Medical Nanotechnologies Incorporated

 

 

Rob Burgess, Ph.D. - Cofounder and Chairman of the Board

Dr. Burgess brings a strong Life Sciences background with a particular focus in molecular biology, in vivo drug target validation and genetic engineering to MedNanoTech.  He recently held the position of Vice President, Research and Development for Zyvex Corporation where he guided a team of 36 scientists and research engineers and played an integral part in the company's restructuring.  Prior to Zyvex he was employed at Serologicals Corporation, a 1000 employee biotools and reagents company realizing $275M in 2005 revenue, as Director of Scientific Sourcing and New Technologies.  There he provided long-term visionary guidance for the company regarding new product and technology development opportunities through the establishment of key relationships and partnerships with academic researchers and institutions.  Prior to his appointment as Director of Scientific Sourcing and New Technologies he acted as Senior Director, Functional Genomics and Senior Director, Corporate Business Development for the Serologicals subsidiary Chemicon International.  In these capacities he managed a team of scientists focused on the generation of animal models for human disorders and identified and in-licensed new products and technologies from worldwide industrial and academic sources.

 

Dr. Burgess’ other roles in the biotechnology industry include Co-founder, Board Member and President of Genome BioSciences and Co-founding Scientist for Lexicon Genetics, where he focused on high-throughput drug target identification and validation at the molecular level.  In addition, as an NIH – sponsored Research Fellow he conducted research at the University of California – San Diego and has published in major scientific journals including Nature and Science on a variety of research in genetic engineering, developmental biology and the molecular control of cellular identity. 

 

Dr. Burgess holds a B.A. in biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.  He has received numerous awards including appointment to the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Steering Committee for the Southern California Life Sciences Summit and Visiting Scholar at Georgia Tech University.  He is currently Vice President, Business Development - North America for Stem Cell Sciences, LLC.

 

 

 

 

Rocky Draper, Ph.D. - Cofounder and Board Member

Dr. Draper, Professor in the Departments of Molecular & Cell Biology and Chemistry at the University of Texas at Dallas,is a member of the NanoTech Institute and the Institute of Biomedical Sciences and Technology at UTD. His research interests include membrane cell biology and developing the interface between cell biology and nanotechnology.  In 2002 he initiated the Bionanosciences Group at U. T. Dallas that brings together chemists, nanotechnologists, engineers, and biologists to explore biological applications of nanotechnology. Dr. Draper’s research interests are the molecular mechanisms of membrane trafficking in eukaryotic cells and applications of molecular and cell biology to the emerging field of bionanotechnology.  He obtained his BA in chemistry from the University of Washington and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California at Los Angeles.  In addition he completed a postdoctoral appointment at the University of California, San Diego in Cell Biology and Genetics and was a visiting scholar at Stanford University.  Dr. Draper has received numerous faculty development awards and has received research funding support from numerous organizations including the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association, National Science Foundation and the Human Frontier Science Program.

 

 

 

 

Gareth Hughes, Ph.D. - Cofounder and Board Member

Dr. Hughes brings a technical background of biomedical engineering with a focus on nanotechnology and industry experience of R&D and manufacturing for medical products. As Life Sciences Group Leader at Zyvex Corporation, Dr. Hughes managed multidisciplinary teams of internal scientists and engineers and external collaborators and acquired over $3,000,000 in 3 years in federal funding for life sciences research. In addition to leading engineering efforts, he was responsible for coordinating pre-clinical studies using nanomaterials. These studies included cytotoxicity experiments and rodent model biocompatibility assays as outlined by the FDA (ISO 10993). Prior to Zyvex Corporation, he was Director of R&D at Computer Optics Inc., a privately-owned custom optics company serving the medical, industrial and defense industries, where he helped acquire over $800,000 in 3 years in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding and became co-founder of a microtechnology subsidiary, Computer Optical Systems.

 

Dr. Hughes has been involved with micro- and nanotechnology development for medical applications since 1994, having worked with and for companies ranging from pure startups to established, global corporations. He has continually been involved with both technical leadership and business development with spearheading activities such as project management, new product development and business and strategic planning. He has been awarded two U.S. patents on microtechnology for optical applications and was responsible for work towards four other patents (2 U.S., 2 foreign) that were assigned to the University of Minnesota for microscale biosensors for diagnostics. He is also the author of over twenty articles and two invited book chapters (one in press, one in development) on micro- and nanotechnology for medical applications.

 

Dr. Hughes holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati, a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and is currently pursuing an M.B.A. from the University of Dallas. He has been invited to participate in numerous workshops and think tanks on nanotechnology including the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative on Smart Prosthetics, the Annual Glaucoma Foundation Think Tank, and the NIST U.S. Measurement System Workshop on NanoBiotechnology. He is also actively involved in regional biomedical activities including the Industrial Advisory Board for Biomedical Engineering at University of Texas at Dallas and the Dallas Forum for Biomedical Technology. At the international level, Dr. Hughes is also an editorial board member for the Elsevier journal, Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine.

 

 

 

 

Ellen Vitetta, Ph.D. - Cofounder and Scientific Advisory Board Member

Dr. Vitetta is Professor of Microbiology, Director of the Cancer Immunobiology Center, and holder of the Sheryle Simmons Patigian Distinguished Chair in Cancer Immunobiology and a Distinguished Teaching Professor. She is an immunologist who does translational (“bench to bedside”) research.  She has published 475 papers, edited several books, and is a co-inventor on 13 issued patents.  She and her colleagues first described IgD on the surface of murine B cells and she was the co-discoverer of IL-4.  Her group demonstrated that IL-4 was a “switch” factor for antibody.  Over the past two decades, she has developed antibody-based “biological missiles” (immunotoxins) to destroy cancer cells and cells infected with HIV.  These novel therapeutics have been evaluated in tissue culture, in animals and, since 1988, in >300 humans. She is the PI on 10 FDA INDs for Phase I and II clinical trials.  In 2001, Dr. Vitetta’s group  developed a recombinant protein vaccine against ricin  which completed testing in 15 human volunteers in 2005. The vaccine was safe and elicited neutralizing antibodies. 

 

 

 Dr. Vitetta is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Science, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Academy of Cancer Immunology.  She is among the 100 most cited biomedical scientists and the 10 most cited women of the past several  decades.  She has been the recipient of the Pierce Immunotoxin Award, an NIH Merit Award, 16 Faculty Teaching Awards, the FASEB Excellence in Science Award, the American Society of Microbiology Abbott Clinical Immunology Award and the American Association of Cancer Research Rosenthal Prize. Dr. Vitetta was the 1993-94 president of the American Association of Immunologists and in 2002 was awarded its Mentoring Prize. In 2005, she became a founding member of UT Southwestern’s newly established Southwestern Academy of Teachers and was elected to the UT-system wide Academy of Health Science Education, 2006. In 2006, Dr. Vitetta was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame by Governor Rick Perry. In 2007 the American Association of Immunologists awarded her its highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

For 10 years Dr. Vitetta served as chair of the standing committee at UT Southwestern to advise the President of UT Southwestern on issues pertaining to women in science and medicine. Accomplishments of the committee include an on site Childcare Center, an annual endowed lectureship for a distinguished female scientist and/or clinician, a website and a mentoring program that is currently under development.

 

Dr. Vitetta has trained over 80 students and fellows, among them Dr. Linda Buck, Nobel Laureate, 2004 and Dr. Fran Ligler, NAE, 2005. She is a former chair of the Immunology Graduate Program and has taught the Immunology course for medical students fot 17 years.

 

 

Peter J. Wilk, M.D. - Board Member

Peter J. Wilk, MD is a New York surgeon and inventor.  He was educated at Yale University and New York Medical College.  He trained in General Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Hospital and Mt. Sinai Hospital.  He holds 275 US Patents.  He has licensed patents to Johnson & Johnson - Ethicon EndoSurgery, United States Surgical Corporation, Medtronic and Intuitive Surgical among many others.  His patents form the basis for 8 companies.  He founded Nanoco in 2001 to develop the medical treatment potentials of nanotechnology.  He and his wife, Thomasina, live in New York City.

 

 

 

Paul Pantano, Ph.D. - Scientific Advisory Board Member

Dr. Pantano, Associate Professor of Analytical Chemistry at The University of Texas at Dallas, is an affiliate of the Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute and a principal of the UT-Dallas Bionanosciences Group.  His research goals include elucidating the cellular response and fate of carbon nanotubes and advancing the diagnostic and therapeutic applications of carbon nanotubes.  His group’s areas of expertise include the characterization of nanomaterials, the reproducible preparation of purified nanotube samples, the assessment of potential nanomaterial cytotoxicity, and the development of label-free measurement of nanotubes inside living cells and tissue. 

 

Dr. Pantano’s work has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the American Heart Association, the Semiconductor Research Corporation, the Department of Defense, and the Robert A. Welch Foundation.  He has published over forty scientific papers, is a co-inventor on three patents, and has been an Editorial Board Member for Applied Spectroscopy Reviews since 2001.  He has trained twenty-four graduate and twenty undergraduate research students, has been the site-director of the Welch Foundation Summer High School Scholar Program since 1997, and has been named a Recognized Teacher at UT Dallas.

 

Dr. Pantano was awarded his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California at Los Angeles, his M.S. in Chemistry from the California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, and his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of California at Riverside; in addition, he completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris and at Tufts University.