Marie Drago

Marie Drago is a Doctor in Pharmacy and the founder of Gallinee. Launched in 2016 in London, the brand has been caring for the skin and its microbiome though innovative products across a number of categories.

Dirk Loeffert

Dirk is co-founder of BIOMILLENIA and a senior executive of the Life Sciences industry with more than 20 years of experience in product development and commercialisation. After obtaining his Ph.D. in molecular genetics and immunology from the University of Cologne, Dirk joined QIAGEN where he was instrumental in building several new product portfolios at QIAGEN, such as QIAGENs enzyme and assay product portfolios. He represented in his former function at QIAGEN global product development as VP, Global Head of Product Development Life Sciences. In 2014, Dirk moved to Paris, France where he co-founded with scientific founders Dave Weitz (Harvard University, Cambridge), Rob Nicol (BROAD Institute, Cambridge) and Andrew Griffiths and Jerome Bibette (both ESPCI Paris, France) BIOMILLENIA.

Dr. Nick Monsul

Dr. Monsul was born in Philadelphia and graduated from Drexel University.  He completed his medical degree at Hahnemann University, Drexel University College of Medicine.  His ophthalmology residency at Yale University was followed by fellowship programs at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, The Wilmer Eye Institute and Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.  He moved to Florida in 2003.  Throughout his career and education, he has been involved in basic science research with a particular interested in neural regeneration and neuronal cell death.  In addition to his roles at Quorum Innovations where he is actively involved in the research program, he is a surgeon with a busy practice in the Hawthorne Clinic and Research Center.

Jasmina Aganovic

Jasmina Aganovic is the President of Mother Dirt, a line of biome-friendly personal care products focused on restoring and maintaining the balance of the skin biome. The technology is based off research from AOBiome Therapeutics, a biotech company focused on transforming human health through products that restore Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacteria (AOB), which current hygiene practices have stripped from the modern microbiome. She is a cosmetics and consumer goods entrepreneur who received her degree in chemical and biological engineering from MIT. Her career path combined her technical background with roles at consumer brands like LVMH, Fresh, and Living Proof. 

Julia Oh

Dr. Oh's main research interests focus on the human microbiome—the diverse bacteria, fungi, and viruses that inhabit our bodies—for its potential to deliver treatments for infectious and other diseases.  Dr. Oh comes to the microbiome world by way of fungal chemogenomics with technologist and geneticist Dr. Ronald Davis at Stanford and comparative genomics of wild wine yeast at the FAS Center for Systems Biology at Harvard. Prior to joining the Jackson Laboratory, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Oh's research, exploring the complex interactions between the host and its microbes has lead to important implications for the contribution of the microbiome to disease.

Mark Wilson

Riëtte van Laack

Riëtte van Laack, Ph.D., provides regulatory counsel on OTC products, including foods and dietary supplements, OTC drugs, cosmetics, and animal feed and drugs on a range of FDA, USDA, FTC, and CPSC issues.

Ms. van Laack has substantial experience with food and dietary supplement issues, labeling and advertising. She counsels clients regarding GMP and HACCP compliance issues, Reportable Food Registry issues, and responses to warning letters. Ms. van Laack advises clients on regulatory strategy, including requirements pertaining to self-determinations of GRAS status and determinations of new dietary ingredient status.  Ms. van Laack also has substantial experience with regulation regarding labeling and advertising of over-the-counter (OTC) drugs and cosmetics. Ms. van Laack’s practice includes USDA regulatory issues ranging from requirements for import of animal products (APHIS), use of ingredients in meat, poultry, and egg products (FSIS), and organic labeling requirements (AMS).  Ms. van Laack conducts due diligence evaluations of FDA- and USDA-regulated companies. She additionally assists clients with compliance and liability issues related to products regulated both by the CPSC and FDA.

Ms. van Laack has advanced degrees in Nutrition and Meat Science, and more than 15 years experience in food research.   Ms. van Laack was a professor at the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of Tennessee.  While in law school, Ms. van Laack was an Articles Editor of theTennessee Law Review.

Travis Whitfill

Travis Whitfill is an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Pediatrics. His background began in molecular biology and biochemistry, after receiving scientific training at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and Duke University. He is the co-founder of several additional startup companies, including a Connecticut-based microbiome company, Azitra Inc. He brings strong background in entrepreneurship and business, and is also a partner in a venture capital fund, Bios Partners, bringing experience in public markets, drug development, and venture capital investments.

His research interests are in pediatric emergency medicine and health policy and to improve pediatric acute care across the United States. 

Kit Wallen-Russell

With a Masters Degree in Geophysics from University College London (UCL), twice published scientific author, and JooMo Co-Founder Kit published a peer-reviewed paper in 2017 that describes the first ever mechanism to determine whether skin is healthy or not. As director of the Pavane Research Centre (the R&D arm behind all ground-breaking JooMo technology), he discovered that the ONLY indicator of healthy skin was high microbial biodiversity, not the presence/lack of particular microbes. The immense power of his discovery meant that, for the first time, it was possible to determine whether everyday cosmetics really are the primary cause of the skin allergy epidemic that’s raging across the western world. To do so, Kit formed a partnership with top European institution, The Medical University of Graz, to test everyday cosmetics, including JooMo, for their effect on skin health. The extremely intriguing results from the seminal study will have been published by Kit at the time of the event. Both Kit and Nick aim to dispel the myths and ill-education surrounding Probiotics within the industry, and distance JooMo from the Pro-/Pre- Biotics label. JooMo is NOT a probiotic.

Dr Linda M. Katz

Dr. Linda Katz is the Director for the Office of Cosmetics and Colors (OCAC), in FDA’s Center of Foods and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN); a position that she has held since 2002, and the Interim Chief Medical Officer for CFSAN. Dr. Katz establishes the priorities and missions of OCAC focusing on cosmetic safety, compliance, certification of color additives, and research such as nanotechnology, phototoxicity and percutaneous absorption, and addresses safety and medical concerns for CFSAN regulated products. Dr. Katz is the Agency’s liaison for nanotechnology issues pertaining to food and cosmetics. She is a member of the FDA Nanotechnology Task Force and other FDA nanotechnology working groups, as well as being an active member of CFSAN’s Leadership Board, and other CFSAN and FDA management committees. She has had numerous presentations and publications, including those related to nanotechnology regarding cosmetics and foods issues, and other specific cosmetic topics. Prior to assuming leadership of the Office of Cosmetics and Colors, Dr. Katz held positions in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) as Deputy Director for the Division of Over-the-Counter Drug Products, Deputy Director for the Division of Dermatologic and Dental Drug Products, and Team Leader and Acting Director for the Pilot Drug Evaluation Staff.

Dr. Katz received her B.A. in biology from the University of Pennsylvania; a M.P.H. in epidemiology from the University Of Michigan School Of Public Health, and a M.D. from the University of Connecticut. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine, and fellowship in Rheumatology at the George Washington University Medical Center, in Washington, D.C.

Denis Wahler, PhD

An experienced manager for collaborative research and development, Denis is in charge of Technology Partnerships within the Active Beauty business unit of Givaudan. Prior to this role, he was Business Development Manager in biocatalysis and metagenomics at Libragen, before the acquisition of the company by Givaudan in 2015. Libragen has since become the Applied Microbiomics Centre of Excellence of Givaudan Active Beauty. Graduated from a PhD in Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Bern, Switzerland, Denis specialized in applied research and contract services in white biotechnology and green chemistry at Proteus/PCAS Biosolution, where he served as Head of R&D and Scientific Manager for many years. Prior to joining Libragen, he also spent one and a half year at SEPPIC (Air Liquide Group) as Head of the Synthesis Department.

Marisa Meloni Ph.D

Marisa Meloni got a PhD in Drug Delivery and Cutaneous Bio-physic at Renée Descartes University, Paris V (France). Thereafter, she was in charge for research and innovation within the dermo-pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry for 15 years. During that period, she also was contract professor of safety assessment and technology of cosmetic products at Milan, Salerno and Padua Universities.

In 2001, she created VitroScreen, a research laboratory committed to in vitro science that has the mission to be a reference partner for companies approaching in vitro alternatives, providing in vitro pre-clinical efficacy and regulatory toxicological services.

At VitroScreen she has developed “mechanism based experimental models“ on 3D reconstructed human tissue models for active ingredients and finished product testing: this approach better mimics the in vivo skin and epithelia response taking into account the dynamic of the biological response. VitroScreen is GLP certified and a member of the EU-Netval national reference laboratory network.