Industrial Advisory Board
The Bioengineering Industrial Advisory Board unites a diverse group of bright and enterprising leaders from across the sector to create a strong resource pool for students, faculty, and administrators, as the department continues to grow and thrive. Building new corporate relationships and offering leadership and support, the Board meets twice annually—in the fall and spring. They ally with faculty to better define the Board’s goals, and to pinpoint the needs of the department to devise new, innovative solutions and methods.
Currently, the Department IAB members are:
| Name and Affiliation | Biography |
|---|---|
 Karim Azer Head of Quantitative Systems Pharmacology and DMPK Modeling, Bill and Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute |
Karim Azer joined Axcella, a local biotech company focused on designing and developing amino acid combinations as therapeutics. He is leading their systems biology platform.
Azer has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 20 years, employing a wide variety of modeling, both mechanistic and empirical, and computer science approaches to address drug discovery and development questions in R&D. BS in Mathematics as well as Computer Science from Rutgers University |
 Sheila Boyce Director of Engineering, Histogenics Corporation |
Sheila Boyce is the Director of Engineering at Histogenics Corporation, a regenerative medicine company developing and commercializing products for treating musculoskeletal related conditions. She previously spent more than 12 years at Genzyme Corporation as lead engineer on various development and technology transfer projects, and is the recipient of two Genzyme Corporation Vice President’s Awards, recognizing outstanding dedication and contribution to the success of a program.
BS in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University |
 Charles Bridges VP, Therapeutic Area Expert – Cardiovascular, Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies |
Charles R. Bridges is a distinguished and board certified surgeon-scientist, and the Vice President for Therapeutic Area Expert – Cardiovascular for Johnson and Johnson Medical Devices. He previously worked for the Carolinas Healthcare System, where he was Chairman of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and Vice President of Cardiovascular Translational Research. He has also been Professor of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania and Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital. Currently, he is a member of the Steering Committee of the Gene Therapy Resource Program (GTRP) of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, and a Chairman of the Cardiovascular Committee of the American Society for Cell and Gene Therapy.
BA in Applied Physics from Harvard College |
 Sam Burd Consultant |
Sam’s “For More and Better Developments” consults on engineering development, entrepreneurial ventures, and community improvement projects. Sam started his career engineering medical devises and managing engineering groups. Following that, his employment focused on biotech apparatus and systems. Then to form his own company, Medical and Biotech Development, Inc. was incorporated for engineering and business consulting. For his engineering, he received 19 US patents.
For business development, Sam lectured for 9 years at UC Berkeley Engineering Department’s Entrepreneurial Design Class. He co-founded The Spark Group assisting entrepreneurial starting ups and was the CEO of Si. Valley Instruments. Included in his consulting career, he helped established corporations form internal “intrapreneurial” groups and negotiated with universities and coordinated with legal firms on patent applications and patent related policies. Volunteer work included: managing an innovation group within Engineers Without Borders; forming a neighborhood NGO working on healthcare, recruiting volunteer educators, and environmental upgrades; registering voters, and organizing political actions; preparing buildings and their residents for emergencies. BS in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University |
 Jeff Cerier President, Sage Product Development, Inc |
Jeff Cerier formed Sage Product Development, Inc. with two partners in order to provide fast, efficient and creative product development services to medical device companies. He previously led the product development effort to develop an innovative skin grafting system for Momelan, and was one of six industry professionals who co-founded TDC Medical (now Vention Medical), a medical device product development and manufacturing service provider. He has served as Vice President of Product Development at NDO Surgical and has also been Group Manager within the engineering department at ACT Medical, and Director of Patents and Technology for UroMed Corporation.
BS in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University |
 Robert Farra Chief Executive Officer, CeQur |
Robert (Bob) Farra is a hands-on entrepreneur/executive with expertise in technology and product development of medical devices including wirelessly enabled wearables, implants, and combination drug-delivery devices. His experience spans all aspects of transforming technologies into successful, commercial products, including business development, fund-raising, research, product development, intellectual property management, regulatory, quality, and operations.
Bob is currently the chief engineer and head of device development for Intergalactic Therapeutics focusing on non-viral, in vivo gene delivery. Prior to Intergalactic, he was with CeQur Corp, a company focused on reducing the burden of diabetes by eliminating insulin injections. As CEO, he led the development of the company’s proprietary three-day wearable patch for on-demand mealtime insulin, as well as the acquisition of the company’s commercial three-day wearable patch. Prior to CeQur he was with Microchips, an MIT startup developing implantable drug delivery devices and sensors; there he held roles including president and COO, CTO, and vice president of R&D. Bob was vice president of engineering and manufacturing for Abiomed, leading all new product development and commercial manufacturing. He held senior leadership positions at Accellent (Integer) and Arthur D. Little, a global consulting firm. Bob is also active with several mentoring programs at both MIT and Northeastern. He has over 20 patents and received his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. |
 Richard Gedney II Founder, CEO, Technical Director, ADMET, Inc. |
Richard T. Gedney II is the founder, CEO and Technical Director of ADMET, which has built an enviable reputation in retrofit/upgrade packages for a large range of electromechanical and servohydraulic materials testing machines, regardless of age or machine type. It now sells to over a dozen sectors including automotive, aerospace, biomedical, construction, plastics, metals, test labs, and university sectors as well as major government agencies. Customers include Lawrence Livermore National Lab, GE, DuPont, Boeing, US Steel, John Deere, Bechtel, Medtronic, and Harvard Medical School.
BS in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University |
 Jonathan P. Gertler CEO and Managing Partner, Back Bay Life Science Advisors |
Dr. Jonathan P. Gertler has been advising life science companies since the 1990s, providing counsel on franchise and therapeutic-area strategies and corporate and business development activities, as well as advising clients on planning and the execution of value-creating transactions. He has served as Senior Partner and Managing Director of Leerink Swann Strategic Advisors, has led several investment banking groups, and has founded three start-up companies. Jonathan was also a practicing academic vascular surgeon and has published extensively in clinical vascular surgery and endothelial and smooth muscle cell biology. He is a frequent speaker and writer on strategic issues facing life science companies at all stages and currently serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board at Boston University School of Medicine. He trained at Columbia University, Yale New Haven Hospital, and the Massachusetts General Hospital; he has also served as Chief of Vascular Surgery at SUNY-HSCB in New York, as well as Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and the MGH.
BA from Wesleyan University |
 Vahé Ghahraman Senior Director, Head of Global Regulatory Operations, Apellis Pharmaceuticals |
Vahé is the head of Global Regulatory Operations at Apellis Pharmaceuticals, where he has established this function with all the relevant infrastructure within the Regulatory Affairs Department. His activities focus on preparation and life cycle management of major and routine investigational and marketing medicinal applications, implementation of regulatory submissions, publishing, information management systems, and process improvement.
He has over 20 years of industry experience, having various leading roles at Alexion, Takeda, Dyax, and Millennium, among others, where he was involved in the preparation and approval of several new medicinal products. Prior to transitioning to industry, Vahé served as the Laboratory Director and Lecturer at the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Northeastern University. BS, MS, and PhD in Civil & Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University |
 Harry Glorikian General Partner, Scientia Ventures |
Glorikian currently serves as a General Partner at Scientia Ventures , a VC firm focused on upleveling companies that have the potential to transform healthcare. In particular, the firm targets businesses at the cutting edge of life sciences with an emphasis on computational biology and chemistry, the digitization of medicine and digital therapies. Additionally, Glorikian serves on the boards of StageZero Life Sciences (TSX: SZLS), a publicly traded healthcare technology business dedicated to the early detection of cancer and multiple disease states through whole blood, and Drumroll Health, which develops AI technologies to foster closer partnerships between patients, healthcare professionals and healthcare companies.
Before joining Scientia Ventures, Glorikian was an entrepreneur. He grew and sold his own healthcare consulting company, Scientia Advisors, which served some of the global technology and healthcare companies in the world, many of which were on the Global 500 and Fortune 500. Glorikian also served as an Entrepreneur-In-Residence to GE Ventures – New Business Creation Group, leading to the founding of Evidation Health and DrawBridge Health. He is the author of The Future You: How Artificial Intelligence Can Help You Get Healthier, Stress Less, and Live Longer, MoneyBall Medicine: Thriving in the New Data-Driven Healthcare Market and the diagnostics textbook Commercializing Novel IVDs: A Comprehensive Manual for Success, and is the host of The Harry Glorikian Show podcast series |
 Jeffrey Gold retired |
From March 2014 to January 2016, Mr. Gold was President and CEO of Myoscience, Inc., a privately-held medical device company focusing on Focused Cold TherapyTM for the treatment of peripheral nerve conditions. From January 2012 to March 2014, Mr. Gold was CEO at Velomedix, Inc., a medical device company focused on therapeutic hypothermia for patients experiencing heart attack, stroke or cardiac arrest. Prior to January 2012, Mr. Gold was a Venture Partner for Longitude Capital, a healthcare venture capital fund from January 2007 through December 2011. Mr. Gold was President and CEO of CryoVascular Systems, a peripheral vascular disease device company, from 2001 through its sale to Boston Scientific in 2005. From 1997 to 2000, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Cardio Thoracic Systems, Inc., a company engaged in the development and introduction of devices for beating-heart coronary bypass surgery. Prior to that, Mr. Gold spent 18 years with Cordis Corporation in a variety of senior management roles including Vice President of Manufacturing and Vice President of Research and Development, and was a co-founder and President of Cordis Endovascular Systems, a subsidiary engaged in the interventional neuroradiology and peripheral vascular businesses. He served on the board of directors of Corindus Inc. (NYSE: CVRS) through its acquisition by Siemens and AngioDynamics, Inc (NASDAQ: ANGO) until his retirement in 2019. He currently serves on the Board of several privately held start-up medical device companies and is a member of the Executive Committee for the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Florida and a member of the Commercialization Advisory Board for the Cleveland Clinic. Mr. Gold holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts and an MBA from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, and is a graduate of GE’s Manufacturing Management Program. |
 Sridar Natesan Vice President of External Innovation and Partnering, Sanofi-Aventis SA |
Prior to taking his current role at Sanofi in 2009, Dr. Sridar Natesan served as their Scientific Site Head and as a Senior Distinguished Scientist. He also co-led the stem cell initiative, all while leading multiple scientific teams focused on drug discovery and holding several other senior management positions. He has established major partnerships with major academic and medical institutions, biotechnology companies, as well as various disease foundations, and has served on several committees and boards including the Industry Committee of International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), Mass BioEd and U Mass Center for Clinical & Translational Science.
PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Calgary |
 David O’Dowd Associate Director of Biomedical Solutions, Draper Laboratories |
David O’Dowd is an Associate Director in the Biomedical Solutions group at Draper Laboratory. Previously he was Director of Life Sciences at Forge Partners, Managing Director of DGO Consulting, and Vice President of Business Development and Strategy at PrivaSource, Inc. He has also served as Director of Development and Director of Marketing at Genomics Collaborative, a genomics start-up that built a repository of 100,000 DNA and tissue samples with detailed medical information from people around the world with common diseases.
BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rochester |
 Birgit Schoeberl Global Head of Modeling and Simulation, PK Sciences, Novartis |
Birgit Schoeberl served as interim Senior Vice President, Scientific Value, at GNS Healthcare prior to joining Novartis. During her time there, she focused on applying causal machine learning to drug development. She has also been a member of the founding team at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, where she spent over 12 years in different roles. Since then, she has gained broad experience in oncology drug discovery and development, and her leadership team is responsible for multiple preclinical and early clinical programs.
Dipl. Ing. from the Technical University in Karlsruhe, Germany |