Amgen Panel

From publication to first-in-human: Managing a project from start to finish

Whether in academia or industry, scientists work on and build research projects from the ground up. But the needs and processes involved in both career paths differ, and the end products are drastically different. Join a panel of 5 R&D and Business Development leaders from Amgen to hear about their experiences managing projects in both academia and industry. Ask questions about the nuances of how the scientific process differs depending on role and work environment and hear their advice on how to hone your skills as an academic scientist to maximize your impact as a biotechnology leader.

Short panel discussion with open Q&A to follow.

Submit a question: Amgen Panel Question Submission Form

Event is open to all Caltech affiliated faculty, staff, and students.

*Entry only guaranteed with proof of "General Admission" registration. Must arrive before 12:45 PM.

Our panelists from Amgen:

Raymond Deshaies

Dr. Raymond Deshaies is Senior Vice President, Research at Amgen. In his position, he oversees all early scientific discovery work spanning a variety of diseases, including cancer, inflammation, neurodegeneration, and cardiovascular disease. He was previously a professor and an executive officer in the BBE Division at Caltech and an HHMI investigator. He is also the co-founder of two biotechnology companies (Proteolix and Cleave Biosciences) and is member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Philip Tagari

Philip Tagari is currently the Vice President, Therapeutic Discovery at Amgen. He was previously a Research Fellow at Merck before joining Amgen in 1998. In his role at Amgen, Mr. Tagari oversees Amgen's multi-modality therapeutic discovery platform, spanning biologics discovery, scaffold engineering, optimization and early manufacturability assessment; medicinal, oligonucleotide and peptide chemistry; protein conjugates (ADC, peptibodies) and reagents; assay development, screening, enzymological and pharmacological characterization and profiling (in vitro), as well as structural biology, biophysics, computational and analytical chemistry, materials logistics and automation.

Aarif Khakoo

Dr. Aarif Khakoo is Vice President, Translational Medicine at Amgen. Dr. Khakoo joined Amgen in 2011 before becoming Therapeutic Area Head of Cardiometabolic Disorders Research in 2015. In that role, Dr. Khakoo helped set the strategy for Amgen's cardiovascular and metabolic disorders pipeline and lead a team of scientists focused on developing novel and innovative small and large molecule therapeutics for the treatment of human cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, ranging from heart failure to chronic kidney diesease. He is also the Site Head of Amgen's South San Francisco location and holds an MD and MBA from Columbia University.

Sheldon Moberg

Sheldon Moberg is Executive Director, Device Technologies at Amgen. Mr. Moberg joined Amgen in January 2011 to oversee development of the company's broader drug delivery strategy and capabilities. In his current role, Mr. Moberg is responsible for managing advanced device technologies operations and strategic planning, identifying and developing new drug delivery technologies, and identifying launch enabling or value enhancing device technologies to serve companies product portfolio. Prior to Amgen, Sheldon held R&D leadership positions at Medtronic's Diabetes Division in Northridge, CA, where he was responsible for managing research and development activities of drug delivery systems.

Helen Y. Kim

Dr. Helen Kim is Director, Business Development at Amgen. Dr. Kim received her PhD from the Molecular Biology Institute at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Molecular and Medical Pharmacology Dept, also at UCLA, Dr. Kim joined Amgen in 2000 as a Scientist and has held multiple roles of increasing responsibility, contributing and providing leadership to multidisciplinary groups of scientists focused in both large and small molecule drug discovery programs. Dr. Kim transitioned to Business Development in 2012. Her team is responsible for identifying and evaluating innovative platform technologies that enable drug discovery, for cancer biology, neurobiology, cardiometabolic diseases, immunology as well as building and fostering strategic alliances between Amgen and academic institutions.