Maria Karasarides, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer:   Dr. Karasarides holds a PhD in biochemistry/cell biology from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, where she initiated her efforts on resolving the interactions of the Ras GTPases and their effector proteins as they pertain to cellular transformation.  She then joined the Institute of Cancer Research in London as a staff scientist, where she participated in groundbreaking research which resulted in the validation of drug targets for the treatment of malignant melanoma, currently under investigation in clinical trials.  Dr. Karasarides has continued her work at the University of Massachusetts Medical School where she is primarily focusing on cancer mouse models to investigate the mechanisms of cancer initiation and progression.  Dr. Karasarides has extensive experience in the fields of biochemistry, cell biology and molecular biology and scientific expertise in oncology.  Her interests, in part, lie in combining her knowledge of biological systems and the development of cutting edge cell biology products that support the enhancement of basic research.

John Zhang, PhD, Vice President Drug Discovery: Dr. John Zhang is a synthetic organic and medicinal chemist who has ten years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.  He was chemistry and technology alliance director at Cytrx Labs, where he developed in silico fragment-based drug design platform and successfully applied in many drug discovery programs.  During his tenure at Cytrx, he was in charge of six drug discovery projects from HTS to lead optimization including drug design, CRO, synthesis, DMPK profiling and in vivo efficacy assessment etc, and gained extensive experience in all aspects of drug discovery and development.  Before Cytrx, John was principal investigator at Serono.  He was the lead chemist in MEK1 kinase inhibitor program for breast and colon cancers.  Besides MEK1, John was actively involved in FSH and LH agonist programs, two lead optimization stage programs at Serono.   John received PhD and MS in organic chemistry and medicinal chemistry (pharmaceutical sciences) at University of Wisconsin-Madison and his PhD thesis on MMP inhibitors for metastatic cancers received two granted US patents.  John also received his chemistry training in China for his BS and MS at Northwest University of Technology and Dalian University of Technology. 

Richard P. O’Brien, Vice President Marketing and Sales:   Mr. O’Brien has served in several operating companies and two start-up enterprises as Principal, VP Sales and Marketing, Director of Marketing, Director New Business Development, and Product Manager, Marketing.   Since 2005, he has served as Director, New Business Development, Optimum Technologies, Inc, a technology and product development company focused on the use of Optics to detect and treat disease. In 2004, Mr. O’Brien founded Nagog Hill Partners, a marketing consultancy addressing business development and growth issues for emerging companies in medical device, biotech and pharmaceutical companies.  He currently serves as a Board Member and as an Advisory Board Member in three operating companies addressing life sciences and high tech industry applications markets.  Dick is a founder and served the Merrimack Valley Venture Forum (MVVF) as Chairman, as a Director and as Program Committee Co-Chair for three years.  Mr. O’Brien currently is Vice Chair, WPI Venture Forum Program Committee and a member, WPI Venture Forum Board of Directors.  He is a member, MDG (Medical Development Group) and participates on the MDG Program Committee.  Mr. O’Brien has been a partner in a Advertising/Public Relations company, a corporate officer (Kellogg/Salada Tea; HP Hood; Continental Baking Corporation, Consumers Savings Bank) and has founded two entrepreneurial start-up businesses.  He holds a BS (Florida State University) and an MBA (Babson College) and is a Captain, US Navy (ret).

E-mail: info@chiscientific.com