Overcoming challenges with the supply of plasmid DNA & other raw materials for gene therapy manufacture

Jung Lee, PhD is currently a business development consultant for AskBio, Inc. and a couple of other start-ups. Previously, he spent five years with MedImmune (a global biologics arm of AstraZeneca), lastly as a business development head of Technology, Biopharmaceutical development, and Biosuperior. He was responsible for acquiring and licensing all technologies that would be beneficial for development of biologic drugs.

Prior to MedImmune, he was executive director of business development/innovation at Martek (acquired by DSM). He managed the pharmaceutical application of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and developed active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing process for DHA. He also managed the fluorescent pigment business unit until it was spun off as Columbia Biosciences. Before joining Martek (DSM), he spent twelve years in developing small molecule therapeutic drugs at both Johnson & Johnson, and Affymax (GSK). He has completed more than thirty (30) business transactions as lead/co-lead. His scientific work has been published extensively. He has thirteen peer-reviewed publications, twenty one patents and patent applications, and one review chapter. He is a founder of BORA, LLC and co-founder of Corchip Technology and Brain Health Education and Research Foundation. He was trained at MIT, University of Michigan and University of Maryland.

Richard O. Snyder, PhD is the Vice President for Science and Technology, Pharma Services, Viral Vector Services at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Dr. Snyder has been investigating virus biology, vector development, cGMP vector manufacturing and analytical technologies, and viral vector-mediated gene transfer for over 33 years, and was a member of teams who developed novel viral vector-based human gene therapies.

Dr. Snyder was an Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, and Director of Biotherapeutic Programs at the University of Florida; an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School; and was previously employed by Cell Genesys, Somatix, Merlin, and Avigen where he was engaged in the development of gene transfer vector and vaccine technology, along with therapeutic applications. Dr. Snyder was a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, received his doctoral degree in Microbiology from The State University of New York at Stony Brook, and obtained his B.A. in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis.