Management Team

Nalini Ghag-Motwani, Ph.D., President and Founder

Dr. Motwani has over twenty-five years of experience in research and management in the broad field of biotechnology including recombinant protein production. Prior to founding ApoLife, Dr. Motwani was a founding scientist and played a key role in the start-up of two biotechnology companies. Dr. Motwani was a founding scientist of Strohtech, which was involved in the development of a cost-effective yeast expression system to produce genetically engineered hemoglobins. In 1994, Strohtech moved its operations to North Carolina under a new name, Apex Bioscience (later sold to Curacyte, AG, Germany), and Dr. Motwani negotiated an arrangement with Apex to start ApoLife, Inc. She has been successful in securing NIH-SBIR and state grants, private funds, and contracts for ApoLife. Under her leadership, the ApoLife team has developed a proprietary twin cassette expression system for cost-effective production of recombinant proteins including herterodimer of cytokines and monoclonal antibodies in yeast. Dr. Motwani is an inventor of four issued patents on yeast expression system for recombinant proteins. Dr. Motwani and her team are actively involved in establishing business relationships with companies in India. ApoLife plans to remain a US based R&D company and provide new technology and clones for novel proteins/antibodies for biotech companies for manufacturing and marketing. Since 2005, Dr. Motwani has been an instructor for the IBC Training Academy course: “Monoclonal Antibody Technology” which was offered in US, Singapore, and India. Dr. Motwani was a licensing consultant for the technology transfer office at the University of Michigan and was visiting scientist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Nalini is adjunct associate professor at the Oakland University, MI. She received her Masters degree from Haffkine Institute in Bombay and her Ph.D. from Wayne State University in Michigan.

Savita Nikam, Ph.D., Director of Research

Dr. Nikam has over 15 years of extensive research experience in academia and biotechnology companies. Dr. Nikam’s expertise includes recombinant DNA and protein expression technologies in mammalian, yeast and bacterial expression systems. She has played a principle role in developing therapeutic antibodies including strategic planning, construction of expression plasmid vectors, cloning, transfection and expression of full length secreted antibodies in CHO cells and in yeast. Dr. Nikam gained extensive experience at Molecular Imaging Research (Charles River Company) in manipulating different cancer cell lines and generating reporter models for in vivo imaging of apoptosis following new cancer drug treatment. Her expertise also includes developing PCR assays for viral and genotype testing, quantitative ELISA and standardization of in vitro assays such as cytotoxicity assays. Her Ph.D. research included development of a potent viral vaccine against Japanese Encephalitis from primary chick embryo cell cultures. Dr. Nikam received her Ph.D in Microbiology from National Institute of Virology, Pune University, India. She completed her post doctoral research on mechanism of HIV reverse transcriptase fidelity and the kinetic basis of drug resistance at the University of Michigan.

Radhika Patkar, MS, Information Technology & Project Manager

Ms. Patkar has been involved with ApoLife projects and business development since 2003. She has a Masters degree in Life sciences from Mumbai University (formerly Bombay, India) and also a Masters in Biomedical Engineering from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Apart from technical knowledge, Ms. Patkar’s expertise includes cataloguing, classifying and storing scientific information, researching and acquiring new resources dealing with research enquiries from colleagues, managers or clients as well as managing electronic information. She has over 5 years of experience in research grant administration.

Consultants

Sanjay Jain, Ph.D., Director Process & Business Development

Dr. Sanjay Jain has over twenty years of experience in the field of Biotechnology, Applied Genetics, and Industrial Microbiology. He has worked for several Biotechnology/ Pharmaceutical companies, including Astra-Zeneca, Cephalon Inc. and Shire Pharmaceuticals Group of Basingstoke, U.K. Most recently, Sanjay founded Novo Biosolutions Inc. to provide consulting services to Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical companies in the area of product development, project management, and business development. Sanjay has extensive experience in Process Development and Scale-up for GMP production of protein therapeutics and recombinant vaccines using a variety of recombinant protein expression technologies such as Filamentous fungi, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Pichia pastoris, E. coli, Baculovirus and Mammalian cell culture. He has been involved with a range of vaccine projects (Meningococcal, Helicobacter pylori, Pneumococcal, Group B Streptococcus, Influenza, Anthrax, Japanese encephalitis) and protein therapeutic developments. Sanjay has also successfully supported several Investigational New Drug Applications (IND), and a Biologics License Application (BLA) for FDA regulatory approval of recombinant protein products. He has been consulting for ApoLife since 2004. In addition, he has also been actively involved with companies in India and USA as a liaison for business development activities, strategic partnerships, product/ technology licensing. Sanjay received his Ph.D. degree in Microbiology, from Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France.

Dr. George Chisholm Ph.D.

Dr.Chisholm received his Ph.D from the University of Pittsburgh in Cellular and molecular biology and did his post-doctorate from Yale University. Dr. Chisholm has extensive experience in the fields of molecular biology, product yield improvement and fermentation development, and continues to serve as consultant to ApoLife for the production of recombinant human antibodies. His expertise also extends to the design and construction of plasmids used for heterologous gene expression and yield improvement of protein production in yeast, as well as the generation, selection and analysis of yeast strains with improved yield of protein production. Other previous experiences include establishment of cell culture collections, characterization of cell lines for research and production of recombinant proteins, ELISA assay design, and design and implementation of scale-up fermentation facilities. Dr. Chisholm's expertise will be utilized to further fermentation optimization and downstream process development of ApoLife's recombinant protein expression. Dr. Chisholm has experience as a Senior Scientist in companies like Sugen, COR Therapeutics, and Genentech.

Joel Bronstein, MS

Joel Bronstein has over 20 years of experience as a research scientist, laboratory manager, and project team leader, including nearly 14 years as a pharmaceutical research scientist. He has broad expertise in the expression, isolation and characterization of protein targets, and the development and prosecution of biological assays to identify novel antimicrobial agents. Mr. Bronstein has extensive training in protein biochemistry and enzyme/binding kinetics, and has published over 20 articles related to his research efforts. Throughout his career, Mr. Bronstein expressed and purified numerous viral and bacterial proteins for targeted screening. He developed primary and secondary screening assays, using various formats and platforms, to identify chemical leads against viral and bacterial targets. He also developed selectivity assays and designed studies to understand the biochemical mechanisms of target inhibition, viral replication and bacterial efflux. Mr. Bronstein received a B.S. in Biochemistry from Michigan State University and a M.S. in Chemistry from Oakland University. Following research positions at Wayne State University and Oakland University, Mr. Bronstein joined the Department of Infectious Diseases at Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals in Ann Arbor, a division of Warner-Lambert, in 1993 as a Senior Assistant Scientist. Pfizer acquired Warner Lambert in 2001 but that did not prevent Mr. Bronstein from quickly rising to the level of Senior Scientist. As Project Team Leader, he was instrumental in advancing two antibacterial projects to the Lead Development stage. He recently decided to leave Pfizer following its decision to cease operations in Ann Arbor. Mr. Bronstein is currently pursuing other scientific opportunities and business ventures.

Anita Dean, MBA, Marketing and Business Development

Anita Dean has over ten years of experience in sales and trading of equity markets. As a NASDAQ trader, she gained knowledge of biotechnology companies. Anita was a Vice President of the Corporate and Institutional Client group at Merrill Lynch in New York. She later joined Thomas Weisel Partners in San Francisco as a Vice President. Anita has been a consultant to ApoLife since 2001 where her responsibilities include business plan development and marketing. Anita has bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and an MBA in Finance and International Business from Columbia University, New York.

Scientific Advisors

James A. Wilkins Ph.D., Board of Director

Dr. Wilkins was a Director of Technology Outsourcing and Technology Assessment and Process Development group at Genentech, Inc. until April, 2009. He is now a CTO at Sensorin. CA. He started his career in at Genentech in the mid eighties where, he worked on the development of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rTPA, Activase®). In 1993, he joined Alexion Pharmaceuticals in New Haven, CT where he started the process development and manufacturing groups and rose to the position of Vice President of Process Sciences and Manufacturing. In 2000, he left Alexion to start a consulting business and joined the research group at Yale University in the Department of Chemical Engineering. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1979, Dr. Wilkins did postdoctoral work at the Johns Hopkins University.

Joseph DeAngelo, M.S., Board of Director

Joseph De Angelo is Vice President of Research and Chief Scientific Officer for Apex Bioscience, Inc., the US subsidiary of Curacyte AG and a member of the Curacyte Vorstand. He was one of the founding scientists Apex Bioscience and is an expert in yeast biology. He has been active for over ten years in the field of nitric oxide biology and is a well-recognized expert in the field. He is an inventor of eleven issued patents. Under his direction at Apex, the lead product, PHP, a hemoglobin-based nitric oxide scavenger, has been developed from pre-phase 1 and has now entered phase 3 clinical trials. Mr. De Angelo received both undergraduate and graduate training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Prof. Michael Holland, Ph.D. Board of Director

Dr. Holland is a professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at University of California, Davis. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Holland started his career in biotechnology when he was a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. William Rutter (former CEO & founder of Chiron) at the University of California. Prof Holland is an expert in the yeast molecular biology and is a pioneer in the area of expression of proteins in yeast. He has been a consultant for several biotech companies including Chiron, Roche and Apex Bioscience. His current research involves the application of novel functional genomics approaches to understanding mechanisms of gene expression. Dr. Holland has been advisor for Dr. Motwani's team since 1989.

Prof. Fred Winston, Ph.D.

Dr. Winston is a Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from M.I.T. Dr. Winston is an expert in the areas of yeast genetics, transcriptional control, and chromatin structure. He began studies of yeast genetics and molecular biology as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Gerald Fink. For over 20 years, Dr. Winston’s laboratory at Harvard has used yeast genetics to identify and study proteins critical for normal gene expression. These pioneering studies have led to several new insights concerning the roles of general transcription factors, chromatin remodeling complexes, histone proteins, and transcription elongation. Prof. Winston has been advisor for Dr. Motwani’s team since 1989.

Prof. Sherie Morrison, Ph.D.

Dr. Sherie Morrison is a distinguished professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Morrison joined UCLA in 1988. Prior to that, Dr. Morrison served as professor in the Department of Microbiology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Morrison spent a sabbatical year in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Professor Paul Berg at Stanford in 1982. Dr. Morrison was a department chair from 1992-2002 at UCLA. Her long-time research interest has been the functional properties of antibodies and novel antibody-related proteins, and she is author of over 250 journal articles, book chapters and reviews. During the past 30 years, Dr. Morrison's UCLA laboratory has established multiple technologies relating to recombinant antibody production and characterization. Her team has generated a wide spectrum of different recombinant antibodies, including antibody fusion proteins, bi-specific mAbs and secretory IgA. Dr. Morrison holds Ph.D. and B.A. degrees from Stanford University.

Prof. Craig N. Giroux, Ph.D.

Dr. Giroux is the Director of Systems and Computational Biology at the Karmanos Cancer Institute and an Associate Professor of Cancer Biology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan. Dr. Giroux’s research expertise is in the integration of computational and functional genomics approaches to dissect functional pathways underlying toxicogenomic (drug response and toxicity) and human disease (cancer) processes. He received his Ph.D. in Biophysics / Genetics from MIT and started his studies with the yeast model as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago. Subsequently, Dr. Giroux developed expertise in molecular toxicology and cancer genetics while directing a research laboratory at the NIEHS / NIH. His yeast research has exploited the yeast gene knockout collection for functional profiling of drug and stress responses to identify pathways that are conserved from yeast to human. In addition, his current research utilizes network-based approaches to biomarker and drug target discovery in human cancer models. Dr. Giroux has extensive consulting and advisory board experience in the areas of biomedical technology and the application of systems-based approaches to problems in translational medicine. In particular, he is an active consultant and review board member for Department of Defense biomedical research programs.

Rick Hay, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.H.A.

Dr. Rick Hay was until recently a Deputy Director for Clinical Programs and Senior Research Scientist (Molecular Oncology) at the Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is an expert in experimental and anatomic pathology and in experimental and clinical nuclear medicine. Dr. Hay has been engaged in translational research for the past twenty years. His contributions include adapting long-term cell culture techniques to the maintenance and metabolic characterization of nontransformed human hepatocytes, and developing new radiopharmaceuticals for nuclear imaging in cardiovascular disease, inflammatory disease, and most recently in oncology. In each of these areas he has brought new agents from the bench top to early clinical use, and he has participated in clinical trials of all phases. Dr. Hay received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and completed his postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Basel in Biochemistry and his clinical fellowship in Nuclear Medicine at the University of Michigan.

Business Advisors

John Campbell, Ph.D.,M.B.A.

Dr. Campbell has over twenty five years of management experience in life sciences and biopharmaceutical companies. He held senior executive positions at Boehringer Mannheim, ICI (CEO of the Cellmark Division) and Dow Chemical Company. In recent years, Dr. Campbell has played key roles in product development, marketing, and finance for several early-stage firms and has served as CEO for several small US and European companies. Dr. Campbell is experienced in structuring and executing relationships between large and small companies and he has successfully raised over $100 million in funding in the last several years. He has been associated with ApoLife, Inc. since 1996 and assists in business plan development, contract negotiations, and overall business strategy of the company.