Panelists

ANDREW ADAMS

VP New Therapeutic Modalities, Eli Lilly

Dr. Andrew C. Adams serves as Vice President for Lilly’s New Therapeutic Modalities department.  In this role, Andrew is responsible for leading the discovery of new types of therapies, such as genetic medicines, at Lilly via both internal research and robust collaborations with external partners. 

In addition to this role, in 2020 Andrew also took on scientific leadership of Lilly’s COVID-19 neutralizing antibody projects, which are now in late stage clinical trials. This role has involved partnership inside and outside of Lilly’s walls, to deliver the first purpose made therapy for COVID-19 to the clinic in less than 3 months from its discovery. These novel approaches will allow access to previously undruggable targets across the breath of therapeutic areas at Lilly, as well as potentially opening up novel avenues of clinical investigation. 

Andrew holds a degree in biology and a doctorate in zoology from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Prior to joining Lilly in 2011, Andrew was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. Through his roles in early discovery, external innovation and as a leader of Lilly’s trailblazer teams Andrew is well recognized as an innovative and collaborative scientific leader.

MAURICE EXNER

VP R&D and Clinical Affairs, Hologic

Dr. Exner is currently the Vice President of Research and Development, Assay Development, and Clinical Affairs at Hologic, where he leads new product development efforts. Prior to Hologic, he led R&D and Clinical Affairs organizations at a number of diagnostic companies, most recently at Abbott Point of Care, and at Focus Diagnostics and Quest Diagnostics where he also served as a clinical laboratory director. He has been responsible for the development and launch of multiple FDA cleared diagnostic instruments and accompanying assays, and he holds numerous patents related to molecular diagnostic assays and systems. He has also worked extensively with government agencies to collaboratively develop new diagnostic platforms and assays.

Dr. Exner obtained a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and he completed his post-doctoral training at UCLA School of Medicine. He is also a board-certified Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology.

LUK VANDENBERGHE

Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Luk H. Vandenberghe who is the Grousbeck Family Chair in Gene Therapy at Mass Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School in Boston will share his experience working with biotech and pharmaceutical industry from his roles in the academic laboratory. Dr. Vandenberghe's work focuses on gene therapy; his research studies fundamental mechanisms of gene transfer, develops novel technologies to overcome translational hurdles, and builds therapeutic program toward the clinic. His work has led to several technologies that were licensed to various biopharma, including AAV9 which was used in one of the first approved gene therapy products. He further co-founded the non-profit Odylia and the biotech companies GenSight, Akouos, Affinia, and Albamunity.

PATRICK BOYLE

Head of Codebase, Ginkgo Bioworks

Patrick Boyle is the Head of Codebase at Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston-based synthetic biology company that makes and sells engineered organisms. The Codebase team leads Ginkgo's customer facing programs and develops the company's "Codebase" portfolio of reusable biological assets. Ginkgo's Codebase includes thousands of novel strains, enzymes, genetic parts, and diverse genetic repositories, including millions of engineered DNA sequences. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Patrick has been responsible for coordinating Ginkgo's COVID response programs, including a commitment of $25M to accelerate technical partnerships. This effort launched the Concentric by Ginkgo testing platform, which is providing workplace and classroom testing for COVID-19. It has also included numerous partnerships in therapeutics and vaccines, including a program to optimize the manufacturing of vaccine raw materials with Moderna.

Prior to Ginkgo, Patrick received his PhD from Harvard Medical School in 2012, developing synthetic biology applications in bacteria, yeast, and plants in the lab of Dr. Pamela Silver. He received an SB in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2006.

MAIKE SCHARP

Partner, Boston Consulting Group

Maike Scharp, MD, is a Medical Doctor and a Partner at BCG's Boston Office. She specializes in Health Care and Social Impact work and has experience in biopharma commercial and R&D, Global Health, Corporate Social Responsibility and non-for-profit strategy and organization including change management, and multi-stakeholder engagement.

Dr. Scharp joined the BCG Hamburg office in 2012 after an internship in 2010 and spent a year on a social impact leave of absence with the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Uganda working closely with the Ministry of Health and other development partners on strategies to reduce child mortality due to pneumonia.

Before joining BCG, Dr. Scharp worked as a radio-oncologist at the University Hospital in Heidelberg after studying medicine in Hamburg, Heidelberg and Lund with medical electives in China, Canada, the USA, France and Switzerland. She collected public health experience in Ecuador and Germany and conducted extensive experimental and clinical research in cancer genetics and radio-oncology.