Translational Research Speakers

Dr. Ted Price is an Associate Professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is one of the foremost researchers in understanding how neuronal plasticity alters the way the brain receives nociceptive information from the sensory system and how this relates to chronic pain in human patients. Dr. Price has discovered several novel targets that regulate the excitability of sensory neurons after injury and that mediate plasticity in the central nervous system that cause pain to become chronic. His work has been published in numerous scientific journals and his research program has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Migraine Research Foundation. He serves as an editor for several leading industry journals and received the Patrick D. Wall Young Investigator Award from the International Association for the Study of Pain.

Kalyanam Shivkumar, MD, Ph.D., is Professor of Medicine (Cardiology), Radiology & Bioengineering at the University of California-Los Angeles, as well as Director of the UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center & EP Programs. He leads a large group at UCLA–comprising a diverse group of 15 faculty members, several trainees and 60 staff professionals–involved in clinical care, teaching, research and biomedical innovation. The team provides state of the art clinical care and has developed several innovative therapies (e.g., epicardial ablation, neuromodulation) for the non-pharmacological management of cardiac arrhythmias and other cardiac structural problems. 

Rajesh Khanna, Ph.D., an internationally known expert in pain research, is the Director of the New York University Pain Research Center. His scientific investigations have generated new insight into the biologic mechanisms of pain, accelerated the pace of discovery in pain research, and laid the ground work for the development of a new category of non-opioid pain reliever. In addition to his scientific contributions, he has been awarded five patents for the treatment of pain. He also cofounded the company, Regulonix, LLC, and is the chief scientific officer of this early-stage biotechnology company.

Dr. David C. Yeomans, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Anesthesia at Stanford Medical School. He is also Director of Pain Research and of the Medical Neuroscientist Program at Stanford. His current academic interests focus primarily on gene therapy for chronic pain and biomarkers for different pain types. In addition to his academic work, Dr. Yeomans has also been instrumental in the development of several novel therapeutic approaches to pain, working with biotech, pharma, and intellectual property companies.

Dr. Schwartz is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and an Attending Physician at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital Cornell campus. In his patient practice, Dr. Schwartz focuses on the care of patients with liver disease. His interests include viral hepatitis, autoimmune causes of liver disease and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, as well as metabolic causes of liver disease. He uses stem cell biology, hepatocyte biology and incorporates engineering techniques to better understand human liver disease with the goal to improve clinical therapy.

Eric Nisenbaum, Ph.D., is the Sr. Vice President, Head Boston Innovation Hub at Grünenthal Group. During the course of his career in pharmaceutical science, his research has focused on the identification and delivery of novel therapeutic approaches to address the significant unmet needs of patients suffering from neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Hina Chaudhry, MD is Professor of Medicine and Cardiology and Director of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Chaudhry was previously Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She holds multiple patents in the areas of cell cycle manipulation for heart repair and the use of placental stem cells for heart repair. She has been honored by many organizations for her work in cardiac regeneration, including TEDMED Innovation Scholar, Clinician Scientist Award and Best Manuscript Award of the American Heart Association, and has served as Principal Scientist for the New York State Stem Cell Board. She has been funded by the NIH, AHA, New York Stem Cell Board, and Broadview Ventures. In fact, she has held continuous, competitive funding for her research since Year 2 of her cardiology fellowship, now a span of over 20 years. She is also a staunch supporter of women in STEM, having spoken on this topic at both the White House, under the Obama administration,  and twice at the United Nations International Day of Women and Girls in Science. She lectures worldwide in her research field and has been an expert commentator for CNN.

Dr. Yurong Lai, Ph.D., MD, FAAPS, has than 20 years in pharmacology research and 18+ years of drug development experience. He is currently the Director of Drug Metabolism at Gilead Sciences, where he manages DM-drug disposition labs to implement in vitro/in vivo preclinical/clinical strategies for compound advancement to regulatory filing. Dr. Lai also holds an adjunct faculty position in the Department of Pharmacy of the University of Rhode Island. He received his M.D from Fujian Medical University in China and his Ph.D. (Toxicology) from Sapporo Medical University in Japan in 1998. From 1998 to 2001, he was a research fellow of Japanese Society for Promotion in Department of Physiopathology, Graduate School of Medicine of Hokkaido University, followed by a position as Research Associate in Department of Pharmaceutics at the University of Washington.