2025 Speakers
Keynote speakers
Steven Downes
Chief Quality Officer at Roquette
Steven Downes is a senior Quality & Compliance executive with over 25 years of leadership experience across the pharmaceutical, biotech, and MedTech industries. Currently serving as Chief Quality Officer at Roquette, he brings deep expertise in GMP, regulatory affairs, operational excellence, and global quality transformation. A strategic connector and board advisor, Steven has successfully led complex change initiatives at companies including Takeda, Ascensia, and Pall Biotech. He is also the founder of the Basel Pharma Networking Group, championing professional collaboration and innovation across the life sciences ecosystem.
Emma Hodcroft
Group leader at Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute
Emma Hodcroft began working in molecular epidemiology, phylogenetics, and modelling in HIV at the University of Edinburgh, where she investigated the heritability of viral load and developed an agent-based model simulating HIV phylogenies during her MSc, PhD, and a post-doc. She then moved to Basel as a post-doc and joined the Nextstrain project, becoming a co-developer of the project. From February 2020, Dr Hodcroft worked full-time on SARS-CoV-2, including identifying a key variant that dominated Europe in the summer of 2020. This work led her to develop the first variant-tracking website, CoVariants.org. Dr Hodcroft was additionally very active in science communication during the pandemic, and was featured regularly in the media. Dr Hodcroft started her own lab in 2023 at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, where she’s switching back to her pre-pandemic work on endemic respiratory viruses. In August 2024, she co-founded Pathoplexus.org, an open-source database to encourage and enable viral genome data sharing while protecting and better crediting data generators. In December 2024, she was recognised as one of Nature’s ‘Ones to Watch’ in 2025.
Péter Szoldàn
CEO of GenuForm AI
Peter Szoldan is an entrepreneur who likes to bring together healthcare and technology. He’s the CEO and co-founder of GenuForm AI, a company that facilitates knee cartilage transplants by using an AI-based system to match and distribute cartilage tissue. He also runs an award-winning teledermatology service in Hungary called MedInnoScan Ltd. Before that, Peter worked on other healthcare AI projects, including tools for detecting lung cancer and recommending treatments for chronic wounds. Earlier in his career, he co-founded and ran an investment advisory firm in Hungary, focused on short-term trading in the U.S. stock market. That came after a few years working as a consultant at McKinsey & Company in New York, right after finishing his Master’s in Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School. Back in the 1990s, Peter was involved in local politics, serving on Budapest’s city council for eight years. Outside of work, he enjoys flying planes as a private pilot and going to techno raves.
Career talks
Karin Ackema
Head of Quality Management and Regulatory Affairs at Indivi AG (Basel)
Karin started her career as a PhD student at the ErasmusMC in Rotterdam in the the Cell Biology & Genetics department. This was followed by a Postdoc position at the Biozentrum. In 2014, she left academic research for medical writing in the medical device industry at Medical Minds in Bern. This was followed by a position as Quality System Analyst at a DePuySythes site in Bettlach, a production site for orthopedic implants and instruments. Two years later she was promoted to Quality System Team Lead. At the end of 2019, she left this position and became senior consultant Quality & Engineering & Project Management at ISS AG in Biel, where she also picked up medical writing again. Later on, the position evolved into Clinical and Scientific Affairs Manager as part of the ISS CRO (contract research organization). In 2024, she joined Indivi AG, a young TechBio company delivering digital measurement solutions (digital endpoints) for patient monitoring during drug development for neurological disorders.
Hailey Kim
Project Manager for Entrepreneurship Education at the Innovation Office of the University of Basel
Hailey Kim is Project Manager at the Innovation Office at the University of Basel since 2023. Before joining the Innovation Office, she completed her PhD in Clinical Neuroimmunology at University Hospital Basel and has experience in the life science and molecular diagnostics sector. The Innovation Office is the central contact point at the University for all matters related to innovation and entrepreneurship. At the Innovation Office, Hailey is deeply involved in international collaborations to support startups in life sciences, such as the Seoul-Basel Startup Hub Acceleration Program and the MIRAHI as part of Swiss Leading House Africa. She is also involved in public-private partnerships, including SPEARHEAD, to fight antimicrobial resistance with better AMR stewardship using machine-learning algorithms developed with real-world data.
Lara Brantschen
Junior Innovation Manager for Entrepreneurship Education
at the Innovation Office of the University of Basel
Originally from Lugano, Lara moved to Basel to pursue her academic studies, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Business and a Master’s degree in Business and Economics with a major in Strategic Management. In her role as Junior Innovation Manager for Entrepreneurship Education, she is shaping and expanding the university’s entrepreneurial education programs as well as helping students and researchers develop the skills and tools they need to succeed in their innovation journey. She also leads the Innosuisse Consortium for the Northern Region of Switzerland, which offers workshops, courses, and events to support entrepreneurial talent at every stage. Passionate about community building, she enjoys creating meaningful connections and contributing to a vibrant innovation ecosystem – always with a positive and forward-thinking mindset.
Kessara Chan
Video and media specialist
After completing his PhD at the UZH and working a few years as a Postdoc at the ETH, Kessara realized that maybe a career in research wasn’t, after all, his calling. Consequently, he had the bright idea to start a new career in something he had absolutely no clue about and no expertise in: creating videos. After years developing his craft working with startups, NGOs, associations, and companies, Kessara has been in charge of production for the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office since 2021, as well as developing its social media strategy. Kessara now spends his days making videos to help Swiss people understand complicated things, and that, to him, is a pretty good life.
Melanie Generali
Head of iPSCore
Melanie Generali completed her PhD in Integrative Molecular Medicine in 2017 at the University of Zurich (UZH). Prior to this, she completed a Master of Science in Human Biology at UZH, and a Bachelor of Science in Biology at the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel in Germany. Dr. Generali has extensive experience in the field of stem cell research and tissue engineering, having worked on multiple international projects. Following her PhD, she joined the Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IREM) at UZH, where she worked as a postdoctoral researcher in collaboration with the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at Kyoto University. In 2021, she launched the iPSC Core Facility (iPSCore) at UZH and became the program head, overseeing the facility’s activities related to iPSC, GMP compliance, and tissue engineering. Additionally, she is the Swiss representative in the European Network for Stem Cell Core Facilities (CorEuStem). Since the end of 2022, Dr. Generali has been leading the cardiovascular tissue engineering division at IREM, furthering her work through a new collaboration with Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, focusing on clinical applications in cardiovascular diseases.
Philipp Dexheimer
Science Artist
As an artist at heart and a scientist in the mind, Philipp’s creations are inspired by the concepts and molecular aesthetics of Nature. Being passionate about visualizing complex ideas, he combines his research background and love for art to effectively communicate science to a broad audience. Philipp is a C. elegans Geneticist & RNA Biologist by training. He did his PhD & PostDoc at the IMP Vienna. Since 2023 he went all in with the Science Art and does Cover Illustrations, Science Videos, and Molecular Graffiti. His favorite techniques are digital collages, watercolor, and spraypaint. Philipp will talk about Science, Art & Creativity – and how to make a career out of it.
Alejandro Tsai
Global Medical and Commercial Operations at UCB Pharma
After completing a PhD in Neurobiology at the FMI, Alejandro Tsai transitioned from academia to the pharmaceutical industry, where he has since specialised in Project Management and Operational Excellence at the Global level. His career started at Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Zurich where he was first part of the Project Management Office in the Global Medical Affairs team and later led the Operational Excellence Team in the Plasma Derived Therapies Global Medical Affairs group. He is currently an Operational Excellence Lead at UCB Pharma working on increasing company-wide project management efficiencies for programs with a favourable commercial prospect across a wide spectrum of the value chain. In his personal time Alejandro enjoys playing football, hiking and snowboarding.
Workshop
Jens Gaab
Prof. of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at University of Basel
Prof. Dr. Jens Gaab is Professor for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at the University of Basel. He is a psychotherapy and placebo researcher. He is also a psychotherapist and much interested in the conditions for personal change and how to bring them about. In this workshop he will lead a discussion on the challenges of being a postdoc/researcher and what is needed to be successful.