PROCYON TECHNOLOGIES - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Chief Administrative Officer
Dr. Julia Greenstein is a consultant leading Life Science Advisors, consulting for the biotech and academic community as well as in the area of medical and scientific philanthropy. Previously she was Vice President for Research Strategy at Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), serving in a variety of roles over 12 years beginning in the Beta cell portfolio and in a variety of roles in the Cure and Prevention portfolios. Previously she was CEO of Immerge BioTherapeutics, Inc., a Novartis Pharma/BioTransplant JV focusing on xenotransplantation and supporting the development of a porcine islet transplantation program. She has held the roles CSO at BioTransplant and VP of Discovery Research at ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corp. Her time at small biotechnology companies focused on building novel programs and interacting with academic and pharmaceutical company collaborators, as well as, being involved in the financing efforts of these organizations. Both independent companies held their initial public offering with her involvement. She received her PhD in Microbiology from University of Rochester Medical School. She did postdoctoral training at the University of Rochester Medical School and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute of Harvard Medical School and was an Assistant Professor at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. In addition, she serves on the Board of Directors of Russell Sage College and is on the University of Rochester Regional Cabinet.
Dr. Robert C. Johnson is a pioneer in the development of immunoisolation cellular therapies and has been involved in diabetes research since his postdoctoral days in the Center for Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition at Northwestern University Medical School in the late 1970s. After his postdoctoral work, he joined Baxter Healthcare Corporation where he became research director of Baxter's Cell and Gene Therapy Unit. That work led to the invention of a synthetic membrane based implantable device, TheraCyte, that has been shown to protect allogenic tissue from rejection by the immune system. Dr. Johnson's team used the TheraCyte device for cellular applications in diabetes, hemophilia A and B, parathyroid deficiency and cancer. In 1998, Dr. Johnson was recruited by the CEO of VitaGen, Inc. and venture capitalists to lead a team of scientists and engineers developing a cellular therapy for individuals suffering from acute liver failure. Dr. Johnson took the company from R&D through an IND filing and into clinical trials. In 2003, Dr. Johnson was recruited as president of Spectral Genomics, Inc., a spinout from Baylor College of Medicine. The company's focus was the development of microarrays for detection of chromosomal abnormalities. He was responsible for developing R&D, manufacturing, QA, regulatory, sales and marketing capabilities. After the successful sale of Spectral Genomics to PerkinElmer in 2007, Dr. Johnson joined Baylor College of Medicine as General Manager of its Clinical Genetics Laboratory. He went into semi-retirement in 2012 and joined the Institute for Cellular Transplantation at the University of Arizona as a part-time faculty member in January of 2017. Dr. Johnson holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Temple University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Princeton University.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Professor of Surgery
Klearchos Papas, Ph.D., Professor of Surgery and the director of the Institute for Cellular Transplantation in the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson and President-Elect of the Cell Transplant and Regenerative Medicine Society (CTRMS). He has devoted his research career to the application of engineering principles and the development of enabling technologies in the fields of cell therapy and tissue engineering with a focus on the treatment of diabetes. He has studied and utilized the properties of insulin-secreting tissue and their relationship to viability and function in the context cell therapies for diabetes with the objective of improving cost-effectiveness, availability, and clinical outcomes of this approach.