Speaker Profile
Ph.D., SVP of R&D, Twist Bioscience
Biography
Dr. Chen is a strategic thinker with proven track record of identifying, developing, and commercializing innovative products in NGS, synthetic biology, and other life science areas. He joined Twist shortly after the company was founded and lead product development for both the synthetic biology and NGS product lines. Dr. Chen conceived and implemented a new product line for NGS that includes synthetic controls for SARS-CoV-2 and other infectious diseases, developed gene synthesis and NGS target enrichment biochemistries, workflow, reagent kits, and infrastructure, and built the companys prototype DNA synthesizer in collaboration with hardware, software, and silicon engineers, which later became a production-scale machine, serving as Twists foundation technology. Dr. Chen is the author of numerous peer-reviewed papers and issued patents in the field of oligonucleotide synthesis and application of synthetic oligonucleotides. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin Madison, and B.Sc. in Chemistry from Peking University in Beijing, China.
Session Abstract – PMWC 2026 Silicon Valley
Track Chair:
Adrian Lee, UPMC
PMWC Award Ceremony
• Dennis J. Slamon, UCLA
• Arul M. Chinnaiyan, University of Michigan
Keynote
• Dennis J. Slamon, UCLA
Keynote: From Cancer Drivers to Clinical Decisions: Transforming Tumor Genomics into Therapy Guidance
• Arul M. Chinnaiyan, University of Michigan
Serial ctDNA-Guided Therapy Switching (SERENA-6 & Beyond)
• Chair: Adrian Lee, UPMC
• Pedram Razavi, MSK
• Minetta Liu, Natera
• Christian Rolfo, Ohio State
Neoadjuvant to Adjuvant MRD: How Early Is Early Enough?
• Chair: Angela DeMichele, UPenn
• Halla Nimeiri, Tempus
• Aparna Parikh, Harvard
• Minetta Liu, Natera
• Christopher Lieu, University of Colorado
Rapid MRD to Treatment Decisions: Standardized ctDNA at Scale
• Chair: Luca Quagliata, Thermo Fisher
• Christian Rolfo, Ohio State
Multi-Omics Monitoring Beyond Variants: Methylation, Fragmentomics, EV/ctRNA
• David T. Miyamoto, Massachusetts General Hospital
• Maximilian Diehn, Stanford
• Daniel De Carvalho, University of Toronto
• Arul M. Chinnaiyan, University of Michigan
From Detection to Direction: Whole-Genome MRD for Therapy Guidance at Scale
• Phil Febbo, Veracyte
From Validation to Payment: Coverage Pathways That Work
• Chair: Mark Stewart, Friends of Cancer Research
• Hilary Gee Goeckner, American Cancer Society (ACS)
• Sally Werner, Cancer Support Community
• Gabriel A. Bien-Willner, Palmetto GBA
