Dr. Abigail A. Barrow Chair MALSI Interim Executive Director,...

June 2, 2016Welcome to Massachusetts Life Sciences Innovation Day!Once again, it is our pleasure to bring together major organizations throughout the state to cre-ate a high-energy, hands-on event which includes scientific leaders and business experts to mingle with innovators, post-docs, professors, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists. This is the biggest day for life sciences startups and innovation in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This year’s theme is “The Life Sciences Center of the Universe – Making it Work for You.” Cam-bridge/Boston, with Kendall Square as its focus, is the world’s leading life sciences research center. It is often called the Life Science Super-Cluster. A vast amount of basic research hap-pens here (and nearby); ever-increasing numbers of large and small pharmaceutical and bio-tech companies are making it their home; and local venture capital is readily at hand to prime the start-up pumps. That is the picture in large focus. But what do things look like at the micro-level? You’re an academic researcher and you have an idea which you think and hope might lead to a new product. Is it a benefit or a liability to find yourself in a place where so much is happening and so many other people have good ideas? Is it good or bad to be a small fish in a large pool? Our speakers and panelists, drawn from a wide variety of technology areas and with plentiful experience, will consider how you can use the ecosystem to commercialize your new invention and create new start-ups. We hope you find their discussions thought provoking. The Poster Competition includes some of the greatest and newest ideas that could impact medi-cine in the future. Remember to invest your “MALSI dollars” in your favorite posters – it could help the inventors raise their first round of investment! Winners will be announced by State Senator Karen Spilka and Charles River during our ever popular evening reception. The recep-tion will also be attended by many additional life sciences CEOs who will join us late afternoon to help judge the poster finalists. Do not miss the opportunity to speak with them and discuss your projects. We are particularly grateful to our Planning Committee for their help, support and entrepreneur-ial spirit in organizing this event. We would also like to thank all of our sponsors, particularly Pep-per Hamilton LLP and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, our lead sponsors for this event. All of our sponsors are as committed as we are to supporting the creation of new companies and we are grateful to them all.We hope you enjoy our flagship event of life sciences in Massachusetts, jointly and actively put together by all the major organizations that are involved in starting and supporting the life sci-ences start-up ecosystem in the Commonwealth.

Dr. Abigail A. BarrowChair MALSIDirector, MTTC Interim Executive Director, OTCV-UMass

9th AnnualMassachusetts Life Sciences Innovation Day

ii

Table of ContentsFloor Plan – Harvard Club of Boston ...............................................................................................iii

Conference Agenda .............................................................................................................................iv

Sponsors, Affiliates & Organizers ......................................................................................................7Gold Sponsors................................................................................................................................................................... 8Silver Sponsors ...............................................................................................................................................................10Conference Supporter .................................................................................................................................................11Organizers ........................................................................................................................................................................12In association with .......................................................................................................................................................15

Speaker Biographies ........................................................................................................................... 17

MALSI Day Planning Committee ................................................................................................... 33

Poster Presenters ................................................................................................................................. 35

Innovators’ Marketplace Exhibitors ............................................................................................... 42Life Science Products and Services ........................................................................................................................42Entrepreneurship Support .........................................................................................................................................42Funding .............................................................................................................................................................................43Professional Services ....................................................................................................................................................43

Floor Plan – Harvard Club of Boston

ELEVATORELEVATOR

FOYERHARVARD

HALL

MEN’SROOM

WOMEN’SROOM

COMMONWEALTHAVENUE

HARVARD CLUB OF BOSTON374 COMMONWEALTH AVE. BOSTON, MASECOND FLOOR PLAN

PANTRY

DBW

CORRIDOR

GARDNERROOM

AESCULAPIANROOM

MASSACHUSETTSROOM

MASSACHUSETTS FOYER

HARVARD HALL

FOYER

PRESIDENT’SROOM

VERITASLOUNGE

VERITASROOM

BACK BAYWINE ROOM

FINISHINGKITCHEN

PLATINGKITCHEN

ELEVATORELEVATOR

BATHROOM

ENTRY

RECEPTION

HARVARDHALL

CORRIDOR

MEN’SROOM

WOMEN’SROOM

COATS

COATS

BUSSING

HARVARD CLUB OF BOSTON374 COMMONWEALTH AVE. BOSTON, MAFIRST FLOOR PLAN

COMMONWEALTHAVENUE

OFFICE

LOBBY

TIME SESSION

Foyer Harvard Hall

8:00 AM Registration & Breakfast

Harvard Hall

9:00 AM Welcome by Conference Chair Abigail Barrow, Director, Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center

9:10 AM Opening KeynoteWilly Shih, Robert and Jane Cizik Professor, Harvard Business School

9:40AM Plenary Panel: Startups that got funded in the last 18 months

Thomas Forest Farb, President & Co-Founder, Thrive Bioscience, IncMounir Koussa, CEO, Lumio Health

David Tabatadze, President & CEO, ZATA PharmaceuticalsPraveen Tipirneni, CEO, Morphic Rock Therapeutic

Moderator:

Reza Mollaaghababa, Partner, Pepper Hamilton LLP

Foyer Harvard Hall and President’s Room on the 1st Floor

10:30AM NETWORKING BREAK / POSTER & STARTUP SHOWCASE

Massachusetts Room Aesculapian Room

11:00 AM Is your Cool Idea Needed?Panelists:

Eric Evans, Executive Committee Member, Mass Medical Angels

Roger Kitterman, Managing Partner, Partners Innovation Fund

Joshua Phillips, Managing Partner, CatalystJosh Tolkoff, Managing Director, Ironwood

Equity Fund

Moderator:

Imran Nasrullah, Director, Innovation Sourcing Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals

Scientists are from Mars, Business People are from Venus

Panelists:

Gregg Beloff, Founder and Managing Director, Danforth Advisors

Adam Cohen, Professor, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Peter Reinhart, Founding Director, Institute for Applied Life Sciences, UMass Amherst

Greg Verdine, Erving Professor of Chemistry, Harvard University

Moderator:

Mark Namchuk, Senior VP of Research, Alkermes

Harvard Hall

12:15 PMWelcome by Travis McCready, President & CEO, MLSC

Lunch KeynoteLita Nelsen, Retired Director, Technology Licensing Office, MIT


1:45 PM In the Hub

Panelists:

Tom Andrews, Executive VP, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc

Rakhshita Dhar, Director, Innovation Services, MassBioTravis McCready, President & CEO, MLSC

Phil Lambert, Scientific Partner, Charles River Laboratories

Moderator:

Roger Frechette, Co-Founder & Principal, New England PharmAssociates

Proof of Concept

Panelists:

Bruce Beutel, Executive Director, Business Development & Licensing, Merck

Ron Blackman, Senior Project Manager, Boston Biomedical Innovation Center (B-BIC)

Tim Keutzer, VP of of Development, Spero Therapeutics

Swati Prasad, Senior Manager, Business Development and Scientific Alliances, Charles

River Laboratories

Moderator:

Imran Nasrullah, Director, Innovation SourcingBoehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals

Foyer Harvard Hall and President’s Room on the 1st Floor

3:00PM NETWORKING BREAK / POSTER & STARTUP SHOWCASE


3:30PM Fledge Funding

Panelists:

Jeffrey Arnold, President, Arnold Strategies, LLCChristopher Earl, President, Innnotrove LLC

Barbara Fox, Entrepreneur in Residence, Partners Innovation Fund

Darshana Zaveri, Partner, Catalyst Health Ventures

Moderator:

Meredith Fisher, Principal, Partners Innovation Fund

Trends in Treating Big Diseases – what is Hot in Cancer, Alzheimer & Diabetes…

Panelists:

Joseph Gormley, CTO, iOmicsDennis Guberski, Founder & President, Biomere

Kevin Hrusovsky, CEO, QuanterixLenore Rasmussen, CTO & Founder, Ras Lab

Moderator: Kevin O’Sullivan, President & CEO, Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives

Harvard Hall

5:00 PM Reception / Innovators’ Marketplace

Poster Awards by Rich Cavallaro, Executive Director, Global Sales Operations, Charles River Laboratories

6 Sponsors & Organizers

9th Annual Massachusetts Life Sciences Innovation Day

Sponsors & Organizers 7

June 2, 2016Harvard Club of Boston

Sponsors, Affiliates & OrganizersGold Sponsors..........................................................................................................................................8

Massachusetts Life Sciences Center ......................................................................................................................... 8Pepper Hamilton LLP...................................................................................................................................................... 9

Silver Sponsors ..................................................................................................................................... 10Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Charles River Laboratories ..........................................................................................................................................10MassBio .............................................................................................................................................................................10

Conference Supporter ....................................................................................................................... 11MassGlobal Partners .....................................................................................................................................................11

Organizers .............................................................................................................................................. 12Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center .........................................................................................................12Mass Medical Angels ...................................................................................................................................................13Harvard Biotechnology Club .....................................................................................................................................13MALSI .................................................................................................................................................................................14

In association with ............................................................................................................................. 15Boston Life Science Networking ..............................................................................................................................15CreaGen Chemistry Incubator ..................................................................................................................................15CIMIT ..................................................................................................................................................................................15Draper ................................................................................................................................................................................15Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs ................................................................................................................................15Lemelson-MIT .................................................................................................................................................................15M2D2 .................................................................................................................................................................................15Mass-AWIS ........................................................................................................................................................................15Mansfield Bio-Incubator..............................................................................................................................................15Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives ....................................................................................................................15MassChallenge ...............................................................................................................................................................15MassMedic .......................................................................................................................................................................15Massachusetts Technology Collaborative ...........................................................................................................15Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council .................................................................................................15NEHEN ...............................................................................................................................................................................15North Shore InnoVentures ........................................................................................................................................15OPEN .................................................................................................................................................................................15Safety Partners, Inc. ......................................................................................................................................................15The Capital Network ....................................................................................................................................................15TiE ........................................................................................................................................................................................15VentureWell ....................................................................................................................................................................15WEST ..................................................................................................................................................................................15University of Massachusetts ......................................................................................................................................15



Gold Sponsor



Gold Sponsor

WE ARE PROUD TO SUPPORT MASSACHUSETTS LIFE SCIENCES INNOVATION DAY

Ever get the feeling that your lawyers don’t understand what you do?They may know the law, but science or your business? Not so much. You need a law

firm steeped in life sciences, who will be your ally at every step from the lab bench to

the board room—from the molecule to the market. A law firm with more than half a

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Silver Sponsors

VIVARIUM SPACE FOR LEASE.CONCIERGE INCLUDED.

The Charles River Accelerator and Development Lab - CRADL™ is our new option providing turnkey vivarium rental space in Cambridge MA, right in the heart of Kendall Square. This secure, modern laboratory will allow you to invest in your research projects instead of infrastructure, without compromising the quality of your workspace or equipment. Managed by our skilled technicians, your animals receive unparalleled care in compliant facilities, where you’ll also benefit from access to Charles River’s complete portfolio of integrated drug discovery resources. Learn more at www.criver.com.

www.criver.com.

Boehringer Ingelheim ranks among the world’s 20 leading pharmaceutical corporations. Our vision drives us forward. It helps us to foster value through innovation in our company and to look to the future with constantly renewed commitment and ambition.

Nurturing innovative ideas todayfor more health tomorrow.

Visit us online at us.boehringer-ingelheim.com



www.massglobalpartners.com

Silver Sponsor

Conference Supporter

300 Technology Square, Eighth FloorCambridge, MA 02139

(617) 674-5100www.MassBio.org

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council is an association of more than 700biotechnology companies, universities, academic institutions and other

organizations dedicated to advancing cutting-edge research. We advance

Massachusetts’ leadership in the life sciences to grow the industry, add value to the healthcare system

and improve patient lives.

Networking & Professional DevelopmentWe bring members together to discuss relevant business and scientific issues and share their experiences through members-only Forums, training and professional development, and networking events.

Access to Capital & Fostering InnovationWith our Innovation Services arm, MassBio is focused on matching our member companies with the resources they need to move cutting-edge therapies from the bench to the bedside. Programs include Pharma Days business development events and the entrepreneur mentoring program, MassCONNECT.

Purchasing PowerBy aggregating the purchasing power of the member companies within MassBio, our Purchasing Consortium allows members to access savings in key cost centers, including laboratory supplies, prescription safety eyewear, footwear, uniform and facility services, equipment maintenance, hazardous and biomedical waste removal, packaged and bulk gases, office supplies and furniture, technology hardware and services, travel management, auto insurance, domestic and international shipping, and scientific journals and subscriptions.

Public Policy & AdvocacyAt MassBio, we work to educate policy makers and the public about the specific needs of our companies as they push the boundaries of science to improve our lives. We fight for public policy initiatives and tax incentives in Massachusetts that will enable biotechnology companies to do their best work, while also maintaining an active presence in Washington to help guide federal legislation.

Economic Development & Industry DataMassBio provides expert advice and guidance to help companies find suitable locations and resources as they move to and grow in the Bay State.

MassBio Signature EventsWe encourage learning and connections among stakeholders with events like our Policy Leadership Breakfast, the MassBio Annual Meeting, Job Trends Conference, the CRO/CMO Symposium and the Patient Advocacy Summit.

facebook.com/massbio linkd.in/massbio @massbio youtube.com/massbio



Organizer

The Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its goal is to support technology transfer activities from public and private research institutions to companies in Mas-sachusetts. To achieve this goal, the Center works with technology transfer offices at Massachusetts research institutions; faculty, researchers, and students who have commercially promising ideas; and companies across the Commonwealth.

_______________________________________________________________________________

The Center: • facilitates and accelerates technology transfer between research institutions and Massachusetts

companies;• promotes collaboration between research institutions and the Commonwealth’s technology in-

dustry; • assists in the growth of Massachusetts companies, including startups, by enhancing technologi-

cal leadership; and• supports regional and statewide economic development priorities.

_______________________________________________________________________________

The Center supports the commercialization of research technologies through a variety of programs:

The Center provides mentoring to researchers who believe they have a technology that could serve as the basis of a new company. The process includes the development of a business presentation for an expert board of external reviewers.

Commercialization and Entrepreneurial Education seminars and workshops enable researchers to understand the process of commercializing technologies.

Expert technology reviews provide opportunities for Massachusetts research institutes to have external industry experts evaluate technologies and give advice regarding their commercial potential.

Technology Forums allow investors and potential corporate partners to meet with companies formed around technologies developed in Massachusetts research institutes.

www.MTTC.org

www.MassTechPortal.org

[email protected]

twitter.com/MassTTC



Organizers



We are motivated to leverage what is truly unique about MA

“If I stand in the middle of Mass Ave Bridge, and walk 1 mile in either direction, I have everything I need to start a billion dollar life sciences company”

The Massachusetts Life Sciences Start-up Initiative (MALSI) is a collaborative group of public and private entities that work with emerging biotech and biomed companies. The prime aim of MALSI is to ensure that every life sciences entrepreneur or researcher who has a commercializable idea has easy and rapid access to the vast network of organizations and individuals who can help them realize their dreams. The Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center, Mass MEDIC, TiE Boston, and MassBio have partnered to present the Massachusetts Life Sciences Innovation Day.

In case you have any questions, please contact

Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center at [email protected]

Please join our MALSI Group on LinkedIn.com



In association with



SAVE THE DATEInternational Cancer Cluster Showcase – BIO 2016

Monday, June 6th, 2016, 12:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.; San Francisco, CA

Join us for the 5th ICCS: an oncology partnering event showcasing cutting edge innovations from leading industry clusters Partners from Massachusetts, Quebec, Philadelphia, Toulouse, Oslo and the UK Golden Triangle

are teaming up again to present their oncology pipelines as a satellite event to BIO 2016.Find more information and register already now at: www.internationalcancercluster.org

The event is kindly sponsored by:

Poster Partner

Local Partner


Biographies 17

Speaker BiographiesTom Andrews ........................................................................................................................................ 18Jeffrey Arnold ........................................................................................................................................ 18Gregg Beloff ........................................................................................................................................... 19Bruce Beutel .......................................................................................................................................... 19Ron Blackman ....................................................................................................................................... 19Adam Cohen .......................................................................................................................................... 20Rakhshita Dhar ..................................................................................................................................... 20Christopher Earl ................................................................................................................................... 20Eric Evans ............................................................................................................................................... 21Meredith Fisher .................................................................................................................................... 21Thomas Forest Farb ............................................................................................................................. 22Barbara Fox ............................................................................................................................................ 22Roger Frechette .................................................................................................................................... 23Joseph Gormley ................................................................................................................................... 23Dennis Guberski ................................................................................................................................... 24Kevin Hrusovsky ................................................................................................................................... 24Tim Keutzer ............................................................................................................................................ 24Roger Kitterman ................................................................................................................................... 25Mounir Koussa ...................................................................................................................................... 25Phil Lambert .......................................................................................................................................... 25Travis McCready ................................................................................................................................... 26Reza Mollaaghababa .......................................................................................................................... 26Mark Namchuk ..................................................................................................................................... 27Imran Nasrullah .................................................................................................................................... 27Lita Nelsen .............................................................................................................................................. 28Kevin O’Sullivan ................................................................................................................................... 28Joshua Phillips ...................................................................................................................................... 28Swati Prasad .......................................................................................................................................... 29Lenore Rasmussen .............................................................................................................................. 29Peter Reinhart ....................................................................................................................................... 30Willy Shih ................................................................................................................................................ 30David Tabtadze ..................................................................................................................................... 30Praveen Tipirneni ................................................................................................................................. 31Josh Tolkoff ............................................................................................................................................ 31Greg Verdine .......................................................................................................................................... 31Darshana Zaveri ................................................................................................................................... 32


18 Biographies

Speaker Biographies

Tom AndrewsExecutive Vice President, Regional Market Director, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc

Tom Andrews serves as the Executive Vice President, Regional Market Director for Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., the largest and leading real estate investment trust focused on urban science and technol-ogy campuses in major innovation clusters. Tom has 26 years of direct experience in the development and management of office and life science facilities, including over 16 years heading Alexandria’s acquisition, de-velopment, leasing, and asset management activities in the Greater Boston region. Under Tom’s leadership, the Greater Boston region has become Alexandria’s largest region, with 42 operating properties totaling 4.5 million square feet, and over 1.1 million square feet of additional projects under construction in Cambridge and Boston. Tom heads a team of 22 individuals engaged in asset and property management, construction and development management, leasing and marketing, and business development and industry research activities.

Prior to joining Alexandria in 1999, Tom served as the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Biotechnol-ogy Research Park in Worcester, one of the first purpose-built life science research parks in the world. Tom graduated from Cornell University and earned a Master of Science degree from MIT Center for Real Estate, where his thesis examined the development of the research facilities for academic medical centers.

Jeffrey ArnoldPresident, Arnold Strategies, LLC

Jeffrey Arnold is the president of Arnold Strategies, LLC, a strategic advisor to early and growth stage CEO’s, and an angel investor with Mass Medical Angels and Boston Harbor Angels. As an investor, he has invested in, among others, SmartCells (sold to Merck), BioAssets development Corp (sold to Cephalon), Syntonix (sold to Biogen Idec), Health Honors (sold to Healthway) and JB Therapeutics (now public as Corbus Phar-maceutical Holdings).

Prior to founding Arnold Strategies, he spent 20 years as the CEO of multiple private and public technol-ogy and life science companies. Among these include Cambridge Heart, a cardiology diagnostics company which he founded and took public, CardioFocus, a VC backed catheter ablation company and Accelrys, a public company with software tools for rational drug design, now a division of Dassault Systems.

Mr. Arnold is also Chairman of First Light Bio, a guest lecturer at the MIT Sloan School, mentor at the MIT Venture Mentoring Society, on the Grant Review Board of the MIT Deshpande Center on the Board of Over-seers at the Museum of Science. He was formerly Chairman of the Greater Boston Chapter of the American Heart Association. He received a BSEE from MIT in 1972.


Biographies 19

Gregg BeloffFounder and Managing Director, Danforth Advisor Gregg is a Founder and Managing Director with Danforth Advisors. He brings more than 20 years of experi-ence in the life science industry ranging from venture-backed start-ups to publicly traded companies to his work with Danforth Advisors’ clients. Previously, he served as the CFO of two public and three privately held companies. In these roles, he managed finance, accounting, corporate communications, human resources, information technology, facilities, legal, intellectual property, business development and manufacturing func-tions. Prior to his CFO roles, Gregg was a life science investment banker with Adams, Harkness & Hill, where he underwrote financings for and provided buy- and sell-side M&A counsel to biotechnology, medical device and healthcare information technology companies. He began his career as a corporate attorney with Gaffin & Krattenmaker, a Boston-based law firm. Gregg holds a B.A. from Middlebury College, an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and completed his J.D. at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Bruce BeutelExecutive Director, Business Development & Licensing, Merck Dr. Bruce Beutel is an Executive Director in Business Development & Licensing at Merck in the Boston/Cam-bridge Innovation Hub. Prior to moving to this position in 2014, he had over 20 years of drug discovery expe-rience in various research management positions in four different companies spanning virtually all preclinical drug discovery stages and technologies in multiple disease areas. In 2009 he joined Merck in Boston where he built and led groups focused on pharmacology and screening technology. Prior to Merck, Bruce worked in various leadership roles at Abbott Labs as well as two biotech startups. Dr. Beutel has over 30 peer reviewed publications and 7 issued patents. He earned a B.A. in Biology from the University of Chicago, a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Colorado.

Ron BlackmanSenior Project Manager, Boston Biomedical Innovation Center (B-BIC)

Ron Blackman is a Senior Project Manager focusing on novel therapeutics at the Boston Biomedical Innova-tion Center (B-BIC). He has held leadership roles for the past 25 years in biotech and academia. Before coming to B-BIC, Ron was Head of R&D at OvaScience involved in developing new technologies to improve success rates in the IVF clinic. Prior to that, he was Director of Translational Biology at Synta Pharmaceuti-cals, leading both the preclinical biology and clinical biomarker research programs for oncology therapeutics. At Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Ron focused on developing genomic technologies and using them in pre-clinical studies of oncology and antimicrobial drugs. Ron’s previous experience in program management was at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard where he had operational responsibility for a proteomics plat-form investigating biomarkers for clinical and research use.

Ron’s academic credentials include being a professor at the University of Illinois and completing his Ph.D. and post-doctoral studies at Harvard University. Ron received a B.S. in chemistry from UCLA.


20 Biographies

Adam CohenProfessor, Harvard University

Adam Cohen is a professor in the departments of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Physics at Harvard. He is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His research focuses on understanding and controlling light-matter interactions in warm, wet, squishy environments. His lab discovered that a gene from a Dead Sea microorganism, when transferred to human neurons, converted the electrical impulses of these cells into flashes of fluorescence.

Cohen has received the Blavatnik National Award in Chemistry and the American Chemical Society Pure Chemistry Award. Cohen founded a biotech company, Q-State Biosciences, focused on combining optical imaging with stem cell technology to develop new diagnostics and therapies for neuropsychiatric and neuro-degenerative diseases. He has also worked on helping to develop science education in Liberia.

Cohen obtained PhD degrees from Stanford in experimental biophysics and Cambridge, UK in theoretical physics. He was an undergraduate at Harvard.

Rakhshita DharDirector, Innovation Services, MassBio Rakhshita is the Director of Innovation Services at MassBio. She oversees all Innovation Services programs but is primarily responsible for Pharma partnering program called, Pharma Days. Rakhshita joined MassBio in late 2010 and helped build the Innovation services department and its signature programs MassCON-NECT and Pharma Days. Under her leadership these programs have become industry leading efforts in both entrepreneurship and partnering and these models are now being emulated by other trade associations around the world. Most recently she has been involved in creating the family office bio forum platform.

Prior to MassBio, Rakhshita worked at a boutique business development life science consulting firm, Adju-vant Global Advisors in DC. She holds a Master’s degree in Molecular Biology from Georgetown University and a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from University of Mumbai. She is very active in the life-science entrepreneurial community and often volunteers as a judge at various local pitch events.

Christopher EarlPresident, Innnotrove LLC

Christopher D. Earl, PhD is an entrepreneur, investor and non-profit leader with broad experience in science, venture capital, and driving growth of biotechnology companies and not-for-profit organizations. He currently serves as Senior Advisor to the corporate venture funds of Merck & Co., where he generates new opportu-nities in therapeutics and precision medicine, negotiates investments, and serves as a director on portfolio company boards.

Previously, Dr. Earl was the first President and CEO of BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH), a not-for-profit organization supported by industry and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose mission was to harness biotech R&D in developing cures for neglected tropical diseases. At BVGH, Dr. Earl worked with governments and multilaterals to develop financial incentives for tropical disease R&D, developed and pro-


Biographies 21

moted strategies for attracting biopharma companies to create new treatments for sub-Saharan Africa, and forged collaborations between leading companies and nonprofits.

Dr. Earl joined Perseus Capital in 1997 to build its investment portfolio in biotechnology. The success of those investments led to the founding in 2000 of the Perseus-Soros BioPharmaceutical Fund, now known as Aisling Capital. There, he led investments in companies developing therapeutics for oncology and infectious diseases and joined portfolio company boards. Several of these companies achieved FDA approval for in-novative drugs that today sell over $1 billion. Earlier in his career, Dr. Earl was President and CEO of Avitech Diagnostics, Inc., and a General Partner of Plant Resources Venture Funds.

Dr. Earl serves on the Board of Directors of Asuragen, Inc. and is a Trustee of The Nature Conservancy of Maryland/DC. Dr. Earl received a BA in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD in Cellular and Developmental Biology from Harvard University.

Eric Evans Executive Committee Member, Mass Medical Angels

Eric J. Evans is an active member of the early-stage investor community in Boston. He sits on the Executive Committee of Mass Medical Angels and on the Screening Committee of Launchpad Ventures. Since many early-stage deals are now syndicated, he also maintains relationships with Hub Investment Group, Boston Harbor Angels and Cherrystone, among others. He has served as CEO for several biomedical companies, including Targeted Cell Therapies, Abazyme, Lumos Catheter Systems, Mulleris Therapeutics and Follica Biosciences. He began his career at Procter & Gamble and at the Boston Consulting Group. Mr. Evans holds a master’s degree in finance and public policy from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsyl-vania, and a bachelor’s degree in nuclear physics from Brown University.

Meredith FisherPrincipal, Partners Innovation Fund President Meredith Fisher currently serves as Principal for the Partners Innovation Fund. Previously, she was Director of Private Investments in the private/family office at Bracebridge Capital where she focused on investments in early stage life science companies. Prior to that role she led business development for Ginkgo BioWorks- an MIT spin out and was Senior Director of Technology and Business Development of Enlight Biosciences, a venture creation company founded by PureTech Ventures. She spent several years working as a scientist in drug discovery and assay development for Idenix Pharmaceuticals and Anadys Pharmaceuticals. Meredith received her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College, her MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and her PhD from Harvard University. While at Harvard, she co-founded Harvard Graduate Women in Science and Engineering (HGWISE).


22 Biographies

Thomas Forest FarbPresident and CEO, Thrive Bioscience

Mr. Thomas Forest Farb is President and CEO of Thrive Bioscience, located in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Thrive is commercializing instruments that automate one of the last remaining bottlenecks in drug discovery and research -- cell culture, stem cell culture and cell-based assays. Mr. Farb has three decades of experi-ence as an entrepreneur, investor, senior executive and mentor in early-stage information technology and life science companies in Massachusetts, California, Florida, Puerto Rico and China.

As an entrepreneur, Mr. Farb has been directly involved in founding of over 10 companies and in raising more than $150 million of angel and venture capital.

As a senior executive, he has served as President, COO and/or CFO of numerous companies, including Thrive Bioscience, Inc., Atherio Information Systems, Indevus Pharmaceuticals, MedicaMetrix , Cytyc and the Trust for Science & Technology in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

As a mentor, he has been a Mentor for the Founder Institute and a Senior Advisor at the Microsoft Innovation Center, both in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

As a member of Boards of Directors, he has served on the Boards of numerous companies including several public companies -- Fair Isaac (NYSE: FIC), Redwood Trust (NYSE: RT), HNC Software (NASD: HNCS), Retek Systems (NASD: RETK), and Symon Communications (NASD: MGN).

Mr. Farb has also been a Trustee or Advisor for numerous non-profit organizations including the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Asia America Chamber of Commerce, Partners Healthcare, three private schools and two museums. He is also a Founder and Officer of Brahman Industries, a mission driven company developing floating shelters for use in natural disaster.

Barbara FoxEntrepreneur in Residence, Partners Innovation Fund

Dr. Fox is an experienced entrepreneur and scientist. She is currently an EIR with Partners Innovation Fund and prior to that was CEO and founder of Avaxia Biologics. Before Avaxia, Barbara was an Affiliated En-trepreneur at Oxford Bioscience Partners, and founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Recovery Pharmaceuticals, a company developing and marketing medications for the treatment of addiction. Prior to founding Recovery Pharmaceuticals in 1998, she was Vice President, Immunology at ImmuLogic Pharma-ceutical Corp. She joined ImmuLogic in 1993, having served on the faculty of the University Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, as Associate Professor of Medicine with tenure in the Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Dept. of Medicine. Dr. Fox received her BA in Chemistry from Bryn Mawr College and her PhD in Chemistry from MIT. Dr. Fox trained as a post-doc in cellular immunology at the NIH. Dr. Fox was a 2014 E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year New England™ finalist.


Biographies 23

Roger FrechetteCo-Founder & Principal, New England PharmAssociates Entrepreneur in Residence, Partners Innovation Fund

Dr. Roger Frechette is the Co-Founder and Principal of New England PharmAssociates, a consultancy offer-ing on-demand executive and business advisory services to life sciences enterprises. He is also the US East Coast Ambassador for Medicon Valley Alliance, a life sciences cluster organization based in Copenhagen. Previously, he was a Co-Founder of Frontiera Therapeutics, a startup developing therapeutics for vascular leak. He is a volunteer adviser and mentor with several Boston area biotech incubators and startup mentor-ing programs. Previously, Dr. Frechette was Co-Founder of MaxThera, an antibacterial drug discovery com-pany. MaxThera was sold in 2010 to Biota Holdings Limited, a Melbourne Australia anti-infectives company.

Prior to starting MaxThera, Dr. Frechette was a drug discovery and life-sciences consultant following his role as Project Director at Paratek Pharmaceuticals (Boston). At Paratek he led the team that discovered PTK0796 (currently in Phase III clinical trials) with strategic partner Glaxo-Wellcome, and also led the pre-clinical development program that was carried out with a multinational team of consultants and contractors. Previously, he was Associate Director of Chemistry at RiboGene (Hayward, CA), where he built the chem-istry department and managed two drug discovery programs in collaboration with strategic partner Dainip-pon Pharmaceuticals. He began his career as a medicinal chemist at the R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute (J&J, Raritan, NJ).

Dr. Frechette was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Yale University, earned his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Wes-leyan University and his BA in Chemistry from College of the Holy Cross.

Joseph GormleyCTO, iOmics Corporation

Prior to launching IOMICS, J. Gormley was an industry consultant with 20 years experience developing software for both research and clinical care. In this role he was responsible for the design and development of over twenty software applications for both academic and commercial clients. His software tools and plat-forms have been deployed across multiple disciplines including in silico biology, systems toxicology, neuro-science, cancer research, and emergency care. He is a past recipient of a JAF Innovation Grant to explore commercialization of Computational Systems Biology, has presented original engineering work on cancer patient stratification to the IBM Watson Application Team, and has been an invited speaker in QSAR/QSPR to Harvard University’s Center for Integrated Mesoscale Architectures. His primary interests include the use of machine learning and multiscale biochemical data for the development of integrated, feature rich software tools that can be used for rational chemical design and to automate identification of molecular phenotypes in support of patient state analytics and precision medicine. He is the lead architect on the FUSION Analytics Platform, a cloud-based software system for predictive analytics and rapid prototyping of advanced decision models for the biochemical and health sciences. He obtained a B.Sc. in Computer Science from University of Maryland in 1985 and an ALM in Biology from Harvard University in 2001.


24 Biographies

Dennis GuberskiFounder, President & Chairman, Biomere

Dennis Guberski, a geneticist trained at the UMass Amherst, is the Founder, President and Chairman of Biomere. From 1977-1997 he was a research scientist at UMass Medical School where he investigated the pathogenesis of Type 1 diabetes. In addition Guberski developed novel animal models of spontaneous Type 2 diabetes as well as identification of pathogens which initiate autoimmune disease. During the last 20 years, while at the helm of Biomere, he served as PI/investigator on more than a dozen of USPHS grants/ contracts including a 6 year contract from NIH-NIDDK entitled “Preclinical testing program for Type 1 diabetes”. This preclinical testing program designed and employed standardized protocols to evaluate novel immune thera-pies for entry into the T1D-RAID program in support of the USPHS Trial Net.

Biomere, based in Worcester MA, operates from 55,000 sq. ft. providing high end “one stop” preclinical eval-uation services in the areas of Lupus, Diabetes and associated complications, virology as well as standard PK/PD testing in animal models including Non-Human Primates.

Kevin HrusovskyCEO & Executive Chairman, Quanterix With over 25 years of experience in the life sciences space, Kevin is Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman of Quanterix, and serves on the boards of several other technology companies focused on trans-forming the practices of medicine and healthcare. At the helm of Quanterix he has grown the company 100 percent quarter over quarter and recently led Quanterix in closing a $46M Series D financing round, bringing the company to a post-money valuation of +$200M. Prior to Quanterix, Hrusovsky was President of Perki-nElmer Life Sciences & Technology; CEO of Caliper Life Sciences (now PerkinElmer); and CEO of Zymark Corporation. Earlier, he was President of FMC Pharmaceuticals and International Agricultural Products and held numerous management positions at DuPont. Hrusovsky currently serves on the Board of Directors of Quanterix, BioreclamationIVT, Cell Signaling Technology, 908 Devices, SynapDx and Solect Energy. He also serves on the Educational Board of the Massachusetts Biotech Council, the Advisory Committee for the Center for Biomedical Engineering at Brown University, the Association for Laboratory Automation, the JALA Editorial Board, and the Strategy Committee of Children’s Hospital Boston. He formerly served on the boards of SeraCare (now Linden Partners), Caliper Life Sciences (now PKI), Xenogen – XGEN (now PKI) and Alliant Medical Technology. Kevin received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Ohio State Univer-sity and an M.B.A. from Ohio University. He is the 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year from Ohio State University and holds an Honorary Doctorate degree from Framingham State University for contributions in life sciences and personal medicine.

Tim KeutzerVP of Development, Spero Tim Keutzer has nearly 25 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry, spanning multiple functional and therapeutic areas. At Spero, he is Vice President of Development. Before joining Spero, he was Vice Presi-dent of Program and Portfolio Management at Cubist Pharmaceuticals. While there, he was the program leader for ceftolozane/tazobactam, which progressed rapidly from phase 1 to phase 3 clinical development, and received market clearance by the US Food and Drug Administration in December of 2014. Prior to that


Biographies 25

role, he also lead several of Cubist’s in-licensed development programs, and also lead the commercial sup-ply chain for Cubicin (daptomycin for injection). His experience before Cubist spans the drug development continuum across multiple drug classes, and includes preclinical PK/PD and clinical operations at Genetics Institute, as well as global strategic marketing and program management at Wyeth. Tim began his career in contract toxicology labs. He studied English and microbiology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY.

Roger KittermanManaging Partner, Partners Innovation FundExecutive Director, Boston Biomedical Innovation Center Roger leads the investment arm of Partners Innovation – investing in high potential companies based on technologies developed in the Partners HealthCare system. In addition, he is the Executive Director of the Boston Biomedical Innovation Center (www.b-bic.org). He has also been the startup CEO for three venture-backed companies and is a founder of Mass Medical Angels. Previously, he was a general partner at Mi3 Venture Partners, an early stage, bioengineering focused fund. Prior to joining Mi3, he was managing direc-tor at Lee Munder Venture Partners, the venture capital arm of Lee Munder Venture Partners. He joined Lee Munder from Boston University’s Community Technology Fund, where he made venture investments in life sciences, developed and managed spinouts from the university and Boston Medical Center. Roger holds an MBA in Finance and Business Development from the Columbia Business School and an AB from Harvard College.

Mounir KoussaCEO, Lumio Health, Inc.

Dr. Mounir Koussa is a co-founder and CEO of Lumio, where they are striving to democratize health testing by bringing clinical grade diagnostics into the home. Lumio is Mounir’s first company, and is based on tech-nology he developed during his PhD in Neurobiology at Harvard. He was developing nano-scale tools for single-molecule force spectroscopy, which he later converted into a platform for affordable, low-complexity, and high sensitivity protein detection. Mounir and his colleagues at Lumio are now working to commercialize this technology in a direct to consumer form factor.

Phil LambertScientific Partner, Charles River Laboratories

Phil Lambert PhD is a Scientific Partner at CRL in Shrewsbury, MA and has over 25 years of experience in drug discovery and development. He brings expertise in efficient and predictive preclinical drug discovery to his role at CRL. Prior to joining CRL, Phil co-founded and was Chief Scientific Officer at VivoPath; a contract research organization focused on in vivo proof of concept in metabolic and inflammatory disease. In both small and large pharmaceutical organizations, Phil has led in vivo pharmacology groups responsible for both in house and external drug discovery and development. He has built teams and screening programs which have effectively moved compounds through preclinical proof of concept and into the clinic. Phil has held po-sitions at Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Forum Pharmaceuticals, ALS Therapy Development Institute, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, GSK and Parke Davis. Phil received his Ph.D. in neuroendocrinology from Imperial Col-lege, University of London and was a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at Emory University School of Medicine.


26 Biographies

Travis McCreadyPresident & CEO, Massachusetts Life Sciences Center

Travis McCready joined the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center as the organization’s second President & CEO in October 2015. In this position, Mr. McCready is responsible for leading the ongoing implementation of the $1 billion Massachusetts Life Sciences Initiative, a public-private partnership that has contributed to Massachusetts’ emergence as the global leader in life sciences. McCready directs and oversees the Cen-ter’s investment strategy, along with the agency’s operations, programs and partnerships.

Previously Travis served as the Vice President for Programs at the Boston Foundation, directing the distribu-tion of nearly $20 million in discretionary grants through a competitive process to support nonprofit organiza-tions and programs that serve the people of Greater Boston. Prior to that, Travis was the first Executive Direc-tor of the Kendall Square Association, responsible for building a global brand for Kendall Square, engaging in business and economic development, and ensuring the on-going vitality of one of the Commonwealth’s most economically robust districts. He has also previously held the COO & CFO positions at the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, where he oversaw all operations and finance for the Commonwealth’s three convention centers and the Boston Common Garage as well as previously serving as Chief of Staff of the Boston Foundation, and Director of Community Affairs for Harvard University.

Travis received his B.A. from Yale University and J.D. from the University of Iowa, and began his law career as a corporate attorney in Minneapolis, MN.

Travis serves on the boards of the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, and the Center for Collaborative Leadership at UMass Boston. He has served on the Economic Development Planning Council under two governors, including co-chairing the subcommittee on innovation and entrepreneurship. In 2009, he was named one of Boston’s top “40 under 40” young busi-ness leaders by the Boston Business Journal. He is a frequent speaker on economic development strategy as it relates to the convergence of private, public and not-for-profit institutional sectors.

Reza MollaaghababaPartner, Pepper Hamilton, LLP

Reza Mollaaghababa is a partner in the Intellectual Property Department of Pepper Hamilton, LLP, resident in the Boston Office. He is a co-chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Transactions and Rights Manage-ment Practice Group. Dr. Mollaaghababa’ s practice focuses on all aspects of intellectual property law, including preparation and prosecution of patent and trademark applications, preparation of patentability, non-infringement, validity and clearance opinions. He has obtained patent protection for clients in diverse fields of technology, such as photonics/optics, lithography, telecommunications, magnetic resonance, and computer hardware and software.

Dr. Mollaaghababa also represents clients in post-grant proceedings before the U.S. Patent Office. He has handled more than 40 inter partes review (IPR) proceedings. He is a co-founder and frequent contributor of a blog on post-grant issues: www.postgrant-counsel.com.


Biographies 27

Mark NamchukSenior VP of Research, Alkermes Mark Namchuk serves as Senior Vice President of Research, Pharmaceutical and Nonclinical Development. Dr. Namchuk will be responsible for advancing the company’s early-stage product pipeline. He will serve on the executive management team of Alkermes.

Dr. Namchuk has nearly 20 years of experience in integrated R&D and drug discovery. Most recently, Dr. Namchuk served as Senior Vice President and Interim Global Head of Research for Vertex Pharmaceuticals, leading a group of more than 450 researchers in the discovery of transformational medicines in the areas of infectious disease, oncology, inflammatory diseases, neurology and cystic fibrosis. He has built and led departments supporting the critical components of early pharmaceutical R&D, including medicinal chemis-try, protein biophysics, in vitro and in vivo pharmacology, drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics, and clinical and preclinical biomarkers. Earlier in his career, he served as the head of the biochemistry group at Cubist Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Namchuk obtained his doctorate in bioorganic chemistry from the University of British Columbia and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.

Imran NasrullahDirector, Innovation Sourcing, Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals

Imran is the Director of Innovation Sourcing, located in Boston. Imran is responsible for forging business relationships within the Boston/Cambridge life-science ecosystem among, VCs, academia, biotech and other stakeholders.

Imran brings over 20 years and a rich synthesis of life sciences corporate development (emerging and early stage), intellectual property and licensing, and policy experience.

Most recently, Imran was Head of Strategic Alliances for T1D Exchange – an innovative non-profit start-up in the type 1 diabetes space. Prior to T1D Exchange, Imran was the Chief Business Officer for the Mas-sachusetts Biotechnology Council, where he was responsible for building MassBio’s business development and investor outreach programs to enable members companies raise capital and identify strategic partnering and licensing opportunities.

Imran has also worked for blue chip biotechnology companies Genzyme Genetics and Millennium Pharma-ceuticals. At Genzyme, Imran served as a Director of Business Development and Licensing for oncology molecular diagnostics and women’s health. At Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Imran served as Associate Di-rector of BD&L within Millennium’s corporate development group focusing on early stage transactions rang-ing from R&D platforms, early-stage inflammation and oncology assets, and FTO licensing. Imran started his career in academic licensing, first as a licensing professional at Mayo Clinic and later as director of licens-ing for Dana Farber Cancer Institute.


28 Biographies

Lita NelsenRetired Director, Technology Licensing Office, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lita Nelsen recently retired from her position as Director of the Technology Licensing Office at the Massachu-setts Institute of Technology, where she had been since 1986. This office managed over 750 new inventions per year, negotiated over 100 licenses, and started up 20-25 new companies per year.

Ms. Nelsen earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from M.I.T. and an M.S. in Management from M.I.T. as a Sloan Fellow.

Prior to joining the M.I.T. Technology Licensing Office, Ms. Nelsen spent 20 years in industry, primarily in the fields of membrane separations, medical devices, and biotechnology.

Ms. Nelsen was the 1992 President of the Association of University Technology Managers. She was a found-ing board member of the Center for Management of Intellectual Property in Health Research. She was also on the board of Mass Ventures (MTDC) for 20 years, and is currently on the scientific advisory board of Part-ners’ Investment Fund and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.

Ms. Nelsen is widely published in the field of technology transfer and university/industry. She has lectured in and advised universities in at least 20 countries, including several developing-world countries. The UK Government awarded her the honor of “Member of the Order of the British Empire” (MBE) for her work with technology transfer institutions throughout the UK, including the co-founding of Praxis, a non-profit company for training UK technology transfer professionals (now Praxis-Unico)

Kevin O’SullivanPresident & CEO, Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives Managing Partner, Catalyst

Kevin is the President and CEO of Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, a private, not for profit economic development organization that promotes the growth and expansion of the Biotechnology, Medical Device and Medical, Chemical and Biological Informatics Industry. MBI operates four life and health science business incubator facilities in Worcester – currently home to twenty five (25) companies and over 125 employees, providing cost effective science laboratories and high quality business development services. He previously served as Vice President and Director of Marketing at the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce and the City of Worcester. From 1986 to 1994 he was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representa-tives. He is on the Board of Trustees of Reliant Medical Group and formerly served on the Worcester Busi-ness Development Corporation and Chaired the City of Worcester’s License Commission. Kevin, who lives in Worcester, is also active in many civic and community activities.

Joshua PhillipsManaging Partner, Catalyst Joshua Phillips is the Managing Partner of Catalyst and a member of the Investment Committee. Josh led Catalyst’s investments in Novazyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Genzyme Corp. NYSE:SNY), BioTrove, Inc. (acquired by Life Technologies Corp. NASDAQ:LIFE), Biocius Life Sciences, Inc. (acquired by Agilent Technologies, Inc. NYSE:A), Vortex Medical, Inc. (acquired by Angiodynamics, NASDAQ: ANGO), Allegro Diagnostics, Inc. (acquired by Veracyte, NASDAQ: VCT), Pavilion Medical Innovations, Sera Prog-


Biographies 29

nostics and Cruzar Medical. He is a Director of SevenOaks Medical, Pavilion Medical Innovations, Sera Prognostics, Cruzar Medical, Saphena Medical and Kaleidoscope. He was past Chairman of BioTrove, past Director of Biocius Life Sciences and past observer to Novazyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Prior to joining Catalyst, Josh was a Manager at the Lucas Group, a boutique strategy-consulting firm, where he led engagements advising healthcare, life science, and technology-based companies. In 1990, Josh co-founded, managed and built a new business unit at Russelectric Inc., a privately held engineering technology firm. In five years, the business achieved annual sales in excess of $5 million and employed 15 engineers and technicians. Josh previously held project and engineering management positions at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft focused on the integration of hardware and software for the control system of the USAF F-22 fighter engine. Josh received a B.E. in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from Vanderbilt University and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

Swati PrasadSenior Manager, Business Development & Scientific Alliances, Charles River Laboratories

Swati Prasad manages strategic partnerships with focus on creative business models to increase revenues, penetrate markets and strengthen drug discovery portfolio. Previously, she was at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals where she managed external collaborations and partnerships. She has extensive experience in large pharma, CRO and life science industry with hands-on drug development experience across diverse therapeutic areas and entire lifecycle, from preclinical research to clinical development candidates. Dr. Prasad holds a doctorate degree in Chemistry from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India, an MBA from Wilmington University and a bachelors in Classical Music from Prayag Sangeet Samiti, India.

Lenore RasmussenCTO & Founder, Ras Labs

Lenore Rasmussen is the CTO and Founder of Ras Labs. She double-majored in biochemistry and chem-istry at Virginia Tech, and then worked with viruses at Purdue University (MS Biology, Biophysics specialty), and returned to Virginia Tech because of the strong polymer program (PhD Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry specialty). Her corporate experience includes Johnson & Johnson. While at Purdue, a close relative suf-fered a traumatic farm injury, and she investigated prostheses, but was disappointed with what was avail-able in the marketplace. Her drive to advance prosthetic technology led her to invent Synthetic Muscle™ – electroactive polymer (EAP) based materials and actuators that contract and expand at low voltages, offering a high level of control with low power consumption and with minimal heat/noise signatures. EAP contraction-expansion can be cycled repeatedly, and the amount of movement can be controlled by adjust-ing the voltage, which lends these materials to biofeedback. With the additional intrinsic ability to sense pressure, Ras Labs EAPs can provide for self-adjusting prosthetic liners, closed loop impact attenuating devices, or self-sensing robotic grippers/hands. These EAP smart materials are also robust, and selected samples of Synthetic Muscle™ were tested on the International Space Station. Lenore is a recognized global leader in the EAP industry with multiple patents, peer reviewed publications, and the book “Electro-activity in Polymeric Materials.


30 Biographies

Peter ReinhartFounding Director, Institute for Applied Life Sciences, UMass Amherst

Peter H. Reinhart is the founding director of the Institute for Applied Life Sciences (IALS). The institute was created in 2013 with $150 million in capital funding from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) and additional contributions from the university to accelerate life science research and advance collaboration with industry.

Previously, Reinhart was at Alzehon, a Lexington, Mass., company where he most recently was the head of corporate development and new products for the biotechnology company that is focused on brain health, memory and aging and development of treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Prior to that he was Chief Scientific Officer and then President at Proteostasis Therapeutics, and head of neurodegeneration at Wyeth/Pfizer. He has also been an adjunct associate professor of neurosci-ence at the Duke University Medical Center for the past decade and was a tenured professor at the center for nearly 13 years prior to that.

Reinhart earned his doctorate in 1985 and a bachelor’s of science degree in 1980 from the Australian Nation-al University. He served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tuebingen, Germany, from 1985 - 1987 and was a research associate in neurobiology at Brandeis University from 1988 - 1991.

Willy ShihRobert and Jane Cizik Professor, Harvard Business School

Willy Shih is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration at the Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts. He is part of the Technology and Operations Manage-ment Unit, and he teaches in the MBA and Executive Education Programs. His expertise is in manufacturing and product development, and he has written or co-authored numerous cases and teaching materials in a range of industries. His paper, “Restoring American Competitiveness,” co-authored with Gary Pisano, won the 2009 McKinsey Award. His book, “Producing Prosperity – Why America Needs a Manufacturing Renais-sance,” co-authored with Gary Pisano, has called attention to the link between manufacturing and innovation.

Prior to coming to HBS in 2007, Willy spent 28 years in industry at IBM, Digital Equipment, Silicon Graphics, Eastman Kodak, and Thomson SA. He has S.B. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

David TabtadzePresident & CEO, ZATA Pharmaceuticals, Inc

David Tabtadze holds MS in Organic Chemistry from Tbilisi Chsvchavadze University, Tbilisi Republic of Georgia. PhD in Biochemistry from the Institute of Bio Organic Chemistry, Novosibirsk, Siberian Division of Academy of Science, Russian Federation. Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the field of oligotherapy at Worcester Foundation for Bio Medical Research, Worcester, MA. In early 2000’s at MGH David co-invented genetic constructs enabling the correction of mutated gene that causes Cystic Fibrosis.


Biographies 31

In the middle 2000’s David was affiliated with a few medical device companies and co-developed half a dozen commercially available medical devices used in the dermatology and aesthetic industry. In 2009 David co-founded ZATA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. with partnership of his long time mentor and companion, Dr. Paul Zamecnik and has been serving as its president until now. At ZATA he has led the development of the novel class of oligonucleotides and anti-pathogen compounds for the sterilization of donated bloods. Both programs were awarded by SBIR grants.

Praveen TipirneniCEO, Morphic Rock Therapeutic

Dr. Praveen Tipirneni, M.D. currently serves as CEO, Morphic Rock Therapeutics, a Polaris Ventures backed biopharmaceutical company. Previously, he was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Global Strategy at Cubist Pharmaceuticals from 2002 until the ~$10 billion acquisition by Merck in 2015. In his time at Cubist, he has served in the Clinical group working on the Cubicin NDA (skin and skin structure infections) and sNDA (Staph. Bacteremia and Endocarditis) teams. He has been head of Business Development since January 2006. Prior to joining Cubist, Dr. Tipirneni worked at Sun Microsystems in Corporate Strategy, Co-vad Communications in Corporate Strategy, and Deltagen, in Business Development and also served time as 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Dr. Tipirneni received a bachelor’s degree from MIT in Mechanical Engi-neering, an M.D. from McGill University. After completing his post-graduate residency in Internal Medicine at University of Illinois, Chicago, he received his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business in healthcare finance.

Josh TolkoffManaging Director, Ironwood Equity Fund

Josh works at CIMIT, Consortia for Integrating Medical with Innovation & Technology, accelerating the com-mercialization of research projects. He is a Managing Director of Ironwood Equity Fund, a later stage venture investor. Josh founded and managed Seedling Enterprises, considered one of the most successful medical device accelerators.

Josh founded ACT Medical, a premier med-device developer and manufacturer. Josh was head of R&D for Medi-Tech, which became Boston Scientific.

He currently is a Director of numerous for-profit companies. He is past chair of MassMedic the 400 company industry trade group and an advisor and lecturer in the Harvard-MIT program in Health Sciences and Tech-nology. He is the founding board chair of Interise, a non-profit helping small urban companies grow, now in 75 US cities. Josh has an A.B. from Harvard College and an MS from MIT.

Greg VerdineErving Professor of Chemistry, Harvard University and Harvard Medical School

Gregory Verdine is a pioneer in the field of chemical biology, a serial biotech entrepreneur and a life science venture capitalist. In an independent academic career at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School spanning nearly 3 decades, he has elucidated the molecular mechanism of epigenetic DNA methylation and the pathways by which certain genotoxic forms of DNA damage are surveilled in and eradicated from the


32 Biographies

genome. He is a leading figure in the field of new therapeutic modalities, and has developed a new class of therapeutics termed stapled peptides, which are currently in clinical development and have received much attention for their ability to drug targets previously considered “undruggable”. Dr. Verdine is Erving Professor of Chemistry in the Departments of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Dr. Verdine has made important contributions in the translation of bench science to the bedside. He has founded or co-founded a number of successful biotechnology companies, including Enanta Pharmaceuti-cals (Nasdaq ENTA), Gloucester Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Celgene), Tokai Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq TKAI), WaVe Life Sciences (Nasdaq WVE), Eleven Biotherapeutics (Nasdaq EBIO), Warp Drive Bio, Aileron Therapeutics, and FogPharma. To date, these companies have succeeded in gaining FDA approval for two drugs, romidepsin (Gloucester/Celgene) and paritaprevir (Enanta/AbbVie). He has also worked in the ven-ture capital industry as a Venture Partner with Apple Tree Partners, Third Rock Ventures, and WuXi Health-care Ventures, and as a Special Advisor to Texas Pacific Group. He co-founded and served as the founding President of the non-profit Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute and Gloucester Biotechnology Academy, for which he continues to serve as Director.

Dr. Verdine is Chairman of the Board of Directors of WaVe Life Sciences, and is a Director of Warp Drive Bio, for which he also Chairs the company’s Scientific Advisory Board. He is currently President and CEO of FogPharma, a biotechnology company focused on a transformative drug discovery platform based on Cell-Penetrating Miniproteins. Dr. Verdine serves on the Board of Scientific Consultants of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Research Institute and on the Board of Scientific Advisors of the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Verdine holds a PhD in chemistry from Columbia University, a B.S. in chemistry from St. Joseph’s Univer-sity, and served as an NIH postdoctoral fellow in molecular biology at MIT and Harvard Medical School. He has won numerous prestigious awards, including most recently the AACR Award for Excellence in Chemistry in Cancer Research, and the Nobel Laureate Signature Award.

Darshana ZaveriPartner, Catalyst Health Ventures

Darshana Zaveri is a Partner and a member of Catalyst’s investment committee. Darshana is ac-tively involved in all aspects of Fund Management including Investments and Capital Raising. She led Catalyst’s investments in Augmenix, Lantos Technologies, nVision Medical, Maxwell Health, Aria CV and Hepregen. She currently represents Catalyst on the Boards of Lantos (past Chair), nVision, Aria CV, Augme-nix and Maxwell Health and was actively involved with portfolio company Allegro Diagnostics (acquired by Veracyte Inc.).

Prior to Catalyst, she was an Investigator at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and an integral part of the drug develop-ment programs in oncology, metabolic disease, and immunology. Previously she worked at Genome Thera-peutics, a Massachusetts-based biotechnology company, at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and completed an internship at the United Nations. She has authored several publications and scientific journal articles and currently serves as a Catalyst of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT.

Darshana received an MPA from Harvard University, a Master in Cell and Molecular Biology from Boston University, and a BS in Biochemistry from Bombay University in Bombay, India.


Planning Committee 33

MALSI Day Planning Committee

Chair

Abi Barrow, Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center

Content

Richard Anders, MA Medical AngelsAbi Barrow, Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center

Carl Berke, Partners HealthcareRoger Frechette, New England PharmAssociates

Lauren Laidlaw, Decision Resources GroupMark Namchuk, Alkermes

Imran Nasrullah, Boehringer IngelheimKevin O’Sullivan, MA Biotech Incubator

Marketplace

Shelley Amster, ShelleyCO, LLC

Research & Startup Showcase and Logistics

Tatiana Demidova, Harvard University Julia Goldberg, Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center

Li Chenyu (Charlie), Harvard Biotech Club

Reception

Denise Aronson, Safety Partners, Inc. Lauren Laidlaw, Safety Partners, Inc.

Team

Anu Ahuja, Brandeis UniversityNina Green, Consultant


34 Planning Committee


35

Poster Presenters

Angiex, Inc Presented by: Paul Jaminet, [email protected] Title: Angiex: Pioneering a Vascular Route to Cancer Therapy

Articulate BiosciencesPresented by:Benjamin Cooper, PhD Candidate [email protected] Title: A Longer-lasting, Next-generation viscosupplement for Osteoarthritis Treat-ment

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical CenterPresented by: Efi Kokkotou, MD, PhD Associate Professor of [email protected] Title: A tractable drug screening methodology using human samples

Boston Children’s HospitalPresented by: Andrej Jedinak, Post-doctoral [email protected] Title: Collagen type I, alpha 1: a potential non-invasive biomarker to distinguish be-tween benign prostate hyperplasia and localized prostate cancer


36 Poster Presenters

Boston Children’s Hospital Presented by: Rong Yang, Postdoctoral [email protected] Title: Treatment of otitis media by trans-tympanic delivery of antibiotics

Brandeis UniversityPresented by: Daniel Acker, PhD [email protected] Title: Treating epilepsy through molecular control of inhibitory synapse formation

Brandeis University Presented by: Ann Lawson, Research [email protected] Title: A New Strategy for mTOR Inhibition

CaroGen CorporationBijan Almassian, President & [email protected] Title: CaroGen

Crescent Innovations, IncPresented by: Al Prescott, President and [email protected] Title: New Osteoarthritis Treatment – PGA-OA


37

Dana Farber Cancer Institute Presented by: Eugen Dhimolea, Instructor in [email protected] Poster Title: 3-dimensional Patient-Derived ex-Vivo (PDeV) Avatar platform

GridRepublic Presented by: Matt Blumberg, Executive [email protected] Poster Title: Fight Neglected Diseases: Precision Screening

Harvard Medical School Presented by: Zoltan Maliga, Postdoctoral [email protected] Title: Novel intracellular targets and small molecules for anti-tumor immune modu-lation

Harvard University Presented by: Amir Schajnovitz, Research [email protected] Title: Selective Eradication of Leukemia Cells

Harvard UniversityPresented by: Steffi Sunny, Graduate [email protected] Title: Transparent Antifouling Coating for Improved Operative Field Visibility in En-doscopy


38 Poster Presenters

Integral BioSystems, LLCPresented by: Shikha Barman, Ph.D. CEO and [email protected] Title: Sustained Release of Travoprost for Glaucoma Therapy via a Biodegradable Bioadhesive Wafer, NanoM-TP

Kynplex, IncPresented by: Grace Xiao, [email protected] Poster Title: Kynplex, networking platform for scientific innovation

LambdaVision, Inc Presented by: Nicole Wagner, [email protected] Title: A Novel Therapeutic Protein-Based Implant to Stimulate Retinal Function and Restore Vision

LayerBio, Inc Presented by: Karin Roesch, Director Strategic [email protected] Title: LayerBio: A new approach to drug delivery

Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary Presented by: Joseph Ciolino, Assistant [email protected] Title: Drug Eluting Contact Lenses


39

Massachusetts General HospitalPresented by: Erika Gonzalez Rodriguez, Research Fellow [email protected] Title: The Portable Abdominal Insufflator- Let’s Stop the Bleeding!

Massachusetts General HospitalPresented by: Genevieve Van de Bittner and MishaRiley [email protected]; [email protected] Poster Title: [11C]Neuroflux: In vivo measurement of neuronal population flux

nanoView Diagnostics, IncPresented by: David Freedman, [email protected] Poster Title: A Scalable Platform for Exosome Characterization

Navi Innovations LLC Presented by: Virat Agrawal, Founder & [email protected] Title: Novel CSF shunt system for the treatment of hydrocephalus

ONEIghty C Technologies Presented by: Theresa O’Keefe, Scientific [email protected] Title: Sterilization Development – Progress on Prion and other Pathogen Destruc-tion


40

OWLife Technology Presented by: Suzanne Mitchell, MD MS, Founder [email protected] Title: OWLife Virtual World Telemedicine Group Visits for Diabetes

SipSmart, Hunter Creative LabsPresented by: Casandra Ceri, [email protected] Title: A Novel Method for the Detection of Adulterants in Beverages

University of Massachusetts Amherst Presented by: Felipe A. Navarrete, Graduate [email protected] Poster Title: Transient exposure to calcium ionophore A23187 induces sperm hyperacti-vation and enables in vitro fertilization in sterile knock-out (KO) mouse models Design and Development of Novel Antibiotics via Marine Natural Products”.

University of Massachusetts DartmouthPresented by: Sivappa Rasapalli

[email protected] Title: Design and Development of Novel Antibiotics via Marine Natural Products

University of Massachusetts Medical School Presented by: Jie Song, PhD, Associate [email protected] Title: Low-fouling injectable hydrogels with precisely controlled degradation


41

Wyss Institute at HarvardPresented by: Abhishek Jain, Research [email protected] Title: A Bioinspired Microfluidic Whole Blood Monitor for in vitro & ex vivo Assess-ment of Thrombosis & Hemostasis

Xperii Presented by: Evan Ehrenberg, Co-Founder & [email protected] Poster Title: Xperii: Automating Subject Recruitment, Management, and Compliance


42 Innovator's Marketplace Exhibitors

Innovators’ Marketplace ExhibitorsLife Science Products and Services

ABI-LAB ........................................................................................................... www.abi-lab.com

Boehringer Iingelheim Pharmaceuticals ................................... www.boehringer-ingelheim.com

Boston Biomedical Associates .......................................................www.boston-biomedical.com

Charles River Laboratories ............................................................................... www.criver.com

CreaGen Chemistry Incubator ...............................................www.creagenchemincubator.com

Draper ...............................................................................................................www.draper.com

Integral Biosystems ...................................................................... www.integralbiosystems.com

Juniper Pharma Services ....................................................................www.juniperpharma.com

LaunchWorks Manufacturing Lab ....................................................... www.launchworksml.com

Mansfield Bio-Incubator, Inc. .............................................................................. www.bioinc.org

Masy BioServices ...............................................................................................www.masy.com

MedChem Partners, Inc. ................................................................www.medchempartners.com

MedSupply Partners .................................................................... www.medsupplypartners.com

NEPN ..................................................................................................................www.NEPN.net

ONTOFORCE ..............................................................................................www.ontoforce.com

Organix Inc. ................................................................................................www.organixinc.com

Pion Inc. ......................................................................................................... www.pion-inc.com

Safety Partners, Inc ........................................................................www.safetypartnersinc.com

Scilligence .....................................................................................................www.illigence.com

Selvita Inc. ........................................................................................................www.selvita.com

Seqll .....................................................................................................................www.seqll.com

Toxikon Corporation .........................................................................................www.toxikon.com

VistaLab Technologies ....................................................................................www.vistalab.com

Entrepreneurship Support

Massachusetts Life Sciences Center ..............................................www.masslifesciences.com

Massachusetts Technology Trasfer Center .................................................www.mattcenter.org


Innovator's Marketplace Exhibitors 43

MassBio .......................................................................................................... www.massbio.org

MALSI ............................................................................ www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=113959

Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2) ....................www.uml.edu/m2d2

Harvard Biotechnology Club ................................................................. www.thebiotechclub.org

Boston Life Science Networking ..................................................... www.bostonlifescience.com

Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs ....................................... www.harvardalumnientrepreneurs.org

Lemelson-MIT Program ................................................................................ web.mit.edu/invent

Life Science Nation ......................................................................... www.lifesciencenation.com

Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives ...................................................... www.massbiomed.org

MASS-AWIS ................................................................................................www.mass-awis.org

MassMedic ...............................................................................................www.massmedic.com

Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council ............................... www.masstechleaders.org

Massachusetts Technology Collaborative .................................................... www.masstech.org

MassGlobal Partners ...................................................................www.massglobalpartners.com

MVVF ....................................................................................................................www.mvvf.org

North Shore InnoVentures ..................................................................................... www.nsiv.org

OPEN ............................................................................................ www.open-newengland.com

TiE ................................................................................................................www.tie-boston.org

VentureWell ..............................................................................................www.cventurewell.org

WEST ..............................................................................................................www.westorg.org

Funding

CIMIT .................................................................................................................... www.cimit.org

Mass Medical Angels ........................................................................www.massmedangels.com

MassChallenge Inc. ..............................................................................www.masschallenge.org

New England Venture Capital Association ............................................www.newenglandvc.org

The Capital Network – TCN ..............................................................www.thecapitalnetwork.org

Professional Services

Pepper Hamilton LLP .................................................................................www.pepperlaw.com


44 Innovator's Marketplace Exhibitors

Notes

Dr. Abigail A. Barrow Chair MALSI Interim Executive Director,...

Documents

Transcript of Dr. Abigail A. Barrow Chair MALSI Interim Executive Director,...