Dr. Kimbrel is the Senior Director of Development at Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine (AIRM), an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Astellas Pharma located in Marlborough, Massachusetts. With over 15 years of experience on research and development of various hESC and iPSC-derived cell-based therapies, she previously served as Director of MSC Research at Advanced Cell Technology before the company Ocata Therapeutics. Under Ocata, she played an active role in the due diligence process and acquisition by Astellas in early 2016. She is a co-author on over 20 publications and an inventor on numerous patents. Dr. Kimbrel is a former Fulbright scholar and member of Phi Beta Kappa, receiving her B.A. Magna Cum Laude from Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts and her Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Cancer Biology from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She completed post-doctoral training in Boston, Massachusetts at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. Her current role at AIRM involves the strategic planning of pipeline programs as well as managing scientists involved in regenerative medicine research and early product development.
R. Sean Morrison, M.D., FAAHPM
Dr. R. Sean Morrison is Director of the Lilian and Benjamin Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute and the National Palliative Care Research Center, organizations devoted to improving care for persons with serious illness and their families and enhancing the knowledge base of palliative care in the United States. He is also Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine; and Hermann Merkin Professor of Palliative Medicine in the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. During 2009-2010, he served as President of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He has been on the faculty of the Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine and Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai since 1995. Dr. Morrison has received over fifty million dollars in research funding and published over 200 research articles; he has appeared numerous times on television, radio, and in print, including ABC World News Tonight, CNN, MSNBC, BBC news, the New York Times & USA Today. Please see, “Palliative Care 2020: The Future of Palliative Care”.
Mike West, Ph.D.
Dr. West, has served as the BioTime Inc. Chief Executive Officer since 2007, and on the BioTime Inc. Board of Directors since 2002. Dr. West is also the Director of BioTime company Asterias Biotherapeutics (NYSE MKT: AST). From 1998 to 2007, he served as CEO, President, and Chief Scientific Officer of Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (now Ocata Therapeutics, Nasdaq: OCAT), a company engaged in developing human stem cell technology for use in regenerative medicine. In 1990 Dr. West founded Geron Corporation (Nasdaq: GERN) of Menlo Park, California, which may have been the first regenerative medicine company. He secured investment in Geron from Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, Venrock and other venture capital firms, and for the company’s Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board he recruited Nobel Laureates Drs. Carol Greider and James Watson, as well as Leonord Hayflick and others. He also created the research consortium with Drs. James Thomson and John Gearhart that led to the first isolation of human embryonic stem cells. Please click to watch Dr.West’s 2018 presentation at The World Stem Cell Summit on “Stem Cell Innovations That Will Change the World“.