Kyoto Healthcare Conference

Chen-Sen (“Samson”) Wu, JD, MD, is an attorney-physician with 20+ years of legal, medical affairs, and commercial launch experience across global pharma, med tech, and diagnostics companies, including multiple General Counsel roles at GE HealthCare, as Vice President of Global Medical Affairs at GSK leading 300+ professionals, and currently as General Counsel as well as Interim Vice President of Strategy and Value Enablement at Cepheid (a Danaher company). He combines broad legal, crisis management, and organizational change leadership – including championing adoption of legal AI technology (see https://lnkd.in/p/gMpg4d6s) – with deep domain expertise in healthcare regulations, product launches, medical and scientific affairs, mass tort / products liability litigation, and cross-border anti-bribery and anti-corruption (ABAC) investigations as part of a 3-year assignment to Singapore. He has served 10+ years on non-profit boards including as Secretary and on Audit, Governance, and Long-Range Planning committees for an academic center for Duke University students and faculty, a K-12 private school, organizations combatting human trafficking, and a clinic providing healthcare to underserved communities.

Toshihiro Maeda serves as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Nxera Pharma Co., Ltd. and Representative Director and President of Nxera Pharma Japan Co., Ltd. Prior to joining Nxera Pharma, he served as a Business Unit Head at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) in Japan, where he led the post-merger integration following the acquisition of Celgene and drove commercialization strategy. Before joining BMS, he held roles at Merck & Co. (MSD in Japan), focusing on partnerships and commercialization in the oncology and diabetes therapeutic areas in both Japan and the United States. He brings extensive experience in global leadership and pharmaceutical commercialization. He joined Nxera Pharma as COO in December 2023.

Yuta Inokuchi is Chief Operating Officer of SOLA Biosciences Japan, the Tokyo-based subsidiary of Boston-headquartered SOLA Biosciences Inc. The company is developing AAV-based gene therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. Its lead program, SOL-257, is in preclinical development for ALS and is supported by a subsidy from AMED’s Strengthening Program for Pharmaceutical Startup Ecosystem. Yuta heads the Japanese subsidiary and leads program management for research and development, which SOLA runs as a single integrated effort across its US and Japan teams. Before joining SOLA, he spent more than ten years at L.E.K. Consulting, where he was a Partner and Head of Japan, advising pharmaceutical, biotech, and medtech companies and their investors on strategy. He studied molecular biology and neuroscience at International Christian University and the University of Tokyo.

Physician-scientist and academic leader specializing in human induced pluripotent stem cell（iPSC）-based
disease modeling, drug discovery, precision medicine, and clinical translation. His work has established a
continuum from the development of human iPSC-derived neuronal models and phenotypic screening
technologies to the identification of therapeutic targets, clinical evaluation of iPSC-derived drug candidates,
and integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning with human disease-model data.
He has extensive experience in connecting stem cell science with clinical medicine, pharmaceutical
development, industry, and international scientific communities.

LEADERSHIP AT THE INTERFACE OF STEM CELL SCIENCE AND SOCIETY

• 2017-Present: Team Director, iPSC-Based Drug Discovery and Development Team, RIKEN BioResource
• Research Center
• 2025-Present: Representative Director, Japanese Society for Disease Stem Cell Research（JDSCS）
• 2025-Present: Associate Editor, Stem Cell Reports (Official journal of the ISSCR)
• Organizer of Keystone Symposia Conference “iPSCs: A decade of Progress and Beyond”, Olympic Valley,
• California, USA, 2018
• Organizer of CiRA international Symposium 2023 ~The voyage of discovery by having new eyes~, Kyoto
• Founder, Time Therapeutics, Inc. (iPSC-based drug repurposing); Founder, Time Prediction, Inc. (iPSC-
• data with AI for diagnosis); Founder, Time Biotechnology, Inc. (iPSC technology for gene and cell therapy)

Website: https://inoue.cira.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/

Dr. Stubbs is an Assistant Professor and Director of Translational Science at The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, where her work focuses on researching ketone esters for healthy aging. She completed her PhD in Metabolic Physiology at the University of Oxford. Whilst completing her studies she was a two-time World Champion in lightweight rowing on Team Great Britain. Brianna spent two years as Research Lead at a San Francisco start-up, where she launched the world’s first ketone ester consumer product and received $6M of funding from the US Special Operations Command to investigate exogenous ketone impacts on performance in extreme environments. Since moving to The Buck, she received the inaugural NIA Research and Entrepreneurial Development Immersion K01 award, launched a second consumer product and co-founded a ketone-therapeutic company. In 2023, Dr Stubbs co-established the Buck Clinical Geroscience Unit to run the first onsite clinical studies at The Buck.

Masayuki joined Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu LLC in 2007. From 2010, he took part in the second founding of Deloitte Tohmatsu Venture Support, establishing its Silicon Valley office in 2015 and leading its expansion to 260 employees across five global locations as COO. He supported numerous Japanese companies in digital and service transformation, and held roles including COO/Partner at Deloitte Tohmatsu Venture Support and Emerging Growth Leader at Deloitte Private Asia Pacific.

In June 2025, he joined Sompo Holdings, Inc. as Group Co-CDO and Executive Vice President. Leveraging his extensive track record and robust global network, he leads the group’s digital, data, and AI initiatives. 

Hirokazu Shimoda joined the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI, Japan) in 1999, and he was engaged in promoting various industries, including IT, cybersecurity, biotechnology and cell and gene therapy, healthcare, and the service sector. From 2016 to 2020, he served as Senior Director of the San Francisco Office of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), concurrently holding a position as a Fellow at the World Economic Forum’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

After returning to Japan, he held key positions at METI, including Director of the Information Systems Division and Director of the Bio-Industry Division, where he was responsible for biotechnology industry policy. Since July 2025, he has been serving as a Senior Director at the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED), overseeing the practical application of research outcomes and the promotion of the drug development ecosystem.

Hiroki Sugita is a partner in Orrick’s Tokyo Office and a member of the M&A and Private Equity Group. He works on a wide range of cross-border transactions including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, emerging companies and venture capital transactions, and private equity investment especially in Japan, the United States, Europe and Asia.

Hiroki has extensive experience and deep expertise in the life sciences sector and provides support to clients in a wide range of areas, including biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, digital health, research, laboratories, medical devices and diagnostic tools.

He also has extensive experience in fund formation, real estate and various types of finance transactions.

Hiroki has a deep understanding of clients’ needs from his secondment experience with a U.S. investment bank in 2005 and a Japanese major trading house from 2012 to 2014.

Joe Alexander Jr., MD, PhD, FACC, is Senior Vice President and Director of Medical & Health
Informatics at NTT Research, where he leads Precision Cardiology and development of a
cardiovascular bio-digital twin platform. A physician-scientist and biomedical engineer trained at
Johns Hopkins, with clinical and research fellowships at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and
Kyushu University, he brings deep expertise in cardiovascular dynamics, modeling and
simulation, and translational medicine. His career spans academic medicine, more than 18 years
of leadership roles at Pfizer across R&D, medical affairs, clinical technology, and business
development, and current work building strategic partnerships to advance data-driven,
personalized cardiovascular care. He is an experienced innovator with a strong publication
record and a practical focus on translating complex biomedical technologies into clinically and
commercially meaningful solutions.

Dr. Jianyu (Daniel) Wu is a biologist by training with a background in stem cell research. Following his postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University, Dr. Wu joined Insilico Medicine as a Biology Project Leader in R&D, where he spearheaded early-stage drug discovery across immunology, oncology, and CNS diseases. Notably, he led the successful nomination of a Preclinical Candidate (PCC) that subsequently received FDA IND approval.

In May 2023, Dr. Wu transitioned to the Business Development team. He now oversees external collaborations for Insilico’s proprietary AI drug discovery platform, AI drug discovery collaboration as well as the out-licensing of the internal pipeline in APAC region including Japan and South Korea. He has been driving and closed multiple AI drug discovery collaboration with total deal value approximal $3 billion and being a key contributor to multiple global pharmaceutical deals.

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/danieljwu316

Gregg Yoshito Shibata (柴田 義人) is a 25-year healthcare veteran with deep expertise navigating U.S. health plans and the healthcare venture ecosystem. He leads the strategic investment program at Blue Shield of California, one of California’s largest nonprofit health plans, where he keeps one foot in the health plan world and one foot in the venture ecosystem – building collaborative and commercial partnerships between internal business leaders and innovative startups.

As an investor, Gregg manages a portfolio spanning direct investments and venture funds across multiple venture-firm partners. As a partnership enabler, he has driven more than 38 commercial contracts, delivering over $100M in revenue to startup partners over his career. His earlier career includes leadership roles at Echo Health Ventures, Quil Health (a joint venture between Independence Blue Cross and Comcast), and Cambia Health Solutions.

Since 2023, Gregg has applied this experience to help Japanese enterprises, entrepreneurs, and investors enter the U.S. healthcare market, advising on a variety of topics such as reimbursement strategy, go-to-market approaches, and commercialization pathways. He is an Advisor to Kicker Ventures and has collaborated on a number of projects with JETRO, METI, Mitsubishi Corporation, Nozomi MedAlliance, and TheraNova around accelerator programming, reimbursement education, and startup mentoring.

A third-generation Japanese American, Gregg graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Japanese History. He then immersed himself in Japanese culture through the JET Program, spending four years teaching in Kitadaito, Okinawa (沖縄県北大東村). He returned to the U.S. in 2001 to build his healthcare career but continues to return to Japan to visit family, friends, and former students, and actively supports Japanese and Japanese American cultural exchange through local community organizations.

Paul Gadiock is a Partner at McDermott Will & Schulte’s San Francisco’s office. He leverages his firsthand experience at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to provide life sciences, healthcare and other domestic and foreign FDA-regulated companies with practical, strategic counsel at every phase of the product life cycle. Paul supports medical device, digital therapeutic, and biopharma companies, drug compounders, software as a medical device (SaMD) and clinical decision support (CDS) developers and their investors on FDA regulatory and due diligence matters, delivering premarket and postmarket regulatory guidance to maximize business outcomes.

Previously, Paul was a member of the senior leadership team at the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, where he advised agency officials on issues related to the regulatory scope of the FDA’s policies, programs, regulations, and legislation affecting the medical device industry. He also collaborated with the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and Government Accountability Office(GAO) on analyses, investigations and oversight of major national programs. In addition to his government experience, Paul provides a commercially minded approach rooted in real-world experience as a former business development executive at a national diagnostic biotechnology company.

Dan Belsky is Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public in the Robert N Butler Columbia Aging Center, where he directs the Center’s Geroscience Computational Core. His group develops methods to quantify the pace and progress of biological aging in young, midlife, and older adult humans and applies these methods in epidemiological studies and clinical trials to identify opportunities for intervention to increase healthy lifespan. Dan has been recognized as a leader in his field with the Academy of Behavioral Medicine’s Neal Miller New Investigator Award and the American Federation for Aging Research’s Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award. He is a fellow of the Academies of Behavioral Medicine and Geroscience. His work is supported by the US National Institute on Aging, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), among other sources. He is co-director of the AFAR FAST Initiative and a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of AFAR, the Biomarkers of Aging Consortium, and X-Prize Healthspan. He is an inventor of the Pace of Aging method and the DunedinPACE epigenetic clock. Since 2020, he has been named an ISI highly-cited researcher.