Jompong Champaiboon

COO,Baiya Phytopharm

Jompong is an engineer who graduated from Chulalongkorn University. He co-founded the Baiya Phytopharm in 2018 and currently serves as its Chief Operating Officer. He has a vision to promote pharmaceutical endeavors and create health security in Thailand, and he oversees the businessmanagement and operations of Baiya. He also works closely with the research team, led by Dr. Waranyoo Poolcharoen, to scale-up production from the lab scale to a larger scale. He has designed a production facility for plant-produced vaccines and biologics, which can produce up to 60 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine per year. His leadership and dedication to his work were evident in the construction of the facility. He oversaw the facility's construction and ensured that it was up and running within eight months. His hard work and commitment paid off, as the facility became the first cGMP plant-produced vaccines and biologics facility for humans in Asia. Jompong's success in his work has been driven by his passion and vision for creating health security in Thailand. He continues to work towards this goal, using his engineering skills and business acumen to make a difference in the world.

Shaowei Li

Professor, Xiamen University

Shaowei Li Ph.D. Professor of Biochemistry and Structural Vaccinology, Xiamen University Shaowei Li is a tenured Professor of Biochemistry and Structural Vaccinology in the School of Life Sciences with a joint appointment in the School of Public Health, Xiamen University, China. He is the vaccine group leader in the National Institute of Diagnostics and Vaccine Development in infectious diseases (NIDVD), one of the academic leaders in the State Key Laboratory of Molecular Vaccinology and Diagnostics, deputy director in Fujian provincial Xiang An biomedicine laboratory. Dr. Li has inter-disciplinary research interests focusing on structural vaccinology, resulting in more than 120 peer-reviewed papers. He also has translational experience in vaccine development against infectious diseases—such as Hepatitis E vaccine and HPV vaccine, especially in aspects of immunogen design, process development and antigen characterization. Dr. Li has won two of China’s National Science and Technology Awards and been listed in the Top 20 translational researchers of 2016, ranked by Nature Biotechnology. He has served on the Product Development for Vaccines Advisory Committee (PDVAC), World Health Organization (WHO) since 2022.

Xiangrong Song

Co-Founder, Westgene

Xiangrong Song is a full professor at Sichuan University and a pharmaceutical scientist at National Key Laboratory of Biotherapy. The Song lab has developed the targeted delivery systems for gene drugs and small molecules to treat tumors, atherosclerosis, ocular diseases, infection or brain diseases. Two novel drug candidates (IND) have been approved for phase I clinical trials. She has authored more than 100 papers and is an inventor of more than 50 issued / pending patents worldwide. The technologies that Dr. Song and her colleagues have developed formed the basis for the launch of 2 biotechnology companies. The two companies are translating the aforementioned academic innovations toward commercialization and societal impact. In 2019, she was a recipient of the first prize of Science and Technology Award in Chinese National Medicine Association, for the research on immune function of Yi nationality's medicine. In 2022, she was named as the elite of science and technology in China.

Alex Li

COO, Axter Therapeutics

Dr. Alex Li is the COO and Head of research for Axter Therapeutics Inc. Since its establishment at the end of 2021, the Axter mRNA platform has developed a number of highly efficient LNP delivery systems with independent intellectual property rights, including immune system-targeted LNP for preclinical research of mRNA tumor vaccines and antiviral vaccines. Dr. Alex Li is a Board Director of the Sino-American Pharmaceutical Professional Association (SAPA), former President of SAPA-NE, and Visiting Professor of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (Peking Union Medical College). He worked in Biogen for 17 years (2000-2017), participating in the research and development of 6 new approved drugs, including the evaluation, licensing-in and lead research of the first successful anti-sense oligo drug Spinraza for Biogen. Prior to joining Axter, Dr. Li received his MBA and Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Sergey Arakelov

Sci Dir., St. Petersburg Scientific Research Institute of Vaccines and Sera, FMBA,RU

South Ural University, New York, NY. Master of Business Administration, 2002. Institute of Virology, Moscow, Russia. PhD (in Virology), 1988. Moscow Pedagogical University, Moscow, Russia. Master of Science, 1980. IVANOVSKY INSTITUTE OF VIROLOGY, Moscow, Russia Research Scientist (1980-1989), Laboratory Supervisor (1989-1990) NEW YORK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER, New York, New York Associate Research Scientist (1990-1994) SPECIALITY LABORATORIES, Santa Monica, California Research Scientist (1996-1998) FOCUS TECHNOLOGIES (former MRL), Cypress, California Senior Scientist (1998-2001) UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT (Center For Disease Control and Prevention), Project Manager - Consultant (2001-2003) PATHWAY DIAGNOSTICS, Malibu, California Director, Assay Development (2003-2007) INDEPENDANT CONSULTANT, Santa Monica, California (2007 - 2009) INTERNATIONAL VACCINE INSTITUTE (IVI), Seoul, Korea Laboratory Coordinator (2009-2011) FGUP SPbNIIVS FMBA RUSSIA, S-Petersburg, Russian Federation Adviser to Director of Institute (2013 - 2020) Scientific Director (2020 – present) Analytical research and scientific management of a new product development, intellectual property conceptualization, international collaboration.