Neil Desai is Founder/CEO of AADi, LLC, a clinical stage start-up developing targeted mTOR therapeutics for oncology/cardiovascular applications and VP of Strategic Platforms at Celgene Corp.  He was formerly SVP of Global R&D at Abraxis Bioscience (Los Angeles, California, USA, acquired by Celgene in 2010 for approximately $3B) where he led the development of Abraxane®, the company’s flagship nanotechnology product. Dr. Desai is an inventor of the nanoparticle-albumin bound (nab®) drug-delivery platform and Abraxane, which is approved for metastatic breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and pancreatic cancer with sales of approximately $850M in 2014.  Prior to Abraxis, Dr. Desai held positons of increasing seniority at American Bioscience, Inc., VivoRx, Inc. and VivoRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (predecessor companies of Abraxis), where he worked on the early discovery and development of Abraxane, developed novel encapsulation systems for living cells and was part of the team that performed the world’s first successful encapsulated islet cell transplant in a diabetic patient. Dr. Desai has over 25 years of experience in novel therapeutic delivery systems with over 100 issued patents, over 40 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and over 200 presentations at scientific meetings. He is reviewer for several scientific journals,  an active participant in FDA and EU Nanotechnology initiatives and a member of the Steering Committee for the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer. He holds board and advisory positions in various start-ups. Dr. Desai recieved a M.S and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, USA, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai, India.