Speakers
Roser Vento-Tormo
Elena Rueda
Diana Torgersen
Alice Witt
Session
Roser Vento-Tormo’s research interest is to understand the influence of cellular microenvironments on individual cellular identities and responses, in the context of development and immunity. Her team (https://ventolab.org/) employs single-cell and spatial transcriptomics methods to deconstruct the cell signals in human organs and tissues, and utilise this information to inform the reconstruction of novel in vitro models. Essential for this work, is the novel computational tools her team develops to build cell–cell interactions networks from transcriptomics data. Her team has used these computational and genomics tools to generate atlases of the human reproductive tissues leading to transformative advances in the area of women’s health.
Vento-Tormo work has been funded by many recognised international agencies (ERC, Wellcome-LEAP, CZI), and she has been awarded multiple prizes, including the Early Career Research Award from the Biochemistry Society (2021) and the Michelson & Science Prize Finalist (2023).
Elena Rueda is the co-founder and CEO of Dama Health, an Illumina-backed health tech start-up bringing precision medicine and personalized care to women’s reproductive health, starting with contraception. Dama Health helps providers better match patients to the right medication and treatment plans. Elena is a medical scientist by background, and holds an MSc in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Management from Imperial Business School. Elena has over 7 years of relevant experience working in the health tech, pharma, and social care sector, including Merck’s Silicon Valley Innovation Hub.
Diana is Head of Innovation Ecosystem Integration at Organon, where she focuses on building the ecosystem that supports the innovation ecosystem for women’s health. Diana started her career in life science investment banking, initially at Credit Suisse and later at Torreya Partners. She later moved to Chiesi to head up the orphan disease BD team. Before moving to Organon, Diana worked as a VC investor at Novo Holdings, one of the largest life science investors globally.
Diana holds a DPhil (PhD) degree from University of Oxford.
Alice Witt is the Policy Fellow for the Medical Science Sex and Gender Equity (MESSAGE) project, a research and policy initiative working to improve consideration of sex and gender across all UK medical research. The project has convened over 50 major UK research organisations, including 15 funders, to co-design a new best practice for sex and gender integration which is now being implemented by funders including NIHR, Wellcome and the British Heart Foundation. A social scientist by background, Alice’s research interests sit at the intersection of gender and health and she is passionate about translating evidence into real-world impact. Alice holds an MA in Social Anthropology of Development from SOAS, University of London, and a BA in Modern Languages from the University of Oxford.
