Tulin Morcol, PhD
President and Chief Scientific Officer
Dr.
Morcol founded CaPtivate Pharmaceuticals (2011) at the research facilities of
Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center incubator (PABC) as a spinoff from BioSante
Pharmaceuticals Inc. Prior, she led the vaccine and drug formulation R&D
activities at BioSante from 1998 until 2011 as the Director of Preclinical
Development. She was one of the lead scientists who developed BioSante’s proprietary
CaP nanoparticle (CaP) technology which was issued multiple US and fifteen
foreign patents. She separately developed another novel process for large-scale
GMP manufacturing of inorganic particles in the low nanometer to micrometer size
ranges. Before moving to industry, she worked as a Research Faculty at
Morehouse School of Medicine (Atlanta, GA) Department of Neurosciences for 4
years. Before coming to US, she worked as a Research Scientist at the Turkish
Atomic Energy Agency for 5 years and received a research fellowship from the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to work at Hoffman La Roche
(Basel,Switzerland).
Tülin holds
a PhD in Biochemical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University (VA-Tech), MS and BS degrees in Chemical Engineering from Ankara
University and Middle East Technical University (Turkey).
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Nurgul Carkacı-Salli, PhD
Scientific Director, Molecular and Cellular Biology
Dr.
Carkaci-Salli has recently joined CaPtivate Pharmaceuticals as the Scientific
Director of Molecular and Cellular Biology. She has also been a Research
Professor at the Pennsylvania State University (PSU), Hershey Medical Center,
Department of Pharmacology, Hershey PA, since 2004. Dr. Carkaci-Salli has over 20 years of experience
in designing, managing, and conducting firsthand research projects in the field
of molecular and cellular biology, performing high-throughput cellular assays,
functional genomics, and biochemical analyses. She has extensive experience
working with both stem cells (embryonic and tendon cells) and cancer cell
lines, and mechanisms of chemoresistance in cancer cells. Her diverse experiences
and skills in molecular, cellular, and biochemical techniques allows CaPtivate to
expand its R&D and activities into new areas in drug delivery and bring new
partnership and business opportunities.
Nurgül holds a
Ph.D. and a MSSC in Phytopathology/Mycology from Ankara University, Turkey. She
has done her postdoctoral studies at Oregon State University, Department of
Botany and Plant Pathology.
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Timothy M.
Block, PhD
President and Co-Founder of the Hepatitis B Foundation, •
Executive Chair of the Hepatitis B Foundation Board of Directors • Adjunct
Professor at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine and the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Dr. Block is also the founder and
former president of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center incubator (PABC) and Baruch
S. Blumberg Institute, which is the research arm of the Hepatitis B Foundation.
He was named as “Visionary in Hepatitis” by the World Hepatitis Alliance in
2017. His work with Blumberg Institute and the PABC created the most successful
life sciences incubators in the US. Dr
Block is scientific co-founder of several life sciences companies, co-inventor
on over 20 issued patents or patent applications, and authored/co-authored more
than 290 scholarly papers. He was chosen to join the US National Academy of
Inventors (2017). He,
and his wife Joan, received the Distinguished Public Service Award (2020) from
the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).
Tim received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from
SUNY - Buffalo: Roswell Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo, NY. He later studied
at the University of Oxford as a Sabbatical Fellow working with Dr. Baruch S.
Blumberg (Nobel Laureate). During his studies at Oxford, he discovered a plant
sugar that has now received the trade name “glycovir”.
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Banu Onaral,
PhD
H. H. Sun Professor Biomedical Engineering and Electrical
Engineering, Senior Advisor to the President, Global Partnerships, School of
Biomedical Engineering, Science & Health Systems, Drexel University,
Philadelphia, PA; Founding director of
the school from 1997 until 2014.
Dr Onaral’s research and academic focus
is centered on information engineering, with special emphasis on complex
systems, biomedical signal processing in ultrasound and optics, and functional
optical brain imaging. Dr. Onaral's translational research efforts for rapid
commercialization of biomedical technologies developed at Drexel and its
partner institutions and created the Translational Research in Biomedical
Technologies program. Dr. Onaral has founded several laboratories throughout
her career; the most recent is the CONQUER (Cognitive Neuroengineering and
Quantitative Experimental Research). CollabOrative, (established in 2008) is an
interdisciplinary, multi-institutional, and international resource dedicated to
the study of brain activation, development, and deployment of functional
optical brain imaging technologies.
Banu holds a PhD in Biomedical
Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, a BSEE and a MSEE degrees in
Electrical Engineering from Boğaziçi University, İstanbul, Turkey.
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Sangeeta
Underwood, Ph.D.
Senior Regulatory Affairs Manager/Consultant at LMI, Bioengineer IV
(Senior Scientist and Project Management) at CBRN Medical (DoD), Fort Detrick,
MD. Contractor, Venesco LLC.
Dr.
Underwood has over 10 years of experience managing a diverse portfolio of
projects and initiatives across multiple US Army Department of Defense (DoD)
organizations, including Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN)
Medical Countermeasures, Medical Research Materiel Command (MRMC), and Defense
Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). She has proven expertise in reviewing,
managing, and evaluating both early (research and development) and advanced
development of vaccines and drugs, including FDA submissions of pre-IND and IND
packages for drug/vaccine products and medical/diagnostic devices. At her
current position at LMI, she oversees transfer of technology and products and leads
communications with stakeholders and contractors.
Sangeeta
received her Ph.D. in Biology & Microbiology/infectious diseases from the Institute
of Microbial Technology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),
India.
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Anthony Hickey, PhD, DSc
Emeritus Professor, University of North Carolina, School of
Medicine and Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina
(UNC) at Chapel Hill • Distinguished Fellow and Program Director in inhaled
therapeutics in the Center for Engineered Systems at RTI International,
Research Triangle Park, NC • Adjunct
Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the UNC School of Medicine at Chapell
Hill.
Anthony Hickey has been the founder and the current Chief
Executive Officer of Astartein LLC since 2013. He also serves as the Chief Scientific Officer
for TFF Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Hickey was also the founder of three other
pharmaceutical companies; Cirrus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (1997) which was acquired
by Kemwell in 2013, Oriel Therapeutics Inc. (2001), which was acquired by
Sandoz in 2010. Dr. Hickey received the David W Grant Award in Physical
Pharmacy of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (2015);
Thomas T Mercer Joint Prize for Excellence in Inhaled Medicines and
Pharmaceutical Aerosols of the American Association for Aerosol Research and
the International Society for Aerosols in Medicine (2017), and the Ralph
Shangraw Memorial Award for Excipient and Excipient Technology of the
International Pharmaceutical Excipient Consortium Foundation (2018). He has
edited/authored nine texts on pharmaceutical inhalation aerosols and coauthored
seven others on pharmaceutical process engineering, particulate science, and
tuberculosis therapy.
Dr. Hickey holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical
Sciences from Aston University in Birmingham, UK.
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