Pahini Pandya

CEO and Founder, Panakeia

Dr Pahini Pandya is the CEO and Founder of Panakeia, a pioneering AI-driven molecular profiling company. Panakeia’s AI-driven software provides comprehensive multi-omic information (DNA, RNA, protein, metabolite changes) directly from routinely used images of tissues and cells in minutes instead of days or weeks. The software enables same-day treatment decision-making in the clinic and fast-tracks drug development for biopharma without the need for time and resource intensive laboratory tests.

Trained as a cancer researcher. Pahini spent the last decade furthering translational research in the field. She pursued a PhD in cancer biophysics at King’s College London, a postdoc at the University of Cambridge and has several publications in top journals.

Educated at the Stanford and Cambridge business schools, Pahini has also held several leadership positions across entrepreneurial organisations and helped numerous start-ups commercialise research. She has been recognised as Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum, and received multiple awards for entrepreneurship.

Jonny Wray

Chief Technology Officer, Nucleome Therapeutics

Jonny is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Nucleome Therapeutics. He holds over 30 years’ experience in devising and building computational, data-driven solution to complex biological problems in drug discovery. He has a unique background in computational systems biology, drug discovery informatics, software and data engineering, and data science. He most recently served as the Chief Technology Officer of e-therapeutics plc where he was responsible for conceptualising and building their computational drug discovery platform. Previously he held leadership roles in bioinformatics and software engineering at Five Prime Therapeutics and BD Clontech, both in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was awarded a PhD from the University of Newcastle and conducted post-doctoral work as a Fellow in Theoretical Neuroscience at The Neurosciences Institute (New York and San Diego) where his research was aimed at understanding how brain function arises from network structure.

Donal O'Shea

Chief Executive Officer, Deciphex

Donal O'Shea is the Chief Executive Officer at Deciphex, with over 20 years of experience in life sciences, diagnostics, and technology. A serial entrepreneur, Donal has founded three technology start-ups and successfully led two trade sales. His leadership at Deciphex focuses on using AI and digital pathology to drive clinical innovation and global expansion. Donal holds a Ph.D. in Computer Vision from Dublin City University and has extensive experience in venture capital and growth strategies.

Alex Merwin

Head of Growth, Healthcare & Life Science Startups, Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL, UK Branch

Alex Merwin has fifteen years of experience building and scaling commercially focused teams in advertising technology, big tech, and digital health. At AWS Startups, he serves as Head of Growth for Healthcare & Life Science Startups. In this role, he applies his previous experience from two successful unicorn startups to advise founding teams within the healthcare and life science sector. His focus is to expedite their product development and go-to-market strategies, ultimately aiming to deliver scaled clinical impact. He studied at the University of Colorado Boulder, earning a Bachelors in Marketing with an International Business Certificate. He also attended executive development courses at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.