Advisory Board

Marc P. Dandin received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in bioengineering all from the University of Maryland. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, where he also holds a courtesy appointment in the Biomedical Engineering Department. His current research focuses on integrated circuit design and microsystem development for biomedical applications. He was an adjunct professor of electrical engineering at George Washington University, where he developed and taught graduate courses in analog and radio-frequency integrated circuit design. Dr. Dandin was the Founder and CEO of Kiskeya Microsystems LLC, Rockville, Md., a company developing point-of-care diagnostics technologies for resource-limited settings. In addition to being a technology entrepreneur, he is an intellectual property professional with over ten years of experience in patent preparation and prosecution. He has worked at various high-profile intellectual property law firms in the Washington, D.C. area where he drafted and prosecuted patent applications in several jurisdictions, including the United States, on behalf of several Fortune 500 companies. Dr. Dandin is a Senior Member of the IEEE and the recipient of the Early Career Distinguished Alumni Award from Maryland Engineering. He also received the Fischell Fellowship in Biomedical Engineering and the Jimmy H.C. Lin Award for Entrepreneurship during his graduate career at UMD.

Matthew Dowling, Ph.D., is Chief Scientific Officer and Director of Medcura. Matt completed his graduate work at the Fischell Department of Bioengineering, after completing his undergrad in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. At UMD, he was awarded the Fischell Fellowship in Biomedical Engineering for his innovative ideas in drug delivery systems. Matt then co-created gel-e, a novel biomaterial platform, raising several initial grants to develop the technology and to launch Medcura as a corporate entity. Matt was the recipient of the Dean’s Doctoral Research Award from the UMD Clark School of Engineering for his work on chitosan-based self-assembled soft materials for use in wound treatment. He has been the Principal Investigator on $6 million in non-dilutive grant awards to Medcura; these have been used to achieve five FDA clearances, eight issued patents, 10+ peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals and a commercial partnership with one of the world’s largest pharmacy retailers. Matt’s work has been featured on several U.S. and international media outlets including the BBC TV program, Brave New World with Stephen Hawking.

Dr. Patricia Gonzales Hurtado is a Scientific Review Officer at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). In 2003, she received a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD). She received her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) in 2009. She conducted her doctoral research at the Laboratory of Kidney and Electrolyte Metabolism, part of the National Heart Lung Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the NIH. In 2009, she received the Ph.D. of the Year Award from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering for her doctoral research, “Proteomic Analysis of Human Urinary Exosomes.” She conducted her postdoctoral fellowship at the Epithelial Systems Biology Laboratory at NHLBI. 

Dr. Woodie Kessel, B.S.E.E., M.D., M.P.H., is a pediatrician and child advocate. He has had a long career as an educator, investigator, and practitioner in medicine, public health, bioengineering, community-based programming, and public policy. His research focuses on improving the health of children and families, currently with a special focus on preventing gun violence and food insecurity. Dr. Kessel is representing President Darryll Pines as part of the Regional University President’s 120 Initiative to prevent gun violence. Dr. Kessel is currently the CEK Senior Child Health Scholar in Residence at the C. Everett Koop Institute, Dartmouth College and Medical School; Professor of Pediatrics, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College; and Professor of the Practice at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health. He was most recently inducted into the Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society. Previously, Dr. Kessel served in the U.S. Public Health Service as an Assistant Surgeon General and senior advisor on child and family health matters to the White House, Cabinet Secretaries, Surgeons General, and Health and Human Services officials spanning eight administrations. Dr. Kessel has delivered nearly 500 invited lectures and scientific/policy presentations and authored almost 60 articles, chapters and reports.

Claudio Knizek joined EY-Parthenon in September 2021 and is a Principal/Partner in EY’s McLean office. Over his 20-year career in management consulting, he has focused on a variety of operational and strategic issues within the Industrial and Consumer Goods sectors. The majority of Claudio’s work with clients has been focused on operational topics, particularly manufacturing and supply chain. Claudio currently serves as EY-Parthenon’s global lead for Advanced Manufacturing & Mobility. Prior to joining EY, Claudio worked at BCG for 15 years. Claudio has a B.S. and M.S. from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Steven Lehrer brings over 30 years of experience starting, growing and running life science-based businesses focused on commercializing new technology and expanding businesses globally. SBLehrer LLC works with life science companies to develop and introduce drugs worldwide. Steve has extensive experience in pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and biosimilar R&D, regulatory, operations and commercialization. In addition, his companies and businesses have developed and commercialized new drug delivery approaches for pharmaceuticals, multiple molecular genetic diagnostic tests and developed outcomes databases for bioinformatics and healthcare econometric modeling. Steve has built and run businesses in the U.S., EU, Brazil, China, India, Japan and SEA. Steve previously served as Head of Biologicals at Cipla Ltd., CEO at Cipla BioTec, President at Glycominds, EVP at Adamas Pharma, CEO at GeneOs Ltd, CEO at DNA Sciences and division President at Monsanto. Prior to Monsanto, Steve worked for McKinsey & Co. and P&G. Steve has a master’s degree from The Graduate School of Business at Harvard University and a B.S.E. in chemical engineering as well as a B.A. in economics from the University of Maryland.

Dr. David A. Lindsay, Ph.D. is Senior Vice President at Leidos Biomedical Research (LBR); he is currently the Directorate Head of the Vaccine Clinical Materials Program, having served the Frederick National Lab in this role the past seven years. He represents the VCMP on the Executive Leadership Team at LBR. Dr. Lindsay is a scientific/technical leader, with oversight and accountability for all manufacturing, quality control, facility operations, subcontracting, and administrative activities of a GMP vaccine pilot plant under contract to the National Cancer Institute. The mission of the VCMP is to support vaccine product development and provide supplies of novel vaccines and therapeutic biologics for testing in human Phase I/II clinical studies. All early research, discovery, and process/method development is led by the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). While significant focus has been placed on the manufacture and supply of broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies for HIV passive treatment clinical studies, the VCMP lately has engaged in advancing multi-valent, nanocage-based universal Flu vaccines, several recombinant glycoprotein subunit vaccines, and novel peptide conjugate vaccines for active HIV prevention. The infectious disease agents are of global significance, and have included Chikungunya, Coronavirus, Ebola, Influenza, Malaria, Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Tuberculosis, and Zika. David is a chemical engineer by education, having obtained a B.S. from Lafayette College and a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University.

As the founder of ChromoLogic, Dr. Menon is passionate about developing novel biomedical solutions that result in new biological insights and lead to superior patient outcomes while being cost-effective and affordable. Dr. Menon received his Ph.D. in physics from Purdue University, with an emphasis in sensor fabrication, instrumentation, and novel data analytic methods that were applied at multiple national and international laboratories towards fundamental physics discoveries. His early career was spent at Corning Incorporated and Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, where he was groomed for leadership positions in multiple businesses. Founded in 2007, ChromoLogic is a boutique Innovation Center that partners with the Federal Government, academia and industry to develop breakthrough solutions that save lives and make the world secure. Our Biomedical Solutions product portfolio covers point-of-care solutions in wound care & infectious diseases, diagnostics/screening, drug delivery and telehealth. 

Dr. Michael O’Connor is the Director, Strategy and Project Management with Medtronic, Plc. Medtronic is a global healthcare solutions company committed to improving the lives of people through their medical technologies, services, and solutions. O’Connor has over 30 years of professional experience in the Medical Device Industry developing products from idea to commercialization. He holds patents in the areas of medical catheters and stents. He holds Graduate degrees in Project Management, Technology Management and Business Administration. O'Connor earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, majoring in Project Management, from the University of Maryland A. James School of Engineering. He was selected as an American Society for Quality Fellow, Medtronic Technical Fellow, Biomedical Engineering Society Fellow and Association for Project Management Fellow. He has volunteered his time with many professional societies and universities/colleges over many years. He is also an Adjunct and Community Faculty Member teaching graduate-level Project Management, Project Capstone, Project Procurement, and Culture/Organizational course(s). In addition to Medtronic, his corporate experience also includes 3M and Pfizer, as well as three startup medical device companies.

John Page, Vice President of Engineering, BD Integrated Diagnostic Solutions has over 35 years of product development experience for the Defense and Medical Diagnostics industries. John’s early career included embedded software development, (Lockheed Martin, 10 years), and medical device/data management systems, (Becton Dickinson 25+ years). John has many years of cross functional program management experience leading development teams from initial concepts to commercial launches of medical diagnostic products that consist of hardware, software, and reagents. John’s background includes running the BD Diagnostic Systems Program office in Sparks, MD, which serves the Point of Care, Women’s Health and Cancer, Molecular, and Microbiology businesses of BD Diagnostic Systems. John has been involved with early acquisitions, including the BD Kiestra line of laboratory automation equipment, for which John has led the R&D function for several years. Since the fall of 2019, John has been leading the engineering organization for BD’s Integrated Diagnostic Solutions business unit. John holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland, and an M.S. in technical management from Johns Hopkins University.

Maggie Prendergast is a scientist at Janssen: Pharmaceuticals Company of Johnson & Johnson. Her work focuses on the development of nanoparticle drug products and process development within the large molecule drug product development group. She received her Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania in July 2022, where she was an NSF-GRFP fellow in Dr. Jason Burdick’s Polymeric Biomaterials Lab.  Prior to her Ph.D. studies, Maggie worked as the Director of Bioengineering at a 3D bioprinting startup Allevi, which was acquired by 3D Systems. During her time at Allevi, she was named a “Millenial to Watch in the Life Sciences” by Philadelphia Business Journal. She received a B.S. in bioengineering from the University of Maryland in 2015.  During her time at UMD, she was awarded the Benjamin T. Rome Scholarship. 
 

Dr. Seeto is the President and CEO of CareDx, a transplant focused company. He is an experienced leader and has held executive positions in both biotech and large pharma. Before joining CareDx, Dr. Seeto was Chief Operating Officer at Ardelyx leading pre-launch efforts for tenapanor and corporate development where he completed a series of partnerships. Prior to this, Dr. Seeto worked at AstraZeneca/MedImmune and was a member of the MedImmune Executive Team, where his roles included executive vice president of corporate development and strategy, vice president of global strategic marketing and portfolio management for all therapeutic areas, and a country leadership role as the general manager for AstraZeneca in Thailand. He started his career as a physician before joining McKinsey and Company. 
 

Dr. Soltani is a native of greater Washington, D.C., and has been involved in the medical device and diagnostics space for nearly 20 years. Peter’s early career involved technology innovation involving semiconductor and optical materials for energy conversion and imaging. He joined Hologic, Inc., a women’s health focused medical device company, in 2000, where he led the company’s Women’s Health business segment. Notable accomplishments include helping develop Hologic’s digital mammography platform, and the development and commercialization of the first 3D digital mammography system for early cancer detection. Peter joined Siemens Medical Solutions between 2014-2016 to lead its North American Healthcare Services business, helping develop solutions to meet the changing and complex needs of the healthcare delivery market. Peter has been with Beckman Coulter Diagnostics, Inc. (a Danaher company) since early 2016, leading its Hematology, Urinalysis, and Digital Solutions businesses.
 

Dr. Diana Yoon is a Senior Manager at Abbott Laboratories assisting with the management of regulatory activities and device strategy for Abbott’s medical device business units. She previously worked as a regulatory scientist in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for 10+ years. She started as a Commissioner’s Fellow working on a project evaluating standards for premarket review of bone regenerative medicine products. During her tenure at the FDA, she has conducted premarket regulatory review in the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research and the Center for Devices and Radiological Health. She also was a Senior Scientific Reviewer for product classification and jurisdiction in the Office of Combination Products. She received a B.S. in chemical engineering and biomedical engineering (double major) from Carnegie Mellon University. She attended the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) for her Ph.D. in chemical and biomolecular engineering and graduated in 2008. During her time at UMD, she was awarded the Fischell Fellowship in 2006 for translational research in cartilage tissue engineering. She attended Rice University as a postdoctoral fellow to conduct bone tissue engineering research and was awarded the Gulf Coast Consortia Nanobiology Fellowship.

Dr. Fischell is Professor of Medicine at Michigan State University, Clinical Professor of Medicine at Western Michigan University, Medical Director of the Department of Cardiovascular Research, and Director of the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Program at the Borgess Heart Institute in Kalamazoo. He has an active practice as an interventional cardiologist at the Heart Center for Excellence in Kalamazoo. After receiving his medical degree from Cornell University Medical Center in New York City, Dr. Fischell completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard University in Boston, and then completed his interventional cardiology fellowship at Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto. He was on the faculty at Stanford for five years, and then served as director of the cardiac cath labs and interventional cardiology at Vanderbilt University from 1992-1996. Dr. Fischell is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular medicine, and interventional cardiology. He is an active inventor and serial entrepreneur, with more than 100 medical device patents, founder or cofounder of seven medical device companies, and was elected in 2017 as a Fellow in the National Academy of Inventors.

Dr. Ivor Knight leads research and graduate programs in the Behrend College at Penn State University. Prior to this academic appointment he was senior VP and CTO at Canon U.S. Life Sciences and Canon BioMedical, Inc., where he oversaw the R&D functions of both companies. Prior to joining Canon, Dr. Knight was a professor at James Madison University, where he taught and conducted research in molecular genetics and microbiology. He has published widely in his field and is an inventor on numerous patents in the area of diagnostic instrumentation and chemistry. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Pinchuk has 135 issued U.S. patents, over 100 publications and founded 10 companies. His major accomplishments include the invention of the Nylon 12 angioplasty balloon (used by all interventional cardiology companies), the helical wire stent (Cords FL and Medtronic, MN), the modular stent-graft, a drug-eluting stent (TAXUS®, Boston Scientific, MA), several biomaterials (Bionate® and SIBS), a novel glaucoma treatment device (the PRESERFLO® MicroShunt, InnFocus/Santen, Osaka, JP) and the next generation intraocular lens (Eyedeal, Xi’an China). His inventions are used in hundreds of millions of patients world-wide with a financial impact well over $100 billion. He was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2012, was awarded the 2017 Society for Biomaterials Innovation and Technology Award, San Antonio’s BIOMED SA Award (2017), he received the Ohio University/NAE 2019 Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize, which is considered the Nobel Prize in Engineering, for innovations in medical devices that enable minimally invasive angioplasty treatment of advanced coronary artery disease. He was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in 2021. Dr. Pinchuk continues to serve as Innovia’s and Innolene’s CEO and President and enjoys an appointment as Distinguished Research Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Miami (Miami, FL).