Management

Stephen From, President and Chief Executive Officer, was formerly a senior executive and Chief Financial Officer at Centelion SAS, a 100-person independent biotechnology subsidiary of sanofi-aventis with a Phase II biological drug for the treatment of peripheral vascular disease. Prior to this, Mr. From spent several years as an investment banker specializing in the biotechnology and medical device sectors and was most recently at Bank of America Securities as Director in the Global Healthcare Corporate and Investment Banking Group and Head of European Life Sciences.

Michael A. Patane, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, was most recently an Executive Director in Global Discovery Chemistry at Novartis where he was responsible for infectious diseases and ophthalmology drug discovery units. Prior to joining Novartis, he was Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Millennium Pharmaceuticals where he led oncology and metabolic diseases drug discovery, analytical sciences, and high throughput synthesis/purification. During his career, he has played many strategic roles, advised project teams, provided portfolio prioritization and managed resource allocations. Additionally, he has extensive experience evaluating licensing opportunities and working with alliance partners.

Remis Bistras, Ph.D., Vice President, Business Development, was formerly Director, Business Development & Licensing at CIBA Vision, a division of Novartis, where he was responsible for managing worldwide business development and licensing activities in the medical devices and the eye care area. At CIBA, he developed and successfully implemented new business development & licensing strategy and process. Dr. Bistras also actively managed search & evaluation, negotiations, and alliance management functions for business and licensing deals in North America, Europe and Japan. In addition, he managed a clinical trial for medical device in dry AMD area, managed patent and IP portfolio, including out licensing and sell of non-strategic assets, and successfully managed legal and cross-functional teams in executing and closing licensing deals. Mr. Bistras also spent several years consulting and working in corporate and business development for manufacturing companies, where he drove strategic new business development, created and drove implementation of business plans for entry into new markets and product areas and executed several acquisitions of companies and product lines. Dr. Bistras holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. in Psychology from University of Moscow.

Michael P. Manzo, Vice President, Engineering, has held executive level positions at several companies, including most recently President and Chief Operating Officer of Jenline Industries. At Jenline, Mr. Manzo was responsible for the P&L of the healthcare/medical North American division of this company. Prior to Jenline, Mr. Manzo was Senior Marketing Engineer of ONUX Medical, and developed contractual partnerships with clinicians, medical institutions and laboratory facilities, and advised the engineering department on market needs. He brings deep operational, engineering development and project management experience to the Company.

Amy Cohen, Vice President, Clinical Operations, was formerly Director, Clinical Operations at Javelin Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company focusing in the pain management market. Previously, Ms. Cohen was Clinical Program Manager at BD Medical - Ophthalmic Systems, where she oversaw all clinical trials within the ophthalmology surgery program.  She has also held clinical operations leadership positions at Biogen Idec, Boston Scientific, and PAREXEL International.  Ms. Cohen holds an M.S. from Harvard School of Public Health and a B.A. from Wellesley College.

Dana Litman, Senior Director, Quality Assurance, was formerly Senior Manager of Quality Assurance at Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel therapeutics to treat eye diseases. At Eyetech, he established the “Eyetech Massachusetts Site Quality System” and co-developed companywide training procedures. He created a design level documentation system responsible for tracking and maintaining all site R&D and quality assurance documents. Previously, Mr. Litman was Senior Quality Assurance Engineer at Medtronic, a leading medical device company. He has also held management positions at Arterial Vascular Engineering, U.S.C.I Division of C.R. Bard and W.R. Grace Company. Mr. Litman holds a B.S in Chemical-Biochemical Technology from Northeastern University.

Paul Perkins, Senior Director, Finance and Human Resources, was formerly Chief Financial Officer at the healthcare services provider Masonic Health System, and managed finances and human resources at various other corporations. Mr. Perkins lends a broad expertise in different levels of business operations, including human resources, sales and marketing and strategic planning and budgeting.

Begoña Ruiz-Perez, Senior Director, Pre-Clinical Research, was previously an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. Ms. Ruiz-Perez was a key investigator for studies including “Role of Microbial Instestinal Flora on Prevention of Experimental Asthma,” and “The Epidemiology of Home Allergens and Asthma.” She was also a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital where she identified a novel urea based molecule with immunomodulatory properties, characterized the mechanism of T-cell immunomodulation in vitro and developed models of sepsis and rheumatoid arthritis for elucidating the mechanism of T-cell immunomodulation in vivo. Ms. Ruiz-Perez holds a B.S. in Pharmacy and a B.S. in Food Science and Technology, as well as a Ph.D. in Nutrition, Food Science and Technology, all from Complutense University of Madrid, Spain.