MODERATOR

Ed Field, MBA, President, North Carolina BioLabs

Ed Field is President of BioLabs NC. Mr. Field has 20+ years c-level experience in building and selling numerous early-stage and publicly-traded biotechnology companies. He has been responsible for managing commercial operations, regulatory, manufacturing, clinical development, finance and human resources. He was responsible for the buildout and start-up of BioLabs NC which has become the largest life science innovation lab in the Southeast US with over 90 early stage company residents and graduates that combined have raised over $2B in capital.

Mankit Law, PhD, MBA, Worldwide Business Development Director, GSK

Mankit Law is an executive with broad R&D and transactional experience. He currently serves as Director, Business Development at GSK. As a core member of the team that establishes and executes the company’s BD strategy for Pharmaceuticals R&D, he leads the search and evaluation of partnership opportunities and the structuring and closing of related transactions. Prior to joining GSK in 2020, he was a Principal at Pappas Capital, where he played a key role in the firm’s successful investments in the life science sector.

Pepper Landson, CPC, Co-Founder & CEO of Praetego, LLC.

Pepper Landson is an accomplished healthcare executive with 30 years of experience in research and development, positively impacting over 100 programs. Her contributions include successful products for infectious diseases, neurology, oncology, and infertility. Her tenacity fuels innovation and her talents energize successful teams. In the last decade, she has focused exclusively on developing novel therapeutics to address chronic diseases of aging. With her skills as a Certified Professional Coach, Pepper actively supports the next generation of life science leaders through her work as an EIR at UNC Chapel Hill / Kickstarter Ventures, Women in Bio’s 3.8 Initiative, and mentoring entrepreneurs at UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, and NC State University.

Laura Gunter, MBA, President North Carolina Biosciences Organization

Laura Gunter leads the North Carolina Biosciences Organization as its president and directs the work of the life science advocacy association in conjunction with its Executive Committee and Board of Directors. NCBIO promotes policy initiatives that encourage the growth and success of life science companies doing business in the state by advocating for the industry before the NC General Assembly and the NC Congressional delegation. She works closely with state and federal partners on the advocacy and policy front.

MODERATOR

Derrick Rowe, PhD, JD, Of Counsel, WSGR

Dr. Derrick Rowe is Of Counsel in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where his practice focuses on patent prosecution and counseling designed to help clients protect their intellectual property rights both domestically and internationally in the life sciences, biotechnology, molecular biology, pharmaceutical, diagnostic, and medical device fields.

Jeff Schaal, PhD, Senior Vice President, Solve Therapeutics

Jeff currently serves as Sr. Vice President at Solve Therapeutics where he leads the Theragnostic R&D division with the focus of developing targeted radiopharmaceuticals in the field of oncology. Jeff came to Solve through the acquisition of Cerius Inc., where he served as Chief Scientific Officer and co-led the acquisition process.

Jeff has his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from Notre Dame

Kelli Luginbuhl, PhD, Co-Founder / CEO, Isolere Bio

Kelli co-founded Isolere Bio, a Duke University spinout, in 2017 after graduating with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. Her doctoral degree, which focused on biomedical applications of phase separating biomaterials, led to two patents and several high impact publications in Nature Biomedical Engineering and Nature Chemistry, among others. As a CSO turned CEO, Kelli remains close to the technology and is an inventor on the company’s core patents. At Isolere’s helm, she has raised over $5M in non-dilutive funding and closed the $7M Seed round in 2021.