Presenter Biosketches

Lynn Allen-Hoffman, Ph.D. is the Chief Executive Officer and President of Stratatech Corporation and a Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She has also served as Director of the UW Molecular and Environmental Toxicology Center. Dr. Allen-Hoffmann obtained her doctorate from Cornell University and trained with Dr. James Rheinwald at Harvard Medical School. She has received numerous awards, including the Harold Rusch Award in Translational Research and the MIT Individual Technology Achievement Award, and has 14 U.S. and 17 international patents. Her UW research group investigates the cell signaling factors that regulate differentiation in keratinocytes. In 2000, Dr. Allen-Hoffmann founded Stratatech Corporation to develop therapeutic skin substitutes using the NIKS® cells, a unique source of human keratinocyte progenitors discovered in her university laboratory. Because the NIKS® cells are amenable to genetic manipulation, this technology facilitates generation of cell-based therapies engineered to express factors known to enhance wound healing and combat infection.

Professor Peter W. Andrews obtained a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Leeds in 1971, and a D.Phil. in Genetics from the University of Oxford in 1975.  Following postdoctoral research at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and the Sloan Kettering Institute in New York, he was a research scientist on the staff of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology in Philadelphia from 1978 to 1992.  In 1992 he was appointed to the Arthur Jackson Chair of Biomedical Research in the University of Sheffield, where he is currently co-director of the Centre for Stem Cell Biology.  His research focuses on the biology of pluripotent human stem cells.  Among his current activities he co-ordinates the International stem Cell Initiative, which is focused upon characterizing standard markers and culture conditions for human ES cells.  He is also the co-ordinator of ESTOOLS, a European Integrated Project of 21 partners under the sixth framework program.

Derek Hei, Ph.D. completed his graduate work in Biochemical Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley in 1993. Following his Ph.D., he worked in industry for seven years developing recombinant protein and cell-based biotherapeutics at Genentech and Cerus Corp. In 2000, he joined the Waisman Center at UW-Madison to lead development of the Waisman Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility (WCBF). As the Technical Director of the WCBF, Derek leads a team of scientists and engineers that support academic researchers and start-up biotech companies that are involved in developing biotherapeutics for early-stage human clinical trials. The WCBF has advanced a variety of biotherapeutics into human clinical trials including recombinant proteins, plasmid DNA, viral vectors, and cell therapeutics.

Linda Hogle, Ph.D. is a member of the Regenerative Medicine faculty cluster and Associate Professor of Medical Social Sciences in the School of Medicine & Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on social, organizational and regulatory issues in emerging areas of biomedical engineering and regenerative medicine.  In particular, she analyzes processes of standardization as novel technology concepts move from bench to bedside, including those which may involve disruptions and disjunctures with conventional ways of conducting and regulating science. Additionally, she is currently studying the effects of interdisciplinarity on problem-solving in regenerative medicine, including the way interdisciplinary collaborations affect research infrastructures and organization.

Timothy J. Kamp, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Medicine and Physiology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He received his BS from the University of Notre Dame and attended medical school at the University of Chicago, receiving his doctorate in Pharmacological and Physiological Sciences and degree in medicine. Dr. Kamp completed his Internal Medicine residency training and fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He joined the faculty of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Wisconsin in 1996. He also serves as director of the University of Wisconsin Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center. Dr. Kamp’s research focuses on human pluripotent stem cells and their applications to cardiovascular research and cardioregenerative medicine. In collaboration with Dr. James Thomson, he first demonstrated that the human embryonic stem cells can differentiate into the various types of functional cardiomyocytes found in the human heart including atrial, nodal and ventricular myocytes. Dr. Kamp’s current research is refining the conditions to differentiate human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells into defined populations of cardiac progenitor cells and cardiomyocytes for research and clinical applications. His laboratory is actively investigating human models of inherited arrhythmia syndromes created using induced pluripotent stem cell technologies. Dr. Kamp and colleagues are engaged in preclinical studies in animal models of myocardial infarction evaluating various strategies employing stem cells for cardiac repair. He is also co-founder of Cellular Dynamics International, a company focused on applying stem cell technologies to human health.

Thomas B. Okarma, Ph.D., M.D. has served as our President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors since July 1999. He is also a director of Geron Bio-Med Limited, a United Kingdom company and our wholly-owned subsidiary, TA Therapeutics, Ltd, a Hong Kong company and a joint venture between us and Biotechnology Research Corporation of Hong Kong. From May 1998 until July 1999, Dr. Okarma was the Vice President of Research and Development. From December 1997 until May 1998, Dr. Okarma was Vice President of Cell Therapies. Dr. Okarma currently serves on the Board of BIO and was Chairman of the Board of Overseers of Dartmouth Medical School from 2001 to 2006. From 1985 until joining us, Dr. Okarma, the scientific founder of Applied Immune Sciences, Inc., served initially as Vice President of Research and Development of Applied Immune Sciences and then as chairman, chief executive officer and a director of Applied Immune Sciences, until 1995 when it was acquired by Rhone-Poulenc Rorer. Dr. Okarma was a Senior Vice President at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer from the time of the acquisition of Applied Immune Sciences until December 1996. From 1980 to 1985, Dr. Okarma was a member of the faculty of the Department of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Okarma holds a A.B. from Dartmouth College and a M.D., a Ph.D. and an executive MBA from Stanford University.

Raymond Lund, Ph.D. I received my training at University College London, first as a medical student, then through BS and PhD programs. Rather than continue medical training I joined the faculty of the Anatomy Department and was awarded tenure in 1965, I then moved to the US, to work at U. Pennsylvania, Stanford U., U Washington, Medical U. of S. Carolina (chairman of Anatomy) and U. of Pittsburgh (chairman of Neurobiology and Anatomy and founding director of Center for Neurosciences) over a 25 year period. I returned to the UK in 1992 first to take the chair of Anatomy at U. Cambridge and then to the Duke Elder Professorship at the Institute of Ophthalmology, London. I came back to the US in 2000 to take the Calvin and JeNeal Hatch chair of Ophthalmology at the Moran Eye Center, U. Utah, where I became research director prior to moving to the Casey Eye Institute as an adjunct professor, where a closer relation with retinal degeneration clinician/scientists makes translational opportunities easier.
     My research interests have centered on the response of the CNS to injury and mechanisms of rescue and repair, focusing on the retina and its connections with the brain. I pioneered eye transplants in mammals in the late 70s and about 12 years ago focused on applying cell based therapies for photoreceptor degeneration in animal models of human disease. Major interests have been in assessing whether the animals can see after such therapy approaches and in finding alternatives to freshly harvested cells. This has led our program to using stem cells and to collaborating with industry with the goal of taking laboratory discovery to clinic. Some of the work has been advanced to clinical trials. I received an NIH MERIT award in the 80s, and while in the UK was elected a fellow of the Royal Society and of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Brent McCright, Ph.D.  joined the Division of Cellular and Gene Therapies, in the Office of Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapies, at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research of the FDA in 2002.  Dr. McCright reviews INDs and works on policy development for cellular therapies.  In addition, Dr. McCright’s lab investigates the function of key signaling molecules during organogenesis and tissue repair.  The goal of Dr McCright’s current research is to identify molecules that may be useful in predicting the effectiveness of cellular therapies. Dr. McCright received his Ph.D. in Oncological Sciences from the University of Utah.

Dr. Amish N. Raval (Assistant Prof. Medicine, U. Wisconsin-Madison) is an expert in translational regenerative medicine trial design and delivery approaches of cell-based therapies for cardiovascular disease.  His research focuses on minimally invasive catheter delivery of stem cells using novel real-time 3D imaging approaches for accurate targeting.   He has published over 20 peer-reviewed papers and 4 book chapters related to clinical-translation of cell based therapy and interventional imaging approaches for cardiovascular disease.   He founded the University of Wisconsin OPTIONS clinic to see patients with refractory, advanced cardiovascular disease who may be ideally suited to early phase regenerative medicine trials.  He is overall principal investigator (PI) of a multi-center trial exploring progenitor cells in patients with critical limb ischemia, and is site-PI for many multi-center studies testing cells and other biologics therapies for advanced heart and vascular disease.   His most recent work is focused on demonstrating that “targeted” delivery of stem cells is critically important, particularly for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction. 

Peter W. Zandstra, Ph.D. graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree from McGill University in the Department of Chemical Engineering, obtained his Ph.D degree from the University of British Columbia in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, under the supervision of Jamie Piret and Connie Eaves. He continued his research training as a Post Doctoral Fellow in the field of Bioengineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (with Doug Lauffenburger) before being appointed to the University of Toronto in 1999.  Dr. Zandstra holds an academic appointment as a Professor at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering. He is cross appointed with the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry and Medical Genetics. Dr Zandstra is the Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Bioengineering and is a recipient of a number of awards and fellowships including the Premiers Research Excellence Award (2002), the E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship (2006), the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2007), “Canada’s Top 40 Under 40” (2008) and the McLean Award (2009). Dr. Zandstra is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr Zandstra, currently serves associate editor for the journals Stem Cells, Stem Cell Research and Biotechnology and Bioengineering.