2023 MIT Korea Conference

Rick Pierce is the CEO and Co-founder of Decoy Therapeutics, Inc., founded in 2020. He is a serial biotech entrepreneur with over 20 years of senior leadership and operating experience, co-founding and building successful biotech companies. Including senior management and turn-around advisory roles at several public biotech start-ups that are listed on the NASDAQ, New York Stock, and Toronto Stock Exchange. At Javelin Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:JAV), he was VP of IR and Business Development while the company raised $183M, went public, and got a non-opioid pain drug Dyloject™ approved globally before being taken over by Hospira, now Pfizer. After Javelin, he was President of US and International Operations at SemBioSys Genetics (TSE: SBS). He further served as a strategic advisor to Canada-based Cangene (TSX:CNJ), sold to Emergent BioSolutions for $222M. He advised Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals management and board of directors during and after its IPO on NASDAQ. Prior to his career in biotech, Rick worked for investment banks Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers and was an advisor to well-known biotech companies. He is currently a Mentor at Mass Bio, an Advisor to the Canadian Consulate of Boston/Cambridge’s Healthcare and Technology Accelerator, and a Board member of the Canadian Entrepreneurs of New England, where he is Chairman of the Life Sciences Leadership Council. Mr. Pierce has a proven track record in attracting capital, forging transformative strategic global alliances in biotech and pharmaceuticals, and working with investors to create successful outcomes for public and private healthcare companies.

Karl Ruping is CEO and co-founder (with Jasdave Chahal and Christian Mandl) of Tiba Biotech, an MIT and Whitehead Institute venture focused on mRNA vaccines and therapeutics. He began his career as a patent attorney, specializing in international patent litigation and intellectual property licensing for both emerging ventures and global clients.  Karl’s technical expertise includes bioinformatics, molecular modelling and large-scale computing. 

Karl studied economics at Colby College, computer science at Temple University, and was a Research Fellow at MIT’s School of Engineering.  He holds a juris doctorate from Boston University, after which he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Tokyo’s Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology.  Today he is a member of the International Advisory Committee of Harvard’s Asia Center, and is an advisor to a number of MIT-related startups and student-led programs.

Ashish Kulkarni is a successful innovator who has applied his expertise in chemical engineering and materials science to deliver breakthrough products and platforms in various industries. He has been researching how mature organizations can develop an innovation ecosystem to tap into the unique characteristics of start-up companies. Serving as Chairman & CEO of Kebotix, Kulkarni is committed to adopting AI/ML tools in the Chemicals & Pharmaceutical industry. He has held executive positions at companies such as GAF Materials Corporation, Avantor, Inc., and Celanese, where he developed new innovation strategies and infrastructure to drive growth. He also has experience in global engineering and has held several patents and published articles in refereed journals. He serves on the board of directors for several companies, including Evercloak Materials, ConnectM, and Ghost Robotics.

Bayan Takizawa, is a cofounder and Chief Business Officer at CONTINUUS Pharmaceuticals, where he leads business development and strategy activities. Dr. Takizawa has helped the CONTINUUS team raise over $100M through financing rounds, grants, and contracts with multiple commercial partners and government agencies.  

Before joining CONTINUUS, Bayan was a consultant at The Chartis Group, a leading advisory firm that provides strategic and operational support for hospitals and healthcare systems. Prior to Chartis, Bayan worked at Actin Biomed, a healthcare investment firm, and Yale New Haven Hospital as a General Surgery and Urology resident. Bayan has an M.D. from Yale, an M.S. in Engineering Systems and M.B.A. from MIT, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell. He has multiple publications in peer-reviewed journals, and is an active member of the Massachusetts life sciences community.

Ben was previously CEO/Co-founder of Firecracker, an adaptive learning platform acquired by Wolters Kluwer (Euronext: WKL). Prior to Firecracker’s acquisition, 1 out of every 2 US medical students used Firecracker at some point during medical school. Before Firecracker, he was CEO/Founder of Firefly Health, an online support community for patients and caregivers that grew to 40,000+ members before it was sold to a Co-Founder of Facebook. Before Firefly, Ben was Executive Director of the Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children (FIMRC), a nonprofit that provides free health care to millions of underprivileged children worldwide and coordinates clinical rotations and volunteerism for 700+ healthcare professionals and students annually. Ben studied Biology and Health Policy at Harvard College. In the lab, he focused on assessing the protective effect of small molecules such as Topiramate on neonatal hypoxia. Outside the lab, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Health Policy Review and President of the Harvard Health Policy Society.

Lavi Erisson, a physician-scientist-entrepreneur, is the co-founder and CEO of Gensaic, a redosable,non-viral, gene delivery company that pioneers a new class of gene delivery called genetically-encoded nanoparticles (GeNPs). Lavi was previously Chief Medical and Head of Business Development at Iterative Health, another MIT spinout, where he led clinical development to successful clearance of its flagship product, Skout (TM), and signed R&D collaborations with Eli-Lilly, Pfizer and Janssen. Earlier in his career, Lavi held various leadership roles at Teva pharmaceuticals, clinically translating over 10 novel assets from lead candidates through first-in-patient, and investing over $300M through Teva's corporate venture group. Lavi is a passionate global health advocate, volunteering as a physician in refugee camps along the border of Thailand and Myanmar, as well as advising Israel's ministry for foreign trade on bi-national R&D funds. Lavi received his Medical Degree and Public-Policy degree, Summa Cum Laude, from Tel-Aviv University. He later earned an MBA from MIT Sloan, where he was a Sloan Fellow.

Ho-Jun completed his Medical Engineering/Medical Physics Ph. D. in the Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, working on robotic technologies for automated patch clamp recordings in vivo. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign respectively. Now he works on novel treatment strategies for Alzheimer’s disease, working between the labs of Professor Li-Huei Tsai and Professor Ed Boyden, as a postdoctoral scholar.

Dr. Crowell is an expert in developing and optimizing processes for producing recombinant proteins in yeast, including strain design, perfusion fermentation, straight-through chromatography, and tangential flow filtration. She received her doctoral degree in Chemical Engineering from MIT, where she developed an automated, small-scale biomanufacturing platform for the rapid, end-to-end production of high-quality biologics. Laura received her Master’s in Chemical Engineering Practice from MIT and her Bachelor’s in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Tufts University. 

Ivan Cenci holds a M.Sc. double degree in Biomedical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino, and has extensive research experience at University of Oxford and Baylor College of Medicine. Healthcare enthusiast, Ivan leads Operations, Production and Product Development at Empatica following previous experiences in Data Science in the field of medical devices and algorithms.