Amanda Marie Gentile, MRes, is currently a Senior Clinical Scientist at Dicerna Pharmaceuticals where she is primarily focused on trial design, data analysis, and investigator outreach. Together with the small but mighty Clinical Operations team at Dicerna, she is also heavily involved in clinical vendor selection and management of two clinical-stage programs in rare disease and infectious disease, respectively. Amanda has 10 years of experience in the field of Clinical Research, five of which have been spent directly managing clinical trials in small to mid-size biotechnology companies. Before her current role with Dicerna, Amanda held roles of increasing responsibility at Finch Therapeutics (Somerville, MA), Intarcia Therapeutics, (Boston, MA), and Acorda Therapeutics (formerly Civitas Therapeutics (Chelsea, MA)).
Amanda has a BA in Psychology from the College of Holy Cross, Worcester, MA and a Master’s of Research Methods in Psychology from the University of York, York, UK.
Dina Berdieva leads Project Management and Clinical Operations for the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute. Dina has 18 years of industry experience which spans contract research organizations, small biotechnology and global pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining Gates MRI she was the Executive Director of Clinical Operations for Boston Pharmaceuticals, an early phase translational medicine company. Dina also worked at Novartis Vaccines for almost nine years in various roles with increasing responsibility. During her time at Novartis, she oversaw global trials which led to regulatory approval for Flucelvax, Bexsero and an expanded indication for Menveo in children.
Dina grew up in Asia and Africa, earned her bachelor’s degree from Clark University and her Master’s in Public Health from Boston University.
Matt Weinberg is Director of Strategic Sourcing for Agios Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company focused on developing treatments for cancer and rare diseases through scientific leadership in the field of cellular metabolism. The Agios Sourcing team is small but mighty. Matt has responsibility for leading the group and also supports the Clinical Development and Commercial functions.
Christine has worked in leadership roles in biotech for the last twenty-five years, with experience in process improvement, outsourcing, partnership strategies and clinical technology leadership. Christine is currently Vice President of Clinical Business Operations and Innovation at Relay Therapeutics.
Heather DiBenedetto is the Head of Therapeutic Operations at Moderna Therapeutics and is based in Cambridge, MA. Moderna Therapeutics is a platform company focused on messenger RNA therapies across a broad range of therapeutic areas including immune-oncology, infectious disease, rare disease and cardiovascular. Heather joined Moderna Therapeutics in 2016 from Novartis, Translational Clinical Oncology where she was the Global Head of Clinical Operations. She managed a global team of ~120 clinical operations, clinical scientists, compliance, planning, operational excellence and biomarker professionals overseeing >60 global oncology studies. Prior to Novartis, Heather led a Strategic Partnership and Start up group at Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda. Previously Heather held roles of increasing responsibilities on both the Biotech and CRO side. Heather holds a M.S. degree in Drug Regulatory Affairs & Health Policy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences and a B.A. in Zoology from the University of Vermont. Heather is Regulatory Affairs (US) certified.
Susan Stewart has served as Kaleido’s Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs & Quality since April 2018. Ms. Stewart has worked for more than 27 years in biopharmaceutical regulatory affairs, with significant experience devising innovative strategies for novel therapeutics, overseeing regulatory submissions at various stages of product development and leading interactions with global health authorities. Previously, in addition to being an independent regulatory consultant for several years, she was senior vice president of regulatory affairs, quality, and compliance at Tokai Pharmaceuticals and vice president, regulatory affairs at Transmolecular. She also spent more than 13 years at Genzyme Corporation in regulatory and compliance roles, including serving as vice president, regulatory affairs. She received her J.D. from Concord Law School at Purdue University Global and her B.A. from the University of Massachusetts. She holds both US and EU RACs.
Kelsey started her career in academics with The Boston Spine Group at the renowned New England Baptist Hospital. There she developed and managed their patient registries as well as their investigator and IDE clinical trials. After 7 years at the Baptist she joined Impliant (a start-up medical device company), where she served as their Clinical Marketing Manager overseeing their US IDE, as well as post-market clinical trials in Brazil, Israel and Belgium. Since 2011 Kelsey has been with Intrinsic Therapeutics in their Clinical department successfully guiding the company’s flagship product through PMA approval.
Kuldeep Neote, Ph.D. is Vice President External Innovation at Eli Lilly and Company and is responsible for integrating external innovation into Lilly Research Labs. He was Senior Director at J&J Innovation Center-Boston responsible for New Venture activities for the Janssen R&D in the East Coast. He has been responsible for several academic and biotech collaboration including two opportunities in Canada and also served as the interim Head of JLABS@Canada. Dr. Neote is trained as a Molecule Biologist with an extensive background in drug discovery. He has been focused in the area of Immunology, Inflammation and Oncology and has a passion for implementing cutting edge scientific discoveries into practical drug discovery programs. Throughout his career, he has looked at creative scientific and business development collaborative and partnering opportunities that have resulted in tangible clinical translation of new scientific discoveries working in conjunction with academic and biotech companies. Formerly, Dr. Neote was Research Advisor/Director in Global External R&D at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, IN and responsible for search and evaluation of Oncology in-licensing opportunities. Prior to Eli Lilly, he was a Discovery Scientist in Pfizer Inc. in Groton, CT. Dr. Neote initiated the Chemokine Receptor Drug Discovery platform that lead to several clinical candidates, and also discovered novel chemokines. Earlier in his career, Dr. Neote cloned one of the first chemokine receptors during his post-doctoral studies in Genentech. Dr. Neote earned her BSc. in Microbial and Cellular Biology at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada, and a Ph.D. in Human and Molecule Genetics at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, where he was a major contributor in the understanding of the molecular basis of lysosomal storage diseases, in particular Tay Sachs and Sandhoff’s disease.
Querida started in 2012 as Editor for North America and moved into the Editor in Chief role in 2014, where she oversees the New York and London newsrooms. She previously was the online managing editor at Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), where she wrote news stories daily and assigned and edited multiple analytical feature stories and blogs a week. She has moderated several industry panels, is a published science writer and has produced science news stories for ABC and NBC. Querida also worked on a documentary for the Discovery Channel. She has a Master’s in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting from NYU. Querida majored in Physics at Mumbai University, where she graduated with honors.
