Speakers

Aiden McFadden, Field Application Specialist at Opentron

Aiden McFadden is a FAS for Opentrons serving the Bay Area, Pacific Northwest, and Western Canada. He has a background in biomolecular engineering and bioinformatics. Aiden was an Opentrons user before joining the team using an OT-2 for NGS and now helps scientist optimize their time by integrating automation into their labs.

Avinash Gill, Senior Principal Scientific Manager at Genetech

Avinash Gill is a Sr. Principal Scientific Manager in Protein Sciences at gRED. He obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Structural Biology from Dartmouth College and completed post-doctoral research at Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering. Prior to joining Genentech in 2014, he was a Scientist at Immunogen, focusing on antibody-drug conjugate process optimization, and a Sr. Scientist at Sutro Biopharma, utilizing high-throughput automation for cell-free protein synthesis and purification. At Genentech, he initially spearheaded the development of automated workflows for high-throughput discovery, engineering, and small-scale purification of therapeutic antibodies and related formats. He also co-led the development of PARS, an informatics solution for managing protein requests. Since 2023, he leads the BioMolecular Research (BMR) group, where his team focuses on construct generation, expression assessment, large-scale biomass production, bioinformatics, and automation to support small and large molecule drug discovery. His research interests encompass protein engineering, purification, biochemistry, high-throughput automation, structure determination, informatics, and their application in developing novel therapeutics.

Bill McCrea, Technical Expert and Sales, Organic, at Biotage

Bill has been a medicinal chemist for over 15 years  having spent time at many companies including Tularik, Chiron and Novartis. He has cured cancer in mice and rats many times over and has two compounds still in clinical trials  and is a co-inventor of FDA approved drug, Encorafinib.  His utilization of advanced technologies and automation dramatically improved his scientific effectiveness along with all of the medicinal chemists he worked with.  There is a strong correlation between the success of these companies and the adoption of technologies to help medicinal chemists be more productive. 

Cameron Parast, Ph.D., Field Application Scientist at Fidabio

Cameron Parast has worked at ForteBio (Sartorius) with BLI technology and previously at Bruker with SPR technology.  Before that, he was a biochemist at big pharma.

Joanne Chen, Senior Scientist at Denali Therapeutics

Joanne Chen is a Senior Scientist at Denali Therapeutics, a leading biopharmaceutical company dedicated to discovering and developing medicines to defeat neurodegeneration, including diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and ALS. Within Denali's Protein Sciences Group, Joanne specializes in developing and implementing automated high-throughput workflows crucial for accelerating material generation, a skill she notably applies to optimizing processes like plate-based transfection and purification using advanced liquid handlers such as the Tecan Fluent. Her passion lies in finding practical and efficient solutions that significantly enhance protein science capabilities, directly contributing to Denali's ambitious mission to bring effective therapeutics to the brain. At our upcoming user group meeting, Joanne will share insights into her cutting-edge work, specifically presenting on the development of a PhyTip®-based on-resin conjugation workflow for OTV biotherapeutics.

John Ham, LSS Western Regional Sales Manager at Analytik Jen

John Ham has more than 20 years’ experience in laboratory automation; designing, writing and implementing automated solutions on various platforms.

Kate Heeringa, Senior Scientist at Scribe Therapeutics

Kate Heeringa is a seasoned leader in high-throughput automation for protein and nucleic acid production, analysis, and drug discovery. With 18 years of experience across pharmaceutical and biotech sectors, Kate currently spearheads the High-throughput Assay Development and Automation group at Scribe Therapeutics. At Scribe, a company co-founded by Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna and backed by prominent life science investors, Kate is instrumental in revolutionizing genetic medicine development. At our upcoming user group meeting, Kate will share insights into how she has incorporated PhyTips® into her cutting-edge mRNA research.

Lindsay McBride, MPH, Applications Scientist at Tecan

Lindsay McBride is an Application Scientist at Tecan, where she’s spent the past three years supporting customers as part of the pre-sales applications team. She has over 10 years of industry experience, with a background in assay development, systems integration, and applications engineering—particularly in molecular diagnostics and next-generation sequencing.

Lee Hoang, Ph.D., Director of Research & Development, Biomolecules, at Biotage

Lee Hoang has extensive work experience in scientific research in large molecule separations. Currently serving as the Director of Research Development, he oversees product development of automated separation tools for purification and sample prep of proteins and sample prep. Lee Hoang received a Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University in 1999. Later, Lee completed a Ph.D. in Ribosome Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2006.

Maelia UyGomez, Field Applications Scientist at Astrea Bioseparations

Maelia Uy-Gomez is a Field Application Scientist at Astrea Bioseparations where she provides technical expertise in downstream purification strategies. After receiving her undergraduate degree in bioelectronics engineering from UC Santa Cruz, she has worked in several biotech companies supporting R&D functions, MSAT, and process development. Maelia has led multiple monoclonal antibody purification campaigns, optimizing chromatography techniques, and scaling processes from early development to pilot-scale production. During this event, she will share some information about how Astrea Bioseparations can help with your monoclonal antibody purification toolbox needs.

Ryan Ghan, Ph.D., Senior Manager, Market Segments at Hamilton Company

Ryan Ghan is the Senior Manager, Market Segments at Hamilton Company, where he leads a team of scientists committed to providing innovative scientific and technical solutions to clients and collaborators. With over 15 years of leadership experience in biotechnology, laboratory automation, and regulated life sciences, Ryan has been instrumental in advancing molecular and genomics workflows through Hamilton’s automation platforms. He holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and an M.S. in Biotechnology from the University of Nevada, Reno. Ryan is passionate about accelerating scientific discovery by scaling research through automation.

(Rupa) Sairupa Paduchuri , Scientist 3 at Genetech

Sairupa is a Scientist 3 at Genentech in the BioMolecular Research (BMR) department’s Expression Analysis team. She has been at Genentech for over 10 years in the BMR and other departments. She supported purification and characterization of antibodies at mid-scale for various antibody discovery campaigns and screened more than 300 IgSF proteins using HTS techniques based on the Avexis method to identify previously undocumented interactions. In her current role, Sairupa is responsible for performing and optimizing small scale High-Throughput Expression Analysis of Secreted Proteins and Extracellular Vesicles.

Shadie Nimri, Senior Application Scientist, Biomolecules, at Biotage

Shadie Nimri is a Senior Application Scientist at Biotage, specializing in the development of high-throughput, small-scale purification workflows for proteins, plasmids, and AAVs using PhyTip^® columns. He works with a range of robotic automation partners to create tailored solutions that enable efficient and reproducible target recovery. With a strong focus on platform optimization, Shadie delivers versatile, automated purification strategies that support diverse applications for individual labs across early-stage drug discovery and development.

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