SPEAKERS
DR. IRA MELLMAN
President of Research, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
Former Vice President of Cancer Immunology, Genetech
Ira Mellman, PhD, is President of Research at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI). A pioneering force in cancer immunology, he brings decades of experience translating fundamental discoveries into transformative therapies. At PICI, Dr. Mellman is focused on advancing scientific strategy, amplifying cross-institutional collaboration and accelerating the development of immune-based treatments that change outcomes for patients.
Dr. Mellman joined PICI after more than 15 years at Genentech, where he most recently served as Vice President of Cancer Immunology. There, he led groundbreaking research that helped bring forward Tecentriq® (atezolizumab), anti-TIGIT therapies, and patient-specific neoantigen cancer vaccines as well as multiple other first-in-class immunotherapies. Earlier in his career, he spent two decades at Yale University School of Medicine, where he served as Chair of Cell Biology, Scientific Director of the Yale Cancer Center and Sterling Professor. He is also the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Medici Therapeutics.
A world leader in immuno-oncology and cell biology, Dr. Mellman’s scientific contributions span the discovery of endosomes, the elucidation of how dendritic cells initiate immunity or tolerance and the development of the cancer immunity cycle framework. His work has fundamentally shaped our understanding of immune checkpoint biology and the design of next-generation cancer vaccines.
Dr. Mellman is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the European Molecular Biology Organization. He has served on the editorial boards of Cell, Journal of Experimental Medicine and as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cell Biology. His honors include the AACR Lloyd J. Old Award for Cancer Immunology, Yale’s Wilbur Cross Medal and SITC’s Richard Smalley Award.
He holds a PhD in genetics from Yale University and an AB from Oberlin College & Conservatory, and completed postdoctoral work at The Rockefeller University.
DR. DEAN FELSHER
Director of Translational Research, Stanford Medicine
Professor in the Division of Oncology, Stanford Medicine
Dr. Dean Felsher is a Professor in the Division of Oncology, Departments of Medicine and Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is currently the Founding Director of the Translational and Applied Medicine Program, Director of Oncology Research, Director of Medical Scientist Training Program Admissions, Director of Advanced Residency Training Program and the co-Director of the Cancer Translational Nanotechnology Training Program. He received his BA from the University of Chicago and his MD and PhD from the UCLA Medical Scientist Training Program. He did a residency in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and a fellowship in Medical Oncology at UCSF. He joined the faculty at Stanford in 1999. He has over 20 years of research experience working with experimental transgenic mouse models and has pioneered the utilization of the Tet System to generate conditional transgenic mouse models of lymphoma, hepatocellular adenocarcinoma, osteogenic sarcoma, kidney adenocarcinoma and lung adenocarcinoma. He has a mentored to date over 80 members in his laboratory many of whom are now independent scientists in Academia and Industry. His laboratory currently consists of 20 research associates, post-doctoral fellows, medical, college and graduate students. Dr. Felsher’s work has helped to establish the general concepts of the reversibility of cancer, oncogene addiction, tumor dormancy. His work has been published and highlighted in articles in Science, Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature. He has published over 150 papers, given more than 260 invited talks. He is a Senior Editor of Cancer Research and Oncogene.
LIOR TEITELBAUM, MSC, MBA
Principal, Venture Investments Johnson & Johnson (JJDC)
Lior is a Principal, Venture Investments with JJDC, where he is responsible for initiating and managing investments in promising Biotech Pharma companies in the West North America region. Prior to that Lior served as a venture investor with JJDC in EMEA where he sourced, initiated and managed MedTech and Pharma investments in the EMEA region. Before that Lior was Chief Business Officer for two Company creation incubators backed by healthcare multinational companies - FutuRx in the Biotech space created by J&J, OrbiMed and Takeda and MindUp, created by Medtronic, IBM, Pitango Ventures and the Rambam medical center in the Digital health space of which Lior was also a cofounder.
As CBO Lior led search & evaluation and transaction teams in both incubators and was responsible for creation of over 20 new companies and generating multiple investments, licensing deals and partnerships for them. Prior to that Lior held BD and portfolio management positions in numerus Biotech and MedTech companies. Lior holds and MBA from Tel Aviv University, and MSC in Molecular Biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science and a BSc in Chemistry and Biology from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Lior is also a member of the 8400 network of Healthcare industry leaders in Israel. Lior is based in the San Francisco Bay area.
DR. PHIL DIGIACOM0
Vice President, Venrock
Phil joined Venrock’s Palo Alto office in 2025 and focuses on biotech and therapeutics investments. Prior to Venrock, Phil was a Principal at Qiming Venture Partners US, a healthcare-focused venture capital firm.
Phil is an avid cyclist and former soccer player, just waiting to coach his daughter. He holds a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Stanford University, an M.S. in Medicine from the Stanford University School of Medicine, and a Bachelor’s in Mathematics, Cognitive Science, and Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia.
DR. ABE HEIFETS
Co-Founder, Atomwise
Dr. Abraham Heifets was the CEO and Co-Founder of Atomwise, where he and Co-Founder Dr. Izhar Wallach invented the use of deep convolutional neural networks for drug discovery. He is currently the Founder of a new stealth startup in the AI and drug discovery space. Dr. Heifets was a Massey Fellow at the University of Toronto—a center for AI innovation—and a Fellow of the Ontario Brain Institute. His doctoral work applied machine learning and classical AI techniques to organic synthesis planning, a long-standing challenge in chemistry.
Dr. Heifets is a thought-leader on the use of AI for drug discovery and is an author on 24 papers, patents and patent applications. Dr. Heifets has presented his work to the U.S. GAO, the National Institutes of Health, the American Chemical Society, and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.
DR. CHRIS APFEL
Director of Life Sciences, Keiretsu Forum Bay Area
Professor, University of California San Francisco
Founder and CEO, SageMedic Corp.
Christian Apfel is internationally recognized for changing medical practice by bringing innovation to millions of patients by designing and executing on highest quality clinical research. One of his most notable innovations, the “Apfel Score,” is now used in clinical practice globally. Chris has turned his attention to precision medicine and is the founder and CEO of SageMedic Corporation. SageMedic redefines precision medicine with its SAGE Direct Platform™ to help millions of cancer patients to identify the most effective treatment by overcoming limitations inherent to genome-driven targeted therapy. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and is an Adjunct Professor at UCSF. He is an investor with Life Science Angels and the chair of the life science committee at the Keiretsu Forum. Chris is a California licensed physician and received his MD/PhD from Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Germany, and his an MBA from Wharton, University of Pennsylvania, PA.
STEVE FERGUSON
Deputy Director, Licensing and Entrepreneurship, NIH
Steven M. Ferguson currently serves as the Deputy Director, Licensing and Entrepreneurship. Prior to joining NIH Office of Technology Transfer in 1990, Mr. Ferguson served in marketing and management positions in biomedical firms subsequent to being a scientist at the National Cancer Institute. His healthcare experience has also included work as Director of Marketing and Public Relations for a rural 70-bed hospital. Registered to practice before the USPTO and a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP), Mr. Ferguson also holds Master's Degrees in Business Administration (George Washington University) and Chemistry (University of Cincinnati) as well as Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry (Case Western Reserve University). Mr. Ferguson has been an economic reviewer for Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) as well as the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) grant programs and is an instructor for both the USDA Graduate School and the NIH FAES Graduate School where he is also the department chair for the new Certificate in Technology Transfer Program. Mr. Ferguson was also the Susan T. and Charles E. Harris Visiting Lecturer at the Watson School of Biological Sciences at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and has published articles on licensing and technology transfer issues.
DR. MICHAEL SALGALLER
Director of Technology Transfer, National Cancer Institute
Dr. Michael Salgaller leads the Invention Development and Marketing Unit within the National Cancer Institute’s Technology Transfer Center, where he leverages over 20 years of business, scientific, and investment experience in various life science sectors to support technology development and commercialization. Previously, he provided technical and strategic expertise to The Conafay Group, a DC-based government affairs firm – leading efforts on non-dilutive funding and alliance development. Previously, he was a key member of the business development team for the healthcare practice at SAIC, a Fortune-500 government contractor. He helped lead and deepen relationships with the Department of Health and Human Services – especially NIH and FDA – as well as foundations and patient advocacy groups. Before SAIC, he was a long-time industry executive who has held various positions in early-stage biotechnology and boutique professional service firms. In addition, Dr. Salgaller was on the investment team of Toucan Capital, a $120M early-stage venture firm dedicated to the life sciences, where he guided company formation and helped raise follow-on financing. He began his career as a Senior Staff Scientist with Dr. Steve Rosenberg at the National Cancer Institute, where he oversaw a lab developing immunotherapies for patients with terminal cancer.
Dr. Salgaller serves on the Life Sciences Advisory Board of the Maryland-Israel Development Center, as well as NCI liaison to the Maryland Technology Council. He is an advisor to DC ArchAngels and the Cooperative Angel Alumni Group. He is the author of “Biotechnology Entrepreneurship,” which is used as a reference text for courses at NIH and Catholic University, among others. He is the author of over 100 articles, presentations, and book chapters, and is on the editorial boards of several journals. Dr. Salgaller received his PhD in Pathology from The Ohio State University.
DR. PREETHA RAM
Managing Partner, Pier 70 Ventures
Preetha is managing partner at Pier 70 Ventures and invests in early stage companies, with diverse leadership teams, creating the Future of Health.
Preetha is a successful entrepreneur, investor, technologist and educational thought leader. Previously she was Associate Dean for Science at Emory University.
She was founder/CEO of OpenStudy, an online learning platform with over 60M global learners. Preetha raised multimillion-dollar funding from the NSF, National Institute of Health, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Hewlett Packard Foundation before an institutional round. Recognized as one of Fast Company’s Top Ten Innovative Companies in Education, she was honored at the White House as an Innovator. As CEO, she scaled the company and led it to a successful exit.
Preetha is an LP in How Women Invests and on the boards of TIE Silicon Valley, a non-profit, and Pelvital, a femtech company.
Preetha holds a Ph.D. in life sciences from Yale, an M.S. in chemistry from IIT Delhi and an MBA from Emory University.
DR. QING ZHANG
Partner, LDV Partners
Physician-scientist by training; Research focus is cancer biology at The Myerson Lab (Broad/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute). Practiced in Singapore and pivoted to venture capital.
Deal experiences: involved in 30+ private financings, 2 public companies and 3 venture creation companies.
B.S. Biology + M.D. @Tsinghua University, Researcher @ Broad, MBA @ Columbia Business School
DR. CHRIS WALTERS
Director of Investments and Business Development, Formation Bio
Chris has been with Formation Bio for 3.5 years, and currently serves as Director of Investments and Business Development. Formation Bio acquires promising clinical-stage drug candidates and develops them in house. We bring together best in class talent from the pharma and technology industries, combining sophisticated development strategy with proprietary technology and AI capabilities that can power hyper-efficient drug development.
Earlier in his career, Chris worked with Blue Matter and a licensing officer for UPENN.
Chris holds a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Michigan and a PhD in Chemistry from UPENN.
DR. EDNY INUI
Partner, Palo Santo
Edny is a neuroscientist and venture investor with over 20 years of experience spanning research, business development, and venture capital. Today, she serves as a Partner at Palo Santo, a $50M fund dedicated to advancing psychedelic and novel CNS target therapeutics that address unmet needs in mental health and brain disorders.
Edny's career began at the research bench, where her PhD work at the University of Michigan explored the role of fibroblast growth factors in depression and circadian biology. After earning her MBA from the University of Chicago, she transitioned into biotech strategy and business development, helping to build and scale organizations at the cutting edge of science. Edny has led partnerships and growth initiatives at companies including Calico Life Sciences (AbbVie/Google aging moonshot), Caribou Biosciences (CRISPR gene editing for CAR-T), and Acadia Pharmaceuticals (Neuropsych and rare disease).
In venture, Edny draws on this dual background—scientific depth and business-building experience—to identify, support, and accelerate transformative companies. She serves on boards and as an observer to multiple biotech startups, and is passionate about enabling visionary founders to bring next-generation neuroscience and psychedelic therapeutics to patients in need.
DR. MICHEL AZOULAY
Chief Medical Officer, Institute for Follicular Lymphoma Innovation Institute for Follicular Lymphoma Innovation
Dr. Michel Azoulay is CMO of Institute for Follicular Lymphoma Innovation (IFLI). Michel brings over three decades of experience advancing therapies through early- and late-stage development and possesses deep expertise in R&D in Hemato-Oncology.
Michel has significant experience in venture investing by identifying and evaluating new breakthrough science in collaboration with multiple life sciences funds and partners.
Previous leadership roles at Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, Kyowa Kirin, IQVIA, Sanofi and Amgen emphasized drug strategy and clinical development. Extensive experience in R&D and clinical research reflects a career mission to align scientific breakthroughs with strategic objectives. Dedicated to fostering innovation and shaping the future of oncology and hematology therapeutics.
DR. HANADIE YOUSEF
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Juvena Therapeutics
Dr. Hanadie Yousef is an entrepreneur, scientist, and leading expert on the mechanisms underlying age-related tissue degeneration with over two decades of experience in biomedical research. In 2018, she launched Juvena Therapeutics, a venture-backed, platform-driven, clinical stage biotechnology company mapping the therapeutic potential of secreted proteins and accelerating their translation into engineered biologics that promote tissue repair and restoration of function and health to treat degenerative diseases.
Under Dr. Yousef’s leadership, Juvena has leveraged its Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled platform to develop a proprietary, pro-regenerative protein library that enabled the discovery and development of a growing pipeline of biologics for muscle and metabolic diseases. The company’s lead asset, JUV-161, promotes muscle regeneration and metabolism. As of Q2 2025, it is in Phase 1 safety studies for the treatment of orphan disease Myotonic Dystrophy Type and sarcopenia. In addition, Juvena is progressing multiple preclinical programs across metabolic and fibrotic disease areas, including a novel preclinical obesity asset, JUV-112, that uniquely enhances lipid metabolism to induce weight loss through an energy expenditure promoting, non appetite-suppressing mechanism.
Dr. Yousef’s high-impact published research has been supported by fellowships and grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation, SPARK, and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and led to multiple issued and pending patents. She has received multiple awards and recognition for her entrepreneurship and innovation, including San Francisco Business Times’ “Women Who Lead in Life Sciences”, In Vivo’s “Rising Leaders“, and Founders Forum’s “100 Women Founders to Watch” in 2024, FierceBiotech’s “Fiercest Women in Life Sciences,” Business Insider’s “30 Leaders Under 40 Changing Healthcare in 2023,” Endpoints’ “The 20(+2) under 40,” and Pharmaceutical Executive’s “Emerging Pharma Leader”in 2023, , and the 2022 Biocom Catalyst award. She is also a regularly invited speaker at industry and innovation events. Under her leadership, Juvena has been recognized as the “NextGen Class of 2024: Top Life Sciences Startups to Watch This Year” by BioSpace and as a World Economic Forum 2024 Technology Pioneer company.
Dr. Yousef earned her B.S., summa cum laude from Carnegie Mellon University and a PhD from UC Berkeley as an NSF graduate research fellow then completed a 5-year postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford School of Medicine as an NIH fellow and SPARK scholar.
JOSH SIEDENFELD
Partner, Cooley
Josh is the global chair of Cooley’s digital health group and serves on the firm’s Life Sciences Advisory Board. He represents life sciences, healthcare and technology clients through the full company life cycle, from seed stage through private financings, M&A and initial public offerings. He also regularly advises clients on general corporate issues, securities matters and implications of proposed business transactions.
Since 2020, Josh has handled 300+ venture capital financings with an aggregate deal value of more than $8.1 billion. Josh counsels clients across industries, including companies operating in the biotechnology, therapeutics, pharma, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, climate tech and energy, digital health, open source, medical technology and software sectors.
Josh previously worked in the healthcare industry at Practice Fusion, a web-based electronic health records company, where he was corporate counsel and director of business development. In this role, he was responsible for generating revenue, leading the company through complex regulations governing digital healthcare and records, negotiating contracts and more.
Josh is a contributing editor for Cooley GO, the firm’s online resource containing tools, documents, guidance and data for entrepreneurs and emerging companies.
LILA HOPE
Partner, Cooley
Lila is a partner in Cooley’s life sciences transactional group and co-chair of the firm’s Women’s Initiative. For 20+ years, she has focused on the representation of life sciences companies discovering, developing and marketing pharmaceutical, vaccine, medical device, diagnostic and digital health products. Lila specializes in transactions involving complex intellectual property, business, operational and legal issues, including strategic partnerships and platform discovery and option deals.
In addition, she counsels clients’ management, operational and legal teams on day-to-day matters involving licensing, supply, distribution, clinical trials, research collaborations and vendor services. She also is routinely involved in the evaluation of a company’s product rights and operational risks in connection with financing, public offering and M&A transactions. In addition to her long-established practice in the US, Lila maintains an active practice in cross-border licensing transactions, and she has concluded more than 40 transactions involving Asian biotechnology companies since 2015, including inbound, outbound and newco transactions.
Lila graduated with a JD magna cum laude in 2002 from Duke University School of Law, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif and awarded the Class of 1968 Scholarship. She earned her PhD in cancer biology from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1999, characterizing a novel tumor susceptibility gene as a Stanford Markey Predoctoral Fellow.
Lila is a member of the State Bar of California and the American Bar Association. She has been heavily involved with Duke Law and Stanford Medicine over the past decade, having served as the past president and as a past board member of both the Duke Law Alumni Association and the Stanford Medicine Alumni Association. She currently serves as a member of the Duke Law Board of Visitors.
Lila has been recognized by Chambers USA in the category of Life Sciences: Corporate/Commercial – California in its 2020 – 2025 editions and nationwide in its 2024 – 2025 editions. She was recognized as a Law360 MVP in Life Sciences, a Top 10 Powerhouse Life Sciences Corporate Lawyer in California by Business Today, a key lawyer in the Healthcare: Life Sciences category by The Legal 500 US, and a Top 25 Biotechnology and Life Sciences Attorney by Attorney Intel. She also is frequently sought out as a speaker and moderator at conferences and forums throughout the United States.
LAUREN CREEL
Partner, Cooley
Lauren Creel primarily represents start ups and venture capital funds, with an emphasis on early-stage companies and financings. She also has experience with public offerings for both domestic and foreign private issuers, SEC reporting and compliance and mergers and acquisitions.
Before joining Cooley, Lauren was an associate with Vinson & Elkins in Austin, Texas. In her former career, she worked for several economic consulting firms, supporting expert witnesses in class action litigation and qui tam lawsuits.
While at the University of Texas School of Law, Lauren was associate editor of the Texas Law Review and a teaching assistant in the first-year writing program (or Teaching Quizmaster as the Longhorns like to call it).