March 31 – April 2, 2025 | The Hyatt Regency in La Jolla, CA

Remy Gross

Remy Gross is the Executive Vice President and head of Business Development at The Buck Institute for Research on Aging. His current mission at the Buck is to increase deal flow and corporate or start-up collaborations in order to translate the Buck’s inventions into innovations, in addition to other strategic endeavors. In the past four years the Business Development group has licensed over forty patents/patent applications, contracted for more than 30 million in sponsored research funds and is directing a phase 1b/2a clinical trial in Australia on a Buck therapeutic candidate using fundraised venture philanthropic dollars.

The Business Development group has also facilitated the creation of three technology start-up companies in the past 18 months, all three of which have raised seed and/or Series A funding in addition to several large, platform deals with companies like Nantworks and Calico.

Mr. Gross has also founded, advises and consults for several drug delivery companies, including Laysan Bio, Inc, an angel-backed drug delivery company, and Serina Therapeutics, a drug delivery company licensing and developing two proprietary candidates, the first of which should enter phase I in 2016. Mr. Gross has created or been on the team creation of over five companies that have been acquired or are in operation today.

Finally, Mr. Gross is the passive executive of a regional, boutique real estate development and management firm with over 700,000 square feet under ownership and over $400 million dollars in the development pipeline.

Dr. Lee Hood

Dr. Lee Hood is a world-renowned scientist and recipient of the National Medal of Science in 2011, Dr. Leroy Hood co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) in 2000 and served as its first President from 2000-2017. In 2016, ISB affiliated with Providence St. Joseph Health (PSJH) and Dr. Hood became PSJH’s Senior Vice President and Chief Science Officer. He is also Chief Strategy Officer and Professor at ISB. Dr. Hood is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine. Of the more than 6,000 scientists worldwide who belong to one or more of these academies, Dr. Hood is one of only 20 people elected to all three.

He received his MD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and his PhD in biochemistry from Caltech. Dr. Hood was a faculty member at Caltech from 1967-1992, serving for 10 years as the Chair of Biology. During this period, he and his colleagues developed four sequencer and synthesizer instruments that paved the way for the Human Genome Project’s successful mapping and understanding of the human genome. He and his students also deciphered many of the complex mechanisms of antibody diversification. In 1992, Dr. Hood founded and chaired the Department of Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Washington, the first academic department devoted to cross-disciplinary biology.

Dr. Hood has co-founded 17 biotech companies including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Rosetta and Arivale. His many national and international awards include the Lasker Prize, the Kyoto Prize, and the National Medal of Science. Currently, he is the CEO of Phenome Health and Co-Founder and Professor at the Institute of Systems Biology in Seattle.