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.
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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).
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Anthony Hickey, PhD, DSc Distinguished Fellow, Aerosol and Nanomaterials Engineering Founder and President, Cirrus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., RTP, NC Research Pharmacologist, RTI Internationals, RTP, NC Emeritus Professor, University of North Carolina, School of Medicine and Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Chapel Hill, NC Dr.
Hickey is Distinguished RTI Fellow, at the Research Triangle Institute,
Emeritus Professor of Molecular Pharmaceutics of the Eshelman School of
Pharmacy (2010-present, Professor 1993-2010), and Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Medicine, at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He obtained Ph.D. (1984) and D.Sc. (2003)
degrees in pharmaceutical sciences from Aston University, Birmingham,
UK. Following postdoctoral positions, at the University of Kentucky
(1984-1988) Dr. Hickey joined the faculty at the University of Illinois
at Chicago (1988-1993). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology
(2000), the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (2003) and
the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005). He
received the Research Achievement Award of the Particulate Presentations
and Design Division of the Powder Technology Society of Japan (2012),
the Distinguished Scientist Award of the American Association of Indian
Pharmaceutical Scientists (2013) and the David JW Grant Award in
Physical Pharmacy of the American Association of Pharmaceutical
Scientists (2015). He has published numerous papers and chapters in the
pharmaceutical and biomedical literature, one of which received the AAPS
Meritorious Manuscript Award in 2001. He has edited five texts on
pharmaceutical inhalation aerosols and co-authored three others on
‘Pharmaceutical Process Engineering’, pharmaceutical particulate science
and ‘Pharmaco-complexity’. He is founder (1997, and formerly President
and CEO, 1997-2013) of Cirrus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which was acquired
by Kemwell Pharma in 2013; founder (2001, and formerly CSO, 2002-2007)
of Oriel Therapeutics, Inc, which was acquired by Sandoz in 2010 and
founder and CEO of Astartein, Inc. (2013-present); member of the
Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms Expert Committee of the United States
Pharmacopeia (USP, 2010–2015, Chair of the sub-committee on Aerosols)
and formerly Chair of the Aerosols Expert Committee of the USP
(2005-2010). He is Principal Investigator for the ‘NIH Nanomaterial
Registry’ (a multi-institute program). Dr. Hickey conducts a
multidisciplinary research program in the field of pulmonary drug and
vaccine delivery for treatment and prevention of a variety of diseases.
Dr. Hickey holds 17 patents and has authored numerous books, book
chapters, and more than 160 journal articles.
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Timothy M. Block, PhD President and Director, Hepatitis B Foundation and Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks, Doylestown, PA President and Director, Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, Doylestown, PA Professor, Microbiology and Immunology, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
Dr.
Timothy Block is the Co-Founder and volunteer President of the
Hepatitis B Foundation and its research affiliate the Institute for
Hepatitis and Virus Research. He has been involved in viral hepatitis
research for more than 25 years and is internationally recognized for
his outstanding scholarship and scientific contributions. Dr. Block is a
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Drexel University College of
Medicine, and Director of the Drexel Institute for Biotechnology and
Virology Research. Dr. Block received his Ph.D. from SUNY - Buffalo:
Roswell Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo, NY and completed his
post-doctoral training at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ. He later
studied at the University of Oxford, Oxford, England as a Sabbatical
Fellow. He received an honorary M.D. in 1999, when he was elected to the
Bulgarian National Academy. At Oxford University, working with Dr.
Baruch S. Blumberg (Nobel Laureate) and Prof. Raymond Dwek (Fellow,
Royal Society), he discovered a plant sugar that has now received the
trade name “glycovir”, which is in preclinical studies. It may open the
door to a new family of anti-hepatitis B agents and provide a valuable
tool in the fight against hepatitis B. Dr. Block continues to study
chronic viral diseases, including the management and early detection of
hepatitis B/C and the molecular pathogenesis of herpesviruses infection.
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