Philadelphia, PA
November 1-2, 2024
Advancing Precision Medicine Annual Conference 2024
Philadelphia, PA
The Advancing Precision Medicine (APM) Annual Conference 2024 took place at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, on November 1-2, 2024. Situated in the heart of the biopharma ecosystem and with easy access to some of the most renowned academic and research institutions in the world, the APM Annual Conference 2024 successfully attracted all segments of the precision medicine landscape.
The event consisted of two parallel tracks composed of keynote addresses, panel discussions, and fireside chats which encouraged audience participation. Over the course of the two-day event, leaders from industry, healthcare, regulatory bodies, academia, and other pertinent stakeholders shared an intriguing and broad scope of content, marking a successful launch of this annual gathering.
Steering Committee
Gabriele Allegri
Vice President
Global Commercial Precision Medicine
Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine
Gabriele Allegri
Vice President
Global Commercial Precision Medicine
Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine
Married and a father of two, with a degree in Management Engineering obtained across Italy, France, and Germany, Gabriele Allegri began his career in the USA at an American startup focused on Big Data. Two years later, he returned to Europe and started working for the consulting firm Accenture at the Innovation Center in Sophia Antipolis, France, managing various projects for European key accounts across different sectors.
In 2004, he returned to Italy with a scholarship to pursue his MBA (Master in Business Administration) at Bocconi Business School. After an internship at Eli Lilly in 2005, he joined Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine. Here, he initially held the role of Product Manager for the newly created HIV Franchise, then assumed the role of Group Marketing Manager in Turkey. Upon returning to Italy, he took on various roles with increasing responsibilities until becoming Business Unit Head for Infectiology, Immunology, and CNS.
In 2016, he was appointed General Manager for Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Care Company, a J&J Group company focused on diabetes management through a mix of medical and pharmaceutical products. Under his leadership, the first integrated teleassistance service branded JnJ was launched in the Italian market.
Returning to Janssen Italy as head of Regional Market Access and the tender office, he was also given responsibility for managing the newly acquired Actelion, a company involved in rare diseases, specifically pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Currently, Gabriele is Vice President of Precision Medicine, based in the United States. He is also a board member of the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC) and vice-president of the Precision Cancer Consortium (PCC). The PMC is a coalition dedicated to advancing personalized medicine through the promotion of public policies and patient education. The PCC is a consortium committed to improving the precision of cancer therapies and developing new therapeutic solutions for cancer patients.
Gabriele maintains a strong passion for his work and healthcare, convinced that he can actively contribute – together with his Team and Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine – to introducing innovative therapeutic solutions to the Italian market and developing proximity care that raises current standards of care for the benefit of all patients.
Jason Crites
Founder and CEO
Assurance Health Data
Jason Crites
Founder and CEO
Assurance Health Data
Jason has 20 years’ experience in data analytics and virtualization. He is a commercialization and data visualization expert with competencies in engineering, management and acquisition integration. As an ex-IBM sales executive, he generated a billion in revenue and led the development of the Federated Data Model and the Global Storage Solution. Jason is a citizen scientist, public speaker, and an early advocate of models for large-scale data sharing and analytics.
Marni Falk
Distinguished Endowed Chair, Department of Pediatrics
Executive Director, Mitochondrial Medicine Frontier Program
CHOP
Marni Falk
Distinguished Endowed Chair, Department of Pediatrics
Executive Director, Mitochondrial Medicine Frontier Program
CHOP
Professor, Division of Human Genetics in the Department of Pediatrics
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Marni J. Falk, M.D., is Distinguished Endowed Chair in the Department of Pediatrics and Executive Director of the Mitochondrial Medicine Frontier Program at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and Professor in the Division of Human Genetics within the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania (UPENN) Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA. A board-certified Clinical Geneticist, Dr. Falk works to improve precision clinical care, diagnostic approaches, precision therapeutics, and genomic resources for rare disorders, with a focus on mitochondrial disease. She organized and is co-leader of the global Mitochondrial Disease Sequence Data Resource (MSeqDR) consortium, co-leader of the ClinGen Mitochondrial Disease Gene and Variant Expert Curation Panels, organizer of the international mitochondrial zebrafish consortium (MZC), and organizer of the CHOP/UPENN Mitochondria Research Affinity Group (MITO RAG) that has ~300 participants. Dr. Falk is PI of an active translational research laboratory group at CHOP investigating the causes and global metabolic consequences of mitochondrial disease, and targeted therapies, in C. elegans, zebrafish, mouse, and human cell models of genetic-based respiratory chain dysfunction. She also designs and directs multiple clinical research studies and treatment trials in mitochondrial disease patients. In 2023, she co-founded Rarefy Therapeutics LLC, focused on advancing the late-stage development of data-driven, precision therapeutics for rare diseases.
Dr. Falk received her B.S. degree in Biology graduating Summa cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, as well as M.D. degree in the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society from a combined 7-year program at the George Washington University School of Medicine. She then completed dual specialty training in a 5-year Pediatrics and Clinical Genetics residency program at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Falk has authored more than 175 peer-reviewed publications, and edited “Mitochondrial Disease Genes Compendium: From Genes to Clinical Manifestations”.
Dr. Falk is a member of the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board of The United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation (UMDF); founding member of the CHOP Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine (CMEM); CHOP-site PI of the North American Mitochondrial Disease Consortium (NAMDC); member of the Mitochondrial Medicine Society (MMS), Society for Pediatric Research (SPR), Society for Inherited Metabolic Disease (SIMD), American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), and American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMGG); and elected member of the University of Pennsylvania John Morgan Society (JMS), Interurban Clinical Club (ICC), and American Society of Clinical Investigators (ASCI).
Arutha Kulasinghe
Frazer Institute
University of Queensland
Queensland Spatial Biology Centre
Wesley Research Institute
Arutha Kulasinghe
Queensland Spatial Biology Centre, Wesley Research Institute
Dr Arutha Kulasinghe completed his Bachelor of Science and Honours majoring in Medical Microbiology at the University of Pretoria (South Africa). In 2014, he undertook his PhD studies in the investigation of circulating tumour cells in head and neck cancers at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), receiving his doctorate in 2017. In 2019, Dr Kulasinghe began a Peter Doherty NHMRC Early Career Fellowship to develop biomarkers of immunotherapy response in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and lung cancer. His research aims to use spatial analysis of the tumour microenvironment and profiling of liquid biopsy (circulating tumour cells/circulating tumour DNA) to identify biomarkers of response to immune checkpoint inhibitors. Dr Kulasinghe is supported by a number of funding agencies including the NHMRC, Cure Cancer and the GPRWMF.
Adrian Lee
Professor and Director
Institute for Precision Medicine
University of Pittsburgh
Adrian Lee
Professor and Director
Institute for Precision Medicine
University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Adrian Lee is the Pittsburgh Foundation Chair and Director of the Institute for Precision Medicine (IPM), a joint effort by UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh to move biomedical research into personalized well-being and clinical care. He is also Professor of Pharmacology & Chemical Biology and Human Genetics at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. Dr. Lee received B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in England, and came to San Antonio, Texas for his postdoctoral studies. He was subsequently recruited to Baylor College of Medicine and to the University of Pittsburgh in 2010. The goal of Dr. Lee’s research laboratory is to translate basic cell and molecular research findings into the understanding and treatment of breast cancer. Dr Lee has published over 180 peer reviewed research articles. His laboratory is supported by funding from the NIH, Department of Defense, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and other sources.
Howard McLeod
Professor & Center Director
Utah Tech University
Howard McLeod
Professor & Center Director
Utah Tech University
Dr. Howard McLeod is an internationally recognized expert in precision medicine, having made novel contributions at the discovery, translation, implementation, and policy levels. Dr. McLeod has been recognized as a Fellow of both the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. He has also been an active Board Member and/or Founder for over a dozen privately held and publicly traded companies. Howard has published over 600 peer reviewed papers on pharmacogenomics, applied therapeutics, or clinical pharmacology and continues to work to advance innovative healthcare.
Roddy O'Connor
Assistant Professor of Research
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Roddy O'Connor
Assistant Professor of Research, CAR-T Cell Metabolism
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Dr. O'Connor's research emphasizes novel conditioning strategies and genetic approaches to confer unique metabolic attributes to CAR T cells. In collaborative research with Nucleus Biologics, Dr. O'Connor developed a customized, cGMP grade, CAR T cell culture medium for the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) clinical sector. In a recent paper, he shared how this state-of-the-art medium formulation enhances CAR T cell potency and anti-tumor function. As medium composition can obscure metabolic responses induced by CAR co-stimulation, he recently designed a physiologic medium specifically for the Seahorse assay (Agilent Thought Leader Award). His team were also the first to show how nonnative enzymes increase the resilience of CAR T cells against metabolic (lactate, hypoxia) and immune (Siglec) checkpoints in solid tumor environments. His expertise in T-cell metabolism has been recognized through an Award for Excellence in Immunology (AAI) and exemplified by several industry sponsored research alliances with Seahorse Bioscience, Nucleus Biologics, and Agilent. At UPenn, his team is now poised to translate our advances in CAR T cell metabolic fitness to target various malignancies and auto-immune diseases. Dr. O’Connor is a highly regarded expert in CAR-T cell metabolism and has presented his findings at AAI, ASGCT, and the CAR-TCR Summit. Dr. O’Connor co-organizes the annual metabolomics symposium at UPenn and has presented several workshops as well as a webinar series with Nucleus Biologics on CAR-T cell metabolism.
Emanuel Petricoin
Co-Director Center, Applied Proteomics & Molecular Medicine
George Mason University
Emanuel Petricoin
Distinguished University Professor
Co-Director Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine
School of Systems Biology
George Mason University
Dr. Emanuel F Petricoin has been the Co-Director of the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM) at George Mason University since 2005, where he is a Distinguished University Professor. Prior to this position, he served as Co-Director of the FDA-NCI Clinical Proteomics Program from 2001-2005, and a Senior Investigator within the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the US Food and Drug Administration from 1993-2005. The focus of the CAPMM is the invention and use of proteomics technologies for oncology-based applications, infectious disease research, personalized therapy, molecular diagnostics, and biomarker discovery. He was part of 2 SU2C Dream Teams (pancreatic cancer and melanoma) and is a PI on numerous precision oncology trials including the I-SPY2 TRIAL. He is a co-founder of 3 life science companies. Dr. Petricoin’s expertise includes, precision oncology, precision medicine, development of genomics and proteomics-based companion diagnostics, proteomics and protein biomarkers, cell signaling, molecular diagnostic assay development, biologics and cellular therapeutics regulation, as well as artificial intelligence-based algorithms for therapy matching and precision oncology efforts.
He has co-authored 501 publications (H-Index 116) and is a co-inventor on over 40 filed and published patents. He has authored over 25 book chapters, is a Senior Editor for Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention and on the editorial board of JCO Precision Oncology, Nature: Precision Oncology, Proteomics, Biomedical Microdevices, Proteomics-Clinical Applications, Proteomics-Protocols, Molecular, Carcinogenesis, Journal of Personalized Medicine, and Dr. Petricoin is a founding member of the Human Proteomic Organization (HUPO). He has received numerous awards including the Distinguished University Professorship at George Mason University, the NIH Director’s Award, FDA Distinguished Scientist Award, 2015 Innovator of the Year Award, GAP50 Top Virginia Entrepreneurs, Nifty 50 Award, American Society of Cytopathology Basic Research Award, the Roche Diagnostics/CLAS Distinguished Scientist Award, and the Harvard University Leading Edge Award and is a Kentucky Colonel. He is the recipient of over 60 competitive grants and contracts from the NIH, DoD, DTRA, DARPA DOE as well as several philanthropic and non-for-profit foundations and pharmaceutical company contracts. Dr. Petricoin is a member of the Board of Directors for the Gateway for Cancer Research Foundation, serves on the AACR Exploratory IND Clinical Trials Task Force, and has served as the GMU faculty representative to the George Mason Research Foundation, the GMU faculty representative to the Virginia Biosciences Health Research Committee, and faculty representative to the GMU Board of Visitors. He currently serves on the Distinguished University Professor Committee.
Jasmine Plummer
Founding Director, Center for Spatial Omics
Member, Comprehensive Cancer Center
St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital
Jasmine Plummer
Founding Director, Center for Spatial Omics; Member, Comprehensive Cancer Center, St. Judes Children's Hospital
Associate Professor, Department of Developmental Neurobiology and Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology
Dr. Jasmine Plummer, PhD is the founding Director of the Center for Spatial Omics and member of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. She is an Associate Professor and cross appointed in the Department of Developmental Neurobiology and the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology. She received her PhD in Molecular and Medical Genetics at the University of Toronto, Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Plummer completed her post doctoral training at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and University of Southern California and moved into a faculty role at Cedars Sinai where she became a funded PI of the Human Cell Atlas. Dr. Plummer was also co-director of the Genomics Core at Cedars Sinai which focused on generating genomic data for a variety of technologies from single cell and spatial assays to sequencing. Dr. Plummer’s lab uses a multi-omic approach through single cell and spatial genomics to better understand the pathogenesis of neurodevelopmental disorders and cancer. Since moving to her new role, Dr. Plummer has established one of the first center’s specializing in the application of spatial technologies to a variety of disease types.
Julie Ramage
Principal
Harbor Precision Genomics Consulting
Julie Ramage
Harbor Precision Genomics Consulting
Julie Ramage is a seasoned leader in the field of precision genomics and healthcare consulting. With a wealth of experience spanning over 30 years, Julie has made significant contributions to the biopharmaceutical industry, particularly in the areas of oncology, pathology, data regulation, and reimbursement.
Current Role: Principal at Harbor Precision Genomics Consulting
As the Principal of Harbor Precision Genomics Consulting, Julie leads a team of experts dedicated to advancing precision medicine. Her role involves strategic planning, client engagement, and driving innovative solutions for genomics-driven healthcare. Julie’s passion lies in bridging the gap between cutting-edge research and practical applications in clinical settings.
Prior Work: AstraZeneca and Pfizer
Before joining Harbor Precision Genomics Consulting, Julie held pivotal roles at two major pharmaceutical companies:
- AstraZeneca: As the Director of Precision Medicine Quality Initiatives and Partnerships, Julie spearheaded initiatives that integrated genomics into drug development. Her work focused on optimizing patient outcomes through personalized treatment strategies.
- Pfizer Oncology: Julie contributed significantly to Pfizer’s companion diagnostic activities. Her expertise in biomarkers, data aggregation, and regulatory compliance played a crucial role in advancing oncology therapies.
Laboratory Experience and Pathology Expertise
Julie’s background includes extensive laboratory experience, where she has worked hands-on with cutting-edge technologies and platforms. Her understanding of pathology and molecular diagnostics has been instrumental in shaping her career.
Leadership and Advocacy
Julie’s commitment to the field extends beyond her professional roles. She served as the President of the California Clinical Lab Association, advocating for quality standards and innovation in clinical laboratories. Additionally, Julie actively participates in organizations such as the Precision Medicine Coalition and LUNGevity, where she collaborates with fellow experts to drive advancements in personalized medicine.
Julie Ramage’s multifaceted journey reflects her unwavering dedication to improving patient care through precision genomics
Giselle Sholler
Director, Pediatric Oncology Research
Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital
Giselle Sholler
Division Chief, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/BMT
Director, Pediatric Oncology Research
Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital
Professor, Pediatrics and Pharmacology
Chair, Beat Childhood Cancer Consortium
Dr. Sholler is currently the Division Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/BMT and Director of Pediatric Oncology Research at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital, Professor of Pediatrics and Pharmacology and Chair of the Beat Childhood Cancer consortium. Dr. Sholler’s preclinical research has led to the opening of 18 clinical trials for children with cancer. She founded and oversees the Beat Childhood Cancer consortium which is a collaborative team of over 55 universities, research centers and children’s hospitals that have come together to bring new therapies to children in need across the US and Canada. This team has led the research studying both Precision Medicine approaches to cancer as well as novel therapeutics including studying DFMO for maintenance therapy in neuroblastoma to keep children in remission.
THE LOCATION
APM Annual Conference 2024
Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
SPONSOR
Interested in sponsoring the event? Email Nigel Russell by using the link below!
2024 PLATINUM SPONSORS
2024 GOLD SPONSORS
2024 EXHIBITORS
2024 PARTNERS
MEDIA PARTNERS
