2024 Speakers

Edward Abrahams is the President of the Personalized Medicine Coalition. Representing innovators, scientists, patients, providers, and payers, PMC promotes the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts, services, and products for the benefit of patients and health systems. It has grown from its original 18 founding members in 2004 to more than 225 today.

Ángel Alberich-Bayarri, Ph.D., is the founder and CEO of Quibim, a company striving to transform health care and improve human lives through AI-guided precision solutions.

Toni is an M.D., Ph.D., who specialized in genetics and genomics of rare diseases. He has been working in the field of neuromuscular disorders from the translational perspective of the pipeline, from basic science to the development of cell and animal models and clinical research. He has served previously as the Director of the Spanish National Institute of Health, Carlos III, creating the national program for personalized medicine.

As the American Cancer Society’s Senior Vice President of Extramural Discovery Science, Christina Annunziata, M.D., Ph.D., leads a team of scientific directors and staff to identify the most innovative and promising research from research grant applications to end cancer as we know it for everyone. In addition to leading the grant peer-review process at the American Cancer Society, Annunziata builds and fosters critical relationships with cancer researchers across the nation and with international scientific communities.

Dr. Tomasz (Tom) Beer serves as VP & Chief Medical Officer for Multi-Cancer Early Detection (MCED) at Exact Sciences Corporation. Dr. Beer oversees the clinical development of the company’s Multi-Cancer Early Detection test, a program that aims to greatly expand the reach of cancer screening beyond the handful of cancers that we screen for today. Prior to joining Exact Sciences Dr. Beer served as Chief Medical Officer for the Center for Early Detection Advanced Research (CEDAR) within the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University where he also served as Deputy Cancer Center Director. At CEDAR, Dr. Beer oversaw collaborations between clinicians, engineers, and cancer biologists to advance discoveries in early detection of cancer.

Cynthia A. Bens serves as the Senior Vice President for Public Policy at the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC). In this capacity, she leads the Coalition’s policy development and government relations efforts and serves as its primary liaison with the U.S. Congress and federal regulators. Bens is responsible for implementing research, regulatory, and reimbursement policy strategies that promote the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts, services, and products to benefit patients and health systems.

Dr. Billings has devoted his life to studying and teaching medicine and genetics while accelerating the use of a broad range of novel genomic technologies in clinical settings. Over his decades of experience in health care, he has established key business partnerships to drive the adoption of innovative discoveries and commercial successes.

Kathy Bloomgarden is the CEO of Ruder Finn, one of the world’s largest independent public relations and creative agencies. She is known for her work positioning companies, CEOs, and senior management as leaders and change-makers in an era of disruption and accelerated transformation. She has more than 30 years of experience with dozens of top CEOs and business leaders across the health care, technology, and corporate sectors.

Justin Brueck is a visionary leader driving innovation in personalized medicine. As System Vice President for Innovation and Research at Endeavor Health, he spearheads groundbreaking initiatives, including the Center for Personalized Medicine and the newly established Center for Preventive Genomics. With a deep understanding of genomics and a proven track record in healthsystem operations, Brueck is at the forefront of transforming healthcare through practical implementation.

Dr. Brian Caveney is a distinguished leader in the healthcare sector, currently serving as the Chief Medical & Scientific Officer and the President of Early Development Research Laboratories at Labcorp. He is a licensed physician and attorney who holds an M.D. from the West Virginia University School of Medicine, a J.D. from its College of Law, and an M.P.H. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was recognized on Modern Healthcare‘s list of the 50 Most Influential People in Healthcare in 2020.

Joshua C. Denny, M.D., M.S., is the CEO of the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program. All of Us seeks to enroll at least one million diverse participants to build an indispensable resource that accelerates precision medicine for all populations. Josh has been involved since the program’s inception. He was a member of the NIH Precision Medicine Initiative Working Group of the Advisory Committee to the Director, which developed the program’s initial scientific blueprint.

Okan Ekinci, M.D., M.B.A., is the Head of Digital Technology and Chief Medical Information Officer at Roche Information Solutions. He joined Roche in 2018 and served as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Marketing & Innovation for the digital health business. Before that, Okan held various positions at Siemens Healthineers, including Chief Medical Officer and Head of Healthcare Consulting. He has been a strategic advisor to healthcare institutions and governments on digital transformation and artificial intelligence. Okan is a cardiologist by training and an adjunct professor of medicine at the University College Dublin.

John has spent his career driving innovative technology to improve people’s lives. At DNAnexus, John leads the product, engineering, science, services, and support teams. Prior, John was Chief Product Officer at Vantiq and co-founder, Chief Technology Officer, and Chief Product Officer at Model N.

At Covington & Burling, Joe Franklin is Special Counsel focused on drug and device regulatory law, with an emphasis on emerging AI use cases in the biopharmaceutical industry and the use of novel data sources in clinical research. Joe previously held a variety of positions at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including service as a senior advisor on data and evidence initiatives.

As the International Coordinator for the French National Research Agency, Monika Frenzel represents France in the European Partnership for Personalised Medicine (EP PerMed). In this role, she is leading the activities on “Personalised Medicine Research-related Funding and Support.” EP PerMed, as a coordination platform, brings together European as well as international, national, and regional ministries and funding organizations, agencies, and authorities. Its vision is to improve health outcomes within sustainable health care systems through research, development, innovation, and implementation of personalized medicine approaches for the benefit of patients, citizens, and society.

Felice Freyer covers health care and medicine, seeking out the human stories behind medical science and policy. For The Boston Globe, she wrote a nine-part series that revealed the failures of addiction treatment and showed how some people nevertheless find their path to recovery. When the pandemic struck, Freyer embedded at a hospital coping with the crisis. In a story years in the making, Freyer described in September of 2023 how a revolutionary new drug for cystic fibrosis brought health and longer lives, but not without complications and sorrows.

Lillian joined Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in 2022 and quickly transitioned into a leadership role at its Center of Precision Medicine where she is responsible for the center’s operations and patient-centered programs and was instrumental in the launch of the Undiagnosed Disease Clinic. This clinic aims to provide answers and hope to patients with rare diseases through a multidisciplinary approach and state-of-the-art testing tailored to their specific needs. Having earned dual degrees in Public Health and Biomedical Engineering coupled with a strong background in Epidemiology, Lillian leverages her expertise to drive meaningful change in the delivery of care with a specific focus on bridging the gap between technology and healthcare in an accessible and affordable way for any patient.

Michael has enabled pioneering companies that have advanced patient care in oncology, cardiology and immunology based on genomics and related areas of digital technology for more than three decades. He has experience as a company founder, CEO and Silicon Valley venture capitalist focused on biotechnology.

Michael has been an investor and board member of numerous venture-backed life science companies, including: Genomic Health, CareDx, Crescendo and iRhythm. He has also served on boards and advisory boards of a number of industry, academic and public policy institutions including: the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the Harvard Center for Genetics and Genomics, the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, the Western Association of Venture Capitalists and the Stanford Distinguished Career Institute.

Michael is a graduate of Brandeis University (BA) and the Stanford Graduate School of Business (MBA).

Dr. Mira Irons is a medical geneticist in Boston, MA, who specializes in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of hereditary diseases. She received her medical degree from McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University and has been in practice for more than 20 years.

Jonathan Kish is an epidemiologist and designer of novel research approaches to demonstrate real-world effectiveness, safety and patient impact of pharmaceuticals in oncology, immunology, neurology and rare diseases. He currently serves as Head of RWE Research Sciences at Flatiron Health.

Emily Kramer-Golinkoff is Co-Founder of Emily’s Entourage, an innovative 501(c)3 that accelerates research for individuals in the final 10 percent of the cystic fibrosis (CF) population that do not benefit from existing mutation-targeted therapies. She is also an internationally recognized patient advocate and speaker.

Since 2011, Emily’s Entourage has awarded millions of dollars in research grants, launched a now-acquired CF gene therapy company, developed a patient database and clinical trial matchmaking program to accelerate clinical trial recruitment, and led worldwide efforts to drive high-impact research and drug development. The organization has been featured in media outlets including The New York Times, STAT, CNN, Yahoo, AOL, People, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and more.

Clifton Leaf, an adjunct professor of journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, served as the Editor-in-Chief of Fortune from 2017 to 2021. During his tenure, Fortune won more than 70 top journalism prizes, substantially expanded its website, newsletter, premium subscription, podcast, and virtual conference businesses, and launched two new start-up businesses in career development and education, respectively.

Manoja Lecamwasam is an experienced innovation executive with a demonstrated successful history of working in the hospital and health care industries. She currently serves as System Vice President for Intellectual Property, Strategic Life Sciences, and Device Innovation at CommonSpirit Health.

Mark has been in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and venture capital fields for almost 50 years. He was co-founder, CEO, and chair of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, a leading company in personalized medicine. He was also founding co-director of the Mayfield Fund Biotech effort and co-founder of Third Rock Ventures.

As Chief Precision Medicine Officer at Diaceutics, Susanne leads a global team of precision medicine industry experts dedicated to enhancing the testing ecosystem to help patients capitalize on breakthrough medications. Susanne’s journey in molecular pathology has been marked by notable achievements, including spearheading several global launches of companion diagnostic products. As a leading author of the practice gaps study, Susanne played a pivotal role in identifying seven key clinical practice gaps contributing to patient leakage in personalized medicine. Her impactful contributions to the field have earned her a place among the PharmaVoice 100 list of transformational leaders in life sciences.

Brian Munroe is a founder of the Personalized Medicine Coalition. A 25-year veteran of health care public policy, advocacy, and communications, Brian’s areas of expertise include U.S. Food and Drug Administration-related legislation and regulations, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, federal and state tax policy, and the development of government policies to advance personalized medicine.

Lincoln Nadauld, M.D., Ph.D., is the CEO of Culmination Bio, a clinical insights company spun out of Intermountain Healthcare. Dr. Nadauld previously served as the Chief of Precision Health at Intermountain Healthcare, where he founded the Intermountain Precision Genomics program with a vision of finding solutions to improve health and disease through genomics and precision medicine without increasing costs. With this vision in mind, he oversaw the clinical implementation of precision genomics across Intermountain’s 24 hospitals and 160 physician clinics.

Joshua Ofman, M.D., is President at Grail, a multi-cancer early detection testing company. Josh also serves on the Board of Directors of Cell BT, Inc., an immunotherapy company focused on the discovery and development of innovative cancer therapeutics. Previously, Josh spent more than 15 years at Amgen, where he most recently held the role of Senior Vice President, Global Value, Access and Policy. Prior to that, Josh was a faculty member in the Department of Medicine and Health Services Research at the UCLA School of Medicine.

Mike is a General Partner of S32, a venture capital fund investing at the frontiers of technology and healthcare. Prior to joining S32 in 2017, he served as CEO and Chairman of Foundation Medicine, a company that transformed the way pharmaceutical companies and physicians evaluate the genomic changes underlying a patient’s cancer. He transitioned to Foundation Medicine Chairman through the close of Roche’s acquisition of the company in August of 2018.

Daryl Pritchard, Ph.D., is the Senior Vice President of Science Policy at the Personalized Medicine Coalition, where he leads PMC’s efforts to increase awareness and understanding of personalized medicine; identify and address barriers to the adoption of personalized medicine into the health care system; and develop and promote appropriate clinical, health care infrastructure, regulatory and payment policies.

Sam Raha is the Chief Operating Officer at Myriad Genetics and is focused on driving increased patient access and profitable growth by strengthening operational execution, innovation and the patient and provider experience. Previously, he was the President of Agilent’s Diagnostic and Genomics Group with responsibility for the group’s strategy, innovation and results. Prior to Agilent, he led Marketing and Product at Illumina. Sam earned his MBA from Santa Clara University and has an undergraduate degree in molecular and cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Following his brother’s death from a metastatic cancer in 2016, Bruce Ratner founded a nonprofit institution, the Michael D. Ratner Center for Early Detection of Cancer, to research and promote better cancer screening. He is on the boards of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Medical Center, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Dr. David M. Reese is Amgen’s inaugural executive vice president and chief technology officer, responsible for accelerating the use of technology and artificial intelligence across all facets of the company, as well as for the company’s Global Medical organization.

Dr. Reese joined Amgen in 2005 and served as executive vice president, Research and Development from 2018 to 2023. During this time, Amgen received approvals around the world for numerous innovative medicines and biosimilars, developed a robust pipeline of potential new medicines, and built a powerful discovery research capability.

Prior to joining Amgen, Dr. Reese was director of Clinical Research for the Breast Cancer International Research Group (BCIRG) and a co-founder, president and chief medical officer of Translational Oncology Research International (TORI), a not-for-profit academic clinical research organization.

Dr. Reese is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He completed training in Internal Medicine and Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine, and subsequently served on the faculty at UCLA and the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Kate Sasser is the Chief Scientific Officer of Tempus. Dr. Sasser brings over 20 years of experience in translational research and precision medicine in biological sciences across academia and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Prior to Tempus, she led the translational research, precision medicine, and research & development operations organizations within Genmab, a biotechnology company focused on developing transformative antibody therapeutics as medicine.

From 2019 to 2023, Christi Shaw served as the CEO of Kite Pharma, a Gilead company specializing in the development of cancer immunotherapies. Ms. Shaw has also served as Senior Vice President of Eli Lilly Company, President of Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation, and as a co-founder of the More Moments More Memories Foundation. From 2016 to 2017, she served as a full-time caregiver to her sister.

Dr. Snyderman served as Chancellor for Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine at Duke University from 1989 to 2004. During this time, he oversaw the development of the Duke University Health System and served as its first president and CEO. Dr. Snyderman’s focus is personalized health care and he continues to lead these efforts nationally from his position as Director of the Duke Center for Personalized Health Care.

Matt is a Managing Director in the Healthcare Group within Global Investment Research at Goldman Sachs. He has primary coverage of life sciences tools and diagnostic companies. Prior to joining Global Investment Research in 2020, Matt served as a Vice President in Equities Franchise Sales in the Securities Division, where he co-led the Asset Management Sales desk. Before that, he held equity sales roles in European, Global and U.S. products. Matt joined the firm in 2002 as an Associate and was named Managing Director in 2023.

Dr. Syngal is a practicing gastroenterologist at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. As the Institute’s Strategic Planning Director for Prevention and Early Detection, she is also spearheading the next steps for one of the first clinical cancer genetics and prevention programs in the world. Dr. Syngal received her M.D. from McGill University in 1990 and completed her clinical training in internal medicine and gastroenterology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Jacob Thaysen, Ph.D., is Chief Executive Officer of Illumina, a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies. Prior to joining Illumina in 2023, Thaysen served as President of the Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group and Diagnostic and Genomics Group at Agilent; Corporate Vice President of R&D at Dako; and Management Consultant at Copenhagen Consultancy Company (now Bain & Co).

Early in his career, he was Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Cantion, a research and defense application development company based in Denmark. Thaysen is Chairman of the ALDA Board (Analytical, Life Science and Diagnostic Association) and is a San Diego Chapter member of the American Cancer Society’s CEOs Against Cancer. Thaysen holds an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in physics from the Technical University of Denmark.

Since joining the faculty at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2001, Dr. Tsimberidou’s clinical research has focused on the development of therapeutic strategies for advanced hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. She has served as the Principal Investigator for 20 investigator-initiated clinical trials for the treatment of patients with advanced cancer.

Julia Vitarello is Founder and CEO of Mila’s Miracle Foundation. Upon learning that Mila’s disease had no cure and no child had ever survived it, Julia started the Foundation to initiate and fund novel treatments. She raised nearly $5 million in grass-roots efforts from over 6,000 supporters, while at the same time being a mom and caregiver. What began as a race to save Mila’s life has since turned into an opportunity to pave an entirely new treatment path for children with fatal genetic diseases.

Kate Wallis is the Vice President of Clinical Innovation at Point32Health. In this role, she leads a team of professionals with diverse career backgrounds that seek to advance health care technology solutions to improve care and outcomes. Wallis is also a steering committee member for CancerX, the public-private partnership that launched in 2023 to harness the power of innovation to help achieve the goals of the United States federal government’s Cancer Moonshot program.

Janet Woodcock served as the Acting Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from January 20, 2021, until February 17, 2022. Dr. Woodcock began her FDA career in 1986 at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). At CBER, she served as Director of the Division of Biological Investigational New Drugs and as Acting Deputy Director. She is widely regarded as one of the foremost pioneers in personalized medicine.

Michael Ybarra, M.D., is Chief Medical Officer at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). PhRMA advocates for public policies that support the innovative biopharmaceutical ecosystem. In support of key public policy priorities, Dr. Ybarra manages PhRMA teams responsible for coalition building, stakeholder engagement, and strategic partnerships domestically and internationally.