Greg Horowitt is a serial entrepreneur, investor, author, and innovation systems architect. He currently is a Managing Director of Jun Capital as well as a member of the Society of Kauffman Fellows.

He is the Director of Innovation at the University of California, San Diego, and also serves as an adjunct lecturer at Stanford University. He has spent 25+ years working in startups, venture capital, and is one of the pioneers in the field of innovation ecosystems.

Greg is the co-author of the bestselling book, The Rainforest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley and is a trusted advisor to such notable organizations as the US State Department, Aspen Institute, University of California, World Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank, in addition to his role as a Senior Fellow with the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils.

He has worked in several executive and investment roles including a Berkshire Hathaway operating company, and continues his work today as an investor, advisor, and board member of multiple entrepreneurial startups.

Baez has 45 years of bioprocessing and product development experience conducting discovery, development and manufacturing programs for agricultural, chemical, bioenergy, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical products. He is currently a bioprocessing consultant and an industrial advisor at UCSD Bioengineering and MiraCosta College Biomanufacturing program.

He was the technology leader for Biologicals at Cipla Pharmaceutical leading a team selecting and implementing development and production technologies for biosimilars. At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories he directed a team to implement bioprocesses for biofuels and related bioproducts considering technology maturity, scalability, environment protection, quality, cost and volume.

In previous assignments he developed protein, nucleic acid, and cell-based biopharmaceuticals and industrial products requiring biological processing in small and large biotechnology-based companies.  He led a team to develop transgenic plant-derived biopharmaceuticals at FibroGen and Monsanto.

He also conduced and led bioprocessing activities at UpJohn Pharmaceuticals (antibiotics), at Ethyl Chemical (immobilized enzymes, bioconversions) and at Monsanto/Searle (antibiotics, steroids, advance performance biomaterials  industrial enzymes, immobilized enzymes, processing enzymes, therapeutic recombinant proteins, cytokines, bioconversions, biocontrol agents, metabolites, plant made pharmaceuticals, animal-use protein hormones).

He prepared regulatory submissions (NDA, BLA) and grants (SBRI, STTR, DARPA). For 25 years he had been teaching biochemistry, bioprocessing, biopharmaceuticals and agricultural biotechnology courses and workshops at leading universities and international conferences.

He got a BS/BA in Chemistry from the University of Notre Dame and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois.

Managing Director, Master of Science in Drug Development & Product Management. Health Sciences Associate Clinical Professor. Associate Director, Center for Drug Discovery Innovation. Director, Strategic Academic Program Development Support Team Office of The Executive Vice-Chancellor UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Williams Ettouati, PharmD, received his Doctorât d’ État en Pharmacie from Université Descartes, Paris V and a Master of Arts in Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. In addition to being Managing Director of this program, he is Director of the Strategic Academic Program Development Support Team and Health Sciences Associate Clinical Professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SSPPS).

As Director for the Strategic Academic Program Development Support Team, his role is to provide strategic and collaborative leadership to co-create and support an institutional culture of innovation in education. Dr. Ettouati is the course chair for three courses in the Master of Science in Drug Development & Product Management.

These courses include “Opportunities in Pharma, Biotech”, “Marketing Strategy, Product Value, and Life Cycle Management”, and “Entrepreneurship, Business Development, Corporate, and Intellectual Property Strategy”. Prior to this program, Dr. Ettouati was teaching graduate courses in drug discovery, development, and commercialization at the School of Pharmacy and School of Medicine, at UC San Diego. These courses are also currently offered online on Coursera.

Before joining the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dr. Ettouati spent twenty years in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Dr. Ettouati has proven and extensive experience encompassing multiple functional disciplines in pharmaceutical executive management in areas such as general management, business development, licensing, marketing, and new product planning strategy in biotech and pharmaceutical companies.

Dr. Ettouati served as Chief Executive Officer, President, Co-Founder, and Director at GeneProt, and Chief Executive Officer, President and Director at Ceptyr, both early-stage drug discovery biotech companies. In addition, he was Chief Business Officer for several biotech firms, such as Hawaii Biotech and Syrrx, and was responsible for all partnering activities. He was also Vice President of Business Development for Syrrx, Aurora/Vertex, Vice President of Marketing at DepoTech, and worked in product management at Syntex (now Roche) and ICI (now Astra-Zeneca).

Finally, Dr. Ettouati had an established pharmaceutical consulting practice with many private and public clients around the U.S.

Matthew Weinstock is an experienced biotech professional who has served in many capacities during his career including scientist, inventor, educator, leader, executive, and advisor. His efforts have led to technologies that have been successfully commercialized or have resulted in technology development partnerships with top-10 pharma companies and government agencies such as DARPA.

Weinstock also has a passion for STEM education and sustains this interest by developing and teaching courses through University of California, San Diego Extended Studies.

He has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Utah School of Medicine where his dissertation centered on the advancement of mirror-image display technologies to discover D-peptide therapeutics against emerging infectious diseases.

Keefe Reuther received his Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics from Saint Louis University where he studied invasion biology and the evolution of social behavior in ants. He is currently interested in developing curricula and teaching strategies for experimental design and data analysis. He was awarded the Barbara and Paul Saltman Distinguished Teaching Award in 2018 and the Revelle College Outstanding Teaching Award in 2017. He joined the faculty of Biological Sciences as a lecturer in 2009 and as an Assistant Teaching Professor in 2020.

Annelise Snyder, Ph.D., is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle, Washington) where she studies immune responses to metastatic breast cancer. She previously worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (La Jolla, California) where she conducted research related to tumor immunology and neuroimmune responses in Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Snyder holds a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Washington, and B.A. degrees in Biology and Chemistry from Williams College.

Hugo Villar is the Dean of the Division of Extended Studies at UC San Diego. He has over 22 years of experience in the life sciences industry and is the president of Altoris, Inc., a local consulting firm focusing on chemoinformatics and molecular modeling, multivariate analysis, discovery informatics and intellectual property and evaluation. Villar specializes in the evaluation and development of technologies for drug discovery. In particular, software applications to problems in the life sciences, with an emphasis in chemistry. He served as the vice president of Chemoproteomics at Triad Therapeutics and vice president of Discovery Technologies at Telik, Inc. Villar has a Ph.D. in chemistry and a MBA (Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals) from the University of Colorado.

Yasin Torres-Tiji received a B.S. in Biotechnology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and later obtained a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the University of California San Diego. He now combines both fields of knowledge as a postdoctoral researcher at the California Center for Algae Biotechnology conducting research on genetic engineering of microalgae towards the development of a range of bioproducts including biofuels, bioplastics, food, nutritional supplements, and therapeutics.

Jake is an NSF postdoctoral scholar at the Salk Institute for Biological studies. He studies the comparative genomics of both the genomes and microbiomes of fishes to understand host-microbe interactions. He applies these methods to solve problems in finfish aquaculture. He received his PhD in marine biology in 2020 from UCSD where he focused on developing methods in microbiome research applied to various fish assemblages including wild and farmed. Prior to his PhD, he earned a MS in biology from San Diego State University where he studied the impacts of climate change on the macro algae microbiome. He was a Fulbright scholar in 2015 where he moved to Malawi Africa to study the microbiomes of freshwater fish farms to promote sustainability.

Michelle Grandin, Ph.D. is currently working as a scientific consultant in the field of biomaterials on applications ranging from vascular stents to dental implants, while focusing on surface material properties and implant design. During her postdoctoral research, and later as a senior scientist at the ETH, she steered a number of international partnership projects through the development of 3D microwell arrays for the study of isolated cells with uses ranging from stem cell to cancer research.

Attorney, Pharmacist, UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Cindy Evans Nguyen, PharmD, JD is a California licensed attorney and registered pharmacist and serves as legal consultant to companies in the biotechnology, healthcare, and pharmaceutical industries. Her legal background encompasses a wide variety of corporate, pharmacy, and intellectual property matters, covering trademark, copyright, and patent procurement and protection. She has also served as in-house legal counsel for Cytori Therapeutics and Intercept Pharmaceuticals, providing counsel in contract negotiation, corporate governance, clinical trial development, regulatory compliance, medical affairs, product development, and intellectual property licensing. She lectures frequently on corporate law, intellectual property protection, and pharmacy law and ethics at UCLA School of Law, UCSD School of Pharmacy, Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy, and Chapman University School of Pharmacy. Dr. Nguyen completed her undergraduate degree at Harvard University (cum laude) and earned her law degree from the University of California Los Angeles School of Law (Order of the Coif). She completed her Doctor of Pharmacy degree at UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Associate, San Diego Office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Peter S. Kang is an associate in the San Diego office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where his practice focuses on all aspects of intellectual property, including strategic patent counseling, patent prosecution, and litigation. Peter’s strategic patent counseling and patent prosecution experiences include drafting non-infringement and invalidity opinions and freedom-to-operate analyses and drafting and prosecuting U.S. and international patent applications for a wide range of technologies, including biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical devices, software, and the life sciences industry.

Peter’s patent prosecution experience further includes drafting appeal briefs to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, in particular for issues concerning Section 101 patent-eligible subject matter.

Peter leverages his strong patent litigation background when advising and counseling clients on intellectual property and related day-to-day business matters. He has litigated patent and trade secret disputes in a diverse range of technical areas. Peter assisted in successfully defending Mylan in a Hatch-Waxman litigation involving the blockbuster drug Celebrex, obtaining a summary judgment invalidating the patent that was affirmed on appeal. Peter frequently guest lectures at the University of San Diego and the University of Southern California, where he has taught courses on general intellectual property law and the Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) and Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA) litigation and regulatory pathways.

Peter also is an active member and leader in the community. In the past, Peter has served as the President of the Korean American Bar Association of San Diego (KABA-SD). Peter also volunteers as an attorney coach for a local high school mock trial team. During law school, Peter worked as an extern for the Honorable Gary Klausner of the Central District of California.

In addition, he worked as a judicial extern for Justice Alice Mpagi Bahigaine of the Uganda Court of Appeal and as a legal extern for the Capital Markets Authority in Uganda.

Senior Counsel, Innovation Law, Bristol-Meyers Squib. William M. Evans has over a decade of experience working with innovator companies in the pharmaceutical industry. As Senior Counsel of Innovation Law at Bristol-Meyers Squibb, he manages an extensive worldwide patent portfolio for products in all stages of development.  Additionally, William performs due diligence and provides guidance on in/out-licensing of assets and partner collaborations.  William’s patent strategies have protected several cutting edge therapies, including Spinraza and Idhifa.  William also advises on issues related to pharmaceutical life-cycle management, freedom to operate, and licensing transactions.  William completed a joint BS in Chemistry/BA in History, as well as an MS in Chemistry at UC San Diego, and earned his law degree from the University of San Diego.

Director de Innovación de la Universidad de los Andes, desde 2018 ha estado a cargo de liderar el diseño y estrategia institucional de la transferencia tecnológica e innovación basada en ciencia en la UANDES, además del proceso de transferencia tecnológica y de conocimiento desde la UANDES al mercado. Es miembro del directorio de spin-off e iniciativas UANDES como U-Work, Día+, Pregnóstica y HubTec Chile. En 2010 y mientras estudiaba su MBA en Estados Unidos, desarrolló el emprendimiento biotecnológico SumbiOx que está actualmente desarrollando fases clínicas. Es biólogo y PhD en ciencias biológicas de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile y MBA por la Universidad de California, San Diego, Estados Unidos.

Ingeniera Civil Bioquímica y Doctora en Biotecnología de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. Doce años de experiencia en gestión de la investigación e innovación con foco en: alimentos, ingeniería y biomedicina. Desempeño en instituciones generadoras de conocimiento con alta responsabilidad en diversos proyectos de financiamiento público y privado. Fue gerente del Centro Regional en Alimentos Saludables, CREAS de la región de Valparaíso de 2010 a 2013 y los últimos 9 desde la Dirección de Innovación de la UANDES ha potenciado su expertise en diseño e implementación de procesos de gestión de la I+D+i+e, tanto dentro de la universidad, como para emprendimientos y para empresas en vinculación con la academia.

Obtuvo un Ph.D. en salud y biología de la Universidad de Montpellier, Francia, centrándose en la terapia génica en enfermedades articulares, donde logró múltiples aplicaciones de terapia génica. El resultado exitoso de estos enfoques resultó en numerosas publicaciones de alto impacto, lo que le brindó la oportunidad de un puesto posdoctoral en el MIT, Instituto Koch, Cambridge, Massachusetts. En el MIT, centró su esfuerzo en establecer un modelo de ratón humanizado; un ratón con un sistema de sangre humana. A esto le siguió un puesto en la alianza MIT-Singapur para investigación y tecnología (SMART), en Singapur, donde trabajó en células madre hematopoyéticas y fetales. Luego de esta enriquecedora experiencia, estableció su propio laboratorio de investigación de medicina nanoregenerativa, en Santiago de Chile, donde actualmente dirige un equipo joven de investigadores altamente motivados. El laboratorio está ubicado en la Universidad de Los Andes y está afiliado a una empresa de biotecnología, Cells for Cells, donde actualmente ocupa una posición dual como A/professor y Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) en Cells for Cells y Regenero (co-fundador).