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Nick Anderson, Ph.D.
Deputy Director of the Biomedical Informatics Core of the
Institute of Translational Health Science
Nick Anderson is Deputy Director of the Biomedical Informatics Core of the
Institute of Translational Health Science, a National Institutes of Health
funded 62 million dollar 5-year Clinical Translational
Science Award. He has
15 years experience in medical informatics, with 10 years involved in
software engineering in industry. He received his MS in 2004 from Oregon
Health Science University and in 2007 his PhD
in Biomedical Informatics from the University of Washington. His
research focuses on issues associated with designing, developing,
implementing and extending laboratory-based research systems, with a
focus on data sharing policies and user needs assessment. Secondary
research areas are bioinformatics workflows, personal health
information management and decision analysis for biomedicine. He is an
Acting Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Education and
Biomedical Informatics at the University of Washington.
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Robin Chang, Ph.D.
President and Founder of International Parallel Machines Inc.
Dr. Chang is the Founder and President of International Parallel Machines Inc., a maker of Programmable Logic Controllers designed for industrial use. International Parallel Machines, Inc. designs and manufactures a super-performance parallel processing computer system for various defense, petroleum and research applications. Dr. Chang received a PhD in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science in 1976 from Princeton University, and currently lives and works in Massachusetts.
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Michael Cox, Ph.D.
Dept. of Urologic Sciences, Univ. of British Columbia; The Prostate Centre at Vancouver General Hospital
Dr. Cox is a molecular and cellular biologist who earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of North Carolina. His research program is dedicated to understanding how prostate cancer initiates and progresses, and to finding ways of halting androgen independent disease progression. Dr. Cox’s research is funded by the Terry Fox Foundation, National Cancer Institute of Canada, the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority Hospital Foundation, the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and the British Columbia Foundation for Prostate Disease. His work focuses on early genetic changes in prostate cells, how resulting tumor cells respond to growth factors in the presence or absence of testosterone, and how these cellular changes allow prostate tumor cells to utilize these growth factors to aid development of testosterone independence. With colleagues at the University of British Columbia, he is developing antisense and small molecule drug strategies that decrease the responsiveness of tumor cells to growth factors and has shown that prostate cancer cells treated in this way are more sensitive to testosterone deprivation or treatment with other chemotherapies; first steps in developing effective treatments for patients with advanced prostate cancer.
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Alix Darden, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, The Citadel Department of Biology
Dr. Alix Darden, Associate Professor Biology at The Citadel, Charleston, SC and Associate Professor, Adjunct Appointment, Associate Member of the Graduate Faculty, Department of Ophthalmology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, has taught a variety of courses at the graduate and undergraduate level including immunology, general microbiology, genetics, human genetics, and molecular biology. Her areas of expertise include faculty development, research in teaching and learning, and effective engagement of students in undergraduate research projects. Dr. Darden studies development of expert scientific thinking as students participate in her NSF funded research on promoters for opsin genes in amphibians. Dr. Darden earned a BS in Biology from Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY, and her PhD in Immunology from Southwestern Graduate School, Dallas, TX.
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Eric W. Johnson, Ph.D.
Founder, CEO and Clinical Director of ACireGeneTics, LLC
Dr. Johnson until quite recently split his time between research and clinical efforts, serving as both the Director of the Neurovascular/Epilepsy Genetics Research Laboratory at the Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI) in Phoenix Arizona and as Founding Director of the clinical Molecular Diagnostics and BioBanking Laboratories at PreventionGenetics in Marshfield, Wisconsin. Since January of 2008 he has devoted his efforts fully to his new Clinical venture, ACireGeneTics, a laboratory dedicated to affordably serving the clinical and research needs of the rare disease community. He graduated from Boston University with honors and worked on platelet physiology at Harvard Medical School, going on to do graduate work in Neuropharmacology and Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Eric did postdocs in Psychiatry and Neurosurgery at Yale University before receiving advanced training in Genetics at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. He established the Neurogenetics Research Lab at the Center for Medical Genetics in Wisconsin before being recruited to develop the Neurovascular/Epilepsy Genetics lab at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona in 1998. He returned to Wisconsin in late 2003 to help Dr. Jim Weber found PreventionGenetics, a new Diagnostics and BioBanking company.
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Kendra Key
Administrator, Swank MS Foundation
Mrs. Key has been working with Dr. and Mrs. Swank for the last five years as a Personal Assistant, managing all daily responsibilities and helping Dr. Swank with his manuscript. In addition, she has been the Administrator for the Swank MS Foundation for the last 3 years, handling correspondence, donations, and other financial duties. She also meets regularly with the Board of Directors to further the work of Dr. Swank and help lead the Foundation to the next level of outreach in the MS community. Kendra's previous experience includes production work, and she is also the webmaster for www.swankmsdiet.org. Kendra works with volunteers on a daily basis, and has established a mentoring program pairing longtime Swank patients—those with 20-50 years on the diet—with new devotees for an easier, more supportive transition to the diet. Mrs. Key currently resides in Portland, Oregon. The Swank MS Foundation is a public charity and 501c3 tax-exempt foundation that provides information and resources on the Swank Low Fat Diet, vitamin supplements, and life-style changes beneficial to patients with Multiple Sclerosis, as well as their families and friends. The information on this healthy low-fat diet was developed by Roy L. Swank, M.D., Ph.D., and based on years of study, research and experience with multiple sclerosis patients.
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Constance Kaye Lautieri
Teacher and Real Estate Agent
Constance Kaye Lautieri has a doctorate in Christian Education from Cathedral Bible College in Myrtle Beach, S.C. She was chosen for Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges in 2007. In 2005-2007, she received Certificates of Appreciation from Veterans of Foreign War, Hope, Father Flanagan’s Girls and Boys Town, Feed the Children, and Miami Rescue. Constance, a widow and mother of two children, has a Real Estate license for Florida, where her home was a church for a Spanish-English Congregation for 8 years. She has experience in tax preparation, and investments. She currently resides in Somerset, Kentucky and is teaching at L.A.M. and Outreach for Jesus Bible Colleges.
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Valentino Montegrande
President and Chief Executive Officer, V. Montegrande & Co., Inc.
Mr. Montegrande has worked as a strategic marketing consultant specializing in launching new medical technologies for nearly three decades and has had a significant impact on the healthcare industry through the introduction of several disruptive technologies. Val has been successful in launching a number of early-stage, start-up medical companies including GENENTECH (the world’s first recombinant DNA, bioengineering firm), HYBRITECH (the first monoclonal antibody diagnostic company), and CAREMARK (originally Home Healthcare of America), as well as INNERDYNE, COOPERSURGICAL (The Cooper Companies), EYETEL (an Eli Lilly Alliance), GYNECARE (J&J), and DEPUY ACE (J&J) to name a few. Val has played an active role on numerous Boards of Directors, and Advisory Boards, and has contributed greatly in the development of new business strategies, investor relations, industry alliances and creating concepts for next-generation products. For over five years, he was also an educator and instructor under the Dean of the UCLA Anderson (Graduate) School of Management (Victor Tabbush) for the MMA/UCLA Medical Marketing Program held at the UCLA Anderson (Graduate) School of Management (Business). He also holds four patents in MEMS technology-based medical systems. Mr. Montegrande’s early professional experience included marketing products from both the diagnostic and therapeutic divisions of Baxter Hyland (Baxter International), as well as Kendall McGaw. Val earned his bachelor’s degree in Business/Marketing Communications at the California State University, San Jose (CSUSJ) and completed graduate courses at Santa Clara University Graduate School.
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Alexander Pemov, Ph.D.
Scientist, Kelly Scientific, Inc.
Dr. Alexander Pemov is a molecular biologist with expertise in high-throughput, genome-wide methods of analysis, multiplex solid-phase nucleic acid amplification, DNA replication, and chromatin and nuclear architecture. During his career, Dr. Pemov worked on projects as diverse as the role of histone variants in gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana, and genomic analysis of NF1 haploinsufficiency in humans and mice. A native of Russia, he graduated from Moscow State University with a degree in Physiology and earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow, Russia. Dr. Pemov completed his post-doctoral training in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, where he studied the role of chromatin and nuclear matrices in the initiation of DNA replication. As a visiting scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, he developed a proof of concept for the multiplex PCR amplification of nucleic acids on 3-dimentional microarrays as a tool for pathogen detection and identification (patent pending). Currently, Dr. Pemov works for Kelly Scientific, Inc. as a contractor for the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, where his research focuses on molecular mechanisms of the human genetic disorder Neurofibromatosis Type 1. Dr. Pemov has published numerous papers in peer-reviewed, international journals.
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Howard Rosen
Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Trading Officer, and CFO of New Trading Desk Strategies, LLC
Mr. Rosen has served as a Board Member, Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Trading Officer, and CFO of New Trading Desk Strategies, LLC, a hedge fund based in San Francisco, CA, since February 2007. Prior to that time, Mr Rosen had been a branch manager of 1st Discount Brokerage, Inc. and its predecessors since October 1985, and has been in securities since 1983 and a CA life insurance agent since 1979. Mr. Rosen has been involved in a number of startup ventures and is also a managing member of JP Renew Distributors, LLC, a member of the Gateway Center Finance Committee, a Life Member of Monterey History and Art Association, a Former President and Board Member of the Old Monterey Preservation Society, and a Charter Member of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Mr. Rosen graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with degrees in Economics and Sociology and worked to form alumni associations for those departments from 1979 to 1985.
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Ramanath Vairavan, M.S., M.B.A
Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing for AutoGenomics
Mr. Vairavan has more than 30 years experience in the clinical diagnostics industry. He holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering, an MS degree in Biomedical engineering from Washington University, St. Louis, MO and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ. He worked for Hoechst AG / Behring Diagnostics of Germany over a period of 25 years where he held several key management positions in research, operations, international sales and marketing in the US, Singapore and Germany. He is a co-founder, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for AutoGenomics, a biotechnology company based in Carlsbad, CA which has developed an automated multiplexing microarray platform for the clinical laboratory to assess disease signatures through cost effective genomic and proteomic profiling.
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Richard Hemmi Valente, Ph.D.
Senior Researcher, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Brazil
Dr. Valente received his BS in Biological Sciences and a Master’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Campinas, Brazil, where his primary focus was in the field of snake venom protein chemistry. He earned his Ph.D. from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro working with natural inhibitors of snake venoms, specifically by thoroughly describing a new inhibitor isolated from a venomous snake´s serum. Dr. Valente has worked as a Research Associate at the Biomolecular Research Facility located at the University of Virginia (USA) where he continued his scientific studies and gathered experience working in a core facility gaining exposure to emerging proteomic techniques. Upon his return to Rio de Janeiro, Dr. Valente was awarded a tenured position at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a leading Latin American research center, where he hass actively participated in the quest for funding, implementation, and running of a proteomics laboratory that is being used both in snake venom natural inhibitor research, and also in projects focused on infectious diseases such as Dengue fever, Leishmaniasis, Leprosy, and Chagas disease, among others.
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Tomas Vomastek, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, Institute of Microbiology, Prague, Czech Republic
Dr. Vomastek received a PhD in 1998 from the Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. His post-doctoral studies were undertaken in the field of intracellular signaling at University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA. In 2007 he returned to Czech Republic and became an independent investigator at the Institute of Microbiology, Prague. Mr. Vomastek's research focuses on the role Extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK) cascade plays in the regulation of a diverse array of cellular programs including cell growth and division, cell death, cell differentiation and cell movement. His goal is to understand the mechanism by which ubiquitously activated ERK cascade create unique biological response and how this mechanism is altered in development and progression of cancer.
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Dr. Shumei Sun, MD/MS
Chief Scientific Officer and President of Biomoles, Inc.
Dr. Sun is the founder and president of Biomoles, Inc, also a recognized leading expert in gene expression analysis and nucleic acid separation science. During her previous tenure in biotech industries and healthcare field, Dr. Sun has been engaged in product development, cancer detection, pathogen identification and clinical medicine for 20 years. At Zhengzhou University where she was a Professor and gastroenterologist for 8 years and as a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dr. Sun made several breakthrough discoveries concerning the diagnostic applications of oncogenes and their products, including the c-cerbB-2 oncoprotein as a gene marker for cancer diagnosis. During the past 8 years, Dr. Sun has been the principal scientist in antibody expression at a leading US diagnostic science and drug target localization company as well as in nucleic acid purification technology. Dr. Sun’s invention of high purity DNA separation technology has been well recognized by known institutes. Her development of Smartarray technology will advance early cancer detection and precarcinoma analysis. As a driven and dedicated entrepreneur, Dr. Sun has also impacted key roles in four start-ups both in China and the US which together generated revenues of $10M within the first 5 years. Dr. Sun holds a MD and advanced graduate degree, MS, in molecular tumor research.
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