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Dr. Antonio (Tony) Lee is the Global President & Executive Director of MEDIPOST Korea and serves as the Co-CEO of MEDIPOST Inc. (U.S.) and CEO of MEDIPOST K.K. (Japan), the wholly owned U.S. and Japanese subsidiaries of MEDIPOST, respectively. After earning his BSc (Hons) and MSc in Human Anatomy & Structural Biology and a PhD in Developmental Biology from the University of Otago in New Zealand, Dr. Lee held research positions in translational and regenerative medicine at the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales, Australia.

Since joining MEDIPOST in 2011, Dr. Lee has led the company’s global commercialization and clinical development strategy for human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cell (hUCB-MSC) technologies and products, including the world’s first regulatory-approved allogeneic MSC product, CARTISTEM®, for knee osteoarthritis. He has overseen late-stage clinical trials in Japan and the U.S., and commercial manufacturing, CMC, and market access strategies across multiple jurisdictions, with over 33,000 patients treated with CARTISTEM® in South Korea since its market launch in 2012.

Masayo Takahashi is an ophthalmologist who completed her doctoral program (Visual Pathology) at the Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University. She served as the leader of the Laboratory for Retinal Regeneration, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research from 2006 to 2022, conducting groundbreaking clinical research using the world’s first induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells in 2014. In 2017, she collaborated with the city of Kobe to establish the “Kobe Eye Center.” After leaving RIKEN in 2019, she became the CEO of Vision Care Inc. and subsequently founded two subsidiary companies dedicated to gene therapy development and cell therapy research.

John Ng joined DHC in 2023 as General Manager of Asia Pacific, responsible for growing and supporting the Asia-Pacific market. Before joining DHC, John served as CTO of Tessa Therapeutics. Tessa Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company based in Singapore that is developing a portfolio of autologous and allogeneic cell therapy assets. 

John joined Tessa Therapeutics as a member of its executive leadership team in 2016 and grew the company from 30 people to more than 200 people. In 2021, he was asked by the Board of Directors to become the Acting CEO, where he led the company to complete a USD $126M fundraising round. He led the design, build, and validation of their multi-product integrated commercial cGMP facility (134,000 sq ft). The facility obtained the GMP certificate from the Health Authority of Singapore (HSA) to manufacture cell therapy products in early 2023.

As the CTO, John was responsible for the Operations organization, which includes Manufacturing, Process Development, Quality, Program Management, Engineering, and Global Supply Chain. Under his leadership, Tessa Therapeutics completed a phase 3 pivotal autologous cell therapy trial supplied by in-house manufacturing. He also led the translation of multiple programs with Tessa’s academic partners, executing successful tech transfers and comparability runs.

Before Tessa Therapeutics, John served in various leadership roles in Technical Operations in publicly listed companies. He spent ten years in China, responsible for Procurement, Global Supply Chain, and Program management.

Matthew Hewitt, B.A. Ph.D., currently serves as Vice President, CTO Manufacturing Business Division at Charles River Laboratories (CRL) playing a critical role in driving CGT strategic vision as well as leading multiple operational initiatives across CRL’s CGT CDMO, Biologics Testing, and Microbial Solutions global network.   Before joining CRL, he was Head of R&D and Clinical Development for Lonza’s Personalized Medicine Business Unit leading Cocoon platform development, a closed, automated, scalable cell therapy manufacturing solution. In addition, he executed numerous collaborations across academia and industry leveraging the Cocoon. Prior to Lonza, Matt led the Tumor Immunology and Microenvironment program at Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, focusing on improving cell therapy efficacy in solid tumors. He also led the Immunology group at the University of Pennsylvania’s Gene Therapy Program, leading and contributing to numerous AAV gene therapy programs.   Matt received his B.A. in Molecular Biology at Goucher College while playing Men’s Lacrosse, PhD in Biophysics and Physiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University within the Asthma and Allergy Division.

Dr Kilian Kelly has over 20 years’ experience in biopharmaceutical research and development, including almost 15 years focussed on the development of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) based therapies. He joined Cynata in March 2014, initially as Vice President, Product Development, then Chief Operating Officer from May 2019, and since July 2023 has been CEO & MD. At Cynata, he has overseen all stages of the development of the Cymerus™ induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived MSC technology, including the first completed clinical trial of any iPSC-derived product worldwide.

Dr Kelly previously held positions at Biota Pharmaceuticals, Mesoblast Limited, Kendle International, Amgen and AstraZeneca. He holds a Masters in Pharmacy degree from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Strathclyde University, Glasgow, and he is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), Melbourne. He is a member of the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT), the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the AICD. Dr Kelly also serves on the ISCT Asia-Pacific Industry Committee, the ISSCR Best Practices Working Group for the Development of PSC-Derived Therapies and the Industry Interface Committee of the Center for Commercialisation of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) Australia.