Dr. Bo Ying has dedicated over a decade of his career to the technology research into nucleic acid -based therapeutics and the development of transformative drugs. He founded Abogen, a biotechnology company with a mission of curing otherwise untreatable diseases through mRNA science and technology. 

As the founder, Dr Ying also has served as Chairman of the board and CEO of Abogen. Under his leadership, the company has established its own proprietary mRNA platform and delivery technology that allowed the development of the therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, cancer, and rare diseases. Most recently, Abogen’s mRNA platform capabilities have come together to allow the authorized use and approval of first China made mRNA vaccine against the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Prior to founding Abogen, Dr Ying had held several roles at numerous leading biopharmaceutical and biotechnologies companies in the US, mainly responsible for leading drug formulation, process development, technology transfer and manufacturing. Across his career, he takes pride in a broad array of innovative drug developing experiences in siRNA, mRNA-based therapies for tumor immunotherapy、cancer vaccines and gene-editing drug product candidates. 

Dr. Ying received his bachelor’s degree in life sciences from Fudan University, Shanghai, and Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from Northeastern University. He is credited as the inventor of a dozen issued patents and patent applications, and his work appears in journals such as Cell and Lancet. 

Over the years, Dr. Ying has held several positions in influential organizations. From 2018 to 2019, he served as the president of the Chinese-American BioMedical Association (CABA) in Boston, where he made contributions to the advancement of science and technological innovation with great potential to improve human health.

Dan Peer is a Professor and Director of the Laboratory of Precision Nanomedicine and Vice President for Research at Tel Aviv University. He did pioneer work in developing strategies to deliver RNA payloads in a cell specific manner. He developed one of the largest lipid libraries with more than 100,000 different lipids.

Peer lab was the first to show systemic cell specific delivery of mRNA molecules in an animal and the first to show highly efficient therapeutic genome editing in cancer in a cell type specific manner. He also developed the first bacterial mRNA vaccine.

Dr. Peer is the recipient of more than 35 awards and honors. He holds 148 pending and granted patents that have been licensed to 13 companies and more than 10 strategies he developed are currently in clinical testing. He is the founder of 4 startup companies (one was acquired by Danaher Cooperation in 2021). 

He has published more than 180 manuscripts; 3 books and gave numerous invited, plenary and keynote talks worldwide. He also serves as an editor and on the editorial board of more than 20 journals. Dr. Peer is a Member of the Israel Young Academy and International Member of the US National Academy of Engineering. He was recently elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in the USA.

Professor Yvonne Perrie is Chair in Drug Delivery at the Strathclyde Institute for Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences.

She holds a BSc in Pharmacy from Strathclyde and a PhD from the University of London.

Her research focuses on developing drug and vaccine delivery systems to address real-world healthcare challenges.

Yvonne is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Society of Biology, and the CRS. She is also an Eminent Fellow of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences. In 2024, she was awarded an MBE for services to pharmaceutical innovation and regulation.

Dr. Xiangrong Song is a recognized leader in RNA drug development and targeted delivery technologies. With nearly 20 years of experience in nanomedicine and translational research, she has advanced multiple novel therapies from concept to clinic. She is the scientific founder and General Manager of WestGene Biopharma and a professor at the National Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, Sichuan University.

Under her leadership, WestGene has successfully developed China’s first mRNA-based adjuvant approved under EUA, and advanced several first-in-class mRNA drugs into clinical trials in China and the US. The company’s in vivo CAR-T program, also led by Dr. Song, has entered clinical evaluation, offering a new approach to scalable and accessible cell therapy.

Dr. Song’s work has been recognized with top national innovation awards and multiple honors for scientific achievement. She actively serves on editorial boards and biotech committees, and continues to drive global collaborations in oncology, immunotherapy, and next-generation delivery platforms.

Dr. Muthiah (Mano) Manoharan serves as a Senior Vice President and a Distinguished Research Scientist at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Dr. Manoharan joined Alnylam in 2003. He built the chemistry group at Alnylam and pioneered the discovery and development of RNA interference-based human therapeutics. Dr. Manoharan has had a distinguished career as a world-leading chemist in the areas of oligonucleotide chemical modifications, conjugation chemistry, and delivery platforms (lipid nanoparticles, polymer conjugates, and complex-forming strategies). He is an author of more than 200 publications (nearly 37,000 citations with an h-index of 85 and an i10-index of 329) and over 400 abstracts, as well as the inventor of over 225 issued U.S. patents.

Zefeng Wang is a chair professor of Southern University of Science and Technology, and the scientific founder of Shanghai CirCode Biomedicine Inc.  His research focuses on the regulation of gene expression in RNA level.   His group uses bio computational and experimental approaches to study RNA regulation in a systematic fashion, and developed artificial proteins to specifically manipulate RNA metabolism. He has discovered the noncanonical translation of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in human cells, which promoted the use of circRNA as new generation of mRNA therapy.  His work was recognized by many research awards, including RNA Society/Scaringe Young Scientist Award, Alfred Sloan Research Fellow, Beckman Young Investigator, Max-Planck Fellow, CAS pioneer hundred talents program (type A), etc.  Based on the research from his lab, he co-founded the CirCode BioMed Inc that seeks to develop circRNA drugs for various human diseases.

Yizhou Dong is the Mount Sinai Endowed Professor in Nanomedicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS). He also serves as Associate Director of the Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine and System Chief of Biotechnology in the Windreich Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health at ISMMS. He received his B.S. in pharmaceutical sciences from Peking University Health Science Center and his M.S. in organic chemistry from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry. In 2009, he earned his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under the supervision of Professor K.-H. Lee. From 2010 to 2014, he completed his postdoctoral training in the laboratories of Professors Robert Langer and Daniel Anderson at Harvard Medical School and MIT. Dr. Dong joined the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy as an Assistant Professor in 2014 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2018. In 2022, he joined the ISMMS as a Full Professor. His research focuses on the design and development of biotechnology platforms for treating genetic disorders, infectious diseases, and cancers. Dr. Dong has authored more than 110 papers and is an inventor on more than 120 issued and pending patents worldwide. Many of his inventions have been licensed and are being developed as drug candidates for clinical trials. Dr. Dong has received numerous honors, including a Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the Ohio State Early Career Innovator of the Year Award, and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists Emerging Leader Award. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and the Controlled Release Society.

Alfonso is a graduate student in the lab of Professor Markita Landry. He received his Bachelor of Science in Chemical and Biological Engineering from MIT and is currently studying for his PhD in the UC Berkeley - UCSF Graduate Program in Bioengineering. He studies the interactions between nanomaterials and biological materials, especially proteins, to improve delivery efficiency in RNA therapeutics.

Dr. Pankaj Trivedi obtained his doctorate from Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Currently, he is a Professor of Laboratory Medicine at the faculty of Medicine, Sapienza University in Rome, Italy. Dr. Trivedi has also served as visiting professor, BIDMC, Harvard Medical School, Boston. Over the last 30 years, his main interest has been to study the role of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in pathogenesis of B cell lymphomas. The Trivedi lab has made some pioneering contributions how EBV through its latent proteins alters cellular microRNAs for immune evasion. He is a coinventor of the RNA aided Immunotherapeutics related patent and has authored over 70 papers in this field.

Dr. Ni Qianqian is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at National University of Singapore. She obtained her MD and PhD from Nanjing University, China. She did PhD and postdoc research training at National Institutes of Health (NIH), US before joining National University of Singapore. Dr. Ni’s research has been dedicated to advancing the application of nanotechnologies in RNA delivery. Her work focuses on two key areas: 1) the development of nucleic acid nanomedicines for cancer immunomodulation and theranostics, and 2) the innovation of lipid nanoparticle technologies and RNA modifications to enhance protein production.

Michael J. Mitchell, PhD

Hibbert Professor of Bioengineering, School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Michael J. Mitchell, PhD is a Hibbert Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where he leads the Mitchell Lab—an interdisciplinary group focused on biomaterials, drug delivery, and engineered nanomedicine. His research program addresses fundamental and translational challenges in overcoming biological barriers to nucleic acid and gene-based therapeutics. In particular, Dr. Mitchell’s lab develops and optimizes lipid nanoparticle (LNP) systems and other delivery vehicles for RNA, CRISPR, and immunomodulatory cargoes—with applications spanning cancer immunotherapy, genome editing, cardiovascular disease, regenerative medicine, and pregnancy-associated disorders. Among his key contributions, Dr. Mitchell has advanced high-throughput formulation strategies to tune ionizable lipids for targeted delivery, engineered LNPs to reach hard-to-target tissues (including bone marrow and placenta), and demonstrated proof-of-concept RNA therapies in preclinical disease models. His work is supported by several competitive awards and funding mechanisms, including the NSF CAREER Award and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface. He is also recognized as a highly cited researcher in the field of drug delivery and nanomedicine. In addition to his research, Dr. Mitchell is active in mentoring graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and he collaborates broadly across engineering, immunology, cancer biology, and translational medicine to accelerate new therapeutics from bench to bedside.

Dr. Prashant Nambiar is the Chief Scientific Officer at Strand Therapeutics and brings more than two decades of experience leading research, preclinical development, and translational programs across biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. At Strand, Dr. Nambiar oversees the company’s Research and Preclinical development organization, spanning mRNA discovery, synthetic biology, pharmacology, automation, computational biology, LNP discovery, and nonclinical safety. He has been instrumental in advancing Strand’s pipeline of programmable mRNA medicines, including its first self-replicating mRNA therapeutic now in clinical development.

Prior to joining Strand, Dr. Nambiar served as Vice President of Preclinical and Translational Development at 2seventybio and bluebird bio, where he led teams developing cell and gene therapies for oncology and rare diseases. He previously held scientific and leadership roles at Pfizer, Genzyme, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, focusing on drug discovery, toxicology, and translational biology.

Dr. Nambiar holds a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from the University of Connecticut Health Center, is board certified in both Toxicology and Veterinary Pathology, and earned an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

DK Lee is the Chief Executive Officer of OliX Pharmaceuticals, a leading innovator in next-generation RNAi therapeutics. He earned his B.S. in Chemistry from KAIST and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Cornell University, establishing a strong foundation in both chemistry and life sciences. He is also a Professor of Chemistry at Sungkyunkwan University, where he contributes to scientific education and research. At OliX, he leads the development of the company’s proprietary asiRNA platform and advances multiple therapeutic programs in areas of significant unmet need. Known for uniting scientific insight with strategic leadership, he continues to guide OliX toward global impact in RNAi medicine.

Trained as an immunologist at the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France), Steve Pascolo used mouse models to test and develop mRNA-based vaccines (direct injection of mRNA) during his post-doc in Tuebingen, Germany from 1998 till 2000. In 2000, he co-founded CureVac with Dr. Hoerr and Dr. von der Mulbe. Steve Pascolo was Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of the company from 2000 till 2006, developing the technology, implementing the worldwide first pharmaceutical (GMP) production of synthetic mRNA and starting in 2003 the worldwide first clinical studies where humans (including first himself) got injections of in vitro transcribed mRNA. In 2006, he joined the oncology department of the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland and continued the development of immunotherapies based on RNA. In 2008, he founded Miescher Pharma to support this work. In 2013, he joined the dermatology department of the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland. In 2017, Steve Pascolo implemented in the University of Zurich an academic mRNA platform https://www.cancer.uzh.ch/en/Research/mRNA-Platform.html. In collaboration with several research and clinical departments in Zurich he optimizes, tests and implements mRNA based vaccines and therapies.

Dr. Seong-Wook Lee is the founder and CEO of Rznomics Inc., an RNA-based biopharmaceutical company established in 2017. He has also been a Professor at Dankook University in Korea since 1997.

Dr. Lee received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Dept. of Microbiology from Seoul National University and obtained his Ph.D. in Dept. of Molecular Biology from Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences. He served as a graduate research assistant at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and subsequently as a research associate and visiting scholar at Duke University Medical Center.

Dr. Lee’s expertise focuses on the development of RNA-based therapeutics and diagnostics. His research has been particularly dedicated to advancing RNA technologies for the treatment and prevention of a wide range of intractable diseases, including genetic, infectious, degenerative, and malignant disorders.

Dr. Lee currently serves on the editorial boards of several prominent international journals in the field of nucleic acid gene therapy, including ‘Nucleic Acid Therapeutics’ and ‘Molecular Therapy–Nucleic Acids’. Dr. Lee also served as President of the ‘Korean Society of Gene and Cell Therapy’.

Ed Yaworski is the Chief Technology Officer at Genevant Sciences GmbH where he leads the development of nucleic acid therapeutics utilizing Genevant’s proprietary lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology or next generation ligand conjugate technology. He has more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry including over 20 years working with delivery systems for nucleic acids, during which he helped advance more than a dozen products into clinical trials in the areas of oncology, metabolic disorders, and infectious diseases. Ed is an expert in LNP pharmaceutical development, scale-up, lyophilization, and manufacturing. He is a pioneer of LNP formulation methods and compositions and is an inventor of Genevant’s leading LNP delivery technology. Ed holds an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Manitoba.

Dr. Erik Digman Wiklund is an experienced industry executive and the scientific co-founder of the Circio AB subsidiary. He previously worked for the Nordic cancer biotechnology companies Algeta and Targovax in various leadership roles, and has a background from management consulting in the Pharma & Health Care practice of McKinsey & Co. Dr. Wiklund is the co-discoverer of human circular RNA, and holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from Aarhus University, Denmark, and the Garvan Institute, Sydney, Australia

David Jürgens, Ph.D., is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of RNhale GmbH, a Munich-based biotech pioneering inhaled RNA therapeutics for chronic respiratory diseases. After completing his doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences, David pursued postdoctoral research in Prof. Olivia Merkel’s laboratory, focusing on RNA delivery and pulmonary administration, before transitioning to entrepreneurship. At RNhale, he leads the development of dry powder formulations and lipid nanoparticle-based RNA platforms for diseases such as COPD and severe asthma. Under his scientific leadership, RNhale secured a prestigious EIC Transition grant and the Seal of Excellence, as well as the Daiichi Sankyo Golden Ticket.

Dr. Getts is the CEO and co-founder of Myeloid Therapeutics, a clinical-stage immunology company based in Cambridge. Under his leadership, Myeloid Therapeutics has raised over $200 million in combined equity and non-dilutive financing to support the translation of cutting-edge mRNA immune cell programming therapies to the clinic. Myeloid is renowned as the first company in the world to deliver in vivo CAR therapy to humans. Dr. Getts is also the founder and interim CEO of Aurora Biosynthetics, a Myeloid subsidiary focused on GMP DNA & RNA manufacturing, based in Sydney, Australia.

Prior to founding Myeloid, Dr. Getts was the Vice President of Research at TCR2 Therapeutics (NASDAQ: TCRR), where he was a pivotal member of the leadership team that successfully secured a Series B financing round of $120 million and an IPO of approximately $80 million. 

Before his tenure at TCR2, Dr. Getts was the founder, inventor, and Chief Scientific Officer of Cour Pharmaceuticals Development Company. Cour is a nanotechnology platform company dedicated to addressing autoimmunity and inflammation. During his time there, Dr. Getts was instrumental in company formation, development and execution of clinical programs and negotiating several pharmaceutical collaborations and licenses, including a significant partnership with Takeda, which licensed TIMP-GLIA (TAK-101) for $420 million plus royalties.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Getts served as the Director of Research & Development at Tolera Therapeutics. In this role, he was the lead immunologist responsible for advancing the company’s monoclonal T-cell antibody program from discovery to Phase 3 clinical trials.

Dr. Getts has received numerous honors and awards and holds over 100 patents and patent applications. Since 2010, he has played a direct or indirect role in bringing nine novel RNA, cell, and immune products from discovery to the clinic. He is widely published, with over 50 peer-reviewed publications in prestigious journals, including Nature Biotechnology, Science Translational Medicine, and Nature Communications.

Dr. Getts completed his postdoctoral training at Northwestern University in Stephen D. Miller’s laboratory. He holds a PhD in Medicine from the University of Sydney and an MBA from Western Michigan University. His extensive expertise and groundbreaking contributions to the fields of immunology and RNA therapeutics make him a distinguished leader and innovator in the biotech industry.

Dr. Mustafa Diken received his Ph.D. in tumor immunology from Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz and is currently serving as Vice President Vaccines & Immunology at BioNTech SE. His research focuses on the development of novel cancer and infectious disease vaccines based on antigen-encoding messenger RNA (mRNA). His research led to novel mRNA vaccines which are currently being tested in several clinical trials.

Dr. Mohamed ElSayed is the Executive Director of NATi, where he previously served as its inaugural Chief Scientific Officer. He brings over 25 years of leadership experience across the pharmaceutical, biotech, and academic sectors. Prior to NATi, he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at RVAC Medicines and formerly the Vice President of Biotechnology at Eli Lilly, where he led the development of oral biologics and mRNA platforms, advancing multiple assets from discovery to clinical proof-of-concept. He has also held senior roles at Abbvie, Samyang, and Guilford Pharmaceuticals, and was a tenured professor at the University of Michigan. Dr. ElSayed holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy from Cairo University and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Maryland. He completed his postdoctoral research at the University of Washington with fellowships from the National Cancer Society and the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Dr. Chuang Liu is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (Faculty of Science) and Department of Physiology (Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine), National University of Singapore. He received his PhD in Materials Physics and Chemistry from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 06/2021, where he conducted research in Prof. Aiguo Wu’s lab at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology & Engineering. Dr. Liu is a recipient of the Special Prize of the President Scholarship 2021 from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. From 01/2020 to 06/2021, he was a visiting PhD student in Prof. Wei Tao’s lab at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, where he continued as a Research Fellow from 06/2021 to 06/2023, focusing on mRNA-based therapies for cancer and other diseases. Since 06/2023, he has been working in Prof. Khalid Shah’s lab on mRNA and gene-edited cell therapies for cancer immunotherapy.  Dr. Liu’s research interests lie in immunotherapy, particularly for cancer, using modalities such as mRNA, gene-engineered cells and bacteria, and oncolytic viruses. He has published 24 first- and co-corresponding authorship papers in top-tier journals, including Nature Nanotechnology 2025, Nature Reviews Bioengineering 2025, Nature Reviews Cancer 2023, Nature Reviews Materials 2025, Nature Protocols 2022, Nature Materials 2023, Nature Reviews Chemistry (2024 and 2025), Nature Reviews Endocrinology 2025, Advanced Materials, Chemical Society Reviews, Nano Letters, and Angewandte Chemie, etc.

Heinrich Haas， Department of Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz Mainz, Germany. Ph.D. in the group of Prof. Dr. Helmuth Möhwald at Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz. Researched lipid membranes and organized bio-molecular systems. In pharmaceutical industry (Munich Biotech, Medigene, BioNTech) developed different types of nanoparticle products to clinical stage. Focus on advanced approaches for nanoparticle development and control.

Zhongkun Zhang, PhD is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology at Southeast University School of Medicine and an internationally trained researcher in RNA therapeutics and drug delivery systems. He received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from The Ohio State University and completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His research focuses on lipid nanoparticle–mediated nucleic acid delivery, immune-oncology, and CNS therapeutics, integrating formulation science with translational medicine. He has authored publications in leading journals, holds multiple international patents, and has secured competitive funding in China. His work aims to advance precision RNA therapeutics toward clinical translation.

Rok Sekirnik graduated with a degree in chemistry from the University of Oxford, where he also completed his PhD. His team at Sartorius BIA Separations focuses on developing high purity, cost-effective production and purification approaches for pDNA and mRNA. His team has pioneered the use of at-line monitoring  coupled with digital tools to understand and control IVT reaction for maximal yield. They have recently developed a dsRNA removal technique based on Oligo dT chromatography and continue to innovate by applying fundamental chemistry principles to solve challenges in bioprocessing.

Dr. Jayesh A. Kulkarni works at the intersection of biophysics, biochemistry, and pharmaceutical sciences. His research has focused on lipid-based drug delivery — specifically the role of lipid components in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) and the biophysics that govern particle formation. He earned his PhD from the University of British Columbia and has published over 45 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Kulkarni has worked with LNP pioneer Professor Pieter Cullis for over 13 years. Dr. Kulkarni has helped build NanoVation into a leading platform for genetic medicine delivery, attracting partnerships with pharmaceutical organizations such as Novo Nordisk, and is generally considered an emerging leader in lipid nanoparticle design and development.

Dr. Liang Zhang currently serves as a Researcher and Ph.D. advisor at the Hangzhou Institute of Medicine, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is a founding member of the Vaccine Professional Committee of the Chinese Society of Biotechnology. His research focuses on the design of nucleic acid-based drugs, including mRNA and RNAi. He also specializes in predicting novel tumor antigens and developing advanced RNA structure analysis and prediction algorithms.

Dr. Liang Zhang's work, the LinearDesign algorithm, a groundbreaking mRNA vaccine design tool, was published in Nature in 2023. More recently, he developed circDesign, an innovative algorithm that significantly enhances circular mRNA circularization efficiency, stability, and translatability, as well as in vivo immune responses. He has also made substantial progress in tumor neoantigen discovery and development.

He completed his undergraduate studies at Nankai University and earned two master's degrees, one from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and another from London Business School. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Oregon State University in the U.S. Before his current academic role, he worked at Baidu Research in the U.S., focusing on AI-driven drug development and the clinical and commercial translation of drugs. He designed an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine that received emergency use approval in Laos two years ago, and his mRNA cancer and infectious disease vaccines have entered clinical trials or finished animal tests.

Dr. Liu Yuanqing graduated from Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University and was a surgeon at Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital. He completed his PhD in Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium and was one of the pioneers on myeloid-derived suppressors in tumors. He was previously a senior research lead at Sanofi Pasteur French headquarter, where he contributed to various vaccine projects, including cancer vaccines, vaccines against infectious diseases, pediatric vaccines, adjuvants, etc. Dr. Liu is an industry veteran with extensive experience in the development of innovative vaccines for international market. He was a member of the EU Innovative Medicine Initiative. Since 2021, he has been the Chief Scientific Officer of Immorna Biotechnology. He is based in Shanghai where Immorna has established a high-standard R&D site aiming to accelerate the development of mRNA vaccines and drugs in China.

Dr. Chenxiang Tang is CEO of CirCode Biomed. He is a veteran in the pharmaceutical industry with over 10 years of experience. Previously, he was a founding member and CEO of MabGen Biotech, a Hengrui Group company focusing on the CMC development of Biologics. Prior to that, he worked at MabVenture Biotech and SOHO china as assistant to the Chairman. Dr. Tang got his PhD in structural biology from Yale University and bachelor's degrees of biology and of economics from Tsinghua University. He is a member of Tsinghua Entrepreneur & Executive Club, and a Pearl Leading Talent awarded by Pudong new district in Shanghai.

Ruben Rizzi, physician by training, SVP of Global Regulatory Affairs at BioNTech. I joined the company in December 2019 just before the pandemic, and I have been the global regulatory lead for BioNTech for our COVID-19 development. Currently, I am still supporting the lifecycle of our COVID-19 vaccine, and I am co-leading the Global Regulatory Affairs department at BioNTech and working closely with the teams that are responsible for the development of BioNTech´s pipeline, post-approval activities and labelling

Dr. Shuai Liu is a Principal Investigator and Tenure-track ZJU100 Professor at the School of Pharmacy, Zhejiang University. He was awarded MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 (TR35) Asia Pacific in 2022. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. degree from College of Chemistry, Nankai University, and worked as a Postdoctoral scholar in UT Southwestern Medical Center. In 2022, he joined the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University. Focused on gene therapy, his research aims to develop novel lipid nanoparticles and macromolecules for mRNA delivery, for the purpose of treating cancer and genetic diseases. Dr. Liu has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers in Nature Materials, Nature Communications, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, etc.

Zhi Ming is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratories of Professors Ken Yamada and Anastasia Khvorova at the RNA Therapeutics Institute, UMass Chan Medical School. He was awarded the A*STAR International Fellowship in 2025 from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, to pursue his research interests in applying chemistry and chemical biology to enhance RNA therapeutics.

Eleni Anastasiadou received her Ph.D. from La Sapienza, University of Rome, Italy, specializing in microbiology and virology. She focused on the interactions of cellular miRNAs with Epstein Barr Virus latent proteins in lymphoma. Her pioneering work led to the identification of how viral proteins subvert cellular miRNAs and contribute to cancer. During her work at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School, Boston has developed an RNA-aided cancer immunotherapy method and a bench-to-bedside delivery of miRNAs in lymphomas. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at La Sapienza University, focused on the role of miRNAs in regulating immune responses in cancer.

Jia develops targeted lipid nanoparticle platforms for precision geneand drug delivery at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work focuseson engineering cell-specific delivery and immunomodulation strategiesto treat CNS and cardiovascular diseases, including stroke, multiplesclerosis, and atherosclerosis. She is actively advancing thesetechnologies toward clinical translation and commercialization as aco-founder of NanoMuse, LLC.

Dr. Han is a Professor at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China, with broad research interests in biomaterials, nanomedicine, RNA therapy, and neuroscience for biomedical applications. His impactful research has fostered collaborations with biotechnology companies, including Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. As a core member of Dr. Yuliang Zhao’s research group at Jinan University, Dr. Han leads a laboratory focused on three primary areas: (1) developing novel biomaterials to cross biological barriers; (2) engineering nanoplatforms for targeted RNA delivery; and (3) advancing gene-editing therapies for inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Han earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Wayne State University. He subsequently completed his postdoctoral training as an NIH F32 Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School. Beyond his research, he serves as an Academic Editor for Frontiers in Pharmacology and Exploration, and has served as a Guest Editor for the Pharmaceutics special issue, “Formulation of Poorly Water-Soluble Drugs.”

Biography of Dr. Madhavan Nallani:

Madhavan obtained his PhD at Jacobs University Bremen, Germany and completed postdoctoral research at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands before moving to Singapore. Following research roles at IMRE (A*STAR) and as Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore (2013–2017), he has spent over 18 years pioneering block copolymer nanoparticle (BCN) technology — spanning polymersomes and block copolymer nanoparticles (BNPs) — and translating it into a clinical platform as Founder and CEO of ACM Biolabs.

Under his leadership, ACM Biolabs has built a diversified pipeline spanning thermostable mRNA vaccines, immuno-oncology, and targeted RNA therapeutics. The ACM platform encompasses two complementary block copolymer nanoparticle modalities: polymersomes for encapsulation and thermostable delivery, and BNPs (block copolymer nanoparticles) for targeted siRNA and mRNA delivery to specific organs and cell population. A defining feature of the platform is liquid stability at 2–8°C — addressing a critical cold-chain barrier to global mRNA vaccine access — with immunogenicity comparable to LNP-mRNA vaccines. ACM is collaborating with CEPI to advance next-generation thermostable mRNA vaccines for global health. The platform’s clinical validation spans oncology programs at Brown University and the National Cancer Centre Singapore, demonstrating both safety and early efficacy in solid tumour patients.

Greg Neely is Professor of Functional Genomics and head of the Dr John and Anne Chong Lab at the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney. He trained in immunology (PhD, University of Calgary) and then in functional genomics at IMBA in Vienna. His lab uses high throughput screening across species to uncover the molecular mechanisms of pain and other age-related diseases of the nervous system. His group has discovered many new pain genes and pathways and translated these insights into potential new therapies. More recently, his lab develops synthetic mRNA delivered in lipid nanoparticles as first-in-class treatments for chronic pain and cognitive decline.

Dr. Yun Yang is an RNA scientist with over 15 years of research experience in RNA editing, splicing, translation, and therapeutics. He is a pioneer in circular RNA (circRNA) research and was among the first to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of in vivo circRNA translation, challenging the conventional view of circRNAs as non-coding RNAs. He subsequently established platforms for circRNA translation optimization and cell-free synthesis, providing a foundation for circRNA therapeutic development.  Prior to co-founding CirCode Biomed, Dr. Yang was a researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he focused on circRNA translation mechanisms and their therapeutic applications. He has led and contributed to major research programs supported by China’s National Natural Science Foundation, Ministry of Science and Technology, and Chinese Academy of Sciences.  Dr. Yang is a recipient of the Shanghai Science and Technology Qiming Star and SANOFI–SIBS Outstanding Young Scientist Award, and a member of the CAS Youth Innovation Promotion Association. He received his B.S. in Bioinformatics and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Zhejiang University, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UCLA.

Prof Liang Qu, a researcher and doctoral supervisor at Fudan University, is dedicated to developing novel RNA medical technologies to address challenges such as off-target effects, low stability, and high immunogenicity in existing technologies, resulting in significant advancements. He developed the innovative RNA editing technologies LEAPER and its iterative version, LEAPER 2.0 (Nature Biotechnology, 2019; 2022), which eliminate the reliance of prior RNA editing technologies on CRISPR/Cas nucleases while addressing off-target effects and in vivo delivery challenges. He was among the first researchers globally to report circRNA vaccines and therapeutic technologies, effectively overcoming the limitations of low stability associated with linear mRNA technology (Cell, 2022; Cell Reports Medicine, 2025; bioRxiv, 2025). He developed base-modified circRNA technology, effectively eliminating the robust innate immune response induced by circRNA in vivo, thereby expanding the applications of circRNA technology beyond vaccines (Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2026). A fully chemically synthesized RNA technology for translatable proteins, known as Protein-Encoding RNA Oligonucleotides (PEO), has been developed, representing a revolution in RNA vaccine production from biomanufacturing to chemical synthesis. This breakthrough overcomes existing international patent barriers associated with in vitro transcription RNA systems, offering a novel technical pathway for the rapid preparation of personalized cancer vaccines for patients (PNAS, 2026).

Xiangang Huang is currently an Associate Professor at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Prior to joining SJTU, he conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School, working with Profs. Wei Tao, Daniel S. Kohane, and Seok‑Hyun Andy Yun. He received his B.S. (2010) and M.S. (2012) in Chemistry from Wuhan University, and obtained his Ph.D. in 2017 from ETH Zurich under the supervision of Prof. Jean‑Christophe Leroux.  Dr. Huang’s research focuses on RNA delivery，nanomedicine, drug delivery, and biomaterials, with strong translational interests. He has published 32 papers in high‑impact journals, including 16 as first/corresponding author (co‑first and co‑corresponding included). His work has appeared in Science Translational Medicine (cover), Nature Medicine, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Protocols, Nature Reviews Methods Primers, Advanced Materials (cover), Nano Letters, Chemical Society Reviews (cover), Accounts of Chemical Research (cover), and ACS Materials Letters, among others. He has received several awards, including the Ignition Award from Harvard Medical School.

Prof. Alex Gavryushkin is Founder and CEO of Fold AI and Honorary Professor of AIDD at the University of Sydney. A pioneer in AI-for-biology, his work sits at the intersection of machine learning, mathematics and computational biology, and he has collaborated with groups at ETH Zürich, Roche, Novartis.  He founded Fold AI to build an AI-powered asset factory for RNA-targeting drugs — designing, de novo, the assets that should exist against targets that are otherwise undruggable. The platform is modality-agnostic by design, currently spanning antisense oligonucleotides and RNA-targeting small molecules.  He co-founded Fold AI with Dr Sarah Herridge, Director of Research at BioNTech and a global authority on RNA-targeting antisense oligonucleotides, and works with Prof. David Spector of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a pioneer of long non-coding RNA biology and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as scientific advisor.  Fold AI generated its first revenue in 2025.

Natalia Markova holds a PhD in Physical Chemistry from Lund University and has more than 25 years of experience in drug discovery and biopharmaceutical development. She has held senior scientific and leadership roles across the pharmaceutical and life sciences sectors, including at Pharmacia, Biovitrum and Structural Genomics Consortium at Karolinska Institute. Natalia has extensive experience collaborating with leading developers of analytical instrumentation, having held global roles at GE Healthcare Life Sciences and Malvern Panalytical. She has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and is a frequent invited speaker at international scientific conferences. She currently serves as Business Development Director at Refeyn, an Oxford-based company pioneering mass photometry technologies for biomolecular characterization.

Julian is a functional genomics aficionado with over 20 publications and patent applications. He developed an shRNA screening platform during his PhD at the CRUK Manchester Institute and went on to advance CRISPR technologies as a postdoc in Prof. Zuber’s lab in Vienna, where he conducted over 70 genome-wide screens, many with novel inducible expression systems for complex phenotypic readouts. In collaboration with Dr. Elling’s lab, he helped create the Vienna Bioactivity CRISPR algorithm — now a leading gRNA design tool.

After academia, Julian joined a startup where he established and optimized the company’s CROP-Seq screening platform, integrating CRISPR screens with single-cell RNA sequencing. In 2019, he joined Twist Bioscience as a Scientific Development Manager, advising academic and industry partners on functional genomics, new technologies, and custom workflows to accelerate discovery. Following a brief stint in 2023 leading AI-driven genome engineering at Basecamp Research, he returned to Twist in 2024 as Director of Emerging Applications.

Julian now combines his deep expertise in functional genomics with a passion for emerging technologies and Twist’s synthetic DNA capabilities to help accelerate discoveries across the life sciences.

Prof. Nan Zhang is an Associate Professor at University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland. His research focuses on micro/nano manufacturing, atomic and close-to-atomic-scale manufacturing, precision microfluidics, nanomedicine manufacturing, and molecular diagnostics. He has published over 90 SCI-indexed papers in leading journals and holds four PCT patents under commercialisation.

Prof. Zhang has chaired major international conferences and workshops, including PRN 2019 and 2022, the 2025 Microfluidic Workshop on Standardisation, and Lipid Nanoparticle Asia 2026, and has delivered more than 30 keynote and invited lectures worldwide. He serves in editorial and professional roles across several international journals and organisations, and contributes actively to international microfluidics standardisation. His honours include the 2024 NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award, the IAAM Scientist Medal and Society of Plastic Engineers SPE Impact awards. In 2025, he was shortlisted for the European Research Council Consolidator Grant for his pioneering contributions to nanomedicine and atomic-scale manufacturing. He is a founder of two startup companies, MiNAN Technologies and Nanoformix, focusing on microfluidic chip manufacturing and high-throughput formulation & personalised cancer vaccine manufacturing.

Robin Oliveres is a nanotechnology engineer with a background in microfluidics and RNA-LNP Formulation. He cofounded Inside Therapeutics in 2022 with the goal of simplifying the development process of RNA-LNP drug by improving scalability & characterization methods

Robin Oliveres is a nanotechnology engineer with a background in microfluidics and RNA-LNP Formulation. He cofounded Inside Therapeutics in 2022 with the goal of simplifying the development process of RNA-LNP drug by improving scalability & characterization methods

Martin Rabel, Ph.D. is BPS Business Development & Licensing Manager at Cytiva, where he supports the development and translation of advanced nanomedicine, cell therapy, and gene editing programs enabled by lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technologies. His work focuses on LNP formulation development, analytical characterization, process scale-up, and the application of proprietary lipid technologies for nucleic acid delivery.

With scientific, technical, and commercial expertise in the RNA-LNP field, Martin has supported the advancement of mRNA therapeutics, genome editing, and next-generation cell and gene therapies. His work bridges innovative delivery technologies with successful clinical translation, helping accelerate the development of advanced therapeutics.

Martin is a member of the EDQM mRNAVAC Working Party, contributing to the advancement of standards for mRNA-based medicines. A licensed pharmacist with a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, he is a frequent speaker on lipid nanoparticles, RNA delivery, and emerging approaches for in vivo cell engineering and gene therapy enabled by nanomedicine.

Professor Han Xuexiang is a researcher, project leader and doctoral supervisor of the Center of Excellence in Molecular and Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Selected in the national high-level talents (overseas) project and Shanghai Leading Talents (overseas) project.

Hanz Biotechnology (Suzhou) Co., LTD., Co-founder & CSO.

He received his bachelor's degree from Shanghai University in 2014, and his PhD from Tsinghua University in 2019 (jointly trained by National Center for Nanoscience and Technology). From 2020 to 2024, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Professor Michael J. Mitchell, University of Pennsylvania, USA, during which he collaborated with Professor Drew Weissman, winner of the Nobel Prize, on the research of LNP-mRNA vaccines and drugs. In February 2024, he joined the Center of Excellence in Molecular and Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on the construction of novel LNP and RNA drug delivery. He is the first-author (including co-first author) of Nat.Chem., Nat.Nanotech., Nat.Mater., Nat.Commun. He has published nearly 20 papers in other journals, authorized one Chinese patent, and applied for a number of PCT patents.

Dr. Sarah Herridge is an accomplished leader with over 15 years of experience in RNA therapeutics development for oncology, spanning the full spectrum from target discovery to clinical trials. She earned her PhD in Biochemistry in Germany and completed her postdoctoral training at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the USA, where she collaborated with Ionis Pharmaceuticals on pioneering RNA-based cancer therapies. Sarah has held leadership positions in academia, including as Lab Head at the University of Otago in New Zealand, and served as the Founder and Chief Scientific Officer for two startups in the RNA therapeutics sector: Amaroq Therapeutics and Fold AI.

She currently serves as Director of Research & Scientific Affairs at BioNTech in Australia. In her current role, Sarah leads the development and execution of research strategy, manages scientific collaborations and external partnerships, oversees the onboarding of new research projects, and drives the implementation of scientific engagement initiatives to advance BioNTech’s mission globally.

Branden Ryu (Jin-hyeob Ryu), Ph.D., is the Scientific Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of BIORCHESTRA. He earned his Ph.D. in Pathology, Immunology and Microbiology from the University of Tokyo and previously conducted research at the Wellman Center within Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology. He is an inventor of BIORCHESTRA’s core proprietary technologies, including the BDDS™ CNS delivery platform and therapeutic methods. Under his leadership, BIORCHESTRA has advanced RNA therapeutics for neurological diseases, established global R&D and partnering collaborations, and built a broad intellectual property portfolio.

Dr. Hua Cheng is Head of the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics Business Unit at BiOligo, focusing on supporting services for small nucleic acid drug synthesis. She is dedicated to providing high-quality small nucleic acid synthesis intermediates and related services to nucleic acid drug developers in China and overseas.

Dr. Cheng studied at Vanderbilt University in the United States. After returning to China, she received systematic professional training and held mid-level management positions at leading international companies and CRO organizations, building extensive experience in the biopharmaceutical industry.

With both industry management and entrepreneurial experience, Dr. Cheng has been involved in business development, operations, divestitures, and M&A. She has led business units at several well-known companies, overseeing R&D, manufacturing, and quality systems across clinical diagnostics and chemical reagent businesses. In addition to her industry roles, Dr. Cheng has served as an expert for a government expert panel, supporting local government initiatives to identify and attract qualified pharmaceutical R&D and medical device companies.