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Alan W. Seadler Ph.D.
Associate Academic Vice President- Duquesne University
Edward V. Fritzky Chair in Biotechnology Leadership
Director for the Center for Biotechnology.
Dr. Seadler is the Associate Academic Vice President responsible for research. His duties include directing activities within the Office of Research, working with faculty to further their research and scholarly activities, supporting university research compliance including IRB and AICUC reviews and reporting requirements for Federal and State granting agencies. Dr. Seadler will also oversee the technology transfer activities at
Duquesne. In addition, Dr. Seadler will continue to hold the Edward V. Fritzky Chair in Biotechnology Leadership and serve as director for the Center for Biotechnology.
Dr. Seadler has had an extensive career spanning both academic and industrial bio-medicine as well as entrepreneurship. Prior experiences include management positions at Ciba-Corning, Fisher Scientific, and Amersham Life Science. In addition Dr. Seadler has held senior management positions with several area startups including Biological Detection Systems and Visible Genetics and was Chief Operating Officer at Cellomics Inc., a drug discovery company now part of ThermoFisher. He was Chief Executive Officer for Crystalplex a start-up nanotechnology company immediately before joining Duquesne University.
Dr. Seadler sits on the board of directors for the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative and the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education and has participated in numerous grant review committees.
Alan holds a Bachelor of Arts from Case Western Reserve University and a Ph.D. in Biology from Case Western Reserve University. He taught at Case Western Reserve University, John Carroll University, CCC, and holds an adjunct position at Carnegie Mellon University in addition to his faculty appointment at the Duquesne University Bayer School for Natural and Environmental Sciences
He is a co-inventor on three patents related to the DNA diagnosis of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV).
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Norman Kaderlan, Ph. D.
President, Editor, Innovation Matters
Technology Innovation Group, Inc.
A noted management consultant, teacher and writer, Norman Kaderlan, Ph.D., has more than twenty years experience successfully managing entrepreneurial organizations at the local, regional and national level.
Dr. Kaderlan’s clients range from small businesses to nonprofit organizations to Fortune 500 companies. He has also served as
director of Austin Technology Incubator, which is currently home to 15 new growth ventures. He has successfully completed projects in South Africa, Poland, Romania, Jordan, and Khazakstan.
Along with fellow TIG co-founder Dan Hanson Dr. Kaderlan devised the vision, structure, and program outline for the North Texas Enterprise Center for Medical Technology, a regional medical technology incubator and accelerator. His work on this project included identifying the initial network of stakeholders, mentors, service providers and key staff, raising initial funding in excess of $1.5 million, and launching the program.
Dr. Kaderlan has taught at several top universities. He is currently an adjunct professor at The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Engineering, where he teaches “The Enterprise of Technology,” a graduate seminar in technology commercialization, which he created with Dr. Steve Nichols. Previously, he was on the faculty at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management, where he taught entrepreneurship and business strategy. He also taught at the UCLA Graduate School of Management.
Dr. Kaderlan has also served as the Associate Director of Non-degree Educational Programs at the IC 2 Institute at The University of Texas at Austin, and teaches short courses on technology commercialization around the world.
Dr. Kaderlan earned his B.S. in Life Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and went on to earn an M.S. in the History of Science and his Ph.D. in Management from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
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DR M I SURVÉ
Founder, Chairman and CEO Sekunjalo Investments Limited
MBChB (U.C.T.), BSc. (Med) (Hons) Sports Medicine (U.C.T.), FACSM, SEP (Harvard/Wits)
Dr Survé has unique, contextually driven and exceptional leadership experiences as a young student leader, humanitarian, social activist, medical doctor, sports medicine specialist, entrepreneur, an African and Global business leader, and a recognized philanthropist. Dr Survé has always excelled and serves as an inspiration to many Africans.
As a humanitarian and social activist, Dr Survé was affectionately called the struggle doctor for his work amongst poor communities and for his work with victims of detention and torture. He was by honoured Amnesty International at UNESCO in Paris in 1989 for his work with victims of apartheid, who included many prominent political prisoners after their release from Robben Island.
As an entrepreneur, Dr Survé founded the Sekunjalo Group, and led the Group to numerous awards including the Top JSE Listed Empowered Company for 2006, the Top Company in its sector for three consecutive years and recognized as the leading black economic empowerment transformation company in the country. As an entrepreneur, Dr Survé has influence as an investor, director, and consortium partner to a number of South African and International companies whose revenues in South Africa exceeded R100 billion in the last financial year. These include Siemens, Nokia Siemens, Pioneer Foods, ABSA, Daimler Chrysler (subsidiary Sandown Motors) and Energy and Oil Trading companies.
As an African business leader, Dr Survé is one of the youngest Chief Executives on the JSE Securities Exchange (the 18th largest Exchange globally). He is the ABSA Impumelelo Businessman of the Year for 2006, the ABSIP Pioneer of Empowerment recipient and recognized by numerous prominent financial magazines such as Enterprise, Financial Mail and Business in Africa in 2007 as “One of Africa’s most influential business leaders that will change the future of the continent”.
As a global business leader Dr Survé was appointed to the Board of Governance of the Clinton Global Initiative by President Bill Clinton along with Heads of State and other global business leaders. In 2007 Dr Survé was appointed to the GISAID Board as a Trustee along with seven Nobel Laureates.
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Dr. Arno Schmidt
ClinIT, Germany – e-Clinical Trial Management
Arno studied Biology at the University of Constance, Germany, the John Innes Institute in Norwich, UK, the UC Berkeley, US, and received a doctorate on molecular aspects of carotenoid biosynthesis. In 1990 he joined pharmaceutical industry where he held different positions in marketing and product development. From 2001 until earlier this year he served as Director Business Development for Exploratory Medicine for the world leading contract research organisation on aspects of early phases of drug development.
At present Arno is involved in process optimisation for clinical trials using electronic clinical trial management platforms at ClinIT, Germany.
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Prof. Michael Pepper
Managing Director of the Netcare Institute of Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Prof. Pepper is Managing Director of the Netcare Institute of Cellular and Molecular Medicine based at Unitas Hospital, Lyttelton, Pretoria. He is an Extraordinary Professor in the Department of Immunology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria and Professeur Associé in the Department of Genetic Medicine and Development, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Prof. Pepper obtained his MBChB (1982) from the Faculty of
Medicine at the University of Cape Town, and moved to Geneva (Switzerland) in 1986. He obtained his Ph.D. (1990), M.D. (1992) and Private Docent (1997) degrees from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Geneva. Prof. Pepper returned to South Africa in July 2004. Prof. Pepper has published extensively in peer-review journals, and has received a number of awards for his research. He is on the editorial board of several journals. Prof. Pepper is a member of the National Biotechnology Advisory Committee to the Minister of Science and Technology and is on the Executive Committee of the South African Society for Obesity and Metabolism.
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Dr. Dave Walwyn
CEO of ARVIR
Dr Walwyn is the CEO of Arvir, a small start-up company jointly owned by Lifelab and the CSIR. The company has been established in order to build an antiretrovirals manufacturing industry in South Africa based on a number of novel product and process technologies originally developed within the CSIR.
Dr Walwyn worked previously at the CSIR, firstly in the Division of Food, Biological and Chemical Technologies,
where he held the position of Manager: Innovation and Business Development, and more recently as the CSIR Group Research Manager.
Prior to his work at the CSIR, Dr Walwyn spent ten years at AECI in its Research and Development Department working as a process development engineer. During this period he worked on at least 40 chemical projects including pyrazinamide, vitamin C, penicillin, lysine, hydantoins, ethanol, algal polysaccharide and catechol, of which lysine was the largest and longest development effort. Dr Walwyn has also worked at Natal Cane By-Products, now Illovo Sugar: Merebank, as a production engineer responsible for the ethanol, vinegar, food yeast, paprika and sorbitol plants, and at the Department of Trade and Industry as Director of the Chemical and Allied Industries Directorate. He was co-author on a number of policy papers, including the Green Paper on Science and Technology, the White Paper on Science and Technology, the National Biotechnology Strategy, the Chemical Industry section of the Advanced Manufacturing Strategy and most recently the OECD background document on South Africa’s National System of Innovation.
He has a B.Sc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town, and a Ph.D in Bioorganic Chemistry from Cambridge University. He sits on the Medicines Control Council, on the Board of Pelchem, is the Department of Health’s representative on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Biovac Institute. He is also appointed as an Extraordinary Professor in the School of Engineering and Technology Management.
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Viresh Ramburan, Ph.D., MBA
Project Manager, SunBio
Viresh Ramburan was born on the east coast of South Africa where he completed completed his undergraduate training in molecular genetics and plant breeding. He thereafter moved to Stellenbosch and undertook PhD research in the areas of molecular markers and quantitative trait mapping. An interest in innovation, business development and technology commercialization, led to him completing an MBA part time while working as a scientific researcher. In addition he has received training in the areas of intellectual property rights and biosafety issues. More recently he has been involved in the setting up of a spin out biotechnology company, SunBio from research being conducted at Stellenbosch University. He manages issues of research development, technology transfer and research commercialization within this setting.
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Fady Mohareb
Ph.D. in Bioinformatics
Fady was awarded a degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences by Cairo University in 2002 and went to complete an MSc in Bioinformatics in 2004 at Cranfield University. He was awarded the course price by IBM for the best project of the year. In 2005 he started his PhD in Systems Biology at Cranfield and became a member of the Bioinformatics group at Cranfield Health. His research is focused on modeling Tumour Suppression Genes (TSGs) in ovarian cell cancer.
His talk will focus on Data Integration Using Systems Biology.
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Dr. Marinda Bloom
Senior Lecturer,
Department of Microbiology at Stellenbosch University
Dr Marinda Bloom is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology at Stellenbosch University with 15 yrs research experience in different aspects of Yeast Biotechnology and Molecular Biology. Her research interests include the bioprocessing of plant material and the regulation of dicarboxylic acid metabolism in yeast.
Her presentation will focus on the work conducted by a consortium comprising Stellenbosch University, the Agricultural Research Council and Cape Natural Tea Products (Pty) Ltd (industrial partner and producer of Rooibos tea leaves). The work investigate the possible application of microbial enzymes for the bio-processing of fermented tea leaves to improve the extraction yield. More than 16 commercial food-grade enzymes and crude enzyme extracts from 24 fungal cocktails were evaluated on different Rooibos plant materials. Crude fungal extracts were identified that could either improve colour and flavour development of green Rooibos, or enhance the extraction of soluble solids from green or fermented Rooibos without a loss in antioxidant content. The consortium also developed a patent protected enzyme cocktail that improves the yield on the extract obtained from fermented Rooibos tea by more than 30%, with only a minor loss in antioxidant content.
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Nelson L’ntshotsholé Jumbe, Ph.D., P.E.
Senior Scientist
Modeling & Simulation Group Leader
Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, CA
Dr. Jumbe’s area of interest is in the application of mathematics for quantitative description of biological phenomena and use of pharmaco-statistical models to support decision making and accelerate drug development. Currently, he is a Senior Scientist and the Modeling and Simulation Group Leader in the Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Sciences Department at Genentech Inc. His group currently supports all Genentech molecules throughout pre-clinical and clinical development. He holds a double major in Chemistry and Physics and a postgraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering. His previous industry appointments include XenoPort Inc., a biotech start-up focusing on nutrient transporter targeted prodrugs where Dr. Jumbe held the posts of Principal Investigator/Director of DMPK. Prior to that Dr. Jumbe was Aranesp Oncology Principal PK Scientist at Amgen Inc. His path to Pharmacometrics has included research in implantable medical devices (cardiac pacemakers, artificial kidney development and drug delivery for spinal injuries).
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Line MATTHIESSEN, MD, PhD
Head of Unit , Horizontal aspects and coordination
European Commission - DG Research
Directorate E: Biotechnologies, Agriculture and Food
Dr. Line Matthiessen is Head of Unit for horizontal aspects and coordination in the European Commission (EC), Directorate-General for Research, Directorate for Biotechnologies, Agriculture and Food. The unit is among others responsible for the coordination of international cooperation within the Directorate. Dr. Line Matthiessen jointed the EC in 1992 and has previously been responsibly for strategic and policy issues in biotechnology. She held the position as principal scientific officer responsible for research in Neurosciences under the EC research programme “Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources” (1998-2000). She was also scientific officer in the area of Neurosciences, Somatic gene therapy, Animal cell technology and in vitro testing as alternatives to animal experiments, under the EC - Biotechnology programme (1992-1998). Dr. Line Matthiessen was trained as an MD at the University of Odense, Denmark and received her PhD in Neurosciences from the University of Paris VI, France in 1993.
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Dr. Greg Starke
Cofounder and CEO of DISA Vascular (Pty) Ltd.
Greg has been working in medical devices for the past 18 years as a PhD student, consultant and business founder. DISA Vascular has been developing coronary stents for the past eight years. The company now produces stents which are now sold in South Africa, South America, Europe and Asia. Greg is involved primary in business development and sales.
The talk will present some of the hard lessons learnt in raising venture capital finance whilst developing and selling sophisticated medical products in the South African context.
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Kerryne Krause-Neufeldt
Chief Excitement Officer
iSlices Innovations Pty(Ltd)
Kerryne Krause-Neufeldt, an entrepreneur with a passion for God, Life, People and innovative products, started her career studying a B.Comm Honours degree in Marketing at Tukkies. Her first business and business failure at the age of 22 resulted in enormous learning that has built the foundations of her present company – I-Slices Innovations which has been established to develop, commercialise and export eyeSlices™.
eyeSlices, a disposable eye treatment pad made from a patented cryogel technology - launched locally in October 2006, has already been recognised as a Top Technology 100 company in SA and has won numerous other awards since 2004. In the past 8 months the company has been profiled in over 20 publications and various television programs. The company is now exporting to Dubai, Canada & the USA and dealing with enquiries from 8 other countries. The company has developed a specialised manufacturing plant for this world wide unique technology in order to fulfil the demand.
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Pamela Grace
Founder and CEO, bioSoftmosis, Inc., Newark, NJ
Pamela Grace has 30 years experience designing microchips, computer software and complex communication networks. She began her career with an internship at Burroughs Corporation, now Unisys, where designed the company’s first audio-video response system for a large commercial bank. The system permitted bank tellers to retrieve customer balances and alpha numeric account information using the telephone’s touch tone key pad. As a senior systems analyst at Burroughs, she helped design the international electronic funds transfer system. After five years, she joined AT&T where she was one of the only 100 people who started the spinoff Baby Bell and helped design the first intelligent network. From Baby Bell, she joined AT&T Information Systems as a Product Manager for the WECO 32000 bit chip set and the UNIX micro computer.
Ms. Grace formed her second company, bioSoftmosis, based her research of novel computing paradigms generally and DNA computing specifically. bioSoftmosis is co-owner, co-inventor and exclusive licensee of 6 inventions with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey as well as an exclusive licensee of related technology from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Northeastern University of Boston. Ms. Grace has undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, is a past president of Kappa Mu Epsilon, a mathematics honor society and has done significant graduate work in computer science and optical physics. Ms. Grace is also a Rotary International Scholar and an exchange student to Schillersk Gymnasiet in Gothenburg, Sweden where she studied mathematics and science.
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Eleanor Prendergast
Director of Manufacturing Operations
The Biovac Institute in Cape Town, South Africa.
Eleanor Prendergast is director of manufacturing operations for the Biovac Institute in Cape Town, South Africa. Her career in the chemical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries spans twenty years in process development and design, technology commercialisation and manufacturing start-up. She graduated as a Chemical Engineer from University College, Dublin in 1984, worked in the UK for Fisons Pharmaceuticals and Roche Products before moving to Johannesburg, South Africa in 1995. Eleanor has been Operations Director for the Biovac Institute since January 2006 and is leading its transition into a vaccine manufacturing company that can impact the welfare of the southern African region through making new and existing vaccine products more affordable to the public sector immunisation programmes.
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Todd Sherer, PhD
Director of the Office of Technology Transfer
Associate Vice President for Research
Todd Sherer, PhD, is Associate Vice President for Research and Director of Technology Transfer at Emory University in Atlanta, where he leads a team of 17 focused on creating value from intellectual property developed by Emory faculty. Since joining Emory in 2003, Todd has recruited nine new associates, instituted a commercially oriented product pipeline to highlight Emory’s varied portfolio, and funded the Investor Challenge Fund to match outside venture capital funding of companies based upon Emory intellectual property. His new initiatives have transformed the office – and increased annual licensing royalties more than 60% to a high of $45 million. Todd also worked with colleagues to monetize downstream licensing revenues on an Emory-discovered molecule that is now part of the leading AIDS drug cocktail - resulting in a $540 million, one-time payment from the licensee, Gilead Sciences.
Before joining Emory, Todd was Director of Technology and Research Collaborations at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland where he created a pre-seed fund for early technologies worthy of commercialization. A scientist and administrator, Todd earned his BS at Oregon State University and his PhD at Washington State University. He began his science career in developmental toxicology at Battelle’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratories.
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Richard I. Somiari, Ph.D.
President & Chief Scientific Officer of ITSI-Biosciences LLC, Johnstown, PA, USA
Richard I. Somiari, is President & Chief Scientific Officer of ITSI - Biosciences LLC, Johnstown, PA, USA and an Adjunct Professor, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA. Dr Somiari was the pioneer Scientific Director and Chief Scientific Officer/Chief Operating Officer, Windber Research Institute, Windber PA, USA. He holds a bachelor’s degree in microbiology, Masters degree in Food Science & Technology, and a PhD in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology. Dr Somiari was a fellow at the School of Medicine, University of Maryland at Baltimore, and holds a Certificate in Finance Management from the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wellesley, MA (2003). He has received numerous awards and honors including; the UNESCO/AAU Fellowship 1991, USAID/ADDR-Harvard University advanced research fellowship (1992), National Ministry of Science, Poland, Ph.D. Fellowship (1993-1997), European Federation for Biotechnology-WPAB Grant (1994), World Bank Career Development Fellowship (1994-1996), Technical University of Lodz, Poland, Faculty Prize for outstanding Ph.D. Research/Thesis (1997), National Ministry of Science Poland, Fellowship for D.Sc. (1997), Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) Fellow, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD USA (1998), He has published more than 35 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals, contributed chapters in 5 books, has 4 patent applications pending. He serves on several Boards and is an active member of numerous scientific organizations including; the American Association for the Advancement of Science, The New York Academy of Sciences, the American Association for Cancer Research and the Society for Genome Biology and Technology. Dr Somiari is a member of the Technology Business Council of the Johnstown Area Regional Industries, PA, USA and served on the review board of the Pittsburgh Lifesciences Greenhouse and the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative.
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Daniel Ramón Vidal
Daniel Ramón Vidal made his PhD degree working at the Spanish pharmaceutical company Antibióticos S.A. He was Research Scientist at the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA) of the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) (1995-96), and also Invited Research at the Department of Genetics of the Wageningen Agricultural University (1991, 1994). He was CSIC National Coordinator of Food Science and Technology (1996-2001). Actually he is Professor of Food Technology at the CSIC and Scientific Director of Biópolis S.L. He is author of more than one hundred articles in peer reviewed journals and co-author of twelve patents. He has been awarded with the II European Prize of Divulgation on Science, the VII Prize of the Spanish Society for Microbiology and the X Prize of the Spanish Danone Institute. Actually he is member of the Spanish National Biosafety Commision, the Spanish Government Committee on Bioethics and the Spanish Scientific Committee of the Club of Rome.
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Professor Peter Folb
Chief specialist scientist, MRC
Peter Folb has successfully directed a WHO programme for the discovery and regulatory approval of a novel drug, rectal artesunate, indicated for the immediate management of life-threatening malaria. His presentation will provide a narrative and scientific account of the process and he will draw on the experience to reflect on principles of drug discovery for neglected diseases.
Previously Prof Folb was Professor of Pharmacology and Chief Physician, UCT and Groote Schuur Hospital (1976-2003); chair of South African Medicines Control Council (1981-1978).
Special adviser to WHO
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Stephan J Lamprecht
Venture Solutions
President: Licensing Executives Society of South Africa
Stephan Lamprecht is an industrial engineer, consulting in the management of innovation and commercialisation. Clients include local and international industrial corporations, public sector entities, and governments as well as commercialisation activities in the academic sector.
His passion firmly resides in the domain of encouraging the growth and proliferation of high-tech start-up enterprises. His know-how and methodologies target issues pertaining to the commercialisation of early stage technologies, leveraging intellectual assets for business profits, and structuring emerging businesses for sustainable growth. The last component, and hence the founding focus of Venture Solutions, includes positioning enterprises for external funding
He was until recently responsible for running the Technology Top 100 Awards Programme, South Africa’s premier business excellence awards programme recognising the application of science and technology, and was mandated to do so by the Department of Science and Technology.
Stephan is currently the president of the South African chapter of the Licensing Executives Society, an international not-for-profit association for people with an interest in the licensing of intellectual property and technology transfer.
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Dr. Judit Kumuthini
Judit has obtained degrees in BSc. Biomedical science, MSc. Bioinformatics and Ph.D in Bayesian inference to extract gene regulatory network. She worked as a drug target scientist for Glaxo Smith Kline, UK and as a Bioinformatician for Potato Disease Resistance at Seibersdorf, Austria.
The application of BNs for modeling the well characterized yeast cell cycle cDNA microarray data using Taboo search algorithm. This also applied to genome-wide E-coli and human microarray data. This study succeeded in extracting many biologically plausible genetic relationships, which were supported by evidence from publicly available genome and literature databases. Further, it was demonstrated how the addition of prior knowledge to the extracted network can improve the network structure extracted purely from experimental data.
Using two novel knowledge extraction techniques such as target node analysis and learning through simulation were demonstrated to answer biological questions.
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Reinhard Hiller, PhD
Managing Director
Centre for Proteomic & Genomic Research
While completing his PhD in molecular biology at the University of Vienna in 1999 where he was studying the catalytic properties of RNA ribozymes, Reinhard joined a team of scientists starting up a biotech company in Vienna (Austria) geared towards developing novel microarray-based solutions that address unmet needs in the diagnostic sector. Starting from the ground scientific work he devised a protein microarray technology platform suitable for the miniaturization of antibody-profiling immunoassays that subsequently has been transformed into the first fully CE-certified microarray-based test for allergic diseases in Europe. In July 2005, Reinhard moved to Cape Town where he joined a team of entrepreneurs from academia (UWC, UCT) and CBT in order to develop a plan for the establishment of a comprehensive integrated high-throughput biological core facility in Cape Town, later called the Centre for Proteomic & Genomic Research. As director of the CPGR, Reinhard dedicates his expertise gained in the biotech and diagnostic industry to stimulate cutting-edge research and entrepreneurial endeavors in South Africa.
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Jacques Coetzee
Managing Director
Origin Wellness company
Jacques Coetzee was born in Pretoria South Africa in 1975. In 1996, he completed his B Com degree at the University of Pretoria and in 1997 went on to complete his B Com Hons, specialising in Human Resources Management. In addition, he completed an Honours degree in Business Management through UNISA in 2001. After the completion of his studies, Jacques worked for AngloGold where he excelled quickly in his career. It was here that he realized he had to nurture and further explore his entrepreneurial spirit and his passion for business and financial independence. He therefore decided to step out of the corporate world in order to invest his time into establishing Origin Wellness from a concept to actual inception. Today Jacques is the Managing Director of the Origin Wellness company.
Profile of Origin Wellness:
Origin Wellness was established in 2005. Growing rapidly, it drew the attention and respect of other large business through its innovative approach to the market, its unique product ideas and its resourceful strategies. Its objective is set for the laying down of its roots internationally. The Origin Wellness products have a strong scientific backbone, since Origin is affiliated with various research, state-owned and privately-owned companies. The board also comprise strong marketing, branding, financial, business and human resources expertise.
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Brian Krier
President, HWC Associates
Brian Krier graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania’s Management and Technology Program, earning simultaneous degrees in chemical engineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Science and entrepreneurial management from the university’s Wharton School of Finance. He spent the early 1990’s working in materials development at AMP, Incorporated (now part of Tycho Electronics), the leading producer of electronic connectors in the world. He left in 1994 to found an electronics manufacturing company of his own, Horseshoe Wire and Cable, Inc., which he ran until the end of 2002. At that time, he joined the Transformations Business Services Network, the consulting arm of the Ben Franklin Technology Partners. The Ben Franklin organization is a public entity chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to provide investment capital to start-up and early stage technology and manufacturing ventures within the state. The Transformations group provides business consulting to the companies targeted for investment. In his capacity with Transformations, Brian has worked with a number of biotechnology ventures that have developed from research at the Pennsylvania State University and the Windber Research Center, most notably ITSI Biosciences, headed by conference participant Richard Somiari, PhD. Presently, Brian’s work at Transformations includes developing a database of opportunities within the state for the Governor’s energy independence initiative, including technology to derive energy from biomass. In addition to these duties with Transformations, Brian has also recently helped found HWC Associates, a technical writing and business consulting company.
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Rachel Cheatham
Director, Science and Health Communications
International Food Information Council
Rachel Cheatham is Director, Science and Health Communications at the International Food Information Council (IFIC) based in Washington, DC. She specializes in effective consumer communication in the areas of food safety and nutrition. Her work includes conducting ongoing consumer trends research, developing communication workshops for opinion leaders, speaking at conferences and workshops, and cultivating strategic partnerships between nutrition, science, and health organizations. A main focus of her work is in the area of food and agricultural biotechnology, with the goal of delivering credible, science-based information in a timely, understandable manner which resonates with the consumer. It is her mission to communicate the science of both food safety and nutrition in a way which directly benefits the consumer.
Rachel is a PhD candidate in Nutritional Biochemistry and Metabolism at Tufts University. Prior to working on her PhD, Rachel held several positions in the corporate world including serving as the Corporate Video Producer/Director/Writer for Videc, Inc. as well as the Broadcast Producer/Director/Writer for Mercantile Stores, both in Tennessee.
Rachel received her Bachelor of Arts from Carleton College, Northfield, MN, in Political Science and received her Master of Science from Tufts University, Boston, MA, in Nutritional Biochemistry and Metabolism.
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Prof. Florian F. Bauer
Institute for Wine Biotechnology, Stellenbosch University
Prof Bauer pursued his University studies in France at the Universities of Paris-Sorbonne and Bordeaux II, where he obtained a PhD (Très honorable avec felicitations du jury) in Genetics and Molecular Biology in 1992. His PhD research focused on understanding cellular survival processes related to nutrient limitation using yeast as a model system. In 1993, he was offered a position as a researcher in the department of Microbiology at Stellenbosch University.
Today, he is Professor in Wine Biotechnology at the Institute for Wine Biotechnology, Department of Viticulture and Oenology, of this University. His research focuses on yeast genetics, molecular biology and biotechnology, in particular the genetic improvement of wine yeast strains. Prof Bauer has published 29 peer-reviewed articles, 3 chapters in books, 5 full-length conference proceedings, many popular articles and more than 100 conference proceedings. Five PhD students and seven MSc students have graduated after studying under his supervision, and he has been official opponent / external examiner of 10 international PhD defenses / dissertations.
He is member of the Editorial Board of Environmental and Applied Microbiology, and a regular reviewer for Genetics, Molecular Microbiology, Current Genetics, FEMS Yeast Research and other international scientific journals. He has organised or co-organised several scientific conferences, symposia, workshops and other meetings. He is also a member of several international scientific organizations, and has been chair of the Experimental Biology Group. His current involvement in industry includes chairing the Biotechnology Program Committee of Winetech and membership in several other industrial program and technical committees. He is also the project leader and co-founder of SunBio, a biotechnology start up company focusing on innovation in the Wine industry.
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Ela Romanowska
Seed Fund Manager, Innovation Fund
Ela is the Seed Fund Manager at the Innovation Fund, working as part of the Innovation Fund's Commercialisation Office. Her responsibilities include structuring/negotiating and concluding investments in high-tech projects and startups, as well as ongoing management of same, and serves as non-executive director on boards of investee companies.
Ela has +- 15 years experience in software systems design and development and more broadly the ICT industry, and has spent about half that time spent in technology and innovation management, and more recently technology commercialisation investment.
She also worked as a Software Engineer and later Project Manager and Business Area Manager at the CSIR's Division for Information and Communication Technology, as a consultant in IP management and commercialsiation activities for entities like SERA (CSIR and UP tech transfer offices), and also facilitated Executive Development Programmes run by the Da Vinci Institute for Technology Management.
She obtained M. Eng (Electronics) , B. Eng (Electronics) from University of Pretoria, and is preparing PhD proposal in domain of "critical mass of a national system of innovation for sustainable venture capital industries".
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Michael Fleuchaus
Patent Attorney
Fleuchaus & Gallo Partnership
Patent Attorneys - Attorneys at Law
Michael Fleuchaus practices in all areas of intellectual property, particularly with reference to patent prosecution and litigation. Michael joined Fleuchaus & Gallo in 2003 after several years at another Munich firm specializing in patent infringement actions. Michael has a degree in technical physics, specialized non-linear optics and laser technology as well as scanning microscopy and biophysics. He has substantial practical experience in computer science as well as in mechanical engineering. Michael is an active member of the LES information technology group and has a considerable interest in medical technology.
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Martin Düblin
After his degree as Swiss engineer on mechanics followed by the speciality field in process technology he was working at Buss as a project manager being responsible for turnkey investments for the plastic compounding industry worldwide. Since 1989 Martin Düblin started his activities for the life science industry in many different functions and operational levels on various drug, food and chemical product fields for the worldwide market. All areas as sales, project management, life cycle, qualification and validation or business development on the services side with consultancy, design and engineering and as equipment supplier gave him a wide overall knowledge on all aspects for sensible solutions.
Being involved in many ongoing projects for the Biotech field is a smart opportunity in sharing experience and philosophies about this well known science with a significant dosing potential which has to be awakened for future prosperity. Upon his long list of presentations and lectures on different continents and for different organisations it is a pleasure to share at the bio2biz the key elements of expertise.
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Mr. P. Dehdari
Managing Director of Ensymm, project consulting for life-sciences
Mr. P. Dehdari is the Managing Director and scientific manager of Ensymm, Germany which is a project consulting company. Ensymm has been established in 2002 to fill the gap between scientists with their R&D achievements and the industry. Meanwhile ensymm has become a project consulting company engaged in the area of life scientists.
He is member of scientific board of “Samen Pharmaceuticlas” and Member of management at “Kian Pharmed” and “Karat Noor Parsian” (3 Iranian pharmaceutical companies)
After receiving his Masters Degree in 1999 (Subject of the Thesis: Enantioselective oxidation of racemic alcohol with a pqq-depend ADH”) he joined the Research Center of Julich where he joined the team of Prof. Kula and started with his post graduation work on “Isolation and Characterization of pqq-depended ADH from Pseudomonas sp. for enantioselective oxidation of racemic diols (and development of chemo-enzymatic reactions)“ which is also the topic of his PhD-Thesis which is scheduled to be delivered in 2007.
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Dr. Cyril Donninger
CEO, Bioclones (Pty) Ltd
Dr. Donniger has over forty years experience in the development of new business in the Life Science industry. He graduate M.B.B.Ch with first class honours from the University of Witwatersrand in 1958 and Ph.D from University of London in 1964. He is the author of 38 publications in peer reviewed journals and the inventor of 12 patents. He pioneered the development of the generics pharmaceutical industry in South Africa in the 1970’s and in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical API. HE was responsible for the South African atrazine plant for a natural products extraction plant and for other ventures. He founded Bioclones in 1982.
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Hilary Henderson
CEO of Cape Gourmet Mushrooms (Pty) Ltd
Hilary Henderson is currently CEO of Cape Gourmet Mushrooms (Pty) Ltd. and has been with the company for one and a half years.
She is a qualified Occupational Therapist and worked in the clinical and academic fields for 10 years. After completing an MBA she started and ran a successful Guest House with conferencing facilities in the suburbs of Cape Town for 11 years.
Cape Gourmet Mushrooms is growing Gourmet mushrooms in modularized units which allow for individualized microclimates for each species of mushroom. They are currently growing shiitake and 2 species of oyster mushrooms and are exploring the parameters for 2 more species of oyster mushroom as well as enoki, buna shimeji and maiitake. Utilizing discarded shipping containers, the model allows for individual cropping rooms to be placed in the community as stand-alone, sustainable businesses. In addition to the wonderful flavours, the medicinal and nutritional value of these mushrooms is well documented and they have been utilized in Eastern medicine for centuries.
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