Meet the Speakers

Brian Ogilvie, PhD
VP of Scientific Consulting, BioIVT

Brian Ogilvie, Ph.D., is the VP of Scientific Consulting at BioIVT where he leads a team that advises clients on in vitro drug-drug interaction studies and program strategy. He received a Ph.D. in toxicology from the University of Kansas Medical Center. He has published various research articles and book chapters, and has been an invited speaker at numerous drug development conferences.

Rune Nørgaard, PhD
Research Scientist, Novo Nordisk

Nørgaard graduated with a master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Copenhagen in 2015. During these studies, Nørgaard joined the laboratories of Prof. Vadivel Ganapathy working with efflux transporters. He then took his PhD at the University of Southern Denmark focusing on the expression of transporters and was under the supervision of Prof. Carsten Uhd Nielsen. After his PhD, Nørgaard moved into the pharmaceutical industry as an analytical scientist at AGC Biologics. He then took on a Post doc position with the focus on DDI assessment of therapeutic peptides at Novo Nordisk under the project investigator Carolina Sâll and in collaboration with Prof. Aleksandra Galetin.  In his current position he works as a DDI Scientist within ADME development at Novo Nordisk.

Mark Warren, PhD
Senior Director, Transporter Assay Services, BioIVT

Mark S. Warren, Ph.D., is Senior Director of Transporter Services at BioIVT and has more than 25 years’ experience in the drug transporter field.  He has been a contract research services study director for thirteen years, initially at Optivia Biotechnology, and then at BioIVT, when BioIVT acquired Optivia in 2018. In this role he has worked with clients to design and complete more than a thousand transporter studies for IND filings.  Additionally, he collaborates with clients to determine how ADME and PK properties of investigational drugs are influenced by transporter mechanisms and optimizing those properties using SAR studies.  

Previously, Mark worked at XenoPort, Inc., where his work on improving drug PK properties by modifying chemical structures to take advantage of active transport mechanisms led to several clinical candidates, including the FDA-approved gabapentin enacarbil.  Mark also worked at Microcide Pharmaceuticals developing inhibitors of bacterial efflux transporters.  Mark received his B.S. in Genetics from UC Davis, his M.S. in Chemistry and Ph.D. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from UC San Diego, and he completed postdoctoral work on enzyme reaction mechanisms at the Pennsylvania State University.

Ken Brouwer, PhD, RPh
VP, Technology, ADME-Tox, BioIVT

Kenneth Brouwer is Vice President, ADME Tox Research at BioIVT. A pharmacologist by training, Dr. Brouwer has led in vitro ADME programs at GSK and at PPD. He later led development of B-CLEAR technology, a method to quantitate hepato-biliary excretion. He was a founder of Qualyst Transporter Solutions, where he expanded applications of B-CLEAR technology and developed assays that integrate uptake, efflux, and regulatory function of cells. In 2017, BioIVT acquired Qualyst, and Dr. Brouwer now helps biopharmaceutical clients design and implement in vitro ADME research programs to achieve their drug R&D and regulatory submission objectives.

Sagnik Chatterjee, PhD 
Senior Research Scientist, Ferring Pharmaceuticals

Sagnik Chatterjee is currently working in the mechanistic and investigative ADMET section in Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Copenhagen. He led the drug transporter team in at Biocon Bristol Myers Squibb research Center, Bangalore, before joining Ferring. He did his PhD from the department of pharmaceutical sciences, KU Leuven, Belgium. The PhD project was “Exploring hepatic bile acid disposition in sandwich-cultured hepatocytes: Towards improved prediction of drug-induced cholestasis”. His current research interest involves role of transporters in drug disposition, tissue accumulation and drug-induced cholestasis; change in transporter function in disease state and its impact in pharmacokinetics; tools to assess in vivo transporter activity, such as extracellular vesicles and endogenous biomarkers. In addition, in vitro tools to assess/predict drug-induced liver injury by different mechanism is also he is working on. He has published several articles in reputed journals such as JPET, DMD, CDM. He is also in editorial board of several journals.

Dennis Hekman
Research Scientist, AstraZeneca

Dennis Hekman is an ADME research scientist at AstraZeneca, Gothenburg. Before transitioning into a permanent role, Dennis started his career at AstraZeneca with the hepatobiliary bioprinting project. Currently, his research focuses primarily on 3D- and long term 2D cell culture, with special emphasis on automation to increase throughput. However, his special interest in bioprinting drove him to continue this track and with great enthusiasm he will here share the project’s findings.