MANAGEMENT TEAM
Mike Wanner, Abeome’s President and CEO, is a seasoned professional who has successfully led two start-up biotechnology companies to profitable exit strategies. Mr. Wanner served for 11+ years as CFO for Merial (North America), the world's largest animal health company and its predecessor, Rhone Merieux, Inc. (RMI) during which time he headed up the finance, information systems, materials management, human resources and legal departments of the company. He sat on the board of directors of all North American RMI companies. The company made numerous product acquisition deals, acquired companies, and launched a direct sales force to veterinarians in the US and Canada going from $3M in sales in his initial year with the company 1988 to $650M in sales with Merial in North America in 2000. He later served as President of ProLinia and profitably sold the company to Exeter Life Sciences in 2003. In January 2005, he joined Oncose as President and CEO and continues to support them in that role on a part time basis.
Paul Price, PhD. serves as Director of Research and has worked intensely to improve the platform technology and expand the applications for its use. Prior to joining Abeome, he worked as Project Manager/Scientist for Beckman Coulter focused on the development of state-of-the-art hematology analyzers with novel cellular controls. Dr. Price joined Abeome in 2003 and has been instrumental in bringing DiSH on-line and fine tuning its capabilities. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from Georgetown University.
Mohamed Shoreibah, PhD. serves as Director of Research and is primarily responsible for leading the Ovarian Cancer development project. Prior to joining Abeome, he worked at Amgen as Process Development Scientist and has expertise in recombinant protein expression and purification and protein glycosylation. He joined Abeome in mid-2008. Dr. Shoreibah received his PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Miami School of Medicine in 1991.
Over the next twelve months, Abeome plans to expand its management team to cover several roles needed to drive projected growth. Key positions to be filled include an individual to accelerate the Company’s licensing and business development activities, and an additional, experienced clinical development scientist to participate in the OC pre- clinical studies.
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
Headed up by Dr. Meagher, Abeome’s SAB takes an active role in participating in review, analysis and recommendations for optimizing our OC development project and to insure timelines and goals are met. We are fortunate to have a diverse and highly experienced group covering the broad areas of immunology, ovarian cancer research, genomics and proteomics, and cancer surgery and medicine.
Richard Meagher, PhD. is Abeome’s scientific founder and CSO and Distinguished Professor at the University of Georgia in the Department of Genetics. He is the inventor of Abeome’s DISH platform and is established as a world-renowned expert in plant genetics and phytoremediation. Dr. Meagher did his post-doc work at UCSF in the laboratory of Dr. Herbert Boyer, co-founder of Genentech.
Christine Debouck, PhD, President of Ardennes Biosciences LLC and formerly Senior VP in R&D at GlaxoSmithKline, is renowned for her expertise in target validation, disease knowledge and compound characterizations as well as for her broad scientific applications of biotechnology, genomics and biomarker discovery in pre-clinical and clinical development, and biomarker evaluation with an emphasis in oncology and infectious diseases. Dr. Debouck brings 24 years of experience in directing creative science in diverse areas of research.
Jeff Boyd, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and Sr. VP at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, has an international reputation as one of the leading scientists in the study of molecular genetics of women’s cancers. Dr. Boyd was named Distinguished Cancer Scholar by the Georgia Cancer Coalition. His long-term research focus has studied molecular genetics of ovarian cancer with emphasis on hereditary predisposition.
Linda Matsuuchi, PhD, Associate Director of the Life Sciences Institute at the University of British Columbia, has a distinguished research career focused on intracellular trafficking and cell signaling of specific membrane receptors on the cell surface of B lymphocytes, the source of antibody production.
Jack Sisley, MD recently joined the Abeome SAB after 14 years in Brunswick, GA in private practice in General Surgery and Surgical Oncology. Immediately prior to that, Dr. Sisley served Assoc. Prof. of Surgery in Augusta, GA at MCG division of Surgical Oncology.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The Company has worked aggressively to assemble a board of directors with strong biotech and entrepreneurial skills. In addition to Mike Wanner, the Company CEO, the Board consists of:
Herb Heyneker, PhD was one of the original scientists at Genentech after his post-doc work in the laboratory of Herb Boyer at UCSF. Dr. Heyneker has served in a number of executive R&D positions and co- founded several biotech companies over the years. He is an inventor on more than 30 US patents.
Kirby Alton, PhD was one of the original Amgen scientists and ultimately Senior VP of Development for the company. Dr. Alton had responsibility for world-wide pre-clinical research, clinical development and regulatory affairs until retiring from Amgen in 1999.
John Richard is currently Managing Partner of Georgia Venture Partners. John has extensive experience as a strategic and commercial development advisor for biotechnology companies. Within his vast array of experience, John co-founded IMPATH, Inc. a leading cancer diagnostic business which is now part of Genzyme Corporation.
Michael Rainer (Chairman) is a seasoned entrepreneur and owner and CEO of ExR, a technical support IT company.
James E. Pitts III was recently added to the BOD in February 2009. Jim is owner and President of real estate development entities Randcor, Inc and Randcor Management Inc. of Atlantic Beach, FL.
Diana Murphy was also added to the BOD in February 2009. She serves as Managing Director for Rocksolid Holdings, LLC in Sea Island, GA and also sits on the board of Landstar Systems in Jacksonville, FL.
