Directors & Advisors
Ceres is a privately held corporation with an experienced leadership team and an advisory board that includes thought leaders, researchers, and practitioners in clinical diagnostics and advanced life sciences technologies.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
TOM MILLER
After receiving a degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, Tom studied Medical Physics at the Harvard/MIT Health Sciences and Technology joint program graduating with a Masters degree in 1982. During his academic career he worked at Los Alamos, the Swiss Institute for Nuclear Research (now the Paul Scherer Institute), Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Massachusetts General Hospital as a research associate in radiation biophysics.
Tom then joined Siemens Medical Systems where, after 9 years, he became the first non-German CEO of a German factory and business unit. He left Siemens after 15 years to become CEO of the global medical operations of Carl Zeiss. Completing a successful turnaround, he joined Analogic Corporation as CEO. After three years and a doubling of the stock price, Tom left to become CEO of LightLab Imaging, a start-up that he helped to establish. Completing a profitable sale of LightLab to a Japanese company, Tom re-joined Siemens eventually serving as a member of the operating board of Siemens Healthcare and the CEO of the Customer Solutions Division, responsible for 26,000 employees in over 130 countries.
SCOTT GAZELLE, M.D., Ph.D.
Scott Gazelle is a physician-scientist and academic entrepreneur who has been involved in the development and assessment of new medical technologies for more than 25 years. He received a BA from Dartmouth College and an MD from Case Western Reserve University, and then trained in General Surgery and Radiology at University Hospitals of Cleveland, where he also served as Chief Resident in Radiology. Following residency, he completed a fellowship in Abdominal Imaging and Interventional Radiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and then joined the faculty there. In 1996, he received an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, majoring in Health Care Management. In 1999, he received a PhD in Health Policy from Harvard University.
In his 24 years at the MGH, Scott established and directed basic science, clinical and policy-focused research programs. He was Associate Director of the MGH Center for Imaging and Pharmaceutical Development, where his team developed and patented agents for both CT and ultrasound. He also established and directed a multi-national collaboration that developed new techniques for radiofrequency (RF) tumor ablation. The resulting technology has now been used to treat thousands of patients. In 1997, Scott established the MGH Institute for Technology Assessment, now one of the largest and most successful academic programs for early-stage technology assessment and comparative effectiveness research.
He has served as the Director of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Program in Cancer Outcomes Research Training and the Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs and Associate Vice-Chair for Research in the MGH Department of Radiology. Scott has also been President of the Association of University Radiologists, the Radiology Research Alliance, the New England Roentgen Ray Society, and Chair of the American College of Radiology Commission on Research and Technology Assessment and the RSNA Research Development Committee, Director of Partners Radiology, and a member of the Radiologic Society of North America R&E Foundation Board of Trustees. He has authored more than 250 scientific articles, published two textbooks and presented numerous papers, lectures, and workshops nationally and internationally. In 2015, Scott was named “Outstanding Researcher” by the Radiology Society of North America.
In addition to co-founding GreyBird Ventures, Scott remains Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health.
ROSS DUNLAP
Ross is the CEO and a co-founder of Ceres Nanosciences. In the role of CEO, Ross is responsible for strategic planning, technology development and product commercialization; financial management and capital fundraising; and business development and industry partnerships. Ross has led Ceres since its inception during which time he has raised over $15MM in equity and grant funding, overseen the build out of a highly effective and efficient business infrastructure and team, and established multiple high-profile partnerships with industry and academic leaders.
Ross has 22 years of experience working in operational and strategic business development. He began his career with Arthur Andersen's Business Consulting practice, working with start-up technology companies to establish and grow critical business operations and deliver services and technologies to new markets. Following this, Ross spent five years with Washington Consulting, which he helped start up and rapidly grow into a successful business that was acquired by Alion Science and Technology in 2006.
Ross is active in the business and life sciences community in Virginia. He is on the board and executive committee of the Virginia Biotechnology Association, and serves as an adviser to Prince William County’s economic development office and is a member of the county’s Life Sciences Leadership Group. Ross also serves on the board of the George Mason Research Foundation and on George Mason's College of Science Advisory Board.
Ross graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Commerce from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia.
EMANUEL "CHIP" PETRICOIN III, Ph.D.
Dr. Petricoin is one of the inventors of the Nanotrap® technology and a renowned innovator in the field of proteomics and personalized medicine. As a founder of Ceres Nanosciences and Chief Scientist, Dr. Petricoin provides technical guidance and expertise to key components of Ceres Nanosciences' scientific research, product development, and industry collaborations.
Dr. Petricoin is a professor of Life Sciences and serves as the Co-Director of CAPMM Labs at George Mason University. Prior to this, Dr. Petricoin was the Co-Director of the FDA-NCI Clinical Proteomics Program, and a Senior Investigator within the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the US Food and Drug Administration. He is a co-inventor on 40 filed and published patents, and has authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications and invited reviews. He has authored over 40 book chapters, is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Human Genomics and Proteomics, is on the editorial board of Proteomics, Biomedical Microdevices, Proteomics- Clinical Applications, Proteomics- Protocols, Molecular Carcinogenesis, Journal of Personalized Medicine and is a Senior Editor for Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention. He was previously the founding Co-Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Proteomics. Dr. Petricoin is a founding member of the Human Proteomic Organization (HUPO) and US HUPO; he served on the Executive Committee of HUPO and as Treasurer from 2002-2004. He is a member of the Faculty of 1000. He has received numerous awards including the University Professorship at George Mason University, the NIH Director’s Award, FDA Distinguished Scientist Award, American Society of Cytopathology Basic Research Award, the Roche Diagnostics/CLAS Distinguished Scientist Award and the Harvard University Leading Edge Award.
Dr. Petricoin holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Maryland at College Park.
IAN WRIGHT
Ian is currently CEO of Strategic Innovations LLC. He has worked in In Vitro Diagnostic Industry for the past 30 years. He led the Global Assay Development and the Strategic Innovations Group for Siemens Healthcare (diagnostics). He has worked in most sectors, disciplines and geographies of that industry. Among his roles with his current company is that of Chief Business Advisor for the Applied Clinical Biosystems Research Institute (Barbra Streisand Heart Institute) and Chief Strategic Advisor for the Precision Health Initiative at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He currently sits on company and advisory boards of life science and VC companies.
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
LANCE LIOTTA, PH.D., M.D.
Since 2005 Dr. Liotta has served as Co-Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM) at George Mason University. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Liotta served as Chief of the Laboratory of Pathology, NCI, Deputy Director of NIH, Co-Director of the NCI/FDA Clinical Proteomics Program, and Director of the Anatomic Pathology Residency Program. For his PhD in Biomedical Engineering (MD/PhD Case Western Reserve) he developed the first mathematical model of the cancer metastatic process and studied the early release of circulating tumor cells. At the NIH he went on to investigate the process of tumor invasion and metastasis at the molecular level. Dr. Liotta has invented and patented, along with his laboratory co-inventors, transformative technologies in the fields of diagnostics, cancer molecular therapeutics, microdissection (Laser Capture Microdissection), and proteomics (Reverse Phase Protein Microarrays, Biomarker Harvesting Nanoparticles, preservation chemistries for molecular analysis, and “protein painting” for drug target mapping) that have been used to make broad discoveries in cancer biology, and diagnostics, and therapeutics. The Laser Capture Microdissection prototype is in the Smithsonian Collection. His team at CAPMM studies the proteomics of human tissue, cultured cells, and body fluids, using this set of novel technologies. This research has directly resulted in ongoing clinical research trials applying the technology to the discovery of markers for early stage disease, individualized therapy for metastatic cancer, and adjuvant therapy of premalignant breast cancer. He is a founder of Theranostics Health and Ceres Nanosciences. Dr. Liotta has more than 100 issued or allowed patents and more than 690 publications. He is an ISI highly cited investigator and the recipient of numerous awards for biomedical research including the 2015 Outstanding Virginia Faculty Award (SCHEV), the Flemming Award for Cancer Research, the Warner-Lambert Parke Davis Award, and the Surgeon General’s Medallion. He is Board Certified in Anatomic Pathology and is Medical Director of the GMU CAP/CLIAcertified clinical proteomics Lab.
BARNEY BISHOP, PH.D.
Dr. Bishop is a professor of General Biology and Protein Biochemistry at George Mason University. Dr. Bishop received a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1997, where his graduate research focused on peptide synthesis and engineering. After receiving his doctorate, Dr. Bishop joined the laboratory of Dr. Lynne Regan at Yale University as a postdoctoral associate in order to continue his education and gain experience in the areas of molecular biology, protein engineering and protein biophysical characterization. His research focused on reengineering helical bundle proteins in order to enhance their stability. In the spring of 2001, Dr Bishop joined New River Pharmaceuticals as a Senior Research Scientist. During his time at New River Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Bishop played a major role in the design and assembly of product lead candidates. He joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at George Mason University in the fall of 2003. His current research interests include molecular engineering, antimicrobial peptides and the design of novel therapeutic agents for combating infection, In 2007, Dr. Bishop joined the scientific advisory board for Kempharm, Inc., an early-phase biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of new and safer treatments for pain, AD/HD and other illnesses.
ALESSANDRA LUCHINI KUNKEL, PH.D.
Dr. Luchini is a Research Professor at George Mason University. She obtained her doctorate from the University of Padova in Italy in 2005. She has worked as a research fellow for Department of Biotechnology and Bioscience at the University of Milano-Bicocca, in Milano, Italy and as a Teaching Assistant at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Master in Molecular Immunopathology. She has published a number of peer reviewed articles and has been working with CAPMM since 2004.
KYLENE KEHN-HALL, PH.D.
Dr. Kylene Kehn-Hall received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from The George Washington University (GWU) studying retroviral pathogenesis and breast cancer biology. She went on to do her post-doctoral research at the FBI Counterterrorism and Forensic Science Research Lab, focusing on application based science and assay development. In 2007 she took a Research Scientist position within Dr. Sina Bavari's laboratory at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID), where she worked towards high throughput assay development and the identification of novel therapeutics for hemorrhagic fever viruses. Prior to coming to George Mason University, Dr. Kehn-Hall was an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine at GWU, where she continued her work on HIV and HTLV-1 studying the host response to viral infection. Currently, she is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases and the School of Systems Biology. Dr. Kehn-Hall's research is focused on the development of diagnostics and therapeutics for emerging infectious diseases, specifically Bunyaviruses, Alphaviruses, and HIV. Proteomics (membrane, serum, and phospho) and miRNA profiling technologies are being used to identify cellular targets for viral inhibition as well as biomarkers for disease.
FATAH KASHANCHI, PH.D.
Dr. Fatah Kashanchi is the Director of Research of George Mason University's Biomedical Research Laboratory and Professor of Microbiology. His area of expertise is the Molecular Biology of human retroviruses, namely HIV-1 and HTLV-1. Dr. Kashanchi has published more than 157 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has a number of NIH (R01 and R21) grants, Keck foundation grant, as well as institutional funding for my research. He currently serves on a number of national advisory and review committees, including five NIH and NFS study sections. Dr. Fatah Kashanchi received his Ph.D. in 1990 in Microbiology with emphasis on HIV gene his post-doctoral and Research Associate fellowship at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. He was tenured at the George Washington University medical school as a full Professor in 2004 and moved to GMU as director of research in 2010. The current research in Dr. Kashanchi's lab is focused on defining transcriptional and chromatin mediated regulation of HIV and HTLV-1 infected cells. The Kashanchi lab's studies have resulted in novel concepts regarding promoter-bound proteins that regulate all events of mRNA biogenesis (including capping, elongation, termination, poly A addition, splicing), nuclear-cytoplasmic transport, and activation of nonsense mRNA degradation. Among biothreat agents, the Kashanchi lab is working with Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) and Venuzueln Equine Encepalitis virus (VEEV) replication in vitro and in vivo and defining crucial host-pathogen interactions that are imperative to pathogenesis.