Biography
Dr. Vani Nilakantan is the Vice President, Research at Allina Health System, Minneapolis Minnesota. Dr. Nilakantan has over 25 years research experience in academic and hospital based settings. At Allina Health, she is the head of research for the health system, provides executive level leadership for clinical and basic research within an integrated hospital system environment and is the authorized organizational representative and signatory for system. Dr. Nilakantan Provides visionary perspective on the future of research at a major health care institution. She also sets strategic direction for research and reorganized research structure for Allina Health System. Prior to joining Allina, Dr. Nilakantan was the Director of Investigator Initiated Research and Sponsored Programs Office at Aurora Health Care. At Aurora Health Care, she had oversight of basic science, pre-clinical, translational and clinical research, innovation in alignment with Aurora Health Care mission and strategic priorities. She also created effective collaborative relationships with senior administrative leadership and clinical system program leaders and medical staff. Her responsibilities included oversight of the grants management for the system.
Research Interest
Dr. Vani Nilakantan completed her PhD in Toxicology from the University of Kentucky in 1997. She was a researcher/faculty member at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) until 2010. At MCW, her research focused on oxidative stress in acute kidney injury and cardiac/kidney transplantation. She further continued her research on acute kidney injury at Aurora Health Care, where she worked with data scientists to develop a predictive model for early diagnosis of acute kidney injury She has over 50 abstracts/presentations and over 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has been funded through internal foundations, the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Gautam Sethi
Associate Professor
National University of Singapore
Singapore
Biography
Gautam Sethi, is a prolific Academician and Researcher currently serving as Associate Professor at Department of Pharmacology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. He has completed his postdoctoral training at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The focus of his research over the past few years has been to elucidate the mechanism(s) of activation of oncogenic transcription factors such as NF KB/STAT3 by carcinogens and inflammatory agents and the identification of novel inhibitors of these proteins for prevention of and therapy for cancer. The novel findings of his research till date has resulted in 150+ research papers in high impact Scientific Journals and some various prestigious International Awards.
Research Interest
Oncology, Pharmacology
Biography
PJ Chen currently is President, United Biopharma (UBP) China responsible for overall development strategy of UBP pipeline and business operation. Previously PJ severed as VP, global clinical development at Unite Neuroscience. Prior to that, PJ was executive director at PPD as area head for North Asia clinical management. In this role, he provided overall business support for clinical management group in China, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan. After completion of his graduate training at MIT, PJ worked at MGH/HMS/MIT Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging in Boston. PJ was actively involved in biomarker/MR imaging research with particular focus on oncology clinical research. After years of working in Boston, PJ returned to Asia and have worked with CRO and Pharma companies with increasing responsibilities. In addition to CRO project management and business development experiences, PJ was Respiratory & GI portfolio development lead responsible for successful value delivery of new drugs in China at AstraZeneca and developed comprehensive knowledge for the drug development environment in APAC.
Research Interest
Clinical Research
