Millis Oration | Dr Daniel Timms, BiVACOR
Wednesday 30 October | 9:30am - 10:00am
The Medical Moonshot - A decades long quest to build an artificial heart
As heart disease remains one of the leading causes of death globally, developing a fully functional artificial heart is a critical step forward in saving lives. This session explores the groundbreaking journey of developing a fully functional artificial heart to replace a failing human heart. It will address the complexities of replicating the heart’s natural functions and the critical risks involved in implementing such a concept into reality. The session also highlights how cutting-edge technologies played a big role in translating the BiVACOR concept from early research to its first in human implants.
Key topics include:
- The risk of artificial heart development
- The challenges involved in replacing a failing human heart
- The role of cutting-edge technologies in achieving clinical success
This session aims to provide an overview of the complexities and breakthroughs in artificial heart innovation and their implications for the future of cardiovascular treatments.
The Millis Oration is named in honour of Emeritus Professor Nancy Millis's contribution to the industry and is a focal point of the annual industry gathering, appropriately named after this pioneer of Australia’s biotechnology industry. It is held annually at the conference together with continuous support from CSL.
Keynote speaker Dr Daniel Timms, Founder & Chief Technical Officer, BiVACOR
Sponsored by
Keynote | Philipp Ernst, PsiQuantum
Wednesday 30 October | 10:00am - 10:30am
Fault tolerant quantum computing: Hardware, algorithms and their applications in biotech
Quantum computers hold the promise of revolutionizing fields from quantum chemistry to fluid dynamics. However, current noisy quantum computers are plagued by errors that limit their usefulness. This talk will provide a brief overview of the emerging field of fault-tolerant quantum computing (FTQC) which has the ability to correct errors, provide larger number of quantum gates, enabling more complex quantum algorithms, and finally deliver reliable results for useful, real-world applications.
We will delve into our photon-based approach to fault tolerance and will share the roadmap to delivering the world’s first utility-scale quantum computer, emphasising the advancements in photonics. Understanding these hardware developments is essential for anticipating the practical implementation of quantum algorithms for useful applications in biotech.
We'll then discuss how this technology unlocks the true potential of quantum algorithms applied to quantum chemistry problems and their relevance in biotech. We will cover algorithmic approaches for use-cases in quantum chemistry in precisely simulating molecular structures and reactions and how to address this in the context of large biomolecules. Finally, we'll address the future directions for bringing this transformative technology to the market.
Keynote speaker Philipp Ernst, Vice President of Quantum Solutions & Business Development, PsiQuantum
Keynote | Dr Intan Oldakowska, Earflo
Wednesday 30 October | 12.30pm - 1.00pm
An innovator’s journey from a napkin sketch to a first-in-human
An innovator’s journey from idea to successful commercialisation is fraught with challenges every step of the way. Earflo is a company developing a device to treat children with chronic ear infections at home and avoid surgery that was founded out of the Stanford Biodesign program. This session will use Earflo as a case-study to provide an insight to the critical aspects of identifying an unmet clinical need, inventing a viable solution and implementing a commercialisation strategy. This session also highlights the importance of early-stage programs such as Perth Biodesign in helping innovators navigate the ideation process and the community built through Biodesign Australia and a network of incubators in translating the technology to commercialisation.
Key topics include:
• The importance of choosing the right problem to work on
• The 10 things you need to know about product development
• Start with the end in mind: commercialisation strategy is key
Keynote speaker Dr Intan Oldakowska, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Earflo
Keynote | Michael Lopez-Alegria, Axiom Space
Thursday 31 October | 8.30am - 9.00am
The most innovative laboratory in the galaxy
Where gravity ends, innovation begins. Michael Lopez-Alegria, Chief Astronaut at Axiom Space and former Astronaut at NASA, will share his stories of performing medical experiments aboard the International Space Station. He will share the opportunity for the fundamental, translational, and promotable work that is being conducted today for unique discoveries and direct benefit to patients on Earth. Highlights and best practices of Axiom Space’s collaborative research portfolio will be shared with attendees, including: manufacturing stem cells, accelerating disease models, crystallizing proteins, expanding remote healthcare, and assembling ambient drug delivery platforms.
Keynote speaker Michael López-Alegría, Chief Astronaut, Axiom Space
Keynote | Michael Hund, EB Research Partnership
Friday 1 November | 9:30am - 10:00am
Venture into Cures- How patient foundations, Biotech, and Academia can unite via innovative business models to accelerate treatments and cures
Founded by a dedicated group of families set out to save their children's lives and Jill and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, EB Research Partnership (EBRP) has the ambitious goal of curing the life-threatening rare skin disease Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) by 2030 and in the process pioneering an innovative model for curing disease. As the largest global nonprofit dedicated to curing EB, EBRP has made remarkable progress: raising over $60 million to fund more than 140 global scientific projects and companies, growing the clinical trial landscape from 2 to more than 40 clinical trials, and achieving the first two FDA approved treatments in 2023. Their award-winning venture philanthropy and business model has garnered leadership recognition from Harvard Business School, Yale University, MIT, Stanford University, Rolling Stone, and Forbes. Learn how EBRP's innovative model can scale to bring together the nonprofit, biotech, academic, and regulatory industries to put speed into treating and curing diseases.
Keynote speaker Michael Hund, Global Chief Executive Officer, EB Research Partnerships
Keynote | Robert Marino, Qubit Pharmaceuticals
Friday 1 November | 3:00pm - 3:30pm
Recent developments in artificial intelligence, robotics, high-performance computing and quantum computing promise to radically change the drug discovery process. There is no shortage of articles reporting on the impact of this or that algorithm, often pitting the “new” technologies against each other and, above all, against “traditional” approaches.
On the contrary, we believe that these new technologies should be put to work together to help drug hunters discover new, more effective drugs using fewer resources. In this presentation, we'll be sharing our experience of the joint integration of these different technologies: to what extent do they help to speed up certain stages of drug discovery, what are the current limitations and what are the hopes for the future.
Keynote speaker Robert Marino, Chief Executive Officer, Qubit Pharmaceuticals
Early-Stage Innovation Forum
Wednesday 30 October | 2:00pm - 5:40pm
Discover up to 15 emerging technologies at the Early-Stage Innovation Forum which enables early-stage projects and technologies from research institutes, universities, hospitals and pre-series A companies in the area of human therapeutics and enabling technologies to pitch to a panel of industry experts, corporate VCs and early-stage investors to continue their commercialisation journey.
See here for more information.
