Stanley Rose, PhD – President & CEO

Dr. Rose is a PhD biologist, seasoned biotechnology executive and serial entrepreneur. He has spent over two decades working with leading scientists and clinicians to create substantial commercial value from inventions based on genome technology.

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Highlights from Dr. Rose’s career include serving as CEO of NimbleGen Systems, a microarray products company, from 2003 through its acquisition by Roche in 2007; co-founding and growing Genetic MicroSystems, a microarray instrumentation company that was acquired by Affymetrix in 2000; and directing the PCR business for Perkin-Elmer and Applied Biosystems during its most dynamic growth phase in the 1990s. Since 2008, Dr. Rose has served as President of Rose Ventures, a firm that provides consulting and directing to select clients in the life science research products space, and manages a portfolio of public and private equity investments. Dr. Rose was a Director of Cellular Dynamics International, acquired by FujiFilm in 2015, and Chair of the Market Advisory Board for Cyvek, acquired by Bio-Techne in 2014. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Transplant Genomics, Nabsys, and Invenra, and as a member of SerumDPT LLC. Dr. Rose received his B.A. from Cornell University and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a 2011 kidney transplant recipient, Dr. Rose has a strong personal interest in the development of technologies to prolong graft life and improve transplant outcomes.

Daniel Salomon, MD – Founding Scientific Advisor

In Memoriam, November 14, 2016

Dear Friends,

On November 10, 2016, Dr. Daniel Salomon passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family, following a long and courageous battle with cancer. He left behind innumerable friends and colleagues who will miss him sorely.

Dan was a brilliant physician-scientist who dedicated his professional life to the advancement of critical technologies and informatics towards improving the lives and outcomes of transplant recipients. His pioneering work in biomarker discovery and functional genomics at The Scripps Research Institute forms the basis for TGI’s core mission.

Dan was a co-Founder, Director, and  the Chief Scientific Advisor of TGI, a diagnostics company commercializing non-invasive tests enabling monitoring of the immune status of transplant recipients. TGI is committed to celebrate Dan’s life and accomplishments by continuing his legacy, through our ongoing efforts to develop and provide molecular diagnostic tests that will improve transplant patient care and outcomes.

Dan was a dear friend, an amazing collaborator, and a strong business partner. We mourn Dan’s passing, but we are forever inspired by his vision.

 

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Stan Rose and Dr. Michael Abecassis

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Doctor Salomon was a Professor at The Scripps Research Institute, Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine and Program Medical Director, Scripps Center for Organ Transplantation. He was the past-President of the American Society of Transplantation.

Dr. Salomon published more than 124 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 43 chapters and numerous reviews and edited 3 books. He served on numerous national and international committees, including Executive Board member, Program Committee Chair, Cell Transplantation Committee Chair and Xenotransplantation Committee Chair for American Society of Transplantation; Chair, National Institutes of Health Islet Cell Resources Steering Committee; Chair, NIH Genomics of Transplantation Cooperative Research Program Steering Committee; Founding Member, US Secretary of Health’s Xenotransplantation Advisory Committee; and Chair, FDA Biological Response Modifiers Advisory Committee.  He also served on multiple NIH Study Sections and Special Emphasis Panels and was a member of AITC.

Dr. Salomon’s laboratory work was focused on various aspects of organ and cell transplantation and immunology with a primary focus on functional genomics, proteomics and genetics. His research objectives included discovering biomarkers for the diagnosis of acute and chronic rejection that will enable personalized management of immunosuppression; discovering prognostic markers for transplant outcomes using genetics, transcriptional profiling and proteomics; and understanding the multi-dimensionality of transcriptional regulation. These studies included microRNA regulation, alternative splicing and RNA binding proteins and the dynamic impact of epigenetic changes, both methylation and histone marking, on lymphocyte activation and differentiation into memory. He received his BS from Northwestern University and MD from Stritch-Loyola School of Medicine in Chicago. Dr. Salomon trained at Cedars-Sinai/UCLA for internal medicine and did his postdoctoral work in transplantation and immunology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Salomon was a Founder, Director and Chief Scientific Advisor of Transplant Genomics Inc.

 Michael Abecassis, MD, MBA – Chief Clinical & Scientific Advisor

Dr. Abecassis is the Founding Director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. He is also the J. Roscoe Miller Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Microbiology/Immunology, Chief of the Division of Transplantation and Director of the Transplant Service Line at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.  Dr. Abecassis has received continuous funding from the NIH for over 16 years for work ranging from studies in molecular virology to clinical and translational studies in transplantation.

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A significant portion of this funding relates to studies in transplant genomics from a long-standing collaboration with Dr. Daniel Salomon. Throughout his career, Dr. Abecassis has served on numerous policy-making national committees, which include regulatory and financial issues related to transplantation and more recently to healthcare delivery and payment reform. He has published more than 200 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals and more than 20 book chapters. He has served on the Editorial Boards of several influential trade journals and is a Past President of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons. Dr. Abecassis received his undergraduate and medical degrees, followed by training in General Surgery, a Master’s degree in virology and a fellowship in Hepatobiliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation, at the University of Toronto. He also completed a fellowship in Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation and further research training in Immunology at the University of Iowa. He received an MBA degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern in 2000. Dr. Abecassis is a Founder and Director of Transplant Genomics Inc.

Dr. Roy First – Chief Medical Officer

M. Roy First, M.D. was Vice President and Global Therapeutic Area Leader, Transplantation at Astellas Pharma Global Development, Inc. After graduating from medical school at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, he moved to Chicago in 1972 to take the position of Renal Research Fellow at the Michael Reese Hospital.

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In 1974, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology at the University of Cincinnati, later becoming full Professor and Director of the Section of Transplantation, a position that he held until 2002, when he moved to Fujisawa (later Astellas). During his distinguished academic career, Dr. First has published more than 390 articles on transplantation, as well as 39 book chapters and two books. He is a past President of the American Society of Transplant Physicians (ASTP, subsequently AST) and has served on many United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) committees, including chairing the Organ Donation Committee, on the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as a reviewer for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), on the NIH Data Safety and Monitoring Board for Clinical Trials in Transplantation, and as a Councilor of the Transplantation Society. Dr. First has been on the editorial board of a number of journals including Transplantation, Transplantation Proceedings, Clinical Transplantation, the American Journal of Transplantation, and the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. In 2013 he received the AST Lifetime Achievement Award.