Chicago, IL – SLAS, the Society of Laboratory Automation and Screening, announces the addition of three new board members who will carry out three-year terms beginning January 1, 2023.
Philip Gribbon, Ph.D. — Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology, Germany
Philip Gribbon, Ph.D., is the Head of Discovery Research at Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology (Hamburg, Germany) and will serve as secretary on the SLAS Board of Directors. He began his career at the University of Manchester (UK) as a postdoctoral research associate after completing his Ph.D. in biophysics from Imperial College (London, UK). In 1999, Gribbon transitioned out of academia to work in the pharma and biotechnology industries where he held positions at Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline Ltd and European ScreeningPort GmbH. Since joining SLAS in 2010, Gribbon has been an active member, participating on various committees and serving as chair of the SLAS Europe 2021 digital conference program committee.
Zachary A. Gurard-Levin, Ph.D. — SAMDI Tech, Inc., USA
Zachary A. Gurard-Levin, Ph.D., is the Chief Scientific Officer at SAMDI Tech, Inc. (USA) – a leading provider of label-free drug discovery assay solutions. Gurard-Levin earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Chicago (USA), where shortly after, he became a postdoctoral scientist at the Institut Curie (Paris, France). He was an elected representative of the EU-funded EpiGeneSys Board, which allowed him to gain valuable international organization management experience. Since attending his first SLAS conference in 2017, Gurard-Levin has volunteered in assisting various SLAS activities such as evaluating abstract submissions, serving as chair of the SLAS Transformed Scientific Program Committee and supporting Innovation AveNEW awardees.
Mariafrancesca Scalise, Ph.D. — Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Calabria, Italy
Mariafrancesca Scalise, Ph.D., is an associate professor in biochemistry at the University of Calabria (Italy), where her research activities involve the study of membrane transporters responsible for the uptake, distribution and excretion of nutrients and catabolites. Scalise earned her B.S. and M.S. in biology and Ph.D. in cell biology and drugs activity in oncology from the University of Calabria. Scalise became involved with SLAS in 2014 when she attended the SLAS2014 Conference and Exhibition as a Tony B. Travel Award recipient. Since then, she has served as a volunteer on the Student and Early Career Advisory Committee and the SLAS Membership Engagement Council and is currently a member of the SLAS Discovery Editorial Board.
SLAS board members are representative of the diverse SLAS membership, which includes academic, industry and government researchers as well as developers and providers of laboratory automation technologies. The board is responsible for strategic leadership of the society and advises on the future direction of the society and its programs.
Gribbon, Gurard-Levin and Scalise join the current board members:
President
Jan Lichtenberg, Ph.D.
InSphero AG
Switzerland
Vice President
Jonathan Wingfield, Ph.D.
AstraZeneca
UK
Treasurer
Coleman Murray, Ph.D.
Ferrologix, Inc.
USA
Director
Manuela Beil-Peter
Analytik Jena GmbH
Germany
Director
Jonathan O’Connell, Ph.D.
Dewpoint Therapeutics
USA
Director
Kimberly Titus
Corning, Inc.
USA
The SLAS Nominating Committee is comprised of J. Colin Cox, Ph.D., Strateos; Jorg Kutter, Ph.D., University of Copenhagen; Ken Patel, Ph.D., Sandia National Laboratories; Ian Shuttler, Ph.D., Ian Shuttler Consultancy Ltd.; and Mary Jo Wildey, Ph.D., Merck.
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SLAS (Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening) is an international professional society of academic, industry and government life sciences researchers and developers and providers of laboratory automation technology. The SLAS mission is to bring together researchers in academia, industry and government to advance life sciences discovery and technology via education, knowledge exchange and global community building.
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