Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Ira Pastor

Dr. Tahmeed Ahmed, MD, PhD is Executive Director of the icddr,b ( https://www.icddrb.org/ - formerly known as the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh), an organization committed to solving public health problems facing low- and middle-income countries through innovative scientific research – including laboratory-based, clinical, epidemiological and health systems research. By developing, testing and assessing the implementation of interventions specifically designed for resource-poor settings, they aim to improve the health and wellbeing of people living in the world’s poorest nations. Dr. Ahmed has been working for the last three decades in simplifying the management of childhood malnutrition, childhood tuberculosis, and diarrheal diseases. He leads the BEED (Bangladesh Environmental Enteric Dysfunction) study that attempts to discover non-invasive biomarkers of environmental enteric dysfunction, an important cause of stunting in children. Together with Dr Jeffrey Gordon of Washington University in St. Louis he discovered microbiota directed complementary food (MDCF) - a novel intervention for childhood malnutrition. This discovery was highlighted by the prestigious journal Science as one of the scientific breakthroughs of 2019. He is continuing the research on MDCF with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Ahmed studied in St. Gregory’s High School and Notre Dame College, Dhaka and then obtained his medical degree from Mymensingh Medical College. He received residential training in Dhaka Children’s Hospital and subsequently studied at the University of Tsukuba in Japan for his PhD. He has recently been appointed the Executive Director of icddr,b where he has been working for the last three decades. As a member of the Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group of the WHO, Dr. Ahmed revised the global guidelines for management of childhood acute malnutrition. He advises the Global Task Force on Cholera Case Control (GTFCC) on case management of cholera in children. Dr Ahmed was awarded the Bangladesh Academy of Science - Dr Sultan Ahmed Choudhury Gold Medal for outstanding achievement in Medical Science in 2003. He received from the Honorable Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, the Islamic Bank Development Transformers’ Roadshow Award in 2018. Dr Ahmed works closely with the Ministry of Health of Bangladesh, WHO, UNICEF and the International Atomic Energy Agency in research, policy issues and training on nutrition. He has more than 400 papers published in international journals and books. Dr Ahmed was the President of the Commonwealth Association of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (CAPGAN), an association of professionals in Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition from the 54 Commonwealth nations. He is Professor of Public Health Nutrition of James P. Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Dhaka and also Affiliated Professor of School of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle. Dr Ahmed has recently been appointed Honorary Senior Fellow of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). Social Media - icddr,b - icddr,b Twitter - https://twitter.com/icddr_b/ icddr,b LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/icddrb/ 
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Ashley Kalinauskas is the Founder and CEO of Torigen Pharmaceuticals ( https://www.torigen.com/ ), a company dedicated to researching and developing novel immuno-oncology products and services specifically for the veterinary market, with a focus on autologous cancer vaccines. Torigen Pharmaceuticals is a start‑up that resulted from Ashley’s graduate thesis project at the University of Notre Dame, as she was working on her Masters in Engineering, Science and Technology Entrepreneurship in collaboration with Dr. Mark Suckow ( https://www.research.uky.edu/staff/mark-suckow ). Ashley also received an undergraduate degree in Veterinary Pathology and Pathobiology from University of Connecticut. 
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Professor Dr. Thomas Rademacher, MD, PhD, is CEO and Co-Founder of Emergex ( https://emergexvaccines.com/ ), a company that has developed a novel nanoparticle-based vaccine technology to deliver synthetic viral fragments via microneedles on a skin-adhesive patch. Emergex’s approach works on the principle of priming immune T-cells, opening the door for the development of universal vaccines against highly mutagenic viruses such as the seasonal flu and covid. T-cell priming offers a superior inoculation strategy over traditional vaccines, which rely on the body’s generation of antibodies and fail to keep up with seasonal mutations. A serial entrepreneur, Professor Rademacher also serves as Emeritus Professor of Molecular Medicine at University College London (UCL) and is widely considered one of the founders of biotech from the early 1980s (having been involved in many of it’s core disciplines – from recombinant proteins, to monoclonal antibodies, to glycobiology). Professor Rademacher has authored over 200 publications and 50 patents – 19 of which are in the nanomedicine field. In addition to being a world leader in nanomedicine, he is also an expert in fetal-maternal medicine, having produced 25 publications and filed 5 patents related to preeclampsia. Professor Rademacher was co-Founder of the field of Glycobiology and subsequent Glycobiology Institute in Oxford and co-founded Oxford GlycoSciences, the first of Oxford University’s biotech spinouts, which, in 1998, was listed on the London Stock Exchange and reached a market capitalization of £1.7 billion. After moving to UCL, Professor Rademacher founded several biotech spin-out companies, including Rodaris Pharmaceuticals Ltd. In 2000, Professor Rademacher entered into a collaboration with the Spanish Research Council and co-founded the first nanomedicine company, Midatech Ltd. Midatech floated on the AIM and NASDAQ stock exchanges in December 2015. 
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Dr. Mariângela Simão, MD, MPH is the Director-President of the All For Health Institute ( Instituto Todos pela Saúde - https://www.itps.org.br/ ), a non-profit organization based in São Paulo that focuses on outbreaks, epidemic and pandemic preparedness, in support of the Brazilian health system. Dr. Simão is also a Member of the Supervisory Board of the Access to Medicine Foundation ( https://accesstomedicinefoundation.org/our-team/mariangela-simao ), an organization working to stimulate and guide the pharmaceutical industry to do more for people living in low- and middle-income countries, and recently became a member of the Science & Technology Expert Group (STEG) of the G7 International Pandemic Preparedness Secretariat ( https://ippsecretariat.org/about-us/ ). Dr. Simão attended medical school in Brazil, with degrees in Pediatrics and Public Health, and received a MSc in Mother and Child Health at the University of London, United Kingdom, and she has worked in Brazil’s public health system since 1982, from the primary health care level to a series of managerial positions throughout the years. As a public health professional, at municipal, state and national levels, Dr. Simão played an active role in the decentralization of the national health system, acquiring an extensive experience in health system strengthening. She has also served on the boards of a number of organizations and government committees related to public health and HIV. Between 2006 and 2010, Dr. Simão worked for the Ministry of Health in Brazil as the Director of the Department of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS. She also worked in the UN Program for HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) as Director for Prevention, Gender, Community Mobilization and Human Rights for 7 years. Most recently, Dr. Simão was Assistant Director-General for Access to Medicines and Health Products at the WHO from 2017 to 2022. 
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Dr. Phyllis Ferrell, DrPH, MBA, is Chief Impact Officer for StartUp Health’s Alzheimer’s Moonshot ( https://www.startuphealth.com/alzheimers ), a new global initiative created to develop a collaborative innovation community alongside leading companies, research teams, and stakeholders, with a mission to accelerate progress in prevention, diagnosis, and management of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. With support from the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) and Gates Ventures, StartUp Health is looking to break down silos and foster meaningful collaboration between mission-aligned founders, funders, and partners. Dr. Ferrell also serves as Strategic Advisor, Davos Alzheimer's Collaborative ( https://www.davosalzheimerscollaborative.org/ ) which is building a global clinical trial network and technology platform that will link trial sites around the world. Prior to these roles, Dr. Ferrell served almost three decades at multiple roles at Eli Lilly including as Global Head External Engagement, Alzheimer's and Neurodegeneration, Chief Commercial Services Officer, and Vice President, Global Alzheimer’s Disease Platform Team Leader in Lilly BioMedicines, where her team were responsible for the late-stage development, global registration and launch of 4 late-stage assets including Solanezumab, Amyvid and AZD3293. Dr. Ferrell received a DrPH, Public Health from Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, an MBA in General Management and a certificate in Public Management from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and management from DePauw University. Dr. Ferrell was recognized with the Rising Star Award from the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association and the Indianapolis Star Top 40 Under 40. She serves as a member of the World Dementia Council, a steering committee member of the Milken Institute Center for Aging Alliance for Dementia Care and National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) Alzheimer’s Disease Index working groups, and a strategic reviewer for the Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Discovery Foundation Diagnostics Accelerator. She is also a member of the Indiana Chapter of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association; on the Boards of Directors for Alzheimer’s Research UK EDoN, Gates Ventures Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative, the Indiana Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, Stanford Associate Board of Governors, Indianapolis 500 Festival, and the Lebanon Area Boys & Girls Club. She is a founding member of Women Against Alzheimer’s and Women of Impact Boone County; co-chair of the Women’s Leadership Council; the alumna sponsor of the Women in Economics and Business Program at DePauw University; a member of the Washington C. DePauw Society; a Tocqueville donor to United Way; an active supporter of Boone County Special Olympics and the Boone County Community Foundation. 
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Dr. Doron Behar, MD, PhD is Founder & CEO of an end-to-end genetic platform company, Igentify ( https://www.igentify.com/ ), that provides a suite of digital tools designed to scale the provision of genomic medical services to more people worldwide, making it more accessible and actionable for clinicians, laboratories, and patients. Dr. Behar received his degrees from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. As an MD, he has dual specialization in Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine from Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel. Dr. Behar's research areas of interest are across the broad range of evolutionary genomics, ancestry, phylogenetics, and translational genomics. He has been the leading author and co-author of numerous research papers in these areas. Dr. Behar is the former Chief Scientific Officer of Gene-by-Gene Ltd., a commercial genetic testing company. His expertise covers various aspects of mass genotyping, including regulation, privacy, genetic analysis, quality assurance, and more. 
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