Non-clinical Development for Cell and Gene Therapies

Barcelona Science Park and Labcorp organize an event to discuss strategies and approaches to optimize non-clinical development for cell and gene therapies with two main keynotes and a roundtable with a panel of experts. At the end of the event a brunch will be served for attendants.

11:00 - 11:10 Welcome. Anna Serra, PhD, Commercialization & Communication Director, Barcelona Science Park and Gareth Diggins, Senior Business Development Director, LabCorp.

11:10 - 11:30 Approaches in Discovery for Oncology Cell Therapies. Nikos Afentoulides, MSc - Senior Director of Business Development

11:30 - 11:50 Strategies and Approaches to Optimize Non-clinical Development for Cell and Gene Therapies. Bruce Hamilton, PhD, MSc, Drug Development - Team Leader, Early Phase Development Solutions, Labcorp Drug Development.

11:50 - 12:10 Maximizing Analytical Assay Reliability for Regulatory Approval of Cell and Gene Therapy Products. Paul Byrne, MSc - Associate Director, Enterprise Cell & Gene Therapy.

12:10 - 12:40 Q&A Session.

12:40 - 14:00 Brunch & networking.

About the experts

Nikos Afentoulides, has been with Labcorp Preclinical Oncology for over 10 years and has worked with over 200 different sponsors spanning from start-ups to large pharma across the US and Europe. In his role as Senior Business Development Director, he provides cell therapy oncology focused sponsors solutions for in vivo tumor efficacy models with ex vivo endpoints which include imaging, flow cytometry, and histopathology. Nikos received his MSc in Biotechnology from the University of Connecticut and his MBA from Post University.

Bruce J. Hamilton, manages a team of drug development leaders specializing in the development of biological (mAB, cell, gene) therapies, oligonucleotides, and vaccines. With more than 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical research and development, he has been responsible for the end-to-end delivery of several compounds, overseen many more programs at different phases of drug development, and holds more than a half-dozen patents. Before joining Labcorp, he was Director, New Product Development, Abcam, and had previous positions with Medimmune, Bicycle Therapeutics, GlaxoSmithKline, and Astex Therapeutics. Dr. Hamilton received his PhD in Pharmacy from Manchester University and MSc in Biochemistry from Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

Paul Byrne, focuses on the evolving field of cell and gene therapies, providing scientific and regulatory leadership and direction on projects throughout the drug development continuum. In this role, Paul also brings clients specialized expertise in the development and validation of analytical tools and strategies, as well as development of regulatory compliant and molecular biology. Paul has more than 20 years of industry experience and can frequently be found speaking at symposiums on topics such as: analytical development challenges for ATMPs, biodistribution and safety assessment considerations for cell and gene therapies and more. Paul received his BSc (Hons) in biology from the University of Stirling and his MSc in research from the University of Glasgow.

About Labcorp

Labcorp Drug Development, formerly Covance, is committed to helping you transform the future of healthcare by bringing promising cell and gene therapies to more patients. Our dedicated cell and gene therapy leaders—supported by a multi-disciplinary team of scientific, operational, medical and regulatory teams—can provide comprehensive and strategic insights for more efficient movement and reduction of risk across critical milestones of your entire therapeutic development journey. 80% of the cell and gene therapy companies we have worked in the past 2 years have been biotech innovators and we are also able to provide links for those innovators to other potential partners.