Panel session 1

Addressing Prevalent Diseases with the Next Generation of Complex Biologics and Genetic Medicines

Industry Sector: Biotech & Pharma; Entrepreneurship & Investing

As breakthroughs in biologic and genetic therapies continue to shape the landscape of healthcare, new modalities hold tremendous promise for treating prevalent diseases. This panel will explore the promise and challenges of antibody, RNA, and gene/epigenetic editing in addressing common conditions like neurodegeneration, cardiometabolic conditions, and age-related diseases. Industry leaders will provide insights into key hurdles in discovering, developing, manufacturing, and commercializing these therapies within an ever evolving landscape.

Catherine Stehman-Breen, m.d. | CEO, CHROMA MEDICINE

Catherine is Chief Executive Officer at Chroma Medicine. She also serves as an Independent Board member at Generation Bio, Tenaya Therapeutics and Dyne Therapeutics, Inc. Previously, she was Chief Research and Development Officer at Obsidian Therapeutics where she led research and discovery efforts for their engineered cell and gene therapies. Prior to Obsidian Therapeutics, Catherine was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Atlas Venture and Chief Medical Officer at Sarepta Therapeutics. In addition, Catherine held various leadership roles at Regeneron and Amgen. Catherine received her M.D. from the University of Chicago and trained as a nephrologist and earned her M.S. in epidemiology at University of Washington.

Morris Birnbaum, m.d., ph.d. | FORMER Chief scientific officer, PFIZER

Morris J. Birnbaum, M.D., Ph.D. is a physician scientist who has led research teams investigating fundamental problems in metabolic regulation and their relevance to chronic disease in both an academic and pharmaceutical setting. Research in his academic laboratory included studies related to understanding insulin signaling and resistance, the regulation of glucose transport and lipid synthesis, and muscle metabolism.  In 2014, Dr. Birnbaum accepted a position at Pfizer Inc. in Cambridge, MA as Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, initially of the Cardiometabolic and subsequently the Internal Medicine Research Unit, where he was responsible for the discovery and early clinical development of drugs designed to treat metabolic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, heart failure and cachexia. Under his leadership, Pfizer has brought nine novel potential medicines into clinical development.

Dr. Birnbaum earned an AB, PhD and MD from Brown University and completed an Internal Medicine residency at Barnes Hospital at Washington University in St. Louis followed by postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco, and Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York.  Dr. Birnbaum has held faculty positions at Harvard Medical School, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Al Sandrock, m.d., ph.d. | President & ceo, voyager

Sandrock has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Voyager, as well as a member of the Board of Directors, since 2022. He also currently serves as a member of the board of directors for Verge Genomics, Inc.; Transition Bio, Inc.; and Neurimmune, Inc. Sandrock joined Voyager following a prolific career in biopharmaceutical drug development, in which he spent 23 years at Biogen where he identified and developed novel therapies for a variety of serious diseases. While at Biogen, Sandrock served in positions of increasing responsibility, culminating in his service as Executive Vice President, Research and Development. He also served as Chief Medical Officer and held a seat on the Biogen Executive Committee. Over the course of his tenure, he led the discovery and development, and regulatory approval of numerous medicines including: ADUHELM™, PLEGRIDY®, SPINRAZA®, TECFIDERA®, and TYSABRI®. Sandrock earned a B.A. in human biology from Stanford University, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and a Ph.D. in neurobiology from Harvard University. He completed an internship in medicine, a residency and chief residency in neurology, and a clinical fellowship in neuromuscular disease and clinical neurophysiology at Massachusetts General Hospital.

ted hibben | Chief Corporate Development Officer, Seraxis

Ted graduated from HBS in 1986. He is a 30-year business development and executive leadership team member of early- to mid-stage therapeutic biotechs.  Ted has formed over $3 billion R&D collaborations, participated in nearly $1 billion in IPOs and M&A, and helped raise ~$145m from nearly 25 different VCs.  He is currently Chief Corporate Development Officer of Seraxis, a Phase I/II-stage company backed by Frazier, Polaris, Eli Lilly and the T1D Fund developing stem cell-derived pancreatic endocrine organs to replace the destroyed glucose monitoring islets of people with type 1 diabetes – a functional cure for this disease affecting over 1.4 million Americans. Ted has served as Chief Business Officer of Totus Medicines (DNA-tagged library discovery), Vaxess Technologies (patch delivery for vaccines), Cerevance (CNS gene sequencing discovery), Catabasis (Duchenne), Ensemble Therapeutics (DNA-tagged library discovery), Cequent Pharmaceuticals (RNAi), Coley Pharmaceutical Group (TLR9 agonists).  Earlier he held strategy and BD roles at Centagenetix (genetic discovery for diseases of aging); Pericor Science (topical delivery technology), Curis (led merger of predecessor company), and Marathon BioPharmaceuticals (biologics CDMO).  Ted earned his AB from The Big Green of Dartmouth College.

greg erman, MBA | Life Science Industry Investor, Board Member, and Entrepreneurship Lecturer at Harvard Medical School

Greg Erman is a serial entrepreneur and mentor in the life science industry. As the founder and CEO of 6 companies, Greg raised about $100M in venture capital and successfully grew his businesses to about $20M in annual revenue and 150 employees. Each of Greg’s 3 VC-backed startups exited to large public companies while generating returns of up to 12X investment. The businesses he built are diverse and cut across many industries in the fields of biotech, medical devices, and digital health. Greg was the first Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Mass General Brigham where he collaborated on over 250 life science research projects and spun-out multiple startups within a 10-year period. Greg was most recently the President & CEO of EmpiraMed, Inc., a decentralized clinical trials company with a unique platform to generate real world evidence for late stage and commercial biopharmaceutical assets. He and his co-founders pioneered the field of virtual, site-less clinical trials.

Greg holds BSEE and Marketing MBA degrees with high honors from Rutgers University, sits on several biotech corporate boards, is an angel investor, and is a part-time paid entrepreneurship lecturer at Harvard Medical School. Greg gives back to the community volunteering as a mentor for several large institutions as well as serving on the boards of charitable non-profit organizations. Greg is an avid coastal sailor, racer, jazz trumpeter, and tennis player.