Speaker Biographies

MEENA AUGUSTUS, PH.D. is a co-founder of Avalon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq and ArcaEx®: AVRX), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of small molecule therapeutics.  Avalon uses cutting edge, revolutionary drug and target discovery approaches in cancer.  As Senior Scientific Director, she oversaw the efforts of the Molecular Genetics and Oncology group from the company's inception in 2000 to November 2002. and was instrumental to the development of Avalon's Amplicon and Biorepository databases.  She currently oversees Strategic Scientific Alliances for Avalon, initiating and establishing key scientific, academic and clinical collaborations for Avalon, both domestic and international.  Dr. Augustus is an honorary member on the Advisory Boards of the BIO IT Coalition and Shreis Cardiotech Inc., (www.shreis.com).

Dr. Augustus has served in premier research institutions in India, Germany, France and the U.S.  She received the prestigious, German Academic Exchange Service and Alexander von Humboldt Fellowships to study cancer genetics and clinical oncology.  For 18 years as a member of the oncology faculty in a UICC-affiliated, 250-bedded Comprehensive Cancer Research, Treatment and Teaching Hospital in Bangalore, India, she served as Professor and Head, Department of Cell-biology & Pathology.  While there, she played a key role in a large scale WHO-sponsored cancer detection and screening program in Karnataka, India and was a co-investigator in a multi-institutional Indo-US (NCI-sponsored) study on the molecular characterization of lymphoid neoplasia.  She accompanied her husband on his diplomatic assignment to the Embassy of India in Washington DC, from1994-1998 combining it with a sabbatical as a Special Volunteer with the Fogarty International Center, at the NIH.  She has held a visiting scientist position at HGS,I, where she mapped more than 100 human genes to their chromosomal locations.  She was also a consultant at the Center for Prostate Disease Research (USUHS/Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine), and pioneered a study on the molecular cytogenetic analysis of prostate cancer.  During 1997-1999, Dr. Augustus was a visiting scientist in the Lymphoma Biology Section-Pediatric Branch and the Cancer Genetics Group (NCI/NIH), and the Genome Technology Branch (NHGRINIH).  She played a key role in the design and development of the recently launched NCI and NCBI SKY/CGH Interactive Online (Cytogenetic) Database, a public resource that will enable the compilation and analysis of chromosome aberrations in cancer, both human and mouse (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sky/skyweb.cgi).  Dr. Augustus earned an M.S. in Zoology in 1974 and a Ph.D. in Human Genetics in 1979, from India and has published widely.

RICHARD S. BAKALAR, M.D. is the Chief Medical Officer for the Information Based Medicine Innovation Team at IBM.  He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Nuclear Medicine and brings strong clinical program management experience in advanced health system analysis and design.  Captain Bakalar (US Navy, retired) was the Navy's Surgeon General Executive Assistant for Telemedicine initiatives beginning in 1995 and is the current President-elect of the American Telemedicine Association.  He completed 26 years of active duty service in the US Navy prior to joining IBM in March 2003.  Dr Bakalar is a clinical advisor in medical transformation, best practices, applied information technology, and project management.  Dr. Bakalar is the senior medical domain consultant for IBM's information based medicine patient centric network interoperability practice, clinical decision intelligence and advanced enterprise (multi-center, multi-specialty) medical imaging PACS solutions.

ANNA D. BARKER, PH.D. serves as the Deputy Director for Advanced Technologies and Strategic Partnerships of the National Cancer Institute.  In this role she develops and implements programs to specifically accelerate the movement of laboratory discoveries through development into new interventions to prevent, detect and treat cancer.  Dr. Barker completed her Ph.D. at the Ohio State University, where she trained in immunology and microbiology.  Her research interests include experimental therapeutics, tumor immunology, and free-radical biochemistry in cancer etiology and treatment.

Dr. Barker has a long history in research and the leadership and management of research and development in the academic, non-profit and private sectors.  She served as a senior executive at Battelle Memorial Institute for 18 years where she developed and led a large group of scientists and technical staff working in areas such as drug discovery and development, pharmacology, and biotechnology, including several NCI sponsored research programs.

Dr. Barker is a co-founder of OXIS International Inc. and BIO-NOVA, Inc., focused in experimental therapeutics development and cancer technology development, respectively.  She is a member of the Steering Committee of C-Change and chairperson of the C-Change Cancer Research Team.  She is a member of the DOD Breast Cancer Research Program Integration Panel, and a past chairperson of the BCRP Integration Panel.  Dr. Barker has served in several capacities for the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), including the Board of Directors and chairperson of the Public Science Policy and Legislative Affairs Committee; and the NCI, including membership on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the Division of Cancer Etiology and chairperson of the Cancer Center Support Review Study Section.  Dr. Barker has received a number of awards for her contributions to research, cancer patients, professional and advocacy organizations and the ongoing national effort to prevent and cure cancer.

CARL BOTAN, PH.D. Professor of Communication, GMU,began teaching and doing research on strategic communication campaigns 25 years ago, after working as a practitioner in public relations, labor, and political campaigns in Michigan for about a dozen years.  His current focus is on the use of strategic communication campaigns to address terrorism and other homeland security issues in both the U.S. and the developing world. In particular, he studies ways to ethically integrate strategic communication campaigns into domestic preparedness, training, and education efforts addressing both bio-terrorism and natural disasters.

Dr. Botan has won numerous awards, including designation as Australia's 1998 Outstanding Scholar-Practitioner in Public Relations and the Outstanding Research Achievement Award in public relations from the International Communication Association.  He has won the National Communication Association's Presidential Citation, has served on the National Curriculum Commissions for Public Relations in both the United States and in Australia, and has delivered more than 50 formal lectures outside the U.S., primarily in Brazil, Europe and Australia.

His best-known work is Public Relations Theory (with Vincent Hazleton) the first theory book in public relations published in 1989.  In 2006 the same authors published a sequel, Public Relations Theory II.  Dr. Botan co-authored three other books including Investigating Communication, one of the two leading methods texts in the field of communication (with Lawrence Frey of Colorado and Gary Kreps of GMU), Interpreting Communication and Human Communication and the Aging Process, along with more than 45 articles and book chapters.

MARTIN BRILEY has 20 years of experience in national and international business development and management. Since April 1997, he has been Executive Director of the Prince William County Department of Economic Development and responsible to attract investment from technology companies.  The investment level has risen from an annual average of $20 Million per year to $2.5 Billion during the past six years.  The Department has been recognized as one of the top ten most successful economic development programs in North America.  Washington Business Journal called the industrial deal for Eli Lilly and Company one of the top ten deals nationwide.

During the preceding seven years, Mr. Briley worked for the Office of the Governor, Virginia Department of Economic Development, subsequently the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, and served as international marketing director.  He worked as Director of Finance and Administration at Honeywell's Tetra Tech International and worked with large-scale infrastructure development projects in the Sultanate of Oman. Furthermore, he was an assistant professor at the Macau Institute in Southeast Asia, and worked for the Office of the Governor in Alaska.

Mr. Briley has a B. S. degree and a Master of Public Administration degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.  He served on the Virginia Governor's Biotechnology Advisory Board, and as a member of the Virginia Attorney General's Task Force on Regulatory Reform and Economic Development.  He is also a member of the International Economic Development Council and a Certified Economic Developer (CEcA), an associate member of CorNet Global, Northern Virginia Economic Development Coalition, a member of the Virginia Economic Developers Association and recipient of the VEDA 2003 Cardinal Award.

Return to the Conference Program

VIKAS CHANDHOKE, PH.D. is Associate Dean of Research for the College of Arts and Sciences at George Mason University where he also serves as the Director of Life Sciences, the Director of the Center for Biomedical Genomics & Informatics and the Shared Research Instrumentation Facility as well as the Chair for the new Department of Molecular and Microbial Biology.  It is through these entities that he leads the development of medical and scientific research programs with molecular bioscience and informatics scientists who exploit synergistic junctures of cutting-edge applied research.  Current studies include cancer genomics, genomics of liver diseases, cartilage studies, and development of large scale relational database integrating clinical and gene expression data. 5

Return to the Conference Program

JERRY COUGHTER is a Research Associate Professor and Director of Life Science Business Development in the College of Arts & Sciences at George Mason University.  He coordinates the interaction of the faculty withprivate sector partners and funding agencies, and played a key role in the University's successful effort to win a $25 million dollar award to build a biodefense research facility at the Prince William Campus.  Before joining Mason, Jerry served as the Executive Director of Governor Warner's Biotechnology Initiative and was the Industry Director for Biotechnology at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, leading the Commonwealth's efforts to grow the industry state-wide.  Jerry spent 10 years in the private sector with Life Science companies and six years in molecular biology research labs.  He has published peer-reviewed research papers and taught at the community college and university levels.

Jerry holds an MS in microbiology & immunology from the Medical College of Virginia and an MBA from the Byrd School of Business at Shenandoah University.  He is Ph.D. candidate in Science & Technology Policy at the Mason School of Public Policy, where his research is focused on innovation policy and technology-driven economic growth.

Return to the Conference Program

KEVIN DAVIES, PH.D. is the Editor-in-Chief of Bio-IT World, the monthly magazine covering information technology and life sciences published by IDG.  He is the author of Cracking the Genome, an accessible and comprehensive account of the conclusion of the Human Genome Project.

Dr. Davies graduated from Oxford University and obtained a Ph.D in genetics from the University of London.  After conducting postdoctoral research at MIT and Harvard Medical School, he joined the editorial staff of the prestigious British science journal Nature in 1990.

In 1992, Kevin founded Nature Genetics, the world's leading genetics and genomics journal.  He later served as the science editor at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland, the largest medical philanthropy in the United States.  Prior to launching Bio-IT World, Davies served as editor-in-chief of Cell Press.

Dr. Davies' latest book, Cracking the Genome, has been translated into 15 languages. He is also the author (with Michael White) of Breakthrough: The Race to Find the Breast Cancer Gene.

Return to the Conference Program

ANDREW DEPRISTO, PH.D. is an executive with long-term involvement in the life and chemical science industry and research.  His background encompasses: Strategic and operational management in both large and small enterprises; Building, turning around and selling companies; Pharmaceutical R&D and IT.  He has served on the Advisory Boards for Rockwater Capital Partners, LLC (a VC company based on royalty-based financing) and the College of Life Sciences, University of Maryland (College Park).

While in academia and government, he was a Professor at the U of North Carolina and Iowa State U and a Director of a 50-person program in the Department of Energy.  He has received prestigious fellowships from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus (1983), Alfred P. Sloan (1984), and John S. Guggenheim (1987) Foundations, has authored over 100 refereed articles in theoretical chemistry, and presented over 100 invited talks at institutions, national and international scientific meetings.  Dr. DePristo earned a Ph.D. in Theoretical Chemistry from the U of Maryland (College Park).

Return to the Conference Program

KENDRA DIMOND is a Director in Huron's Higher Education Group in the Washington, D.C. office. She has experience working with a wide variety of health care entities, including academic medical centers, hospitals, long-term care facilities, drug and device manufacturers, and individual healthcare providers on issues related to regulatory compliance in the clinical care and research settings.

Ms. Dimond has more than 25 years experience working with health care entities and government regulatory agencies, both state and federal, on issues related to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and coverage, biomedical research funding, grant administration, and regulatory compliance issues, investigations concerning allegations of fraud and impropriety involving government-sponsored programs, including scientific misconduct, and other regulatory matters before governmental agencies.  She has assisted health care entities in structuring effective compliance plans to ensure that daily practices and procedures conform to expectations of regulatory agencies.  Ms.Dimond has also reviewed and negotiated clinical trial agreements with non-government sponsors.  As a national expert on issues related to regulatory compliance in human subject research and in regulations related to billing Medicare and other government programs, she has made many presentations and published a number of articles.

Return to the Conference Program

JAY DONIGER, PH.D. is the CEO and a founding partner of American Medical Records Networks, Inc. (AMRN), an information management service company for private medical practices. AMRN provides physicians with a comprehensive electronic patient record integrated with practice management and financial systems.  Dr. Doniger is also the president and founder of BITS (BIO Information Technology Strategies), a consultancy dedicated to providing the Life Sciences industry with the best, costeffective and integrated IT infrastructure to facilitate bringing products to market cheaper and faster.

Dr. Doniger has spent over a quarter century as a biomedical research scientist at Georgetown University, the National Cancer Institute, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Brandeis University.  He served as an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Georgetown University Medical Center and the director of the Human Papillomavirus Laboratory at Georgetown's Vincent T. Lombardi Cancer Research Center.  He is a member and the Chief Science Officer of the BIO IT Coalition and a member of the Advisory Board of the Masters of Bioscience Management Program at George Mason University.

DON DUROUSSEAU is CEO and Senior Scientist at Human Bionics LLC, a neurotechnology research company specializing in physiological measurement of human cognition and stress in operational environments.  Don is an internationally recognized neuroscientist, EEG system developer, and entrepreneur with over eighteen years experience commercializing mathematical methods and systems for analyzing the electrical activity of the brain and body.  He has an AB in Neurobiology from U.C. Berkeley and MBA in International Business from George Washington University.  Don has held senior management positions in the Neurodiagnostic Industry, where he was extensively involved in the development of leading edge EEG/Epilepsy source localization systems, integrated EEG/fMRI acquisition devices, and Transcranial Doppler technologies.  His present interests lie in developing next generation intelligent bio-adaptive systems utilizing ubiquitous psychometrics.  Human Bionics' innovative mobile cognitive assessment platform includes an instant application sensor system bundled with on-the-body computing and recording devices to provide a Wearable Ambulatory MonitorT (WAM) capable of real-time acquisition, processing, and wireless broadcast of physiological signals for real-time diagnostics, assessment, and restoration technologies.

REINHARD EBNER, PH.D., is a Principal Scientist at Avalon Pharmaceuticals and was one of the earliest scientists' since the company's inception.  He participates in a wide range of scientific initiatives, including introducing novel and unique spheroid-based drug discovery models for highthroughput small molecule screening and assay development.  He oversaw the company's discovery alliance on antibody targets with Immunogen and currently over-sees the on-going Medarex collaboration, and spearheads genomic datamining efforts, managing access to Genelogic's expression database, where he draws on his years of experience in the genomics-driven biotechnology industry.  Dr. Ebner has made a series of seminal contributions to the fields of cytokine biology, receptor-ligand interactions, intracellular trafficking, cell differentiation, early development and tissue repair, first at Genentech then at the University of California at San Francisco, at Stanford University Medical School, Human Genome Sciences, Inc. and now at Avalon.

Dr. Ebner was at HGS from 1995-2000 where he discovered several of the proteins around which HGS established pre-clinical and clinical development programs, including the molecules LIGHT, IL-17B and its receptor, BlyS and TR6.  He has authored more than 40 original research publications and has been invited to present at numerous plenary sessions; is a recipient of grant and manuscript peer review service awards and society memberships.  He is the primary 7 inventor on more than 300 patent applications world wide with 37 issued US patents.  Dr. Ebner received his undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Regensburg and his doctorate in Microbiology and Genetics at the University of Osnabrück, Germany, where he served on the faculty of the Genetics department.

MICHAEL R. FANNON is currently working as a consultant in the Biotechnology and Information Technology fields.  Mike advises emerging biotechnology companies in business strategy, process engineering, customer relationship management, IT infrastructure development and laboratory automation.

Mike was Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Human Genome Sciences, Inc. from 1994 through September 2005.  He managed the design and implementation of computerized systems to support HGS's high-volume laboratory data collection, biological research, clinical data management, product development, manufacturing and business operations.  Prior to joining HGS, Mike was the founder and president of TSI Consulting, Inc. in Silver Spring, MD, and held a series of technical and management positions with Martin Marietta's Information Systems Group.

Mike is an author of publications in scientific journals and business magazines; he is co-inventor on two patents for microbial genomes.  Mike serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Barrie School, an independent Pre-K through 12th grade school in Silver Spring, Maryland. Mike earned an MBA in Operations Analysis from The American University, and a Bachelors degree in Physics from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

STEVEN J. FOX is a partner with Pepper Hamilton LLP, a national law firm, serving clients throughout the United States.  He is resident in the firm's Washington, DC office and leads Pepper's health care informatics initiative. Since 1990, Steve's practice has been primarily devoted to health care information technology.  Beginning in 2000 for almost five years, he wrote a monthly "Q&A" column dealing with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) at HIPA Advisory.com, and he is co-author of "Guide to Medical Privacy and HIPAA,"published by Thompson Publishing Group.  He provides clients with legal advice and strategic counseling involving technology, e-commerce and health care information systems.  In particular, he is experienced in the development, acquisition, negotiation, transfer and licensing of complex information systems, networks (including RHIOs) and software; outsourcing; computerized records management; privacy protection, HIPAA; Internet and technology use policies; consulting/services agreements; and corporate, contractual and intellectual property matters.

Mr. Fox is a frequent speaker and author on issues involving technology and health care information.  He is also involved in many professional and industry organizations, including the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, HIMSS RHIO Federation Workgroup, American Health Lawyers Association, and Maryland HIMSS.

KENNETH L. GEOLY, M.D., F.A.C.P. is currently the Medical Director of the Dialysis Unit at Inova Fairfax Hospital, Inova Health System.  His education includes a B.S. from University of Notre Dame and an M.D. from S.U.N.Y. Downstate Medical Center .

Dr. Geoly's clinical practice experience is in Nephrology and includes consulting in hospital and office practice, consulting in hospital critical care, management of acute and chronic Hemodialysis, management of acute and chronic transplantation.  Dr. Geoly also conducts active Nephrology teaching programs for medical house staff, medical attending staff, nursing, laboratory technologists and the lay public. 

Dr. Geoly's certifications include; American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), Internal Medicine 1973; ABIM, Nephrology 1978; Fellow, American College of Physicians 1978.  He is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital and was the Medical Director of Clinical Informatics for Inova Health System.  He has published articles on clinical and informatics issues.

LLOYD J. GRIFFITHS PH.D. became Dean of the Volgenau School of IT & Engineering at George Mason University in July, 1997.  Dr. Griffiths has overseen significant increases in the School's undergraduate enrollment and in total School research expenditures. In 1999, a new undergraduate degree program in Computer Engineering was added to the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.  In 2002, an undergraduate major was added in Information Technology, which now has over 800 students and is the fastest growing undergraduate 8 program at GMU. New Master's degrees have been added in Computer Engineering, E-Commerce, Enterprise Engineering, and Information Security. Three Ph.D. degrees are available in the areas of Information Technology, Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer Engineering.  The school has approximately 4,200 engineering students.

The Volgenau School currently consists of approximately 100 full-time faculty, and 30 full-time staff.  Over 70 adjunct faculty from industry are employed each year by the School and the annual budget expenditures exceed $28M.  The School has the largest graduate program at GMU and leads the University in research expenditures.

On October 28, 2005, the School celebrated its 20th anniversary with the announcement of the largest individual contribution in the history of the university, a $10 million gift from Ernst and Sara Volgenau.  The gift helped kick-off the Volgenau School of IT&E's $20 million fundraising campaign.  This first-ever fund-raising campaign for IT&E will enable the school to achieve national prominence and leadership in information technology and engineering.

Prior to joining GMU, Lloyd was Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Colorado in Boulder.  His administrative experience includes six years at the University of Southern California where was Associate Dean for Research and Administration in the School of Engineering.

Dr. Griffiths received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. His M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering were awarded by Stanford University.

Dean Griffiths is a fellow of the IEEE and has been recognized with the IEEE Browder J. Thompson prize paper award.  He currently sits on the board of directors for three privately-held companies and serves on the advisory boards of several other early-stage companies.

JOHN HOLADAY, PH.D. is the Managing Director of Montgomery Pacific Group, a life-sciences investment bank, and cofounder and Chairman of HarVest Bank of Maryland.  He founded EntreMed, Inc. in 1992, and served as its Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer and a Director until 2003.  EntreMed is a pioneering antiangiogenesis company that emphasizes therapeutics to inhibit blood vessel growth in cancer, blindness and heart disease.  Dr. Holaday is also the co-founder of Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. where he served as the SVP for R&D and Member of the Board of Directors.  He also founded MaxCyte, Inc. and served as Chairman, and as a member of the Board of Directors of CytImmune Sciences, Health Pathways, Xceleron, Rexahn, Accelovance and LabBook.  He has raised over $300MM in private and public rounds of financing for these companies that have a collective market capitalization in excess of $2B US.

Dr. Holaday served as a Captain in the US Army, and founded the Neuropharmacology Branch at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research as an officer and civilian for 21 years.  Dr. Holaday obtained his BS (1966) and MS (1968) from the University of Alabama, and his PhD degree with honors from the University of California, San Francisco, in 1976.  He is Visiting Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.  Dr. Holaday served as the Chairman of the Maryland Bioscience Alliance until 2004.  He has received numerous honors and awards. He holds over 30 U.S. and foreign patents and has published over 200 scientific articles and reviews.

GARY KREPS, PH.D. (University of Southern California) is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication at George Mason University where he holds the Eileen and Steve Mandell Endowed Chair in Health Communication.  He also holds a joint faculty appointment with the National Center for Biodefense at GMU.  Prior to his appointment, he served for five years as the founding Chief of the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), where he planned, developed, and coordinated major new national research and outreach initiatives concerning risk communication, health promotion, behavior change, technology development, and information dissemination to promote effective cancer prevention, screening, control, care, and survivorship.  He has also served as the Founding Dean of the School of Communication at Hofstra University in New York, Executive Director of the Greenspun School of Communication at UNLV, and in faculty and administrative roles at Northern Illinois, Rutgers, Indiana, and Purdue Universities.

Dr. Kreps expertise include health communication and promotion, information dissemination, organizational communication, information technology, multicultural relations, and applied research methods.  He is an active scholar, whose published work includes more than 200 books, articles, and chapters concerning the applications of communication knowledge in society.  Dr. Kreps has edited several issues of major national and international journals concerning health communication research and application.  He has also received numerous honors, including the "2005-2006 Pfizer Visiting Professorship of Clear Health Communication 9 SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES Award," the "2004 Robert Lewis Donohew Outstanding Health Communication Scholar Award," the "2002 Future of Health Technology Award," the "2002 Distinguished Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions in Consumer Health Informatics and Online Health," the "2000 Outstanding Health Communication Scholar Award" from both the International Communication Association and the National Communication Association, and the "1998 Gerald M. Phillips Distinguished Applied Communication Scholarship Award" from the National Communication Association.

YONG LEE is the founder and CEO of Vision Point Systems.  Mr. Lee focuses on setting the strategic direction of the company, working with the company's developers and engineers to examine emerging technologies and software development methodologies, and sets initiatives for ensuring high standards for the services offered to Vision Point Systems' clients.

Prior to starting Vision Point Systems, Mr. Lee worked as a consultant in the converged communications industry.  Some of the markets he served during this time include pharmaceutical companies, medical information services, manufacturing firms, wireless service providers, contact management services, and political consultants.  Mr. Lee is a graduate of Virginia Tech.

GREG LENNON, PH.D. is the Chief Scientific Officer of Genstruct, Inc., a biotech company based in Cambridge, MA.  Genstruct constructs custom Causal System Models from the experimental data of its pharmaceutical clients.  These reasoning-based models provide a causal - not correlative - basis for drug and biomarker development.  Dr. Lennon has been the CEO or CSO for 3 venture-backed Maryland biotech companies, including one focused on adult stem cells, and has also served in interim executive management positions through his affiliations with life science venture capital firms.  He has over 75 publications in the life sciences with a special emphasis on genomics, and is active in scientific advocacy efforts.  He serves on the Board of Directors of Maryland Families for Stem Cell Research, the main advocacy group behind the recently passed law providing dedicated funding for stem cell research by the state of Maryland.  In the academic world, he is best known as a founder of the I.M.A.G.E. Consortium, the world's largest public collection of gene clones.  Clones from this collection form the basis of the vast majority of gene sequences in public sequence databases.  Dr. Lennon received his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Return to the Conference Program

JEFFREY P. LIBSON is the Head of Pepper Hamilton LLP's life sciences practice.  His practice is devoted primarily to the areas of securities law, venture financing, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, intellectual 10 property and the commercialization of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device products.  He represents a number of publicly traded and closely held life science companies in ongoing representations, as outside general counsel.  In addition, he represents a number of non-profit entities that support the life sciences industry.

Mr. Libson is a member of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association.  He is also active in the community. He was the Co-Chairman of the 2005 Mid-Atlantic Venture Conference as well as the Co-Chairman of the 2004 and 2003 Biotech Symposia jointly sponsored by the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association and the Biotechnology Council of New Jersey.  Mr. Lisbon was also the Co-Chairman of the 2003 Early Stage East Bio-Life-Tech venture capital conference.  He is the 2003 recipient of the Entrepreneurial Advocate award in connection with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Ben Franklin Innovation Awards.

Mr. Libson is an adjunct Professor in the Lehigh University School of Business and Economics where he teaches entrepreneurship and venture capital financing. Mr. Libson received his J.D. from Duke University in 1981, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif.  He is a 1976 graduate of Oberlin College.

LANCE A. LIOTTA, MD, PH.D. is a professor of life sciences at George Mason University and co-director of the university's Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine.  He also serves as medical director of the George Mason University /Inova Health System Clinical Proteomics Laboratory in the GMU/Inova Health System Translational Research Centers.

Before joining the George Mason faculty in May 2005, Dr. Liotta was chief of the Laboratory of Pathology at the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Center for Cancer Research, and deputy director for Intramural Research at the National Institutes of Health.

One of the first scientists to investigate the process of tumor invasion and metastasis at the molecular level, he has invented technologies in the fields of diagnostics, immunoassays, microdissection, and proteomics, which have been used to make broad discoveries in genomics, functional genetics, and tissue proteomics.

In partnership with Dr. Emanuel F. Petricoin III, formerly of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Liotta founded the NCI/FDA Clinical Proteomics Program, the first joint initiative between NCI and FDA to develop technologies for the discovery of proteins and the profiling of signal pathways in human tissue.  These innovative proteomic technologies are applied to patient tissue biopsies and blood samples collected before, during, and after experimental therapies in clinical research trials.

At George Mason, Drs. Liotta and Petricoin are exploring their recent discovery of an archive of protein fragments in the blood that are potential biomarker candidates for breast, ovarian, and lung cancers.  Their immediate goals are to validate these potential biomarkers in clinical trials to determine their feasibility in the diagnosis of cancer prior to metastasis, and to develop patient-tailored medical treatment strategies.

Dr. Liotta earned his medical degree from Case Western Reserve Medical School and is licensed to practice medicine in the state of Maryland.  He also holds a doctoral degree in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University.  His research contributions have generated 80 issued patents and more than 550 peer-reviewed publications.

STEVE A. MANDELL is a partner in the Washington office of Pepper Hamilton LLP.  For more than 26 years, he has identified and implemented useful solutions for complex, high-risk legal problems.

Mr. Mandell frequently serves as outside general counsel for and assists clients with business governance, funding, protecting intellectual property, acquisitions and succession planning, contract negotiations and dispute resolutions, bankruptcy, and in special circumstances requiring new and unusual approaches.  In addition to his work as an attorney, his background includes work in management and marketing positions.  He has held senior management positions with MCI Communications Corporation, Xerox Corporation, Carterfone Communications Corporation and several businesses of his own.  Mr. Mandell has represented public and private companies, investment funds, educational and other nonprofit organizations, and individuals, and he now heads Pepper's Entrepreneur Owned and Managed Enterprise (EOME) practice group.

A strong proponent of business growth, Mr. Mandell hosts Tomorrow's Business, a weekly talk show about key business issues broadcast live on Business Radio WBIS AM 1190 in the Greater Washington region, and archived at http://www.3wtradio.com. He also hosts Pepper Moments, business sound bites, on WGMS FM 104.1 and on WBIS AM 1190.

Mr. Mandell is a founder and chair of the BIO IT Coalition, a not-for-profit organization that conducts programs designed to encourage the use of information technology by life science companies, strategy alliances between organizations in IT and Biotechnology, and the pursuit of education in math and science.  He has been recognized for his generosity and community leadership by organizations including The Women's Center of Northern Virginia, Volunteer Fairfax and Leadership Fairfax, Inc.  As a strong advocate for business education, Mr. Mandell served for more than 12 years as chairman of the entrepreneurial management curriculum for the University of Maryland University College.  He has taught credit and non-credit business courses at the University of Virginia and University of Maryland University Colleges and he is now an adjunct professor of law at George Mason University School of Law.

Mr. Mandell is a graduate of Drexel University (B.S. in commerce and engineering sciences, 1970), Temple University (M.B.A. with emphasis in marketing and statistics, 1972) and Southern Methodist University School of Law (J.D., concentration in business law, 1977).  He is admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia, Virginia and Texas.

ALAN G. MERTEN, PH.D. became president of George Mason University on July 1, 1996.  GMU is located in Northern Virginia and within the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, is a doctoral granting institution with anenrollment of over 29,000 students.

Dr. Merten was previously the Dean of the Johnson Graduate School of Management of Cornell University. He was Dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Florida and Associate Dean for Executive Education and Computing Services at the University of Michigan.  Dr. Merten has an undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin, a master's degree in computer science from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. degree in computer science from Wisconsin.  He has held academic appointments in both engineering and business, and academic and business positions in Hungary and France.

Dr. Merten was chair of the National Research Council's Committee on Workforce Needs in Information Technology.  He serves on the Board of Directors of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the Center for Innovative Technology, INOVA Health System, the Northern Virginia Technology Council, an information technology company, a real estate investment trust, and a mutual fund trust.  Dr. Merten was a member 11 SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES of the Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher Education and served as program chairman of the 1998 World Congress on Information Technology held at George Mason University.

He has been recognized for his contributions to the Northern Virginia technology community, and as a leader of the Greater Washington, D.C. business community.  He has also been recognized for promoting volunteerism and service to the community, and for his contributions to the use of information technology in the federal government.

RAYMOND A MILLER is a registered patent attorney and partner in the Pittsburgh office of Pepper Hamilton LLP.  Mr. Miller leads Pepper's patent practice and is a key element of its life science practice.  He has spent his career identifying, protecting, securing and maximizing intellectual property in biotechnology, life science and material science.

Mr. Miller's clients range from academic institutions to world-class medical and research facilities.  They include venture capital groups, start-up biotechnology companies, Fortune 500 companies and the world's leading nutritional supplement company.  He has represented companies during their development from small start-up through and after IPO.  Mr. Miller has strong experience in the areas of chemistry, medicinal chemistry, genetics, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, proteonomics, nanotechnology, tissue engineering, surface chemistry and cosmetics.  This experience, along with Mr. Miller's exposure to the medical fields of cardiology, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, orthopedics and tissue engineering, allow him to bring a unique perspective to Pepper's biotechnology and life science clients.

Although Mr. Miller's practice focuses on patent prosecution, corporate transactions involving intellectual property and strategic intellectual property counseling, he also has been involved in all facets of patent litigation.  He has been lead counsel in a number of patent litigation matters, and trial counsel on IPOs.

Mr. Miller is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association of University Technology Managers, Inc. and the American Intellectual Property Law Association.  Mr. Miller received his bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1988 from the University of Akron; his master's degree in organic chemistry in 1990 from Princeton University; and his law degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 1994.  He is admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, the state and federal courts of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

CHRISTOPHER-PAUL MILNE, DVM, MPH, JD was formerly a practicing veterinarian in New Jersey and Maryland. Dr. Milne also attended Johns Hopkins University where he earned a master's degree in public health with a concentration in epidemiology and health statistics.  For six years, he worked for the New Jersey Department of Health, initially as a researcher in health risk assessment, later in legislative and regulatory review as Manager of the Public Response Program, and finally as Emergency Response Coordinator.  In 1997, Dr. Milne graduated from law school at the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire, where he studied environmental and health law.

Dr. Milne joined the Center in 1998 as a Senior Research Fellow in order to address legal and regulatory issues that affect the research and development of new drugs and biologicals.  His current research interests include: challenges to the R&D of new medicines; incentive programs for pediatric studies; issues related to the R&D of treatments for serious and life-threatening illnesses fast track diseases), rare disorders and conditions (orphan diseases), and neglected diseases of the developing world; and, trends in FDA regulatory and policy initiatives such as the Critical Path and the voluntary genomics data submission program. Dr. Milne has lectured and published widely on these topics.  He is currently Assistant Director of the Tufts CSDD and a licensed attorney in New Hampshire.

MICHAEL S. ORR, PH.D., DABT, joined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a Senior Staff Fellow in the Genomics group at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER).  He is currently involved with reviewing genomic data submissions, working with clinical review divisions, as-well-as helping to develop and streamline genomic-related IT infrastructure at the agency.

Before joining the FDA, Dr. Orr was the scientific director of Toxicogenomics, with 6 years of industry experience in the fields of toxicology, molecular toxicology, and toxicogenomics.  Dr. Orr developed and managed the molecular mechanisms of toxicity (MOT) services at Gene Logic.  He has extensive experience analyzing Gene Logic's ToxExpress' database of gene expression information for insights into molecular mechanisms of toxicity in conjunction with classical endpoints, such as histopathology and clinical chemistry parameters.

Prior to joining Gene Logic, Dr. Orr did his postdoctoral training in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology at the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes of Health (NCI/NIH).  At the NCI he investigated the role of specific chemotherapeutic agents in cell cycle modulation and constructed isogenic cell lines capable of over expressing a variety of breast cancer-related genes, including c-erbB2.  Overall, Dr. Orr is an author on 16 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Orr received his Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology from the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, and his BS in biochemistry from Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.  In 1998, Dr. Orr was awarded the Gordon Research Conference Young Investigator Award.  In 2004, he became a diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology.  Dr. Orr is a full member of the Society of Toxicology and of the American Association for Cancer Research.

EMANUEL F. PETRICOIN III, PH.D. joined the George Mason University faculty in April 2005 as a professor of life sciences and co-director of the university's Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine.

He previously served as a senior investigator in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.  Considered by the FDA to be its proteomics and protein array expert, Petricoin's expertise also includes drug and biologic effects on signal transduction and kinase-driven cascades, and artificial intelligence-based bioinformatic tools.

In partnership with Dr. Lance A. Liotta, formerly of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Dr. Petricoin initiated the NCI/FDA Clinical Proteomics Program, a groundbreaking biologic research effort focusing on bench-to-bedside applications.  The program produced several enabling technologies - such as laser capture microdissection, new types of protein microarrays, and carrier protein-based biomarker discovery - that are applied to patient tissue biopsies and blood samples collected before, during, and after experimental therapies in clinical research trials.

At George Mason, Drs. Petricoin and Liotta are exploring their recent discovery of an archive of protein fragments in the blood that are potential biomarker candidates for breast, ovarian, and lung cancers.  Protein microarrays they developed are being used in clinical trials to stratify patients into best responders. Their immediate goals are to validate these potential biomarkers in clinical trials to determine their feasibility in the diagnosis of cancer prior to metastasis, and to develop patient-tailored medical treatment strategies. Dr. Petricoin holds a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Maryland at College Park.  He serves on numerous editorial boards and has co-written more than 170 peer-reviewed publications.

VIJAY PILLAI is the Director of the Global Life Sciences Industry Business Unit at Oracle.  He has been active in pharmaceutical, research, biotech, and medical devices sectors on some of their pressing challenges around value-generation using information technology.  His focus has been two fold, (i) enabling senior R&D management's task of executing today's imperatives while defining what must be done tomorrow and how to effect change while improving productivity, and (ii) expanding the information set surrounding patient's clinical profile to include genomic extensions to enable outcomes based research.

His other experiences include leveraging information to enable better decision making within Life Sciences companies, utilizing capabilities like collaboration, knowledge management, project management, and business/process flow automation.

Mr. Pillai has in-depth understanding of the challenges faced by the industry from the scientific, business, and technical points of view.  He is very familiar with the requirements and challenges faced by scientists and bioinformaticians around information explosion and analytical computing.  Vijay's background has been in high performance architectures and mining large databases in the multi terabyte range for both storage and computing.

Prior to Life Sciences, he has been designing solutions in industries such as Pharmacy, Health Insurance, and other Healthcare related institutions.

Vijay has an undergraduate background in Mathematics,Statistics, & Physics, and a MBA in Computer Information Systems.

LESLIE PLATT, J.D. is an attorney/executive with over 30 years of legal, management and consulting experience at senior levels in the private and public sectors.  Mr. Platt has been a Principal at a Big 4 accounting and consulting firm, involved in strategy and operational consulting in the global health sciences sector.  He also has served as Executive Assistant to the Director and Chief of Operations, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health, and was general counsel and senior executive of two bioscience research organizations.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Platt was Deputy General Counsel- Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Staff Director and Counsel of the White House Agent Orange Working Group.  At the outset of his career, Mr. Platt rose through career attorney ranks and served as chief legislative counsel of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Mr. Platt has extensive experience regarding legal, management, policy and ethics issues in bioscience.  He has negotiated landmark agreements in biotechnology facilities finance, research alliances and collaborations, and technology transfer and alliances.

Mr. Platt is the recipient of numerous awards for outstanding service. He writes and presents internationally on legal, policy, regulatory and ethics issues in health and life sciences.  Mr. Platt also serves as Chairman of the Biojudiciary Project (www.biojudiciary.org), an independent 501(c)(3) organization co-established by BIO, whose mission is to help educate the Federal judiciary about scientific and technical issues at the intersection of biotechnology and the law.

Mr. Platt also served as a member of the Task Force on Genetic Technologies of the National Conference of State Legislatures and as a member of the International Bar Association Working Group on the Draft International Convention on the Human Genome.

Mr. Platt is a graduate of New York University School of Law and is a member of the Bar of the District of Columbia.

BOB POWELL, PHARM.D. is Associate Director, Office of Translational Sciences and Director, Pharmacometrics, Clinical Pharmacology Division, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA.  Previously, he was the Senior Vice President, Drug Development Consulting Services, Pharsight Corp where he worked with internal consultants and industry partners to increase drug development productivity through modeling and simulation of clinical trials and application of software products. Bob's previous positions include Vice President, Pharmacokinetics, Dynamics and Metabolism at Parke Davis (1996-01) and Pfizer and Director of Clinical Pharmacology at Glaxo (1987-96).  These departments have excelled in the application of pharmacokinetic/ dynamic principles from discovery through regulatory approval in better defining dose-response and contributing to development decisions.  He has led various committees on drug development project governance and drug development efficiency.  Bob received his pharmacy training at West Virginia University, clinical pharmacy training at Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, and NIH postdoctoral fellowship in pharmacokinetics at the University of California in San Franciso.  He spent 10 years in academics (Arizona, North Carolina) and has published over 100 peer reviewed articles and book chapters of clinical trials.

THOMAS RANKEN is CEO and Co-Founder of VizX Labs, producer of the GeneSifter software system for biomedical researchers.  GeneSifter helps scientists make discoveries and understand gene expression in life processes.  Before founding VizX, Tom was CEO of Axio Research Corporation.  Under his leadership, the company became profitable after significant losses, while doubling its revenues.  Tom was President of the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association from 1995-1998 and Manager of Public Affairs at Immunex Corporation (later acquired by Amgen) from 1989-1994.  He began his career in banking, including serving as Assistant Vice President of Washington Mutual during most of the 1980s.

Tom is a past president of the Harborview Medical Center Board of Trustees, and continues to serve on the board of the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association.

Tom earned his MBA from the University of Washington; his BA in Economics is from the University of Virginia.

KATHERINE ROWAN, PH.D. is a professor of communication and associate chair of the Communication Department at GMU.  Her research concerns the public relations challenges of earning trust and explaining complexities in risk and crisis communication contexts.  At George Mason, she heads the public relations curriculum.

Professor Rowan received her bachelor's degree from GMU's English Department in 1975.  After graduation, she worked for the Smithsonian Institution's Office of Public Affairs.  She has a master's degree in communication and journalism from the University of Illinois, and her doctorate in the teaching of rhetoric and composition from Purdue's English Department.  She joined Purdue's Communication Department in 1985, earning tenure in 1991 and full professor status in 1996.  She returned to GMU in 2000 to one of the best communication faculties on the East Coast.

Professor Rowan became interested in risk communication through studies of science communication in the mass media.  She has authoredover 40 scholarly and governmental publications concerning effective methods for earning trust and explaining complex science.  During the last 15 years, she has given presentations on risk and science communication for organizations such as the National Library of Medicine, Agricultural Communicators in Education, the Indiana Arborists, the Garden Writers of America, the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the National Academy of Sciences, and the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency.

DANIELE STRUPPA, PH.D. serves as Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences at George Mason University. The native of Italy earned his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland and his Laurea in Matematica from the University of Milano.

Dr. Struppa's college was the first unit in GMU's Capital Campaign fundraising initiative to reach its goal of $18.5 million for the College of Arts and Sciences in 2004. 

Dr. Struppa is an avid donor to Mason and other educational venues.  He created a fellowship in the humanities at the Virginia Foundation for Humanities in remembrance of his mother, Emilia Galli Struppa. "I believe in fundraising enough to do it myself, and I donate because I know it can generate intellectual growth."

Dr. Struppa has given a number of math lectures around the world, including Mexico, Germany, Italy, and Belgium.

Dr. Struppa has climbed three of seven of the world's highest summits, including Mt. Aconcagua, Mt. Kilimanjaro, and Mt. Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe, in July 2002.  "It's just exhilarating. It makes everything else look trivial, and takes away all worries."

His international academic experiences in mathematics include assistant professorships at the University of Milano and at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa.  Dr. Struppa was a professor at the University of Calabria and at George Mason, where he also served as associate dean for graduate studies in the College of Arts and Sciences.

JOHN N. WEINSTEIN, MD, PH.D. has a B.A. in Biology at Harvard College, then an MD and a Ph.D. in Biophysics at Harvard University.  His 230 publications include 10 as first author in Science.  He presents 30 to 40 lectures a year nationally and internationally and was recently nominated for the Medal of Technology as a pioneer of the "postgenomic era" in biomedical science.  After an internship and residency in Medicine at Stanford he joined the NIH, and heads the Genomics & Bioinformatics Group in the NCI's Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology.  He is a Captain (retired), U.S. Public Health Service. Dr. Weinstein founded and heads the NCI Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, and Computational Biology Faculty.

His research initially focused on the development of novel approaches to therapy of cancer and AIDS using liposomes, monoclonal antibodies, cytokines, and other biologicals.  Since 1992, he has been applying a mix of genomic, proteomic, bioinformatic, and computational chemistry tools to the pursuit of new biomarkers and therapeutic strategies for cancer.

His research program (for which he has coined the term 'integromicTM') is half experimental, half computational.  It combines molecular biology, molecular pharmacology, biostatistics, bioinformatics, and computer science.  Using microarrays and similar high-throughput technologies, his group and its collaborators generate interoperable molecular profile databases on cancer cells at the DNA, RNA, protein, chromosomal, functional, and pharmacological levels.  A number of translational results have flowed from those molecular characterizations, among them: (i) candidate biomarkers for distinguishing colon from ovarian tumors of unknown origin; (ii) asparagine synthetase as a biomarker for L-asparaginase treatment of ovarian cancer; (iii) information critical to the decision for clinical development of oxaliplatin, now a standard of care agent for treatment of colorectal cancer; (iv) MDR1-inverse agents.  To analyze and integrate the various databases, his group has developed a set of widely used, web-based bioinformatic software packages, the Miner Suite. Available at the group's website: http://discover.nci.nih.gov, are CIMminer, GoMiner, MatchMiner, MedMiner, AbMiner, SmudgeMiner, and MIMminer.

GREGG WRIGHT is senior vice president for business development and solutions with IMC, Inc.of Reston, Virginia.  He has over 25 years of experience in the IT professional services industry.  In the past four years he has played a key role in the development of IMC's biomedical informatics business.

Before joining IMC, Mr. Wright was an executive at computer services firm EDS for six years, including founding principal of the government consulting business, vice president of strategy and business planning for EDS government group (US), and vice president and client executive in the commercial business process management group.  Mr. Wright previously was a principal at Booz Allen Hamilton management and technology consultants, where he began his career and worked for 18 years as a consultant and practice leader serving primarily government clients.

Mr. Wright received his MA from the University of Chicago and BA from Shimer College.  He is a member of the advisory boards at GMU for the School of Computational Sciences and the Bioscience Management Program.  He is a co-chair of the Northern Virginia Technology Council's BioMedTech Committee.

Return to the Conference Program