At the interface of technology and science, exciting things are happening. Throw in the exceptional talent housed in New York City's academic institutions and you have a recipe for something fantastic.
GRO-Biotech (Graduate Research Organizations for Biotechnology) is connecting the strong intellectual capital of New York's top graduate research institutions with the growing biotechnology and pharmaceutical presence in the tri-state area. In support of this mission, we are hosting the GRO Biopharma Conference at the CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan, to connect scientific leaders in industry with the innovators of tomorrow in academia.
Join us for an afternoon of keynotes, presentations and networking with peers and industry leaders who are creating the next scientific breakthroughs. We’ve carefully crafted an incredible lineup of presenters who are prepared to share their visions of the future and how their companies are leading the charge.
David is a biotech entrepreneur, life sciences fund manager, and Columbia University professor. He writes about healthcare and biotechnology for a variety of news outlets, including Forbes. Before venturing into healthcare business and entrepreneurship, he spent 14 years as an Ob/Gyn and reproductive endocrinologist.
Dr. Vieira launched the Science Alliance, a career and professional development program for the New York Academy of Sciences. He then went on to a successful career in the finance industry, before moving back to academia to focus on technology commercialization and entrepreneurship. Dr. Vieira serves as the founding advisor for GRO-Biotech.
Dr. Jeremy Levin is the Chairman and CEO of Ovid Therapeutics, Inc. (Ovid) a private company developing novel medicines for orphan and rare diseases of the brain. Dr. Levin has deep experience in the global biopharmaceuticals industry, leading companies and people to develop and commercialize medicines that address medical needs worldwide. He has been voted one of the 25 most influential people in the biopharmaceutical industry.
Pablo is a Team leader in the Translational Systems Biology and Nanobiotechnology group at IBM, which he joined in 2010. The IBM DREAM Challenges are crowdsourcing challenges examining questions in biology and medicine. DREAM is an acronym that stands for Dialogue for Reverse Engineering Assessments and Methods but over the years it has evolved into the “dream” of collaboration, sharing data, and open science being the norm in science not the exception.
Lewis Cantley, a former Harvard Medical School professor and current faculty at Weill Cornell Medicine, founded Petra Pharmaceuticals in 2015. Petra Pharma is a drug development company focused on therapies for serious medical conditions such as cancer and metabolic diseases. Petra Pharma’s office and lab headquarters will be located within Accelerator’s facilities at the Alexandria Center for Life Science, New York City’s first and only premier life science park.
Whitney Snider is the Associate Director of Business Development, Celgene Corporation. As a global biopharmaceutical company, Celgene is committed to excellence while focusing on the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative treatments that improve the lives of patients, reduce the burden on healthcare and promote economic growth.Celgene employs more than 7,000 employees worldwide.
Jason Park joined Flagship Pioneering in 2015 and focuses on life science investments. He is based in New York City, where he is helping lead the firm’s activities in the development of the city’s life sciences industry.
Prior to joining Flagship, Jason was with the Boston Consulting Group where he was a core member of the Health Care, Strategy, and Technology teams. Since Flagship's founding in 2000, they have originated and fostered the development of more than 75 scientific ventures resulting in $19 billion in aggregate value, 500+ issued patents, and more than 50 clinical trials for novel therapeutic agents.
Aynur is a senior staff scientist and group leader in the therapeutics proteins departments at Regeneron. Her team focuses on antibody discovery, cell biology and conception, design and development of cell based assays. Regeneron is a leading science and technology company delivering life-transforming medicines for a broad range of serious medical conditions including ophthalmology, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, atopic dermatitis, pain and infectious diseases.
Founded in 2015, GRO-Biotech is a coalition of graduate biotechnology organizations from the top life sciences programs in NYC (NYU, Cornell, Mount Sinai, CUNY Hunter, Columbia, Rockefeller, Sloan Kettering, and Albert Einstein) with a reach of over 500 graduate students, medical students, postdoctoral researchers, and clinicians.
Our mission is to provide our members with opportunities to learn about areas of drug development, healthcare, business, and life sciences entrepreneurship that they might not otherwise encounter in a traditional science training program.
