French Embassy Scientific Directors Panelists Inserm Inserm Transfert Inserm Transfert Initiative French Embassy OST Venue Sponsors & Acknowledgements     SCIENTIFIC DIRECTORS   Christophe Benoist Grove-Rasmussen Professor, Harvard Medical School Christophe Benoist is a molecular immunologist, currently a Professor of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School. He initially trained in France, obtaining an M.D. from the Université de Paris – Bichat/Beaujon and a Ph.D. with P. Chambon at the Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, followed by postdoctoral studies at Stanford University. He returned to France in 1983 to establish an Immunology research laboratory at the Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire (IGBMC) in Strasbourg, in conjunction with Dr. Diane Mathis. In 1999 the lab moved to Harvard Medical School, first at the Joslin Diabetes Center, then at the Pathology Department, now the Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology. He is also an Associate Faculty Member of The Broad Institute, and Affiliated Faculty of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. He plays a leadership role in the Immunological Genome Project consortium, and serves or has served on the Advisory Boards of the Diabetes TrialNet, the Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, the Walter and Elisa Hall Institute, Phenomix, Peptimmune and Tempero Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Benoist was elected to the French Académie des Sciences in 1999, and to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2005. The Benoist/Mathis lab works in the fields of T cell tolerance and autoimmunity, attempting to decipher the molecular and cellular mechanisms that control T cell differentiation, the acquisition and maintenance of immunological tolerance or its failure in autoimmune diseases. Joshua Boger, Ph.D. Founder and CEO Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated Dr. Joshua Boger is the founder of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: VRTX) and the Executive Chairman of Alkeus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He retired as Vertex’s Chief Executive Officer in May 2009, after over 20-years with the company. He continues to serve on the Vertex Board. Prior to founding Vertex in 1989, Dr. Boger held the position of Senior Director of Basic Chemistry at Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories in Rahway, N.J., where he headed both the Departments of Biophysical Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry of Immunology & Inflammation. During his ten years at Merck, Dr. Boger developed an international reputation in the application of computer modeling to the chemistry of drug design and was a pioneer in the use of structure-based rational drug design as the basis for drug discovery programs. Dr. Boger holds a bachelor of arts in Chemistry and Philosophy from Wesleyan University (Connecticut) and a master's and doctorate degrees in Chemistry from Harvard University. His postdoctoral research in molecular recognition was performed in the laboratories of the Nobel-prize winning chemist, Jean-Marie Lehn in Strasbourg, France. He is the author of over 50 scientific publications, holds 32 issued U.S. patents in pharmaceutical discovery and development. He was named one of forty “Technology Pioneers” worldwide for the 2003 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Dr. Boger is Chair of the Board of Trustees of Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT), Vice-Chair of the Museum of Science (Boston) and Chair of the Board of the Celebrity Series (Boston’s premier performing arts presenter). He serves on several additional non-profit Boards including the Board of Fellows of Harvard Medical School (where he is Chair Emeritus), The Hastings Center (the leading independent bioethics research institute, located in Garrison, NY), the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts Foundation, NEHI - The Network for Healthcare Innovation (where he is Chair Emeritus; NEHI is a non-profit, healthcare-policy research organization based in Cambridge, MA), MassChallenge (the world’s largest business plan competition), the Science Advisory Council of WGBH (public broadcasting’s leading station, Boston), the Massachusetts Workforce Investment Board, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (Cambridge, MA), the Harvard College Overseers’ Committees to Visit the Business School and to the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology and the MIT Corporation Visiting Committees to the Department of Biology and to the MIT-Harvard Division of Health Sciences & Technology (HST).