BSGCT Conference Speakers

We are assembling a stellar lineup of speakers who are leaders in the gene and cell therapy community. Stay tuned for exciting announcements about our keynote speakers, panel discussions, workshops, and presentations

Plenary Speakers

Adrian Thrasher

Professor Adrian Thrasher is a world-leading pioneer in the field of human gene therapy. He was one of the first international scientists to develop techniques for clinical gene transfer to bone marrow stem cells, that has led to curative treatments for inherited disorders of immunity and metabolism. The application of these transformative therapies has emerged over three decades from small academic trials to major commercial interests. He was scientific co-founder of Orchard Therapeutics, which is now established as a global gene therapy leader for rare diseases. In addition to his pre-eminence in gene-therapy, he has an outstanding track record in basic research into biological mechanisms and the aetiology of human disease, particularly inherited immunodeficiency.

Agnete Kirkeby

Agnete Kirkeby is an expert in the generation of subtype-specific human neuronal cells from stem cells. As a major contribution to the field, Dr. Kirkeby has during the past 15 years been responsible for the preclinical development of the first European pluripotent stem cell-derived dopamine cell therapy for treatment of Parkinson’s Disease. Together with collaborators from Lund University, University of Cambridge and Novo Nordisk, Kirkeby has led the GMP manufacturing, preclinical testing and regulatory filing of the product to enable entry into clinical trial. The STEM-PD product is now being tested in a first-in-human Phase I/IIa clinical trial in Sweden and UK, with the first patient transplanted in February 2023 https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/first-patient-receives-milestone-stem-cell-based-transplant-parkinsons-disease. The group is expanding on this work by performing preclinical testing of a novel cholinergic cell product developed for treatment of Parkinson’s Disease with dementia and Dementia with Lewy Bodies. The group also performs in vitro disease modelling of Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, schizophrenia and appetite regulation using subtype-specific neurons and glial cells from hPSCs.

Speakers

Haiyan Zhou

Professor Haiyan Zhou is a Professor of Genetic Medicine at University College London (UCL) and a UK Harrington Rare Disease Scholar. Her research specializes in the preclinical development and clinical translation of nucleic acid therapies (NAT) for rare genetic disorders. She serves as the Deputy Theme Lead for the Novel Therapy Theme at the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at UCL Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH BRC), where she leads the Individualized RNA Therapy Program for paediatric rare diseases.

Prof. Zhou is the Director of the UK Platform of Nucleic Acid Therapy (UPNAT) for rare diseases, a specialized initiative supported by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and the NIHR. As the principal investigator on a range of research projects, she is at the forefront of developing RNA-based therapeutics for a wide spectrum of genetic disorders. In addition to her research, Prof. Zhou directs the MSc in Personalized Medicine and Novel Therapies at UCL, where she plays a key role in training the next generation of scientists in cutting-edge therapeutic development.

Florian Merkle

Florian Merkle is a NYCSF-Roberston Stem Cell Investigator and Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge. His group studies the disease mechanisms of metabolic and neurodegenerative disease using human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived and animal model systems with the ultimate aim of developing new therapies, covering three main themes. First, he and his group study genetic stability of hiPSCs and are identifying culture methods that minimise the appearance of culture-acquired mutations such a TP53 point mutations. They have nominated the hiPSC line KOLF2.1J as a ‘reference’ for the field that is now used by over 600 groups worldwide and forms the basis of several large-scale genetic studies. Second, Florian’s group differentiates hiPSCs into hypothalamic neurons that regulate appetite and has used this model system to reveal how anti-obesity drugs like semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) signal and to identify new candidate appetite-regulatory targets and anti-obesity therapeutic strategies. Finally, the Merkle group studies the mechanisms linking metabolic and neurodegenerative disease including how some anti-obesity drugs are neuroprotective. These studies, bridging hiPSC and mouse models, have the potential to rapidly enter the clinic due to drug repurposing. Florian is also an affiliate member of the Institute of Metabolic Science and Cambridge Stem Cell institute, and serves as an industry consultant, board member, and entrepreneur.

Uta Griesenbach

Uta is a Professor of Molecular Medicine and has over 25 years experience in developing advanced therapeutics. Her research interests are related to the development of gene therapy for cystic fibrosis (CF) and other lung diseases. She has overseen vector and biomarker development, toxicology studies, as well as vector manufacturing and has been a Co-I on several clinical trials. Uta is a member of the UK Respiratory Gene Therapy Consortium (GTC) strategy group, Co-director of the Imperial Centre for Excellence in Advanced Therapies, a Co-founder of AlveoGene (Imperial College Spinout) and a Non-executive director of the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult. In addition to her research activities, she has an active role in education and workforce development related to advanced therapeutics in the UK.

Steven Howe

Steven has more than 25 years of experience working in cell and gene therapy, including postdoctoral positions at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, before joining GlaxoSmithKline in 2015 as Senior Director of Product Development leading a team in developing manufacturing processes for advanced therapies.

During his career Steven has led groups researching a wide range of advanced therapies and technologies to apply them, including viral vectorology, stem cell biology and cell processing. His recent positions have focused on Process Development for manufacturing platforms to translate cell and gene therapies into the clinic, for disease areas including rare diseases, metabolic disorders and cancer.

In his current role at Resolution Therapeutics, he leads the team responsible for developing manufacturing approaches to produce regenerative macrophage therapies to treat inflammatory and fibrotic disease.

Zoe Hewitt

Dr Zoe Hewitt
Co-Founder and CEO at Regenerative Cell Therapy Consulting (Regen CTC) Limited.

Zoe has a background in Pluripotent Stem Cells, which started in 2001 when she obtained her PhD from the Roslin Institute/ University of Edinburgh. After completing her studies, she worked with a team developing differentiation protocols for hepatocytes, before moving to the University of Sheffield in 2006, where she established and managed a clean room facility, which was responsible for deriving the UKs first clinically available human Embryonic Stem Cells (MasterShef lines 1 to 14). Within this facility, Zoe and her team were responsible for delivering the starting master cell banks (Shef1) for the London Project to Cure Blindness.  This resulted in the first successful UK clinical trial of an hPSC-derived retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cell replacement therapy.

In 2015, Zoe moved away from active research becoming a Project Manager for the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform (UKRMP), firstly for the Pluripotent Stem Cell Platform (PSCP) winning the UKRMP Special Merit Award in 2017 and then for the Pluripotent Stem Cell and Engineered Cell (PSEC) Hub. The goal of the UKRMP Hubs was to advance regenerative medicine therapies by delivering innovative approaches to the rate-limiting steps of hPSC-based cell replacement therapies to enable clinical delivery and commercial development.

Zoe co-founded Regenerative Cell Therapy Consulting limited in May 2022, where she now uses her considerable expertise to assist innovative research to translate from laboratory research, through to commercial development and investment.

Outgoing and Incoming Presidents

Rafael J Yáñez-Muñoz

Rafael J. Yáñez-Muñoz is Professor of Advanced Therapy and Director of the Royal Holloway Centre of Gene and Cell Therapy at the Department of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, UK. Rafael received his BSc and PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. Following appointments with MRC/Imperial College, University College London, Queen Mary’s University of London and King’s College London, he now leads the Advanced Gene and Cell Therapy lab (AGCTlab.org) at Royal Holloway. He is also the outgoing President (2021-2025) of the British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy. Rafael was Editor-in-Chief of Gene Therapy (2017-2020), where he promoted the internationalization of the journal and EDI in senior editing roles and the editorial board. Rafael also believes it is very important to engage with the wider society, was a Trustee and then Chair of Trustees of the Genetic Alliance UK (2015-2020) and has organised a yearly outreach event on Rare Disease Day from 2011. Rafael’s laboratory currently works on novel therapies for ataxia telangiectasia and spinal muscular atrophy.

Stuart Nicklin

Professor of Cardiovascular Molecular Therapy in the School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health. After completing his PhD at the Bristol Heart Institute, University of Bristol working on targeting adenoviral gene transfer vectors for cardiovascular gene therapy he then moved to post-doctoral training in the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Glasgow. From there he was successful in securing a British Heart Foundation Intermediate Fellowship before an academic position at the University of Glasgow. He has been Principal Investigator on a number of project grants funded by the British Heart Foundation and Medical Research Council and is co-investigator in the BHF Centre of Research Excellence. He is currently Executive Deputy Editor of Cardiovascular Research and on the Editorial Board of Human Gene Therapy, Molecular Therapy, Hypertension and Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine- Cardiovascular Biologics and Regenerative Medicine. He is elected to the Executive Board of the British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy as General Secretary.