2025 Speakers, Moderators and Panelists

Hasan Alam, MD, FACS

Dr. Hasan B. Alam is an Acute Care Surgeon who the Loyal and Edith Davis Professor and Chair of Surgery at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, as well as the Surgeon-in-Chief at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital. With over 20 years as a physician-scientist, Dr. Alam has gained international recognition as a trauma and general surgeon. His clinical interests revolve around the areas of trauma, emergency general surgery and surgical critical care. He has held various academic and clinical leadership roles at institutions across the country including the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Georgetown University Medical School, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Michigan School of Medicine.

Dr. Alam has established himself as an exceptional investigator, skilled clinician and thoughtful educator. His research interests are in the areas of novel resuscitation strategies, hemorrhage control, modulation of cell protective strategies, consequences of septic shock, and traumatic brain injury. Dr. Alam is currently involved in multiple clinical trials. In addition, his research has been funded by large federal grants including the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Defense. Dr. Alam has over 400 manuscripts and books published of which include his original research. He has earned numerous awards for excellence in teaching and research and serves on the editorial boards of leading surgical trauma and critical care journals including the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, International Journal of Surgery, Shock, and the Annals of Surgery.

Kenneth Bertram, MD, PhD

Dr. Kenneth A. Bertram is the Clinical Product Development Officer for the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC. He leads a team conducting early clinical trials using human stem cells to treat harmful host immune response in multiple diseases. Dr. Bertram retired (June 2018) as the Principal Assistant for Acquisition for the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), Ft. Detrick, Maryland, and as a member of the Senior Executive Service. He was responsible for the advanced development and acquisition of medical products (drugs, vaccines, blood, and devices) for the US Army. Dr. Bertram previously served in the US Army, retiring as a Colonel, Medical Corps, after 24 years of Active Duty. Dr. Bertram completed his Hematology/Medical Oncology Fellowship and Internal Medicine Residency at Madigan Army Medical Center. Dr. Bertram received his M.D. and Ph.D. (Microbiology) degrees from the University of Minnesota. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (F.A.C.P.). Dr. Bertram also serves as the Chief Medical Officer for the medical device company, Echelon Med Tech (St. Louis, MO), and on the Scientific Advisory Board for BioBridge Global and the Board of Directors for the Geneva Foundation. He is a medical research and development Consultant to universities, companies, and government relations firms.

Lynne Boxer, DVM

Dr. Boxer obtained her veterinary degree from the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. After graduation, Dr. Boxer practiced equine medicine in an ambulatory practice in California before joining FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Boxer has been with CVM for 15 years as a Veterinary Medical Officer in the Office of New Animal Drug Evaluation. Dr. Boxer is the Center lead for animal cells, tissues, and cell- and tissue-based products, and conducts educational outreach regarding regulation of this novel class of products. In her current role, Dr. Boxer is the Team Leader for the Cell and Tissue Products Team in the Division of Animal Bioengineering and Cellular Therapies.

Laura Brosch, RN, PhD

Dr. Brosch is the Assistant Vice President for Research Initiatives and Compliance (AVP RIC) at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) in Bethesda, Maryland. The Office of the AVP RIC enables the responsible conduct of research at USU and is responsible for USU research regulatory compliance oversight. The AVP, RIC oversees the USU Human Research Protection Program, the Animal Care and Use compliance oversight program, the Institutional Biosafety Committee and the Human Anatomical Materials Review Committee. In addition, the AVP RIC develops and monitors programs and initiatives to enhance translational research and improve collaborations. Prior joining USU, Dr. Brosch served for over 16 years as the Director, Office of Research Protections, at the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Her office provided human subjects protection and animal welfare regulatory oversight for research conducted by numerous Army and DoD organizations as well as for extramural research conducted in 67 countries and over 1600 institutions. Dr. Brosch chaired the USAMRMC, Human Subjects Research Review Board for six years and served as a member of a DOD Institutional Review Board (IRB) for over 12 years.

Dr. Brosch is a human research protections expert and former health services researcher and who retired as a Colonel in the Army Nurse Corps with 26 years of service. She served for four years as the Nursing Research Consultant to the US Army Surgeon General. She holds the U.S. Army Surgeon General’s “A” Proficiency Designator in Nursing Research. Her faculty appointments have included the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Dr. Brosch received her BSN from DePaul University, her MSN from the University of Illinois at the Medical Center, Chicago and her PhD from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. She is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. She
is a recipient of the Anita Newcomb McGee Award for Distinguished Service to the Nation as an Army Nurse Corps Officer, the USAMRMC Combat Casualty Care Research Program Award for Excellence for her leadership in establishing the first Human Research Protection Program and IRB approval process for human research conducted in a Combatant Command and the 2015 Major Jonathan Letterman Medical Excellence Award for Outstanding Contributions to Improving Medical Processes and Patient Outcomes in Military Medicine. Dr. Brosch is also the recipient of the Legion of Merit and multiple military and civilian awards during her active duty military and federal civilian career.

Lisa Buckley, MPH

Lisa is Chief Regulatory Officer at Velico Medical and has over 30 years of experience in translational research with regulatory and clinical trial expertise in developing novel medical products. She has deep domain knowledge with over 15 years of hands-on experience developing dried plasma products. In a previous role as Senior Vice President of Research and Development at HemCon Medical Technologies, she oversaw the development of a freeze-dried plasma product funded through US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. The product successfully completed a Phase 1 clinical trial and was poised to begin multi-center Phase 2 clinical trials. She has publications and patents in the field of freeze-dried plasma and novel containers for the plasma product. Lisa also served as the Director of Regulatory Affairs and Clinical Trials at the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon. Ms. Buckley has a B.S. in Biology from Boston College and a M.P.H. in Healthcare Management from Columbia University.

Jeremy Cannon, MD, SM, FACS

Dr. Cannon is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania where he serves as the Trauma Program Medical Director and the Section Chief of Trauma in the Department of Surgery. He is a graduate of the US Air Force Academy and Harvard Medical School and holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. He served on active duty in the US Air Force from 2006 to 2015 as a trauma surgeon with multiple combat deployments. His research interests include improving outcomes from hemorrhagic shock, developing technology for the treatment of acutely injured patients, and military-civilian trauma training partnerships.

Andrew Cap, MD, PhD

COL Cap received a BA from Harvard University, an MS in Technology & Policy from MIT, and worked in management & policy consulting before enrolling in the Boston University School of Medicine where he earned an MD magna cum laude and a PhD in Pathology, and was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He completed Internal Medicine residency and Hematology-Oncology fellowship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, with additional training in Bone Marrow Transplantation at NIH. He currently serves as Director of Research for the US Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR), with a staff of over 250 and a budget of over $40M, executing the DoD’s primary intramural research program in combat casualty care. COL Cap previously served as Chair, USAISR Coagulation and Blood Research, and led efforts to develop improved blood products as well as study mechanisms of acute traumatic coagulopathy, blood-device interactions in extracorporeal life support systems, and cellular therapies for trauma and burns. COL Cap has served as fellowship director for the San Antonio Military Medical Center Clinical Research Fellowship, Associate Program Director for the Hematology-Oncology Fellowship and as Medical Director for the Fort Sam Houston Akeroyd Blood Donor Center. COL Cap is an active clinician, a Professor of Medicine at Uniformed Services University, an Adjoint Professor of Biology and adjunct faculty in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas – San Antonio, and an Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Centers in Houston & San Antonio. He has published over 270 peer-reviewed papers, 8 book chapters, and has filed several patent applications. He is an Associate Editor of Transfusion and Co-Editor of the Military Supplement of the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, and is on the editorial board of Shock. COL Cap served as Chief of Medicine in a Combat Support Hospital deployed to CENTCOM and has provided strategic support to the Armed Services Blood Program, the Joint Trauma System, SOCOM, INDOPACOM, AFRICOM and EUCOM. He currently serves as the Hematology-Oncology Consultant to the US Army Surgeon General.

Becky Cap, MBA

Becky Butler Cap, SVP, Business Development, Advanced Therapies for BioBridge Global, is a 30-year veteran of the life sciences industry. Ms. Cap is the founding executive for GenCure, an intra-preneurial subsidiary of BioBridge Global. Since 2016, GenCure has focused on filling the gap in capabilities to support production of Advanced Therapy products. With the introduction of this capability, GenCure pioneered the way into this new therapeutic space for the BioBridge Global team. She has built a team with a depth of experience in biologics manufacturing in the context of a robust quality system. Ms. Cap currently drives Business Development for the full Donor-to-Patient continuum of service that BioBridge Global offers. BioBridge Global brings a relationship with hospitals and comfort in managing clinical material that makes it stand out in the industry.

Earlier in her career with Eidetics and later with Athena Biomedical Strategies, Ms. Cap advised and supported numerous early-stage ventures through clinical development and has developed and driven US and international commercialization strategy for products in the oncology, immunology, and rare diseases space. She has also provided direction, as an advisor, Director, and part-time executive, to numerous life science startups. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and an MBA from the Questrom School of Management at Boston University.

Samuel Carmichael, MD

I am an Assistant Professor of Surgery within the Wake Forest University School of Medicine Department of Surgery and Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM). My research interests include a range of topics, from the development and prevention of fibrosis within the abdomen to shock resuscitation of the critically ill patient. Within these, a portion of my time is dedicated to the development of novel therapies for prevention of abdominal scar tissue formation at WFIRM. Clinically, I have strong interests in shock resuscitation and abdominal wall reconstruction. I am excited to partner with colleagues in the rich academic atmosphere at WFIRM and across the Wake Forest School of Medicine.

David Chou, MD, PhD

David Chou is a Clinical Fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. He has a keen interest in therapeutic development for bone marrow diseases. He obtained his B.S. in Applied and Computational Mathematics from Caltech, M.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, and Ph.D. from the University of Paris Diderot. Since completing anatomic pathology residency and hematopathology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, he has been working in Donald Ingber’s lab for several years on developing the human Bone Marrow Chip as an enabling technology to improve how we model human bone marrow disorders in vitro and discover drugs to treat them. This has been done in the context of ionizing radiation injury, chemotherapy safety assessment, and fetal hemoglobin modulation. He currently leads a team that is using the BM Chip as part of a multipronged strategy to discover novel therapeutics for improving bone marrow recovery after chemoradiation injury and for treating rare genetic bone marrow failure disorders.

Jean-Paul Chretien, MD, PhD

JP is a Navy physician and program manager with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Biological Technologies Office. His previous assignments include Pandemic Warning Team Lead, Defense Intelligence Agency; Senior Policy Advisor for Biodefense, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Innovation & Evaluation Team Lead, Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch; Director of Force Health Protection, II Marine Expeditionary Force; and International Programs Coordinator, DoD-Global Emerging Infections System.

JP graduated from the US Naval Academy, where he was a Truman Scholar, and received his MD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and PhD (genetic epidemiology) and MHS (biostatistics) from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He completed residency in Preventive Medicine at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and fellowship in Health Sciences Informatics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He received the Rising Star Award from the American College of Preventive Medicine, Best Publication of the Year Award from the International Society for Disease Surveillance, and Skelton Award for Public Service from the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation.

Kevin Chung, MD

Dr. Kevin Chung, a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army, is a renowned expert in multi-organ support and extracorporeal therapies. He is the Chief Medical Officer of SeaStar Medical, a medical technology company developing proprietary solutions to reduce the consequences of hyperinflammation on vital organs. Dr. Chung is responsible for the strategy, direction, and execution of SeaStar Medical’s clinical development plans as the company develops and commercializes extracorporeal therapies that target the effector cells that drive systemic inflammation and secrete a range of pro-inflammatory cytokines that initiate and propagate imbalanced immune responses.

Prior to joining SeaStar Medical, Dr. Chung served as professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine, and professor of Surgery, at the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland. Earlier in his career, he served as Chief of the Department of Medicine at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Dr. Chung deployed as the Chief, Intensive Care Unit, for the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq 2008, and as Director, Joint Combat Casualty Research Team in Bagram, Afghanistan 2012.

He is a 1995 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a 1999 graduate of Georgetown University School of Medicine. After finishing a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Dr. Chung was assigned to the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR) in San Antonio, Texas, where he served in the capacity of Medical Director of the Burn Intensive Care Unit, Task Area Manager of Clinical Trials, and the Director of Research for 12 years.

Dr. Chung has authored over 300 peer reviewed manuscripts, reviews, editorials, and book chapters, and has been an invited speaker for over 150 lectures internationally.

Mitchell Cohen, MD

Mitchell Cohen is Professor of Surgery at the University of Colorado. Clinically he is an active Trauma, General and Acute Care Surgeon as well as a busy Intensivist. Dr. Cohen has an active NIH and DoD funded basic science research lab, which studies coagulation and inflammation perturbations after trauma. Specifically, his lab continues to examine the mechanisms of traumatic coagulopathy and mediators of protein C system activation after trauma. In addition to its basic science focus the Cohen research group transnationally studies similar topics through multiple clinical characterization and interventional trials aimed at elucidating the post trauma coagulation milieu and optimal resuscitation and treatment. Finally, the Cohen group has an active interest in in silico data and model driven approaches to modeling of biological and physiologic systems. In keeping with this his group has done extensive work on the use of Big Data towards improving personalized medicine and outcomes. His work includes multi scale modeling projects ranging from coagulation and endothelial biology to causal inference prediction of patient physiologic state and trajectory. His best job however is as Dad to Ava (16) and husband to Stephanie.

Charles Cox, MD, FACS

Dr. Charles S. Cox, Jr., is the George and Cynthia Mitchell Distinguished Chair in Neurosciences, Glassell Family Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Surgery and directs the Pediatric Surgical Translational Laboratories and Pediatric Program in Regenerative Medicine at the UTHealth Medical School. He directs the Pediatric Trauma Program at the UTHealth McGovern Medical School/Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Texas Medical Center. He is the Principal Investigator for the T32 Postdoctoral Training Program with the Center for Translational Injury Research (CETIR) at UTHealth.

A Texas native, Dr. Cox received his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin in the Plan II Liberal Arts Honors Program. Upon graduating from the University of Texas Medical Branch, he completed his Surgery residency at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Further post-graduate fellowships were completed in Pediatric Surgery at the University of Michigan, an NIH T32 sponsored clinical and research fellowship in cardiopulmonary support/circulatory support devices/bio-hybrid organs at the Shriner’s Burns Institute, and Surgical Critical Care/Trauma at UTHealth Medical School. He is certified by the American Board of Surgery in Surgery, with added qualifications in Pediatric Surgery and Surgical Critical Care.

The Pediatric Translational Laboratories and Pediatric Program in Regenerative Medicine is a multi-disciplinary effort that addresses problems that originate with traumatic injury and the consequences of resuscitation and critical care. The Program focuses on progenitor cell based therapy (stem cells) for traumatic brain injury, and related neurological injuries (hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, stroke, spinal cord injury), recently completing the first acute, autologous cell therapy treatment Phase I study for traumatic brain injury in children.

The program also develops novel bio-hybrid organs using cell-based and tissue engineering approaches to trauma and injury related problems. These efforts have recently resulted in two IND based cell therapeutic studies, and three patents in the past two years. The program is funded through the National Institutes of Health, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Industry Collaboration, and philanthropic contributions.

Dr. Cox has served on scientific study sections/review groups for the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association, Veterans Affairs MERIT Awards, Department of Defense, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, as well as National Research Programs in Canada, Singapore, and the Czech Republic. He is the author of over 200 scientific publications, 30 book chapters, and is the editor of a book entitled, Progenitor Cell Therapy for Neurological Injury.

Joseph Cuschieri, MD

Dr. Joseph Cuschieri is a Professor of Surgery at the University of California San Francisco. Additionally, he is the Chief of Surgery and Trauma Medical Director at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Dr. Cuschieri’s research focuses on initial and sustained immune dysregulation and the effect on organ dysfunction and delayed recovery. His work has been funded by the NIH.

Allan Doctor, MD

Allan Doctor, MD is Professor of Pediatrics and Bioengineering at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he directs the Center for Blood Oxygen Transport and Hemostasis. He is a Pediatric Intensivist and previously led Pediatric Critical Care at Washington University and St Louis Children’s Hospital for 10 years, stepping down and then transitioning to UMB to focus on a rapidly expanding research program and on development of a novel bio-synthetic artificial red cell. His laboratory studies the role of red blood cell-based signaling in the control of regional blood flow, related pathophysiology arising from acquired red cell injuries, blood substitute design, and on translational transfusion medicine in critical illness.

Steve Dow, DVM, PhD

Dr. Dow is a veterinary internist at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Colorado State University, where he directs an immunotherapy program that develops new approaches to treatment of bone and brain cancers, as well as cellular therapy approaches to treatment of musculoskeletal injuries and chronic drug-resistant infections. He received his DVM from the University of Georgia, residency training and PhD at Colorado State University, followed by two post-doctoral fellowships at National Jewish in Denver. His work in cellular therapy has focused on the use of immune-activated mesenchymal stromal cells in the treatment of chronic, highly drug-resistant infections of bones and soft tissues, as evaluated in animal models including dogs and horses with drug-resistant infections.

Melanie Doyle-Eisele, PhD

Dr. Doyle-Eisele is a Senior Scientist and Senior Director of Laboratory Animal Sciences (Life Sciences) at Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute. In addition to her position at Lovelace, she is a Senior Fellow with the Center for Disaster Medicine at New York Medical College, School of Health Sciences and Practice. She received her Doctorate at UNC-Chapel Hill from the School of Public Health in 2006, Masters from UNC in 2003, and began a postdoctoral position before heading to New Mexico in 2007. As a Senior Director she oversees the major areas of research in the Applied Sciences Division with her main research emphasis areas intersecting Drug Development from early model evaluation to completion of Investigational New Drug/New Drug Applications and Emergency Use Authorizations. Much of this work is in the CBRNE arena. This is conducted through her expertise in pharmacokinetics, pharmacology, toxicology and specialized capabilities in pulmonary disease, infectious disease, inflammation and injury. Her division has developed animal models of inflammation (pulmonary/other), acute distress and nervous system (primarily chemical and toxin injury), disposition (ADME and radionuclide models), toxicology (IND/NDA enabling and exploratory), radiation-induced injury (hematopoietic, gastrointestinal, and dermal), chemical injury, and infectious disease (select agent and non-select agent).

Napoleone Ferrara, MD

Dr. Ferrara is currently Distinguished Professor of Pathology and the Hildyard Endowed Chair in Eye Disease at the University of California, San Diego. He has a long-standing interest in the regulation of angiogenesis and in the biology and therapeutic applications of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). These studies established VEGF as a key regulator of normal and pathological angiogenesis and resulted in the development of anti-VEGF agents for cancer and intraocular neovascular disorders.

Dr. Ferrara has authored or coauthored over 300 scientific publications, which have been cited over 190,000 times, with an h-index of 180 (Google Scholar). He is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the General Motors Cancer Research Award, the Lasker-deBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Champalimaud Vision Award, the Gairdner International Award. Dr. Ferrara is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, USA.

Mike Fitzpatrick, PhD

Dr. Fitzpatrick has more than 40 years of military and civilian blood banking and biomedical experience. He joined Cellphire in 2006 and has led the development of the company’s first line of hemostatic products.

Prior to joining Cellphire, Dr. Fitzpatrick served as Chief Operating Officer of America’s Blood Centers, North America’s largest network of non‐profit community blood centers. Previously, he served 29 years in the U.S. Army, retiring as a Colonel in 2003.

Throughout his military career, Dr. Fitzpatrick was involved in clinical transfusion medicine, blood collection and delivery, and clinical research. He also provided oversight and planning of blood support operations to ensure delivery of blood and blood products to deployed troops. From 1999‐2003, Dr. Fitzpatrick served as Director of the Armed Services Program, the sole provider of blood products to the U.S. Armed Forces. His other assignments included serving as the Korea Area Blood Program Officer; United States European Command Blood Program Officer; and Chief of Transfusion Services and Blood
Donor Center for Madigan Army Medical Center, Tripler Army Medical Center, and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He also served as the Director of the Tri‐Service Blood Bank Fellowship at Walter Reed.

The Armed Services Blood Program (ASBP) awarded Dr. Fitzpatrick with the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award for his significant contributions to the ASBP and the warfighter.

Dr. Fitzpatrick received a Bachelor of Science from Colorado State University and a Master of Science and Ph.D. in Immunohematology from Bowling Green State University.

Cedric Ghevaert, MD PhD FRCP FRCPath

Professor Ghevaert is a Professor in Transfusion Medicine at the University of Cambridge and Consultant Haematologist for the NHS Blood and Transplant. He obtained his MD in 1998 from the University Libre de Bruxelles. After qualifying as a Consultant Haematologist, he did his PhD in Cambridge to develop recombinant antibodies for the treatment of fetomaternal alloimmune thrombocytopenia which culminated in a first-in-man study. Upon obtaining his PhD, Dr Ghevaert obtained a personal fellowship from the British Heart Foundation to work on megakaryopoiesis in the context of myeloproliferative diseases at the university of Birmingham. He was appointed as a Principal Investigator at the University of Cambridge in 2010. His current group focuses its work on the production of blood cells from pluripotent stem cells with the declared aim to produce novel cellular therapies for transfusion to patients. His approach combines the manipulation of key transcriptional regulators to efficiently forward programme stem cells into mature blood cells and 3D bioengineered scaffolds to recreate the bone marrow niche and increase the production efficiency and purity of the manufactured blood cells. He still has a keen interest in inherited platelet disorders (such as Thrombocytopenia with Absent Radii) using the pluripotent stem cell technology for disease modelling. His expertise lies at the hinge of basic bench-based science and translational studies and as such is supervising a clinical trial of in vitro-produced red cells in human volunteers at present.

Raymond Goodrich, PhD

As the Executive Director of the Infectious Disease Research Center (IDRC) at Colorado State University, Dr. Goodrich has responsibility for oversight of the Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing and Academic Resource Center (BioMARC), the Regional Biocontainment Labs (RBL) and the Research Innovation Center (RIC).

Dr. Goodrich has worked in medical research for over 35 years in both the public and private sector. He is an active member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies (AABB). He serves as a member of the Strategy and Public Policy Committee of the AABB and is a special government employee for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) serving as a member of the Advisory Committee on Blood and Tissue Safety and Availability (ACBTSA).

He has been awarded over 58 patents and has co-authored over 200 peer reviewed articles and abstracts. He is a 2018 honorary recipient of the Order of Military Medical Merit (O2M3) for his work on programs of importance to the US Army Medical Command. His research group at Colorado State University is currently focused on methods to safeguard blood transfusion products and to create and rapidly produce novel vaccine formulations that can be used to address infectious diseases and bolster immunotherapeutic approaches for treating patients with cancer.

James Guest, MD, PhD

Dr. James Guest MD, Ph.D., FACS is a Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami and The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. Dr. Guest performs translational and clinical research predominantly in spinal cord injury. He received Neurosurgical Board certification in Canada and the US and advanced training in spinal neurosurgery. His research focus is therapeutics translation, from pre-clinical through pivotal studies. Studies include drugs and biologics for neuroprotection and promotion of neuroplasticity as well as neuromodulation, rehabilitation, and combined therapeutics. He has received funding from NIH and the Department of Defense. He serves on the Grants Working Group of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine and for the FDA to review biologics, cell, and gene therapy projects across a range of diseases. He is the co-Chair of the North American Clinical Trials Network. Dr. Guest has advised, lead, and has participated in approximately 20 clinical trials in SCI.

Anirban Sen Gupta, PhD

Dr. Anirban Sen Gupta received a double major in Chemistry (B.Sc. HONORS) and Chemical
Engineering (B. Tech.) from the University of Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India for his undergraduate training, and received MS and PhD in Chemical Engineering with polymeric biomaterials focus from the University of Akron, Ohio, USA under the guidance and mentorship of Dr. Stephanie Lopina. He also underwent valuable industrial experience at Guilford Pharmaceuticals (Baltimore, Maryland) and Procter & Gamble (Cincinnati, Ohio), as well as post-doctoral training in Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University under the mentorship of Dr. Roger Marchant. Dr. Sen Gupta started his faculty position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western in 2006
and was tenured to Full Professor in 2017. Dr. Sen Gupta was awarded the Leonard Case Jr. endowed professorship at Case School of Engineering in 2021. Dr. Sen Gupta is a Fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). Dr. Sen Gupta serves as a member of the International Editorial Board of the journal Biomaterials (Elsevier) and an Associate Editor for Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis (formerly Wiley, now Elsevier). Dr. Sen Gupta also serves on the Working Group on Hemostasis and Thrombosis for American Society of Hematology. Dr. Sen Gupta’s current research involves collaborations across Engineering and Medicine at Case Western, several other universities within the US, as well as international collaborations with Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany), University of Birmingham (UK) and INSERM (Paris). He has also co-founded a biotech startup, Haima
Therapeutics, with a vision for translation and commercialization of technologies developed in his laboratory. The ongoing research endeavors in Sen Gupta laboratory are supported by funding from NSF, NIH, DoD, State of Ohio and Case-Coulter Translational Research Partnership. Dr. Sen Gupta is dedicated and deeply committed to providing inclusive and equitable mentorship to a diverse group of trainees and researchers in his laboratory.

Jennifer Gurney, MD, FACS

Jennifer Gurney is the Chief of the Joint Trauma System. Prior to assuming this position, she was a surgeon at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center. She also works at Brook Army Medical Center as a trauma surgeon. COL Gurney was the first chair of Defense Committee on Trauma, she was also the Chair of the Committee on Surgical Combat Casualty Care for three years. She joined the US Army while at Boston University Medical School on a Health Professions Service Program Scholarship and did her surgical training at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. She did a Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at Stanford Hospital and spending a year at the University of California San Francisco at San Francisco General Hospital.

She has deployed 8 times in support of military operations and has received a Legion of Merit with a ‘C’ (combat) device, three Bronze Star Medals, a Combat Action Badge and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal for wartime service. She has had the opportunity to work at every level of care after ‘Role 1’ in the deployed battlefield trauma system and has focused her surgical career to improving care of the combat casualty.

Geoffrey Gurtner, MD, FACS

Dr. Geoffrey C. Gurtner is the Chair of the Department of Surgery and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Arizona. A general and plastic surgeon, Dr. Gurtner was previously the Johnson and Johnson Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering (by courtesy) and Materials Science (by courtesy) at Stanford University. Dr. Gurtner is the author of over 300 peer-reviewed publications and is an Editor for two major textbooks in the field: Grabb & Smith’s Plastic Surgery and Plastic Surgery. Dr. Gurtner was awarded the James Barrett Brown Award in both 2009 and 2010 and has been named “researcher of the year” by the ASPS, AAPS and numerous other professional organizations. Dr. Gurtner runs an NIH and DoD funded laboratory examining how physical stimuli (mechanical and chemical) alter the human response to injury. This has led to the development of new technologies for which Dr. Gurtner has received 30 issued patents and over 100 patent applications. Dr. Gurtner has founded several venture backed start-up companies, including Neodyne Biosciences and Arresto Biosciences, acquired by Gilead (NASDAQ:GILD) in 2011. Dr. Gurtner was also a founding partner at Tautona Group, an early stage life science fund that has created novel biomedical technologies that have been sold to industry leading companies, such as Allergan (NYSE:AGN), Novadaq (NASDAQ:NVDQ), and Acelity/KCI (San Antonio, TX).

Timothy Hackett, DVM

Dr. Hackett’s work as a professor of veterinary emergency and critical care is informed by research on envenomation and antivenom production. His clinical research interests have also centered on trauma, toxicology, and gastrointestinal and cardiopulmonary disease. In addition to his leadership role, he is clinically active in the Emergency and Critical Care Service at Cornell University’s Hospital for Animals. Prior to joining the faculty at Cornell in 2021, Dr. Hackett spent 25 years at Colorado State University managing a busy emergency and critical care service before becoming Hospital Director and Associate Dean of the Colorado State University Veterinary Health System. He is a past president and regent of the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care (ACVECC), was a member of the Canine – Tactical Command Casualty Care Committee from 2009-2012, and served as the ACVECC representative to the Transfusion Alliance of the AABB.

Anne Hale, DVM

Dr Hale is formally trained in small animal internal medicine with a comparative postdoctoral NIH fellowship in transfusion medicine. She has been an active translational scientist in the cellular therapy world for over 25 years with successful translation of lyophilized small molecules and cells for use in transfusion and regenerative medicine. Dr. Hale is a recognized speaker and author with recent publications in cellular therapy for use in control of shock, hemorrhage and endotheliopathy. Her clinical practice limited to small animal Internal Medicine has been focused on immune mediated diseases as well as utilization of cellular therapies for immunomodulation and endotheliopathy. Dr. Hale has successfully completed comparative veterinary clinical trials developed to support the One Health Initiative as both Level 1 evidence based medicine for common transfusion and cellular practice and preclinical support for human cellular therapies. Active in organized veterinary medicine through the New Mexico Veterinary Medical Association as a recent president, she has been involved in the legislative clarification of transfusion and cellular therapy for animals. She is a member and past board member of the Association of Veterinary Hematology and Transfusion Medicine

Kelly Hall, DVM, MS, DACVECC

Dr. Kelly Hall has a passion for improving trauma patient care through collaborative clinical and translational research. She was a faculty member at the University of Minnesota for 14 years where she also earned her DVM, Emergency and Critical Care training for board certification and Masters in Clinical Research. Dr. Hall is honored and proud to be a part of the ACVECC Veterinary Committee on Trauma (VetCOT) with its multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional approach to improve trauma patient care. Dr. Hall joined the Critical Care Services team at Colorado State University in 2019 and is enjoying being part of a team striving to contribute to and help advance all we do in the critical care space. Primary drivers of Dr. Hall’s philosophy, whether on the clinic floor, on the basketball court, in the classroom or advancing research collaborations include Angela Duckworth’s research on “grit”, Carol Dweck’s research on “growth mindset” and John Wooden’s “pyramid of success”.

Melinda Hamer, MD, MPH, FACEP

Melinda Hamer MD, MPH is Deputy Director for Operations at Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. She previously served on detail to the Department of Health and Human Services, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), in the Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures (DRIVe). She also served as Director of the Clinical Trials Center at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research from 2017-2021. She has served as a principal and associate investigator for more than 20 FDA regulated and other clinical trials, to include multiple first-in-human vaccine trials, and the largest in history controlled human malaria challenge trial. She has also served on a White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Working Group for Small Biotech Acceleration in support of the American Pandemic Preparedness Plan. She is also a graduate of the Advanced Course of Vaccinology (ADVAC).

She is a U.S. Army flight surgeon and board-certified emergency physician, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Military and Emergency Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. She also holds a part-time appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the George Washington University Department of Emergency Medicine.

A West Point graduate, Dr. Hamer served in Hawaii, Egypt, and Washington DC in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks as a military police officer prior to attending medical school. During this time, Dr. Hamer led security details and coordinated interagency disaster response planning for VIPs and special events at military bases in the Washington DC area. Dr. Hamer was a Sommer Scholar at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where she earned her MPH, and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine. She has held multiple national board positions in the specialty of emergency medicine, and was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. Dr. Hamer is also the co-author of official U.S. Government and Institute of Medicine reports on health care reconstruction efforts in Iraq, and has over 40 peer-reviewed publications as well as dozens of national abstract presentations and other reports. She was also senior editor for the Johns Hopkins Emergency Medicine Guide: Evidence-Based Emergency Medicine. She has conducted emergency medicine and disaster research in Iraq, Sudan, Uganda, and Senegal, and was faculty for the World Health Organization Public Health Pre-Deployment Course.

Patrick Hanley, PhD

Dr. Hanley is the Chief and Director of the Cellular Therapy Program and an associate professor of pediatrics at Children’s National Hospital and the George Washington University, respectively. He oversees processing for standard of care stem cell transplantation as well as the development, manufacture, quality, and testing of novel cellular therapies and is responsible for seeking partnerships and commercialization of promising cell and gene therapies. Trained as an Immunologist, Dr. Hanley has an extensive background and interest in cellular therapy and is passionate about improving regulations for cellular therapy, training the next generation of cell therapists, and facilitating the translation of new therapeutics. Over the past 16 years he has helped to translate more than 300 products on over 25 cell therapy protocols – ranging from mesenchymal stromal cells to cord blood virus-specific T cells and tumor-associated antigen specific T cells – into the clinic.

Dr. Hanley was elected Vice President, North America of the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT) where he also serves on the board of directors, on the Immuno-Gene Therapy Committee (and former co-chair),and co-founded and served as the inaugural co-chair of the Early Stage Professionals committee which focuses on workforce development and training. He also serves on the board of directors of the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) and is an active cellular therapy and cord blood inspector. Dr. Hanley has actively participated in the Cell Therapy Liaison Meeting with the Food and Drug Administration since 2018 and he is the commissioning editor of the journal Cytotherapy. In 2017, along with Drs Catherine Bollard and Russell Cruz, he founded Mana Therapeutics, a biotech company aimed at educating immune cells and eliminating cancer. In his free time he enjoys tweeting with fellow scientists and Bills fans, playing soccer, cycling, cooking, and traveling.

Kimberly Hofmeyer, PhD

Kimberly Hofmeyer is a project officer with the Radiological and Nuclear Countermeasures Branch in the BARDA Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Division. Here she supports product development and strategic efforts to address the medical consequences of nuclear detonation, including trauma and radiation injury. Prior to BARDA, she worked with MITRE to lead development of medical countermeasure (MCM)-focused concepts to improve military operational readiness in chemical and biological threat environments. She also supported the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Chemical and Biological Defense as a technical and strategic advisor for MCMs and CBRN defense. Kimberly earned her doctorate from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Biomedical Science for work that focused on understanding how immune checkpoint molecules regulate immune homeostasis and the response to infectious disease. She translated this background into her postdoctoral work with the nonprofit biotech company, the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), where she focused on preclinical vaccine development.

John Holcomb, MD, FACS

John Bradley Holcomb received his M.D. from the University of Arkansas Medical School in 1985. Dr. Holcomb entered the U.S. Army in 1985, and completed his general surgery training in 1991. Dr Holcomb then deployed with the Joint Special Operations Command for the next decade. He led one of the first Military Civilian Partnerships from 1999-2001. From 2002 to 2008, COL Holcomb was the Commander of the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research and Trauma Consultant for the Army Surgeon General. Over the years he has multiple combat deployments. He is a three time recipient of the Army’s Greatest Invention award, the ‘A” Designator in Military Medicine, the Order of Military Medical Merit and the Department of the Army Research and Development Achievement Award for Leadership Excellence. COL Holcomb retired from active duty in 2008 and received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Trauma Resuscitation Science from the American Heart Association, the United States Special Operations Command Medal, and the Service award from the American College of Surgery. He has been a member of the Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care since 2001. From 2008-2019 Dr. Holcomb worked at UT Health, Houston, as a Professor of Surgery. In 2016 he received the MAJ Jonathan Letterman award from the National Museum of Civil War Medicine an in 2022 the Robert Danis Prize from International Surgical Society. In 2019 Dr Holcomb joined the University of Alabama, Birmingham as a Professor of Surgery. Dr. Holcomb is actively involved in clinical medicine, education, research, entrepreneurship and is a founder and Co-CEO of a health IT company (Decisio Health). He reviews papers for 44 journals, has published > 690 peer reviewed articles, consults with several companies and serves on multiple boards. Dr. Holcomb and his wife, Dr. Kelly Wirfel were married in 1998 and have 2 children.

Mary Homer, PhD

Isabel Lauren Jackson, PhD

Isabel Lauren Jackson, PhD is the Founding Principal of True North BioPharm, LLC, a boutique life sciences consulting company deeply rooted within the medical countermeasure (MCM) ecosystem. True North BioPharm partners with agencies, organizations, pharmaceutical and biotech companies driving medical preparedness and response for 21st century global health security threats. Prior to founding True North, Dr. Jackson served as the Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology and Director of the Division of Translational Radiation Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. As Director, Dr. Jackson led the development and execution of strategic plans to consolidate, refine, and expand the Division’s core capabilities based on a broad understanding of the MCM ecosystem and biomedical contract-research space. As Principal Investigator on numerous government contracts and research grants awarded to the UMSOM, Dr. Jackson oversaw a multi-year, multimillion dollar (>$50 m) translational research portfolio focused on early to advanced stage development of therapeutic interventions to treat radiation-induced blood failure, multi-organ injury, and fibrosis. Dr. Jackson has published more than 60 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, co-authored five book chapters on normal tissue tolerance to radiation and MCM interventions, been and frequently speaks at national and international conferences and workshops. She has been interviewed on numerous podcasts including Bill Nye’s Science Rules as well as for news (e.g., CNN Business) and journal (e.g., The Lancet) articles. She currently serves on the American Board of Radiology Radiation and Cancer Biology Committee and as Councilor at Large for the Radiation Research Society.

Jonathan Jahr, MD, PhD

Dr. Jahr has studied acute pain and has co-edited a text, titled: The Essence of Analgesia and Analgesics (Cambridge U Press, 2011) and has authored over 25 papers, reviews and chapters on the topic of minimizing opioid use for pain and multimodal analgesia, including three on iv meloxicam recently. Additionally, he has been at the forefront the conduct of definitive preclinical and clinical studies involving the application of hemoglobin based oxygen carriers in the treatment of hemorrhage and orthopedic surgery. He is the world’s foremost expert in the use of advanced diagnostic techniques in the study of the impact of volumizing fluids and HBOCs on coagulapathy, and related thrombin and platelet function. Throughout his extraordinary professional career, Dr. Jahr has been interested in the use of resuscitative fluids, blood transfusions, and intervention in the treatment of severe trauma, and the clinical efficacy of the use of blood substitutes, including perfluorocarbon technologies and hemoglobin based oxygen carriers to reduce the need for blood transfusions in clinical practice. He has served as co-editor of two recent highly acclaimed textbooks on blood substitutes, and has been the principal investigator in over 30 clinical trials, has published over 250 studies, abstracts, review articles, book chapters, and case studies. He has served on the editorial review boards of Anesthesiology Review, American Journal of Anesthesiology, American Journal of Therapeutics, Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Journal of Clinical Anesthesiology, Critical Care Medicine, American Journal of Physiology: Heart and Circulatory Physiology, Hematological, Anesthesiology, British Journal of Anesthesiology, and Vascular Pharmacology, and regularly lectures on issues regarding acute pain management, anesthesiology, oxygen therapeutics, and the management of blood products in surgical operations. Dr. Jahr received his undergraduate degree in Biology from Hamilton College, Clinton, NY Cum Laude, and with Honors, his medical degree from New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY., and his PhD in Medicine from the University of Warwick, U.K.

Jan Jansen, MBBS, PhD

Dr. Jansen is a Trauma Surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

He went to medical school in London, England, before moving to Scotland for his general surgery residency. He also completed a trauma fellowship in Johannesburg, and critical care medicine fellowship in Toronto. He then spent nearly 10 years as an attending general surgeon and intensivist in Scotland, before moving to the United States in 2017.

Between 2013 and 2016, he was the recipient of a National Health Service Research Scotland Fellowship. He was affiliated with the Health Services Research Unit, an internationally renown clinical trials unit, at the University of Aberdeen. During this time, he also completed a Ph.D.

Dr. Jansen’s principal research interest is clinical trials. He directs UAB’s Center for Injury Science, and its Clinical Trials Unit. He is also Director of Research for the Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, and Associate Vice Chair for Clinical Trials, for the Department of Surgery. He is PI for several multicenter clinical trials, focusing on trauma resuscitation.

Donald Jenkins, MD, FACS

Dr Donald Jenkins earned a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Scranton in Scranton PA and MD at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda MD. He performed his surgical residency at Wilford Hall USAF hospital in San Antonio TX, trauma fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia PA and retired after nearly 25 years of active duty service from the USAF in 2008.

Dr Jenkins was trauma medical director at Saint Marys Hospital at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, for the United States Air Force (2000-2008) at Wilford Hall, for the 44th Medical Command for all medical care in Iraq (2004-2005), helped to develop the Joint Theater Trauma System for the United States Central Command (all of southwest Asia), was the trauma director of the Joint Theater Trauma System (Baghdad Iraq and Bagram Afghanistan 2006), helped develop the Joint Trauma System and was the trauma medical director of the Joint Trauma System (Fort Sam Houston, TX 2007-2008). He is currently Professor of Surgery, Vice Chair for Quality and Associate Deputy Director of the Military Health Institute at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

Michael Joyner, MD

I have broad based interests related to integrative physiology in humans, and I also practice clinical medicine as an Anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic. My specific areas of expertise include autonomic control of circulation, muscle and skin blood flow, exercise, oxygen transport and metabolic regulation in humans. This work has been continuously funded by the NIH since the early 1990s. During the COVID-19 pandemic I repurposed my lab and led the U.S. Expanded access program for Convalescent Plasma and have an emerging interest in passive immunity and antibody therapy for infectious diseases. In addition to my funded work, I also have significant expertise in the physiology of human performance including the original work that led to the sub 2-hour marathon.

Lucy Kornblith, MD

Lucy Zumwinkle Kornblith, M.D. is an Assistant Professor of Surgery and of Laboratory Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Her clinical practice includes trauma surgery, surgical critical care, and acute care surgery. She is a surgeon scientist focused on translational investigations in the field of post-injury platelet biology and platelet genomics, supported by the National Institutes of Health and the United States Department of Defense. Due to her role in coagulation biology, Dr. Kornblith has been instrumental in the National Institutes of Health funded Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) IV (coagulation) Program, for rapid advancement of therapeutics for COVID-19. Additionally, Dr. Kornblith is active in supporting efforts focused on the advancement of women surgeons, and is the University of California, San Francisco Department of Surgery Director for Gender Equity and co-chairs the Muriel Steele Society, an inclusive community dedicated to inspiring, supporting, and promoting women surgeons so they can thrive at all stages of their careers.

Rosemary Kozar, MD, PhD

Dr. Rosemary Kozar is currently a tenured Professor of Surgery, Co-Director of the Shock Trauma Anesthesia Research (STAR) Center at the University of Maryland and Director of Translational Research at the University of Maryland R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center and. She completed medical school at Temple University School of Medicine then surgical training and surgical critical care at the University of Texas Houston and Temple University while also obtaining a PhD in Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Baylor College of Medicine. Her research interests focus on endothelial dysfunction after shock. She has published over 250 peer-reviewed basic/translational and clinical articles and book chapters and has been continuously funded by the NIH for over 20 years years. Dr. Kozar has served in a number of national leadership positions including the Board of Managers of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, Chair for the American College of Surgeons Verification Review Committee for Trauma, Chair of the American College of Surgeons Women in Surgery Committee, and President of the Shock Society. She is currently Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Coalition for National Trauma Research and President-Elect of Western Trauma Association. She is also an Associate Editor for Trauma Surgery Acute Care Open and Deputy Editor for the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.

Roger Lewis, MD, PhD

Dr. Lewis received his PhD in Biophysics and his MD from Stanford University. He is a Senior Physician in the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, Professor of Emergency Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and the Senior Medical Scientist at Berry Consultants, LLC, a group that specializes in innovative clinical trial design. He is also the former Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Dr. Lewis’s expertise centers on adaptive and Bayesian clinical trials, including platform trials; general clinical research methodology; data and safety monitoring boards, and the oversight of clinical trials. Dr. Lewis was elected to membership in the National Academy of Medicine in 2009.

Dr. Lewis has previously served as a member of the Blood Products Advisory Committee of the US Food and Drug Administration, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), the Medicare Evidence Development & Coverage Advisory Committee of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and on multiple consensus committees of the National Academy of Medicine. He has chaired data and safety monitoring boards (DSMBs) for numerous federally funded, industry-sponsored, and multinational clinical trials. He is the statistical editor for JAMA and an editor of the JAMA series entitled “JAMA Guides to Statistics and Methods.” Dr. Lewis has served as a content reviewer for many other peer reviewed journals. He has authored or coauthored over 270 original research publications, reviews, editorials, and chapters.

Dr. Lewis has served as a grant reviewer for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the UK Medical Research Council (MRC), the National Cancer Institute of France, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and foundations.

During the US COVID-19 epidemic, Dr. Lewis served as the Director of Covid-19 Demand Modeling for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, leading a multidisciplinary team developing epidemiological prediction models to aid in hospital preparedness and response.

Dr. Lewis is a Past President of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) and served on the Board of Directors for the Society for Clinical Trials. He is a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians, the American Statistical Association, and the Society for Clinical Trials.

Mark Looney, MD

Mark R. Looney, MD is a Professor of Medicine and Laboratory Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his undergraduate degree from Lipscomb University and his medical degree from the University of Tennessee. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at UCSF.

Dr. Looney’s laboratory investigates neutrophil and platelet biology in the lung during homeostasis and in sterile and pathogen-induced injury.

Clifford Lowell, MD, PhD

Dr. Clifford Lowell, MD-PhD, is currently a Distinguished Professor of Laboratory Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He also serves as the Department Chair for Laboratory Medicine.

Dr. Lowell received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University, followed by his MD-PhD degrees from Johns Hopkins University. He completed internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, then moved to UCSF for fellowship training and post-doctor research in the laboratory of Dr. Harold Varmus. Dr. Lowell joined the faculty in Laboratory Medicine in 1995, becoming a full Professor in 2007 and Department Chair in 2015.

Dr. Lowell’s research interests are focused on innate immunity. He has studied the mechanisms by which innate immune cells respond to inflammatory signals and pathogen molecules. In turn, his group has investigated how innate immune cell activation contributes to tissue injury in infectious, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

Alpa Mahuvakar, PhD

I am a Research Professor in the laboratory of Dr. Shibani Pati, Department of Laboratory medicine, UCSF. I have conducted research in the field of trauma and neurotrauma for the last two decades. I have been actively involved in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and spinal cord injury (SCI) models in both rats and mice. My research efforts have focused on developing cell based therapies and immune function in these CNS models and assessing functional recovery. Recently, our research has focused on transfusion of different blood products to mitigate trauma induced vascular dysfunction.

Emin Maltepe, MD PhD

I am a pediatric physician scientist at UCSF specializing in neonatology. My research focuses on the role of oxygen tension as a regulator of embryonic, fetal and placental development, as well as therapies targeting hypoxic states. I have sought to uncover mechanisms whereby hypoxia signaling pathways regulate normal development, contribute to the origins of pregnancy complications that drive ever growing numbers of preterm births, and drive disease processes such as pulmonary hypertension in newborn infants. As a practicing neonatologist, I have been driven by the challenges of translating research insights into patient care, especially in the uniquely challenging NICU environment. To address this important unmet need, I co-founded the Initiative for Pediatric Drug and Device Development, a multi-institutional collaborative comprised of leaders in pediatrics and pharmaceutical sciences that functions as a “one-stop-shop” to advance drug and device development for pediatric indications. In this capacity, we have been working with non-profit and industry sponsors on multiple fronts, including neurotherapeutics for birth asphyxia, cardioprotective agents for infants undergoing repair of congenital heart defects, oxygen delivery biotherapeutics for hemorrhagic shock, and artificial placenta technologies.

Francesco Marincola, MD

Franco Marincola is the Chief Scientific Officer of Sonata Therapeutics. Franco brings over 30 years of research and development experience in immunology, oncology and cell therapy to Sonata.

Most recently, Franco served as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Research at Kite Pharma where he led the research organization to identify novel therapies for hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. Prior to Kite, he was President and Chief Scientific Officer at Refuge Biotechnologies, where he developed research strategies for adoptive cell therapy products and led therapeutic programs based on nuclease deactivated CRISPR circuits. Prior to Refuge, Franco was Distinguished Research Fellow in Immune Oncology at AbbVie, and Chief Research Officer at Sidra Medical and Research Centre.

Before joining the biopharma industry, Franco spent more than two decades at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI), most recently as a tenured senior investigator in cancer immunotherapy and biomarker research and as Chief Infectious Disease and Immunogenetics Investigator at the NIH Clinical Center.

Franco is the former President of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC). He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief for multiple peer-reviewed publications, including Journal of Translational Medicine, Translational Medicine Communications, and Immunotherapy, and is the author of more than 600 peer-reviewed publications.

Franco received his M.D. from the University of Milan and completed his residency at Stanford University.

Peter Marks, MD, PhD

Peter Marks received his graduate degree in cell and molecular biology and his medical degree at New York University and completed Internal Medicine residency and Hematology/Medical Oncology training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He has worked in academic settings teaching and caring for patients and in industry on drug development. He joined the FDA in 2012 as Deputy Center Director for CBER and became Center Director in January 2016.

Lester Martinez-López, MD, MPH

Dr. Lester Martinez-López is currently serving as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. In this role, he is the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense and the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness for all Department of Defense health and force health protection policies, programs, and activities.

Dr. Martinez, a family medicine physician, retired from the Army as a Major General and was the first Latino to head the Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, where he directed the Army’s worldwide medical research, acquisition, and logistics program. His experience in military medicine also includes tours as the Commanding General of the Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, where he directed a worldwide public health organization, and command of three military hospitals. After retiring from the Army, he served as the Chief Medical Officer at the Brandon Regional Hospital in Florida and Senior Vice President and Administrator of the Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital in Texas.

Dr. Martinez graduated from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine with a Doctor of Medicine degree and earned a Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Michael Matthay, MD

Michael A. Matthay, MD is Professor of Medicine and Anesthesia at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), a Senior Associate in the Cardiovascular Research Institute, and Associate Director of the Critical Care Medicine at UCSF. He received his AB from Harvard University and his MD from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his internal medicine residency training at the University of Colorado. He completed his pulmonary and critical care medicine training at the University of California, San Francisco. He received an American Thoracic Society award for Scientific Achievement in 2002, a UCSF Award for Outstanding Clinical Research in 2006, the Julius Comroe Jr Respiratory Section Award from the American Physiologic Society in 2009, and the UCSF Lifetime Achievement Award for Mentoring in 2013, and the ATS Trudeau Award in 2016 and the UCSF Long Term Career Mentoring Award in 2021. He is a member of the American Association of Physicians. Dr. Matthay’s basic research has focused on mechanisms of salt, water, and protein transport across the alveolar epithelium that account for the resolution of pulmonary edema. He has studied the pathogenesis and resolution of the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and sepsis, with an emphasis on translational work and patient-based research, including clinical trials. His research has also focused on the biology and potential clinical use of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) for ARDS.

Robert Mays, PhD

Dr. Mays is the co-founder, Head of Neurosciences and Executive Vice President of Regenerative Medicine at Athersys, Inc. He is focused on the company’s novel adult human stem cell product, MultiStem®, and its applications in Regenerative Medicine and drug discovery, with a specific focus on injuries and diseases affecting the central nervous system. Dr. Mays was the Principal Investigator of the MASTERS (MultiStem Administration for Stroke Treatment and Enhanced Recovery Study) clinical trial assessing the safety and efficacy of MultiStem in treatment of ischemic stroke. He is also the Principal Investigator of the pivotal Phase III MASTERS-2 study, which has received RMAT, Fast Track and Special Protocol Assessment designations from the FDA. Dr. Mays is a member of the National Center for Regenerative Medicine, Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, the American Heart Association and is an Adjunct Professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He has authored or co-authored >30 peer reviewed scientific papers or reviews and is the inventor of more than 10 patents relating to the use of stem cells for treating disease. Dr. Mays is the Co-chair of the Neuroscience Committee for the International Society for Cellular Therapy, and previously the Board of Directors for the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation of Cleveland and the scientific advisory board for the Children’s Neurobiological Solutions Network in Los Angeles. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 1987 with a B.S. in Cell and Developmental Biology. In 1994, he received his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University. After doing Post-doctoral research at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel and the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Mays co-founded Athersys Inc., which focuses on developing novel and proprietary best-in-class therapies designed to extend and enhance the quality of human life.

Danny McAuley, MD

Danny McAuley is a Consultant and Professor in Intensive Care Medicine at the Regional Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital and Queen’s University of Belfast. He undertook his training in Belfast, Birmingham, London and San Francisco. He is Programme Director for the MRC/NIHR Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) programme. He has several research interests including Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and clinical trials.

Ernest Moore, MD, FACS

Ernest E. “Gene” Moore, M.D. was the Chief of Trauma at the Denver General Hospital for 36 years, and Chief of Surgery for 28 years. He is a Distinguished Professor of Surgery at the University of Colorado Denver (UCD). He was the Editor of the Journal of Trauma from 2011-2021 and the text Trauma- 9 editions from 1988-1921.

Under Dr. Moore’s leadership, Denver General became internationally recognized for innovative care of the injured patient, and his trauma research laboratory has been funded by the NIH for 35 consecutive years. In July 2018, the center was renamed the Ernest E Moore Shock Trauma Center at Denver Health.

Dr. Moore has served as president of ten national/international academic societies, including the Society of University Surgeons, American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, International Association for Trauma and Surgical Intensive Care, World Society of Emergency Surgery and Shock Society; and has been Vice Chairman of the Committee on Trauma, and Vice President for the American Surgical Association and Western Surgical Association. He has lectured extensively throughout the world and has received many awards. According to Research Gate, he has >2300 publications, >90,000 citations, and his H index =146.

Matthew Neal, MD, FACS

Dr. Neal is the Roberta G. Simmons Associate Professor of Surgery and an attending surgeon in the Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. He holds secondary appointments in the Departments of Critical Care Medicine, the Vascular Medicine Institute (VMI), and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Neal runs a translational research program focused on hemostasis and thrombosis following injury, and his laboratory is funded by multiple awards from the NIH as well as the Department of Defense. He is PI or Co-I on a number of ongoing clinical trials in trauma and surgical pre-habilitation, and he serves as the Co-Director of the Pittsburgh Trauma and Transfusion Medicine Research Center. He presently serves as a co-lead for the coordinating center for the NIH ACTIV-4 program addressing clinical trials in anti-thrombotics in COVD-19, he co-chairs the ACTIV-4a clinical platform, and he has helped to organize the REMAP-CAP, ATTACC, and ACTIV-4a multi-platform clinical trial program.

Biju Parekkadan, PhD

Dr. Parekkadan oversees a laboratory that specializes in cell and genetic engineering. He has experience in developing biotech products as a founder of Sentien, a clinical stage pioneer of ex vivo cell therapeutics, as well as advising several companies as a founding member of CellOne Partners. Dr. Parekkadan received his PhD in Chemical and Medical Engineering from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, where he also completed all MD studies. His efforts have been recognized through notable awards including being named a Presidential Early Career Scientist, the highest honor of an early stage investigator in the USA. As a hobby, he enjoys creative writing and is the creator of Legend of Sumeria, his first science-fiction graphic novel.

Luigi Pascarella, MD, FACS

Dr. Pascarella is a Vascular Surgeon, Professor of Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Consultant for Humacyte. Dr. Pascarella was born in Italy. He attended Medical School at the University of Naples School of Medicine and a Vascular Surgery Residency at the University of Parma School of Medicine. From 2001 to 2006, Dr. Pascarella completed a Post-Doctoral Vascular Biology Fellowship in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California in San Diego, working on animal models of Venous Hypertension and biological markers of processes underlying chronic venous insufficiency.

From 2007 to 2013, Dr. Pascarella completed a residency in General Surgery and the Fellowship in Vascular Surgery at Duke University, Durham, NC. He has been faculty at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, and in 2017, he was recruited at UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. Pascarella is the Surgery Vice-Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Professor of Surgery, and Director of the Surgery Course. He has authored several peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.

Shibani Pati, MD, PhD

Dr. Pati is a vascular biologist and is currently at employed at the University of California San Francisco. She is the Scientific Director of Cellular Therapies and Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine. She is by training a cancer vascular biologist with an interest in the role of endothelial dysfunction and vascular compromise in the pathogenesis of human disease. Dr. Pati is internationally recognized for her work on endothelial dysfunction and resuscitation in trauma. Dr. Pati received her A.B. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University and her MD. PhD. from the University of Maryland. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Neuroscience at the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas in Houston. Following her fellowship, Dr. Pati’s specific areas of investigation involve the use of stem cells, blood products and novel resuscitative modalities that can mitigate endothelial dysfunction, inflammation and coagulation disturbances found in hemorrhage and traumatic injury. Her lab aims to specifically understand the mechanisms of vascular compromise in injury and novel methods by which to modulate it. Her lab is funded by the DOD, NIH and private industry. Recent studies by Dr. Pati have involved the therapeutic potential and mechanisms of action of novel blood products in mitigating organ injury after hemorrhagic shock and trauma and TBI.

Heather Pidcoke, MD, MSCI, PhD

Dr. Pidcoke currently serves as CSU’s Chief Medical Research Officer and works in the Office of the Vice President of Research. Her translational research interests include trauma critical care and novel transfusion products aimed at improving the resuscitation of massively bleeding patients. Dr. Pidcoke is a subject matter expert in the field of remote damage control resuscitation and the use of blood products and biologics in austere environments. Prior to joining CSU, Dr. Pidcoke served as Chief Medical Officer of Cellphire, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on developing a lyophilized platelet-derived hemostatic agent. Dr. Pidcoke was Director, Global Translational Affairs at Terumo BCT. Before moving to Colorado, she served as the Deputy Task Area Manager and Research Physiologist in the Coagulation and Blood Research program (CBR) at the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR) and as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Texas, Health Science Center, both in San Antonio, Texas.

Dr. Pidcoke was awarded by President Barack Obama with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the United States White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. She also received a U.S. Army Commander’s Award for Civilian Service in recognition of her contributions in advancing medical research for military personnel. She graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California and went on to attend the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSCSA). As a graduate student, Dr. Pidcoke was awarded a prestigious national level award from the American College of Surgeons’ Committee on Trauma, and the UTHSCSA Guarino Award. Dr. Pidcoke enjoys reading, cooking, gardening, and hiking with her husband, Bernard, and her dog, Ella. Her cats, Griffin and Caladrius, prefer to stay home.

Travis Polk, MD

Captain Travis Polk has served as the Director of the Combat Casualty Care Research Program since July 2020.

As Director of the Combat Casualty Care Research Program and Chair of the Joint Program Committee-6, CAPT Polk is responsible for the strategic planning and management of the DoD science and technology investment that supports the development of knowledge and material solutions for combat-related trauma on the current and future battlefield. In this role, he exercises primary planning, programming, budgeting and execution of the integrated Combat Casualty Care research portfolio for the Defense Health Program and US Army (approximately $150 million in FY21), including programs in Neurotrauma, Prolonged Care , Severe Burns, En Route Care, Battlefield Resuscitation of Combat Casualties, Medical Photonics, Medical Simulation, and Medical Assist Support Technologies.

Following completion of surgical internship, CAPT Polk served as Medical Officer for USS FORT MCHENRY (LSD-43) homeported in Sasebo, Japan completing several underway deployments with the Forward Deployed Naval Forces in the western Pacific from 2002-2004. He returned to Japan to serve as a staff general surgeon at the Naval Hospital Okinawa from 2008-2010 and also deployed to Afghanistan with a forward surgical team supporting Army Special Operations Forces. From 2012-2017, CAPT Polk served as the Surgical Director of the Healthcare Simulation and Bioskills Training Center and Program Director for Wounded Warrior Care at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth. During this time, CAPT Polk also established a translational research experience for the general surgery residency program and a military-civilian trauma partnership with Eastern Virginia Medical School.

Joseph Rappold, MD, FACS

Dr Rappold is an Alpha Omega Alpha graduate of the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Prior to entering medical school, he completed 8 years and multiple deployments as a US Navy nuclear submarine officer serving on a variety of submarines. His surgical internship and residency were completed at the Naval Medical Center San Diego and his fellowship was completed at the University of California San Diego. He then commenced a series of combat deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan commanding a variety of facilities including all US personnel at the British Field Hospital at Camp Bastion. In 2008 he was the Joint Trauma Theater Medical Director responsible for all surgical care in both combat theaters. In San Diego he directed the SICU and eventually became chair of the Department of Surgery at the military’s largest medical facility. He has published multiple articles and book chapters and currently directs a translational research laboratory focused on TXA at the Maine Health Institute for Research. He has received a variety of unit and personal awards including the Bronze Star for valor in combat and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal among others.

Terry M. Rauch, PhD, MPH, MBA

Dr. Terry M. Rauch currently serves the Department of Defense within Health Affairs, Health Readiness Policy and Oversight (HRP&O) as the Director of Medical Research and Development (R&D).

Dr. Rauch represents the DoD R&D community in international health agreements and domestic federal agency and non-government partnership in an effort to better serve missions, and medical readiness for 2.3 million service members through cross collaborations. Dr. Rauch has more than 35 years of experience in many facets of the Military Health System and has held numerous senior level positions in the Army and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. As a senior military officer he served as the Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, and principal advisor to four Assistant Secretaries of Defense for Health Affairs on matters pertaining to biomedical research, development and acquisition as well as medical products and devices needed to protect U.S. military forces against Chemical, Biological, Radiological & Nuclear (CBRN) threats. He commanded the U.S. Army Public Health Command-Europe, a scientific and technical organization that provided comprehensive preventive medicine services to garrisoned U.S. Army forces in Europe. Dr. Rauch served as the Chairman of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Working Group on Preventive Medicine advising Stabilization Forces–Bosnia and Stabilization Forces–Kosovo on preventive medicine matters. As Deputy Commander, and then later as Chief of Staff, of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command he supported the daily management and integration of a medical research, development, and acquisition program encompassing 11 subordinate laboratories in six countries, 3,000 personnel, and over $1 billion in funding. Dr. Rauch received his Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from the University of Cincinnati, where he also earned his Ph.D. in biology and psychology.

Martin Schreiber, MD, FCCM, FACS

Dr. Martin Schreiber is the Trauma Medical Director and the Chief of the Division of Trauma, Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery at Oregon Health & Science University. He is the immediate past Chairman of the Trauma Center Association of America. He is a Colonel in the US Army Reserve and has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and he has served as the Joint Theater Trauma System Director. He is an Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Dr. Schreiber is also the director of the Army Civilian Trauma Training Team and the Donald D. Trunkey Center for Civilian and Combat Casualty Care at OHSU. The Trunkey Center and previously the Trauma Research Lab has been continuously funded by federal sources since 2001. Lab research interests include prehospital treatment of traumatic brain injury, resuscitation of hemorrhagic shock, hemorrhage control and development of novel blood products. Current funding sources include the Department of Defense, the NIH and private industry. The lab is engaged in over 40 investigational protocols at OHSU. Dr. Schreiber has over 580 total publications. He is considered a leader in the trauma community and he has been an invited speaker throughout the United States and around the world.

Beth Shaz, MD, MBA

Beth Shaz, MD, MBA is the Deputy Director of Marcus Center for Cellular Cures (MC3) at Duke University. Dr. Shaz has 20+ years of experience in transfusion medicine and cellular therapies. Dr. Shaz oversees the Robertson cGMP Laboratory as well as the Molecular Products and Cellular Therapies (MPACT) cGMP Facility in the Brain Tumor Center, Department of Neurosurgery. In addition, she is the Co-Director of Duke’s Stem Cell Lab, Associate Director of the Carolinas Cord Blood Bank (CCBB), and supervises MC3’s clinical trials in adult populations. Dr. Shaz holds a primary appointment with the Department of Pathology as Professor. Her goals are to improve the health of our community and ensure equal access to safe and efficacious blood and biotherapies.

Dr. Shaz was most recently the Executive Vice President, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer of the New York Blood Center enterprises. In that role, Dr. Shaz directed all medical activities, including medical oversight of blood donation, hemophilia services, transfusion services, cellular therapy laboratory, perioperative autologous services, and apheresis services. Dr. Shaz created and led Comprehensive Cell Solutions, whose goal was to develop cellular therapies. Prior to joining the New York Blood Center, Dr. Shaz was an Associate Professor at Emory University and directed the transfusion service at Grady Memorial Hospital, and before that, she was an Instructor at Harvard Medical School and Assistant Medical Director of the transfusion service and Medical Director of the transfusion/apheresis unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Dr. Shaz is Past-President of AABB, a member of the Board of Directors of the Cord Blood Association, and has been a board member, committee chair and active committee member of the American Society for Apheresis. Dr. Shaz has published more than 185 peer-reviewed articles and has co-edited eight books (and has started her ninth). She is an Associate Editor of the journal Transfusion and was on the editorial board of the journal Blood. Dr. Shaz received her BS with Distinction in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University, her MD at University of Michigan Medical School, and her MBA in Healthcare Leadership at Empire State College, State University of New York. She completed her surgical internship at Georgetown University, and her pathology residency and blood banking / transfusion medicine Fellowship at Harvard Medical School.

Jason Sperry, MD, MPH, FACS

Dr Sperry is a Professor, Section Chief and Acute Care Surgery fellowship director with a primary appointment in the Department of Surgery, Division of Trauma and General Surgery. His research focuses on clinical outcomes following traumatic injury and primarily on massive transfusion, prehospital resuscitation, early correction of the coagulopathy which complicates injury. He is the Principal Investigator for the LITES network, a multicenter trauma network to execute clinical trials for the Department of Defense.

Philip Spinella, MD, FCCM

Dr. Philip C. Spinella is a professor in the Departments of Surgery and Critical Care Medicine, Co-Director of the Trauma and Transfusion Medicine Research Center and Associate Medical Director of the Center for Military Medicine Research at the University of Pittsburgh. He is internationally recognized as an expert in transfusion medicine and the resuscitation of hemorrhagic shock. Dr. Spinella served 15 years in the US Army and separated as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2007. He is a veteran of the Iraq War, where he received a Bronze Star and the Combat Medic Badge for providing care under fire. In collaboration with investigators at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research, his groundbreaking work in the area of the treatment of hemorrhagic shock received the US Army’s Best Invention Award in 2008 for his role in the development of the concept of “damage control resuscitation”.

Dr. Spinella is a well-established clinical trialist, who has been funded by the US Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health for trials examining RBC storage age, tranexamic acid, and cold-stored platelets. He has published over 250 manuscripts and 21 chapters and is the editor for a textbook on the topic of trauma resuscitation. Dr. Spinella has also participated in, organized research symposia for, or provided external review of research programs for the FDA, NIH, DoD, Homeland Security, and the Department of Health and Human Services. He has also participated on a committee for the National Academy of Sciences to develop recommendations for a national trauma system in the US.

Geir Strandenes, MD

Born 1961, Dr. Strandenes finished his military service in the Norwegian Army Special Operation Commando in 1982. He finished medical school in 1988 and became an approved specialist in anesthesiology since 1996. His clinical career has been in Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology Haukeland University Hospital Bergen and Prehospital Emergency Medicine in the Norwegian Air Ambulance services (1992-2007). He was a member of the Army Special Operation Commando as consulting officer from 1996-2000 and is currently the Senior Medical Officer in the Norwegian Naval Special Operation Commando from 2010.

Dr. Strandenes’ research interests include Prehospital Whole Blood Transfusions, Principal Investigator of the Blood Far Forward (BFF) research program in cooperation with the department of Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen/Norway and Us Army Institute of Surgical Research.

David Stroncek, MD

David Stroncek the Director of the Center for Cellular Engineering (CCE) and acting Chief, Department of Transfusion Medicine at the NIH Clinical Center. The CCE is a comprehensive facility that develops and manufactures a wide range of cell and gene therapies for phase 1 and 2 clinical trials. The CCE is currently manufacturing CAR T-cells, TCR-engineered T-cells, cancer vaccines, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), retinal pigmented epithelial cells derived from autologous iPSC and genetically modified hematopoietic stems cells. In past the CCE has manufactured dendritic cells, NK cells, virus specific T-cells and mesenchymal stromal cells. The CCE also processes hematopoietic stem cells for transplantation.

He received a bachelor’s of science degree in Chemical Engineering and a Medical Degree from the University of Minnesota. He completed residence training in internal medicine and fellowship training in hematology and oncology at the University of Minnesota.

David Stroncek’s research is focused on investigating new measures of cell and gene therapy quality and potency and developing new manufacturing methods to improve the consistency and quality of cell and gene therapies cells.

Fabio Triolo, D.d.R., M.Phil., PhD

Dr. Triolo has a broad background in clinical-grade cell-based, tissue-based and combination product manufacturing for regenerative medicine applications, and extensive experience in compliance with American and European current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs). He has over 17 years of experience establishing and directing Investigational New Drug (IND)-dedicated cell production facilities compliant to European and American cGMPs in Europe and in the US and has supported >20 cellular therapy clinical trials aimed at adult and pediatric patients and conducted in Europe and in the US based on various cell-based products (e.g., fetal liver progenitor cells, pancreatic islets, bone marrow and umbilical cord derived mononuclear cells, adipose tissue, umbilical cord tissue and bone marrow derived mesenchymal stromal cells, regulatory T cells, genetically modified T cells). In collaboration with Biostage, Inc., his team produced a FDAcompliant adipose tissue derived MSC-seeded esophageal implant that was the first tissue engineered esophagus ever implanted in man, and he was the first to publish specific risk analysis approaches and procedures applicable to cell therapy manufacturing and to provide a specific model for guidance of cell transplantation centers and cell processing facilities, especially if approaching risk management for the first time. He directs the Cellular Therapy Core at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), and functions as a bridge between scientists and clinicians, enabling the translation, scale-up, and validation of promising new therapeutic technologies developed by scientists at a preclinical level, into clinical-grade processes that can be used to manufacture cell-based and/or tissue engineered and/or combination products for clinical applications. He also ensures that such processes are designed/translated in compliance with national and/or international regulations according to the nature of the trial. For the last decade, he has been manufacturing cell-based products at UTHealth to support multiple single- and multi-center clinical trials aimed at developing cell-based therapies to improve neurological conditions, such as anoxic brain injury at birth, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (in collaboration with Dr. Stan Appel of Houston Methodist), and treatment-resistant bipolar disorder (within the first cell therapy clinical study in the world aimed at treating a psychiatric mood disorder), all of which are still unmet medical needs.

Virginia Von Schaefer, MD

“Nationally and internationally recognized as a leading integrative oncologist and an expert in individualized immunotherapy, customized low-dose chemotherapy, and many other groundbreaking treatments, Dr. Von Schaefer brings more than 35 years of experience to her highly personalized, direct patient care practice.
Dr. Von Schaefer graduated with distinction from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in general, vascular and trauma surgery. While studying in medical school, Dr. Von Schaefer pioneered research in Vascular Surgery with hand woven vascular grafts made of dexon absorbable suture material. In surgical residency she conducted experiments on rats testing the efficacy of continuous infusion of 5-FU on colon cancer metastatic to the liver. She was also a recipient of The Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons Dr. J Lattimer award for research in transitional cell cancer of the ureters and bladder. She then completed a Vascular Surgery Fellowship at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Being a pioneer in the medical innovation sphere of integrative medicine an exceptional medical doctor like Dr. Von Schaefer can make all the difference. With rigorous educational requirements, years of training, and the emotional impact modern medicine can have, a “top doctor” can be nearly impossible to find, especially in the world of integrative medicine and oncology.”

Tracy Webb, DVM, PhD

Dr. Tracy Webb received her DVM degree from The Ohio State University followed by a small animal medicine and surgery internship and an emergency and critical care residency at Angell Animal Medical Center. Tracy then moved to Colorado where she received a PhD in Immunology/Pathology and remained at CSU in a Research Scientist role as well as performing clinical work. Tracy is also a Clinical Review Board Specialist at CSU, chair of the CTSA One Health Alliance (COHA) Communication and Collaboration subcommittee, immediate past chair of the North American Veterinary Regenerative Medicine Association, and involved in various initiatives to encourage and support quality and sustainable research.

Arun Wiita, MD, PhD

Dr. Arun Wiita is a physician-scientist and Associate Professor in the Dept. of Laboratory Medicine and Dept. of Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Wiita’s research laboratory focuses on mass spectrometry-based proteomics, target discovery, protein engineering, and cellular engineering toward the development of novel immunotherapies for hematologic malignancies, while his clinical duties center on molecular genomic pathology. Dr. Wiita also directs the UCSF Stephen and Nancy Grand Multiple Myeloma Translational Initiative (MMTI) Laboratory. Dr. Wiita is a prior recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, a Clinical Scientist Development Award from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator Award, among others. He completed his residency in Clinical Pathology at UCSF, his MD and PhD at Columbia, with graduate training in single molecule biophysics, and undergraduate studies in Chemistry at Princeton.

Pampee Young, MD, PhD

Dr. Pampee Young is the Chief Medical and Scientific Officer of the American Red Cross where she oversees Red Cross’s team of physicians and the Scientific Affairs Department which focuses primarily on the advancement of blood safety and The Transfusion Innovation Department whose primary focus is on new blood product and device development. Before joining the Am Red Cross, Dr. Young was a tenured Professor at Vanderbilt Medical Center where she served as Director of Transfusion Medicine and Cell Therapy and lead investigator of an extramurally funded research program in wound healing for 15 years. She has coauthored over 100 peer reviewed manuscripts. Her current research interests are in blood center operations and development of strategies for blood centers to promote and impact public health.

Jianhua Yu, PhD

Jianhua Yu, PhD, is a Professor and Founding Director of the Natural Killer (NK) Cell Research Program at City of Hope. Prior to joining City of Hope, Dr. Yu was a tenured professor in the College of Medicine and the Comprehensive Cancer Center at The Ohio State University. Dr. Yu is recognized in the field for his fundamental contributions to understanding NK cell biology, NK cell-based cancer immunotherapy, and oncolytic virotherapy. Dr. Yu focuses on both basic and translational research relevant to developing innovative cellular immunotherapy and oncolytic virotherapy for the treatment of both hematological malignancies and solid tumors. Discoveries from Dr.Yu’s lab have been translated into several clinical trials. Dr. Yu has authored or co-authored ~230 publications, many of which are in high-impact journals such as senior-author papers in Nature Biotechnology, Nature Immunology, Cancer Discovery, Immunity, Science Immunology, and Nature Cancer, with over 17,000 citations and an H-index of 69 to date. Dr. Yu holds over 30 patents (awarded or pending) on his research that are highly applicable to the clinic, some of which are licensed to pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Yu is a scholar at several national research foundations, including the National Blood Foundation, the American Cancer Society, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.