The Challenges for Academic-Industry Collaborations and University Start-ups

Rosalind Franklin University Panelists

Raúl Gazmuri, MD, PhD, FCCM
Dr. Gazmuri obtained his medical degree from the University of Chile, where he also completed his internal medicine residency. After practicing critical care medicine for two years, he traveled to the U.S. in 1986 for a research fellowship at The Chicago Medical School under the mentorship of the late Max Harry Weil, MD, PhD, a pioneer in critical care medicine and an internationally renowned clinician-scientist in the field of circulatory shock and cardiac arrest. Dr. Gazmuri devoted three years as a full-time research fellow and five additional years as a critical care fellow, PhD student, and faculty under Dr. Weil’s mentorship. In 1994, he earned a PhD degree in physiology and biophysics from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, and was inducted Fellow of the American College of Critical Care Medicine in 1997.

Dr. Gazmuri is a professor of medicine in the Department of Clinical Sciences as well as physiology and biophysics in the Department of Foundational Sciences and Humanities. He is also director of the Resuscitation Institute at Rosalind Franklin University. At the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (FHCC), Dr. Gazmuri is the section chief of Critical Care Medicine and ICU director. 

Earlier in his career, Dr. Gazmuri established a small research laboratory aided by a start-up fund from the Chicago Medical School. He obtained funding through two consecutive VA Merit Review grants and the NIH. These grants, in addition to funding from the pharmaceutical industry and private foundations, allowed him to develop a research team and expand his research laboratory, eventually transferring the research laboratory to Rosalind Franklin University. In 2010, he obtained research grants from the Department of Defense and the VA Merit Review system. He also gained recognition from the university, which supported the establishment of the Resuscitation Institute, where Dr. Gazmuri serves as director conducting work centered on the role of mitochondria for resuscitation from cardiac arrest and other low-flow states. Dr. Gazmuri has also served as principal investigator at FHCC in several multicenter industry-sponsored clinical trials.

Outside the university, Dr. Gazmuri has served as a member of the Advanced Cardiac Life Support Subcommittee of the American Heart Association and the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation, involved in the development of CPR Guidelines. He also served as a member of the Clinical and Integrative Cardiovascular Science Study Section of the Center for Scientific Review at the NIH that reviews national grant applications. He is currently a member of the organizing committee of the Resuscitation Science Symposium at the American Heart Association.

He has published extensively in the field of resuscitation and critical care medicine, and he has given lectures at national and international scientific events.

Stephanie Wu, DPM, MSc, FACFAS
Dr. Stephanie Wu is dean of Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine, professor, Department of Podiatric Surgery and Applied Biomechanics, Professor, Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. Dr. Wu devotes time to CLEAR’s fellowship program, international fellowship program, and Scholl’s Masters in wound healing program, which is an international collaboration with Cardiff University. 

For her efforts in education, Dr. Wu has received many awards at Rosalind Franklin University, including the Dean’s Award and the Lawrence R. Medoff Award for Outstanding Performance in Research, Teaching, and Clinical Practice. Dr. Wu led the effort in helping secure podiatry’s first NIH T-35 training grant for the training of future podiatric researchers at Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine. In addition to her clinical and university duties Dr. Wu is a highly sought after lecturer at national and international forums.

Industry Panelists

Jeff Masters, PhD
Senior Director, Corporate Partnerships and Business Development
Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Masters heads up the Corporate Relations service at Northwestern University. He is a trained biochemist, molecular biologist, and endocrinologist and has professional experience in academic and industrial realms. Dr. Masters served on the faculty at Ohio State University and has 17 years of pharmaceutical-drug discovery experience at multiple organizations — including Abbott, Pfizer and Astellas — in the areas of bioinformatics, neuroscience, immunology, urology, kidney disease, ADME, and translational science.

Shobha Parthasarathi, PhD
Advisor, Xontogeny 

Shobha joined Xontogeny in July 2019. In her role, she is responsible for identifying commercialization opportunities for Xontogeny, working closely with startup founders, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders across the academic, biotech, pharmaceutical and investment landscape.

Dr. Parthasarathi brings a combination of more than 20 years of research, business development, strategic partnerships and venture investing experience to development of new medicines and emerging healthcare technologies. Before joining Xontogeny, she was vice president, strategic alliances and business development at Harrington Discovery Institute, a unique international initiative created to translate scientific discoveries from academia to development of therapeutics. In that role, she advanced several therapeutics programs, managed a portfolio of companies, executed alliances, and mentored scientific innovators and entrepreneurs. Preceding that role, she was part of the business development team at North Carolina Biotechnology Center where she secured funding for a wide range of therapeutic, diagnostic and medical device startups. Her career highlights include multiple FDA drug approvals and commercialized products, company acquisitions and IPOs. Shobha began her research career in drug discovery at Takeda (Millennium Pharmaceuticals).

Shobha obtained her PhD in molecular genetics and microbiology from Rutgers University. She served as Chair of Women in Bio Board for the founding Chapter in Research Triangle Park and is an active member. She serves on advisory boards of several academic institutions and life sciences accelerators.

Phyllis Ferrell, MBA
Global Head of External Engagement, Alzheimer’s Disease and Neurodegeneration
Eli Lilly and Company
Director Healthcare System Preparedness Initiative
Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative

Phyllis has a BA in economics from DePauw University and an MBA from Stanford University. Phyllis is a current member of the World Dementia Council, a steering committee member of the Milken Institute Center for Aging Alliance for Dementia Care, and a strategic reviewer for the Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Discovery Foundation Diagnostics Accelerator. Phyllis is also on many boards of directors, including Alzheimer’s Research UK EDoN, Gates Ventures Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative, the Indiana Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, and the Indianapolis 500 Festival. Phyllis is a founding member of Women Against Alzheimer’s and Women of Impact Boone County, co-chair of the Women’s Leadership Council, and the alumna sponsor of the Women in Economics and Business Program at DePauw University. Phyllis is passionate about Alzheimer’s advocacy and brain health so children don’t grow up without their grandfathers’ presence as her sons did.

Amanda Schalk, PhD
Co-founder and Chief Operations Officer, Enzyme by Design

Amanda Schalk, PhD, is a co-founder and chief operations officer at Enzyme by Design and research assistant professor at University of Illinois at Chicago. She completed her BS in biochemistry at Eastern Michigan University and her master’s and PhD at the International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology in Goettingen, Germany. In 2017, her team from UIC spun out their safer cancer therapeutics technology into the startup, Enzyme by Design.

Moderator

Michael S. Rosen, MBA
Innovation and Research Park Consultant

Michael S. Rosen is chair of the Center for Healthcare Innovation, a not-for-profit organization focused on healthcare equity. He is also managing director of Rosen Biosciences Strategies LLC, a life science economic development consultancy focusing on the development of science parks and clusters, and enabling international life science companies to enter the U.S. market. 

He served as senior vice president of new business development for nine years at Forest City Enterprises, a U.S. real estate development company that developed and built science parks with research universities, such as Johns Hopkins, MIT and Northwestern University, bringing life science companies from various countries into these parks.

He spent 20 years in management positions with Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Searle/Monsanto, and lived in Latin America, Japan and Europe. He also worked extensively in Canada and Asia. Mr. Rosen spent 12 years as president and CEO of European/U.S. biotech and medical device companies.

Michael received his BA in sociology and international relations from Beloit College, and an MBA in international business from the University of Miami.