3rd Annual Biotech Start-up Symposium

Steven Richardson has 18+ years of cell culture experience, including technical management, bioprocess development, and academic research. Steven joined our CHOZN R&D Program in 2009 with a focus on applying multivariate analysis in the development of upstream biopharmaceutical platforms to increase critical process knowledge.

Currently, Steven is working as a technology consultant and is responsible for providing holistic and innovative solutions to emerging biotech. Steven received his M.S. in Computational and Applied Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University.

Kaelyn is the associate director of ADC and Bioconjugation Services, leading the strategic marketing initiatives for the growing ADC CDMO landscape within the Life Science Services organization. Prior to joining the services business, she commercialized chemical biology products into the Sigma-Aldrich portfolio for early drug discovery research, including bioconjugation, probes, and targeted protein degradation.

Kaelyn received her B.S. in biochemistry at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota, and her Ph.D. in chemical biology at Indiana University in Erin Carlson’s lab.

Jean-François is our head of commercial manufacturing and has been based at our Martillac site since he joined the organization in July 2021. He has been focusing on the construction and qualification of our new commercial manufacturing building, setting up of our new team and the associated LEAN tools, and the transferring the production process within our new production building.

Jean-Baptiste joined Merck as a bioproduction process and equipment engineer in 2013. Since he joined the company, he has been responsible for leading the technical transfer of biotech products and the cleaning and process validation (PPQ) for new products as well as supporting the troubleshooting of clinical and commercial manufacturing. His role expanded in 2014 when he became Manufacturing Science and Technology Manager for our Biologics CDMO and took on the responsibility of setting up a Manufacturing Science and Technology team to continue driving these activities.

Ratish Krishnan is a senior strategy consultant in novel modalities bioprocessing. He has nearly 15 years of bioprocessing experience in vaccine, monoclonal antibodies, and viral vector modalities from pre-clinical to late-stage process characterization, validation, and commercialization activities. Ratish has led process development teams at Novartis and Pfizer prior to his current role where he serves as a global subject matter expert for viral vector manufacturing and provides strategic guidance to stakeholders and key customers. He is active in thought leadership activities at scientific conferences, technical webinars, and key authorship contributions in peer-reviewed articles.

Kate Achtien, Program Manager BeyondCHO Products and Innovations, received a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering Applied Science from Washington University. Throughout her 14-year tenure at Merck, her work has focused on the improvement of upstream biotherapeutic production processes. Her experience includes the creation of novel and improved biopharmaceutical expression cell lines, leading custom cell line development projects, and the development of platform catalog solutions. Currently, she is the program manager for the Upstream Solutions for BeyondCHO products, which include cell culture media and cell lines for viral vector production. Prior to working at SAFC Biosciences, she studied the biomechanics of heart morphogenesis at the Biomedical Engineering Department at Washington University.

Katie Schewe is a product manager in the upstream bioprocessing group. She has been with Merck for more than 5 years in various roles from product management to quality assurance of API manufacturing. Prior, she worked at Eli Lilly and Co. in various analytical R&D roles for both large and small molecules as well as in field sales.

Katie has a background in chemistry with her master’s degree in Chemistry from IUPUI—Indianapolis. She has experience ranging from manufacturing to field sales to help better understand the needs of our customers to deliver solutions.

Antoine Heron has a Ph.D. in cell biology with 25 years of experience in cell & gene therapy. He has a proven track record in developing innovative solutions for the transplantation of organs, single-use systems, and specialty cell culture media for use in the clinical production of human stem cells.

As an experienced R&D scientist working on cell therapy process innovation, Dr. Heron is fully committed to advancing cell & gene therapy manufacturing solutions for patients with unmet medical needs.

Danielle DiTirro, Ph.D. is a technical specialist in Technical and Scientific Solutions for BioReliance^® Services. She provides scientific and regulatory support in biosafety testing and characterization of biological therapeutic products with a specialty in cell and gene therapies. She has five years of industry experience in assay development for cell and gene therapies and vaccines with a focus on quality control and diagnostics.

Danielle received her master’s from San Diego State University and earned her doctorate in molecular and cellular biology from Brandeis University.

Anique ter Brake, Ph.D., is an associate in the biotechnology team. Anique joined M Ventures in February 2020 as an analyst. Anique completed her Ph.D. in the field of biomedicine, specifically focusing on chronic kidney disease-induced cardiovascular complications. During her Ph.D., Anique studied mechanisms of vascular calcification and potential interventions in cellular and animal models.

Anique obtained a master’s degree at the VU University Amsterdam in biomedicine and fulfilled the extracurricular trajectory science-based business at Leiden University. Anique is based in Amsterdam at the M Ventures head office.

Loic Sebileau (MSc) is a graduate engineer from INSA and University Paris-Saclay. He spent 20 years in the industry, holding several executive positions in R&D and strategic business development in Europe and in the US. His international background gives him a thorough understanding of the drivers of innovation management and strategic partnership development in the medical and pharma industry.

Since 2019, he has been the Technology Transfer Officer and Industrial Partnership Manager of the Leon Berard Comprehensive Cancer Center (CLB) and the Cancer Research Center of Lyon (CRCL), France.

As Co-CEO at ErVaccine Technologies, Nathalie is responsible for facilitating business growth & strategy by building strong partnerships and collaboration and by raising financial resources. Prior to this, Nathalie gained significant experience in the healthcare industry, fulfilling various C-level positions from Alliance Management & Business Development & Corporate Communication at DBV Technologies, a French biotech company that is double listed on Euronext & Nasdaq. In 2018, Nathalie also co-founded Adaptõ, an innovative healthcare company developing clothes and accessories dedicated to people with Type 1 Diabetes, which collection launched in June 2020 in connection with the French diabetic association (AJD) and is now acquired by a retailer.

Nathalie holds an MSc degree in Cardiovascular Pharmacology of University Claude Bernard-Lyon 1 and University Pierre and Marie Curie and an Executive MBA from INSEAD.