Our Team
Executive Team
Eric Ostertag, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Ostertag completed his undergraduate training at the University of Wisconsin where he received a B.S. in Genetics with Honors. He went on to do both M.D. and Ph.D. (Molecular Biology) degrees at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). He later completed a residency program in Clinical Pathology and a Fellowship in Transfusion Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He is the founder and CEO of Transposagen. While at Transposagen, Dr. Ostertag secured greater than $4.0 million in early stage funding from regional networks and the NIH. He is one of the co-inventors of Transposagen’s technology and has published nearly twenty peer-reviewed articles and reviews in the field of mobile elements. He has received numerous scientific and clinical awards including best genetic research by a pre-doctoral student by the American Society of Human Genetics, best abstract award from the American Society for Apheresis and a fellowship from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Ostertag previously co-founded PhenoTech where he served as Executive Vice President.
Joseph C. Ruiz, Ph.D., Vice President, Research
Dr. Ruiz is a stem cell biologist with over 19 years experience in embryonic, hepatic and adipose stem cell systems. He received his Ph.D. in Biology at the University of California at San Diego and pursued his post-doctoral training at Columbia and Harvard Universities in the fields of embryonic stem cell and developmental biology. At the Indiana University School of Medicine (1999-2006), Dr. Ruiz established a novel stem cell core facility (Animal Stem Cell Core) dedicated to the derivation, genetic manipulation, and in vitro and in vivo developmental analysis of embryonic stem cell lines from transgenic and knockout mouse embryos. In this capacity, Dr. Ruiz has acquired extensive experience in optimizing conditions for embryonic stem cell derivation and expansion as well as developing high-throughput differentiation assays. In addition from 2006 to 2009, Dr. Ruiz was Director of Research and Development at Vesta Therapeutics (Research Triangle Park), where he was responsible for developing protocols for manufacturing stem cell-derived hepatic cells for drug discovery and therapeutic applications.
Richard Stump, Vice President, Operations
Mr.
Stump received his undergraduate degree from the University of Kentucky with
a double major in finance & management. He went on to earn his Master
of Business Administration from the Gatton School at the University of Kentucky. He
brings experience as an entrepreneur, and as an advisor and consultant working
with start-up companies. He began his career working in finance with several
Fortune 500 companies. His entrepreneurial experience includes building
a waste hauling and recycling business from the start-up stage until it was acquired
in 2006. He has worked as a management consultant leading projects to
improve effectiveness, service levels, efficiency and profitability. This
work included advising life-science and technology start-ups on strategy, technology
commercialization, business plan development and venture finance. He is the founder of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Kentucky and is on the board of the Bluegrass State Skills Corporation.
George Ward, Vice President, Business Development
Mr.
Ward received his B.S. degree from Cornell University with a major in Hotel Administration.
He has a solid business background and has held leadership positions in both
the public sector, as Kentucky’s Commerce Cabinet Secretary, and in the
private sector as the President and co-founder of a regional hotel management
and development company. He is experienced in Strategic Planning, Human Resources
Management, Business Finance, Facility Development, Advertising & Marketing,
Public Relations, and Customer Service. Mr. Ward has lead multi unit organizations
with over 2500 employees and a budget of $280 million as well as small companies
with fewer than 20 employees and $1 million budgets.
Scientific Advisors/Collaborators
Haig H. Kazazian, M.D. (University of Pennsylvania)
Dr. Haig Kazazian is a world-renowned human geneticist who received his undergraduate study at Dartmouth College and medical degree from Johns Hopkins University (JHU). He trained in Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota and JHU. After genetics research training at Johns Hopkins and the NIH, he joined the faculty in Pediatrics at JHU in 1969. He rose through the academic ranks to Professor in 1977, and became Director of the Center for Medical Genetics in 1988. In 1994, he left JHU for the Chair of Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) School of Medicine. In 2006, he stepped down as Chair and is presently the Seymour Gray Professor of Genetics at Penn. He is a member of a number of professional organizations, including the Association of American Physicians, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has published some 350 scientific papers. In the course of his work on hemophilia, Dr. Kazazian discovered that transposable elements are active in human beings and cause disease through insertional mutagenesis. His laboratory’s work on retrotransposition in mammals was the basis of the initial technology licensed by Transposagen, and his laboratory continues to collaborate with Transposagen on a project with the goal of using L1 retrotransposons for mutagenesis in rats.
Jef Boeke, Ph.D (Johns Hopkins University)
Dr. Boeke has studied retrotransposons for 25 years and, together with David Garfinkel, was the first to show the existence of retrotransposition through an RNA intermediate. He coined the term "retrotransposon". More recently, the Boeke lab has pioneered the use of synthetic mammalian retrotransposons in vitro and in vivo. The retrotransposon ORFeus (a synthetic version of the mouse LINE-1 sequence) shows relatively high frequency retrotransposition in both somatic and germ line tissues of the mouse. Several approaches for controlling ORFeus retrotransposition in animals are being explored. ORFeus is being tested in the Boeke lab for activity in the rat through a research collaboration withTransposagen.
Aron Geurts, Ph.D. (Medical College of Wisconsin)
Continuing research efforts in Dr. Geurts' laboratory are being driven by his interests in three programmatic areas related to genetic manipulation of stem cells and whole animals for the annotation of gene function, tissue engineering, and cellular therapeutics related to human disease. His lab also focuses on developing zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technology for targeted integration of gene modifications by targeted knockout and homologous recombination (knock in) in rat embryos and stem cells. Site-specific modification of the rat genome using ZFNs to introduce specific gene alleles to correct or modulate gene function will ultimately enhance the development of novel disease models in several research areas.
John Critser, Ph.D. (Rat Research and Resource Center)
Dr. Critser received his Bachelors degree from Ripon College and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, he established the Reproductive Biology Laboratory at Methodist Hospital of Indiana where he was director until 1997. In 1997, he moved to the Indiana University School of Medicine as an associate professor in Pediatrics and in 2000 was promoted to full professor. In 2001, Dr. Critser moved his research program to the University of Missouri where he is the Gilbreath-McLorn Professor of Comparative Medicine and Director of the Comparative Medicine Center. At the University of Missouri he has developed 3 NIH funded national resource centers which involve the study of gamete and embryo cryobiology. Dr. Critser is a member of many professional societies, and editorial review boards and is the past chair of the NIH Comparative Medicine Study Section. He has published over 180 peer reviewed articles and reviews, and has mentored over 40 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.