Susan Abbatiello

Product Specialist, Triple Quadrupole Product Group, Thermo Scientific

Dr. Abbatiello received her B.A. in Chemistry from the College of the Holy Cross in 1996. She accepted a position at Genetics Institute (now Pfizer) prior to graduate school in 2001. Her graduate studies, at the University of Florida under the direction of Professors John Eyler and Nigel G. J. Richards, focused on the quantitation of a suspected protein biomarker in drug resistant leukemia cells and received an NSF Cancer Biology Training grant to support her graduate studies. She received her Ph.D. in 2006 and worked as a postdoctoral associate in the Clinical Proteomics Facility at the Hillman Cancer Center at the University of Pittsburgh with Dr. Thomas Conrads, continuing her interest in protein quantitation through mass spectrometry. In 2008 she began a role as scientist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in the Proteomics lab of Steven Carr, developing targeted quantitative assays for protein biomarkers in cancer samples using stable isotope dilution-multiple reaction monitoring-mass spectrometry while serving as co-chair of the CPTAC Verification Working Group, supported by the NCI, to demonstrate the reproducibility and transferability of these assays across labs. In 2014, Sue accepted a position with Thermo Scientific as a Product Specialist in the Triple Quadrupole product group to assist in further developing and testing the technology. Her interests include the use of FAIMS (High-field Asymmetric Ion Mobility Spectrometry) and targeted peptide quantitation for the rapid screening of biological samples in the verification and validation of protein biomarkers.

Brad Ackermann

Research Fellow & Lead, Tailored Therapeutics Biological Mass Spectrometry Group, Eli Lilly and Company

Brad is a Research Fellow at Eli Lilly and Company and currently serves as the leader of the Tailored Therapeutics Biological Mass Spectrometry Group, a group charged with performing endogenous bioanalysis of large and small molecules spanning early discovery through clinical development. Brad earned his B.A. degree in chemistry in 1980 from Hope College in Holland, MI and went on to study under Jack Watson at Michigan State University and received his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry in 1986 focusing on desorption ionization techniques for mass spectrometry. After graduation he moved to Cincinnati, OH where he worked at Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals in Drug Metabolism and later was part of the Analytical & Structural Sciences Group. In 1997 Brad moved to Indianapolis, IN to join the Drug Disposition group at Lilly. His initial assignment was to initiate ADME-based screening by MS and later was involved with both bioanalysis and biotransformation. Brad led the Lead Optimization Bioanalytical Group from 1999 to 2004. In 2004 he moved to the Lilly site in Greenfield, IN to start a group focusing on quantification of large and small molecule biomarkers. He returned to the Lilly Corporate Center in 2008 to be part of the Translational Medicine Group, where in addition to MS, he became involved with the development of clinical biomarker assays using ligand binding and IHC. Brad transitioned to his current assignment in 2012.

Brad has been an active member of ASMS and was the former chair of the Pharmaceutical Interest Group. He currently serves as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Bioanalysis. Brad has been an active supporter of CPSA, serving as the Program Chair in 2005. He received the CPSA Distinguished Analytical Scientist Award in 2007.

Mark Arnold

Director & Site Lead, Covance

Amanda Berg

Director of Operations, New Objective, Inc.

Amanda Berg has 20 years of experience in global pharmaceutical and biotech industries focused on research and product development. Upon receiving her B.S in Chemistry from the University of New Hampshire, she started her career at Genetics Institute (now Pfizer) in Cambridge where she spent over six years using MALDI and nanoflow LC-MS for protein characterization and proteomics-focused applications. She continued this work during her tenure at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, using small molecule affinity chromatography for biomarker and target discovery. For the past ten years, Amanda has been an integral member of the team at New Objective developing innovative flow technology solutions for nanoflow and microflow applications and supporting these innovations through application development and fostering customer relationships. As the Director of Operations Amanda leads a team of talented and innovative thinkers supporting production, quality, application and sales efforts within the organization. Amanda works in close conjunction with the leadership team building communities with a shared interest in innovation to solve complex problems and develop new therapies.

Chad Briscoe

Executive Director, Global Bioanalytical Science and Innovation, PRA

Chad received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Alma College in Michigan and a Master’s degree in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Michigan with a focus in the use of LC-MS/MS in Protein and Peptide analysis. Chad’s Doctorate of Philosophy at the University of Nebraska was focused on studies of Protein Binding via Affinity LC-MS/MS and computer simulations. Chad is currently the Executive Director of Global Bioanalytical Science and Innovation at PRA. He was previously the Director of Bioanalysis at the Lincoln site of MDS Pharma services. He has become well known in the bioanalytical community on such diverse issues as the use of advanced LC-MS/MS technology applied to high-throughput analysis, system suitability in high-throughput LC-MS/MS and bioanalytical software validation. He has recently been an invited speaker on these topics at the Land O' Lakes Bioanalytical Conference, the Applied Biosystems ASMS User's Meeting, and the Boston Society's APA and APS Meetings. Chad was also recently the chair of the Global Bioanalysis Consortium’s Analytical Intrument Qualification Team and the column editor for the Journal Bioanalysis column, Management and Leadership. Chad was previously with Dow Corning where he specialized in LC-MS/MS techniques and high-resolution MS and GC solutions. He is also on the planning committees and past chairperson for the Land O Lakes Bioanalytical Meeting, Clinical & Pharmaceutical Solutions Through Analysis (CPSA) Meeting and the Boston Society's Applied Pharmaceutical Software Meeting.

Don Chace

Chief Scientific Officer, Medolac Laboratories

Experienced in the development and application of mass spectrometry to metabolic screening in newborns and premature infants, clinical chemistry, forensic toxicology, and drug metabolism. Historic accomplishments include developing a GC/MS technique for selectively identifying stable isotope labeled drugs and their metabolites (known as chemical reaction interface mass spectrometry), tandem mass spectrometric analysis of amino acids, carnitine and acylcarnitines in dried blood spots obtained from newborns, premature infants and postmortem specimens from sudden unexplained death (did the lab work for an episode for HB0) . Collaborated with several investigators using the tandem mass spectrometric metabolic profile to better understand metabolism disease states such as obesity, diabetes, genetic disease such as PKU in both human and animal studies.

Current work includes expanding biomarkers screened using mass spectrometry for metabolic conditions in newborns and premature infants as well as understand the impact of nutrition on metabolism. Developing new collection systems using filter paper to study the impact of nutrition variables on the growth of premature infants by developing new biomarker tools. Refining methods of clinical interpretation and to develop the tools required by clinicians to diagnose, treat and monitor disease. Assist public health newborn screening programs with projects at the QA/QC program at the CDC.

Paul Corcoran

President & CEO, McKinley Scientific

Paul Corcoran, as President and CEO of McKinley Scientific, has over 30 years of industry experience, including product development in the high technology equipment leasing and asset management business. Mr. Corcoran is responsible for the development of the McKinley Scientific business model, recruiting personnel, and interfacing with opinion leaders in the global scientific market place. He and his partners founded McKinley Scientific in 2000, with the goal of making the acquisition and disposition of scientific instrumentation an efficient and economical process.

Patrick Fromal

National Sales Manager, Shimadzu Scientific

Patrick Fromal was born and raised in Hampton, Virginia. He received his BS in Chemistry from Virginia Tech. Soon after graduation, Patrick started his career at Shimadzu Scientific Instruments in Columbia, Maryland, as a Molecular Spectroscopy Product Specialist. During his 20+ year tenure at Shimadzu, Patrick has worked as the Molecular Spectroscopy Product Specialist, Molecular Spectroscopy Product Manager, Field Sales Engineer and Mid-Atlantic Regional Manager. He now serves as the Northeast Area Manager supporting the sales, service and field application group for Shimadzu’s full line of analytical and measurement instrumentation including Mass Spec, Chromatography, Molecular & Elemental Spectroscopy, Biotech, Clinical, TA, Testing Equipment and Informatics .

In addition to his time at Shimadzu, Patrick served eight years in the Army National Guard for Virginia and Maryland. Patrick and his wife, Kimberley reside in Arnold, MD with their son, Luke, who is an aspiring tennis and guitar player.

Lucinda R. Hittle

Director, PPDM New Jersey Discovery Bioanalytics Group, Merck

Lucinda R. Hittle received her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry in 1994 from the University of Pittsburgh under the direction of Professor David M. Hercules. She then worked with Professor Franz Hillenkamp at the University of Muenster, Germany as an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow. She began work in 1996 with Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research in the Pharmaceutical Delivery Systems, Analytical Research division in Morris Plains, NJ. From 1999-2007, Lucinda worked in the Pharmacokinetics, Dynamics and Metabolism department within Parke-Davis, Ann Arbor, MI which became Pfizer Global Research and Development. Lucinda joined Merck in 2007 and currently is Director of the PPDM New Jersey Discovery Bioanalytics Group, which provides quantitative in vivo and in vitro analytical support for projects in Kenilworth and Rahway. She has served as an adjunct faculty member for Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ. Her research interests include mass spectrometry, bioanalysis, and sample preparation approaches to increase the quality and speed of high throughput analysis in a drug discovery environment.

Jonathan Josephs

Director of Marketing, Pharma and BioPharma, ThermoFisher Scientific

Jonathan L. Josephs obtained his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom in 1988. After completion of postdoctoral work at UC San Diego and UC Berkeley and working as a Medicinal Chemist he joined Thermo in San Jose, CA, prior to joining Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1996. At BMS he was a Principal Scientist in Discovery Biotransformation. The focus of his role was establishing the broad usage of High Resolution Accurate Mass Spectrometry (HRMS) in the ADME area. Key ancillary aspects of this were: 1) The extensive use of qualitative/quantitative methods, 2) Automated data collection and processing, 3) Integration with electronic systems. In 2014 he joined Thermo Fisher Scientific as Director of Marketing for Pharma and Biopharma. In addition to expertise in mass spectrometry he has twenty five years of experience in structural elucidation and metabolic softspots.

Stephan Kang

Executive Managing Partner-Founder, Intero Analytics/Intero Life Sciences

Over 24 years of experience in senior technical leadership roles for world-class technology companies such as Sun, Intel, Dell, and IBM. He is the founder and CEO of Intero Life Sciences which is dedicated to developing the most advanced integrative multi omics-based data integration and artificial intelligence platforms for biomarker identification serving biomedical, pharma and other life sciences applications.

Josh Mann

Manager II, Strat Sales at Meso Scale Discovery

Josh Mann has over 20 years in the biotech industry working for global biotech organizations within Research & Development, Business Development and Marketing functional areas, as well as the Commercialization of new technologies. Within Josh’s current role, he is guiding the commercialization strategy of a new automated ecosystem and integrated software suite to be used for biomarker discovery and validation.

Josh Mann is a graduate of the Masters of Business Administration, Business Integration program at the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg in Germany. His thesis was focused on the utilization of knowledge management and knowledge communication to drive innovation within the Life Sciences. He has been involved in various knowledge management projects within several organizations, and works as a consultant to support these projects.

Josh has consulted various leading companies and institutions in the development of customized molecular biology workflow solutions within the applied testing, biomedical research, government, pharmaceutical, and clinical market segments. Josh also consults on branding and growth strategies for multiple organizations. He is passionate about utilizing the life sciences to make improvements in life, and to better understand and improve human health through the contribution to precision medicine and companion diagnostics initiatives.

Eric Milgram

Director of Quality Systems Informatics, Food Safety, Regulatory Affairs, and Quality Team (FSRAQ), PepsiCo

Eric Milgram earned both his BS and PhD degrees in Chemistry from the University of Florida. Dr. Milgram joined PepsiCo R&D’s Biology and Clinical Sciences team in 2010 to build the organization’s first metabolomics team in PepsiCo’s New Haven facility. As the metabolomics program’s chief architect, Dr. Milgram was instrumental in building a laboratory and staffing it with highly talented personnel, resulting in a novel chemical analysis capability that has been applied to solving challenging problems for PepsiCo. In April 2014, Dr. Milgram became PepsiCo’s Director of Quality Systems Informatics in the Food Safety, Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, and Quality Team (FSRAQ). Prior to joining PepsiCo, Dr. Milgram worked in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. He served as Director of Systems Biology technologies at Wyeth Research and Pfizer. As a Research Fellow at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), he worked to develop robust methods for the determination of trace levels of environmental contaminates such as phthalates and pesticide residues.

Shane Needham

Laboratory Director & Co-founder, Alturas Analytics, Inc.

Dr. Shane Needham received his B.S. degree in chemistry from Washington State University and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Needham is Co-Founder and Laboratory Director of Alturas Analytics, Inc. Dr. Needham manages all scientific aspects of the HPLC/MS/MS bioanalytical contract laboratory at Alturas Analytics, Inc. Currently, Dr. Needham’s work is focused on the development and validation of assays for the determination of therapeutic agents and biomarkers from biological matrices. His laboratory has been a leader in the area of dried blood spot (DBS) analysis and microflow HPLC-MS/MS to support DMPK research. Dr. Needham was program chair of CPSA-USA 2013

Timothy Olah

Group Director, Bristol-Myers Squibb

Timothy V. Olah graduated from Princeton University in 1979 with a B.A. degree in Chemistry and three varsity letters in basketball. After studying organic synthetic chemistry as a post-graduate at Washington University in St. Louis and as a research technician at St. Louis Children's Hospital, he returned to graduate school. He enrolled and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA in 1989 with a Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry. His dissertation focused on the structure-function relationship in protein assembly to conduct in vivo protein synthesis in the E.coli ribosome under Professor Barry Cooperman. After Penn, he joined the Department of Drug Metabolism at Merck Research Laboratories where he developed radioimmunoassays and helped to establish their first bioanalytical group using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometric (LC-MS) detection with the late Dr. John D. Gilbert. In July 2000, he joined the DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company and, following its acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb, was named the Director of Bioanalytical Research. Currently as Group Director, Dr. Olah is responsible for advancing quantitative bioanalysis to support all discovery programs at BMS facilities in the US and India.

Dr. Olah's research is focused on expanding quantitative multiple component methods in biological fluids using LC-MS-based methods in the analysis of all types of drug molecules, as well as endogenous proteins and biomarkers, to support drug discovery and development at BMS. Dr. Olah has over 80 publications and has presented at numerous international universities and conferences.

Joanna Pols

Director and Global Regulatory Liaison, Global Regulatory Affairs, Merck & Co.

Joanna Pols obtained her BA degree in Biology in 1996 at Thomas More College. She obtained her Ph.D. in Natural Products Chemistry in 2002 at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science. During her doctoral studies, she mastered the science of isolating chemical compounds with antimicrobial activity from taxonomically unique plan extracts from the National Cancer Institute Natural Products Repository, and characterization of novel chemical compounds by various spectroscopic techniques like NMR and MS. In 2003, she joined Schering-Plough Research Institute, Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) Department, as a principal investigator for studies involving isolation and characterization of drug-metabolites in biological matrices from studies in animals and humans. After nearly 10 years working in the drug metabolism field as a study director and a DMPK project manager on early and late development teams, in 2012 she joined Global Regulatory Affairs organization at Merck & Co. to further broaden her drug development experience. She is currently a Director and Global Regulatory Liaison responsible for development of global regulatory strategy and direct interactions with the Food and Drug Administration on assigned products within the Infectious Diseases/Vaccines Therapy Area. Joanna was the 2012 CPSA Program Chair. She enjoys mentoring and can share her lessons learned on making successful career changes (from natural products to drug metabolism to regulatory affairs).

Suma Ramagiri

Senior Manager, Global Markets, Pharma/Biopharma/CRO Quant & Metabolism, SCIEX

Suma Ramagiri received B.Sc. in Biochemistry, M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry in India. She did her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry and post-doctoral research at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences, Memphis, TN, USA. Suma obtained Business Management from Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada. Suma brings more than 12 years of experience in the analytical instrumentation field while working at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Hyderabad, India, and GTx. Inc. and ED Labs in Memphis, TN, USA. She worked in many drug discovery and development projects for anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer drugs. DMPK studies and GLP bioanalysis. In her current role as a Global Technical Marketing Manager, Pharmaceutical & CRO business at AB SCIEX, Suma leads innovative analytical and bioanalytical workflows in both traditional small molecule and also various biologic compound classes such as peptides, proteins, oligonucleotides, monoclonal antibodies and antibody drug conjugates, a growing segment within the Pharma and Biopharma. She drives worldwide efforts in application development and analytical product development to enhance bioanalytical quantitation, drug metabolism, biomarker quantitation, metabolomics and impurity analysis. Suma has over 15 publications in scientific journals, presented at conferences, tradeshows worldwide.

Robyn Rourick

Scientific Manager, Bioanalytical Sciences, Genentech

Robyn A. Rourick received her B.S. in Chemistry from Fairfield University and her MS in Forensic Chemistry under the direction of Dr. Henry Lee at the University of New Haven. Robyn is a member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening. She is also a Board Member of the CACO-Pharmaceutical & BioScience Society as well as the chair of the San Diego Chapter. She is currently a Scientific Manager in Bioanalytical Sciences at Genentech, Inc. where she plays a key role in the evaluation of new analytical technologies, bioanalytical outsourcing strategies, biomarker collaborations and operations. For 4 years prior, Robyn was a Sr. Manager in Nonclinical Study Operations where she oversaw GLP and non-GLP outsourced non-clinical studies in support of pre and post IND programs. Prior to Genentech she held the position of Director, Pharmaceutical Sciences, at Kalypsys, Inc, Associate Director of DuPont Pharmaceuticals Research Labs, Group Leader, Analytical Technologies at CombiChem, Inc, and a number of positions of increasing responsibility over the course of 10 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb

Petia Shipkova

Principal Scientist, Bioanalytical and Discovery Analytical Sciences, Bristol-Myer Squibb

Petia Shipkova obtained her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Florida under the guidance of Prof. Alan Katritzky and Prof. John Eyler in 1997. After postdoctoral work at Cornell University with Prof. Fred McLafferty she joined Schering-Plough in Kenilworth, NJ in 1998 and then moved to Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2001. Petia is currently a Principal Scientist in the Bioanalytical and Discovery Analytical Sciences Department and leads a group of scientists focusing on LCMS applications for SAR, biomarker analysis and metabolomics in support of Discovery and Early Development efforts. Petia was a program chair for CPSA USA in 2010

Gary Valaskovic

President, New Objective, Inc.

Dr. Valaskovic co-founded New Objective in 1997, together with Emily Ehrenfeld, based on his post-doctoral research in the laboratory of Fred W. McLafferty at Cornell University (1995-1997). Prior to receiving his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry (1994) with Professor George H. Morrison, from the Department of Chemistry, Cornell, Dr. Valaskovic earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago (1988). Dr. Valaskovic is a co-founder of Mozaic Solutions, LLC, a start-up company developing technology to further enable the power of mass spectrometry to lower the cost of healthcare.

Dr. Valaskovic leads a focused team of scientists and engineers in the development of novel hardware and consumable tools to extend the analytical reach of LC-MS. His post-doctoral research expanded the fundamental understanding of nanospray, ESI, capillary electrophoresis, and reverse phase capillary chromatography. His current development interest is to make highly sensitive and quantitative analysis by nanospray both easy and robust. His research includes the adaptation of microfluidic technology to decouple sample preparation and liquid chromatography from mass spectrometry; digitizing the analog output of LC-MS. He holds more than a dozen international patents and more than twenty peer-reviewed publicaitons.

Dr. Valaskovic has been a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) since 1993, the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS). For the past five years, he has served as an organizing committee member for the Clinical and Pharmaceutical Solutions through Analysis (CPSA) meetings held annually in Brazil, China, and the U.S.A.

Roy Vaz

Senior Director with Sanofi Pharmaceuticals

Roy J. Vaz received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida, Gainesville in Organic Chemistry with Prof. G. B. Butler after an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He then obtained an MBA from the University of Illinois, UC and most recently an MS in Molecular Biology from Lehigh University. He is currently a Senior Director with Sanofi Pharmaceuticals in Waltham, MA. He was previously Sr Director of the Bridgewater, NJ-based Structure, Design and Informatics Department and prior to that he was Director of the Investigative Product Optimization department under Aventis. He has worked with Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hopewell as Principal Scientist as well as Tripos, Inc, St. Louis as a Research Scientist. He has authored or co-authored about 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals, 8 book chapters and several patents. He also co-edited the books Antitargets: Prediction and Prevention of Drug Side Effects and Antitargets and Drug Safety both published by Wiley-VCH.

Naidong Weng

Scientific Director, Janssen Fellow, and Head of East Coast Bioanalytical Chemistry and Pharmacokinetics, Janssen Research & Development

Dr. Weng is Scientific Director, Janssen Fellow, and Head of East Coast Bioanalytical Chemistry and Pharmacokinetics, Janssen Research & Development, Johnson and Johnson, Spring House, PA, USA. In addition to support various programs at Janssen, current research interests of his group include novel bioanalytical quantitation for biomarkers, protein/peptides, and novel drug conjugates and unique formulations.

Dr. Weng has 99 peer-reviewed journal publications, 10 book chapters, over 100 posters and over 25 podium presentations. He has RG score of 37.11 on ResearchGate and his publications have reached 2500 citations. He also co-edited one book on bioanalysis (Eliminating bottlenecks for efficient bioanalysis: practices and applications in drug discovery and development, 2014) and one Special Focus Issue of Bioanalysis on Bioanalytical Laboratory Structure and Management (2014). He has been teaching short courses on DMPK at ASMS since 2011. He serves on the editorial advisory boards for two international scientific journals as well as on various scientific/organizational committees, most recently as the chairman for CPSA Shanghai 2013 and co-chairmen for CPSA USA 2015. He also serves as a reviewer for the (bio)analytical journals and has reviewed over 100 submitted manuscripts. Dr. Weng also actively participates in a career development team within Preclinical Development and Safety (PDS) at JNJ as well as makes presentations at external career development workshops at ASMS and Pittcon.

Dr. Weng had a doctoral degree from Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, in Pharmaceutical Analytical Chemistry

Tony Yeung

Associate Professor, Fox Chase Cancer Center (FCCC)

Anthony Yeung, Ph.D. in Biochemistry from VPI&SU, received postdoctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University. He used mass spectrometry quantitative proteomics to discover about 60 biomarkers for the early detection and staging of pancreatic cancer, then formed OncoSpec LLC hoping to bring the assay to the clinic to benefit the patients. While studying DNA repair, mutation detection, and colon cancer, he directed the FCCC core facilities including DNA synthesis, real-time PCR, fermentation, peptide synthesis, mass spectrometry and proteomics. He is active in the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF) and served as its President in 2012.