Bioanalysis Rising Star Award 2026: the judges
We are thrilled to announce the judging panel for the 2026 Bioanalysis Rising Star Award (formerly the New Investigator Award). Each judge is a leading expert in the bioanalytical community and we are delighted they are sharing their knowledge and expertise to help make this year’s award extra special!
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Priyata Kalra
Senior Principal Scientific Product Manager at Simulations Plus (NC, USA)
Dr Priyata Kalra is a Senior Scientist in the Simulation Technologies R&D team for the PBPK business unit at Simulations Plus. She leads the Read-Across PBPK project for chemicals and the FDA project for building the IVIVE approach to predict the mucosal permeability of oral cavity drug products alongside supporting software development. Priyata also serves as an Expert Modeller on the European ECETOC Staged Assessment Taskforce and on the European Commission Designathon (both Brussels, Belgium). Prior to joining Simulations Plus, she worked for 3 years at Bayer and BASF (Leverkusen and Ludwigshafen, Germany) on PBPK and quantitative systems pharmacology, for both small molecules and biologics, and IVIVE approaches in drug efficacy and toxicology. She earned her PhD from the University of Heidelberg (Germany) where she worked with Bayer Pharmaceuticals, focusing on quantitative systems pharmacology models of biologics.
A passionate innovator at the intersection of machine learning, mathematics and biomedicine, Priyata aspires to bridge gaps between these disciplines. She leverages her multidisciplinary expertise to integrate ML/AI approaches with PBPK modeling as new approach methodologies for reducing animal studies. Her interests span data science, systems pharmacology, machine learning, design, crop science, blockchain and entrepreneurship.
Neil Spooner
Director and Founder of Spooner Bioanalytical Solutions (Hertford, UK)
Neil is the Founder of Spooner Bioanalytical Solutions, helping companies to integrate biological fluid microsampling and patient centric sampling as well as analysis into workflows. He also works with organizations to develop technologies and introduce them to the market. Neil also assists organizations with their understanding of emerging trends in the pharmaceutical industry and bioanalysis. Neil is a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire (Hertfordshire, UK), Editor in Chief of Bioanalysis Journal, Founder of the Patient Centric Sampling Interest Group and Co-Chair of the Reid Bioanalytical Forum. He has published over 70 peer reviewed manuscripts and delivered over 50 podium presentations.
Catherine Vrentas
Boston Biomarkers (MA, USA)
Prior to her current role, Cathy was most recently a Life Sciences Lead Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton (VA, USA), where she supported a large portfolio of federally-funded, preclinical through clinical programs in the CGT space and specializes in clinical trials and bioanalysis. Prior to this role, she was a Principal Scientist and managed a team of ~20 scientists at Thermo Fisher Scientific (VA, USA). In this role, she led the development and validation of 100+ assays to assess samples for preclinical programs and clinical trials for pharma and biotech, including work on multiple first-in-human trials for rare diseases and gene therapies. Cathy has experience in regulated immunoassays and cell-based assays for PK, ADA, NAb and biomarker applications, as well as enzymatic assays, oligonucleotide assessments, COVID-19 assays and tissue-based assessments.
Cathy received her BSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Penn State (PA, USA), a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (WA, USA), an MBA from Longwood University (VA, USA), and an MPH in public health practice from Des Moines University (IA, USA). She has mentored over 60 scientists, students and summer interns in laboratory methods over her career and has volunteered for diverse nonprofits including the foster care system, dementia education, prison education, youth science outreach, public health, oyster restoration and health advocacy.
Abhishek Jain
Principal Investigator at the Wadsworth Center in the New York Department of Health (NY, USA)
2025 BRSA winner
Dr Abhishek Jain is a Principal Investigator at the New York State Department of Health (NY, USA). Previously a research faculty member at Yale School of Public Health (CT, USA), his research integrates LC–MS untargeted metabolomics, gut microbiome analyses, and human–host co-metabolism to uncover novel pathways in health and cancer. He created a colorectal cancer metabolome atlas from 800 patient samples, revealing tumor heterogeneity and mechanisms of EGFR inhibitor resistance in right- versus left-sided liver metastases. His work has expanded the Human Metabolome Database, helped to develop widely adopted dried blood spot metabolomics methods, and earned the Yale Research Impact Award, the NIH-NCATS KL2 Scholar grant, the Early Career Member Award from the International Metabolomics Society, the Outstanding Early Career Faculty Award from the Association of Clinical and Translational Science (DC, USA), and recognition from the Society of Surgical Oncology (IL, USA).
