Message from the President

Dear BTSS community,

I’d like to thank you all for this great opportunity to serve as the Biotechnology Specialty Section (BTSS) President for the 2025—2026 term. Furthermore, I would like to sincerely thank the entire 2024—2025 Executive Committee for their commitment and engagement in making this Specialty Section successful that culminated in another terrific showing at the SOT Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida. I want to give a special thank you to our outgoing President, Jason Pinkstaff for his wonderful leadership this past year, and additionally I want to thank our other departing officers for tremendous contributions to the BTSS: Tod Harper (Past President), Adhithiya Charli (Senior Councilor), Yunjia Lai (Postdoctoral Representative), and Rajat Gupta (Graduate Student Representative).

Now join me in welcoming the 2025—2026 BTSS Executive Committee members; Hervé Lebrec (Vice President), Liz Mutter-Rottmayer (Vice President-Elect), Ashwini Phadnis (Secretary/Treasurer), Lauren Lewis (Senior Councilor), Sateesh Anand (Junior Councilor), Ankit Laddha (Postdoctoral Representative), and Madhura More (Graduate Student Representative). We’ve been working diligently all summer in continuing to deliver on the BTSS mission. In the 2025–2026 term we will:

1. Encourage members to recognize their accomplishments to be highlighted in newsletters and nominate members for annual BTSS awards;
2. Continue mentoring and provide guidance and support for scientists seeking to initiate a career in the biotechnology field;
3. Deliver scientific webinars on diverse biotechnology topics throughout the year; and
4. Prepare for the 2026 SOT Annual Meeting in San Diego, California.

We’ve already hosted an excellent webinar from Dr. Nicholas Buss, PhD from Eli Lilly entitled “Shaping the Future of Nonclinical Safety for Gene Therapy in 2025” and are aiming to have another before the end of the year.

On behalf of the BTSS Executive Committee, we thank you for your continued support and contributions to this specialty section, and we look forward to seeing you all in San Diego for the next SOT meeting!

Sincerely,

Ed Dere, PhD, DABT
President, Biotechnology Specialty Section (2025—2026)