WHERE UK INNOVATION IN BIOPROCESSING, DIGITAL QUALITY, & MODULAR MANUFACTURING TURN THEORY INTO PRACTICE

Christine Lagerquist Hägglund is a highly engaged leader with over five years of experience in project management and director-level roles. Currently serving as VP CMC Development at Scandinavian Biopharma, she brings a goal-oriented approach to complex biomanufacturing projects. Educated at Uppsala University, Christine excels at leading multidisciplinary teams and navigating the technical and operational demands of CMC development within the Greater Stockholm life sciences cluster.

Aliki Taylor is Executive Director of Epidemiology at Gilead Sciences, where she leads Real‑World Evidence in Oncology. In this role, Aliki oversees the strategy and delivery of real‑world studies across the oncology portfolio, spanning early development through post‑launch. Aliki has over 15 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry, holding senior epidemiology leadership roles in oncology at AstraZeneca, Takeda and Amgen. Prior to industry, Aliki worked in academia and completed a Fellowship and PhD in Cancer Epidemiology. Aliki trained in medicine at UCL in London and worked in the NHS, completing specialist training in Public Health Medicine

Marcelo Castro is a senior pharmaceutical quality and external manufacturing leader with extensive experience across global biologics supply operations, quality oversight, and strategic CMO management. At Pfizer, he currently serves as Senior Director, Global Biopharma 2 – External Supply Operations Quality, supporting the delivery of complex biologics through a global network of external manufacturing partners.

With deep expertise spanning biologics manufacturing, quality systems, supply chain operations, and external partner governance, Marcelo plays a key role in ensuring quality, compliance, and operational excellence across outsourced biopharmaceutical production. His work focuses on strengthening collaboration between sponsors and CDMOs while supporting robust, reliable supply for global patients.

Throughout his career, Marcelo has been involved in driving manufacturing performance, quality oversight, and strategic supply initiatives within highly regulated pharmaceutical environments. His experience across global supply and external operations provides valuable insight into the evolving challenges of biologics manufacturing, outsourcing strategy, and operational resilience.

Jose Martinez Calderon is an experienced pharmaceutical development and quality leader with more than 25 years of expertise spanning R&D quality, commercial product development, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and industrial operations within the global healthcare industry. At Almirall, he currently serves as QA R&D and Commercial Product Development Senior Director, where he plays a key role in overseeing quality strategy and development activities across both research and commercial product portfolios.

A pharmacist by training with postgraduate specialization in pharmaceutical quality systems, Jose has built an extensive career focused on pharmaceutical development, quality oversight, and operational excellence. Since joining Almirall in 1998, he has held a range of leadership positions across industrial pharmaceutical development and quality management, contributing to the advancement of development programmes from early-stage activities through commercial readiness.

Throughout his career, Jose has developed strong expertise in pharmaceutical quality systems, product development governance, process optimisation, and cross-functional collaboration within highly regulated environments. His experience spans the interface between R&D, manufacturing, and commercial operations, with a particular focus on ensuring robust quality frameworks that support efficient development and reliable product delivery.

In addition to his pharmaceutical leadership experience, Jose has also been actively involved in broader innovation and organisational initiatives. He contributed to the European Horizon 2020 “Intensified by Design (IbD)” project, focused on process intensification and advanced manufacturing methodologies for industrial applications, including pharmaceuticals.

Alongside his industry work, Jose has demonstrated a strong commitment to leadership and community engagement. He previously served as President of Club Bàsquet Viladecans, overseeing the strategic development and management of a large multi-team sports organisation, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Catalan Basketball Federation (FCBQ)

Dr. John Bridgeman is an accomplished immunotherapy and cell therapy expert with nearly two decades of experience advancing innovative cancer immunotherapies from early scientific discovery through translational and clinical development. He currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer at ImmunoKey, where he leads the company’s scientific strategy focused on developing next-generation CAR-T therapies designed to address the challenges of treating solid tumours.

Dr. Bridgeman holds a PhD from The University of Manchester, where his research focused on understanding the signalling biology of chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) in T cells. His work contributed to uncovering novel insights into CAR transmembrane domain function and T-cell receptor interactions, laying an important scientific foundation for the advancement of engineered cell therapies. He later continued his scientific training at Cardiff University, contributing to the development of viral-specific T-cell receptor assays and lentiviral engineering technologies for T-cell modulation.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Bridgeman has held leadership roles across several cell therapy and biotechnology organisations, including Instil Bio, Immetacyte Ltd., and Cellular Therapeutics Ltd., where he led research teams focused on novel gene engineering strategies, translational immunotherapy programmes, and CAR-T platform development. His expertise spans T-cell engineering, immuno-oncology, translational science, intellectual property strategy, and advancing innovative therapies toward clinical application.

At ImmunoKey, Dr. Bridgeman is leading the development of the company’s proprietary CARKey™ platform, a multi-specific CAR-T technology designed to overcome tumour antigen heterogeneity and improve the effectiveness of CAR-T therapies in solid cancers. His work focuses on developing safer, more targeted, and more durable cell therapies capable of addressing some of the most significant limitations currently facing solid tumour immunotherapy.

Widely recognised within the advanced therapies and immuno-oncology community, Dr. Bridgeman is a regular speaker at international scientific conferences and industry forums discussing the future of CAR-T therapies, cell engineering technologies, and translational immunotherapy innovation.

Gavin Wild is an accomplished biopharmaceutical professional with over 10 years of experience specializing in the design and development of downstream purification processes for antibody-based therapeutics. Based in Slough, England, United Kingdom, he currently serves as an Associate Director at UCB, a global biopharmaceutical leader.Throughout his career, Gavin has developed a deep expertise in constructing robust and scalable purification frameworks across both E. coli and mammalian feedstreams. His core competencies span a broad spectrum of critical downstream unit operations, including advanced column chromatography techniques (such as affinity, ion exchange, HIC, and SEC), ultrafiltration/diafiltration (UF/DF), and viral inactivation and filtration protocols. He is also highly skilled in managing technical transfers to contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs).An expert in leveraging modern process tools, Gavin extensively uses statistical Design of Experiments (DoE) via MODDE software to optimize development timelines. His technical proficiency extends across an array of ÄKTA systems—including FPLC, Explorer, Pilot, and Process configurations—and their accompanying Unicorn control software.Gavin began building his foundational industry expertise as a Research Scientist at Lonza before joining UCB. He holds a BSc in Cell Biology from the University of Portsmouth.

Driton’s research interests centre around understanding and overcoming the biological barriers to improve drug delivery, with a key focus on enabling oral administration of biotherapeutic drugs (peptides, proteins, nucleic acids). As part of this, he has specific interests in drug delivery systems, including nanomedicines and extracellular vesicles (exosomes), that potentially enable injection-free delivery. He is also interested in drug delivery in gut disease or those linked to the gut. Finally, aspects of Driton’s research relate to the creation of improved (more predictive) in vitro models for use in medicines development, including organoids. Driton routinely collaborates with the pharmaceutical industry and his research has been funded by different UK research councils, charities and the pharmaceutical industry. The overarching aim of Driton’s research is to improve patient outcomes and access to medicines.

Vishal Mukund Sonje is Vaccine Manufacturing Lead at Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, where he focuses on advancing global vaccine manufacturing capabilities, technology transfer, and CMC strategy to strengthen epidemic and pandemic preparedness worldwide. Based in London, he supports initiatives aimed at expanding manufacturing capacity and improving access to vaccines, particularly across low- and middle-income countries.

With extensive experience spanning vaccine manufacturing, industrial operations, CMC development, supply chain management, and technology transfer, Vishal has worked across the full product lifecycle — from early-stage development through to commercial manufacturing and WHO prequalification. Prior to joining CEPI, he held roles within the vaccine industry including at Sanofi Pasteur.

At CEPI, he plays a key role in enabling global manufacturing readiness, supporting geo-diversification of vaccine production networks, and driving strategic initiatives around manufacturing resilience, regulatory alignment, and rapid-response vaccine platforms.

Niveth Richard is a digital and supply chain transformation professional at GSK, specialising in decision intelligence, advanced analytics, and technology-driven supply chain optimisation within the pharmaceutical industry. Based in the UK, he focuses on leveraging data, AI-driven insights, and intelligent supply chain solutions to enhance operational efficiency, forecasting, and strategic decision-making across global healthcare operations. He has experience driving digital transformation initiatives and implementing cognitive supply chain tools across complex international networks

Marco Carfagna is the Head of Formulation Development and Drug Product Labs at Formycon, where he leads formulation and drug product development activities across the company’s biosimilar portfolio. With deep expertise in biologics and biosimilar development, he plays a key role in advancing robust, scalable, and patient-focused drug product strategies from early development through manufacturing readiness.

At Formycon, Marco contributes to the development of complex biologics and biosimilars across ophthalmology, immunology, and other chronic disease areas, supporting the company’s mission to expand access to high-quality and affordable biologic therapies worldwide. His work spans formulation optimisation, stability strategies, process development, and cross-functional collaboration across CMC and manufacturing functions.

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Kellen LaVigne is a supply chain leader in the cell and gene therapy industry with extensive experience building and scaling global logistics operations for advanced therapies. As Head of Supply Chain at Aurion Biotech, he oversees clinical and commercial readiness initiatives spanning logistics, cold chain distribution, tissue procurement, manufacturing coordination, and digital supply chain transformation. Kellen has led operational planning for clinical and commercial programs supporting both emerging biotech and large pharmaceutical organizations across North American and European markets.

Sébastien Dasnoy earned a Master’s degree in Bioscience Engineering and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from UCLouvain (Belgium). He brings over 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical development across the full product lifecycle, from preclinical stages to commercialization. He has co-authored peer-reviewed publications on high-throughput formulation screening, forced degradation, surfactants, fill-finish process characterization, and placebo matching methodologies. His expertise spans vaccines, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), peptides, vitamins, parenteral nutrition, renal dialysis, and hospital care products. At UCB (Belgium), he currently leads a team of scientists focused on injectable formulation development

Dr. Uwe Gottschalk is an Operating Partner at Keensight Capital.

Uwe has more than 30 years of experience within the field of bioprocessing and enzyme purification technologies.

He was CSO (Chief Scientific Officer) and CTO (Chief Technical Officer) of Lonza Pharma, a world leader in Life Sciences headquartered in Switzerland, from 2014 to 2021, where he focused on downstream bioprocesses.

Prior to Lonza, he was successively Vice President in Purification Technologies (2001-2009) and Group Vice President (2009-2014) of Sartorius, a leading international partner of life science research and the biopharmaceutical industry, listed on the German DAX stock market.

A German national, Uwe holds a Ph.D in Chemistry from the University of Münster.

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Dr. Jason Beckwith conducts research at UCL, & the University of Leeds, and holds a Professorship specialising in BioPharma talent dynamics through advanced mathematical modelling, and Emerging Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Technologies, Digitisation, and Automation. His research also encompasses the future of work, addressing skill gaps in Biopharma and ensuring workforce readiness for evolving technological landscapes.

With over 30 years of international experience in the Biotechnology industry, Dr. Beckwith’s academic background spans Pharmacology, Neuroscience, and Business. He holds postgraduate degrees in Neuroscience & Astrophysics and advanced business qualifications, including an MBA and a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA). Dr. Beckwith’s interdisciplinary expertise bridges scientific research and business strategy, reflected in his contributions to peer-reviewed publications across neuroscience and business domains. In addition to his academic achievements, Dr. Beckwith has held key leadership roles in biotechnology companies and has successfully founded and exited three bioscience startups. His work in university technology transfer and intellectual property commercialisation has led to multiple spinouts and licensing agreements, both in the UK and internationally. His industry experience is complemented by his service on several Biotech and Public sector boards, where he contributes to strategic initiatives aimed at fostering innovation and commercialisation.

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Dr. Aurélien Bunga is Senior Scientist at Rinri Therapeutics, where he contributes to the development of regenerative cell therapies for hearing loss and sensory restoration. His work focuses on stem cell biology, neuroscience, and translational research supporting the advancement of next-generation cell therapy platforms.

With more than a decade of life sciences R&D experience across academic and industry environments, Aurélien specialises in stem cell modelling, neuroimmunology, assay development, and translational therapeutic research. Prior to joining Rinri Therapeutics, he worked at Charles River Laboratories, where he played a leading role in assay development and client-focused neuroimmunology studies.

At Rinri Therapeutics, he supports the company’s efforts to advance innovative regenerative therapies toward clinical application, contributing to research activities spanning stem cell differentiation, translational development, and advanced therapeutic technologies.