Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show

Send us a textDr. Moupali Das, MD, MPH, is Executive Director, HIV Clinical Research, in the Virology Therapeutic Area, at Gilead Sciences ( https://www.gilead.com/ ) , where she leads the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) clinical drug development program, including evaluating the safety and efficacy of a long-acting, twice yearly, subcutaneous injection being studied for HIV prevention. Her responsibilities also include expanding the populations who may benefit from PrEP. Dr. Das has led high-performing teams in academic medicine, public health, implementation science, and cross-functionally in drug development. She has successfully helped develop, implement, and evaluate how to better test, link to care, increase virologic suppression, and improve quality of life for people with HIV, and to prevent HIV in those who may benefit from PrEP. During the COVID19 pandemic, Dr. Das assisted her colleagues in the COVID-19 treatment program, leading the evaluation of a COVID-19 treatment for use in pregnant women and children from the compassionate use program. After completing her undergraduate degree in Biochemical Sciences at Harvard College, medical school and internal medicine residency training at Columbia University and New York Presbyterian Hospital, Dr. Das came to University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) for fellowship training in Infectious Diseases and to University of California, Berkeley for her MPH in Epidemiology. She cared for HIV patients at San Francisco General’s storied Ward 86 clinic and attended on the inpatient ID Consult Service. She is recognized internally and externally for her expertise in epidemiology, public health, advocacy, and community engagement. Prior to joining Gilead, Dr. Das developed a novel population-based indicator, community viral load (CVL), to evaluate the impact of treatment as prevention. Her CVL research was the basis for using viral suppression to evaluate the effectiveness of President Barack Obama’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy. She also served on the Institute of Medicine Committee on Data Systems for Monitoring HIV/AIDS care. Dr. Das has authored over 60 manuscripts, presented at scientific conferences, policy forums, and for community and advocacy organizations. Her publications have been highly cited and garnered significant press coverage including in The New York Times and Nature. Dr. Das appears in her personal capacity and any views expressed are her own. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Felicia Goodrum, Ph.D. ( https://profiles.arizona.edu/person/fgoodrum ) is Interim Associate Department Head and Professor of Immunobiology, as well as Professor, BIO5 Institute, Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Cancer Biology And Genetics Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs, at the University of Arizona. Dr. Goodrum earned her Ph.D. from Wake Forest University School of Medicine studying cell cycle restrictions to adenovirus replication and then trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University in the laboratory of Dr. Thomas Shenk studying human cytomegalovirus latency. Dr. Goodrum joined the faculty at the University of Arizona in 2006, and her long-standing research focus is to understand the molecular virus-host interactions important to human cytomegalovirus (CMV) latency and persistence in the host. She has focused on identifying viral and host determinants mediating the switch between latent and replicative states. The goal of her research program is to define the mechanistic underpinnings of HCMV latency and reactivation to lay the foundation for clinical interventions to control CMV disease in all settings. Dr. Goodrum is the recipient of the Howard Temin Award from the National Cancer Institute, the Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences Award, and the Presidential Award for Early Career Scientists and Engineers. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Doug Ethell, Ph.D. is Founder and CEO at Leucadia Therapeutics ( https://www.leucadiatx.com/ ), a pre-clinical-stage company focused on diagnosing, treating and curing Alzheimer's disease. Leucadia's proprietary Arethusta® medical device is designed to restore the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) through the cribriform plate to flush toxins away from the part of the brain where Alzheimer's disease first appears. The company also recently launched eight Apps that help exercise memory and cognition, including a personalized memory tracker called ProCogny ( www.procogny.com ). ProCogny allows users to play memory-intensive puzzles and games, daily Brain Boost collections of mini-puzzles, and a non-clinical version of the Leucadia Memory Test. Dr. Ethell received a Ph.D. in Neurobiology from The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, was a Human Frontiers of Science Long Term Fellow at The Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich, a Staff Scientist at The Scripps Research Institute and La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology, and a faculty member at the University of California Riverside. In 2017, Dr. Ethell was Professor of Neuroscience, Chair of Graduate Faculty, and Head of Molecular Neurobiology at The Western Univ of Health Sciences before joining Leucadia Therapeutics full-time. He has published more than 85 peer-reviewed articles and presentation abstracts. In 2020 Dr. Ethell published a novel: "Remembering Apples: A race to cure Alzheimer's disease" ( https://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Apples-race-Alzheimers-disease/dp/1735106607 ). Support the show

Send us a textDiogo Rau is Executive Vice President and Chief Information and Digital Officer of Eli Lilly and Company ( https://www.lilly.com/leadership/executive-committee/diogo-rau ) where he leads Lilly’s information technology, cybersecurity, digital health, and advanced analytics and data science functions. Mr. Rau also serves as Chair of PrescriberPoint ( https://prescriberpoint.com/ ), a digital marketplace, which Lilly was a seed investor in, where healthcare providers can find all of the resources and support they need in one place to get their patients on therapy, for any medication approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or approved for over-the-counter use. Mr. Rau joined Lilly in May 2021. Prior to joining Lilly, he led information technology for retail and online stores at Apple, Inc. During his 10 years at Apple, he led the development and implementation of the technology supporting the Apple Online Store and Apple retail stores, including the e-commerce platform, mobile point of sale, the Apple Store App and systems used by store team members. Prior to joining Apple, Mr. Rau was a partner with McKinsey & Company, where he led the North America IT organization and governance practice. Mr. Rau began his career as a consultant at A.T. Kearney and later founded GiftGateway, a software company that brought rewards and recognition online. Mr. Rau graduated from Stanford University with a bachelors degree in computer science and a masters degree in industrial engineering and engineering management. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Jiangying Zhou, Ph.D. currently serves as Associate Director, Raytheon BBN ( https://www.raytheonintelligenceandspace.com/what-we-do/bbn ), an advanced technology research and development organization, part of the Raytheon Intelligence and Space division of Raytheon Technologies Corporation, an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate. Raytheon BBN has been on the forefront of innovation for more than 70 years, involved in the early days of ARPANET, the first email, and the first metro network protected by quantum cryptography, and have been active in solving critical problems from undersea to deep space. Prior to her current role, Dr. Zhou was a DARPA program manager in the Defense Sciences Office where her areas of research included machine learning, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) exploitation technologies. Prior to joining DARPA, Dr. Zhou was a senior engineering manager in the Information Sciences Division at Teledyne Scientific and Imaging, LLC. During her more than ten-year tenure at Teledyne, Dr. Zhou worked on many contract R&D programs from U.S. government funding agencies as well as commercial customers in the areas of sensor exploitation, signal and image processing, and pattern recognition. Dr. Zhou also served as director of R&D of Summus Inc., a small start-up company specializing in contract engineering projects for U.S. Department of Defense and commercial customers in the areas of video and image compression, pattern recognition, and computer vision. Dr. Zhou began her career as a scientist at Panasonic Technologies, Inc., Princeton, New Jersey, where she conducted research in the areas of document analysis, handwriting recognition, image analysis, and information retrieval. Dr. Zhou received a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science, both in computer science, from Fudan University. She received a doctorate in electrical engineering from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Dr. Zhou is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Society and also a member of the Upsilon Pi Epsilon international honor society for the computing and information disciplines. Support the show

Send us a textMichael D. Poisel, MS, MBA is Executive Director of PCI Ventures ( https://pci.upenn.edu/entrepreneurs/pci-ventures/ ), a division of the Penn Center for Innovation, specifically focused on creating early-stage businesses founded on University of Pennsylvania technologies. He is responsible for managing PCI Ventures, including transitioning technologies into start-up companies, assisting the principal investigators with funding strategies including grant applications, as well as mentoring the developing companies. Prior to UPenn, Mr. Poisel made investments in enterprise software and business services for NewSpring Capital, Apax Partners and GE Capital spanning more than ten years in private equity. He began his career in manufacturing operations for General Electric/Lockheed Martin and participated in the successful completion of several commercial and government satellite programs. Mr. Poisel graduated with honors in Mechanical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, holds an M.S. in Systems Engineering from The Moore School of Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania, and has an M.B.A. in finance and entrepreneurial management from The Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Poisel also serves as the CEO of PCI Ventures spin-out PhylloPharma ( https://www.phyllopharmallc.com/ ), a company developing a novel plant-based technology platform for cost-effective and shelf-stable therapeutic protein delivery. Dr. Andreea-Madalina Serban, MD, Ph.D. ( https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=X8ruFBsAAAAJ&hl=en ) is the Chief Operating Officer of PhylloPharma. Dr. Serban is Medical Doctor specialized in Paediatric Surgery, with a medical degree and Ph.D. from Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest Romania. Dr. Serban also has a Master's degree in Business Administration - Behavioral Economics from University of Bucharest, a Master of Science - MS, Genetics, from Université Paris Cité, and did Masters Research, Surgical Sciences- Regeneration, Replacement and Tissue Repair, from Paris-Sud University (Paris XI). Support the show

Send us a textDr. Abdelali Haoudi, Ph.D. ( https://kaimrc-biotech.org.sa/dr-abdelali-haoudi/ ) currently leads Strategy and Business Development functions, and is also Managing Director of the Biotechnology Park, at King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, at the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs. He is also Distinguished Scholar at Harvard University-Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Haoudi is an international Research & Development and Innovation Executive with over 25 years experience, having held several senior positions in Research and Development and Innovation. He has vast experience in science and technology policy development, strategy and business development, corporate development and international partnerships development. Dr. Haoudi has held several senior and prestigious positions in the academia, government and private sectors globally, including North America, North Africa, Europe and Middle East. Some of the key positions include Founding Vice President for Research, Executive Director for Biomedical Research Institute, and Chairman, at the National Research Fund at Qatar Foundation. Dr. Haoudi was also Research Professor of cancer and infectious diseases at the University of Virginia and Eastern Virginia Medical School and a fellow of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). He has held several other positions in elite research and education institutions including Visiting Professor at Harvard Medical School (USA) and a fellow at Institute Pasteur (France). Dr. Haoudi is an elected member of Hassan II Academy for Science and Technology since 2006. He graduated from University Paris XI and Paris VI, France in 1996 with a doctoral degree in cellular and molecular genetics. Dr. Haoudi received executive education from Harvard Business School in Corporate Management and Strategy and received multiple awards including Fogarty International Award. He has published numerous peer-reviewed international research publications and served as Founding Editor-In-Chief for the Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology. Support the show

Send us a textMs. Loyce Pace, MPH, is Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs (OGA), at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ( https://www.hhs.gov/about/leadership/loyce-pace.html ). In her current role, Ms. Pace is responsible for advancing the U.S. international health agenda through multilateral and bilateral forums. Reporting directly to the Secretary of Health & Human Services (HHS), she is the Office of Global Affairs’ lead on setting priorities and policies that promote American public health agencies and interests worldwide. Ms. Pace oversees HHS’ engagement with foreign governments and international institutions, as well policymaking bodies such as the G7, G20, United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), and World Health Assembly. Previously, she served as President & Executive Director of Global Health Council (GHC) and was also a member of the Biden-Harris Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board. At GHC, she advocated for increased federal investments in global health, in the face of budget cuts to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, United States Agency for International Development, and World Health Organization (WHO). Prior to her role at GHC, Ms. Pace spent over a decade working with community-based organizations and grassroots leaders in countries across Africa and Asia on campaigns calling for person-centered access to health, including American Cancer Society, Catholic Relief Services, and the LiveStrong Foundation. Additionally, she has held positions on various global and regional advisory committees and boards that focus on equity and inclusion. Ms. Pace holds a Bachelor’s degree with Honors in human biology from Stanford University and a Master’s degree in international health & human rights with the distinction of Delta Omega from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Sandeep Patel, Ph.D. is Director of the Division of Research, Innovation and Ventures ( DRIVe - https://drive.hhs.gov/ ) at the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority ( https://aspr.hhs.gov/AboutASPR/ProgramOffices/BARDA/Pages/default.aspx ), a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) office responsible for the procurement and development of medical countermeasures, principally against bioterrorism, including chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats, as well as pandemic influenza and emerging diseases. Dr. Patel is committed to advancing high-impact science, building new products, and launching collaborative programs and initiatives with public and private organizations to advance human health and wellness. As the DRIVe Director, Dr. Patel leads a dynamic team built to tackle complex national health security threats by rapidly developing and deploying innovative technologies and approaches that draw from a broad range of disciplines. Dr. Patel brings extensive experience in public-private partnerships to DRIVe. Prior to joining the DRIVe team, he served as the HHS Open Innovation Manager. In that role, he focused on advancing innovative policy and funding solutions to complex, long-standing problems in healthcare. During his tenure, he successfully built KidneyX, a public-private partnership to spur development of an artificial kidney, helped design and execute the Advancing American Kidney Health Initiative, designed to catalyze innovation, double the number of organs available for transplant, and shift the paradigm of kidney care to be patient-centric and preventative, and included a Presidential Executive Order signed in July 2019. He also created the largest public-facing open innovation program in the U.S. government with more than 190 competitions and $45 million in awards since 2011. Prior to his tenure at HHS, Dr. Patel co-founded Omusono Labs, a 3-D printing and prototyping services company based in Kampala, Uganda; served as a scientific analyst with Discovery Logic, (a Thomson Reuters company) a provider of systems, data, and analytics for real-time portfolio management; and was a Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow at The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. He also served as a scientist at a nanotechnology startup, Kava Technology. Dr. Patel holds a US patent issued in 2005 and has authored over a dozen peer-reviewed articles in areas such as nanotechnology, chemistry, innovation policy, and kidney health. Dr. Patel earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Tim Wittig, Ph.D. ( https://www.timothywittig.com/ ) is a conservationist, professor, and former defense intelligence analyst. He is a research fellow at Oxford University (Oxford Martin School), an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, and has served as Head of Intelligence for both the Royal Foundation's United for Wildlife Transport and Financial Taskforces ( https://unitedforwildlife.org/ ), and the wildlife investigations charity Focused Conservation. Dr. Wittig has lived in 8 countries on 3 continents and worked in nearly 50 different countries. His professional background is in research & development and applied sciences, intelligence-led targeting of illicit financial networks, and African and global security. Dr. Wittig began his career in national security, and was one of the first people in the US Intelligence Community (IC) to treat biodiversity and ecosystem collapse as a threat to global security. Since their inception in 2016, Dr. Wittig has played a central role in the United for Wildlife Transport and Financial Taskforces, a groundbreaking program of the Royal Foundation of the Prince & Princess of Wales ( https://royalfoundation.com/ ), to use data and intelligence, alongside high-level formal commitments, to mobilize 200+ of the worlds’ largest banks, maritime shipping companies, and airlines to take meaningful action against global wildlife trafficking. Dr. Wittig conceived of and currently runs the central intelligence sharing system of the both Taskforces. A former tenured professor of International Relations and Humanitarian Action, and a life-long environmentalist and outdoorsman, Dr. Wittig, like many people today, believes reversing the current catastrophic extermination of nature is the single most important issue of our time - a literal life-and-death struggle for the future of our common planet and ultimately humanity itself. Dr. Wittig came to work professionally in conservation a decade ago after observing how the major threats to the environment today - species loss, climate change, pollution, et al - are all underpinned and driven often to a large extent by crime and corruption, illicit networks, and social injustices. And that rigorous, hard-hitting intelligence and data-led analysis of these dynamics, especially when done at scale, will be a game changer in how we confront threats to the world’s wildlife and ecosystems. Dr. Wittig has a BA (High Honors) in History from William & Mary, a M.Litt. in International Security Studies, and PhD in International Relations, both from University of St Andrews. Support the show