Dr. Matthew Lee is the President/CEO at CytoTest Inc. He has over 20 years of experience in biotechnology and venture capital investment. He joined CytoTest in 2020 at the invitation of Chairman Vinsen Hsiao, a well-recognized business leader, to restructure the company, strengthen the new business focus on genetics, and transform CytoTest into a modern genetics company in the era of personalized medicine.
Dr. Lee graduated from Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Nutrition and then obtained his doctoral studies from Medical College of Virginia studying neural regeneration of the peripheral nervous system (PNS). He then conducted post-doctoral research on the central nervous system (CNS) regeneration and stem cell identification at the Brain Research Institute of UCLA..
Dr. Lee returned to Taiwan in 2000 to join the Center for Drug Evaluation in the biologics section for two years. He then moved into the biotech/biopharma venture capital space, joining investment companies including Cheng-Xin VC and Taian Technologies VC, where he focused primarily on new drug development and stem cell-related investments..
After six years in venture capital, Dr. Lee was invited to join the Medical Affairs Team at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he participated in late-phase new oncology drug developments and their eventual launch in Asia Pacific (Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong). He later ventured into biotech start-ups, helping to grow a couple of firms in Taiwan that went on to achieve IPOs on TASDAQ, including OBI Pharma (TPEX, 4174) and CrownBio (TPEX, 6554). He also assisted several other biotech companies in Asia in different capacities; many of them went on to list publicly or undergo successful mergers.
Chief Scientific Officer - Reinhard Ebner
Dr. Reinhard Ebner has been a research manager and senior investigator for over 30 years. He has wide scientific, technical and strategic experience, in both academic and corporate settings, with broad knowledge of modern biology and the pharmaceutical and bio-technology industry, and a recent focus in contemporary oncology and translational medicine, and a documented record of discoveries leading to novel therapies in the clinic and on the market.
He has extensive hands-on experience with, and documented record of achievements in, target and marker discovery, assay development, high-throughput screening, signal transduction and pathway delineation, lead optimization and development, and proven expertise in solving complex questions in molecular and cell biology, particularly as they relate to disease mechanism and drug discovery.
Biography:
Having served as a research manager and senior investigator in both academic and corporate settings, Dr. Reinhard Ebner has extensive scientific, technical and strategy experience, combined with a broad knowledge of modern biology and the biomedical and biotechnology industry, with a recent focus in contemporary oncology, translational medicine and molecular diagnostics.
He received his undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Regensburg and his doctorate in Microbiology and Genetics from the University of Osnabrück, Germany, where he then served on the faculty of the Genetics department.
In 1989, Dr. Ebner was awarded a research fellowship to work as a visiting scientific specialist at Genentech, Inc. in San Francisco. There, he identified and cloned the long elusive first type I TGF-ß receptor. He was first to show TGFß-induced epithelial-mesenchymal-transitions (EMTs) in cells in culture and, in the years following, made a series of substantial contributions to the fields of cytokine biology, receptor-ligand interactions and intracellular trafficking, cell differentiation, early development and tissue repair, first at Genentech and then at the University of California, San Francisco and at Stanford University Medical School.
After moving to Human Genome Sciences in 1995, Dr. Ebner became one of the most productive novel gene finders there and the inventor of all the HGS targets now in clinical trials and discovered many other important proteins around which HGS established pre-clinical and clinical development programs, including such molecules as DR4, the first and long sought after receptor for the cytotoxic ligand TRAIL, as well as LIGHT, IL-17B and its receptor, BlyS and TR6. In 2000, he joined Avalon Pharmaceuticals – hired as the first scientist following the company founders, where he was instrumental in the initiation of intramural and external research programs and contributed to corporate and scientific infrastructure development, working predominantly in the fields of chemical genomics, cancer research, data mining and HTS assay development. He also coordinated the company’s therapeutic antibody target discovery alliances and has a long-standing interest in alternative and novel drug discovery paradigms and development strategies.
Dr. Ebner is a frequently invited plenary speaker at national and international conferences and member of several scientific advisory panels and has served on state and national study sections. He has authored nearly 100 original research publications, with several thousand citations by others. He is a recipient of grant and manuscript peer review service awards and society memberships, an ad hoc reviewer and editor for scientific journals, has over 50 issued US patents and is the primary inventor on more than 800 patent applications world wide. Several of his discoveries have led to new therapeutics now in the clinic or on the market.
Dr. Ebner has been involved with the National Cancer Institute for many years, and is currently a research adviser in its cancer genomics section. He also is a consultant to various biotech companies, and serves as the CSO of CytoTest Inc., a provider of innovative molecular diagnostic solutions.
Associate Mgr. of R&D – Dr. Shehla Arastu
Dr. Shehla Arastu obtained her PhD in Genetics in 1995 and is now working as an Assistant Manager of Research and Development at Cytotest. She has been in the field of cytogenetics for the past 15 years, during which she has had the privilege of working and training both at academic institutions (Virginia Tech, NIH) and at Biotech companies (Covance Laboratories, CytoTest Inc.). This has greatly helped her gain insight into the cutting-edge research in genetics while developing an extensive repertoire of lab skills..
Before this current position, Dr. Arastu had been primarily involved in studying the genetic damage caused by mutagens in human lymphocytes. In addition, Dr. Arastu studied the HER-2/neu gene amplification in human breast cancer tissue specimens, and PTEN gene deletion in prostate disease.
R&D Scientist – Dr. Anitha Clarence
Dr Anitha Clarence obtained her doctoral degree with Cytogenetics as the main area of research from The Institute of Genetics and Hospital for Genetic Diseases. As a researcher, she standardized various biochemical and cytogenetic techniques in the study of Recurrent Miscarriages. She subsequently did her post-doctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute/NIH Bethesda. While working as a scientist, she was focused on the application and development of modern molecular cytogenetic techniques to understand the role of genomic instability and associated molecular changes during tumor progression.
Dr Clarence was involved in the development of an invitro model system of both human (colon and breast) cancer cell lines and mouse models to explore anueploidy as a molecular marker for cancer diagnosis and to identify gene expression signatures that assist in disease prognosis and rational cancer therapy. Dr. Clarence is currently a Senior Scientist working at Cytotest and will contribute her knowledge and expertise to discover and utilize certain DNA probes to detect mutations.
Scientific Advisor - Michael Koehler
Dr. Michael Koehler is a proven expert in the field of molecular cytogenetics with more than 25 years of professional experience in both academic as well as in industry settings. During his academic career he was among the first scientists introducing and utilizing Fluorescence in Situ Hybridization (FISH) with genomic DNA probes in Europe and after leaving university he also became a known expert in state of the art cytogenetic imaging techniques, software and systems.
Biography:
Dr. Koehler graduated with a Diploma degree in Molecular Genetics and Human Biology from the Human Genetics Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany where he also received his Ph.D. in 1994. After working as a scientist between 1994 and 1997 in the laboratory of Prof. Michael Schmid (Human Genetics Institute, Wuerzburg University) – another pioneering research group in molecular cytogenetics – he joined the lab of Dr. Thomas Ried at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI/NIH) in the USA as a visiting scientist. At that time he made contact to Applied Spectral Imaging (ASI), the company which invented together with Dr. Ried`s group the famous multicolor Spectral Karyotyping (SKY®) application which revolutionized cytogenetic diagnosis and research. After his return to Germany Dr. Koehler joined ASI as Technical & Scientific Manager and headed the company’s European office for many years. Initially responsible for sales in Germany and technical support of ASI customers and distributors throughout Europe the demand for his expertise quickly increased and soon his activities were extended worldwide, providing customer support, giving lectures on international conferences, and supervising workshops in countries like China, India, Russia, Canada and USA as well as in multiple South-East-Asian, Middle Eastern and South American countries.
Dr. Koehler is author and co-author of more than 40 peer reviewed scientific publications and several industrial articles and application notes and has served as a reviewer for several scientific magazines in the field of molecular cytogenetics.
Chairman of the Board – Vinsen Hsiao
The Chairman of the Board for CytoTest, Mr. Vinsen Hsiao, graduated from The School of Business at National Taiwan University in the 1980’s and then received his MBA from National Chengchi University. His career encompasses institutional financial investments, asset managements, and also avidly participated in start-ups of innovative technologies..
In addition to serving as the Chairman of CytoTest Inc., Mr. Hsiao is also in charge a Taiwan investment company, and founded and manages a sleep technology company called TENDAYS. TENDAYS focuses on the science of sleep health that provide solutions by integrating ergonomics, micro-electronic biosensors, bio-feed back, Bluetooth WIFI, big data analysis, and telemedicine to remotely monitor and adjust for optimal sleep conditions. Mr. Hsiao is not only interested in biotechnology and life science investments, his other achievements included cofounding a major semiconductor company.
Previously, Mr. Hsiao was the Chairman of the Board in one of the major public LED companies called, UPEC ELECTRONICS CORP., in Asia. UPEC was named as one of the best companies by “Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific, Fast 500” three years in a row from 2006 to 2008 and was ranked 30th largest company in Asia. In conclusion, Mr. Hsiao’s industrial entrepreneurial spirit and investment experience spans a great many areas and is a truly a multi-faceted industrialist..
CytoTest Inc. | 9430 Key West Avenue, Suite 210, Rockville, MD 20850, USA Tel：+1-202-505-0204 | +1-202-617-0180 | Fax: +1-240-238-6615 Email: sales@cytotest.com
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