Liz is a research & development, innovation and commercialisation specialist. She is currently Managing Director and CEO of Argenica Therapeutics (ASX:AGN), an early stage biotechnology company developing novel neuroprotective therapeutics for stroke and other types of brain injury, and co-founder and Chair of medical device start-up Inspiring Holdings. Liz is passionate about the life sciences industry and an dedicated advocate for building life science and STEM capability in Australia.

As a co-inventor on a patented and ASX listed digital health technology; Grace Lethlean has been actively involved in the development of health technologies from invention, through clinical trials, to commercialisation. Grace is co-founder and Chief Product Officer of ANDHealth, Australia’s national digital health initiative, accelerating the commercialisation of evidence-based digital health technologies. Grace’s focus is on supporting digital health technologies to meet key investor, partner and customer requirements. As General Manager of ANDHealth+ Grace manages the deployment of $19.75M of non-dilutive MRFF funding. Grace also supports the sector through numerous state and national Advisory Panels and Committees, is a 2020 SuperStar of STEM, is an inventor on patents in the US and Australia, a published author, and a Churchill Fellow.

Dr Amanda Vrselja is Program Head of CUREator, Australia's national biotech incubator. Backed by Brandon BioCatalyst, CUREator is funded by the MRFF and CSIRO to accelerate research translation and commercialisation outcomes by seeding and supporting the next wave of Australian biotech start-ups and innovations. She joined the program as a part of the founding team in 2021. Prior to this, Amanda was a Clinical Scientist at QUE Oncology, a venture-backed clinical stage company developing treatments for women suffering from hot flashes associated with hormonal cancer therapy. Amanda has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and a PhD in Developmental Biology from Monash University.

Jerome is the Director of Health and Life Science at Breakthrough Victoria, a company created to manage the $2 billion fund set up by the Victorian government to invest in innovation for the State of Victoria. He completed his PhD and postdoc in structure-based drug design at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and St Vincent’s Institute, initially in theoretical modelling and then in protein crystallography where he worked with local Biotech companies Avexa and Biota. After taking a year off to retrain and briefly pose as a journalist, Jerome started work with a family office buying health and life science companies. After successful deployment of that fund, he returned to the sell side, working with researchers to fund and package their research across digital health, therapeutics, dental and medical devices at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and University of Melbourne. Having spent time on both sides of the fence, Jerome has a strong understanding of dilutive and non-dilutive funding and the effort needed to bring an academic research project through to commercialisation, along with the different reward metrics needed for an academic team to succeed.

Rita is a highly experienced Partner in the Tax Services division of RSM in Melbourne, specialising in Research and Development (R&D) Tax and Government Incentive compliance and consulting. She is also the National Director for RSM Life Sciences specialisation. With a strong background in STEM and a passion for cutting-edge technology, she leverages her expertise to assist entrepreneurial and innovative clients in obtaining funding for their R&D activities, thereby contributing to the advancement of science and technology and has been appointed National Director – Life Science.

Dr Antonio Castillo is the CEO of BiotechBridge. He leads commercialisation, R&D business, and government relations across Australia, Israel, and Latin America.

Dr Castillo has worked in industry, government and academia in Israel, USA, Australia, Germany, and Chile. He was the inaugural Victorian Government - Israel Liaison Officer, based at The University of Melbourne, from 2020 to 2022. Dr Castillo holds a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the Weizmann Institute, a MSc in Biotechnology from Ben-Gurion University, a Diploma in Marineculture from The Hebrew University (all degrees from Israel), a BEng in Aquaculture from Universidad Andrés Bello Chile, and a Cert IV in Business Management from Holmesglen Institute.