Advisors

Lawrence J Botticelli, PhD
With twenty five years experience in the Life Sciences industry, Dr Botticelli possesses a far ranging background centered on the development and commercialization of biomedical innovation. Currently, Dr Botticelli currently serves as Chief Business Officer of the Institute for Biopharmaceutical Partnerships at TUFTS University. A member of the University Advancement division, he is responsible for establishing strategic alliances with the pharmaceutical industry.

Previously, he served as Managing Director of Commercial Development and as Director of Strategic Initiatives for Life Sciences in The Office of the Provost at the University of Pennsylvania. Here he was responsible for identifying technological and clinical innovations and establishing strategic collaborative R&D and clinical investigative alliances about translational research developments. Those activities were pursued on an 'enterprise-wide' basis between all operating units of the University and global pharmaceutical, healthcare, and related corporations.

Beginning his career on Wall Street, Dr Botticelli served as a Life Sciences Technology merchant banker for such firms as Rothschild Inc and The First Boston Corporation. Dr Botticelli received his Ph.D. from M. I. T. and then completed his post-doctoral training at the Stanford University School of Medicine (Pharmacology). He also attended The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania (Strategic Management & Finance).

William (Pepper) Denman, MD
Dr Denman is an accomplished executive physician that has had a distinguished career in both the academic and industrial arenas. Most recently Dr Denman was Chief Medical Officer and VP Medical Affairs, Medical Devices for Covidien (Tyco Healthcare). In this role he was responsible for a division with over $6B in revenue. Prior to this he was Global Medical Director and Vice President of Medical Affairs. He was a strategic advisor to Covidien’s Venture Capital Fund and is a voting member of the Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Committee.

Dr Denman is a practicing Anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and was Chief of Pediatric Anesthesia ate the Floating Hospital for Children. He received his MD from the University of Aberdeen in the UK.

Richard Gill, PhD
Dr. Gill has over 28 years of strategic management, research, and technology commercialization experience in the life sciences industry. He recently served as President and Chief Executive Officer of ProNAi Therapeutics, a DNAi Drug Development Company. Previsously Richard was President and Chief Executive Officer of Signet Laboratories, an Evidence Based Medicine company, for which was sold to Covance. Prior to that, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of AnVil, the preeminent commercialization partner to the life sciences industry focused on in silico drug discovery and drug development solutions.

Richard is an active BOD member with a nubmer of early stage companies:
Neuroptix: non invasive in vivo Alzheimer's Disease Diagnostic,
NABsys: Nanopore based gene sequencing technology
ERA Biotech "Difficult to make Protein Manufacturing Platform"
SynDevRx: CHOB Drug

NABsys is in the process of realizing Proof of Concept for their nanopore based gene sequencing technology, on the back of a $900k A Series Financing which we syndicated & a recently signed additional financing with Point Judith Capital for $2.5M.

While ERA Biotech, having just funded a 5.6M Euro B Series Financing, is pursuing evaluation of IND candidates for its "Difficult to make Protein Manufacturing Platform" & have just signed an additional Term Sheet with Credit Agricole for 2.5M Euro.

Finally at SynDevRx we are seeking a $7M Financing to take a CHOB Drug into the clinic; Currently there is the potential to close a Series A $1M Financing to fund Manufacturing Scale Up & IND Filing towards this goal.

Lyle A. Hohnke, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., MBA
Dr. Hohnke, general partner for Tullis-Dickerson since 1994, is a graduate of Western
Michigan University (BA), the University of Oregon (MA/Ph.D.), UCLA School of
Medicine (Postdoctoral Fellow) and the Hartford Graduate Center (MBA); he has
significant investment experience in early and expansion stage life science and
technology oriented investments.

Dr. Hohnke’s professional career began at Pfizer Central Research where he served in
successive positions and headed research and development of therapeutic agents for
digestive diseases. In 1983, he joined the University of Connecticut Health Center as
Vice President for Research and Director of Patents and Licensing. He later founded
and served as President of the University of Connecticut Research and Development
Corporation where he co-founded several healthcare related University spin-off
ventures including TargeTech and Connecticut Seed Ventures, a $12 million venture
capital fund comprised of state and corporate monies.

Dr. Hohnke also served as a general partner for Heart Land Seed Capital Fund in Des
Moines, Iowa from 1991-1993 where he managed all investment activities of the fund.
In 1994, he led a leveraged buy-out team to purchase Diamond Animal Health, an
agricultural biotechnology company from Bayer, Inc., where he served as Chairman
& CEO until merging the company in 1996 with Heska Corporation, a publicly traded
animal healthcare company. Dr. Hohnke currently serves on the board of several
private biotechnology & healthcare companies.

Michael Palfreyman, PhD
Michael G. Palfreyman is a seasoned leader in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries with over 35 years experience. He is currently President and CEO of Vitruvean, Inc and VP Program Management and Product Development at EnVivo Pharmaceuticals. Prior to his position at EnVivo, Michael co-founded NOVACE Corporation, a network of entrepreneurs providing scientific, and strategic management solutions to the biotechnology industry and venture capital community. Prior to this, Michael was Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Psychiatric Genomics, a biotechnology company developing genome-based approaches to drug discovery for the treatment of Mental Illness. From 1994-2000 he was Senior Vice President of Research & Development at Scriptgen (Anadys) Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company specializing in genomic-based drug discovery in infectious diseases. Before joining Scriptgen, Michael held a number of executive positions at Marion Merrell Dow Research Institute (Aventis), including Head of CNS Research, Director of Pharmacological Sciences, Co-Chair Pipeline Evaluation Team, Vice President Global Biological and Scientific Affairs, Vice President Research, North America and Member of the Research & Development Executive Management Team. He has been an invited speaker and chairperson for a number of international and national conferences, is co-inventor on 35 issued US patents, 3 pending patents and co-author of over 150 scientific articles and book chapters.

Nicholas A. Saccomano, Ph.D.
Nick Saccomano has worked in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries for the past 25 years. In that time he has managed drug discovery and development programs as well as the multi-disciplinary departments which support the R and D process. Nick has been an active advocate of new technology development and utilization to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of R & D and enhance the quality of the resulting therapeutic interventions. Nick is a strong proponent of strategic alliances and public-private partnerships recognizing that the difficulty and complexity of the questions posed in biomedical research require the innovation and insights of a broader cohort than can be housed in a single organization, institute or academy.

Nick joined Pfizer in 1984 and held several positions beginning with CNS drug discovery and development. He was fortunate to lead the teams that brought several new drug candidates to Proof-of-Concept studies in the clinic for both psychiatric and neurological disorders. Three of the programs he contributed to or managed are now marketed therapeutic agents; Aricept, Geodon and Chantix. Excited by the power of technology and interdisciplinary teams to solve tough R and D problems, Nick then led the groups that developed, integrated and managed new and extant technologies to support and advance the drug discovery process. It was at in this role that Nick saw it as critical for Pfizer to reach beyond its own walls to evoke collaborative alliances with the academy and biotech communities in order to provide Pfizer with the scope of scientific methods and technologies it needed to drive efficiency and productivity. Intrigued by potential of collaborative ventures, Nick then led a variety of functions simultaneously including the Strategic Alliances group, the Research Technology Center located in Cambridge Mass and an externally focused science and technology collaborative function. These three groups together conspired to tie Pfizer to the external research environment in a meaningful and productive manner. Nick was also helped design and build the Pfizer BBC located in South San Francisco with Dr. Corey Goodman.

Nick is currently a consultant and advisor to a broad range of organizations in the pharma/biotech sector. Presently he is senior advisor to Bend Research Inc. located in Bend Oregon and SomaLogic Inc located in Boulder Colorado. Bend Research is a highly interdisciplinary pharmaceutical sciences and drug delivery company. They have pioneered many new drug formulation technologies with the most notable platform being a spray-dried dispersion platform that is being widely adopted throughout the industry. Bend Research maintains alliances with most of the major pharmaceutical firms as well as several notable biotech companies. SomaLogic is a platform technology company that specializes in aptamer technology. They apply their transformative platform to proteomics, biomarker discovery, diagnostics and therapeutic molecule generation. In addition to these two major clients, Nick is also a consultant for several smaller biotech, CRO and venture investment organizations.

Nick graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1980 with a B.S. in chemistry and subsequently from Columbia University in 1984 with Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry under the guidance of Professor Gilbert Stork. Nick currently lives with his wife Linda in Longmont , Colorado.