Leadership Team
Dr. Nancy Stagliano, Chief Executive Officer
Nancy Stagliano, Ph.D. joined iPierian as Chief Executive Officer in September 2011 with an accomplished career as a biotech leader spanning all aspects of the industry, from discovery research and strategy to global medical affairs and corporate communications. Prior to joining iPierian, Dr. Stagliano was CEO of CytomX Therapeutics, a company where she was co-founder and a lead inventor on the patents for CytomX’s Probody platform. In earlier roles with CytomX, she served as the COO of CytomX LLC, which launched CytomX Therapeutics as well as Cynvenio Biosystems. Before moving to California, Nancy joined the Cambridge, Massachusetts, biotechnology industry in the late 1990s, where she had an eight-year tenure at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and consulted to several local startups. Dr. Stagliano received her BS in Electrical Engineering and her MS in Biomedical Engineering, both from Drexel University in Philadelphia. She obtained her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Miami, followed by three years as an independently-funded research fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where she studied mechanisms of brain injury after stroke.
Dr. Adam Rosenthal, Senior Director of Strategic and Corporate Development
Adam Rosenthal, Ph.D., has served as iPierian’s Senior Director of Strategic and Corporate Development since August 2010, working across Finance, Business Development, R&D, and Operations. Prior to joining iPierian, Dr. Rosenthal was a Project Leader at the Boston Consulting Group, working with Fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies in the areas of R&D, operations, and corporate strategy. Prior to joining BCG, he worked at MIT’s Technology Licensing Office, commercializing MIT technology through startup formation and collaborations with industry. Dr. Rosenthal received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Harvard and MIT, studying stem cells using lab-on-a-chip technology. He was the recipient of several graduate fellowships, including the National Science Foundation and MIT Presidential fellowships. Dr. Rosenthal holds a Master of Engineering degree from MIT in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, and dual B.S. degrees from MIT in Electrical Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Science.
Dr. Irene Griswold-Prenner, Senior Director of Cell Biology
Irene Griswold-Prenner, Ph.D., is Senior Director of Cell Biology and has been at iPierian since October 2009. She has over 13 years of experience in the biotech industry. Previously she was Senior Scientist at Elan Pharmaceuticals focusing on target identification, validation, and drug discovery efforts in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Multiple Sclerosis. To date, she has contributed to target and drug discovery efforts in neurodegenerative disease, cancer, and vision. These efforts have resulted in several peer-reviewed publications and patents. Dr. Griswold-Prenner obtained a bachelor’s degree in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Cellular Physiology at the University of Chicago studying EGF receptor and MAP kinase signaling pathways. Her postdoctoral research was conducted at UCSF identifying TGF-beta receptor signaling pathways leading to anti-proliferative effects and regulation of extracellular matrix protein production.
Dr. Graham Parry, Director of Translational Research
Graham Parry, Ph.D., is Director of Translational Research and joined iPierian in March 2012. He has over 10 years of experience in drug discovery and pre-clinical development in the biotech industry. Previously, he was Director of Biology at Attenuon LLC, where he was involved in the development of two drugs that entered Phase II clinical trials and where he discovered an antibody targeting the urokinase receptor (uPAR) with robust anti-tumor activity. More recently Dr. Parry has worked with San Diego based Motility Inc. and directed the preclinical development of a novel biotherapeutic with applications in oncology and ophthalmology. Dr. Parry has published 45 original articles in refereed journals, several book chapters and reviews, and is co-inventor on 6 pending or issued patents. Dr. Parry obtained a bachelor’s degree in Applied Biology at Brunel University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of London. His postdoctoral research was conducted at The Scripps Research Institute and focused on the regulation of endothelial cell gene expression, coagulation and fibrinolysis.
Dr. John Dimos, Associate Director of Stem Cell Technologies
John Dimos, Ph.D., is Associate Director of Stem Cell Technologies, and has been at iPierian since September 2008. After establishing the company’s R&D efforts, he designed and led the first high throughput drug and target discovery screens using patient specific pluripotent stem cell based disease models. Dr. Dimos has over 15 years of innovative research experience using stem cell systems to model developmental and pathological processes. He published the first report of human patient-specific pluripotent stem cells in 2008, work that was named by Time Magazine as the top medical breakthrough of the year and by Science/AAAS as breakthrough of the year. Dr. Dimos holds his Ph.D. in molecular biology from Princeton University. His graduate research resulted in numerous high profile publications including the first exhaustive genome-wide expression study comparing and contrasting multiple stem cell types, and identification of novel roles of epigenetic regulators during neural development. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University. Dr. Dimos has published and spoken widely about the potential that stem cell technology has in both basic research and clinical application. He has served as a consultant to a number of organizations and a science fiction novelist.
Dr. Sandip Panicker, Associate Director of Neuroinflammation
Sandip Panicker, Ph.D., is Associate Director of Neuroinflammation at iPierian. Sandip joined in November 2012 and brings with him over five years of pharmaceutical drug development experience. He started his pharmaceutical career at Roche Palo Alto where he worked on the biophysical mechanisms that regulate T cell effector functions. Upon the closure of the Palo Alto site, Dr. Panicker continued his research at the Hoffman La Roche Nutley site in New Jersey where he established his own lab, nominated, led and advanced drug discovery programs through target validation, high throughput screening and lead identification/optimization efforts. In Nutley, he focused primarily on pro-inflammatory signaling mechanisms in cells of the innate immune system pertinent to autoimmune settings. Dr. Panicker received his Bachelor’s Degree from UC Berkeley and his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from UC San Diego. His post-doctoral work at UC San Francisco focused on the molecular mechanisms governing synaptic trafficking of glutamate receptors at hippocampal synapses.