Advancing cell therapy manufacturing: Efficiency, quality and scalability

Dr. Li Yen Mah
Technical Sales Manager (APAC)
ACROBiosystems

Dr. Li Yen Mah is a Technical Sales and Marketing professional with extensive APAC experience across molecular diagnostics, wellness testing, immunoassays, life science research, and biotechnology business development. She has held commercial and application support roles at Luminex, QIAGEN, and Agena Bioscience, where she supported regional adoption of platforms including Luminex xMAP, QIAGEN IVD solutions, and Agena’s MassARRAY system. Her work spans customer training, technical seminars, assay implementation, evaluation studies, and market development across pharma, biotech, diagnostics, academia, and channel partners. Dr. Mah holds a PhD in Cancer Sciences from the University of Glasgow.

Colin McLean
Chief Operating Officer
Cell Therapies

Colin McLean is Chief Operating Officer at Cell Therapies Pty Ltd. With over 14 years of experience in GMP-regulated environments, Colin has led Manufacturing, Quality Control and Quality Assurance operations, cross-functional teams, and regulatory compliance efforts to support clinical and commercial programs.

He currently oversees manufacturing, supply chain, validation, and project delivery, and leads the Asia Pacific Alliance Model to improve access to advanced therapies across the region. Colin holds a Master’s in Transfusion, Transplantation and Tissue Banking from the University of Edinburgh. His background includes regulatory audits, assay validation, tech transfer, and GMP consultancy across a wide range of ATMPs. He is committed to building strong, reliable operations that enable high-quality therapy delivery and long-term partnerships globally.

Dr Jagan Billakanti
Workflow Leader
Cytiva

Dr Jagan Billakanti is a Workflow Development Leader at Cytiva, specialising in advancing cell therapy manufacturing from research through to clinical scale. He brings deep expertise in downstream processing and end‑to‑end workflow design, delivering scalable, high‑quality, and efficient solutions across complex biological modalities. Across Australia and New Zealand, Jagan leads strategic initiatives that accelerate adoption of Cytiva's integrated platforms, enhancing process robustness, reducing variability, and improving manufacturability. As a trusted advisor, he partners with academia and industry to address critical challenges in scalability, reproducibility, and regulatory readiness, supporting partners to translate innovation into clinically and commercially viable manufacturing solutions within the genomic medicine landscape.

Marguerite Evans-Galea
Deputy Director, Strategy & Planning
Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI)

Dr Marguerite Evans-Galea AM is an executive leader operating at the interface of industry, academia and government. As Deputy Director at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, she leads the development and implementation of the Institute's Strategy 2030: Transforming health through scientific excellence. Leading the Office of the Director, she is responsible for the Institute's $25 million budget and drives operational excellence, sustainability and growth to support ARMI's mission to accelerate discovery and translate regenerative medicine. An influential leader in advanced therapies, Dr Evans-Galea has advocated for scientific and health reform across the value chain, established and scaled multi-million-dollar research and workforce programs, and is an internationally recognised advocate for inclusion and allyship. She co-founded Women in STEMM Australia and served on the founding board for SAGE and the Victorian Ministerial Council for Women, and has also represented Australia at Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forums globally and advised the World Health Organisation. In recognition of her leadership and advocacy, she is an inductee of the Victorian Honour Roll of Women and a Member of the Order of Australia.