When Science Becomes Business: Navigating Singapore’s Biotech Landscape

Speakers

Speaker's Profile:

Ronne is Head of Venture Relations at Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JLABS, managing its community of investors in life sciences and healthcare to support the success of its resident companies. In this role, he creates funding opportunities for high potential companies by matching them with the right funding partners. To achieve this, Ronne coaches JLABS residents on fund-raising and overall company development, as well as establishes and strengthens JLABS’ relationship with investors. Ronne has 10 years of experience in biotech and was formerly a biotech investor and venture builder. He was co-founder of two such companies in the cell and gene therapy space where he was actively involved in fund-raising, R&D, business development and strategy. Both companies collectively raised over USD40 million to date. Ronne holds a PhD in Biological Sciences from National University of Singapore and is an inventor on 6 patent families and author of several peer-reviewed publications.

Speaker's Profile:

Wen Qi focuses on investing in and building global healthcare companies from Singapore. Prior to joining ClavystBio, she headed up the Singapore investments and operations for Lightstone Ventures, where she played a major role in establishing the firm’s presence in Singapore. Wen Qi evaluated new investment opportunities in the biopharmaceutical and medical device sectors, and was actively involved in venture-building portfolio companies in Singapore such as Medisix Therapeutics and Allay Therapeutics. Wen Qi is an advocate for early career researcher participation in biotech entrepreneurship, and serves on advisory and grant review panels with leading institutions in Singapore. She also serves on boards of ClavystBio’s portfolio companies. Wen Qi attained her PhD in Immunology at Stanford University, and BSc in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Johns Hopkins University.

Speaker's Profile:

Kellie Chan is an Assistant Director, leading Corporate Engagement, with the SGInnovate Investments team. She and her team work closely with corporates and partners to understand market needs and build investment thesis around new fields of technology. She also fosters opportunities for corporate-startup collaboration by conducting tech scouting of nascent technologies in the APAC region, enabling these emerging tech startups to accelerate their product-market fit. Prior to her current role, Kellie led investments into emerging fields of technology such as quantum technology, and served as a board observer for a number of companies within the SGInnovate portfolio.

Moderator's Profile:

Dr Vanessa Ding is currently the Deputy Director of the Talent Team at SGInnovate. She leads the Helix Immersion Programme team to help build a pipeline of “work-ready” talent to bridge the gap for the Biotech ecosystem in Singapore. She was trained as a Chemical Engineer at the University of Queensland, Australia. She later graduated with a PhD (Stem Cell Biology) from the National University of Singapore under the A*STAR Graduate Scholarship. She played an instrumental role in the early-stage discovery and development team for EBC-129, first made-in Singapore antibody-drug conjugate approved to enter clinical trials in USA and Singapore. Dr Vanessa had accumulated more than 16 years of experience spanning from R&D in cell biology and therapeutics development, spinoff management, strategic planning, and commercial development in the biotech and the bioprocessing industry. She had filed 7 patents on various novel monoclonal antibodies, and to-date 2 had been granted.