2020
SPARK Translational Medicine Symposium

Founder and Director of Stanford University� SPARK program, Professor Daria Mochly-Rosen helps academics navigate the so-called �alley of death�� between drug discovery and development. Professor Mochly-Rosen founded The SPARK Program at Stanford in 2006 after having to leave academia to start a pharmaceutical company to translate her protein kinase C research into cardiovascular therapeutics. Challenging the academic dogma of how scientific discoveries should reach the pharmaceutical industry, the SPARK model has been implemented internationally and has resulted in a book about drug development from academia. Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology at Stanford, she leads a multi-disciplinary research lab that includes chemists, biochemists, biologists and physician scientists. She has published over 285 papers and over 36 patents and patent applications. Professor Mochly-Rosen is originally from Israel, where she received her doctorate in Chemical Immunology from The Weizmann Institute of Science.

Kevin Grimes, MD is Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology and Co-director of the SPARK Program at Stanford. While a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford, he obtained an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was selected as a White House Fellow and served as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense. After 15 years in the biotech industry, he returned to Stanford. SPARK� mission is to advance promising discoveries to patient care; to educate faculty and trainees regarding the translational process; and to identify more efficient approaches to bring new therapies to patients. The SPARK methodology has been adopted by over 50 academic institutions world-wide. Grimes teaches graduate student courses on drug discovery and development and continues to teach and practice internal medicine. He received the David Rytand Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching and the Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching.

Gary has 30 years�� experience in IP Law and the patent attorney profession generally, having worked at IP Australia as an Examiner of Patents, then in a Sydney based national patent attorney practice before joining Wrays in 1994.

Gary specialises in:
(a) the strategic development of patent portfolios in the life science and pharmaceutical sectors; and
(b) IP litigation/oppositions, having been part of and led a large number of IP matters in the life sciences and pharmaceutical field during his time in the patent profession.

Gary became Chairman of Wrays in 2001 and has remained in that position to this day, save for a window of 4 years between 2005 and 2009 where he focused on his law degree.
Gary, with his Board, has led the expansion of Wrays to becoming a national firm that is now the third largest independent IP firm in Australia.

Carol is Chief Regulatory Officer for Prothena Biosciences, where she is responsible for regulatory affairs, quality, drug safety, medical writing and regulatory program management. Prior to Prothena, she was Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Compliance at Esperion Therapeutics, following her role at Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy, a Johnson & Johnson company, as Vice President, Head of Global Regulatory Affairs, Pharmacovigilance & Risk Management. Carol has previously held leadership positions with CV Therapeutics and VIVUS, beginning her career with the Janssen Pharmaceutica division of J&J.

Her experience in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical sector spans the global development and commercialization of products to address unmet needs for therapeutic areas including neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, renal, ophthalmologic, metabolic, immunologic and addiction diseases and disorders.

Carol has been a SPARK advisor since 2009. She earned her B.A. in Biology from the University of Rochester, where she has served as a member of the Board of Trustees since 2011.

Dr. Lye is the Director of Business Development (Future Health Care) at the NTUitivePte Ltd, the technology transfer arm of the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He also served as CEO of SysteMED Private Limited, a medical technology accelerator wholly owned by NTU, and was a partner at Nairos LLC, a medtech consulting firm. Prior to Nairos, Dr. Lye was CTO-founder of Setagon, Inc., a startup which developed several proprietary stent technologies, including a metallic nanoporous surface modification for medical devices such as coronary stents. Setagon obtained over US$5.5 million in venture financing and was acquired by Medtronic. Whye-Kei is the primary inventor of the acquired technology and has over 28 patents/patent applications. His technical experience includes work in the fields of nanoscale materials, micro-electromechanical systems, and biological nanosystems. He has a B.Sc. (Honors) from the California Institute of Technology, and a PhD from Yale University.