Mike Koenigs

Generative Artificial Intelligence Pioneer and Teacher

Mike Koenigs is an entrepreneur, 17-time #1 Bestselling author, speaker, interactive online personality and influencer. He is an expert in the growing field of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and has been teaching top professionals how to effectively use these new tools.

He began his journey into the world of technology at a young age, fueled by a fascination with computers and innovation. He pursued his passion by studying computer science and business at the University of Minnesota. After completing his education, Koenigs embarked on a diverse career path that included stints in software development, marketing, and entrepreneurship.

Throughout his career, Koenigs has been at the forefront of technological innovation, constantly exploring new ways to harness the power of AI and automation to drive business success. He has authored books and courses on topics ranging from marketing automation to productivity optimization, sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience with aspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders around the world.

Heman Bekele

TIME's 2024 Kid of the Year

Winner of the 2023 3M Young Scientist Challenge

As a fifteen-year-old, Heman Bekele was named TIME’s 2024 Kid of the Year for his groundbreaking skin cancer prevention and treatment work.

Born in Ethiopia, he immigrated to the US as a four-year-old with his family. Heman’s memories of people working under the glaring sun, plus the dramatic differences in skin cancer survival rates, were his driving forces. He developed a skin cancer-treating soap that encourages dendritic cells to boost their immune responses, thereby protecting the skin as an immunotherapeutic, a promising approach to early-stage cancer detection and treatment.

As a previous winner of the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, Heman is working with scientists to conduct clinical trials on mice and is on his way to securing a patent.

Leanne Fan

Winner of the 2022 3M Young Scientist Challenge

Leanne Fan invented the Finsen Headphones, a prototype that detects and treats mid-ear infections using acoustic reflectometry, machine learning, and phototherapy.

A high schooler from San Diego, Fan was named America’s Top Young Scientist by 3M and Discovery Education in 2022 and rang the New York Stock Exchange opening bell. She is a finalist in the 2024 Regeneron ISEF and spoke in a health technology panel at the Aspen Ideas Health Festival, meeting influential figures such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Vivek Murthy.

Fan strives to provide a low cost and non-medicinal ear infection treatment in place of antibiotics for kids to prevent hearing loss, control the infection before surgery is needed, and reduce the spread of antibiotic resistance. She also encourages science and art in her community and in younger children by promoting her local science fair and teaching children science at science expos.

Currently, Fan is researching the use of photobiomodulation in simulated microgravity to induce and accelerate wound healing during long term space travel in an effort to provide affordable wound care on Earth and in space.

Carl June, M.D.

The Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Director, Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, Perelman School of Medicine Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Carl June maintains a research laboratory that studies various mechanisms of lymphocyte activation that relate to immune tolerance and adoptive immunotherapy for cancer and chronic infection.

In 2011, his research team published findings detailing a new therapy in which patients with refractory and relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia were treated with genetically engineered versions of their own T cells.

The June laboratory has published more than >500 publications, and has a google scholar h-index of 175 with >100,000 citations. He currently serves as the Richard W. Vague Professor in immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and as the Director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the Perelman School of Medicine, as well as the Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania.

He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including his election into the National Academies of Medicine and Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Nicholas Schiff, M.D.

Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience in the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University

Dr. Schiff is a physician-scientist trained in quantitative systems neuroscience with broad interests in the area of neurological disorders of consciousness. His research bridges basic neuroscience and clinical investigative studies of the pathophysiology of impaired consciousness, the neurophysiological mechanisms of arousal regulation, and the effects of deep brain electrical stimulation techniques on forebrain integration.

He is Director of the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuromodulation at Weill Cornell where he conducts research examining neurophysiological mechanisms of arousal and forebrain integration as well as clinical studies of the pathophysiology of impaired consciousness.

Dr. Schiff’s research efforts are supported by federal grants from the NIH (with current and past support from NICHD, NINDS, NIMH, and NIDDR), private foundations (Charles A. Dana Foundation, James S. McDonnell Foundation, Jerold B. Katz Foundation), and industry (IntElect Medical).  Among these projects, Dr. Schiff is leading an international, eight center study funded by James S. McDonnell Foundation to develop tools to accurately measure the level of awareness of patients with severe brain injuries.

Andrew Anzalone, M.D., Ph.D.

Co-Founder and Head of Prime Editing Platform at Prime Medicine, Inc.

Andrew Anzalone joined Prime Medicine in 2020 as the head of the prime editing platform, where he currently leads efforts to advance technological developments in prime editing for human therapeutic applications. Inc).

Dr. Anzalone received his Sc.B. degree in chemistry from Brown University, where he performed undergraduate research in synthetic organic chemistry. He completed his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Columbia University as part of the Medical Scientist Training Program. Dr. Anzalone’s thesis research in Virginia W. Cornish’s laboratory focused on the design and synthesis of fluorescent probes for biological imaging applications, and on the investigation and engineering of RNA-dependent protein translation reprogramming mechanisms in eukaryotes. After completing his graduate studies, Dr. Anzalone pursued postdoctoral research as a Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of David R. Liu at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.

In the Liu laboratory, Dr. Anzalone pioneered the development of prime editing, a novel search-and-replace gene editing technology that has the potential to correct the majority of known human genetic variants associated with disease.

Timothy J. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D.

CEO and Co-Founder, HeartWorks

The research of Timothy Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., focuses on cardiovascular regeneration using bioengineered stem cells. His work is directed at improving scientists’ ability to discover, diagnose and ultimately treat mechanisms of degenerative diseases such as cardiomyopathy that weaken the heart muscle and lead to progressive heart failure.

As a physician/scientist trained in medicine and cardiac developmental biology, Dr. Timothy Nelson has been driven to innovate with available technology with the goal of new product development. Congenital heart disease provides the optimal mix of challenges and opportunities to allow cross-functional teams to succeed and grow a whole new industry.

His mission is to inspire biomedical innovation teams and solve real-world medical problems with a focus on products that will obsolete the traditional processes that define yesterday’s healthcare experience.

Nancy Brown, M.D.

Dean of the Yale School of Medicine and Professor of Internal Medicine C.N.H. Long professor of Internal Medicine

Throughout her career, Dr. Nancy Brown has worked to promote the development of physician-scientists. She established the Vanderbilt Master of Science in Clinical Investigation.

As Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Scientist Development she established an institutional infrastructure to support physician-scientists in the transition to independence. Dr. Brown served as chair of the Vanderbilt Department of Medicine and physician-in-chief of Vanderbilt University Hospital. Dr. Brown has led a translational research program that focuses on developing new pharmacological strategies to prevent vascular disease in patients with high blood pressure and diabetes.

She was a member of the NIH National Advisory Research Resources Council and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council. Her research has been recognized by the American Heart Association (Harriet Dustan Award), the E.K. Frey-E. Werle Foundation, the American Society of Hypertension and the American Federation for Clinical Research. Dr. Brown is a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the American Association of Physicians, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.