SDS POPS
Global Patient Advocacy and Partnering Summit

Dr. Eszter Hars, Mother of an SDS patient, and Founder/President/CEO/Science Director of the Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome Alliance. Dr. Hars holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where she studied cancer and leukemia. She has over 20 years of experience in scientific research and the biotech industry. As VP of Regulatory Affairs at CytoVera Inc., a lab equipment developer for hematopoeitic stem cell banking, Dr. Hars was in charge of regulatory approval of medical devices by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Hars has also managed business development as well as customer relationships at Quosa Inc., an information technology company, which was acquired in 2012 by Elsevier, the largest scientific publisher in the world. Currently, Dr. Hars is President of a biotech startup that specializes in developing new tools for various new therapies, including CAR-T cell cancer therapy and beta cell replacement therapy for diabetes. Dr. Hars has been engaged in SDS community building and volunteering wherever possible, since her daughter was diagnosed with Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome (SDS) in 2015. In 2020, Dr. Hars founded the SDS Alliance, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Through the SDS Alliance, Dr. Hars is dedicated to accelerating the development of new therapies for SDS.