BioTalk

Ron Piervincenzi, Ph.D., CEO of United States Pharmacopeia, sits down with host, Rich Bendis, to discuss USP’s growth since his last visit, the nature of their organization, and plans on hosting the 2022 BioHealth Capital Region Forum in person at their beautiful building in Rockville, Maryland.

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Ronald T. Piervincenzi, Ph.D., has served as Chief Executive Officer of the United States Pharmacopeia since February 2014. Dr. Piervincenzi provides strategic leadership to USP’s global staff of over 1,300 across sites in the US (Rockville, Frederick, D.C.), India, China, Ghana and Switzerland, and global public health field offices including Nigeria, Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. His transformative vision has launched key USP initiatives in bringing quality across the healthcare spectrum, upholding USP’s reputation as a quality leader since its founding in 1820. Under his leadership, USP has modernized its operations and launched innovative new science, including in the areas of digital medicine, cutting-edge manufacturing technologies and advanced biologics. More recently, USP has begun building a robust “capability building” services suite of offerings including quality manufacturing consulting, donor-funded work, and education. Dr. Piervincenzi served as Chair of the Council of Experts, USP’s scientific standards-setting body of 24 Expert Committees and over 750 standards-setting experts until June 2015, when he transferred this responsibility to USP’s new Chief Science Officer.

Dr. Piervincenzi brings more than 20 years of industry experience across pharmaceutical sciences, research and business strategy. Before joining USP, Dr. Piervincenzi served as Vice President of Development Sciences with Biogen Idec, Inc., where he designed and launched Biogen’s value-based medicine group focusing on applying tools and technologies of personalized medicine in the treatment and management of multiple sclerosis. Dr. Piervincenzi was a partner and leader in McKinsey & Company’s global pharmaceutical and medical products practice for over 12 years. In this capacity, Dr. Piervincenzi launched McKinsey’s global drug safety, medical and regulatory service line. With McKinsey, Dr. Piervincenzi also led the global research and information analytics team, managing staff in New Jersey, London, Brussels, and India.

Dr. Piervincenzi earned his M.S. and Ph.D. from Duke University in Biomedical Engineering, with research focused on protein engineering. He is the proud co-founder and chairman of the board for MENTOR Newark.

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Geoffrey Lynn, SVP, Synthetic Immunotherapies, Vaccitech, visits Rich Bendis to discuss his career from NIH, to CEO of Avidea, to their merger with Vaccitech.

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Dr. Geoffrey Lynn is leveraging his background in synthetic chemistry and cellular immunology to lead Avidea’s efforts to develop precision immunotherapies for treating cancer and autoimmune diseases. Dr. Lynn has expertise in designing, GMP manufacturing and assessing safety, efficacy & MOA of polymer-drug conjugate / nanoparticle technologies for immunotherapeutic applications. Previously, Dr. Lynn was a visiting scientist in the laboratory of Professor Christopher Jewell at the Fischell Department of Engineering at UMD and trained as a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Robert Seder at the Vaccine Research Center of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Lynn attended medical school at Johns Hopkins University; obtained a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Oxford as an NIH-Oxford and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow; and received his B.S. in chemistry from Elon University, where he was a Goldwater Scholar.

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Bill visits BioTalk to talk about being a serial entrepreneur, biotech executive, and their recent acquisition of Avidea Technologies.

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William “Bill” Enright is a seasoned biotech executive with more than thirty years of experience in building and financing both privately held and publicly held companies. Bill spent more than ten years at Altimmune (NASDAQ: ALT) as a Director, President & CEO, moving multiple programs into clinical testing, completing several acquisitions and eventually taking the company public. Prior to joining Altimmune, Bill spent six years with GenVec, Inc. (acquired by Intrexon) with increasing responsibilities, which included a role as Head of Business Development. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Gravitas Therapeutics, Inc.

Bill brings a breadth of experiences in a variety of positions within the life science/biotech industry, including time as a consultant, a bench scientist and 12 years with Life Technologies, Inc. (acquired by Thermo-Fisher), working in various senior level licensing, business management, manufacturing and research roles.

Bill received a Master of Arts in Molecular Biology from SUNY at Buffalo and a Master of Science in Business Management from Johns Hopkins University.

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Jeff Galvin, CEO of American Gene Technologies and Rich Bendis, CEO and President of BioHealth Innovation, Inc. have a fireside chat about the rapid evolution of the BioHealth Capital Region.

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On the heels of Silicon Valley’s branding as one of the world’s largest tech hubs, the BioHealth Capital Region aims to brand the DMV region as one of the most prominent BioHealth clusters in the Mid-Atlantic. BioHealth Innovation, Inc. was founded 11 years ago in an effort to drive ideas from labs into markets through innovation-driven economic development organizations and initiatives.

Galvin and Bendis discuss the abundance of opportunities for growth within the region as it is home to a wide variety of research institutions, top scientists, and annual grants. Additionally, they discuss how BioHealth Innovation, Inc. cultivates success for companies within the competitive region.

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Paul Rennie OBE, Counsellor for Global Issues in the Global Economy Group at the British Embassy, Washington DC, and Professor Jason Snape, Head of Environmental Protection within AstraZeneca’s Global Sustainability Team, join Rich Bendis to Discuss Life Sciences, Climate Change, COP26 – UN Climate Change Conference, and The Race to Zero Campaign.

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Paul Rennie, OBE, is the Counsellor for Global Issues in the Global Economy Group at the British Embassy, Washington DC, leading the UK’s climate and energy, economic and trade, and science and technology networks across the United States. Prior to that, he led the Foreign Office’s strategic transformation programme, focused on delivering a 21st century Diplomatic Service. Paul was born in Edinburgh and educated at George Heriot’s School, before going on to graduate with an MA in Economics and Politics (Edinburgh University) and an MSc in Economics (York University). He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2001 as the first of a new group of Diplomatic Service Economists. He has served at the United Nations (New York), Brazil, India and Malaysia, as well as working on secondment to the Cabinet Office and the Department for International Development. In addition to his economic work, Paul speaks five languages (English, French, Dutch, Portuguese and Hindi).

Professor Jason Snape is the Global Head of Environment within AstraZeneca’s Global Sustainability Team. Accountable for delivering AstraZeneca’s global ambitions to drive natural resource reduction (ambition zero carbon, water and waste reduction) and ensure the environmental safety of pharmaceuticals throughout their lifecycle (product environmental stewardship and pharmaceuticals in the environment). Member of the AstraZeneca UK Leadership Team.  Chair of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Associations (EFPIA), Medicines for Europe, and AESGP working group on the environmental risk assessment of human medicinal products. Recognized scientific leader and opinion former with >6000 citations from approximately 50 publications. Honorary Clinical Professor at the University of Warwick and a Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Newcastle.  Member of the University of York’s Environmental Sustainability Advisory Board.  Co-chair the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Pharmaceutical Advisory Group.

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Dr. Murat Kalayoglu, President and CEO at Cartesian Therapeutics, provides an update since his last visit on their cell and gene therapies, as well as fundraising successes.

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Dr. Murat Kalayoglu is President and CEO at Cartesian Therapeutics, a fully integrated, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering RNA cell therapy in and beyond oncology. The company, founded in 2016, with three assets in clinical trials, is the leader in RNA cell therapy with products in development for autoimmune, oncologic and respiratory disorders. Cartesian’s investigational therapies are manufactured at a wholly owned, state-of-the-art cGMP manufacturing facility in Gaithersburg, MD. Prior to Cartesian, Dr. Kalayoglu was co-founder and CEO of Topokine, which he led from concept to late-stage clinical trials, followed by a successful sale to Allergan. Dr. Kalayoglu was also co-founder and COO of HealthHonors Corporation, which he led from concept to commercialization, followed by a successful sale to Healthways. Dr. Kalayoglu is a board-certified ophthalmologist who completed his residency and research Fellowship at Harvard, MD/PhD in immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

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Dr. Laurie E. Locascio, Vice President for Research at both the University of Maryland College Park and Baltimore, Visits BioTalk to Discuss Her Career, Tech Transfer, and the Two Institutions Working Together

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Laurie E. Locascio, Ph.D., is the Vice President for Research at the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

In this role, Dr. Locascio oversees the University of Maryland’s vibrant research and innovation enterprise at these two campuses, which garner a combined $1.1 billion in external research funding each year. Within Locascio’s purview are the development of large interdisciplinary research programs, technology commercialization, innovation and economic development efforts, and strategic partnerships with industry, federal, academic, and nonprofit collaborators. She is a professor in Maryland’s Fischell Department of Bioengineering, and professor (secondary) in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Dr. Locascio previously worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), most recently as Acting Principal Deputy Director and Associate Director responsible for leading the internal scientific research and laboratory programs across two campuses in Gaithersburg, MD and Boulder, CO.

Locascio received a B.Sc. in chemistry from James Madison University, a M.Sc. in bioengineering from the University of Utah, and a Ph.D. in toxicology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. As a biomedical researcher, she published more than 100 scientific papers and 12 patents.

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Dr. Dipanjan Pan and Phil Robilotto of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, join BioTalk to discuss RNA Disease Diagnostics, UM Ventures, and the commercialization of new medical technologies

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Prof. Dipanjan Pan, MS, Ph.D., is an expert in nanomedicine, molecular imaging, drug delivery, and biosensing. He is presently a tenured Full Professor in Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, Pediatrics and Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland Baltimore School of Medicine and University of Maryland Baltimore County. Prior to moving to Maryland, he was a tenured Associate Professor and Associate Head of the department in Bioengineering and Materials Science and Engineering and Institute of Sustainability in Energy and Environment at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He administratively directs the Nanofabrication and Characterization Core at CBOTH and a Director for the Investigational Probe Design Resources in Radiology.

He serves as study section review board member for NIH, CDMRP (DoD), NSF, and multiple review committee member for American Heart Association. In 2016 he received Nanomaterials Letter (NML) Researcher award, in 2017 a Young Innovator Award from Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), and a Deans Award for Research Excellence in 2018. He is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Fellow of the American Heart Association, and an elected fellow of the American College of Cardiology. Professor Pan is an Associate Editor for WIRES Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology (Wiley) and an editorial advisory board member of Molecular Pharmaceutics (ACS).

Phil Robilotto, DO, MBA, is director of the technology development and commercialization program, University of Maryland (UM) Ventures, at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). Since joining UMB In 2012, Dr. Robilotto has grown UMB’s intellectual property, and licensing efforts, launched a new business venture initiative, and started an early-stage investment program that supports UMB start-ups.

Dr. Robilotto has over 20 years of clinical practice and pharmaceutical/biotechnology strategic planning and business development experience, most recently with Celera and DuPont Pharmaceuticals. He has led valuation and planning efforts for technology platforms and clinical-stage products and has successfully developed, negotiated, and executed collaborations across a broad range of life science-based technologies with a variety of commercial partners.

Dr. Robilotto is a licensed physician in the state of Maryland and received his DO from the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. He also holds a BS in Biology from the College of William and Mary and an MBA from Duke University.

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Alexandria Venture Investments Senior Associate, Conley Jones, virtually sits down with Rich Bendis on BioTalk to discuss Venture Trends, Investment Goals, and their National Footprint

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Conley Jones is a Senior Associate with Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., and Alexandria Venture Investments, where he helps manage the company’s New York City and Maryland tenant and investment portfolios. Prior to joining Alexandria in 2016, he worked in a number of roles spanning the healthcare and life science sectors, including as a Business Analyst with liquid biopsy company Sevident, a Healthcare Informatics Specialist with Inova Health Systems, and as a post-baccalaureate researcher with Harvard Medical School. Mr. Jones received his BS in Biology from the College of William & Mary and his MEng in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Deka BioSciences CEO, John Mumm, CEO of Deka BioSciences, virtually guests on BioTalk to discuss his history in the BioHealth Capital Region, Precision Medicine, and Funding Strategies.

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John has spent 24 years researching and developing various technologies associated with IL-10. His work experience included various leadership roles at Anergen, Introgen Therapeutics, Bacterial BarCodes, Schering-Plough, Merck, Targenics, ARMO BioSciences, ACIR BioSciences, and MedImmune/AstraZeneca. John’s primary focus has been on discovery research at the interface between cancer biology and the adaptive immune response. Visit https://www.dekabiosciences.com/ to learn more about them today.

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