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 $4.1 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.
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 with Transposagen.
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.