Welcome to the opening of USP’s Advanced Technologies Laboratory. USP will use this lab, which focuses on advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT), to develop, pilot, and scale innovations that foster more efficient and expanded production of quality medicines for stronger and more secure supply chains.
AgendaSpeaker bios AMT fact sheet (PDF) Download Keynote Address Slides (PDF) Press Release
During the program, you'll hear from leading experts about how AMT can help improve manufacturing efficiency and flexibility, expand sources of supply, and help mitigate supply chain vulnerabilities. We'll highlight how the new lab is expected to foster broader adoption of AMT by driving innovation, optimizing efficiency, and translating cutting-edge science into practical, scalable pharmaceutical solutions that create safe, effective, and quality-assured medical products.
Agenda
9:00 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. – Main program
- Welcome
- Dr. Emily Kaine, Senior Vice President, Global Health and Manufacturing Services, USP
- Opening remarks
- Dr. Ron T. Piervincenzi, CEO, USP
- John Taylor, USP Board Member; Head of Quality & Compliance, ELIQUENT Life Sciences
- Keynote address
- Arlene Joyner, Deputy Assistant Secretary and Director, Center for Industrial Base Management and Supply Chain, Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR)
- Panel 1: From promise to progress: Harnessing the potential of AMT
- Dennis Hall, Vice President, Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, USP (moderator)
- Dr. Andrew Magyar, Co-founder and CTO, CAPRA Biosciences
- Dr. Sushma Savarala, Interdisciplinary Scientist ASPR/IBMSC and Program Manager, Biological Technologies Office, DARPA
- Taylor Sexton, Executive Director, Medical Countermeasures Coalition
- Panel 2: AMT in action: A closer look at the WHEAT Project
- Dr. Gabriela Grasa Mannino, Director, Pharmaceutical Continuous Manufacturing, USP (moderator)
- Dr. Jesse Dill, Senior Director for Business Development, Ginkgo Bioworks
- Dr. Katherine Szarama, Program Manager, Scalable Solutions, ARPA-H
11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Lab tour and networking
12:00 p.m – 1:00 p.m. Lunch
Learn more about how USP is advancing new and emerging technologies for distributed production through the WHEAT project.
Speaker bios
Dr. Jesse Dill, Senior Director for Business Development, Ginkgo Bioworks
Dr. Jesse Dill is senior director of business development at Ginkgo Bioworks. He has over a decade experience in industrial R&D in startups and public companies, as well as in public and private sector R&D funding. After graduate school, he first worked on high-throughput screening at Bolt Threads and food science for new product development at Beyond Meat. He then spent several years as a SETA at DARPA BTO, then in venture capital at Northpond Ventures, before coming to his current role at Ginkgo. In his current role, Dr. Dill’s work has spanned corporate strategy as well as government, nonprofit, and commercial partnerships. He completed a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in biophysics and an MBA from UMass Amherst.
Dennis Hall, Vice President, Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, USP
As vice president for advanced manufacturing technologies at USP, Dennis Hall leads a team charged with identifying new manufacturing or other enabling technologies and deploying services and solutions to support adoption of these advanced manufacturing technologies. Through these solutions, USP can help detect where complications or problems exist, deploy our best science to solve these problems, and then scale those solutions through USP’s broad reach to industry, regulators, and academia. Mr. Hall has been a key leader at USP since 2001 in a variety of areas including strategy, marketing, and leading USP’s global growth initiative focused on Asia, Europe, and Latin America. He holds an MBA in strategic management and marketing from the University of Maryland, a master’s degree in education from the College of William and Mary, and a bachelor’s degree in physics from Clarion University of Pennsylvania.
Arlene Joyner, Deputy Assistant Secretary and Director, Center for Industrial Base Management and Supply Chain, Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR)
Ms. Arlene Joyner is the Director of the Center for Industrial Base Management and Supply Chain for the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In this role, she is responsible for leading HHS efforts on Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, Personal Protective Equipment, Testing and Diagnostics, and Supply Chain Optimization. Ms. Joyner’s previous roles within ASPR include Deputy Director for the Pharmaceutical Countermeasures Infrastructure Division and Branch Chief for the Pharmaceutical Countermeasure Infrastructure (PCI) Department within the Center for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) where she started her federal service in 2011. Prior to joining ASPR, Ms. Joyner worked for six years at Merck and Company in Quality Auditing and Vaccine Manufacturing Operations, and 16 years at Baxter Vaccines Division as a Manufacturing Manager, Materials Management and Supply Chain Manager, and Manufacturing Operations Director. Ms. Joyner holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Penn State University and a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Villanova University.
Dr. Emily Kaine, Senior Vice President, Global Health and Manufacturing Services, USP
As leader of Global Health and Manufacturing Services (GHMS), Dr. Emily Kaine engages U.S. and international stakeholders, funders, and donors, helping them understand critical needs and how USP can contribute. She leads USP’s support of global laboratories, regulatory bodies, and manufacturers striving to reach international standards, as well as the services and offerings USP provides to help strengthen the global supply chain. Dr. Kaine joined USP in 2014, launching the USP Strategy function. In 2016, she transitioned to lead the Global Health Division at USP, where she was responsible for growing USP’s international development portfolio. In 2020, her role expanded to include USP’s capability-building and services portfolio, GHMS, which, in addition to the global health work, includes USP Education, an Advanced Manufacturing services unit, and USP’s Federal Practice, dedicated to securing and implementing U.S.-based projects funded through domestic sources.
Dr. Andrew Magyar, Co-founder and CTO, CAPRA Biosciences
Dr. Andrew Magyar is the co-founder and CTO of Capra Biosciences. Dr. Magyar is a co-inventor of the Capra Biosciences biofilm reactor technology and has more than 20 years of R&D experience in Biotechnology and Advanced Materials. Dr. Magyar has a Ph.D. in materials science from MIT, where he worked with Prof. Angela Belcher developing new biobased materials for sustainable energy applications. As a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University, Dr. Magyar worked on developing new materials and devices for quantum information technology and studied how cuttlefish change colors. In his previous role at Draper, a R&D non-profit, Dr. Magyar led multidisciplinary teams to develop complex new hardware technologies for synthetic biology. At Capra, Dr. Magyar is leading a multi-institution HHS funded project focused on using Capra's bioreactor technology to enable domestic production of small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Dr. Gabriela Grasa Mannino, Director, Pharmaceutical Continuous Manufacturing, USP
Dr. Gabriela Grasa Mannino is the director of Pharmaceutical Continuous Manufacturing (PCM) at USP. In this position, Dr. Mannino is leading growth activities and initiatives related to advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT), pharmaceutical continuous manufacturing (PCM), and other value-added products and services. Dr. Mannino has 20 years of industry experience in various R&D, innovation, and commercial roles with focus on developing and commercializing novel and efficient products, technologies, processes, and services for the manufacturing of APIs and fine chemicals intermediates. Dr. Mannino is co-author of over 50 scientific publications and patents. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry from the University of Bucharest and her Ph.D. in Organometallic Chemistry and Catalysis from the University of New Orleans.
Dr. Ronald T. Piervincenzi, CEO, USP
Dr. Ron Piervincenzi began his tenure as Chief Executive Officer of USP in February 2014. He provides strategic leadership to USP’s global staff of over 1,300 across sites in the U.S. (Rockville, MD; Frederick, MD; Washington D.C.), India, Brazil, China, Ghana, and Switzerland. USP has been a leader in quality since its founding in 1820, and that has continued during Dr. Piervincenzi's tenure as the organization continues to incorporate quality across the health care spectrum. He has helped USP modernize its operations and launch innovative science, including in the areas of digital medicine, cutting-edge manufacturing technologies, and advanced biologics. Under Dr. Piervincenzi's leadership, USP has built a growing suite of “capability building” service offerings, including quality manufacturing consulting, donor-funded work, and education. Dr. Piervincenzi brings more than 20 years of industry experience across pharmaceutical sciences, research, and business strategy. Before joining USP, he served as Vice President of Development Sciences with Biogen, where he designed and launched Biogen’s value-based medicine group focusing on applying tools and technologies of personalized medicine in the treatment and management of multiple sclerosis. Dr. Piervincenzi is a former partner and leader in McKinsey & Company's global pharmaceutical and medical products practice for over 12 years, helping launch McKinsey's global drug safety, medical and regulatory service line. With McKinsey, Dr. Piervincenzi led the global research and information analytics team, managing staff in New Jersey, London, Brussels, and India.
Dr. Sushma Savarala, Interdisciplinary Scientist ASPR/IBMSC and Program Manager, Biological Technologies Office, DARPA
Dr. Sushma Savarala is an accomplished scientist with over 15 years of expertise in pharmaceutical research and biochemistry. Currently, she serves as an Interdisciplinary Scientist at the Emerging Innovations and Technology (EIT) Office, Center for Industrial Base Management and Supply Chain (IBMSC), within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR). In this role, she drives strategic innovation and emerging technologies to enhance public health preparedness and national emergency response, providing regulatory and quality affairs expertise for medical countermeasure development and advising on drug, device, and therapeutic licensure and manufacturing. Concurrently, Dr. Savarala is a Program Manager at the Biological Technologies Office (BTO) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where she leads the EQUIP-A-Pharma program, advancing agile pharmaceutical manufacturing platforms. Prior to her tenure at DARPA, she led multiple initiatives in program management, strategic planning, FDA compliance, COVID-19 emergency preparedness, and collaborated with key organizations such as DARPA, the FDA, NIH, NIST, and BARDA. Dr. Savarala earned a Pharm.D. from Osmania University and Ph.D. in chemistry from Temple University.
Taylor Sexton, Executive Director, Medical Countermeasures Coalition
Mr. Taylor Sexton founded the Medical Countermeasures Coalition after serving as a Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He advised the ASPR on many critical issues including the development and execution of Operation Warp Speed. Mr. Sexton also served HHS as the Deputy Director of the HHS Joint Information Center (JIC) where he led a team to coordinate response within the interagency. Before joining HHS and Texas A&M University, Mr. Sexton worked for Chairman Michael Burgess, MD overseeing the reauthorization of the Pandemic All Hazards Act (PAHPA). Prior to this role he practiced epidemiology for one of the largest health departments in the country leading zoonotic and High Consequence Infectious Disease (HCID) surveillance. Through this role he was recognized by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology for a top-cited article on infant outcomes of Zika evaluating both diagnostics and surveillance. Mr. Sexton has a master’s degree in public health from the University of North Texas Health Science Center and a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University. He is an adjunct public health faculty at Texas A&M University and maintains his board certification by the National Board of Public Health Examiners.
Dr. Katherine Szarama, Program Manager, Scalable Solutions, ARPA-H
Dr. Katherine Szarama joined ARPA-H as a Program Manager in January 2025, continuing a career in translating medical research into treatments. She was previously the Director of Health Care – Clinical Trials at Arnold Ventures, a philanthropic and venture capital firm, where she provided sourcing, diligence, and oversight of investments in clinical trial transparency, improvements in regulatory drug review, and reimbursement pathways for high-cost therapies. Previously, Dr. Szarama has also worked at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Emerson Collective. She completed a research fellowship in cancer biology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital after earning her doctorate in medical science from the Karolinska Institutet as part of an intramural research program with the National Institutes of Health.
John Taylor, USP Board Member; Head of Quality & Compliance, ELIQUENT Life Sciences
For nearly 30 years, Mr. John Taylor has made significant contributions to public health serving in senior leadership positions at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), industry, and consulting services. This trio of experiences positions him with a firm understanding of the relationship between the stakeholders impacted by USP standards and the regulatory framework where these standards operate. Mr. Taylor is currently the President and Principal of Compliance and Regulatory Affairs at Greenleaf Health where he provides strategic consultation to FDA-regulated clients on enforcement and compliance matters. As an industry veteran, he served as Executive Vice President for Health at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and as Divisional Vice President for Federal Government Affairs at Abbott.