Live on stage — Cell & Gene Leaders Live speakers and moderators

Dr Angela Kukula

Co-Founder · London Life Sciences Week

Co-founder of London Life Sciences Week, CEO of MedCity and Director of Life Sciences at London & Partners, with experience spanning academia, the NHS and the commercial sector.

Lisa Deschamps

CEO · AviadoBio

Chief Executive Officer and Executive Board Member at AviadoBio. Previously Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Novartis Gene Therapies, where she led worldwide commercialisation across its gene therapy portfolio.

Dr. Ricardo Baptista

Chief Technology Officer · SmartCella

A biotechnology engineer specialising in cell and gene therapy CMC, focused on creating scalable, affordable manufacturing solutions for allogeneic cell therapies.

Jerry Jiang

VP, Global Sales · CellBri

A cell and gene therapy commercial leader helping therapy developers, CDMOs and technology providers adopt advanced-therapy manufacturing solutions.

Dr. Carolyn Porter

Chief Business Officer · Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult

A biotech leader with more than 25 years of experience across academia, technology transfer, university spin-outs and the biopharmaceutical industry.

David Kirn, MD

CEO, President & Co-Founder · 4D Molecular Therapeutics (4DMT)

A physician-scientist and biotechnology entrepreneur leading 4DMT’s work to develop targeted genetic medicines through directed evolution of AAV vectors.

Dr. Ed Samuel

Chief Operating Officer · Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult

An advanced-therapies operations leader responsible for CGT Catapult’s Manufacturing Innovation team and GMP facilities, with more than two decades of experience spanning development, tech transfer and scale-up.

Dr. Stephen Sullivan

Founder & Managing Director · Lindville Bio

A stem-cell scientist and ATMP consultant with more than two decades of experience helping pluripotent stem-cell therapies move from early research towards scalable, regulatory-ready manufacture.

Kim Steel

Founder & Managing Director · SAPRO Consulting & CRO

A clinical-research leader with more than 18 years of experience across CRO, pharmaceutical and biotech organisations, directing first-in-human and Phase I–IV studies and founding SAPRO to give emerging biotechs a more flexible trial pathway partner.

Steve Bates, OBE

Chair, Department of Life Sciences · UK Government

A leading voice for UK life sciences, connecting government, industry and investors to strengthen the country’s health-innovation ecosystem.

Dr. Miguel Forte

CEO · Kiji Therapeutics

An experienced cell-and-gene therapy executive leading Kiji Therapeutics and the development of next-generation immune medicines.

Edwin Stone

CEO · Cellular Origins

Leads Cellular Origins, bringing advanced automation to cell-therapy manufacturing so promising treatments can be produced reliably at commercial scale.

Alexander Seyf

CEO · Autolomous

Dr. Erik Wiklund

CEO · Circio

Leads Circio’s work on circular RNA, building a platform designed to deliver durable, next-generation genetic medicines.

Jon Ellis

CEO · Trenchant BioSystems

Professor Sir Peter Donnelly

CEO & Co-Founder · Genomics

CEO and co-founder of Genomics, translating insights from human genetics into better healthcare and drug discovery.

Mike Klein

CEO · Genomenon

Dr. Marcos Burger Ramos

CSO & Co-Founder · Anomer Bio

Ali Pashazadeh

Partner · Tree Hill Partners

Sven Kili

Partner · Saisei Ventures

A physician, biotech operator and investor helping advanced-therapy companies turn ambitious science into scalable, patient-ready businesses.

Professor Farzin Farzaneh

CSO of ViroCell & Professor at King's College London · ViroCell

A translational scientist and company builder advancing viral-vector manufacturing and the clinical delivery of cell and gene therapies.

Stuart Lowe, PhD

Head of Advanced Therapies · TTP PLC

Stuart Curbishley

Chief Development & Manufacturing Officer · adthera bio

Simon Boa

CEO · Bramble Bio

Chief Executive Officer of Bramble Bio, a cell-therapy CDMO. More than 20 years of life-sciences leadership spanning commercialisation and market expansion at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Merck and Becton Dickinson, with a PhD in epigenetics from the Roslin Institute / University of Edinburgh and an MBA from Warwick.

Dr. Léon Spijkers

CEO · Korecyte Bio

Co-founder and CEO of Korecyte Bio, developing next-generation CAR-based cellular immunotherapies for solid tumours. More than 15 years in life-sciences management, R&D and business development, with a PhD in molecular cell biology.

Kayleigh Thirlwell

Senior Director · Resolution Therapeutics

Senior Director at Resolution Therapeutics, working on macrophage cell-therapy development and translational research. A PhD immunologist with more than a decade of experience taking cell therapies from research towards the clinic.

Dr. Killian Hanlon

CEO & Chief Scientist · Lir Therapeutics

Co-founder, CEO and Chief Scientist of Lir Therapeutics, an AI viral-vector company engineering AAV capsids for dose reduction, tissue targeting and immune evasion. A former Harvard Medical School postdoctoral fellow with more than a decade of AAV engineering experience and multiple patents in the field.

Shankar Musunuri, PhD, MBA

Chairman, CEO & Co-founder · Ocugen

Chairman, CEO and co-founder of Ocugen, developing modifier gene therapies for blindness. A biotech operator with more than 30 years of experience, including nearly 15 years at Pfizer where he led global operations for Prevnar 13, and founding Nuron Biotech.