Chris L. Waller, PhD
VP and Chief Scientist, EPAM Systems, Inc. | Board Chair, Pistoia Alliance
Dr. Waller is currently Vice President, Scientific Informatics Consulting, and Chief Scientist, Life Sciences, at EPAM Systems, Inc. where his focus is on using data and analytics to transform pharmaceutical research and development. Dr. Waller received his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1992. Following graduation, Dr. Waller accepted a post-doctoral fellowship under the direction of Dr. Garland Marshall at Washington University in St. Louis where he focused his efforts on the design HIV protease inhibitors. In 1993, Dr. Waller accepted a position with the U.S. EPA in which he was responsible for the development of structure-activity relationship and pharmacokinetic models as a research chemist and leader of a team of analytical, computational, and synthetic organic chemists, toxicologists, and biomedical engineers. From 1996-1999, Dr. Waller served as a Research Manager at OSI Pharmaceuticals. In this role, he managed a group of computational chemists, scientific application developers, and robotics engineers. In early 1999, Dr. Waller joined Eli Lilly- Sphinx Laboratories as a computational chemist and Head of Cheminformatics in the Discovery Chemistry group. Between 2001 and 2012, Dr. Waller held a number of positions in the research and informatics divisions at Pfizer, Inc. From 2012-2017, Dr. Waller held a number of positions at Merck & Co. initially as Head of Cheminformatics and culminating in the role of Executive Director of Predictive Modeling Platforms and Data Science. Dr. Waller holds an Adjunct Professor position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is an Advisory Board member and benefactor of the School of Pharmacy, and is a founding Board Member and current Chairperson of the Board of the Pistoia Alliance, a not-for-profit organization focusing on pre-competitive collaborations in life sciences.
Tudor I Oprea, MD PhD
CEO, Expert Systems Inc., San Diego CA | Professor Emeritus of Medicine, UNM Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque NM
Dr Oprea is a digital drug hunter and researcher in knowledge management and artificial intelligence to drug and target discovery. He holds both an M.D. and a Ph.D. and professorships at multiple universities, including the University of New Mexico and the Technical University of Denmark, and currently serves as the CEO and Chief Scientific Officer at Expert Systems Inc. Dr Oprea has made significant contributions to the field by co-discovering several drugs, co-inventing three drugs that have reached Phase I clinical trials, and pioneering concepts like ChemGPS. He has also been a driving force behind the development of important open-source platforms like Pharos and DrugCentral and has authored over 360 publications and holds 11 U.S. patents.
Mario Medvedovic, PhD
Professor, College of Medicine | Director, Center for Biostatistics and Bioninformatics services, Health information & Data Science
University of Cincinnati
Dr Medvedovic is a professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, where he is also the director of the Center for Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Services. His research focuses on developing statistical and machine learning methods and computational tools for analyzing “omics” data (such as genomics and proteomics) in biomedical research. He has been a leader of the Bioinformatics Core in the Center for Environmental Genetics and a principal investigator for a multi-institutional NIH-funded project to create a data coordination center for a program seeking to understand how cells react to drugs and toxins. Dr Medvedovic’s work aims to help researchers convert their complex data into meaningful information and has been published in numerous journals.
Jonathan trent, MD
Professor | Associate Director, Clinical Research | Director, Sarcoma Medical Research Program
University of Miami
Dr Trent is a distinguished professor of medicine, associate director for clinical research, and director of the Bone and Soft-tissue Sarcoma Group at the University of Miami’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. He holds both an M.D. and a Ph.D. in cancer biology from the University of Texas Health Science Center. Trent’s work focuses on the clinical and translational research of sarcomas, with the goal of developing new therapeutic options for patients. His research involves using novel clinical trials, tumor tissue, and cell lines to discover and detect biomarkers for cancer metastasis and resistance to therapy. Throughout his career, he has been a prolific author and editor, and his work aims to create new standards of patient care through precision medicine and data-driven discovery.
Louis Scampavia, PhD
Senior Scientific Director and Research Professor | UFHCC Cancer Targeting and Therapeutics Program Co-Leader
The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation and Technology
Dr Scampavia is a Senior Scientific Director and Research Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology. His research is centered on high-throughput screening (HTS), an automated process used in drug discovery to quickly test large numbers of compounds against a biological target. He focuses on developing biological assays for HTS compatibility, conducting exploratory screening campaigns for new drug leads, and advancing HTS robotics and instrumentation. Dr Scampavia’s work involves collaborating with other researchers to discover novel therapeutics for a variety of diseases, and he has co-authored numerous publications on topics ranging from cancer to infectious diseases.
Timothy P. Spicer, Ph.D.
Senior Scientific Director and Research Professor | UFHCC Cancer Targeting and Therapeutics Program Co-Leader | Associate Editor of SLAS Discovery
The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation and Technology
Dr Spicer is a research professor and senior scientific director in the Department of Molecular Medicine at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology. With over three decades of experience in drug discovery, he focuses on developing and optimizing high-throughput screening (HTS) technologies and assay development. Dr Spicer has been instrumental in creating cutting-edge screening platforms and integrating automation to accelerate drug discovery, and he is a co-director of the High-Throughput Molecular Screening Center at UF Scripps. His work has led to the co-discovery of drugs now in clinical trials and has been published in over 160 articles, with 10 patents to his name. He has also served as President of the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) and as an Associate Editor of the journal SLAS Discovery.