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Robert W. Buckheit, Jr., Ph.D. President and Chief Scientific Officer |
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Todd Parsley, Ph.D., Molecular Biology Services |
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Tracy Hartman, M.S., Anti-Infective Services |
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Karen Watson, M.S., Topical Microbicide Services |
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Lu Yang, MD., Anti-Infective Services |
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| ImQuest Publications |
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| ImQuest Research Interests |
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| Robert Buckheit, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer |
 Dr. Buckheit is President and Chief Scientific Officer of ImQuest BioSciences, Inc., a contract research services provider dedicated to the rapid development of anti-infective and anti-cancer therapeutics.
Since 1989, Dr. Buckheit has been intimately involved in the preclinical development of anti-infective agents with a focus on agents for use against HIV. During this period of time Dr. Buckheit has developed and managed infectious disease research programs for commercial, academic and government clients at both Southern Research Institute and TherImmune Research Corporation/Gene Logic Inc. During these past 15 years, Dr. Buckheit has managed a variety of multi-million dollar and technically complex federal contracts, hundreds of programs with virtual and small biotechnology companies, research programs with pharmaceutical industry companies and collaborative programs with academic investigators. Dr. Buckheit's experience with anti-infective evaluations includes the evaluation of well over 250,000 anti-infective molecules and has resulted in a wide variety of publications in the peer reviewed literature.
Dr. Buckheit participated in several National Cooperative Drug Discovery Group Programs, in Drug and Vaccine Evaluation programs, Topical Microbicide Development Programs and programs involving the development of vaccines to potential biodefense agents. In addition to HIV, Dr. Buckheit directed programs involving herpes viruses, hepatitis B and hepatitis C, respiratory and enteric viruses and agents of potential bioterrorism.
Dr. Buckheit oversees the entire Scientific team at ImQuest's Laboratory located in Frederick, Maryland. |
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| Todd Parsley, Ph.D., Director, Bacteriology and Molecular Biology Services |
 Dr. Parsley is the Director of Molecular Virology and Microbiology at ImQuest. He received his B.A. in microbiology from the University of California San Diego in 1991 and his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of California Irvine in 1998.
With over ten years of molecular microbiology research experience Dr. Parsley has specific experience in: site directed mutagenesis and manipulation of DNA coding sequences, the expression and purification of recombinant viral and mammalian proteins using an E. coli expression system, affinity purification of antibodies, immunoblot analysis, the development and implementation of biochemical assays to examine proteinase and RNA binding characteristics of purified recombinant proteins, the analysis of gene expression using northern blot hybridization and quantitative real time RT-PCR, Lamba phage-and cosmid-genomic library screening, the manipulation of eukaryotic genome to express foreign genes and delete genomic sequences through homologous recombination, the development of a stable transgenic fungal promoter/reporter strain to examine the impact of virus on G-protein coupled signal transduction, the design of novel molecular assays for the detection of gene therapy vectors in biodistribution assays, and the design of novel molecular assays for the assessment of anti-viral. |
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| Tracy Hartman, M.S., Director, Anti-Infective Services |
 Ms. Hartman graduated from Towson State University in Towson, MD with a B.A. in Biology in 1992 and from Hood College in Frederick, MD with a M.S. in Biomedical Sciences in 2000. She joined ImQuest Biosciences in February 2004 as Director, Anti-Infectives and has worked as part of the anti-infective research team lead by Dr. Robert Buckheit since 1992. Ms. Hartman has significant experience in the performance of antiviral assays involving CPE, plaque reduction, PCR and reporter gene endpoints for HIV, Herpes, Hepatitis, Respiratory and Enteric viruses. In addition to routine anti-infective screening, confirmatory and range of action assays, Ms. Hartman performs mechanistic assays for government and commercial projects. She has also developed expertise in virus replication assays to measure HIV fitness. Ms. Hartman is a member or the American Society for Microbiology and International Society for Antiviral Research. |
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| Karen Watson, Manager, Anti-Microbial and Topical Microbicides Program |
 Ms. Watson graduated from Hood College in Frederick, MD with a B.A. in Biology in 1996 and a Master's Degree in Biomedical Science in 2006. She joined ImQuest Biosciences in February 2004 and has worked as part of the anti-infective research team lead by Dr. Robert Buckheit since 1996. Ms. Watson has significant experience in the performance of antiviral assays involving CPE, plaque reduction and reporter gene endpoints. Currently, Ms. Watson is responsible for the day to day operation of government and commercial sponsored virucidal and topical microbicide programs which involve antiviral and antibacterial assays. In addition to routine anti-infective screening, confirmatory and range of action assays, Ms. Watson performs mechanistic assays including virus attachment and fusion assays for government and commercial projects. She has also developed expertise in the virus-gp120/gp41/CD4/coreceptor-cell assays and has extensive experience identifying and quantifying the activity of virucidal compounds. Ms. Watson's M.S. thesis project from Hood College in 2006 involved studies on the mechanism of antiviral resistance, fitness and compensation. |
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| Lu Yang, M.D., Molecular Biology and Anti-Infective Services |
 Since 1999, Dr. Yang has worked in the United States in various bioscience research areas. During this time, she has worked at the National Cancer Institute, Southern Research Institute and TherImmune Research Corporation/Genelogic Inc. At ImQuest Bioscience, Dr. Yang has utilized her laboratory skills in the cellular and molecular biology arenas, as well as anti-HIV drug screening techniques. Dr. Yang is highly experienced in performing tissue culture, blood cell isolation, ELISA, cell proliferation/viability/cytotoxicity assays, and highly skilled in the following research tasks: anti-HIV drug screening with PBMCs (RT assay endpoint) and with macrophage (p24 ELISA assay endpoint), and robotic workstation for high output anti-HIV drug screening. In addition, Dr. Yang has prior experiences in chemotactic assays, calcium mobilization assays, radiolabeled ligand binding assays, flow cytometry sample preparation, and anti-angiogenesis assays.
Prior to Dr. Yang's research in the biotechnology area, she served as a medical resident in Otolaryngology for 4 years in Affiliated Hospital of Hubei College of Chinese Medicine and Shenzhen Red Cross Hospital, and as surgeon in charge in Otolaryngoloty for 6 years in Shenzhen Red Cross Hospital. Although mainly educated and trained in clinical medicine (over ten years as surgeon), Dr. Yang has also utilized her experience in cardiovascular pharmacology to pursue research interests based on animal model studies. |
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| Joseph F.X. McGuirl, Incoming Chief Executive Officer |
 Joe McGuirl brings more than twenty five years of Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industry experience in senior management, corporate partnership agreements, licensing and co-marketing deals, acquisitions, divestitures, and venture investing. Joe spent more than 15 years at Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. where he was head of Licensing and Corporate Development and he led one of the most productive health care deal making efforts in the industry. During this tenure he facilitated the Roche/Cetus IL2-PCR Partnership, led in the Roche/Protein design Labs Zenapax partnership, advised in the Roche/Genentech stock acquisition, and led in the historic drug industry first tender offer of Sterling Drug Co. Prior to that Joe was the head of Roche’s Product Pricing Dept. where he participated on the market launch teams of several infectious disease, cardiovascular and CNS new products. While at Roche, Joe held various other roles in Strategic and Business Planning and financial analysis. After Roche he was Vice Chairman and General Partner at HealthCare Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on start up phase health industry companies. While at HC Ventures Joe founded and was the first CEO for several companies including Dendreon, NitroMed, and ScripTech (now part of Anadys). He also participated on the boards of more than a dozen other companies including PharmaVene which was reverse merged into a UK company to become Shire Pharmaceuticals. Lastly, he formed and founded the Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property group at the University of Massachusetts, and grew its licensing revenue base from $250,000 to $25.0 million, moving it to be one of the top universities in the country for exploitation of intellectual property. While there he was responsible for patenting and licensing the recent Nobel Prize winning technology of RNAi |
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| Daniel R. Caffoe, Chief Executive Officer |
 Mr. Caffoe is a founding member of the family of ImQuest Companies which began in 2001 and he became the interim CEO and Chairman of ImQuest Life Sciences early in 2008. He has been a very important part of the company’s reorganization that began late in 2007 and has implemented a new development plan to recruit new management that will allow ImQuest to raise the additional funds needed to move the company’s products to human clinical trials. From 1979 until 1993 Mr. Caffoe owned and operated his own golf facilities and then in 1994 he became a Life Member of the Professional Golfers Association of America. Mr. Caffoe is currently a licensed Insurance and Mortgage Broker in the State of Indiana. He has also been involved in the real estate industry as an investor and developer and has owned and operated a number of different businesses during his lifetime. |
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| Robert W. Buckheit, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer |
| Dr. Buckheit is a well-respected and internationally recognized virologist with over 20 years of experience in the research and development of therapies for human cancer and AIDS. His experiences include AIDS drug development, immunology, retrovirology, molecular biology and antiviral and anti-cancer assay development. Educated and trained at Duke University and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Buckheit has focused on the development of anti-infective therapies to prevent the transmission and spread of infectious disease, including evaluation of efficacy and toxicity, range and mechanism of anti-infective action, anti-infective resistance, anti-infective combination therapy and animal model development. Dr. Buckheit is well-versed in the use of both cell based and molecular/biochemical assays as components of drug development algorithms and has participated in the development of dozens of compounds which have progressed to IND submission and human clinical testing. Dr. Buckheit has developed and managed anti-infective and anti-cancer drug development programs in the CRO sector for the bulk of his career, including the development of drugs for the therapy of HIV, hepatitis B & C, herpes simplex virus, respiratory and enteric viruses, bacterial and fungal pathogens and bio-defense related organisms. Dr. Buckheit sits on the Editorial Boards of the journals Antiviral Research and Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs and is an ad hoc reviewer for the Journal of Virology and Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy as well as numerous other journals. Dr. Buckheit is also an active member of the International Society for Antiviral Research and is the Program Chair for the annual conference of the Society (ICAR). Dr. Buckheit has authored over 150 papers in the peer reviewed literature and regularly presents laboratory data at a variety of international scientific meetings. |
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| Dan Williams, JD, LLM, Vice President of Tax and Chief Financial Officer |
 Mr. Williams has over 20 years of legal and tax consulting experience, serving in a number of capacities in corporations of all sizes including most recently a fortune 500 company. He possesses, in addition to his undergraduate degree, a Master of Laws in International Business, a Master of Laws in Taxation with a specialty in Corporate Taxation and the Doctor of Jurisprudence. Over the past 20 years, Mr. Williams has been involved in a myriad of transactions addressing all aspects of Business and Corporate legal matters as well as taxation in Domestic and International areas. In addition, Mr. Williams has advised and handled mergers and acquisitions, SEC regulatory matters, internal and exterior audits by International, Federal and State taxing authorities on small and large case. As a member of the tax management team with a fortune 500 company, Mr. Williams was involved in various functions overseeing both federal and international tax accounting and compliance issues. He has worked with various Governmental agencies in establishing compliance and structuring specialized programs for those clients. |
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| Paul J. Henry, Esq., Vice President of Strategic Development |
 Mr. Henry received his J.D. degree from George Washington University National Law Center and is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. Mr. Henry began his legal career at Manatt, Phelps, and Philips, in Washington, D.C., where he focused on administrative agency law, practicing before various federal agencies. Mr. Henry served as General Counsel to a subcommittee of the United States Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where he assisted in the development of environmental legislation, including attempts to reauthorize The Clean Water Act, The Clean Air Act, CERCLA, and other bills. Henry also has held several politically appointed posts in the federal government and has served as a senior staff member in the House of Representatives. Mr. Henry served as Regional Director for now Senate Majority Leader, U.S. Senator Harry Reid, and was elected to two terms as Chairman of the Nevada State Democratic Party. Mr. Henry is President/CEO of Henry & Associates, LLC, since 1997 and has provided assistance and guidance to a large number of diverse companies in connection with business development and strategic positioning issues. Mr. Henry served as President of a “dotcom” start-up company, and played a key role in securing initial rounds of financing as well as developing significant strategic relationships and recruiting a staff of more than 110 professional and support personnel. He was appointed to that position by the Board of Directors after serving as the company’s General Counsel. Most recently, he founded and served as Chairman and CEO of a biotechnology company specializing in innovative vaccine delivery technologies where he structured key strategic alliances and secured significant grant monies from the federal government. Henry subsequently sold that company to a preclinical contract research company, and served as its Senior Vice President of Business Development. From that position Mr. Henry has structured and established a number of strategic relationships, developed strategies that have increased federal grant awards to the company, and contributed to the overall marketing and sales effort of the company. In addition to his law degree, Mr. Henry has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. |
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| David Miller, Vice President of Drug Development Affairs |
| David Miller is a Board Member of the AIDS Institute (www.theaidsinstitute.org) and the Co-Chair of the NYC HIV Planning Council Advisory Group. Considered to be a leading HIV/AIDS treatment activist, David has been involved in accelerating access to essential HIV medications in the U.S and globally for the past twenty years. David is also a member of the Cornell Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group Community Advisory Board and the Bronx HIV CARE Network. David has been active with the Campaign to End AIDS (www.C2EA.org ) since its inception and AIDSWatch, the Nation's largest federal legislative campaign to address disparities in HIV research and care. He was an active member of the ACT UP NY Treatment and Data Committee from 1989 until 2000. He has attended and presented at hundreds of scientific Conferences on the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS throughout the world. David has consulted with dozens of public and private biotechnology companies regarding FDA program implementation and regulations, clinical trail design and execution, legislative relations and structured capitalization David attended St. John's University and served in the National Guard with the 69th Infantry, 42nd Divison from 1985 until October 2001. |
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| Meet ImQuest Life Sciences's Staff at the Following Scientific Meetings: |
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International Conference on Antiviral Research (Palm Springs, CA, May 2007)
American Association of Pharmaceutical Science-Biotechnology (San Diego, CA June 2007)
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DART-HIV (Cancun, Mexico, December 2006) |
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Internscience Conference of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (Chicago, September 2007)
DART-HCV (Hawaii, December 2007)
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