MLSC Scientific Advisory Board Members
Chair:
Harvey F. Lodish, Ph.D., Member, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research; Professor of Biology and Professor of Bioengineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Members:
James Barry, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Corporate Technology Development, Boston Scientific Corporation
Gary Borisy, Ph.D., Director and CEO, Marine Biological Laboratory
Dalia Cohen, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Asterand, Inc.
James J. Collins, Ph.D., Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University
T. (Teo) Forcht Dagi, M.D., Partner, HML Venture Partners
Jonathan Fleming, M.P.A., Managing General Partner, Oxford Bioscience Partners
Rainer Fuchs, Ph.D., Vice President, Executive Director, Biogen Idec Innovation Incubator
Richard A. Goldsby, Ph.D., John Woodruff Simpson Lecturer and Professor of Biology, Amherst College
Lita L. Nelsen, Director, Technology Licensing Office, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Carmichael Roberts, Ph.D., Partner, North Bridge Venture Partners
Alan E. Smith, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Genzyme Corp.
Alison Taunton-Rigby, Ph.D., Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director, RiboNovix, Inc.
David Walt, Ph.D., Robinson Professor of Chemistry, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, Tufts University
Phillip Zamore, Ph.D., Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Chair:
Harvey F. Lodish, Ph.D., Member, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Professor of Biology and Professor of Bioengineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
A leader in the field of membrane biology, Harvey F. Lodish has isolated and cloned numerous proteins that reside on the surface of cells and play a role in cell growth, glucose transport, and fatty acid transport. His results have important implications for the treatment of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. A Founding Member of the Whitehead Institute, Lodish joined the MIT faculty in 1968 and has been a professor of biology since 1976 and professor of bioengineering since 1999. He earned his PhD at Rockefeller University in 1966. He was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1986, a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1987, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999.
Members:
James Barry, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Corporate Technology Development, Boston Scientific Corporation
James Barry leads the company’s efforts in the identification and early development of drug, device and biological systems for potential application in implantable and catheter-based delivery systems. Dr. Barry joined Boston Scientific in 1992 and was the initiator and champion of the company’s drug eluting stent program. This effort resulted in the TAXUS™ coronary stent which was developed under Dr Barry’s leadership; a paclitaxel-eluting polymeric stent that became the most successful medical device launched with annual sales exceeding $3 billion. Prior to joining Boston Scientific, Dr. Barry held positions at the Howmedica Division of Pfizer where he initiated their bio-resorbable fracture fixation program. Dr. Barry is the author of multiple articles in peer reviewed publications, including the journals of Controlled Release, Biomaterials and several clinical journals in the cardiovascular field and holds in excess of 35 national and international patents. Dr. Barry also represents Boston Scientific’s interests on the boards of a number of emerging technology companies. Dr. Barry holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and a B.A. degree in chemistry from Saint Anselm College.
Gary Borisy, Ph.D., Director and CEO, Marine Biological Laboratory
Gary Borisy became the Marine Biological Laboratory’s 13th Director and third CEO in 2006. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the biotech company CombinatoRx, located in Cambridge, MA. Dr. Borisy has served as president of the American Society for Cell Biology. He is the author of more than 200 papers, the editor of two books, and has received numerous professional honors, including an NIH Merit award and the Carl Zeiss award from the German Society for Cell Biology.
Dalia Cohen, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Asterand, Inc.
Dr. Cohen is Chief Scientific Officer at Asterand, Inc. and worked for many years at Novartis where, among other positions, she was Vice President-Global Head of Functional Genomics, Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research. She also served as Chief Scientific Officer at Rosetta Genomics. Cohen received her B.Sc. In Biology, M.Sc. in Virology and Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the Technion, Israel Institution of Technology and completed her postdoctoral at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
James J. Collins, Ph.D., Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University
James J. Collins is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. He is one of the founders of the emerging field of synthetic biology, and a pioneering researcher in systems biology, stochastic resonance, biological dynamics and neurostimulation. Collins has invented a number of novel devices and techniques, including vibrating insoles for enhancing balance, bistable genetic toggle switches for biotechnology and bioenergy applications, and systems biology techniques for identifying drug targets and disease mediators.
Dr. Collins has co-founded two companies based on his technologies: Afferent Corporation, a medical device company, and Cellicon Biotechnologies, a drug discovery company. Dr. Collins is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of Codon Devices, Inc., and has served on the SAB of Mannkind Corporation (Nasdaq: MNKD) and Bios Group Inc.
Collins' has received numerous awards including the 2007 NIH Director's Pioneer Award and the Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar Award in Aging. From 1987 to 1990, he was a Rhodes Scholar, since which he has been a faculty member in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University and currently serves as Co-Director of the Center for BioDynamics at Boston University, in addition to performing his duties as a professor.
T. (Teo) Forcht Dagi, M.D., Partner, HML Venture Partners.
Dr. Forcht Dagi is a Partner at HML Venture Partners. He received an AB from Columbia College, an MD and MPH from Johns Hopkins, an MTS from Harvard, where he was a Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Fellow, an MBA with distinction from the Wharton School, and a DMedSc from Queen’s University Belfast. He trained in neurosurgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital and is a diplomat of the American Board of Neurological Surgeons. He is Chairman of the IAP, Distinguished Scholar and Professor at the Medical School of Queen’s University, and Visiting Professor at Harvard Medical School.
Jonathan Fleming, M.P.A., Managing General Partner, Oxford Bioscience Partners
Jonathan Fleming is the Managing General Partner of Oxford Bioscience Partners, an international venture capital firm specializing in life science technology based investments, with offices in Boston and Connecticut.
Mr. Fleming has been in the investment business for over twenty years, starting and financing growth companies in the United States, Europe and Israel. Prior to joining OBP in 1996, he was a Founding General Partner of MVP Ventures in Boston, MA. He began his investment career with TVM Techno Venture Management in Munich, Germany. Mr. Fleming has also co-founded Medica Venture Partners, a venture capital investment firm specializing in early stage healthcare and biotechnology companies in Israel. Mr. Fleming holds a Master's degree in Public Administration from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Mr. Fleming is on the board of Asterand plc (LSE: ATD). He is also a director of several private companies including Leerink Swann, a Boston based investment bank specializing in healthcare companies. Mr. Fleming is a Trustee of the Museum of Science in Boston and a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Business.
Rainer Fuchs, Ph.D., Vice President, Executive Director, Biogen Idec Innovation Incubator
Dr. Rainer Fuchs is Vice President of R&D Information Technology for Cambridge, MA-based Biogen Idec. He also holds the positions of Executive Director of BI3, the Biogen Idec Innovation Incubator, which he launched in 2007, and Chairman of the Board of two BI3 portfolio companies, Provasculon and Escoublac. Dr. Fuchs has been with Biogen Idec since 2000 in various executive leadership roles, including co-head of Discovery Research and VP Informatics and Operations. His experience in the biopharmaceutical industry includes senior leadership positions in life science informatics at Aventis, Ariad, and Glaxo Wellcome.
Richard A. Goldsby, Ph.D., John Woodruff Simpson Lecturer and Professor of Biology, Amherst College
Dr. Goldsby has been a professor at Amherst College since 1982 and also teaches at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is the author of many scientific papers and with Thomas Kindt and Barbara Osborne, the author of the 4th edition of Kuby Immunology (2000), a widely used textbook. Other works include Cells and Energy (1977) and Race and Races (1977), Thinking AIDS, with Mary Catherine Bateson (1989), and many scientific papers.
Professor Goldsby and his colleagues at Hematech, a company he founded, have produced four cloned calves that make human antibodies. The research is the first step in developing a system for producing human polyclonal antibodies that could be used to prevent or treat antibiotic-resistant infections, autoimmune diseases, cancer and diseases resulting from bioterrorism.
Lita L. Nelsen, Director, Technology Licensing Office, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lita Nelsen is the Director of the Technology Licensing Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she has been since 1986. She began her tenure at the MIT TLO specializing in biotechnology and has helped begin many of the biotechnology companies in Massachusetts. Previously, Ms. Nelsen spent 20 years in industry at such companies as Amicon, Millipore, Arthur D. Little, Inc., and Applied Biotechnology. She currently serves on the Board of the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation and the Mount Auburn Hospital. She is a founder of Praxis, Ltd., a non-profit company for training technology transfer professionals, for which she was awarded an MBE. She is a former president of the Association of University Technology and is an advisor to a number of international organizations concerned with the intellectual property and the development of medicines for neglected tropical diseases.
Carmichael Roberts, Ph.D., Partner, North Bridge Venture Partners
Dr. Roberts is a Partner of North Bridge Venture Partners. He received his BS and Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Duke University and completed his postdoctoral National Science Foundation fellowship at Harvard University. Roberts also has an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He serves as an advisor for MIT’s Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, Harvard’s Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, and schools of Science and Engineering at Duke University.
Alan E. Smith, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Genzyme Corp.
Alan E. Smith has been Chief Scientific Officer of Genzyme Molecular Oncology, Genzyme Corp. and Genzyme Biosurgery since September 1996. Dr. Smith has also been Senior Vice President of Research of Genzyme Molecular Oncology, Genzyme Corp., and Genzyme Biosurgery since August 1989.
Prior to joining Genzyme, Dr. Smith served as Vice President and Scientific Director of Integrated Genetics, Inc., from November 1984 to its acquisition by Genzyme in August 1989. From October 1980 to October 1984, Dr. Smith served as Head of The Biochemistry Division of the National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London, England and from 1972 to October 1980, he served as Member of the scientific staff for The Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, England.
Alison Taunton-Rigby, Ph.D., Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director, RiboNovix, Inc.
Alison Taunton-Rigby has more than 30 years of experience in the biomedical and pharmaceutical sectors. As an industry leader in the life science and healthcare sectors she has achieved results in developing products and building companies. Dr. Taunton-Rigby has managed product development from basic research to FDA approval, marketing and sales. Her experience includes: significant strategic, regulatory, sales, reimbursment and international experience. She was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in June 2002 by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II for leadership in the research, development and promotion of biotechnology.
David Walt, Ph.D., Robinson Professor of Chemistry, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, Tufts University
Dr. David Walt is Robinson Professor of Chemistry, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor at Tufts University. He is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is a Panel Member of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Health Diagnostics Working Group. Dr. Walt has published over 200 papers and is named as an inventor or co-inventor of over 40 patents. He also serves as a board member for Quanterix, Inc. Dr. Walt holds a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan and received his Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from SUNY at Stony Brook.Phillip D. Zamore, Ph.D., Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Phillip D. Zamore is the Gretchen Stone Cook Professor of Biomedical Sciences and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He received his A.B. (1986) and his Ph.D. (1992) from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Harvard University. After post-doctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1999.
A 2000 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences and a 2002 W.M. Keck Foundation Young Scholar in Medical Research, he is also an honorary member of Alpha Omega Alpha. Dr. Zamore studies the biochemical mechanisms and biological functions of small silencing RNAs, including those that act in the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway. He is especially interested in the intersection of RNA silencing pathways and animal development and in the application of RNAi as a therapy for human diseases, especially Huntington’s disease.
Dr. Zamore is a co-founder of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a company that seeks to develop RNAi-based therapies for human diseases. He serves on the scientific advisory boards of Alnylam and of Regulus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a microRNA-therapeutics company.