Dr. Ling is a biotechnology innovator with a diverse background in protein engineering, cell line production, molecular immunology, stem cell differentiation, antibody/alternate scaffold technologies, and cell-based therapy. Currently, Dr. Ling is a Senior Director at Takeda, where he leads the bioactive materials-centric therapeutic efforts within the Pharmaceutical Sciences - Materials and Innovation Group. Before joining Takeda, Dr. Ling was Head of Biological Sciences, developing Encapsulated Cell Therapies at Neurotech. He was the Vice President at Dragonfly Sciences and Director of Molecular Genetics at Adnexus (Compound Therapeutics). Dr. Ling has also worked for the Discovery Research at Genetics Institute / Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. He graduated from UC Berkeley, awarded an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, and received post-doctoral training at the Harvard University Biological Laboratories.
Dr. Kinlaw is a biochemist and molecular plant geneticist with MBA and early-stage commercialization experience. Combining science research and business knowledge, she supports the commercialization of innovative technologies in agriculture. Dr. Kinlaw works for the Danforth Center, where she oversees its intellectual property through patent filing, license agreements, and oversite for an innovation incubation program (IN2, funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation). IN2 accelerates early-stage agriculture technologies, validating research for companies in collaboration with the Danforth Center.
Dr. Thomas McElrath, MD is an obstetrics & gynecology specialist in Boston, MA. He graduated from Harvard Medical School and specializes in obstetrics & gynecology and maternal-fetal medicine. He is PI on the LIFECODES birth cohort run by the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Division of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which is one of the largest prospectively collected biobanks for human pregnancy in North America. Dr. McElrath researches the development of biomarkers to predict adverse pregnancy outcomes, as well as the association between environmental exposures and pregnancy complications.
After earning his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of South Carolina, David Easson went on to complete an ScD and a post-doc in Biochemical Engineering at MIT. While at MIT, David co-founded Alpha-Beta Technology, a biopharmaceutical company that went public in 1992. From 1999 to today, Dr. Easson has worked at several large biotech firms as well as a research university (WPI). David is currently the Chief Manufacturing Officer at Solarea Bio in Cambridge, MA and a member of ZEA's Science Advisory Board.
