Speaker Bios

Craig C. Mello, Ph.D.,

Nobel Laureate, Professor, University of Massachusetts Medical School

Craig C. Mello, PhD, is the Blais University Chair in Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. 
Dr. Mello and his colleague Andrew Fire, PhD, of Stanford University, received the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries related to RNA interference (RNAi) - a particular form of RNA that has the property of silencing, or interfering with, the expression of a gene.  RNAi provides both a powerful research tool for knocking out the expression of specific genes and opens a totally unanticipated window on gene regulation.
Dr. Mello holds a BS in Biochemistry from Brown University and a PhD in Cellular and Developmental Biology from Harvard University.  He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center before coming to UMass Medical School in 1994.
 

Phillip A. Sharp, Ph.D.
Nobel Laureate, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
 

A world leader of research in molecular biology and biochemistry, Dr. Phillip A. Sharp is Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
Much of Dr. Sharp's scientific work has been conducted at MIT's Center for Cancer Research (now the Koch Institute), which he joined in 1974 and directed from 1985 to 1991.  He subsequently led the Department of Biology from 1991 to 1999 before assuming the directorship of the McGovern Institute from 2000-2004.  His research interests have centered on the molecular biology of gene expression relevant to cancer and the mechanisms of RNA splicing.  His landmark achievement was the discovery of RNA splicing in 1977.  This work provided one of the first indications of the startling phenomenon of "discontinuous genes" in mammalian cells.  The discovery that genes contain nonsense segments that are edited out by cells in the course of utilizing genetic information is important in understanding the genetic causes of cancer and other diseases. This discovery, which fundamentally changed scientists' understanding of the structure of genes, earned Dr. Sharp the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  His lab has now turned its attention to understanding how RNA molecules act as switches to turn genes on and off (RNA interference).  These newly discovered processes have revolutionized cell biology and could potentially generate a new class of therapeutics.
Dr. Sharp has authored over 350 scientific papers.  He has received numerous awards and honorary degrees, and has served on many advisory boards for the government, academic institutions, scientific societies, and companies.  His awards include the Gairdner Foundation International Award, General Motors Research Foundation Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize for Cancer Research, the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the National Medal of Science and the inaugural Double Helix Medal from CSHL.  He is elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. 
A native of Kentucky, Dr. Sharp earned a B.A. degree from Union College, KY in 1966, and a PhD in chemistry from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 1969.  He did his postdoctoral training at the California Institute of Technology, where he studied the molecular biology of plasmids from bacteria in Professor Norman Davidson's laboratory.   Prior to joining MIT, he was Senior Scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
In 1978  Dr. Sharp co-founded Biogen (now Biogen Idec), in 2002, he co-founded Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, an early-stage therapeutics company, and in 2006, he co-founded Magen Biosciences Inc., a biotechnology company developing agents to promote the health of human skin.  He serves on the boards of all three companies. 
 

Joshua Boger, Ph.D.

President & CEO, Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Dr. Joshua Boger is the founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated. He has been the Company's CEO since 1992, and also served in the additional role of Chairman of the Board from 1997 until 2006. Dr. Boger served as Vertex's Chief Scientific Officer from 1989 until 1992 and has been a Director since Vertex's inception.

Dr. Boger holds a B.A. in chemistry and in philosophy from Wesleyan University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from Harvard University. His postdoctoral research in molecular recognition was performed in the laboratories of the Nobel-prize winning chemist, Jean-Marie Lehn in Strasbourg, France.

Prior to founding Vertex in 1989, Dr. Boger held the position of Senior Director of Basic Chemistry at Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories in Rahway, New Jersey, where he headed both the Department of Medicinal Chemistry of Immunology & Inflammation and the Department of Biophysical Chemistry.

Daniel Cole
General Partner, Spray Venture Partners

Dan Cole joined Spray Venture Partners at its founding in 1996. Dan brings twenty years of medical device operational experience to Spray Venture Partners. Dan has served on the Boards of 10 companies in the first Spray fund, two of which he started. Prior to joining Spray, Dan served as Senior Vice President and Group President of Boston Scientific Corporation's vascular business, a $1.2 billion group including SCIMED (cardiology), Medi-tech (radiology), Meadox (vascular surgery), and EP Technologies (electro psychology). He was also responsible for BSC's rapidly growing international operations. Dan was previously President and Chief Operating Officer of SCIMED Life Systems, a public company with revenues of $260 million in 1994 prior to the company's merger with Boston Scientific in 1995. He previously held a variety of executive and general management positions at Baxter Healthcare Divisions. He serves on the Board of Directors of Acorn Cardiovascular, Tryton Medical, Direct Flow Medical, Tremont Medical, and is actively involved in Kolis Scientific, PneumRx, and Thoratec Laboratories.
He earned a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Kansas, an M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the United States Navy Post-Graduate School, and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Jim Collins, Ph.D.
Professor & Co-Director of the Center for BioDynamics, Boston University.

J.J. Collins received a bachelor's degree in Physics (summa cum laude; class valedictorian) from the College of the Holy Cross in 1987 and a doctorate in Medical Engineering from the University of Oxford in 1990. From 1987 to 1990, he was a Rhodes Scholar. Since 1990, he has been a faculty member in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University.

Currently, Dr. Collins is a University Professor, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Co-Director of the Center for BioDynamics at Boston University. He has received a number of awards and honors, including the American Society of Biomechanics Young Scientist Award, the Thomas Stephen Group Prize from the Engineering in Medicine Group of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Early Career Achievement Award, and Boston University's Metcalf Cup and Prize for Excellence in Teaching. In 1999 he was selected as one of Technology Review's inaugural TR100-100 young innovators who will shape the future of technology. Dr. Collins is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Institute of Physics and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. In 2003, he received a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Award," and in 2005, he was selected for the Scientific American 50-the top 50 outstanding leaders in science and technology.

Dr. Collins is a scientific co-founder and chair of the scientific advisory board (SAB) of Cellicon Biotechnologies, Inc., and a scientific co-founder and chair of the SAB of Afferent Corp. He is also a member of the SAB of MannKind Corp. and Codon Devices, respectively. Dr. Collins' research focuses on developing nonlinear dynamical techniques and devices to characterize, improve and mimic biological function. His specific interests include: systems biology-reverse engineering naturally occurring gene regulatory networks, synthetic biology-modeling, designing and constructing synthetic gene networks, and developing noise-based sensory prosthetics.

Robert K. Coughlin
President, Massachusetts Biotechnology Council

Robert Coughlin is a former state representative and businessman. In his leadership role within Governor Deval Patrick's administration, he worked to retain and recruit life science organizations and other key businesses for the state. He is very familiar with all areas of the Massachusetts life sciences super cluster and is a passionate advocate for the research and biotechnology community.
A graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and lieutenant in the United States Naval Reserve, Coughlin has also been active in the community, serving on the boards of the Academy and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, as honorary chairman of the Great Strides Cystic Fibrosis Walk, and as a member of the National Volunteer Leadership Board, among other organizations.

Alan Crane
President & CEO, Tempo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Venture Partner, Polaris Ventures

Mr. Crane is currently President and CEO of Tempo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He has also been a venture partner at Polaris Ventures since April of 2002.
From 2002 until 2006, Mr. Crane was President and CEO of Momenta Pharmaceuticals. He joined Momenta as the fifth employee and built the company into a public company, creating an advanced and diversified pipeline, entering into two strategic collaborations with the Sandoz division of Novartis, and raising $275 million. Prior to this, Mr. Crane was senior vice president of global corporate development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for leading Millennium's strategic partnering, mergers and acquisitions, and licensing activities, generating over $2 billion in partner funding and acquiring 19 development stage products. Prior to Millennium, Mr. Crane was a marketing executive at Dupont-Merck and a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and Arthur D. Little.
He serves on the boards of Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Adnexus and Vaccinex  and is a member of the board of Children's Hospital Trust and a founder and member of the board of the Autism Consortium.
He received his M.B.A. in 1992 and his B.A. summa cum laude and M.A. in 1986, all from Harvard University. Mr. Crane also attended Harvard Medical School from 1986 to 1988 before pursuing a business career.

John V. Frangioni, M.D., Ph.D
Professor, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School

John V. Frangioni is an attending physician and Associate Professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is also an Associate Professor of Radiology in the Department of Radiology at the BIDMC. His academic appointments as an Associate Professor of Medicine and an Associate Professor of Radiology are at Harvard Medical School.
His academic training includes an Engineering Sciences degree from Harvard College, an M.D. from the Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST Program), a Ph.D. from the Department of Cell Biology at the Harvard Medical School, internship and residency in Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and an Oncology fellowship at BIDMC. He is board-certified in both Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology.

Kalpana Gupta, Ph.D.
Director, New Alliances & Initiatives, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative

 

Kalpana Gupta leads IAVI's R&D efforts on identification of new vaccine technologies and frequently participates in IAVI's policy initiatives focused on accelerating R&D and access. She was responsible for setting up the auditing process for the selection of international sites where IAVI is considering large-scale clinical trials of the most promising AIDS vaccines. Prior to joining IAVI, she worked for the WHO-UNAIDS HIV Vaccine Initiative in Geneva on issues of access and availability of future AIDS vaccines. After leaving India in 1990, she did undergraduate training at Trinity College in Washington, DC, where she graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. She received a Ph.D. from the Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where her thesis work focused on identification and characterization of a host cell factor involved in HIV replication. Dr. Gupta also has a bachelor of fine arts in Indian classical dance.

Donald E. Ingber, M.D., Ph.D
Professor, Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston

Donald E. Ingber is a member of the Vascular Biology Program at Children's Hospital, Center for Nanoscale Systems and Materials Research Science & Engineering Center at Harvard, Harvard-MIT Health Science and Technology Division, MIT Center for Bioengineering, and Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.
Ingber is also acting Co-Director of Harvard's Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and Director at Children's Hospital of Harvard's Center for Integration in Medicine and Innovative Technology. He has authored 250 publications and more than 25 patents in areas ranging from anti-angiogenic therapeutics, tissue engineering, medical devices, and nanotechnology to computer software.
He also helped to found two biotechnology start-ups, and has consulted for multiple pharmaceutical, biotechnology, venture capital and private investment companies and New York Public Radio. Through interdisciplinary collaborations with experts in chemistry, physics, engineering, magnetics and optics, Ingber has helped to develop multiple new biotechnologies, including molecular self-assembly techniques to create defined cell culture microenvironments, micro- and nano-magnetic methods to probe and manipulate cell structure and function, and nanosurgical laser methodologies to selectively vaporize nanodomains within living cells.

Jeffrey Kaufman

Executive Director and Co-Founder, The Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Research Foundation (ACCRF)

Jeffrey Kaufman is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the ACCRF, a nonprofit organization formed in 2005 that manages and supports research into a rare malignancy of the head and neck. He leads a Research Agenda of basic and translational projects spanning institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and China. In addition, Mr. Kaufman is a Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager at Putnam Investments, focusing on emerging market bonds and currencies. Prior to joining Putnam Investments in 1998, he was a Portfolio Manager at MFS Investments and a Research Consultant at Salomon Brothers. Mr. Kaufman received a B.A. in Economics from the University of North Carolina as well as M.B.A. and M.I.A. degrees from Columbia University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Amar Sawhney, Ph.D. 

Co-Founder, President and CEO, Confluent Surgical

Amar Sawhney, Ph.D. is one of the inventors of the hydrogel technology, which forms the core of Confluent's technology platform. His inventions have formed the basis for the founding of several medical device and biotechnology companies and their products. In addition, other companies that are pursuing technologies that have been co-invented by Dr. Sawhney include Access Closure, Inc. (ACI), Novacell, and Azopax. Dr. Sawhney holds over 55 patents and has authored over 100 publications and scientific abstracts. Prior to co-founding Confluent, Dr. Sawhney was Director and Technology Founder at Focal, Inc. (acquired by Genzyme). In addition to Confluent, he serves on the board of MarketRx Inc. (an Incept company specializing in sales and marketing effectiveness, planning, and analytical products and services) as well as ACI.

 

Jie Song, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Medical School

Dr. Jie Song is an assistant professor in the Departments of Orthopedics and Cell Biology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Her research interest is to design synthetic tissue grafts facilitating the repair and regeneration of musculoskeletal tissues. In addition to engineering the tissue grafts with proper structural and biochemical microenvironment, her research group is also integrating minimally invasive surgical handling characteristics into the materials design.
Dr. Song holds a BS in Chemistry (1995) from Fudan University, China and a PhD in Organic Chemistry (1999) from Michigan State University. Her postdoctoral research in biomaterials and tissue engineering was carried out in the laboratory of Carolyn Bertozzi at Berkeley. Prior to joining the faculty of UMass Medical School, she was a staff scientist (2002-2005) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

 

Robert Tosti

Partner, Cooley Godward Kronish LLP

 

 

Robert Tosti is a partner in the Intellectual Property, Patent Counseling & Prosecution, Intellectual Property Litigation, Trademark, Copyright & Advertising, Clean Technologies and Medical Device practice groups and a member of the Cooley Godward Kronish Litigation department. He joined the Firm in 2007 and is resident in the Boston office.
His practice includes patent and trademark prosecution, portfolio development, licensing and the assessment and enforcement of intellectual property rights. Mr. Tosti is a registered patent attorney and has experience with a variety of technologies including software, business methods, semiconductors, networks and medical devices.
Mr. Tosti has been named as a Massachusetts Super Lawyer. Prior to joining Cooley, Mr. Tosti was a partner in the Boston office of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP.  Prior to joining Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, he was a partner in the Boston office of Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault LLP. Mr. Tosti was an adjunct faculty member at Suffolk University Law School from 1999 to 2001 where he taught the Intellectual Property Survey course. Before beginning his practice in intellectual property law, Mr. Tosti worked as an electrical engineer doing software development and hardware design at General Electric, Mitre and IBM.

 

Mr. Tosti received his law degree, cum laude, from Suffolk University Law School. He received his M.S. and his B.S., cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

 

 

Ganesh Venkataraman Ph.D.
Senior Vice President & CSO, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Dr. Venkataraman is one of Momenta's scientific founders. Prior to founding Momenta, Dr. Venkataraman was a member of the MIT faculty where he pioneered research in the area of analytical techniques for complex carbohydrates. He also served as the Director of Bioinformatics for the Consortium for Functional Glycomics, a multi-million-dollar NIH initiative to study the role of complex sugars in biology.

Christoph Westphal, M.D., Ph.D.
CEO and Vice Chair, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Christoph Westphal, M.D., Ph.D., co-founded Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRT) and has served as Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chair since 2004. As CEO and Vice Chair, Dr. Westphal previously co-founded Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNY), and Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTA). These three companies trade at a collective market cap of roughly $2 billion. Dr. Westphal received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and Ph.D. in Genetics from Harvard University. He graduated with a B.A. summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University. Dr. Westphal was formerly a consultant with McKinsey, and a general partner in a venture capital fund. He has been lead author on several patent applications and papers in journals such as Cell and Nature Genetics. Dr. Westphal has received a number of academic and entrepreneurial awards. He is fluent in four languages; enjoys travel (having visited roughly 130 countries); and plays the cello.