Transformative Microsystem Technologies for Cancer Diagnostics, Monitoring Treatment Response, and Management (Speaker Bios)
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Joni L. Rutter , Ph.D.
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Director
Joni L. Rutter, Ph.D., is the director of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She oversees the planning and execution of the Center’s complex, multifaceted programs that aim to overcome scientific and operational barriers impeding the development and delivery of new treatments and other health solutions. Under her direction, NCATS supports innovative tools and strategies to make each step in the translational process more effective and efficient, thus speeding research across a range of diseases, with a particular focus on rare diseases. By advancing the science of translation, NCATS helps turn promising research discoveries into real-world applications that improve people’s health. In her prior role as the NCATS deputy director, Rutter collaborated with colleagues from government, academia, industry, and nonprofit patient organizations to establish robust interactions with NCATS programs. During her career, Dr. Rutter has earned a national and international reputation for her diverse and unique expertise via her journal publications and has received several scientific achievement awards, including the 2022 Rare Disease Legislative Advocates, RareVoice Award—Federal Advocacy and the 2022 FedHealthIT—Women in Leadership Impact Award.
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Joanna E. Burdette , Ph.D.
The University of Illinois Chicago
Edward and Josephine Mika Professor
Dr. Joanna E. Burdette earned her B.S. from Emory University in Biology and her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern under the direction of Dr. Teresa K. Woodruff. She is currently the Edward and Josephine Mika Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. In 2014, she was promoted to Associate Dean for Research. Her research has helped to develop three-dimensional models of the fallopian tube to define early events responsible for ovarian cancer formation. She has leveraged organ-on-chip technology and imaging mass spectrometry to investigate the origin of ovarian cancer and the role of ovulation in oncogenesis. She is also actively screening natural products for anti-cancer activity with a focus on ovarian cancer. She is currently the co-leader of the Cancer Biology Program of the UIC Cancer Center and co-director of the NIH K12 IRACDA Postdoctoral training grant.
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Dorn Carranza, Ph.D.
U.S. FDA
Dir Strategic Initiatives and Innovation
Dorn leads interagency and private-public initiatives to advance the FDA's Office Of Science Engienering Labs (OSEL) in the Center for Devices and Radiological Helath (CDRH) mission to help accelerate medical device innovation. This includes collaborations with Agencies like the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Veterans Health Administration, more than 70 universities, philanthropic organizations like the Melinda and Gates Foundation and a top medical devices companies committed to advancing regulatory science for development of safe and effective medical devices. Prior to the FDA Dorn spend 15 years in the private life science and medical device sectors. Dorn work involves future-proofing the FDA for emerging technologies and medical devices in key areas, including: Additive Manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML), Digital Pathology, Wearable devices, Medical Extended Reality (AR/VR), Microfluidics, Therapeutic Ultrasound, Neurological Devices and Cardiovascular Devices.
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David A Chambers, D.Phil.
National Cancer Institute
Deputy Director for Implementation Science, DCCPS
Dr. David Chambers is Deputy Director for Implementation Science in the Office of the Director in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Chambers manages a team focusing on efforts to build and advance the field of Implementation Science through funding opportunities, training programs, research activities, dissemination platforms, and enhancement of partnerships and networks to integrate research, practice and policy. From 2008 through the fall of 2014, Dr. Chambers served as Chief of the Services Research and Clinical Epidemiology Branch (SRCEB) of the Division of Services and Intervention Research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). He arrived at NIMH in 2001, brought to the Institute to run the Dissemination and Implementation Research Program within SRCEB, developing a portfolio of grants to study the integration of scientific findings and effective clinical practices in mental health within real-world service settings. From 2006 to the fall of 2014, Dr. Chambers also served as Associate Director for Dissemination and Implementation Research, leading National Institutes of Health (NIH) initiatives around the coordination of dissemination and implementation research in health, including a set of research announcements across multiple NIH Institutes and Centers, annual scientific conferences, and a summer training institute. Prior to his arrival at NIH, Dr. Chambers worked as a member of a research team at Oxford University, where he studied national efforts to implement evidence-based practice within healthcare systems. He publishes on strategic directions in implementation science and serves as a plenary speaker at numerous scientific conferences. He received his A.B. degree (with Honors) in Economics from Brown University, and an MSc and DPhil degree in Management Studies (Organisational Behaviour) from Oxford University (UK).
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David C Erickson, PhD
Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell Univeristy
Sibley College Professor and Director
David Erickson is the SC Thomas Sze Director and Sibley College Professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. He is also a joint Professor within the Division of Nutritional Sciences and was previously the Associate Dean of Engineering for Research and Graduate Programs. Prof. Erickson is the director of the NIH POCTRN Center “PORTENT – Center for Point of Care Technologies for Nutrition, Infection, and Cancer in Global Health” (https://pocglobalhealth.cornell.edu/). His research focuses on: global health technology, medical diagnostics, microfluidics, photonics, and nanotechnology. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology and he received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Toronto. Research in the Erickson lab is or has been primarily funded through grants from the NIH, NSF, ARPA-E, ONR, DoD, DOE, DARPA, USAID, USDA, Nutrition International, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, and other foundations. Prof. Erickson has helped to found numerous start-up companies commercializing: high-throughput pharmaceutical instrumentation, biomedical diagnostics, and energy technologies including Halo Labs (http://halolabs.com), VitaScan (http://vitascan.me) and Dimensional Energy (https://www.dimensionalenergy.net/). Prof. Erickson has received the DARPA-MTO Young Faculty Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the Department of Energy Early Career Award, among others. In 2011 he was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientist and Engineers (PECASE) by President Obama. Erickson has been named a fellow of the Optical Society of America, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and the Canadian Academy of Engineering.
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Steven Farmer, M.D., Ph.D.
CMS
Chief Strategy Officer
Dr. Steven Farmer serves as Chief Strategy Officer in the Coverage and Analysis Group (CAG) at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). He joined CMS in 2017 as a Senior Advisor in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation where he assisted with development and refinement of value-based payment programs, with a particular emphasis on the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced model. He moved to the Coverage and Analysis group in 2019 where he leads an effort to streamline and accelerate evidence-based coverage policy development. He is a practicing non-invasive cardiologist.
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Jonathan Franca-Koh, Ph.D.
National Cancer Institute
NCI SBIR Opportunities
Dr. Jonathan Franca-Koh is a Team Leader and Program Director at the National Cancer Institute's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Development Center. Jonathan manages a team that oversees SBIR & STTR grants and contracts with a focus on cancer therapeutics and novel tools for research and drug discovery. He provides oversight throughout the award period and mentors small business applicants and awardees in developing their technology goals and commercialization strategy.
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Satish Gopal, M.D., M.P.H.
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Director of the Center for Global Health
Satish Gopal, M.D., M.P.H. was appointed Director of the Center for Global Health (CGH) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 2020. In this role, he oversees the development of initiatives and collaborations with other NCI and NIH partners, NCI-designated cancer centers, and other governmental and non-governmental organizations to support cancer research, promote science-based cancer control, and build research capacity in low- and middle-income countries. Before coming to NCI, Dr. Gopal was the Cancer Program Director for the University of North Carolina collaboration with the Malawi Ministry of Health.
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Suvajyoti Guha, Ph.D.
Center for Devices and Radiological Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Mechanical Engineer
Suvajyoti Guha has worked at the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) since 2012. He has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Guha’s current interests include microfluidics, airborne pandemics, and pediatrics. He has published approximately fifty peer-reviewed articles in these areas. He is currently the program coordinator of the Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories’ Microfluidic Devices Program and in this role leads a diverse number of regulatory science projects for evaluating medical devices that use microfluidics. He routinely advises CDRH’s review and policy teams in multiple product specific areas including respiratory, enteral, cardio-pulmonary devices and insulin pumps.
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Daniel A. Haber, M.D./Ph.D.
Massachusetts General Hospital
Director, MGH Cancer Center
Daniel A. Haber, MD, PhD
Dr. Daniel Haber is Director of the Mass General Hospital Cancer Center; Director of the Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research; and the Kurt Isselbacher Professor of Oncology at Harvard Medical School (HMS). He received his MD/PhD from Stanford in 1983, completed an internal medicine residency at Mass General, clinical oncology training at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), and a postdoctoral research fellowship at MIT. He joined the faculty of HMS in 1991.
Dr. Haber’s numerous awards include a MERIT Award from the National Cancer Institute, a Dream Team Award from the Prostate Cancer Foundation and a Dream Team Award from Stand-Up-To-Cancer, and the Richard and Linda Rosenthal Memorial Award from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). He was appointed to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2008, and he was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2009, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011, and the National Academy of Sciences in 2018. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in 2019.
Dr. Haber’s research has focused primarily in the field of cancer genetics, resulting in discoveries on the origin of the pediatric kidney cancer Wilms tumor, genetic predispositions to breast cancer, and mutations that define a subset of “non-smoker” lung cancers that are uniquely sensitive to targeted new therapies. In collaboration with Mass General bioengineer Dr. Mehmet Toner, Dr. Haber’s laboratory has developed a novel technology for isolating rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from the blood of cancer patients—a tool that may have profound implications for early diagnosis of cancer and for non-invasive molecular profiling of cancers during therapy.
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Shana O Kelley, Ph.D.
Northwestern University
Professor
Dr. Shana Kelley is the President of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago and the Neena B. Schwartz Professor at Northwestern in the Departments of Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering, and Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics. The Kelley research group has pioneered new methods for tracking molecular and cellular analytes with unprecedented sensitivity. Dr. Kelley’s work has been recognized with the ACS Inorganic Nanoscience Award, the Pittsburgh Conference Achievement Award, the Steacie Prize, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar award, a NSF CAREER Award, a Dreyfus New Faculty Award, and she was also named a “Top 100 Innovator” by MIT’s Technology Review. Kelley is also a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and the American Institute of Biological and Medical Engineering. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors. Her work is extensively cited and she has over 80 papers cited more than 80 times. Kelley is an inventor on over 50 patents issued worldwide. She is a founder of four life sciences companies, GeneOhm Sciences (acquired by Becton Dickinson in 2005), Xagenic Inc. (acquired by General Atomics in 2017), CTRL Therapeutics (founded in 2019) and Arma Biosciences (founded in 2021).
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Sheena C Kerr, Ph.D.
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Research Assistant Professor
Dr Sheena Kerr is a Research Assistant Professor in the Carbone Cancer Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She received her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Dundee, Scotland. She then continued her research as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco before joining UW Madison. Her research uses complex microenvironment modeling to answer clinical and biological questions across multiple disease states. Current work includes developing and validating microphysiological systems of the tumor microenvironment. A focus is on patient-specific models as precision medicine tools to predict treatment outcomes as well as investigating tumor microenvironment-driven mechanisms of metastasis as part of the UW Madison NCI funded head and neck and prostate SPORE programs. Creation of metastatic environments including bone metastases and determining how these environments drive treatment resistance is another area of interest. Other ongoing work includes investigation of human immunology in response to parasitic infection in the gut or bacterial infection in the lungs.
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Wilbur A Lam, M.D., Ph.D.
Emory University/Georgia Tech/Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
Professor of Pediatrics and Biomedical Engineering, Associate Dean of Innovation at Emory School of Medicine, Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship at Emory University
Wilbur A. Lam, MD, PhD is the W. Paul Bowers Research Chair and Professor of Pediatrics and Biomedical Engineering at Emory University and Georgia Tech as well as a clinical pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. He is also Associate Dean of Innovation and Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship at Emory University School of Medicine and Emory University, respectively. His laboratory’s research interests involve developing microsystems and microfluidic technologies to advance our fundamental understanding of the biophysics of hematologic and oncologic processes and diseases. With an interest in patient-operated diagnostics, the Lam Lab is also dedicated to translating their microtechnologies as novel solutions to enable and empower patients to more easily monitor their own diseases at home and in the global health and low resource settings. Dr. Lam is also Co-Director of the Pediatric Technology Center at Children’s and Georgia Tech and is principal investigator of the NIH-funded Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineered Point-of-Care Technologies, which serves as the national test verification center for the NIH Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Among numerous accolades, Dr. Lam has been elected into the National Academy of Medicine and the American Society of Clinical Investigation, is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the National Academy of Inventors, named an Emerging Investigator by the journal Lab-on-a-Chip, and is recipient of an NSF Career Award as well as the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology’s Frank A. Oski Memorial Lectureship Award, the Lab on a Chip and Dolomite Pioneers of Miniaturization Lectureship Award, and an Emerging Investigator Award by the NIH.
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Hakho Lee, Ph.D
Massachusetts General Hospital
Professor
Hakho Lee, PhD, is a Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University and completed his postdoctoral training at MGH. Dr. Lee's expertise lies in nanomaterials, biophysics, and electrical engineering, with a focus on developing biomedical sensors for clinical use. He leads the Biomedical Engineering Program at the Center for Systems Biology (CSB), MGH, and is a global faculty member at the Center for NanoMedicine at Yonsei University.
Dr. Lee is known for his work in bioengineering, particularly in the development of innovative biosensors for various applications, such as identifying infections, detecting cancer, and conducting on-site testing for COVID-19 and marijuana use. Some of his technologies have been licensed to companies for commercialization. Dr. Lee has a notable publication record in high-impact journals and has received prestigious awards for his work. This includes being named one of the ten finalists of the 2015 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, which recognizes innovative young faculty-rank scientists and engineers. In 2017, he was elected Hostetter MGH Research Scholar, a significant honor for exceptional MGH researchers. Furthermore, in 2023, he was recognized as part of the Class of Distinguished Investigators by the Academy for Radiology & Biomedical Imaging Research.
In addition to his research, Dr. Lee has contributed to the field by serving on review panels and as a consultant for various organizations, including the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the NIH Common Fund Extracellular RNA Communication Consortium. He is also a steering committee member of the NCI Liquid Biopsy Consortium, where he shares his diagnostic technologies with other institutions for early cancer detection. -
Courtney H. Lias, Ph.D.
Food and Drug Administration
Director, OHT7: Office of In Vitro Diagnostic Devices
Courtney H. Lias, Ph.D. – Dr. Lias studied at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where she received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Cellular, and Molecular Biology. Currently, Dr. Lias is the Director of FDA’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostic Devices. During her FDA career of nearly two decades, she has led efforts to promote development of new therapeutic and diagnostic devices, including devices for diabetes, genetic testing, and drug dosing and monitoring. In 2017, Dr. Lias received the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal in Management Excellence. This honor was awarded for work promoting the efficient development and approval of the first automated insulin dosing system.
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Lance A. Liotta , Ph.D.
George Mason University Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine
Co-Director, Distinguished Professor
Since 2005, Dr. Liotta, MD, PhD has served as Co-Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM) at George Mason University. Prior to this appointment, He served as Co-Director of the NCI/FDA Clinical Proteomics Program, Director of the NCI Anatomic Pathology Residency Program, Chief of the Laboratory of Pathology at NCI, and Deputy Director under NIH Director Healy. He has devoted his career to mentoring scientist-physicians and investigating the process of tumor invasion and metastasis at the molecular level (h-index 184). In addition to his publications (>700), and many research awards (including highly cited investigator ranked #44 worldwide, and the Surgeon General’s Medallion), he has invented and patented, along with his laboratory coinventors, highly cited medical technologies in the fields of diagnostics, cancer molecular therapeutics, microdissection (Laser Capture Microdissection), and proteomics (Reverse Phase Protein Microarrays (RPPA), Biomarker Harvesting Nanocage Nanoparticles (NanotrapTM), Protein-Protein interactions (Protein Painting), preservation chemistries for molecular analysis (TheralinTM), and recently technologies for harvesting tissue interstitial fluid extracellular vesicles, that have been used to make broad discoveries in medical biology, personalized medicine, and therapeutics. The Laser Capture Microdissection prototype instrument is in the Smithsonian Collection. The CAPMM Center studies the proteomics of animal and human tissues, cells, and body fluids, using this set of novel technologies supported by DOD, Gates Foundation, and NIH funding (R21, R33 (IMAT) and R01). This research has directly resulted in ongoing clinical research trials applying the technology to the discovery of markers for early-stage cancer and infectious disease, neurologic disease, individualized therapy for metastatic cancer, and adjuvant therapy of premalignant breast cancer, and synthetic DNA-Protein hybrid drugs. In addition to his PhD in bioengineering, Dr. Liotta is Board Certified in Anatomic Pathology (licensed MD) and Medical Director of our CAP:7223012/CLIA:49D2002076 certified Lab.
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George A. Mensah, M.D.
Center for Translation Research & Implementation Science, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health.
Director
Dr. George Mensah is a clinician-scientist who currently serves as the Director of the Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In this role, Dr. Mensah leads a trans-NHLBI effort to advance late-stage translational research and implementation science to address gaps in the prevention, treatment, and control of heart, lung, and blood diseases and the elimination of related health inequities. His goal is to maximize the population health impact of advances made in fundamental discovery science and pre-clinical or early-stage translational research. Dr. Mensah is an honors graduate of Harvard University. He obtained his medical degree from Washington University and trained in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at Cornell. His professional experience includes more than 25 years of public health service between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the NIH. In addition to his public service, Dr. Mensah had 15 years of experience in direct patient care, teaching, and research at Cornell, Vanderbilt, and the Medical College of Georgia (MCG). He was a full professor with tenure at MCG and is currently a Visiting Full Professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Dr. Mensah has been admitted to fellowships in several national and international societies including the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, and the European Society of Cardiology. He is an Honorary Fellow of the College of Physicians of South Africa. He maintains active collaboration with several international groups to advance research on the global burden of diseases and risk factors.
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George A Mensah, M.D.
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health
Director, Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science
Dr. George Mensah is a clinician-scientist who currently serves as the Director of the Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In this role, Dr. Mensah leads a trans-NHLBI effort to advance late-stage translational research and implementation science to address gaps in the prevention, treatment, and control of heart, lung, and blood diseases and the elimination of related health inequities. His goal is to maximize the population health impact of advances made in fundamental discovery science and pre-clinical or early-stage translational research. An important part of this effort is his support for meaningful community-engaged research and implementation science to advance health equity, especially in underserved communities. Dr. Mensah is an honors graduate of Harvard University. He obtained his medical degree from Washington University and trained in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at Cornell. His professional experience includes more than 25 years of public health service between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the NIH. In addition to his public service, Dr. Mensah had 15 years of experience in direct patient care, teaching, and research at Cornell, Vanderbilt, and the Medical College of Georgia (MCG). He was a full professor with tenure at MCG and is currently a Visiting Full Professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Dr. Mensah has been admitted to fellowships in several national and international societies including the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, and the European Society of Cardiology. He is an Honorary Fellow of the College of Physicians of South Africa. He maintains active collaboration with several international groups to advance research on the global burden of diseases and risk factors.
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Franziska Moeckel, M.B.A.
NIH Small business Education and Entrepreneurial Development (SEED)
Principal/Regulatory Specialist
Franziska is a Principal at the MITRE corporation, a not-for-profit that works in the public interest. She is a biomedical innovations leader with over 18 years of experience. She joined NIH SEED's Innovator Support Team in 2020 as a regulatory subject matter expert in laboratory developed testing and in vitro diagnostics, genomic test integration, and clinical labs. She was selected by the NIH as one of 12 national Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) steering panel members and served in this capacity throughout the recent COVID-19 public health emergency.
Prior to joining MITRE in 2020, Franziska held multiple executive leadership positions at Inova Health System where she successfully implemented one of the first precision medicine programs in the nation. Franziska holds an MBA from the University of Maryland, a BS degree in Marketing and International Studies from George Mason University, a Certificate in Genomic Medicine and Bioeconomy from the Harvard School of Public Health, and a Regulatory Affairs Graduate Certificate from George Washington University. -
Miguel R Ossandon, PhD
NIH\NCI
Program Director
Miguel R. Ossandon has a dual background in clinical laboratory and computer science. He started working in cancer research at the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University where he also began his undergraduate training in computer science. He is working for the National Cancer Institute since 2007. Miguel received his master’s degree at The George Washington University and Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
As a Program Director in the Diagnostic Biomarkers and Technology Branch, he manages a grant portfolio related to computational modeling and machine learning approaches for cancer diagnosis and digital image processing.
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Nimmi Ramanujam, Ph.D.
Duke University
Robert W. Carr Professor of Engineering and Professor of Cancer Pharmacology and Global Health
Nirmala (Nimmi) Ramanujam is recognized for creating globally accessible technologies for women’s health related to cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment. She is currently the Robert W. Carr Professor of Engineering and Professor of Cancer Pharmacology and Global Health at Duke University. She founded the Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies (GWHT) in 2013 to catalyze impactful research, educational, and community outreach activities that promote women’s health. In 2023, she won the IEEE Biomedical Engineering Technical Field Award given annually for outstanding contributions to the field of Biomedical Engineering. In 2019, she received the Social Impact Abie Award from the AnitaB organization for making a positive impact on women, technology, and society.She was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2017. She has created Calla Health to commercialize her technologies. Further, she has created a number of initiatives and consortia including WISH, (In)visible Organ, and IGNITE to have far-reaching impact on cervical cancer, reproductive health, and engineering design education, respectively.
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Darwin R. Reyes, Ph.D.
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Biomedical Engineering
Dr. Darwin R. Reyes is a project leader in the Microsystems and Nanotechnology Division of the Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He received a B.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico, and an M.S. in Applied Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. His research work spans from environmental analytical chemistry and toxicology during his Ph.D. to the development of microfluidic devices for two-dimensional separations and analog computing using glow discharge in microfluidic chips during his NSF postdoctoral fellowship at Imperial College, London, UK. While at NIST, Dr. Reyes’ research has focused on the development of tissue/organ-on-a-chip devices with integrated electronic and optical measurement tools to enable real-time Heart on a Chip and cancer cell-based testing for drug development and toxicity assays. Dr. Reyes is a Co-founder and Chair of the Microfluidics Association (MFA), an international standards development organization that fosters the development of ISO standards and guidelines for the microfluidics community. He is also the Chair of the International Micro Physiological Systems (IMPS) Society’s Standardization Interest Group, and the Co-Chair of the Organ/Tissue on a Chip Engineering and Efficacy Standardization Working Group. He recently was bestowed the PML/NIST Outstanding Achievement in Measurement Services and Standards Award for his contributions to the development of ISO standards through his work with the MFA.
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Seila Selimovic, Ph.D.
Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority
Branch Chief
Dr Seila Selimovic is a Branch Chief at the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Her branch supports the development of transformational platform technologies that enable improved access to medial countermeasures. Her portfolio ranges from microphysiological systems to digital medical countermeasures, in vitro diagnostics, and medical devices. Prior to BARDA, Seila was a Program Director at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, and an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the US Department of State. Seila completed her PhD in Condensed Matter Physics at Brandeis University and a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School / Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Her academic research has centered on microfluidics, biosensors, tissue engineering, and microphysiological systems.
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Steven A. Soper, Ph.D.
University of Kansas
Foundation Distinguished Professor
Steven A. Soper received his PhD from the University of Kansas in 1989 and then served as a Post-doctoral Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He joined the faculty at Louisiana State University (LSU) in 1991 and was named the William L. & Patricia Senn Professor in 2002, alongside positions as Professor of Mechanical Engineering and an adjunct Professor of Biological Sciences. He was selected as a University World Class Professor in 2009 at Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology, UNIST (South Korea), where he spent 6 years performing research and teaching classes at UNIST (he continues to be an adjunct professor at UNIST). In June 2011 he joined the University of North Carolina’s Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering as a tenured Professor. In 2016, Professor Soper was appointed as a Foundation Distinguished Professor in Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kansas. Professor Soper's research focuses on BioMEMS/BioNEMS, single molecule detection, and new bioassay developments for in vitro diagnostics to augment precision medicine care of patients. He has received various awards, such as the R&D 100 Award (1993), the Charles E. Coates Award for Contributions to Chemical/Engineering Research in Louisiana (2001), the A.A. Benedetti-Pichler Microchemical Award (2006), LSU Distinguished Research Award (2008), the ACS award in Chemical Instrumentation (2011), RN Adams Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry (2021), and the KU Higuchi award in applied research (2022). He has accumulated over 350 peer-reviewed research publications and has mentored 68 PhD and 8 MS students over his career. He is also the Director of an NIH-funded Biotechnology Resource Center of Mixed-Scale Biomodular Systems for Precision Medicine.
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Steven A. Soper, Ph.D.
The University of Kansas
Integrated Microfluidic Systems for the Comprehensive Analysis of Liquid Biopsy Samples
Steven A. Soper received his PhD from the University of Kansas in 1989 and then served as a Post-doctoral Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He joined the faculty at Louisiana State University (LSU) in 1991 and was named the William L. & Patricia Senn Professor in 2002, alongside positions as Professor of Mechanical Engineering and an adjunct Professor of Biological Sciences. He was selected as a University World Class Professor in 2009 at Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology, UNIST (South Korea), where he spent 6 years performing research and teaching classes at UNIST (he continues to be an adjunct professor at UNIST). In June 2011 he joined the University of North Carolina’s Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering as a tenured Professor. In 2016, Professor Soper was appointed as a Foundation Distinguished Professor in Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kansas. Professor Soper's research focuses on BioMEMS/BioNEMS, single molecule detection, and new bioassay developments for in vitro diagnostics to augment precision medicine care of cancer patients. His major focus now is developing modular mixed-scale systems for managing a variety of cancer-related diseases including both solid and liquid tumors. He has received various awards, such as the R&D 100 Award (1993), the Charles E. Coates Award for Contributions to Chemical/Engineering Research in Louisiana (2001), the A.A. Benedetti-Pichler Microchemical Award (2006), LSU Distinguished Research Award (2008), the ACS award in Chemical Instrumentation (2011), RN Adams Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry (2021), and the KU Higuchi award in applied research (2022). He has accumulated over 350 peer-reviewed research publications and has mentored 68 PhD and 8 MS students over his career. He is also the Director of an NIH-funded Biotechnology Resource Center of Mixed-Scale Biomodular Systems for Precision Medicine.
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Aaron Streets, Ph.D.
University of California-Berkeley
Associate Professor of Bioengineering
Aaron Streets is the Lester John and Lynne Dewar Lloyd Distinguished Professor of Engineering at UC Berkeley, and an Associate Professor in the department of Bioengineering, Biophysics, and in the Center for Computational Biology. Dr. Streets received a Bachelor of Science in Physics and a Bachelor of Arts in Art at UCLA. He completed his PhD in Applied Physics at Stanford with Dr. Stephen Quake. Streets then went to Beijing, China as a Whitaker International Postdoctoral Fellow and a Ford postdoctoral fellow to work with Dr. Yanyi Huang in the Biodynamic Optical Imaging Center (BIOPIC) at Peking University. At UC Berkeley, the Streets lab develops new tools to study genome regulation at the single-cell and single-molecule level. Streets is currently an investigator at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub – San Francisco. He has received the NSF Early Career award, he was named a Pew Biomedical Scholar, and he is a recipient of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Science Diversity Leadership Award. Dr. Streets is also the Vice Chair for undergraduate curriculum and affairs in the department of engineering, the faculty advisor for equity and excellence in the College of Computing Data Science and Society, and he is a recipient of the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s award for advancing equity and excellence.
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Bruce J. Tromberg, Ph.D.
NIBIB
Director
Dr. Tromberg is the Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) at NIH where he oversees research programs focused on developing, translating, and commercializing engineering, physical science, and computational technologies in biology and medicine. He leads NIBIB’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics technology (RADx Tech) initiative, established in 2020 to increase SARS-COV-2 testing capacity & performance and broadened in 2023 to include over the counter (OTC) and point of care (POC) devices for additional diseases and conditions. His laboratory, the Section on Biomedical Optics (SBO) in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), develops portable, bedside, non-contact, and wearable technologies for quantitative sensing and imaging of tissue composition and metabolism.
Prior to joining NIH in January 2019, Dr. Tromberg was a professor of biomedical engineering and surgery at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). During his 30-year academic career Dr. Tromberg served in multiple leadership roles, including, director of UCI’s Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic (BLIMC), PI of the Laser Microbeam and Medical Program (LAMMP), an NIH National Biomedical Technology Center, and co-founder of UC Irvine’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Tromberg specializes in the development of optics and photonics technologies for biomedical imaging and therapy. He has co-authored more than 450 publications and holds 25 patents in new technology development as well as bench-to-bedside clinical translation, validation, and commercialization of devices. Honors and awards include the Michael S. Feld Biophotonics Award from Optica, the Britton Chance Biomedical Optics Award from the International Society of Optical Engineering (SPIE), and membership in the National Academies of Medicine and Engineering.
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Ross Uhrich, D.M.D., M.B.A.
Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health
Program Manager
Dr. Ross Uhrich joined ARPA-H in February 2023 from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, where he worked as a Board-Certified Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon and Assistant Professor of Surgery. In addition to these roles, Dr. Uhrich spent 12 years with the U.S. Navy, finishing his tenure as a Lieutenant Commander. While at ARPA-H, Dr. Uhrich has continued to serve as an Attending Surgeon at WRNMMC and an Assistant Professor of Surgery at USUHS.
Throughout his career, Dr. Uhrich has cared for thousands of members of the U.S. Armed Forces at various health care facilities, including the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), Naval Health Clinic Quantico, and WRNMMC, and served as an Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery consultant to Congress. Dr. Uhrich also treated patients at Charleston Area Medical Center, R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, and Suburban Hospital.
Dr. Uhrich's ARPA-H funding and management portfolio includes the Novel Innovations for Tissue Regeneration in Osteoarthritis (NITRO) Program, which aims to eradicate osteoarthritis through tissue regeneration, the Platform Optimizing SynBio for Early Intervention and Detection in Oncology (POSEIDON) Program, which aims to create at-home cancer screening tests for 30+ cancers using breath and/or urine, and two Cancer Moonshot Projects, CODA and SPIKEs, which seek to use synthetic biology to revolutionize cancer care.
Dr. Uhrich holds a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Yale University, a Doctorate in Dental Medicine with Honors from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA with a focus in Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Leadership from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. He completed his Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery residency at WRNMMC. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery and a Fellow of the American Association of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons. -
Tad Weems,
Agilent - Early Stage Partnerships
Managing Director
Tad leads the Agilent team that sources, negotiates and manages Agilent’s investments and partnerships in over 25 early-stage biotech companies. He has been in the life science industry for 20 years, serving in a variety of research, business development, financial and management roles. Prior to joining Agilent, Tad co-founded two industrial companies as well as worked in both the venture capital and petrochemical industries. He serves on multiple Boards, a Professional Chemical Engineer; holds multiple patents and degrees from Wharton, UT Austin and UC Berkeley.
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David Wong, D.M.D., D.M.Sc.
University of California Los Angeles
Professor
David T.W. Wong DMD, DMSc is Professor and Director of the Oral/Head and Neck Oncology Research Center at UCLA. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS), Fellow of AADR, past member of the ADA Council of Scientific Affairs, and the past president of American Association of Dental Research (AADR). He is the current chair of the NCI Liquid Biopsy Consortium and past chartered member and chair of the NIH CSR Molecular Cancer Diagnostics and Classification (MCDC) study section.