Dr. Roy Eldor serves as Scientific Advisor to Oramed Pharmaceuticals. He joined Oramed in 2016, bringing with him over twenty years of clinical and scientific experience. Dr. Eldor is an endocrinologist, internist and researcher and is currently Director of the Diabetes Unit at the Institute of Endocrinology, Metabolism & Hypertension, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. He previously served as Principal Scientist at Merck Research Laboratories, Clinical Research - Diabetes & Endocrinology, Rahway, New Jersey. Prior to that, he served as a senior physician in internal medicine at the Diabetes Unit in Hadassah Hebrew University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel and the Diabetes Division at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas (under the guidance of Dr. R.A. DeFronzo). Dr. Eldor is a recognized expert, with over 56 peer reviewed papers and book chapters and has been an invited speaker to numerous international forums. He received his MD and PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Mark Heinnickel is a principal scientist leading the bioproduction team at Lumen Bioscience. Mark has spent 20+ years in academia and industry pursuing his passion: studying proteins and pathways essential for photosynthesis. Previously at Matrix Genetics and then ExxonMobil, he used this expertise to improve growth and bio-based product production in eukaryotic algae and cyanobacteria. Currently, Mark leads Lumen’s efforts to optimize therapeutic protein production in Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina). Using a combination of photosynthetic characterization, design of experiments methodology and machine learning, this effort has already increased the productivity of valuable therapeutic strains 2-10-fold. These increases, along with growth improvements and other cost reductions, expand the uses of protein therapeutics to applications that were once commercially infeasible. Mark’s future career aspirations include making these therapeutics affordable and accessible worldwide.

Jane has more than 15 years of experience as a journalist on news titles and trade press. She now writes about the international biopharmaceutical industry: including vaccine development, biosimilars, cell and gene therapies and the regulatory landscape.