Join us for our upcoming BioTalent Social networking initiative. In this Pride Month special, we will be exploring tolerance vs acceptance within the life sciences sector for the LGBTQIA+ community. Expect a lively panel discussion, followed by a Q&A session. We will also host an additional virtual networking session where further burning questions will be answered.
Our Panel:
- Kayleigh Best (She/Her) - Host/Chair at BioTalent Social
- Mark Charbonneau (He/Him) - Director at Synlogic
- Anindya Sen (He/Him) - Director at Prevail Therapeutics
- Zac Blais (They/Them) - Knowledge Management Specialist at Takeda
- Cassie Saitow (She/Her) - Associate Director at PTC Therapeutics
Mark Carbonneau
Mark is a biotechnology R&D leader with expertise in live biotherapeutic drug development, mechanistic modelling, computational biology, and biomarker assay development. He is a first-generation college graduate who received a B.S. in microbiology at Michigan State University, before obtaining a PhD in computational and systems biology at Washington University in St. Louis in the lab of Jeffrey Gordon. Currently, Mark leads the Quantitative Biology team at Synlogic, Inc in Cambridge, MA, a company pioneering the development of engineered live bacterial therapeutics. His team connects the dots between preclinical data and human biology, with the goal of predicting the impacts of engineered bacterial therapeutics on disease biology. Mark integrates technical acumen and emotional intelligence to build high-functioning teams and foster innovation.
Anindya Sen
Anindya identifies as a queer South-Asian American, atheist, cis-man of colour. He received his Ph.D. from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India and post-doctoral training at Columbia University, New York and Harvard Medical School, Boston, developing target discovery platform for neurodegenerative diseases. Anindya has worked as a Scientist at Biogen, Cambridge from 2013-2019, and currently manages a diverse pre-clinical research team at Prevail Therapeutics. Anindya has extensive volunteer experience with the queer community in New York working with The Centre and as a board member of MASALA, a Boston based South Asian LGBTQA+ community. When he’s not working, Anindya and his Canon EOS7D can be found following migratory warblers in Central Park (and in South and Central America).
Zac Blais
Zac is a Knowledge Management professional at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. A proud non-binary person, they have worked to advocate for LGBTQ equity and inclusion since starting their career in 2013. They supported the development of Shire’s Gender Transition Playbook in 2018 which has since evolved into Takeda’s Gender Transition Guidelines. They have also refined and facilitated LGBT+ 101, a class aimed at straight & cisgender allies about unconscious bias and LGBTQ challenges still faced today.
Outside of work and advocacy, Zac is a casual composer and Photoshop artist. They have been playing chess daily for the past several months but still aren’t good at it.