Reengineering the Economics of Autologous Cell Therapy

Katherine has over 20 years of experience in biomanufacturing operations including multiple new facility startups. She currently serves as Site Head, BaseCamp Pittsburgh and is responsible for supply chain, facilities, technical operations, manufacturing, and program management.

Prior to ElevateBio, Katherine held several Senior Director roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific, where she oversaw global manufacturing technology for thirty sites and managed engineering, portfolio management, and strategy across five viral vector manufacturing facilities. Prior to that, Katherine led the Global Engineering function at Brammer Bio and held roles at Biogen and Sanofi Pasteur enabling tech transfer and commercial manufacturing.

Katherine received her M.S. in Engineering Management from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University.

Steven Binninger is Head of Emerging Technology & Business Ventures at Sartorius, where he focuses on identifying, developing, and commercializing innovative technologies, including the Eveo® Cell Therapy Platform, that advance bioprocessing and next-generation medicines. With more than a decade of experience in biotechnology, cell and gene therapy, and process development, he has led technology innovation, strategic partnerships, and commercialization initiatives across the life sciences industry. Prior to joining Sartorius, Steve held leadership roles at Autolomous, ScaleReady, and Fresenius Kabi, supporting the development and scale-up of advanced therapy manufacturing technologies.

Masaki Yamada is Head of Product at Invert, where he leads the development of AI agents to help bioprocess teams move faster from data to decisions. His work sits at the intersection of process engineering, data systems, and applied AI in manufacturing environments, informed by his wet-lab experience in strain engineering and process development at NASA Ames, Genentech, and Culture Biosciences.

David is a seasoned biotechnology professional with 19+ years experience in product development and commercialization with Thermo Fisher Scientific. He leads the “Cells as Models and Translational Culture”  R&D organization within the Cell Biology Business Unit which is responsible for new product development in stem cell biology, neuroscience, ADME-Tox, patient derived tumoroid models supporting both research and cell therapy applications. His team focuses on developing culture media and reagents to enable more consistent and robust customer applications across a diverse array of biology, culture formats (2D and 3D) and scale. These products are produced under our Gibco brand and are intended for both research (RUO) and translational applications under our CTS brand.  He has extensive experience in developing and commercial support of culture systems for complex biological models as well as practical know now for reductions in the use of animals and animal derived products.  He also has an in-depth understanding of quality and regulatory requirements needed for GMP environment.