Clara Biotech Announces the Formation of Scientific Advisory Board
LAWRENCE, KS - (02/10/2022) - Clara Biotech, Inc, a Kansas City based biotechnology company developing its ExoRelease™ immunocapture and release platform to isolate and purify exosomes, today announced the formation of a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) comprised of leading scientific experts in exosome research and translational research in the areas of precision medicine and pharmacology.
The SAB represents a broad range of expertise that will provide independent advice and guidance regarding Clara's ExoRelease™ platform and its potential to enhance the development of diagnostics, novel biomarkers, and therapeutics for a multitude of disease states.
"The members of the newly formed scientific advisory board with their broad knowledge-base and extraordinary expertise will be invaluable to Clara's growth and progress," said Jim West, CEO of Clara Biotech. "We look forward to the insights and experience this prestigious group will contribute as we pursue our mission of moving exosome and extracellular vesicle (EV) research from benchside to bedside."
The founding members of the Clara Biotech Scientific Advisory Board
Mei He, Ph.D., is the co-founder of Clara Biotech and serves as the company's Chief Scientific Officer. She is a professor in the Department of Pharmaceutics at the University of Florida and a leader in translational medicine involving cutting-edge microfluidic technology, 3D bioprinting, nano-biomaterials, and exosomes. Her research has led to more than 16 pending and issued patents. She has been the recipient of the prestigious NIH Maximizing Investigators' Research Award for early-stage investigators as well as the Lab on a Chip Emerging Investigators award.
Andrew Godwin, Ph.D., is the Chancellors Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Sciences endowed Professor and Division Director of Genomic Diagnostics at the University of Kansas Medical Center, and he is a leader in the field of translational research and precision medicine. His laboratories at KUMC focus on various aspects of both basic and translational research with an emphasis on early detection of cancer, predictive and prognostic biomarkers, liquid biopsies based on extracellular vesicles, molecular therapeutics, companion diagnostics, clinical trials, cellular therapeutics, cancer immune microenvironment, and biosample ascertainment. Dr. Godwin is also the co-founder of Sinochips Diagnostics, Olathe, KS, a CLIA-certified/CAP-accredited clinical reference lab.
Andrew Parkinson, Andrew Parkinson, Ph.D., was a full-time faculty member at the University of Kansas Medical Center and continues to maintain an adjunct professorship of pharmacology and toxicology at KUMC. He has over 25 years of academic experience and over 16 years of industry experience. He founded XenoTech, a contract research organization (CRO) that specialized in in vitro studies of drug metabolism and drug-drug interactions for pharmaceutical companies from around the world. He is the founder of XPD consulting, which provides specialized consulting to pharmaceutical companies.
Yong Zeng, Yong Zeng, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Engineering at the University of Florida and a member of UF Health Cancer Center. He is the principal investigator for Zeng Lab, which performs multidisciplinary research in pursuit of translational scientific discoveries and technical innovation for precision medicine areas. His NIH-funded research group is nationally recognized for developing transformative micro/nanoscale tools that advance precision medicine for challenging diseases, particularly cancer and Alzheimer's Disease, with applications focused on a spectrum of blood-based biomarkers, including extracellular vesicles and exosomes.
About Clara Biotech
Clara Biotech was founded in 2018 by Dr. Mei He, exosome expert and assistant professor at the University of Florida, and James E West III, engineer, and entrepreneur. Clara Biotech has developed novel methods to isolate and purify exosomes. Its non-chemical ExoRelease™ platform uses proprietary immunocapture and release technology to exclusively isolate exosomes. The ExoRelease™ platform provides a simple, reproducible, time-saving protocol and has the same process for multiple bio-sample types. This yields pure, completely functional, in-tact, and subtyped exosomes. Clara Biotech is in the early stages of commercializing an ExoRelease™ lab kit for Research Use Only.
