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| AGTC EMPLOYEES |
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 Dr.
Jeffrey Chulay, Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Regulatory Affairs
Dr. Chulay brings broad medical and regulatory expertise to the Company. He joins AGTC from AlphaVax, where he worked as Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer. Prior to joining AlphaVax, Dr. Chulay was at GlaxoSmithKline, where he worked as Principal Clinical Program Head of clinical research in HIV and Opportunistic Infections. Before joining GSK (then Burroughs Wellcome), Dr. Chulay served as Chief of the Department of Immunology at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) and Chief of the Virology Division at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID).
Dr. Chulay earned a medical degree from Northwestern University Medical School and a degree in tropical medicine and hygiene from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He served his residency at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital and was a fellow in Infectious Disease at WRAIR. He is a reviewer for several leading journals on infectious disease. |
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Robin Griffis, Senior Research Assistant, Manufacturing
Robin worked with Protein Chemistry Core at the University of Florida performing amino acid analysis. After attending the biotechnology program at Santa Fe Community College she completed an internship during the summer of 2006 with AGTC as a cell culturist. Robin joined the AGTC team as a full time employee in October 2006 as a research assistant for the process development group. She is responsible for manufacturing rHSV and AAV for pre-clinical trials as well as other process developmental tasks, including performing assays to determine process effectiveness. Robin also maintains an inventory management program, is a member of the Quality Assurance staff, performs general laboratory maintenance and is a cell culturist. |
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Teresa
Heal, Director of Finance
Teresa has more than 25 years of experience in accounting and finance with 14 years in management. Prior to AGTC, Teresa spent 8 years as Treasurer and Controller for a regional medical group where she was key in the development of centralized accounting and investment and capital improvement strategy. Prior to this position, her experience includes nine years in public accounting, a lead role in a merger and acquisition transaction as well as expertise in growing accounting departments for expanding needs. She received her accounting education from the University of Memphis, completing her B.A. at Florida Metropolitan University, summa cum laude and has her MBA from the University of North Alabama. Teresa also serves as President of the Florida Association of Bioscience Financial Officers and is a member of the Institute of Management Accountants. |
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Kimberly Joslyn, Accountant
Kim has more than 25 years experience in the accounting and finance fields. Prior to AGTC, Kim spent several years in a University setting as the Assistant Manager of the Accounts Payable department, supervising 13 employees and running the day to day operations of the department. Her strength lies in internal audit and accounting compliance. Prior to this position Kim worked for a fortune 500 company as the manager of their Travel/Customer service department which was held in strict compliance through Sarbanes-Oxley. Kim graduated from Prince George’s Com. College with Associates in Accounting and has a Bachelors’ in English with a writing emphasis from Boise State University. In her endeavors to continue her education she will be starting the Bachelor’s program in Management this fall with Florida Tech University and will continue onto her MBA. In tandem with this she will also be studying to become a Certified Internal Auditor. Kim is also a member of BioFlorida and FABFO. |
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Dr.
Wen Kang, Scientist
II, Research and Preclinical
Development
Dr.
Wen Kang is a Research
Scientist in the Research
and Preclinical Development
group. She is responsible
for developing viral
vectors and evaluating
AAV-based therapeutics
in animal models. Before
joining the AGTC team
in January 2005, Dr.
Kang was a Research
Associate at the University
of Pennsylvania. She
obtained her Ph.D.
in Pharmacology from
the University of South
Carolina and trained
as a Post-doc Fellow
at the University of
Pennsylvania Department
of Microbiology. |
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Dr.
David R. Knop,Associate Director, Process Development
Dr.
David Knop joined AGTC
in 2002 and currently
heads the Process Development
group. He directs rAAV
and rHSV vector research
in the areas of production,
assay development,
downstream processing,
and purification. His
responsibilities include
hands-on bioreactor
cell culture, viral
vector production,
and downstream processing.
In addition, Dr. Knop
does fermentor plasmid
DNA production for
use in large scale
transfection procedures.
Dr. Knop earned his
B.S. (1996) and Ph.D.
(2002) degrees in Chemical
Engineering from Michigan
State University. His
doctoral research focused
on biocatalytic conversion
of carbohydrates to
fine and ultrafine
chemicals used as pharmaceutical
intermediates. The
biocatalysis process
developed for shikimic
acid and quinic acid
production from glucose
resulted in two patents
and licensure by a
major pharmaceutical
entity. |
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Edmund Mickunas, Executive Director of Regulatory Affairs
Mr. Mickunas’s comprehensive understanding of biopharmaceutical regulatory affairs derives from over 25 years of preclinical, clinical and regulatory affairs management experience in the development of pharmaceutical, biologic, medical device and diagnostic products. His background includes 9 yrs of regulatory and clinical consulting experience working with numerous large pharma, biotech and medical device companies. He has held positions previously at Leukosite and Sandoz. He has significant experience with various therapeutic product development for various ophthalmic indications. Mr. Mickunas has a B.S. in Biology from Fairleigh Dickinson University and an M.A. from Fairfield University. |
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Marina
Scotti, Research Associate II, Research
and Preclinical Development
Marina
Scotti earned her B.S.
in Chemistry with a
Biochemistry focus
and a B.S. in Microbiology
and Cell Science from
the University of Florida
in May, 2004. She joined
the AGTC team in October,
2004 as a Senior Research
Assistant for Research
and Development. Marina
is responsible for
the development, production
and confirmation of
viral vectors targeted
for the treatment of
Pompe’s disease. Prior
to joining AGTC, Marina
served as a Research
Assistant in the Department
of Pathology at the
University of Florida,
screening viral expressed
ESC genes for factors
promoting pluripotency. |
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Dr.
Darby Thomas, Scientist
II, Process Development
Darby
received her B.S. in
Biology with Honors
from the University
of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill in 1993.
In 1999, she earned
a Ph.D. from the Baylor
College of Medicine
in Houston, Texas,
in the Program of Cell
and Molecular Biology
and the Department
of Molecular Virology
and Microbiology. Darby’s
post-doctoral research
at the University of
Pennsylvania School
of Medicine in Philadelphia,
in the Department of
Microbiology was with
herpes simplex virus
type 1 (HSV-1). Specifically,
she worked on both
understanding the unusual
stability of the HSV-1
latency associated
transcript intron and
applications of replication-selective
HSV-1 mutants in cancer
therapy. In July 2004,
Darby joined AGTC as
a Scientist and is
using her expertise
in herpes virology,
general molecular virology,
and cell biology to
aid in the production
of recombinant HSV-1
and AAV. |
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Dr.
Gabor Veres, Vice President of Research and Development
Gabor Veres brings fifteen years of broad experience in research and development for international pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with a strong scientific background in molecular and cell biology and virology. Gabor has a Ph.D in biochemistry and genetics from the University of Szeged in Hungary. Before joining AGTC he worked at Novartis/Systemix, CellGenesys and Sangamo Biosciences, leading multiple projects from pre-clinical research to clinical development and initiated new research programs in cancer, metabolic and CNS diseases, HIV gene therapy, hemophilia, and delivery platform development. He made significant contributions to the area of gene therapy with over 20 publications in peer reviewed journals. |
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Sue
Washer, President
and CEO
Sue
Washer, President and
CEO of AGTC, is an
experienced entrepreneur
with a strong scientific
and operational background.
She has a B.S. in biochemistry
from Michigan State
University and an MBA
from the University
of Florida where she
was one of the first
graduates from the
Business School’s Entrepreneurship
program. Sue has 10
years of pharmaceutical
management and research
experience from Abbott
Labs and Eli Lilly
as well as 11 years
of senior management
experience with entrepreneurial
firms in the Gainesville
area. Sue successfully
raised over $15M for
AGTC in their second
round of funding in
November of 2003. |
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Lijun Wang, Senior Research Associate, Process Development
Lijun Wang joined AGTC in July 2006, and is currently working on virus purification by FPLC in the process development group. She obtained her B.S. in 1992 in East-China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai majored in Biochemical Engineering. She earned her M.S. in 2004 from University of Kansas, studied structure-stability relationship of cytochrome b5 using an array of biochemical and biophysical methods. She was employed as an Enzymologist in Deciphera Pharmaceuticals LLC for two years before she joined AGTC.
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Dr.
Guo-jie Ye, Associate Director, Research
and Preclinical Development
Dr.
Ye is the Associate Director
of Virus Research.
He is responsible for
leading a group of
scientists in the development
of new viral vectors
for AAV-based gene
therapy products. Prior
to joining AGTC in
July, 2004, Dr. Ye
was a Senior Scientist,
Preclinical R&D of
MediGene Inc. at San
Diego, California (2001-2004).
After receiving his
Ph.D. in Protein Chemistry
from Shanghai Institute
of Organic Chemistry,
Chinese Academy of
Sciences, China, Dr.
Ye underwent his postdoctoral
trainings both in molecular
biology at Cornell
University Medical
College, and in molecular
genetics of herpes
simplex virus at the
University of Chicago. |
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