StemCONN 09

Robert J. Alpern, M.D. has been Dean of Yale School of Medicine since June 1, 2004. His career has combined interests in research, clinical practice, and teaching. He attended undergraduate school at Northwestern University, where he majored in Chemistry. He received his M.D. degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 1976, and received residency training in Internal Medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York. Following this, he performed a postdoctoral fellowship in Nephrology in the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. In 1982, Dr. Alpern joined the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco, and in 1987 he was recruited to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as Chief of the Division of Nephrology. At Southwestern Dr. Alpern held the Ruth W. and Milton P. Levy, Sr. Chair in Molecular Nephrology and the Atticus James Gill, M.D. Chair in Medical Science. In July 1998 Dr. Alpern was appointed Dean of Southwestern Medical School and in June 2004, he moved to the Yale University School of Medicine to become the Ensign Professor of Medicine and Dean of the medical school. Dr. Alpern’s research has focused on the regulation of kidney transport proteins. In addition Dr. Alpern has been highly committed to teaching and clinical medicine. In 2000 he was elected President of the American Society of Nephrology. He was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, and has served on the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. He was recently elected to the Institute of Medicine.

J. Robert Galvin, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A. (invited) was appointed Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health on December 1, 2003. Dr. Galvin has broad experience in the field of medicine and public health. He has been a physician since 1965, and over the course of his career, has practiced primary care, emergency, and aviation medicine. Dr. Galvin received his medical degree from Tufts University in 1964, and graduated from the Army War College in 1986. He received a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Connecticut in1996, and his Master’s of Business Administration from UCONN in 2007. Dr. Galvin was also appointed a Professor at the UCONN School of Medicine. Dr. Galvin is retired from the U.S. Army where he attained the rank of Brigadier General and received nine individual decorations, including the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star for combat service in Viet Nam.

Laura Grabel, Ph.D. is the Lauren B. Dachs Professor of Science in Society and was Dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics there from 1999 to 2003. She was Chair of the Biology Department from 1998-1999 and Director of Graduate Studies from 1996-1998. She is a Member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering and was honored by the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 2008. Her current research interests include a study of the ability if GABAergic neurons derived from embryonic stem cells to prevent chronic seizures when transplanted to the mouse hippocampus, and a study examining the molecular signals that direct production of neural stem cells from embryonic stem cells and the environmental conditions, following seizures, that promote integration of embryonic stem cell-derived neural stem cells.

Lori Gruen, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Wesleyan University, where she is also the director of the Ethics in Society Project and the chair of the Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight committee. Her work lies at the intersection of ethical theory and ethical practice and she has published on multiple topics in bioethics, environmental ethics, and other areas of practical ethical concern. Recently, she co-edited Stem Cell Research: The Ethical Issues (Blackwell, 2007) with Laura Grabel and Peter Singer and contributed an article in that volume entitled "Oocytes for Sale?"

Konrad Hochedlinger, Ph.D. is Assistant Biologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. He received a B.S. in genetics from the University of Vienna and an M.S. in genetics and a Ph.D. in mammalian development from the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna. He has received the NIH Director's Innovator Award, the Scholar Award of the Sydney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research, and a Scholarship from the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Craig T. Jordan, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center. He received a B.A. degree in molecular biology from the University of California, Berkley and a Ph.D. degree in molecular biology from Princeton University. He was a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar 2003-2008 and was named a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Stohlman Scholar in 2008.

Diane S. Krause, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Laboratory Medicine, Pathology and Cell Biology at Yale University; Associate Director of the Yale Stem Cell Center; Director of the Clinical Cell Processing laboratory. She received a Sc.B. degree in biology from Brown University and an M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. She did post-doctoral studies at Johns Hopkins Oncology Center.

Mark Lalande, Ph.D. is Chairman of the Genetics and Developmental Biology Department of The University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Senior Associate Dean for Research Planning & Coordination, and Director of the University of Connecticut Stem Cell Center. His areas of research interests are epigenetics, including the control of gene expression in embryonic carcinoma stem cells, and genomic imprinting and its association with neurogenetics disorders. He received a Ph.D. degree from The University of Toronto.

Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D. was appointed the Vice President for Health Affairs at the University of Connecticut and the seventh dean of the UConn School of Medicine in 2008. He holds the Van Dusen Endowed Chair in Academic Medicine. Prior to his arrival at the UConn Health Center, Dr. Laurencin was the Lillian T. Pratt Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Virginia, as well as the Orthopaedic Surgeon-in-Chief at the University of Virginia Health System. In addition, he was designated as a University Professor at the University of Virginia, one of the university's most prestigious titles, and held professorships in Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering. Dr. Laurencin is an expert in shoulder and knee surgery and an international leader in tissue engineering research. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American College of Orthopaedic Surgeons, is widely published in scholarly journals and holds more than 20 U.S. patents. Among Dr. Laurencin's numerous awards and accolades, he was recently honored by Scientific American Magazine as one of the top 50 innovators for his groundbreaking technological work in the regeneration of knee tissue.

Haifan Lin, Ph.D. is Director of the Yale Stem Cell Center and Professor of Cell Biology and Genetics at the Yale University School of Medicine. He received a B.S. degree in biochemistry from Fudan University and a Ph.D. degree in genetics and development from Cornell University. He is a Founding Officer of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, and sits on the editorial boards of Cell Stem Cells , the Journal of Cell Biology, and Nature Reports Stem Cells.

John Douglas McNeish, Ph.D. is Executive Director, Regenerative Medicine, at Pfizer Global Research and Development. Earlier he was Director and then Senior Director of Genetic Technologies at Pfizer. In that capacity he was responsible for all internal and external functions of Genetic Technologies that focused efforts in functional genomics deliverables to therapeutic area project teams globally, including bioinformatics, expression profiling, antisense and RNAi technology, stem cell biology, and genetically modified mice.

Jonathan D. Moreno, Ph.D. is the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor of Ethics and Professor of Medical Ethics and of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a secondary appointment as Professor of Philosophy. He is also Visiting Professor of Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia. Moreno is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies and is a National Associate of the National Research Council. He is a Faculty Affiliate of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University and a Fellow of the Hastings Center and the New York Academy of Medicine.

Paul R. Pescatello, J.D., Ph.D., is President and CEO of CURE (Connecticut United for Research Excellence) the Connecticut bioscience organization. He received a J.D. degree from the University of Virginia School of Law and a Ph.D. degree in government from Cornell University. He also holds a B.A. degree in political economy from Colorado College. Pescatello was the founder of The Connecticut Tech Tribune. He sits on the State of Connecticut Stem Cell Advisory Committee, which has oversight responsibility for stem cell activities in Connecticut. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Connecticut Innovations, Inc., and a member of The (Connecticut) Governor’s Council on Economic Competitiveness and Technology.

Linda Powers, J.D. is a co-founder and Managing Director of Toucan Capital, a $140 million venture capital fund based in Bethesda, M.D.. She has been appointed to key technology and industry commissions by the Governors of two states. Over the past 7 years, she has become a recognized leader in the stem cell industry nationwide in the U.S, as well as in Europe, India and China, and she served as the Chair of Maryland's Stem Cell Commission (responsible for administering the state's stem cell research funding) for the first two years of the program. Ms. Powers has over 25 years of experience in venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and restructurings, and public-private partnerships. Ms. Powers holds a B.A. from Princeton University (Woodrow Wilson School/Economics), magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and a J.D. degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School.

Thomas A. Rando, M.D., Ph.D. is Associate Professor of the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is also Chief of the Neurology Service at VA Palo Alto Health Care System and Deputy Director of the Stanford Center on Longevity (SCL.) Dr. Rando’s research interests focus on molecular mechanisms of muscle progenitor cell activation, gene therapy for muscle diseases and muscle cell growth and differentiation. Dr. Rando has been awarded with the National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award, The Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar Award on Aging, and the Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholar on Aging. Dr. Rando received his AB and Ph.D. from Harvard University . His medical degree is from Harvard Medical School .

M. Celeste Simon, Ph.D. is Scientific Director at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She received a B.A. degree from Miami University in microbiology, an M.S. from Ohio State University in microbiology, and a Ph.D in Biochemistry from Rockefeller University. She has received numerous honors and awards, including the Stanley M. Cohen Award for Biomedical Research in 2007.

Michael Snyder, Ph.D. is the Lewis B. Cullman Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University; he is also the Director of the Yale Center of Genomics and Proteomics. Dr. Snyder received his Ph.D. training in the laboratory of Dr. Norman Davidson at the California Institute of Technology and carried out postdoctoral training in Dr. Ronald Davis’s laboratory at Stanford University. He is a leader in the field of functional genomics and proteomics. His laboratory study was the first to perform a large-scale functional genomics project in any organism, and currently carries out a variety of projects in the areas of genomics and proteomics both in yeast and humans. These include the large-scale analysis of proteins using protein microarrays and the global mapping of the binding sites of chromosomal proteins. His laboratory built the first proteome chip for any organism and the first high resolution tiling array for the entire human genome. Dr. Snyder has published over 230 manuscripts and is editor of a number of journals including Functional and Integrative Genomics, Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, Drug Discovery Today, PloS Genetics and Genes and Development. He sits on many international advisory boards and was a cofounder of Protometrix, Inc., a protein microarray company that was purchased by Invitrogen in 2004.

Sally Temple, Ph.D. hails from York, England. She did her undergraduate degree in developmental neuroscience at Cambridge University, and her Ph.D. with Martin Raff at University College London, UK on glial cell development (1986). She attended Columbia University, NYC to study spinal cord formation as a postdoctoral fellow with Tom Jessell, before moving to Miami University where her husband was attending medical school. In Miami, Sally developed a method for cloning individual cells derived from the embryonic mouse forebrain. This study, published in Nature in 1989, revealed that the basal forebrain contained multipotent, stem-like cells. She then showed that self-renewing stem cells exist in the embryonic cerebral cortex. Long-term time-lapse studies revealed that cortical progenitor cells undergo repeated asymmetric cell divisions to produce layer-specific cells in sequence. She has developed culture conditions and markers for neural stem and progenitor populations that enabled gene expression analysis of different stages. Her lab has shown that blood vessel endothelial cells produce factors that potently increase self-renewal and neurogenesis of neural stem cells. She is currently exploring how mouse stem cells produce diverse neurons in temporal order, the molecular mechanisms of neural stem cell self-renewal and asymmetric cell division, and the role of endothelial-derived bioactive factors in the stem cell niche.

Derek van der Kooy, Ph.D. is Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics and Microbiology, the Institute of Medical Sciences, and the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. His research interest include pancreatic stem cells, cell lineage and brain development, and retinal stem cells in the adult mammalian eye. He holds a Master's degree from the University of British Columbia and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Toronto and Erasmus Universiteit in Rotterdam.

Milton B. Wallack, D.D.S. is a periodontist who practices in the New Haven area. Through the years he has been involved in a variety of community activities. He is founder of the Connecticut Stem Cell Coalition and serves as its co-chairperson. He was instrumental in helping to initiate stem cell efforts in the State of Connecticut. He now sits on the State of Connecticut Stem Cell Advisory Committee, which has oversight responsibility for stem cell activities in Connecticut. He has been President of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Greater New Haven Chapter. He is also Founder of the University of New Haven Dental Hygiene Program. Dr. Wallack is a graduate of Brandeis University and has been a member of its Board of Trustees. He graduated from Temple Dental School and Boston University School of Graduate Dentistry.

Michael J. Werner is a Partner at Holland & Knight LLP. He has almost 25 years of health care law, lobbying, policy development and regulatory experience in Washington. He specializes in issues affecting biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, researchers and research institutions, physicians, and patients. His expertise includes FDA drug/biologic regulations; FDA and NIH oversight of clinical trials including registries and reporting of trial results; approval and marketing of orphan drugs; stem cell research and regulation of cell therapy and regenerative medicine products; as well as bioethics issues arising from research and uses of new technologies. Prior to joining Holland & Knight, he was President of The Werner Group, a Washington DC-based firm that provided legislative, regulatory, and bioethics consulting services for life sciences companies, health care providers, health plans, investors, and broad-based coalitions. Before founding The Werner Group, Michael was Chief of Policy for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), representing over 1000 biotechnology companies in the US and other countries. In that role, he was responsible for virtually all major issues affecting biotech companies, including: drug evaluation and review by FDA; CMS policies and reimbursement, Medicare, intellectual property, stem cell research and other sensitive bioethics issues.

Michael Whitaker is Professor of Physiology and Dean of Development in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Newcastle University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Biology and the Academy of Medical Sciences. He chairs the joint Durham/Newcastle/NHS North East England Stem Cell Institute. He has published widely in the areas of reproductive biology and cell cycle control and has extensive international connections in these areas, above all in the US and Japan. He was instrumental in developing the research strategy of the Medical Faculty at the University whose research now ranks second in the UK in grade terms. Since 2000, Michael has been closely involved in forming and delivering the North East regional Strategy for Success in the Healthcare and Life Science areas, particularly in the areas of ageing and stem cell biology. He is active nationally at the Wellcome Trust and recently retired as secretary of the British Society for Cell Biology. In addition he is a board member of Centre for Excellence in Health Sciences and a trustee of the Marine Biological Association. He also holds directorships in two companies in the energy sector.

Ren-He Xu, M.D., Ph.D. is Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut and Director of the UConn-Wesleyan Stem Cell Core, Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology, University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington. Previously he was Senior Scientist at the WiCell Research Institute of the University of Wisconsin. He received his M.D. degree from Hengyang Medical College in China and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo. His current research interests include screening target genes of BMP and TGF-beta signaling in human ES cells.

Lorraine Young, Ph.D. is Professor of Molecular Embryology and Director of the Wolfson Centre for Stem Cells, Tissue Engineering and Modelling (STEM) at the University of Nottingham. After initial studies on the endocrinology of Reproduction in the Universities of Aberdeen and Liverpool, Lorraine was introduced to embryology by Ian Wilmut's team at Edinburgh's Roslin Institute. By establishing that both the in vivo and in vitro preimplantation embryo is vulnerable to epigenetic changes that can have profound effects on later fetal and adult development, and demonstrating that profound epigenetic defects are found in most "cloned" embryos, Lorraine became interested in the vulnerability of human pluripotent cells to similar effects. Lorraine's team continues to unravel the potential consequences of human embryonic and iPS stem cell epigenetic defects, how to minimise them to generate a safer and more uniform cell product and how to harness them to model human disease. She has a keen interest in training the next generation of stem cell researchers, with STEM running an MSc in Stem Cell Technology and Regenerative Medicine Doctoral Training Centre. Current projects include: 1) Scale up of human pluripotent stem cells 2) Stem cell screening of human nutrient-gene interactions at the epigenetic level 3) Switching Pluripotent Genes on and off.