A precision medicine company

Dr. Salamone has more than 30 years’ experience in the health care and medical device industries. Prior to founding Saladax in 2004, Dr. Salamone was Vice President of Research and Development at Roche Diagnostics where he was responsible for North American research and development efforts for the Laboratory Systems Division. During his 17-year tenure at Roche, Dr. Salamone’s efforts resulted in the launch of seven major reagent product lines, comprised of more than 70 FDA-approved products and more than 200 instrument applications. At Saladax Dr. Salamone’s group has developed proprietary positions in the field of oncology and psychiatry drug management. These assays address unmet medical needs in providing precision treatment. Dr. Salamone is recognized globally in the field of drug monitoring, having authored more than 100 publications, including articles, textbook chapters, books, and is also the holder of 41 issued US patents and the corresponding international patents. He has received numerous awards and in 2016 he was inducted into the prestige’s New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame. Dr. Salamone earned two bachelor’s degrees from Villanova University, a master’s and a Ph.D degree from Rutgers University and was a Science Engineering Research Council (SERC) Post-Doctoral Fellow at Oxford University.

Dr. Baburina worked at Roche Diagnostics, where she led the Process Optimization and Transfer group for multiple assay technologies and was responsible for process validation, product support and process improvements, as well as customer complaint investigations and resolutions. She has extensive experience in research and development, working with customers and collaborative business partners in the U.S. and Europe. Dr. Baburina earned a bachelor’s degree from Moscow State University and a Ph.D degree from Rutgers University. Her post-doctoral research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital focused on phospholipid-based antineoplastic agents.

Ms. Werner has over 29 years’ experience in the diagnostic industry. Prior to joining Saladax, Ms. Werner worked at Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, where she developed and implemented regulatory strategies for the global licensing of in vitro diagnostic devices. She has extensive Pre-Market Submission and approval experience and demonstrated success at building productive relationships with the US FDA. Prior to that, Ms. Werner researched and developed nucleic acid based diagnostic tests for infectious diseases. Ms. Werner earned a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She holds ten US patents related to her work in diagnostics.

Ms. Courtney has over 25 years of experience in research and development of in vitro diagnostic products. Before joining Saladax she spent 15 years in the Roche Diagnostics Research and Development Department, working with Dr. Salamone. She was instrumental in developing many of the technologies and procedures that were used in the successfully launched drug monitoring product lines. While at Roche, Ms. Courtney developed her international experience working in Basel, Switzerland, where she was responsible for system integration of drug monitoring products on the first medium-throughput consolidated Roche instrument. Ms. Courtney received her bachelor’s degree from Beloit College where she graduated first in her class of chemistry and attended Cornell University as a graduate student.

Mr. Happ has been on the commercial side of the Diagnostic Industry for more than 27 years. His career has focused on the addiction, behavioral health, and mental health fields. In 2015 the New York State Council of Probation Administrators gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Happ has a demonstrable and successful track record of implementing new products at such companies as Roche Diagnostics, Varian/Aglient and Abbott Laboratories. Mr. Happ’s strength is as a relationship builder. He is consistently recognized by customers and decision makers as a true partner in providing customer focused solutions. Mr. Happ earned a B.S. degree in criminal justice from The College of New Jersey and a M.S. in Administration of Justice from Shippensburg University, PA.

DeWayne is a change agent who has served as interim manager or advisor on over 20 companies. In his nearly 10 years as a change agent, DeWayne has served as an advisor, board member, interim manager, investor and operator at organizations ranging in size from pre-revenue startups to $100M+ organizations. DeWayne has several successful turnarounds to his credit and is an advisor to several investors and Venture Capital Funds.

Dr. Salamone has more than 30 years’ experience in the health care and medical device industries. Prior to founding Saladax in 2004, Dr. Salamone was Vice President of Research and Development at Roche Diagnostics where he was responsible for North American research and development efforts for the Laboratory Systems Division. During his 17-year tenure at Roche, Dr. Salamone’s efforts resulted in the launch of seven major reagent product lines, comprised of more than 70 FDA-approved products and more than 200 instrument applications. At Saladax Dr. Salamone’s group has developed proprietary positions in the field of oncology and psychiatry drug management. These assays address unmet medical needs in providing precision treatment. Dr. Salamone is recognized globally in the field of drug monitoring, having authored more than 100 publications, including articles, textbook chapters, books, and is also the holder of 41 issued US patents and the corresponding international patents. He has received numerous awards and in 2016 he was inducted into the prestige’s New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame. Dr. Salamone earned two bachelor’s degrees from Villanova University, a master’s and a Ph.D degree from Rutgers University and was a Science Engineering Research Council (SERC) Post-Doctoral Fellow at Oxford University.

Rick Blume is Managing Director of Excel Venture Management, and he has been financing companies in healthcare for over three decades. Rick co-founded CB Health Ventures in 1998. In addition to Saladax, Rick has served as a director or active investor in many companies including Lantos Technologies, Cytyc (acquired by Hologic - HOLX), AbT (now OSI - OSIP), Somatogen (acquired by Baxter - BAX), EdenTec (acquired by Nellcor), Exact Sciences (EXAS), IPC The Hospitalist Company (IPCM), GeneOhm (acquired by Becton Dickinson - BDX), Zonare, TransMedics, US Servis (acquired by McKesson); and the former public health insurance company Washington National. Rick has been active in initiating and teaching courses in venture capital and entrepreneurship at both Boston College Carroll School of Management and Simmons College School of Management, and serving on the Boards of the Chicago Biomedical Consortium and the National Regenerative Medicine Foundation. Rick did his undergraduate studies at University of the Pacific and Stanford. His MBA is from Stanford University.

Dr. Zhang currently is the president of the Diagnostic Division of Shanghai Fosunpharma (group), a leading company in pharmaceutics, Medical device and IVD business in China. With 13 years industry experience, Dr. Zhang worked in different areas at Fosunpharma from research and product development, Marketing, operation and management the whole business unit. Dr. Zhang holds the PhD. Of Immunology and MD. Degree from Fudan University, Shanghai Medical School.

Mr. Xie Lichun (Aaron Xie), aged 34, Joined Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group in 2016, and is currently deputy general manager of finance department and the CFO of Medical technology division. Mr. Xie is non-practicing member of the China institute of Certified Public Accountants (CICPA) and also certified internal auditor. Prior to joining the Fosun Pharma, from 2007 to 2015, Mr. Xie work for Ernst&Young Huaming LLP shanghai branch as audit manager. Mr. Xie obtained a bachelor degree of auditing from Nanjing Audit University in June 2007 and acquired a master degree of Business Administration from Shanghai Jiaotong University in March 2019.

Dave spent over 35 years in the aluminum industry in management positions with three different companies. He has served in management and senior management positions in manufacturing, planning, marketing, sales and general management. He held various management positions with ARCO Aluminum, a division of Atlantic Richfield, including president of one of their largest divisions. He also represented Norsk Hydro of Norway in their efforts to expand into North America through acquisitions and green field projects in the aluminum industry. He has been with Columbia Aluminum and is successor company Columbia Ventures (CVC) for over 25 years. He has held various management positions including President of trading operations, President of Columbia Aluminum Extrusions and Fabrication, and President & COO of Columbia Aluminum. Since 2006 he has served as Vice Chairman of Columbia Ventures and assisted in its expansion into telecommunications. He currently or previously serves on the boards of CVC; Magnet, I.E in Ireland; Mid Park Manufacturing; One Communications; CTC Communications and non-profits The Home of the Innocents and Kentucky Chapter of the American Diabetes Association.

Michael Esposito is the President of Norbridge, Inc., a management consulting firm based in Boston. He undertakes functional and corporate planning assignments for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical equipment/supply/device and diagnostics companies around the world. Mr. Esposito received his MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College (1981) and his BS in Pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy (1978). Prior to joining Norbridge in 1998, Mr. Esposito was a Vice President at Arthur D. Little and a Marketing Manager at Pfizer, Inc.

Mr. Esposito was a member of the Board of Directors at Angioblast Systems, Inc. and at Aspect Medical Systems, Inc. prior to their acquisitions. He is a former Trustee and is now Chairman of the Annual Appeal for the Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Corporation of MCPHS University (formerly The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences).

Joanne has been in the in vitro diagnostics / medical device field since 1990. During the course of her career and prior to the founding of her consulting company, ponTemDx, LLC, Joanne has held various executive roles and has been responsible for the development and commercialization of many novel, clinically important products. As Senior Vice President of Product Development and Operations, Joanne was a member of the executive team at Roche Molecular Systems that launched the first commercial PCR based products worldwide for infectious disease diagnostics, viral load monitoring, and blood screening applications. Subsequently, at Immucor, as CSO and Worldwide Vice President of Operations, Joanne guided the organization through the development and FDA approval of the first molecular immunohematology test for the detection of extended blood antigens. Joanne’s broad understanding of diagnostics includes product development, operations, quality systems, clinical affairs, regulatory affairs, and business development. Joanne has a B.A. degree in biological sciences from Douglass College and a Ph.D. in cell biology from the University of Connecticut.

Chair, Professor of Medicine, Pharmacology & Chemical Biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Chief of the Division of Hematology-Oncology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Deputy Director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI); and Leader of the UPCI Molecular Therapeutics and Drug Discovery Program. Prior to his position at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Chu served as Deputy Director of the Yale Cancer Center and the Yale University School of Medicine.

Associate Director At The Cancer Institute Of New Jersey And Professor Of Medicine And Pharmacology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Dr. Bertino was formerly Head of the Yale Cancer Center and more recently Chairman of Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics Program at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research.

Director, Hematology Clinic and Hepatoma Tumor Study Group, Bellevue Hospital, New York University Medical Center; Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine; and clinical practitioner. Dr. Goldenberg has 20 years combined experience in clinical oncology practice with Memorial Sloan-Kettering and New York University.

Professor of Medical Oncology and Deputy Director of Lung Cancer Research Centre at Sun Yat-Sen University; Chief of the Department of Medical Oncology and Associate Director of the National Anti-Cancer Drug Clinical Research Centre at the Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Centre in Guangzhou, China. Dr. Zhang also serves on the Board of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, vice chairman of the Association of Rehabilitation and Palliative Care and vice chairman of both the Cancer Chemotherapy Association and Lung Cancer Association of the Guangdong Province, China.

Dr. Howard McLeod is the Medical Director of the DeBartolo Family Personalized Medicine Institute at the Moffitt Cancer Center. He is also a Senior Member of the Division of Population Sciences. He is a Professor at the University of South Florida College of Medicine and Pharmacy. Most recently, he was the Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor and Founding Director of the UNC Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. McLeod is chair of the NHGRI eMERGE network external scientific panel and a recent member of the FDA committee on Clinical Pharmacology. He is a member of the NIH NHGRI Advisory Council. Since 2002, Dr. McLeod has been vice chair for Pharmacogenomics for the NCI clinical trials cooperative group CALGB/ALLIANCE, overseeing the largest oncology pharmacogenomics portfolio in the world. Dr. McLeod is also a 1000 talent scholar of China and a Professor at Central South University in Changsha, China. He also directs the Pharmacogenetics for Every Nation Initiative, which aims to help developing countries use local clinical pharmacology information to improve National Drug Formulary decisions. Howard has published over 470 peer reviewed papers on pharmacogenomics, applied therapeutics, or clinical pharmacology and continues to work to integrate individualized therapy principles into clinical practice to advance personalized medicine.

Dr. Aquila is the Medical Director, Fountain Hous, Sidney R. Baer Jr. Center. For over a quarter century, Dr. Aquila has been running a service that treats person with serious mental illness, predominately, schizophrenia. He is the Medical Director of Fountain House. He has conducted numerous clinical trials. His team has been looking at other medical co-morbidities since the early nineties as a for the cause of premature death in persons with schizophrenia. Together with Fountain House is pushing forward the agenda about excess mortality in serious mental illness with the World Health Organization. He is an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Ichan school of medicine, Mt. Sinai.