Tülin U. Morçöl, PhD

President and Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Morçöl founded CaPtivate Pharmaceuticals as a spin-off from BioSante Pharmaceuticals in 2011.  Prior to CaPtivate, she worked at BioSante for 13 years, first as Associate Director of R&D and then Director of Preclinical Development.  During her work at BioSante, she focused on exploring novel formulation strategies for delivery of therapeutic drugs and vaccines for needle-free administration, and developing processes for large scale manufacturing of CaP nanoparticles. She expanded the applications of CaP-based technologies to selectively isolating recombinant proteins from the milk of transgenic livestock and developing formulations for esthetic medicine. In 2006 she led the relocation of BioSante’s R&D facilities from Atlanta, GA, to Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center in Doylestown, PA and established BioSante-PA. Prior to working in pharmaceutical industry, she worked at the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), Department of Neurosciences, Atlanta, GA. Before moving to the USA, Dr. Morçöl worked as research scientist for the Turkish Atomic Energy Agency for 5 years, during which she was awarded a research scholarship at Hoffman-La Roche, Basel, Switzerland by the International Atomic Energy Agency. She received her BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering at Middle East Technical University and Ankara University in Turkey.  She earned her PhD in Biochemical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1992. At Virginia Tech, she studied bioprocess engineering-process development for large-scale manufacture of transgenically produced recombinant proteins, under the mentorship of Dr. William H. Velander and as a member of Transgenic Animal Research Team. The team’s most pioneering achievement was the generation of the world’s first transgenic livestock, the female pig known as Genie, expressing human plasma protein C in her milk. She received a Research Excellence Award from Virginia Tech for her doctoral research in 2002.  Dr. Morçöl is also serving as the Vice President of Business Development at ImmProNano Solutions, a small R&D contract research company providing immunology, proteomics, and nano-formulation services for vaccine and drug compounds. She is the inventor or co-inventor in all patents and patent applications related to CaP nanoparticle technology. 

Banu Onaral, PhD

H. H. Sun Professor Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering, Senior Advisor to the President, Global Partnerships, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Onaral is H. H. Sun Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. She holds a PhD [1978] in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and BSEE [1973] and MSEE [1974] in Electrical Engineering from Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. Dr. Onaral joined the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Biomedical Engineering and Science Institute in 1981. Since 1997, she has served as the founding Director of the School of Biomedical Engineering Science and Health Systems. She has led major research and development projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of Naval Research (ONR), DARPA and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Dr. Onaral's translational research efforts for rapid commercialization of biomedical technologies developed at Drexel and its partner institutions have resulted in the creation of the Translational Research in Biomedical Technologies program. This initiative brings together academic technology developers with entrepreneurs, regional economic development agencies, as well as local legal, business, and investment communities. Under her leadership, the Coulter Translational Research Partnership Award recognized the program following a highly competitive selection process among 63 institutions in North America. At the end of an initial five-year term, universities successful in institutionalizing translational research will receive an endowment to ensure the perpetuity of the program. Her professional responsibilities have included service on the Editorial Board of journals and the CRC Biomedical Engineering Handbook as Section Editor for Biomedical Signal Analysis. She served as President of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), the largest member-based biomedical engineering society in the world. She currently serves as the President of the Turkish American Scientists and Scholars Association (TASSA).