1. science

Panelists for the 2015 MASS AWIS Alternative Careers in Science Speed Networking
Business Development/Finance
Laura Chess- does business development and marketing
consulting at Life Science Nation. In this role, she works
with early- to mid- stage life science companies to identify
the best fit investors and make the fundraising process more
efficient and effective. Laura previously worked as a project
manager at Epic, implementing the laboratory information
system for a leading healthcare organization. She started her
career as a lab tech while studying Biomedical Engineering
at the University of Rochester.
Consulting
Denise Aronson- is a pioneer in the life science health and
safety industry. Denise founded Safety Partners Inc. in 1992.
Since then, Denise and her team have implemented safety
programs for more than 275 top life science companies. Prior
to founding Safety Partners, Denise served as an
environmental, health, and safety manager at T Cell
Sciences, and managed a clinical prenatal diagnostics
laboratory. She began her career as a research associate at
Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, after receiving a
BS in Biochemistry from the University of New Hampshire.
Denise is a certified chemical hygiene officer through the
National Registry of Certified Chemists. She is active in
more than 20 professional societies and trade organizations,
and was a founding member of the New Hampshire
Bio/Medical Council, Preferred Provider Leads Group; the
Tom Vance, Life Sciences Connector Group; and the
Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, Life Sciences Leads
Group. She is a regular on the industry speaking circuit, a
member of the MassBio SEF Working Group, and an
American Chemical Society (ACS) Expert. Denise also
serves on the Advisory Board for the UMass Lowell
Department of Work Environment as well as the Boards of
The Bioscience Network and The Waldorf High School of
Massachusetts Bay. Safety Partners is a Certified WomanOwned Business, and has been named one of the 25 Best
Small Companies by Working Mother magazine.
Nicole Davis is currently a consultant at ClearView
Healthcare Partners, a leading life sciences strategy
consulting firm in Boston. Prior to joining ClearView in 2014,
Nicole earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from MIT where her
research focused on developing conducting polymer
membranes for photoelectrochemical devices. Prior to
graduate school, she gained experience in medicinal
chemistry at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research,
synthesizing experimental drug-candidates in their oncology
chemistry group. Originally hailing from California, Nicole
moved to Boston after completing a Bachelor’s of Science in
chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.
Entreprenuership
Elizabeth Higgins- founded GlycoSolutions, a CRO
specializing in carbohydrate analysis and protein
characterization of protein therapeutics, in 2001. Prior to
founding GlycoSolutions, Dr. Higgins was at Genzyme
where she set up and led the Glycobiology group that was
responsible for carbohydrate analysis of Genzyme’s protein
therapeutics. Dr. Higgins received her Ph.D. from the
University of Toronto. She also has an MBA from Boston
University.
Higher Education
Magdalena James-Pederson- is an associate professor
and Chair of the Biology Department at Stonehill College.
She teaches introductory biology, genetics, biochemistry,
molecular biology to science majors and an introductory
course on the science of biotechnology to non-science
majors. Another part of her duties include mentoring
undergraduates who are interested in research projects
related to the study of wood degrading enzymes in the
honey mushroom, Armillaria gallica. As chair, she manages
the department’s course offerings and schedules, the faculty
hirings, yearly evaluations and the budget. Before Stonehill,
Magda taught general chemistry labs and biochemistry for a
few years at East Carolina University as a visiting assistant
professor. She then accepted a one-year sabbatical
replacement position in the chemistry department at
Providence College. Magda received her Ph.D. in
biochemistry and molecular biology from Penn State
University.
Intellectual Property/Patent Law
Ariana Harris-received her Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine
from Boston University School of Medicine after earning a
B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Rhode Island.
She currently works at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough,
LLP as a Technical Specialist in the Biotechnology group.
She works with several partners and associates in drafting
and prosecuting patent applications, and recently passed the
Patent Bar. Although she is new to the IP world, she is
enjoying learning about patent law and new technologies.
She plans on attending law school in the fall.
Chelsea Loughran- assists the firm in the areas of
trademark, trade dress, patent, and copyright litigation and
specializes in patent litigation and post-grant matters in the
life sciences, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical
device fields. In her practice, Chelsea handles a wide array of
civil litigation tasks from pre-complaint diligence, discovery,
depositions, claim construction briefing and argument,
summary judgment, alternative dispute resolution
negotiations, trial preparation, interference practice,
reexamination, post-trial motions, and appellate motions.
Steve Bossone-joined Alnylam 2010 from Shire HGT with
over 15 years of experience in the biotech industry. As a
Senior Patent Attorney at Shire he provided licensing,
acquisition and litigation support as well as strategic input
into the life cycle management of several marketed
products. Steve began his career at Millennium
Pharmaceuticals as a Scientist in the oncology group and
then at Millennium Biotherapeutics where he headed the
transcript profiling group to support drug discovery
initiatives. He transitioned to the Intellectual Property field
with positions of increasing authority at Millennium,
ToleRx, Serono and Shire. He received his PhD in Molecular
Pathology from the lab of Dr. Kenneth Marcu at SUNY
Stony Brook (NY) and subsequently worked as a Research
Fellow in Medicine in the lab of Dr. Vikas Sukhatme at
Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Hospital. Steve
received his JD from Suffolk University School of Law.
successful launches (Incivek and Kalydeco). From 2001 to
2009 he had Strategy and Finance focused roles in life
science industries at director level with increasing
responsibility and scope. Before that he had ten years of
research and development experience.
Lauren Celano- is the Co-founder and CEO of Propel
Deborah was a senior associate at Third Rock Ventures
where she was involved in the formation and development
of start-up companies, including Editas Medicine and
Blueprint Medicines. Deborah was also a member of their
partner development team, where she helped build and
maintain strong relationships with pharma and biotech
industry partners. Prior to joining Third Rock Ventures,
Deborah had a research lab in the Center for Proteomic
Chemistry at the Novartis Institutes of Biomedical research,
focused on structural biology and structure-based drug
design in multiple early drug discovery programs. Before
joining Novartis, she was a Damon-Runyon Cancer
Research post-doctoral fellow at The Scripps Research
Institute with Professor Ian Wilson. Deborah obtained her
Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biophysics in Dr.
Wayne Hendrickson's Laboratory at Columbia University
and holds an M.B.A. from Northeastern University.
Careers, a life science search and career development firm
focused on connecting talented individuals with
entrepreneurial innovative life sciences companies. Lauren
is very passionate about working with individuals with
strong scientific backgrounds to find exciting growth
opportunities in the life sciences industry. Before Propel, she
spent about 10 years in the life sciences industry working
with companies to advance drug molecules through SNBL
USA, Aptuit, Quintiles, and Absorption Systems. She has a
B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Gettysburg
College and an MBA with a focus in the health sector and
entrepreneurship from Boston University. Lauren is on the
Board of MassBioEd, the Advisory Board of the Boston
University School of Public Health Pharmaceuticals
Program, and the Advisory board for Endicott College
Boston. She also serves on the programming committee of
the Capital Network.
Industry
Amy Lambert-is a senior toxicologist (associate director)
with leadership experience within global project teams and
10+ years expertise in safety assessment in various phases of
development: research, pre-development, development and
post-IND (investigative new drug) stage. She is a global
project team member on several small molecule kinase
inhibitors for oncology indications, and an effective leader of
the preclinical safety assessment team assigned to each
project, including pathology and investigative safety for
issue resolution and deeper understanding of the safety
profile of candidate molecules. On research teams, she is
responsible for moving projects forward, assisting chemists
in lead selection, based on overall best strategy risk
mitigation, or terminating candidates that lack a good riskbenefit profile and developability. On global teams, she
works closely with medical safety experts to synthesize
nonclinical and clinical sections of product labels as well as
responses to health authority (e.g., FDA) questions. She also
reviews regulatory documents submitted by toxicology
colleagues. Amy’s previous experience included a postdoctoral fellowship at the Chemical Industry Institute of
Toxicology (CIIT), at a small contract research organization
(CRO) and at small biotechnology companies.
Claus C Becker- Has twenty years of life science
experience covering much of the pharma value-chain
including, conception of ideas for novel medicines,
demonstration of proof of concept, clinical trials,
manufacturing (pilot and full scale), portfolio & business
planning and since 2009 Access and Reimbursement. He is
currently at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals in charge of Access
and Value with focus on maximizing profitable access and
reimbursement globally. He spent four years at Vertex
working on HEOR, Value and Access issues for two very
Deborah Palestrant-Prior to joining Editas Medicine,
Vince Panzano-­‐ is Director of Quality Assurance and
Principal Scientist at Allurion Technologies: a clinical-stage,
medical device start-up founded in 2009 with the goal to
develop a non-invasive medical device to treat obesity.
Allurion’s flagship product — the Elipse™ — is a
procedureless gastric balloon. It works by filling the
stomach, slowing digestion, and teaching portion control.
Patients swallow it during a brief office visit and – months
later – pass it into the toilet. Vince joined Allurion in 2013
and has enjoyed the variety and learning opportunity
provided by a start-up environment. As Director of Quality
Assurance, Vince has led development of Allurion's quality
system which supports manufacturing of the Elipse device
and regulatory compliance. As Principal Scientist, Vince has
contributed to various clinical, bench, and in vitro
evaluations of the Elipse, including biocompatibility testing
and clinical trial design. Working at a start-up has also
required that Vince participate in a breadth of other
activities, including: product design and development,
inventory management, regulatory affairs, and fundraising.
Prior to joining Allurion, Vince earned his Ph.D. in
Neuroscience from Brandeis University where his research
focused on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of
gustation in Drosophila. Prior to earning his Ph.D., he was
an operations supervisor with McMaster-Carr Supply
Company before moving into a research associate role at the
Harvard School of Public Health. Vince earned a B.A. in
Cognitive Science from Yale University in 2004.
Non-profit/Policy
Bina Venkataraman- is Director of Global Policy
Initiatives of the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard, an Oped Columnist at the Boston Globe, and a Lecturer at MIT.
She is the former senior advisor for climate change
innovation in the Executive Office of President Obama,
where she led efforts to stimulate entrepreneurship and
innovation to address climate change. During the first term
of the Obama Administration, she served as senior advisor
to the co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on
Science and Technology. She was previously a journalist at
the New York Times and Boston Globe covering science, the
environment, and public health. Bina is an alumna of
Harvard's Kennedy School and Brown University, where she
now serves on the University President's Leadership
Council. She has worked in Vietnam, Alaska, India, and
Mexico and is learning to fly fish and surf.
Theo Hatzipetros- is an in vivo pharmacologist in ALS
TDI who specializes in the field of neurodegeneration. He
has extensive experience in animal research including the
development of animal models of neurological diseases,
PK/PD, toxicity and drug efficacy studies. Prior to joining
ALS TDI, Theo worked on drug discovery for the treatment
of Parkinson's Disease at FoldRx Pharmaceuticals. At ALS
TDI, Theo's efforts are focused on the development of novel
animal models of ALS and in evaluating therapeutic
strategies for the treatment of the disease. Theo, originally
from Cyprus, received his doctorate in pharmacology from
Boston University School of Medicine for his thesis work on
the neurotoxic effects of the psychostimulant
methamphetamine
Publishing
Mary Preap- has worked in Scientific, Technical, and
Medical Publishing (STM) since 2007 and has expertise in
both journal and book publishing. She is dedicated to
collaborating with authors and editors to create quality
content in order to further valuable research within the
global STM community, particularly those working in the
field of Plant Science. She cares about issues related to
diversity within the Science, Technical, Engineering, and
Medical (STEM) fields and works to promote best practices
in addressing them. She also enjoys interacting with early
career researchers to learn more about their experiences and
career development needs. Prior to joining Elsevier, she was
a Publishing Assistant at Nature Publishing Group.
Cindy Lu- is a Scientific Editor at Cell. She grew up in
northern California and majored in Genetics and French as
an undergrad at UC Berkeley, doing her thesis work in
Kathryn Anderson’s lab. After working for a couple years as
a tech at UCSF, she managed to drag herself away from
lovely San Francisco to start grad school at Harvard. There,
she settled in Liz Robertson’s lab in the MCB department,
focusing her studies on developmental biology. She then
hopped across the river to Harvard Medical School for a
post-doc with Lisa Goodrich in the Neurobiology
department, after which she joined the Cell editorial team in
July 2014. She lives in Jamaica Plain with her dog Ella.
Recruiting
Annie Edminster- is a recruiter at StratAcuity, an agency
that is hired by a select group of bio-pharmaceutical
companies to identify, attract and hire world-class scientists.
These scientists are shaping the future of therapies for
debilitating and deadly human diseases. Annie has been
successful in understanding her candidates’ career goals and
ambitions in order to match them with outstanding career
opportunities that aren’t mentioned on job boards.
Pat McNulty- is a highly effective client relationship
manager for clinical, medical and regulatory contractors at
StratAcuity. Strong relationships in Clinical Trial
Management, Monitoring, Study, Development, Operations
& Research as well as Regulatory Affairs, Program/Project
Management, GCP Quality GCP and Pharmacovigilance
/Drug Safety are built on trust and results. Pat ensures his
contractors are well matched to the opportunity, proven by
their long tenure and frequent conversion to fulltime
employment. His influence continues to grow as he provides
talent essential for the accurate execution of projects and
programs.
Tech Transfer
Amita Joshi- As a senior licensing manager at Partners
HealthCare Innovation, Amita manages intellectual
property portfolios and commercialization of a wide range of
technologies (therapeutics, diagnostics and research tools)
related to Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Pathology,
Endocrinology and Preventive Medicine. Prior to her career
in licensing, Amita did a marketing internship at the Tufts
Office for Technology Licensing and Industry Collaboration.
Amita has written articles for the Harvard Medical School
newsletter, Focus, and has volunteered at the Museum of
Science, Boston. Amita received her Ph.D. in Molecular
Biology from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,
Mumbai, India and did her post-doctoral work on chromatin
structure, gene expression and transcription biology at the
Harvard Medical School.
Ana Lopes- joined the Office of Technology Development
at Boston University in May 2014. As Director of Business
Development, she manages BU’s portfolio of Physical
Sciences inventions with the mission to commercialize the
university’s technologies, develop stronger universityindustry relations as well as support BU’s entrepreneurial
activities. Prior to the OTD, Ana was a founding partner at a
consulting company where she connected Brazilian
technology based companies with Boston’s innovation
ecosystem. Ana is a graduate from the University of Toronto
where she earned an Honours Bachelor of Science in
Astronomy and Physics and is currently pursuing her
Master in Business Administration.
Rekha Paleyanda- is a Senior Business Strategy and
Licensing Manager in the Innovation Office of Partners
Healthcare. She manages a diverse IP portfolio from
Massachusetts General Hospital including therapeutic,
diagnostic and device technologies. In this role, she is
responsible for developing portfolio strategies, identifying
new product opportunities and business development,
including negotiating licenses and collaboration agreements
with industry. Prior to Partners, Rekha led strategic and
business development at AI Biologics and worked in R&D
developing biologics for genetic and orphan diseases at
Transkaryotic Therapies (acquired by Shire). She received
her Ph.D. in genetics from the George Washington
University, D.C. and conducted postdoctoral research at the
Holland Lab for Biomedical Sciences in Rockville, MD.