2024 MIT 東京 ライフサイエンス・シンポジウム　～創薬とバイオモノづくりへの次世代型アプローチ Hosted By LINK-J

登壇者略歴

Steven J Palmer, Director, MIT Corporate Relations

Steve Palmer is a Director within MIT’s Office of Corporate Relations. Steven comes to OCR with many years of experience building relationships, advancing diplomacy, and seeking new business initiatives in both the public and private sectors. He has spent his career highlighting and translating technological issues for policy makers, engineers, analysts, and business leaders. Steven has worked in government, industry, and academia in the U.S. and abroad. He is also an Executive Coach at MIT Sloan and Harvard Business School. Steven earned his Bachelor of Science at Northeastern University, and his M.B.A. at MIT Sloan where he was in the Fellows Program for Innovation and Global Leadership.

Connor W. Coley, Class of 1957 Career Development Professor and Assistant Professor, MIT Chemical Engineering and MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Connor W. Coley is the Class of 1957 Career Development Professor and an Assistant Professor at MIT in the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Caltech and MIT, respectively, and did his postdoctoral training at the Broad Institute. His research group at MIT works at the interface of chemistry and data science to develop models that understand how molecules behave, interact, and react and use that knowledge to engineer new ones, with an emphasis on therapeutic discovery. Connor is a recipient of C&EN’s “Talented Twelve” award, Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30” for Healthcare, Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35, the NSF CAREER award, the ACS COMP OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, the Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award, the 3M NTFA, and was named a Schmidt AI2050 Early Career Fellow and a 2023 Samsung AI Researcher of the Year.

Richard Braatz, Edwin R. Gilliland Professor, MIT Department of Chemical Engineering

Dr. Richard D. Braatz is the Edwin R. Gilliland Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT, where he conducts research into advanced biomanufacturing systems. He is the Director of the Center on Continuous mRNA Manufacturing and leads process data analytics, mechanistic modeling, and control systems for projects on vaccine, monoclonal antibody, and gene therapy manufacturing. Dr. Braatz received an M.S. and Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology and was the Millennium Chair and Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University before moving to MIT. Dr. Braatz has collaborated with more than 20 companies, including Novartis, Pfizer, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Biogen, Amgen, Takeda, and Abbott Labs. He has published over 300 papers and three books. Dr. Braatz is a Fellow of IEEE, IFAC, AIChE, and AAAS and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

Ines Herrero, Founder, Biomixing

Ines Herrero is a mathematician with a Ph.D. in Business Management, combining quantitative expertise with strategic insight. With a strong background in fostering relationships between academia and industry, she offers a unique perspective on interdisciplinary collaborations. Having spearheaded the inception of three successful startups, her entrepreneurial spirit continues to fuel innovation at Biomixing, driving advancements in this cutting-edge field. Ines epitomizes the integration of academic knowledge and practical application, bridging the gap between theory and real-world outcomes.

Floris Engelhardt, Co-Founder and CEO, Kano Therapeutics

Floris is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kano Therapeutics, a biotech startup enabling cell and gene therapies based in Cambridge, MA. She holds a PhD in Biophysics from the Technical University of Munich, focusing on DNA nanotechnology. She started the company based on her postdoctoral research work in Mark Bathe’s BatheBioNano lab at MIT. Floris was awarded MIT’s 2020 Innovative Woman in Entrepreneurship Award, the Activate Global fellowship, Pillar VCs Founder to Watch in Biotech Award 2021, The Wave Summit 21 Emerging Woman Founders Award, and most recently, the Termeer Fellowship for first-time CEOs.

Kevin Christopher, CEO, Quantiscope

Kevin Christopher, JD/MBA, is the dynamic CEO of Quantiscope, known as a pioneering force in AI-driven solutions for drug discovery and biomanufacturing. With a distinguished background in law, business, and technology, Kevin brings a multifaceted perspective to his role. Operating from Salt Lake City's prestigious Altitude Lab, Kevin fosters an environment of excellence and collaboration, inspiring teams to push boundaries and achieve unprecedented breakthroughs.

Karl Ruping, Founder and CEO, Tiba Biotech

Karl Ruping is CEO and co-founder (with Jasdave Chahal and Christian Mandl) of Tiba Biotech, an MIT and Whitehead Institute venture focused on mRNA vaccines and therapeutics. He began his career as a patent attorney, specializing in international patent litigation and intellectual property licensing for both emerging ventures and global clients. Karl’s technical expertise includes bioinformatics, molecular modelling and large-scale computing.
Karl studied economics at Colby College, computer science at Temple University, and was a Research Fellow at MIT’s School of Engineering. He holds a juris doctorate from Boston University, after which he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Tokyo’s Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology. Today he is a member of the International Advisory Committee of Harvard’s Asia Center, and is an advisor to a number of MIT-related startups and student-led programs.

Yoh Terada, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Alivexis

Yoh joined Alivexis in January 2018 from Astellas Pharma, where he worked for the past 18+ years in various disease biology R&D and management capacities. He most recently served as Director at Astellas Innovation Management, the innovation scouting and operations group of Astellas’ R&D department in Cambridge, MA. Prior to this, he worked at Mitobridge in Cambridge, MA where he served as the chief liaison to Astellas and established and launched their portfolio of discovery programs as Visiting Scientist, culminating in the successful closing of their recent $450M acquisition by Astellas. Throughout his career, Yoh has proposed and led over 25 discovery programs and delivered multiple IND compounds. Yoh holds a Ph.D. from Tokyo Medical and Dental University and a B.S. from the University of Tokyo.

Hideyuki Mototani, PhD, CA-AM, PMP, Director, Alliance Management, Neuroscience Therapeutic Area Unit, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited

Hideyuki serves as a Director of Takeda's Alliance Management group in the Neuroscience Therapeutic Unit at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., where he plays a crucial role in fostering successful collaborations with Takeda’s alliance partners. He has a solid background in alliance management and experience working in the US, specifically in Boston, as well as in Japan. Hideyuki leads alliance management activities with global biotech partners across various therapeutic areas, including neuroscience and oncology. He holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Science from Tohoku University.

Abstract

Connor W. Coley
"Artificial Intelligence for the Design and Synthesis of Small Molecule Therapeutic Candidates"

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have become important components of the computational toolbox that can be used to advance chemical research and discovery. In this talk, I will discuss our group’s work advancing AI/ML as it applies to the broad subfields of medicinal chemistry and synthetic organic chemistry. I will describe several approaches to facilitate decision-making when planning iterative design-make-test-analyze cycles, including the use of formal optimization techniques for selecting molecules from virtual libraries or proposed by generative AI and the use of computer-aided synthesis planning algorithms to define synthetically-accessible chemical spaces. A pervasive theme of our research is the formulation of problems in molecular design and synthesis in a manner amenable to computational approaches.

Richard Braatz
"A Digital Twin for Continuous mRNA Manufacturing"

This presentation describes a digital twin that is being developed for end-to-end continuous manufacturing of mRNA biotherapeutics. Mechanistic models are being constructed for all unit operations. These dynamic models are integrated with models for constraints, uncertainties, and disturbances to form a digital twin for automated, integrated continuous manufacturing. The digital twin is suitable for (1) evaluation and validation of mechanistic hypotheses to gain mechanistic understanding, (2) comparison of multiple process flowsheet options, (3) optimization of individual unit operations and their control systems, (4) the design of end-to-end operations, and (5) the real-time operation alongside plant operations. Experimentally validated results are presented for multiple unit operations.