consumer Medical Devices supply chain, including diabetes, contact lenses, and vision surgery products and services.
Orlando began his career with the Johnson & Johnson Consumer business in Italy in 1988. After a Foreign Service National assignment with the United States Information Agency in Rome, Italy from 1990 until 1992, he rejoined Johnson & Johnson’s Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, where he held diverse positions in R&D, Sales and Marketing, and IT. In 2010, as part of the announcement of the Johnson & Johnson enterprise supply chain, he led the development of strategies to further establish and create new business services including safe and secure supply chain (i.e. anti-counterfeit, serialization, track and trace), enterprise-wide internal and external technology standards (enterprise master data, GS1, UDI, RFID), and new channel management strategies (ecommerce, demand sensing, distribution and transportation optimization).
Orlando holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University. He has been actively involved in several industry forums focused to the development and adoption of industry standards, including the development and adoption of the ISBT-128 transfusion medicine, including current membership in the US GS1 technical advisory group. He is a member of the program advisory board for the graduate supply chain program of Fairleigh Dickinson University, Silberman College of Business. He is an active speaker for the South Asian Professional Network Association (SAPNA) and Hispanic Organization for Leadership and Achievement (HOLA) enterprise groups, and a sponsor for the African American Leadership Council (AALC). He is active in his community, especially on activities focused on raising awareness of social and health issues.

Sarah Dye
As Vice President of Oncology and Specialty Pharmaceuticals with Optum’s Medical Benefit Management division, Sarah has responsibility for a comprehensive solution set that includes the Cancer and Specialty Guidance Programs. Sarah is passionate about these complicated conditions and how Optum can help ensure consumers receive quality care and support services to help them navigate a complicated system.
Sarah joined UnitedHealth Group in 2003 and held several other roles including leading Operations and Affordability with Optum International where she focused entirely on the Brazil health care market. Prior to Optum International, Sarah was Principal at UnitedHealth Group Ventures where she analyzed the market to identify new investment opportunities designed to create disruptive, positive change in the health care system.
Across her roles, Sarah uses her engineering training to perform root cause analysis to identify systemic issues in the health care and ultimately design new products to address these issues. She successfully developed and launched new products in oncology, women’s health and orthopedics.
Sarah holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Iowa State University.

Dr. Matthew Spear

Peggy Sotiropoulou

Shirley O'Dea

David C. Rhew, MD
Dr. David C. Rhew is the Global Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Vice-President (VP) of Healthcare for Microsoft. He is the Chairman of the Health and Fitness Technology Division for the Consumer Technology Association and serves on CTA’s Board of Industry Leaders. He co-holds six U.S. technology patents that enable authoring, mapping, and integration of clinical decision support into the electronic health record. David is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Dr. Rhew received his Bachelors of Science degrees in computer science and cellular molecular biology from the University of Michigan. He received his MD degree from Northwestern University and completed internal medicine residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He completed fellowships in health services research at Cedars-Sinai and infectious diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles.
He has served as CMO and VP for Samsung; Senior Vice-President and CMO at Zynx Health Incorporated; clinician/researcher in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System; and Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Rhew has served on the National Quality Forum’s (NQF) Executive Committee for Consensus Standards and Approval.

Neehar Bhatia
Neehar Bhatia, Ph.D. is Associate Director of Process Development and Manufacturing at Laboratory of Cell and Gene Medicine (LCGM), Stanford University. Dr. Bhatia received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Central Drug Research Institute, India. Dr. Bhatia is responsible for development and manufacturing of cGMP compliant cell and gene therapy products at LCGM. Dr. Bhatia oversees manufacturing for multiple projects such as CD19/CD22 bi-specific CAR-T and other T cell based therapies, CD34 HSPC transplant and manufacturing of AAV6 for gene correction in HSPC. Dr. Bhatia has lead multiple projects which include banking of ESCs, iPSCs, MSCs and iPSC derived differentiated cells, development of GMP process for translational projects and manufacturing cell therapies for Phase I/II clinical trials. Dr. Bhatia has also lead efforts in quest for serum-free chemically defined culture medium for MSCs and development of platform technology for AAV production. Dr. Bhatia’s focus is on development of cGMP compliant manufacturing process for “bench to bedside” cell and gene therapies.

Fred Koller, Ph.D.

Christine E. Brown

Steven Feldman
Dr. Steven A. Feldman was a Staff Scientist and Director of the Vector Production Facility at Surgery Branch, NCI for the past twelve years. Dr. Feldman’s group was responsible for the development, characterization, and manufacturing of the viral vectors used in gene therapy clinical trials at the Surgery Branch. Recently, Dr. Feldman joined the Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy as Director of Manufacturing and Process Science where he will take a lead role in the development and manufacture of viral vectors and novel cell therapies for the treatment of cancer.

Bob Valamehr, PhD MBA,

Seshu Tyagarajan

Ali Mohamed

Paul Lammers

Steve Lynum

Professor David Miklos

Dr. Leonard Lichtenfeld

John T. Elliott

Andrew Spiegal

Fabio Fachin

Pascal Touchon

Paul Rennert

Steve Shamah

Bryan Choi, M.D.

Ran Reshef

Haro Hartounian

Jeffrey Miller

James Trager

Alex Franzusoff

Roman Yelensky

Marcelo Pasquini

Matthew Hewitt

Jennifer Malin

Friedrich Graf Finckenstein

Alice Brown

Zonghai Li

Stefan Wildt

Hans Klingemann

Dr Robert Hariri

Dan Shoemaker

Robert Hofmeister

Prof. Alan Trounson

David Martin

Hans Brok

Dr. Maria Fardis
Dr. Maria Fardis joined Iovance Biotherapeutics as President and Chief Executive Officer and was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2016. Since joining, the Company has been transformed from an early-stage development company to a company with multiple late-stage programs involving lifileucel and LN-145 for treatment of multiple solid tumors. Dr. Fardis served as the Chief Operating Officer of Acerta Pharma B.V., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, from January 2015 to March 2016, where she worked on the development of Calquence® until the company’s acquisition by AstraZeneca. From 2011 to 2014, she worked at Pharmacyclics, Inc., where she was a key contributor in the creation of a broad clinical program leading to global approvals for Imbruvica® in multiple hematologic malignancies, and where she served as Chief of Oncology Operations and Alliances. Prior to joining Pharmacyclics, from August 2001 to April 2011, Dr. Fardis held increasingly senior positions in Medicinal Chemistry and the project and portfolio management department at Gilead Sciences, Inc., where she was involved with multiple therapeutic areas including antivirals, oncology, and cardiovascular therapeutics and worked on the development and life cycle management of Letairis®. Dr. Fardis received her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and her B.S. summa cum laude, in chemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Fardis holds an M.B.A., with highest honors, from Golden Gate University.
TESTIMONIALS
WHO WILL BE THERE
Network with industry experts from:
- Big pharma and biotech
- Cell Therapy Academics and clinicians
- Process standardisation - technology/services
- Logistics companies - cell storage/transport
- Service providers - CRO’s, Consultants, Government
Past attendees include:
The Agenda
We are in the process of building the OCTS agenda for 2021 - formerly the CAR-T Congress. In the meantime, you can download the OCTS agenda from our virtual summit in July 2020 for a glimpse of what we were up to this year. Watch this space for the launch of the 2021 agenda, we look forward to having you back...
Download agenda
Become a Sponsor
Kisaco Research provides the much-needed platform on which industry executives can network, connect and learn from each other as well as meet potential industry partners.
Far from the typical ‘meet-and-greet’ exhibition experience, you – as a sponsor or exhibitor – will be positioned as a partner of the event with a focus on the benefits of your product and brand, rather than just a name on an exhibition list.
With our extensive marketing experience and strategy, your partnership with Kisaco Research will grant you a sponsorship package that is an extension and enhancement of your current marketing and branding efforts. We value your ROI and will work with you directly on your specific goals and targets – that’s why we take special care in finding the most relevant end-users to attend, so that your financial and resource investment is smartly allocated.
Find out more by calling us at +44 (0)20 3696 2920 or email us at [email protected].
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Book a Team of 3+ - Save an Additional 10% Off
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Pass Features:
- 2 Day conference pass
- Networking Sessions
- Lunch and Refreshments
Complimentary Articles and Content
About Kisaco Research
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