Understanding donor characteristics to improve allogeneic cell therapy outcomes for all

Abeer Madbouly, PhD

Principal Bioinformatics Scientist, Be The Match

Abeer Madbouly has over 15 years of experience in bioinformatics. Her role involves improving the donor/patient tissue matching process by developing better validation methods, more innovative matching, better collection of donor and recipient race/ethnicity/ancestry information and diversified population genetics analyses. She investigates multiple gene systems with the goal of improving post-transplant event-free survival.

Dr. Madbouly joined the BTM Bioinformatics team in 2010. She earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL. She currently serves as adjunct assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology program and the Chair of the Science and Technology Initiatives Committee at the American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics.

Martin Maiers, MS

Vice President, Research, Be The Match

Martin Maiers is the Vice President of Biomedical Informatics Research at the Center for Blood and Marrow Transplant Research and National Marrow Donor Program/Be The Match Registry where he has worked for 25 years. He heads a “dry lab” research program focused on HLA and KIR data standards, matching and algorithm development. With his team he has developed a number of tools and methods for searching large donor registries with missing or partial information to identify suitable hematopoietic stem cell donors. In particular he has lead a series of population HLA haplotype frequency studies that drive the operation of the Be The Match Registry algorithm: HapLogic. He holds a degree in Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin and earned a Masters Degree in “Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology” from the University of Minnesota. He is a Councillor to the International Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Workshop and is also a member of the WHO Nomenclature Committee for Factors of the HLA System.

Stephen Sullivan, PhD, MBA

Managing Director, Lindville Bio

Dr Sullivan is the Managing Director of Lindville Bio, an ATMP consultancy service specializing in the scalable manufacture of Pluripotent Stem Cells (PSC/iPSC) and therapeutic development therefrom.

Dr Sullivan initially earned his PhD at the Roslin Institute (Edinburgh), under Professor Ian Wilmut and Dr Jim McWhir, becoming one of the first researchers in Europe to culture human embryonic stem cells. His work focused on pluripotency induction in human somatic cells.

Thereafter, Dr Sullivan worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, Harvard University, and UCSD deepening his expertise of other human stem cell types (including induced pluripotent stem cells) and their medical applications.

Thereafter, he also worked for Novartis, dealing with clinical trial management and compliance, to better understand manufacturing, logistic, and regulatory challenges to bringing new therapeutics to market and earned an MBA at Trinity College Dublin focusing on risk mitigation during AMTP development. With more than 20 years’ experience in the ATMP space, he focuses on the development and translation of pluripotent and induced-pluripotent stem cell therapeutics to the clinic.