Keynote speakers

EMCR organisers are delighted to announce the keynote speakers:

Professor David Murdoch

Dean of University of Otago, Christchurch and Vice-Chancellor Designate, University of Otago

Professor David Murdoch is the Vice-Chancellor Designate of the University of Otago. A clinical microbiologist and infectious diseases physician by background, his research career has particularly focused on the epidemiology, management and prevention of respiratory tract infections. He is Co-Director of One Health Aotearoa, an alliance of New Zealand’s leading infectious diseases researchers, and has had many roles in the national COVID-19 response. Prof Murdoch was recipient of University of Otago’s Distinguished Research Medal in 2020.

Speaking at 9:30am

Professor Gary Evans

Chief Science Advisor (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) and Professor Victoria University of Wellington's Ferrier Research Institute)

Professor Gary Evans is a Medicinal Chemist based at Victoria University of Wellington’s Ferrier Research Institute and is seconded for 80% of his time to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment as their Chief Science Advisor where he heads the Science Leadership team. His research involves drug development, designing and synthesising enzyme inhibitors for treating and combating disease. He invented the drug Ulodesine, which completed Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of gout. He was also part the team that synthesised Mundesine which has been approved in Japan for the treatment of peripheral T-Cell lymphoma.

Professor Evans earned his PhD at Otago University, before accepting a postdoctoral position at Oxford University. He then worked in the biotechnology sector in United Kingdom. He was appointed a Member of the NZ Order of Merit in 2014 and has received several prestigious awards, including the 2014 Janssen Best Innovation Award, the 2011 MacDiarmid Medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand, and the 2004 Nufarm Prize for Excellence in Industrial and Applied Chemistry.

Speaking at 10:00am

Dr Sarah Diermeier

Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Amaroq

Dr Sarah Diermeier is the Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Amaroq Therapeutics, a new venture-backed oncology drug development company ($14 million seed funding). Amaroq was spun out of the University of Otago, where Sarah is a Lecturer in the Biochemistry Department. Sarah completed her undergraduate and PhD studies in Biochemistry in Germany. In 2013, she joined Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York to investigate new therapeutic targets in cancer. Her work in the USA was part of an industry collaboration with Ionis Pharmaceuticals and resulted in the generation of new IP in the cancer drug development space.

In 2018, she was awarded a prestigious Rutherford Discovery Fellowship by the Royal Society Te Apārangi and moved to New Zealand to start her own research group at Otago University. Amaroq serves as translational vehicle to bridge the gap between Sarah’s academic research team and the clinical development of new cancer therapeutics.

Speaking at 1:00pm