Our first Mini-Networking Night of the year will provide graduate trainees and postdoctoral fellows the opportunity to meet professional guests in Pharma and R&D. It will feature professionals from Boehringer Ingelheim, Qvella Corporation, BlueRock Therapeutics, Akoya Biosciences, Chameleon Communications, Sanofi Pasteur, and BioMarin Pharmaceutical!
Note that spots are limited to maintain a guest-to-trainee ratio of 1:5-8 and are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. We will prioritize registrants currently enrolled in a graduate degree (MSc, PhD, other professional degrees) or postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto. Your spot in the event is confirmed only when you receive an email containing your breakout room assignment and the Zoom Link by October 11. Please ensure you check your junk mail. If you do not receive this information, unfortunately, the event capacity has been reached and we are unable to accommodate any additional participants. However, we encourage you to register for future LSCDS events! If you are accepted and do not inform the team you will no longer be attending, you may not be accepted to attend future mini-networking events.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at networking@lscds.org.
Event Agenda:
1) Opening Remarks and Guest Introductions (5-10 minutes)
2) 3x Structured Networking Sessions (25 minutes/session)
Trainees are assigned to a Zoom breakout room and a professional will rotate into the room for each session, such that trainees will have an opportunity to network with 3 different professionals.
3) Closing Remarks and Open Networking Session (25 minutes)
Trainees are given the opportunity to interact with any of the professional guests they please.
Spots are filled, thank you for your interest! Those on the waitlist will be notified if spots become available.
This event was brought to you by the Master of Management and Professional Accounting (MMPA).
Guest Bios
Executive Director, Pharmaceutical Development & NBRC Site Head, Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc.
Strategic Animal Health R&D Leader (25 years in industry) with deep technical expertise combined with broad understanding of Animal Health business & processes.
Results driven manager with experience leading multidisciplinary team and proven accomplishments in drug substance discovery, optimization & development with 25 issued US patents.
R&D Scientist, Qvella Corporation
Dr. Anna Khimchenko is a R&D Scientist at Qvella corporation conducting interdisciplinary, translational research in the field of clinical imaging and image processing. With Dr. sc. med. degree in Biomedical Engineering (University of Basel) and Postdoc (Harvard Medical School & Mass. Gen. Hospital), she is a research scientist with over a decade's experience in studying and solving real-world challenges of the patient-focused environment.
Research Associate I, BlueRock Therapeutics
Rachel is currently a Research Associate I in Process Development Analytics at BlueRock Therapeutics, where she primarily develops assays to support advancing cell therapies towards clinical trials for the Parkinson's disease program. She obtained her MSc. from the University of Toronto in the department of Pharmaceutical Sciences where her research focused on the hit-to-lead phase of drug discovery with regards to metabolic diseases. Prior to that, she completed a co-op internship at Sanofi Pasteur where she developed and qualified novel immunoassays to support the new MenB vaccine.
Field Application Scientist, Akoya Biosciences
After obtaining her Masters degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from University of Tehran- Iran, Ladan entered the PhD program at the National University of Singapore. She joined a lab whose focus was studying the cell cycle in Trypanosoma Brucei, the causing agent of Human African Sleeping Sickness. Finishing her PhD in 2013, Ladan joined the LTRI at Mount Sinai hospital of Toronto as a post-doctoral fellow. There, she continued her studies on cell cycle with a focus on centrosomes and their proteome. With a long standing interest in cell biology and imaging, in 2019 Ladan joined the research department of a biotech company, Standard BioTools (formerly Fluidigm) where she was an Imaging scientist. After around three years of work as a research scientist, considering her passion for teaching and travelling, Ladan decided to get a more customer facing role and recently (May 2022) joined Akoya Biosciences as a Field Application Scientist where she trains the customers and helps them with their experiment design and trouble shooting. Ladan has been listed as an author on several journal articles and a few patents.
Teshan Aponso
Associate Scientific Director, Chameleon Communications
Teshan is an enthusiastic Medical Communications Specialist with a pharmaceutical R&D background. He is an expert in the development of medical communication, educational and e-learning programs, and virtual engagements and workshops. He graduated with a Master’s in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Toronto in 2021. Currently, he works as an Associate Scientific Director at Chameleon Communications International.
Deputy Director, QC Analytical Excellence, Sanofi Pasteur
Helen Sarantis is an industry professional with over 8 years of experience in analytical testing and process validation. She currently works at Sanofi Pasteur in Toronto in the Quality Control Department of IA (Industrial Affairs). Her group is responsible for the validation and lifecycle management of the immunological test methods used in QC. Helen has previously held roles in R&D (Research & Development) and QO (Quality Operations) Validation.
Helen obtained her B.Sc. (Hons) at the University of Toronto in the Department of Medical Genetics and Microbiology, followed by her Ph.D. in the Department of Molecular Genetics. She also completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cell Biology at the Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute.
Helen lives in Toronto, Canada with her husband and two young daughters. She is an avid reader, a continuously improving cook, and currently spends a great deal of time toeing the line between exercise and injury on her Peloton bike.
Dr. Mustafa Kamani
Senior Scientist, BioMarin Pharmaceutical
Mustafa is a passionate scientist with a drive to develop innovative therapies. He has 12+ years experience in Orphan Diseases and 5 years experience as a cross-functional Project Team Leader of drug discovery programs. He is an expert across multiple therapeutic modalities (Biologics, Gene Therapy, Oligonucleotide, Small Molecule). Currently, he works as a Senior Scientist and Project Leader at BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc.