2021 IBSC Plenary Speakers

Michelle McMurry-Heath assumed the leadership of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) as President and CEO on June 1, 2020. A medical doctor and molecular immunologist by training, Dr. McMurry-Heath becomes just the third chief executive to steward the world’s largest biotechnology advocacy group since BIO’s founding in 1993.

BIO represents 1,000 life sciences companies and organizations from 30 countries. The organization’s mission is to support companies that discover and deploy scientific breakthroughs that improve human heath, environmental stewardship, and sustainable agriculture. 

The common thread in McMurry-Heath’s work across academia, government and industry has been her focus on broadening access to scientific progress so more patients from diverse backgrounds can benefit from cutting-edge innovation. Driven by her own past family experiences navigating clinical trials and funding uncertainties within the rare disease community, McMurry-Heath calls “the distribution of scientific progress the social justice issue of our age.”

She comes to BIO from Johnson & Johnson where she served as Global Head of Evidence Generation for Medical Device Companies and then Vice President of Global External Innovation and Global Leader for Regulatory Sciences. She was also instrumental in bringing J&J’s incubator, JLabs, to Washington, DC. She led a global team of 900 with responsibilities in 150 countries around the globe.

Prior to her time at J&J, Dr. McMurry-Heath was also a key science policy leader in government. The Obama-Biden transition team tapped her to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the National Science Foundation’s policies, programs and personnel. President Obama then named her associate science director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health under Commissioner Peggy Hamburg. In that role, she championed clinical trial evolution, the use of real-world evidence in product evaluation, and an embrace of the patient’s voice in health research so new medical products deliver outcomes that matter to them.

McMurry-Heath was the founding director of the Aspen Institute’s Health, Biomedical Science, and Society Policy Program, where she promoted personalized medicine and bolstered international preparation for pandemic disease threats. She received her early training in science policy from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and later served as Senator Joe Lieberman’s top legislative aide for science and health. In that role, she drafted legislation to protect the country from biological attacks.

McMurry-Heath received her MD/PhD from Duke’s Medical Scientist Training Program, becoming the first African-American to graduate from the prestigious program. She spent 12 years working at the research bench before taking policy and leadership roles in government and industry.

McMurry-Heath lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband Sebastian Heath, a veterinarian, and their daughter, Isabella. To relax, she enjoys yoga, snorkeling and her daughter’s sporting events.

Michael K. Schultz, PhD is Chief Science Officer and Co-Founder of Viewpoint Molecular Targeting. He is the principal inventor of Viewpoint’s radiopharmaceuticals and directs ongoing development programs. Dr. Schultz is concurrently an Associate Professor of Radiology and Free Radical and Radiation Biology at the University of Iowa. Dr. Schultz has maintained continuous research funding for his laboratory for over a decade from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/ National Cancer Institute (NCI) and has published over 75 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and invited publications. Dr. Schultz was awarded (as Co-Principal Investigator) a competitive NIH Research Project Grant (R01) to perform the non-clinical research and development needed to advance Viewpoint’s alpha-particle therapy for neuroendocrine tumors to a Phase 1 clinical imaging and therapy trial to be conducted at the University of Iowa. Dr. Schultz is Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator (with acting CEO and CMO Frances Johnson, MD of Viewpoint) on over $10M of NCI funded Small Business Innovation Research grant projects. In addition to his role on the current R01 ($3.5M), Dr. Schultz is a Project Leader for the University of Iowa NIH sponsored Specialized Project of Research Excellence in Neuroendocrine Tumors (a $10M, 5-year grant) and has been the primary architect, Principal Investigator, or Co-Investigator on over $20M in total of grants from the NIH, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, and industry funded research projects. Dr. Schultz has 5 years of experience in product management in radiation detectors, electronics, and software (PerkinElmer/Ametec); 17 years of experience in radiopharmaceutical CMC/IND approvals; and served as a consultant to Algeta ASA (acquired by Bayer) on the CMC for the first alpha-particle targeted therapy approved in the United States (Xofigo).

Nigel received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT in 2014.  As he finished graduate school, he founded his first biotech company, Volvox Biologic Inc. which focused on commercialization of a glycosylation sensor for antibody quality control.  This company was an MIT 100K finalist and Mass Challenge Accelerator global finalist.  The IP was eventually acquired by another life science tool company.  After consulting at this new company, Nigel was hired by DuPont’s historic Central Research and Development, where he worked as a principal investigator for two years pitching and developing new product ideas between existing business units.  He was then promoted as the corporate technology scout, tasked with finding new innovations outside of DuPont.  In 2016, he left DuPont to become an entrepreneurial minded professor at Iowa State University, where he has worked as an Assistant Professor in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department.  With his ISU lab he has created over 15 technology disclosures and founded two companies.  His first company, Skroot Laboratory Inc., was founded in 2018 and has since been awarded over $1.4M in non-dilutive funding (SBIR Phase I and II, CARES Act) and is focused on creating technological shortcuts for biomanufacturing. Their beach head product is a cell quality control sensor for use on upstream, single-use production vessels. Skroot Lab placed first in the Iowa Biotech Showcase pitch competition in 2020 and has been making rapid progress since then.