Pushing the Frontier of ML
for Clinical Trial Optimization

B.Sc. and M.Sc. in engineering from the Technion (Cum Laude) and Ph.D. in computational neuroscience from the Weizmann Institute (Magna Cum Laude, John F. Kennedy Prize). Raviv was a technological leader and commander in the IDF, and in his last role was head of a technological branch (LtCol), and won a number of prestigious awards. In 2021 Raviv decided to transition into the healthcare industry and joined Immunai where he was the SVP of Operations and Analytics. In his spare time, Raviv loves running long distances, and has completed a few full marathons and triathlons.

B.Sc. in physics from The Hebrew University (Talpiot program). M.Eng. in systems engineering from the Technion. Elad served for eight years in the DDR&D and led many operations research studies. In the past seven years, Elad played a central role in the data science and algorithmic design of VIA. In his last position, Elad was the VP of data science. Elad is also the author of number of patents in the intersection of ML and transportation. During his spare time, Elad enjoys playing squash and chess.

Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the Weizmann Institute. A long track record in both Pharma and start-ups, corporate HQ and regional. Dan has expertise in leading drug development through all stages of clinical development as well as regulatory (FDA, EMEA, others) interactions. Dan was managing clinical trials both in Teva and in Merck, while contributing to many programs including the Keytruda and the Copaxone.

Brad Carlin is a statistical researcher, methodologist, consultant, and instructor. He currently serves as Senior Advisor for Data Science and Statistics at PharmaLex, an international pharmaceutical consulting firm.  Prior to this, he spent 27 years on the faculty of the Division of Biostatistics at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, serving as division head for 7 of those years.  He has also held visiting positions at Carnegie Mellon University, Medical Research Council Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge University (UK), Medtronic Corporation, HealthPartners Research Foundation, the M.D Anderson Cancer Center, and AbbVie Pharmaceuticals.   He has published more than 190 papers in refereed books and journals, and has co-authored three popular textbooks: “Bayesian Methods for Data Analysis” with Tom Louis, “Hierarchical Modeling and Analysis for Spatial Data” with Sudipto Banerjee and Alan Gelfand, and “Bayesian Adaptive Methods for Clinical Trials” with Scott Berry, J. Jack Lee, and Peter Muller. From 2006-2009 he served as editor-in-chief of Bayesian Analysis, the official journal of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA).  During his academic career, he served as primary dissertation adviser for 20 PhD students.  Dr. Carlin has extensive experience teaching short courses and tutorials, and won both teaching and mentoring awards from the University of Minnesota. During his spare time, Brad is a health musician and bandleader, providing keyboards, guitar, and vocals in a variety of venues.

Dr. Sofia Villar is a Programme Leader Track at MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge (BSU), where she specializes in improving clinical trial design through the development of innovative methods that lie at the intersection of optimisation, machine learning, and statistics. She holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration and Quantitative Methods at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid with a focus on Stochastic Dynamic Optimization, and was awarded the first-ever Biometrika post-doctoral fellowship at BSU as part of a project on the design of multi-arm multi-stage clinical trials. She is the co-leader of the Adaptive Designs Working Group, part of the MRC-NIHR Trials Methodology Research Partnership (TMRP), led a team of statisticians at the BSU and at Papworth Trials Unit Collaboration and is the senior statistician in three UK national trials that include an adaptive or innovative element. She is an associate editor for Biometrics, serves as BSU’s Academic Lead for EDI (Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion), and has published dozens of papers in leading journals in the field.

Dr Perry is a life-sciences R&D executive and veteran of the biotech and pharma industries of nearly 30 years. Currently David is heading the R&D function at the Luxembourg based Impact Biotech (FKA Steba Biotech), a lecturer at the Donau University (Austria), and serves on the advisory boards of a several life sciences companies. Previously David served as the CEO of Adaltis Diagnostics (Rome), CMO and founder of PAD Bioscience & Lilium Bioscience (Vienna), and head of global clinical & medical at Baxter Bioscience (Vienna & Los Angeles). Prior to that he held R&D leadership positions at Cephalon (London), Ferring (Copenhagen), Roche (Palo Alto), Novo Nordisk (Copenhagen), among others. David received his M.D. from the Ben Gurion University in Israel and did his training at the Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem, Israel. David is a former member of the British Royal Medicine Society, Royal College of Physicians and the American Society of Hematology.

Dr. Murray Urowitz is a Professor Emeritus with the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. In 1970 he established the University of Toronto Lupus Clinic and Lupus Databank Research Program, which is still one of the largest databanks in the world and has allowed for numerous findings that have changed the way lupus is diagnosed and managed. He served as the Senior Scientist with the Krembil Research Institute and Schroeder Arthritis Institute, was a founding member of the Ontario Lupus Association, president of the Lupus Council of the American Rheumatology Association and a founding member of the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) group and Director of the SLICC Registry for Atherosclerosis. He was the Director of the Centre for Prognosis Studies in the Rheumatic Diseases Toronto Western Hospital from 1995-2022 and the Director of the Toronto Lupus Program from 1970-2022. Dr. Urowitz has published over 469 peer-reviewed papers and 46 book chapters. He has supervised the training of over 130 fellows in rheumatology especially in SLE.


In 1995 he was the recipient of the Distinguished Rheumatologist Award of the Canadian Rheumatology Association, in 2009 he received the Evelyn V. HESS Award for outstanding contributions to lupus research, and in 2015 he received the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal for longstanding contributions to lupus research work in the field of rheumatology. He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award for commitment to the field of lupus by Lupus Ontario in 2016, and in 2017 was awarded the Distinguished Clinical Investigator Award for exceptional contributions to the field of rheumatology by the American College of Rheumatology and received the CRA Masters Award for achievements in rheumatology from the Canadian Rheumatology Association in 2020. In 2019 was the recipient of the University of Toronto Dean’s Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award for Global Impact.

Dr Levenstein is currently Senior Advisor to Vivli, a global clinical research data sharing platform. Vivli is an independent, non-profit organization that has developed a global data-sharing and analytics platform. The focus is on sharing individual participant-level data from completed clinical trials to serve the international research community and advance clinical science. She was previously at Pfizer for over 30 years leading biostatistics and development operations organizations. Her most recent role at Pfizer was VP, Statistics with responsibility for clinical development in the CVMET therapeutic area and global sponsorship of Pfizer’s China Research & Development Center (CRDC) Statistics organization. Previously Marcia led the global biometrics organization for Pfizer’s marketed medicines clinical research programs and established regional biometrics centers globally.  She worked in numerous therapeutic areas and has extensive experience in design, analysis, and interpretation of clinical trials data, particularly in demonstrating medical value and benefit-risk of medicines. She served as the statistical leader for regulatory submissions with the responsibility of ensuring biometrics business support of the global pharmaceutical product portfolio. She provided statistical leadership through membership in Pfizer’s team for the clinical trial disclosure policy, Pfizer’s internal steering committee for their Bioethics Advisory Panel, and Pfizer’s Clinical Trials Policy Group. She is a member of the Stevens Institute Business Intelligence & Analytics Program Advisory Board. Marcia holds BS degrees in Mathematics and Life Sciences from MIT, an MS in Biostatistics from UNC, and an ScD in Biostatistics from Harvard University. She received an MBE (Bioethics) from U Penn in 2012.

Dr Trachtman is a leading investigator in the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded NEPTUNE and CureGN observational cohort studies. He is on the board of the Kidney Health Initiative that was established by the American Society of Nephrology to bring together nephrologists, representatives of industry, and the FDA to support clinical trials in nephrology. He chairs the Data Safety Monitoring Board of trials conducted by industry (Otsuka) and NIH-funded investigators. He is a consultant to several biopharmaceutical companies and is on the editorial board of Pediatric Nephrology and Glomerular Diseases journals. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan. Previously, he was the Chief of the Division of Pediatric Nephrology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. He served as the principal investigator for the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and industry-sponsored observational and interventional clinical trials for patients with glomerular diseases. He received his BS from Haverford College and his MD degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a fellowship in pediatric nephrology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.