Therapeutics & Healthcare Day
 | Ambassador Markus Leitner was born in 1966 in Zurich and is a citizen of the City of Zurich. He completed his studies with a degree in Economics at the Zurich University of Applied Science and the University of Fribourg. After various positions in the private sector, he joined the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in 1996 and undertook his diplomatic training in Berne (1996/97) and Madrid (1997/98). On his return to Berne, he dealt with Swiss financial center issues (e.g. banking secrecy, politically exposed persons, blood diamonds) in the Economics and Finance Division. From 2002 to 2006 Mr Leitner was responsible for economic and scientific affairs at the Embassy of Switzerland in Pretoria. From 2006 to 2008, he was posted in Santiago de Chile as Deputy Head of Mission. From 2009 to 2010, Mr Leitner headed the Peace Policy Section in Berne and was appointed Deputy Head of the Human Security Division at the beginning of 2011 until mid-2013. In June 2013, Mr Leitner became the Ambassador of Switzerland in Egypt. He was subsequently appointed Ambassador of Switzerland to the Islamic Republic of Iran and assumed the position in August 2017. Since August 2021, Markus Leitner serves as the Swiss Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He is married and has two children. |
 | Prof Michele Barbour is Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor Enterprise and Innovation at the University of Bristol. Hers is a strategic leadership role with the remit to grow, enhance and promote the University’s enterprise and innovation activities across all disciplines, particularly in relation to research commercialisation and industry partnerships. She is also Professor of Biomaterials in the Faculty of Health Sciences where she teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students, and is a PI and research group lead. She founded a spin-out company, Pertinax Pharma Ltd, in 2015, and in this has experience of fund raising from VC, Angels, charities and UK and EU public funding bodies. |
 | Prof Dek Woolfson is Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Principal Investigator of BrisEngBio, the UKRI-funded Bristol Centre for Engineering Biology; Director of the Bristol BioDesign Institute at the University of Bristol; founding member of the Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology; and Founder of Rosa Biotech. Dek took his first degree in Chemistry at the University of Oxford, and gained a PhD in Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. Dek’s research has always been at the interface between chemistry and biology, applying chemical methods and principles to understand biological phenomena such as protein folding and stability. He has a long-standing interest in the challenge of rational protein design, and how this can be applied in synthetic biology and biotechnology. His particular emphasis is on making completely new protein structures not known to natural biology using a combination of rational and computational design. |
 | Dr Harry Destecroix is the founder of the Science Creates ecosystem and Managing Partner of SCVC – the official venture capital arm of Science Creates' ecosystem. He is a scientist, entrepreneur and investor, and the co-founder of Ziylo, the hugely successful University of Bristol spin-out company. Harry is passionate about building great companies and providing the optimum ecosystem to facilitate their growth and development. |
 | Tay Salimullah currently is VP, Head US & Global Commercial, Value & Access, & Member of the Executive Committee at Novartis Gene Therapies. Tay has over two-decades of global experience in building and scaling industry first start-up businesses with innovative, complex high value biologics, including cell therapies (Kymriah) and gene therapies (Zolgensma). Tay has been involved with cell and gene therapy approvals in 51 markets, with 45 country access pathways reaching over 3500+ patients. He has a deep understanding of cutting-edge R&D and how to make specialty medicines relevant in today’s challenging environment. |
Panel 1: Future perspectives in cell engineering
 | Panel Chair: Anike Te (Lucideon) |  | Prof Rafael Carazo Salas (University of Bristol) |
 | Dr Oliver Dovey (bit.bio) |  | Prof Martin Fussenegger (ETH Zurich) |
 | Dr Dorothea Ledergerber (Independent) |  | Dr Andreas Meyer (Ginkgo Bioworks) |
Panel 2: Bioprocessing and scale-up
 | Panel Chair: Fiona Mischel (SynBioBeta) |  | Dr Yvonne Armitage (Centre for Process Innovation) |
 | Dr Mark Cresswell (Lucideon) |  | Neil Goldsmith (Baselaunch) |
 | Dr Will Milligan (Extracellular) |  | Dr Frank Plöger (Xlife Sciences) |
Panel 3: AI-driven solutions in synthetic and engineering biology
 | Panel Chair: Dr Matthias Christen (Gigabases) |  | Dr Tim Heinemann (CSEM) |
 | Dr Fátima Kranc (Cambridge Enterprise) |  | Dr Lucia Marucci (University of Bristol) |
 | Dr Michael Salako (Start Codon) |  | Dr Nicole Wheeler (University of Birmingham) |
Panel 4: Fundamental research to commercial uptake
 | Panel Chair: Dr Sara Holland (Potter Clarkson) |  | Prof Imre Berger (University of Bristol) |
 | Prof Bart Deplancke (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) |  | Dr Julia Djonova (Swissmedic) |
 | Dr Nick Glanville (Prokarium) |  | Dr Chrysi Sergaki (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) |
Dr Irina Babina
(Concr)
Dr Freddie
Dudbridge
(Constructive Bio)
Dr Lars Nieba
(Engimmune
Therapeutics)
Dr Kamila Malysz
(Excellio Labs)
Prof Beat Christen
(Gigabases)
Dr Steven Schmitt
(Myria Biosciences)
Dr Pedro Correa de
Sampaio
(Neobe
Therapeutics)
Dr Jessica Corry
(Xterna)