Medical Device Matchmaking Event
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Rhode Island Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
One Davol Square, Second Floor
Providence, RI 02903
Presenters' biographies
Go to main Matchmaking Event page
Joseph Crisco
Henry Frederick Lippitt Professor of Orthopaedic Research and Director,
Bioengineering Laboratory, Department of Orthopaedics, Alpert Medical School,
Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital
Trey's research interests are in musculoskeletal biomechanics, where he has developed imaging modalities for the study of in vivo joint mechanics, studied spine biomechanics and injury prevention in sports. His current primary work is focused on the normal and pathological mechanics underlying the function of the human wrist. This work has expanded to applied and related areas, including comparative biomechanics, wrist implant design and toy technologies for upper extremity pediatric rehabilitation. His work has been primarily funded by NIH and has resulted in over 114 peer-reviewed publications. He serves on several NIH study sections, the editorial boards, and the scientific advisory committees of the International Federation of Women's Lacrosse, US Lacrosse and USA Baseball. Trey is a former President of the American Society of Biomechanics. He has taught Basic Biomechanics and Product Design and Development, a joint effort between the Industrial Department at RISD and Engineering at Brown University.
Roger Darois
Vice President, Research and Advanced Technologies, Davol, Inc., a division of CR Bard, Inc.
Roger has been a senior research and development executive for 15 years at Davol, responsible for the development of advanced medical devices used in general surgery, including: minimally invasive irrigation systems and surgical instruments; collagen-based absorbable hemostats and mesh fixation instruments; as well as synthetic and biologic tissue-based hernia mesh prosthetics. Davol is the worldwide market leader in hernia repair, and approximately 1M hernia surgical procedures are performed in the US annually. Previous to leading R&D efforts, Roger's other Davol management responsibilities included advanced manufacturing engineering, process engineering, documentation and tool design.
David Durfee
CEO & Chief Scientist, Bay Computer Associates
David has worked as a systems design engineer for several companies. From 1983 to 1992, he simultaneously attended graduate school and worked as a commercial design engineer. He co-founded and is currently President and Chief Scientist for Bay Computer Associates, a contract design firm in Cranston. He is also an adjunct professor at Brown University. His commercial design interests include medical devices, embedded systems, analog electronics and systems design.
Katherine Gordon
Managing Director, Technology Ventures Office, Brown University
Katie joined Brown University as Managing Director of the Technology Ventures Office in the fall of 2009. She was previously at Harvard University where, for the last five years, she was Director of Business Development in the Office of Technology Development. She oversaw development and commercialization of new technologies from a number of areas at Harvard Medical School and Dental School and had responsibility for establishing and negotiating licensing relationships, comprehensive research alliances and start-up companies. Earlier in her career, Katie consulted at early stage biomedical companies on strategic planning, operations/management and fundraising. She founded and ran Apollo BioPharmaceutics, a biotechnology company that developed neuroprotective compounds for Alzheimer's Disease and ophthalmic indications. She began her career at Genzyme Corporation.
Jason Harry, PhD
Founder & CEO, Lucidux Corporation
Jason Harry is Founder and CEO of Lucidux Corporation, an early-stage medical device company developing advanced imaging technologies for cancer detection. Previously, he was Founder and CEO of Afferent Corporation, which focused on neurostimulation technologies to treat chronic dysfunction stemming from stroke, aging and diabetes. Prior to founding Afferent, Jason was VP of Research Engineering at NMT Medical, Inc of Boston, a company in the field of minimally invasive cardiovascular implants. He received his doctorate from Harvard University and was on the Engineering faculty of Brown University for five years, where his research areas were functional neural stimulation and muscle mechanics.
Helen Huang
Assistant Professor, Electrical, Computer & Biological Engineering, University of Rhode Island
Helen received her MS and PhD degrees from the Harrington Department of Bioengineering, Arizona State University. She worked as a post-doctoral research associate in the Neural Engineering Center for Artificial Limbs at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago from 2006 to 2008. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Rhode Island. Helen's primary research interests include neural-machine interface, modeling and analysis of neuromuscular control of movement in normal and neurologically disordered humans; virtual reality in neuromotor rehabilitation; spinal cord stimulation; and design and control of therapeutic robots, orthoses, and prostheses. Her research projects have been funded by NSF, NIH, Rhode Island STAC, DOD and other funding sources. She has been awarded the Globe Foundation Fellowship, Mary E. Switzer Research Fellowship from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, and Delsys Prize for Innovation in Electromyography from Delsys Inc. She has two pending US patents and is involved in collaborative activities with industrial companies. She is a member of the IEEE Medicine and Biology Society and the Society for Neuroscience.
Stephen Lane
CEO & Co-Founder, Ximedica
As CEO, Steve leads the strategic vision of the company, as he has since its inception over 20 years ago. Since that time, Steve has remained devoted to anticipating the needs of the company's clients and ensuring that they are met with unsurpassed excellence. Steve is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, where he earned his degree in Industrial Design and where he is now a member of the Board of Trustees.
John Mills
President, Kineteks
John has been involved with the creation of medical tools, implantable devices and their unique manufacturing processes since the mid 1980s. As part of the core group responsible for developing membrane-based bio-hybrid implants at Brown University’s Artificial Organs & Bio-Materials Laboratory, he helped create a number of novel device designs and fabrication techniques. He holds a number of patents in the areas of implantable device design, stereotactic implantation instruments and polymer-based encapsulation processes. Before starting Kineteks, he co-founded the engineering group at Cytotherapeutics Inc., a Rhode Island company that brought an encapsulated cell-based implantable device for long-term pain management through phase two clinical trials. His company, Kineteks LLC, is responsible for the purpose-built aseptic manufacturing equipment, implantable device development and packaging design used in a number of ongoing clinical trials.
Jeffrey Morgan
Associate Professor of Medical Science, Bio Med Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology & Biotechnology, Brown University
Jeff received his BS degree in Biology from Syracuse University and his PhD in Biological Chemistry from Harvard University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Whitehead Institute. Subsequently he went on to co-found a biotechnology company and then returned to academia as an Associate Professor in Surgery at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as a Senior Research Scientist at the Shriners Burns Hospital. Presently, Jeff is an Associate Professor of Medical Science and Engineering with tenure at Brown University, where he is Co-Director of the Center for Biomedical Engineering. He has received numerous national as well as international awards and patents for his research in gene therapy and tissue engineering. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, reviews and book chapters, has edited two books and is an inventor of nine patents.
Robert Rabiner
President & CEO, IlluminOss Medical
Bob is President and CEO of IlluminOss Medical, a company engaged in the minimally invasive repair of bone fractures through the novel utilization of photodynamic polymers. Prior to this he was President of Selva Medical, a photo acoustic catheter-based technology treating ischemic stroke, which was sold to WL Gore, and Founder, President and CEO of OmniSonics Medical Technologies, utilizing acoustic energy towards the removal of intravascular occlusions. He has held executive level positions at American Cyanamid, United States Healthcare and Surgeon’s Choice, Australia. Bob has led successful product and division launches, acquired and integrated new technologies, and directed external partnerships within these companies. He is an ongoing member and participant of the World Economic Forum, a member of their Technology Pioneers since 2003, and has been recognized by Fast Company magazine’s “ Fast 50 Champions of Innovation” for the innovation and impact of his medical technologies. He is the named inventor on 19 issued patents and has over 65 patents pending.
