Research and Industry Day (RAID)
2018 Conference.
October 26, 2018
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Miguel A. Lopez-Toledano, PhD
Senior Scientist and Scientific Affairs Manager, Sancillo Pharmaceuticals
Research Professior, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
Charles E. Schmidt College
Florida Atlantic University
​
Dr. Lopez-Toledano obtained his PhD from the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). He has more than 25 years of experience in basic research in the field of neurogenesis applied to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. He has worked in several prestigious research institutions, including the Ramon y Cajal hospital (Madrid, Spain), Columbia University (New York, NY,), The Scripps Research Institute (Florida) and Florida Atlantic University.
Since 2014, Dr. Lopez-Toledano has been working as Senior Scientist and Scientific Affairs Manager in Sancilio Pharmaceuticals, Inc and Micelle BioPharma, where he was the responsible of Scientific Affairs, managed several preclinical trials and played a key role in protocol development, implementation, execution, on-site monitoring and data analysis and interpretation of a successful Phase 2 clinical trial in Sickle Cell Disease.
Dr. Dr. Lopez-Toledano is also an Affiliate Research Professor in the Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (CMBB) in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at Florida Atlantic University.
Lindsey Hughes
​
Scientfic Applications Specialist
FUJIFILM VisualSonics, Inc.
M.S. Experimental and Molecular Biology from University of Southern California, 2007
B.S. Biology from Virginia Tech, 2004
Scientific Applications Specialist with Visualsonics since 2013. Prior to this position I worked in the Molecular Imaging Center at University of Southern California that provided preclinical imaging solutions for researchers such as PET, CT, optical, and ultrasound. I also have a background in research focusing on proteomics, molecular biology and therapeutics of prostate, lung, and breast cancer.
Jim Cardelli, PhD
Founder - Segue Family of Companies
CTO Oleolive
​
Dr. Jim Cardelli received a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1973 from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Molecular Oncology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin in 1977. Following Post-Doctoral training in Oncology and Infectious Disease, Dr. Cardelli joined the faculty in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at LSUHSC-S. He was promoted to an Associate Professor in 1989 and a Full Professor in 1993. His laboratory, consisting of an annual average of 8 personnel over 25 years, focused on mechanisms of survival of intracellular pathogenic bacteria from 1985-2005 and tumor invasion mechanisms from 2005-2015. Jim trained over 25 graduate and post-doctoral students while on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin and LSUHSC-S, and was an author on over 130 peer reviewed papers. He was Director of Basic and Translational Research for the Feist Weiller Cancer Center from 1997 to 2012 and he was Co-Director (from 2005–2011) and then Director (2011-2014) of a drug discovery and development program named Innovative North Louisiana Experimental Therapeutics. Dr. Cardelli retired at the end of 2015 and has since launched five biotechnology companies: 1) Segue Therapeutics (a drug discovery platform holding company), 2) SegueTx-Pancreatic Cancer (a company developing repurposed drugs to treat fibrosis), 3) Segue Science Management (a private technology transfer and commercialization company), 4) Segue Science Labs (a private molecular biology and natural product production laboratory) and 5) Oleolive (a company developing and producing health promoting products from extra virgin olive oil).
J. Quincy Brown, PhD
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Tulane University
Director of the Translational Biophotonics Laboratory, Tulane University
Co-Founder and Chief Research Officer of Instapath Inc
​
J. Quincy Brown is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Tulane University. He received the Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University in 2005 for his work on implantable smart tattoo optical glucose sensors under the direction of Michael J. McShane. He then pursued postdoctoral study in tissue optical spectroscopy and imaging for breast cancer applications at Duke University under the direction of Nimmi Ramanujam. He joined Tulane University in 2012, where he is the director of the Translational Biophotonics Laboratory, with a mission to improve cancer patient outcomes via the development and clinical translation of practical biophotonics technologies. He is also co-Founder and Chief Research Officer of Instapath Inc, a Tulane spinoff seeking to introduce new technologies to transform the cancer diagnostic workflow. His work is funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
.jpg)
Amol Takalkar, MD, MS(BME), MBA (Exec), FACNM
Medical Director, Center for Molecular Imaging & Therapy (CMIT), BRF
Clinical Professor of Readiology, Assoc. Director of Research
Dept. of Radiology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center - Shreveport
​
Amol Takalkar, MD, MS, MBA, FACNM is currently the Medical Director at P.E.T. Imaging Center, Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana. He is also Professor of Clinical Radiology and Associate Director of Research in the Department of Radiology at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, LA and a Consultant Physician at the Nuclear Medicine Department, Overton-Brooks VA Medical Center in Shreveport, LA. Amol received his medical degree from the B J Medical College, Pune. He then completed a Masters in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. He did his Nuclear Medicine Residency at the Hospital of University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. Since 2005, he has been in practice in Shreveport, LA. He also has an MBA (Executive Track) from Louisiana State University – Shreveport.
​
Amol is very involved in professional societies related to molecular imaging like the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), American College of Nuclear Medicine (ACNM), Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and American College of Radiology (ACR). He has served in several leadership positions at SNMMI & ACNM like Chairperson of the Young Professionals Committee (YPC), President of Correlative Imaging Council (CIC), President of Southwest Chapter of SNMMI, Board of Directors of ACNM and President of Indo-American Society of Nuclear Medicine (IASNM). He has planned, developed and conducted multiple scientific and CE sessions at various SNMMI & ACNM meetings over more than the past decade, has presented his work as well as given invited talks at these professional meetings as well as for industry. He is also frequently invited internationally to give talks and presentations.
​
His research Interests include PET and Molecular Imaging using FDG and other PET probes in oncology, neurology, cardiology, inflammation, infection and other patho-physiologic processes as well as novel targeted radionuclide therapies.
Frank Skidmore, MD
​
UA Birmingham
​
Katharine Smith, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology
University of Colorado
​
​Dr. Kate Smith is an Assistant Professor in the University of Colorado Denver Department of Pharmacology. Kate received her PhD in molecular neuroscience from University College London, UK, in 2010. She was then awarded a Marie Curie Outgoing Post-doctoral Fellowship to conduct post-doctoral research at Northwestern University, Chicago and University of Bristol, UK, to study dendritic spines using super-resolution imaging. After moving back and forth across the Atlantic, she decided to begin her independent career in the US, studying neuronal synapses and trying to understand how these synapses change during plasticity and dysfunction during disease. To do this she uses a variety of advanced imaging techniques and specializes in super-resolution imaging. For the past 18 months Kate has been having fun running her own lab at UC Denver, is getting lots of data and filling her lab space with people. To read more about her journey and lab see http://blogs.nature.com/naturejobs/2016/12/21/tracking-down-the-holy-grail-of-academia-2/ and http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/medicalschool/departments/Pharmacology/faculty/SmithLab/Pages/default.aspx
​