Advisors
T. Chris Boles, PhD
VP and CSO, Sage Science
Dr. Boles's expertise is in the development of molecular research instruments, consumables and reagents. Dr. Boles served in VP R&D of Matrix Technologies and CSO of Mosaic Technologies, and he is currently the CSO at Sage Science. He is an inventor of numerous patents, mostly chemistry related, in the bioscience tools area. Prior to his career in industry, he served as an Asst. Professor at Brandeis University and as a Post Doctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley. Dr. Boles also directs laboratory research and development at Sage Science Dr. Boles directs and carries out the Company's molecular biology work, developing the actual processes that will be performed by its instruments.
Dr. Boles received his PhD from Princeton University.
Anil Chandraker MB ChB FRCP FASN
Medical Director of Kidney Transplantation/ Assistant Professor of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School
Dr Chandraker serves as the Medical Director of Kidney Transplantation at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is also the Assistant Director of the Director, Schuster Family Transplantation Research Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital & Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School and has both basic and clinical research interests. He has received research funding from Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, National Kidney Foundation and the National Institutes of Health amongst others. His lab based research centers around investigating the role of T cell co-stimulatory pathways in the development of chronic rejection and transplant tolerance. He is the protocol chair on a number of NIH sponsored Clinical Trails in Organ Transplantation and his clinical research interests include understanding the development of the immune response against transplanted organs. He has organizes a number of education course of the American Society of Transplantation, American Society of Nephrology and the Renal Division at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He has authored over 100 original scientific papers, review article and book chapters and has served on the Editorial Board of several medical journals.
Dr. Chandraker received his Medical Degree from Glasgow University in 1987 and did his Fellowship training in Nephrology/Transplant Immunology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School.
Harold Kisner, Ph.D.
President, NECAPS
Harold Kisner is a consultant in laboratory medicine, and nationally recognized as an expert in instrument selection, workflow design and optimization, and laboratory automation. Dr. Kisner is a valued resource to large integrated health systems and academic medical centers throughout the U.S, consults with in-vitro diagnostic companies, serves on several scientific advisory boards, and advises private equity firms on investment in the diagnostics sector.
In 2003 Dr. Kisner founded and continues to serve as President of NorthEast Clinical & Anatomic Pathology Solutions dba NECAPS, including;
- NECAPS LLC, a laboratory consulting firm specializing in the technical and operational aspects of clinical and anatomic pathology;
- NECAPS GPO LLC, a boutique group purchasing organization servicing independent, physician office and integrated health network laboratories;
- NECAPS FMDx, LLC, a specialized consulting firm assisting clients with the design and management of flow cytometry and molecular diagnostics laboratories;
- NECAPS CRDx, LLC, a contract research and development company helping design clinical studies and linking in-vitro diagnostic vendors with laboratories providing and alpha and beta site testing.
In 2006 Dr. Kisner co-founded ConVerge Diagnostic Services, LLC, an anatomic pathology laboratory with an emphasis on the integration of traditional anatomic pathology services with molecular diagnostics and flow cytometry. After the sale of ConVerge Dx to Water St. Health Partners (WSHP) in 2009, Dr. Kisner remains a consultant to the company.
Prior to founding NECAPS, Dr. Kisner was COO and Laboratory Director of Path Lab Inc. from 1987-2003. As one of the fastest growing and most dynamic integrated health network laboratories in the country, Dr. Kisner was instrumental in helping design, implement and oversee the various management models servicing seven hospitals and six large group practice physician office laboratories, with which he had full P&L responsibility. He was also responsible for all the technical and medical aspects of the clinical and anatomic pathology laboratories associated with Path Lab.
Dr. Kisner serves as special advisor to the board of the Clinical Laboratory Management Review (CLMR), authors it’s “Talking About Technology” column, and has previously served as editor of the “Diagnostics Report”, a newsletter on the diagnostics industry. He has numerous publications on both scientific and management topics and frequently speaks at national and local conferences on strategic laboratory issues. Dr. Kisner received his Ph.D. in Clinical Chemistry from the University of Rhode Island, and his MBA from an executive program at Loyola College in Maryland.
Alexander M. Klibanov, PhD
Novartis Professor of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Klibanov is currently Professor of Chemistry and Bioengineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests include enzyme chemistry and biotechnology, protein drug delivery and formulation, stability and stabilization of pharmaceutical proteins, and biochemistry in extreme environments. Professor Klibanov has authored over 280 scientific papers and 16 issued U.S. patents and is a member of seven journal editorial boards. He has received numerous prestigious professional awards including the Leo Friend Award, the Ipatieff Prize, the Marvin J. Johnson Award, and the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society, as well as the International Enzyme Engineering Prize. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and to the National Academy of Engineering of the United States. In addition, Dr. Klibanov has started five biotechnology companies and has been a scientific advisor/consultant for numerous pharmaceutical and chemical companies.
Dr. Klibanov received his MS in Chemistry and Ph.D. in Chemical Enzymology from Moscow University in Russia.
Michael Laposata, M.D., Ph.D.
Edward and Nancy Fody Professor and Executive Vice Chair of Pathology, Professor of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Dr. Michael Laposata is Professor of Pathology and Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He is the executive vice chairman for the Department of Pathology, pathologist-in-chief at Vanderbilt University Hospital and director of clinical laboratories. He took his first faculty position at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia in 1985, where he was an Assistant Professor and director of the hospital's coagulation laboratory. In 1989, he became Director of Clinical Laboratories at the Massachusetts General Hospital and was appointed to faculty in pathology at Harvard Medical School, where he became a tenured full Professor of Pathology.
His research program, with more than 150 peer reviewed publications, has focused on fatty acids and their metabolites. His research group is currently focused on the study of fatty acid alterations in cystic fibrosis.
Dr. Laposata's clinical expertise is in the field of blood coagulation, with a special expertise in the diagnosis of hypercoagulable states.
Dr. Laposata implemented a system whereby the clinical laboratory data in coagulation and other areas of laboratory medicine are systematically interpreted with the generation of a patient specific narrative paragraph by a physician with expertise in the area. This service is essentially identical to the service provided by physicians in radiology and anatomic pathology, except that it involves clinical laboratory test results. In 2005, Dr. Laposata was recognized by the Institute of Quality in Laboratory Medicine of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for this innovation.
Dr. Laposata is the recipient of 14 major teaching prizes at Harvard, the Massachusetts General Hospital, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. His recognitions include the 1989 Lindback award, a teaching prize with competition across the entire University of Pennsylvania system; the 1998 A. Clifford Barger mentorship award from Harvard Medical School; election to the Harvard Academy of Scholars in 2002, and to the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Academy for Excellence in Teaching in 2009; and the highest award - by vote of the graduating class - for teaching in years 1 and 2 at Harvard Medical School in 1999, 2000, and 2005.
Dr. Laposata received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship and residency in Laboratory Medicine (Clinical Pathology) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
George Parsons, PhD
Former key executive of several diagnostics companies
Dr. Parsons is the Managing Director and founder of Parsons Group LLC, an in vitro diagnostics consulting company, serving clients in the U.S. and Europe. After teaching for 2 years at Boston University, he entered the business world as a development chemist for Clinical Assays, Inc in Cambridge, MA. Within 2 years he was made Technical Director and managed a team of 40 professionals developing state of the art immunoassays. Leaving Clinical Assays, he joined the founding management team of Medical & Scientific Designs in Rockland, MA where he managed a team developing assays in a novel format for one of the first computer controlled immunoassay instruments. Seeking experience in a new area, he joined Gene-Trak Systems and helped develop DNA probe assays for various food pathogens. There he became General Manager of the Food Diagnostics Division and had overall P&L responsibility for the operation. Returning to his R&D roots, he did an R&D turnaround at T-Cell Diagnostics with novel cell surface marker immunoassays as VP of R&D. He then joined PerSeptive Biosystems to explore immunoassays on HPCL, Capillary Electrophersis and Mass Spectrometry. At Chiron Diagnostics he managed groups of 40-80 scientists developing magnetic particle chemiluminescent assays on automated random access platforms. As Director of Business Development for Future Diagnostics, B.V. he was responsible for marketing contract assay development services to companies ranging from well established multinationals to startups. In January 2008, he launched his own consulting company Parsons Group LLC. Dr. Parsons is the inventor or co-inventor on 11 allowed U.S. patents, has authored many peer reviewed articles and book chapters on immunoassay. In the 35 years he has been in the industry, Dr. Parsons and his groups have introduced more than 85 assays to the market. He has also been the Chair of the Oak Ridge meeting sponsored by AACC and has been active in local AACC Section activities as Program Chair, Chair and currently Membership Chair.
Dr. Parsons received his B.A. in Chemistry (magna cum laude) from Boston University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry from Brandeis University.
Alexander Pines, PhD
Glenn T. Seaborg Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley
Alexander Pines is the Glenn T. Seaborg Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and Senior Scientist in the Materials Sciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He grew up in Rhodesia and went to Israel for his undergraduate studies in mathematics and chemistry before attending MIT to earn his Ph.D. Among his numerous awards and honors, Pines has received the Langmuir Medal of the American Chemical Society and the Faraday Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (London); he is Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Paris and the University of Rome, and past President of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance. He was awarded the Wolf Prize for chemistry (together with Richard R. Ernst) in 1991. A renowned educator, Pines has been recognized by numerous teaching honors, including The University of California's Distinguished Teaching Award.
Pines is a pioneer in the development and applications of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In particular, he is known for his contributions to the development of solid-state NMR in chemistry and materials science. His techniques are also widely used in the study of biological systems. His program is composed of two complementary components. The first is the establishment of new concepts and techniques in NMR and MRI, in order to extend their applicability and enhance their capability to investigate molecular structure and organization from materials to organisms. The study and diagnostic use of nuclear spins interacting with each other and with other degrees of freedom requires the development of novel quantum theoretical and experimental methods, and the design and fabrication of next-generation NMR and MRI equipment. The second component of his research program involves the application of such novel methods, together with programs in collaborating groups and programs at Berkeley and other academic, federal and industrial laboratories, to problems in chemistry, materials science, and biomedicine.
Dr. Pines received his Ph.D. in chemical physics at MIT in 1972.