Curate Biosciences

Chief Executive Officer

Dave has over 25 years’ experience in cell & gene therapy.  He was owner, founder, and CEO of Molecular Medicine BioServices, focusing on GMP manufacturing of viral vectors. Dave sold the company to Sigma Aldrich and stayed on in a variety of commercial, strategic, and operational roles.  After Sigma Aldrich became MilliporeSigma, Dave expanded his responsibilities as Head of Commercial Development for its Gene Editing and Novel Modalities business.  Most recently, Dave was SVP of Commercial Development at ElevateBio and then Chief Commercial Officer at Oxford Biomedica. 

Chief Technology Officer

Tony previously served as the global strategic marketing director for Becton Dickinson’s research cell analysis business as well as headed commercial operations for eBioscience from startup through sale to Affymetrix, where he served as SVP/general manager for the business unit. Tony’s background also includes developing and commercializing multiple flow cytometry and assay product technologies. He received his BS in Microbiology from California Polytechnic State University and his MBA from Santa Clara University.

Chief Operating Officer

Before joining GPB, Joan served as Site Director for Millipore Sigma Viral Vector Manufacturing. Prior to Millipore-Sigma she has served in senior Operations leadership positions for leading diagnostic companies, including Vice President of Manufacturing & Technical Operations for GenMark Diagnostics and Executive Director of Technical Operations for Cepheid. She has more than 20 years of Operations, R&D and Project Management leadership experience in both commercial and early stage therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Joan holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Oregon and a BS in Cellular & Molecular Biology from San Francisco State University.

Chief Business Officer

Prior to joining GPB, Gaurav served as Head of BD for Precigen Inc. His background also includes key business development roles at Gilead Sciences, Shire Pharmaceuticals and Amgen, where he led various transactions across therapeutic areas (mostly oncology) and helped build large-pharma pipeline via sourcing external innovation. He earned his MBA from University of Michigan and his MS from Wayne State University, Michigan.

Chief Financial Officer

Before joining GPB to lead business development and then finance, Jason served as director of strategic growth for Corning Life Sciences and Corning’s emerging innovations group and as VP & general manager of Corning’s cell culture media and reagents business upon its acquisition. His background also includes other general management and strategy/M&A leadership roles at Corning and Quest Diagnostics and serving clients in McKinsey & Co.’s Pharmaceutical and Medical Products practice. He earned his BA from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Vice President, Product Development and Manufacturing

Khushroo’s background includes serving as site manager and director of chip process development and manufacturing for Caliper LifeSciences (now a Perkin Elmer company) and R&D director at Pilkington Barnes-Hind. He has scaled up and transferred into manufacturing multiple microfluidic chip and reagents product lines. Khushroo received his BTech degree in Chemical Engineering from the India Institute of Technology, his MS in Chemical Engineering and his PhD in Polymer Science and Engineering from USC.

Vice President, Biology

Roberto’s prior positions include director of antibody products and assay development at Cell Signaling Technology. He served as director at R&D systems (Bio-Techne) and director of cell signaling research at BD Biosciences, and co-founded Transduction Laboratories. He earned his BS Biology from Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, his MSc Biology and his PhD in Biology from the University of Ottawa with post-doctoral fellowships in Cancer Research at University of Hawaii and University of Kentucky.

Vice President, Engineering and IP Strategy

Alison previously was a senior scientist and held various advisor/consultant positions at Verily Life Sciences, Cannon, On-Q-ity and T2 Biosystems. She has more than 20 years of experience in all aspects of microfluidic devices including design, fabrication and evaluation. Alison received her BSc. (Honors) in Chemistry from the University of Alberta and her PhD in Chemistry from the UC Berkeley, with post-doctoral work in Bioengineering at MIT.

Director of Finance and Administration

Before joining GPB, Deepa held the position of Director of Finance at Westfield where she led the regional Finance team in all areas of Accounting, Finance, Development and Management. Her background also includes holding finance and accounting leadership roles at Eclipse Bioinnovations, IWS Systems and OAG Consultants. Deepa received her BBA in Accounting from University of Manitoba in Canada.

Director of Quality

Prior to joining Curate, Gretchen served as Quality Assurance Manager for Meridian Biosciences, where she successfully transitioned 2 sites from ISO 9001 to ISO 13485 and strengthened the role of quality in the organization. She also held a supervisory position with ThermoFisher Scientific where she successfully led a project to introduce over 4,000 products to the site portfolio. She is a Quality and Compliance professional with extensive experience in strengthening compliance, process improvement, and elevating the quality footprint across organizational functions.

Senior Microfluidics Engineer

Yasna has been a team member at GPB Scientific since 2018, utilizing her knowledge of microfluidics during the design and development of the Curate Cell Processing System. She collaborates cross-functionally to conceive and assess new concepts while evaluating GPB’s DCS technology. Yasna earned her BS in Biomedical Engineering from UC Irvine and her MS in Bioengineering from San Diego State University.

Project Manager

Prior to joining Curate Biosciences, Luis served as Project Manager for the New Product Introduction division at Jabil Healthcare, handling multiple complex contract manufacturing projects of Class II and III devices. During his career at Jabil, Luis also served multiple engineering roles, such as Sr. Manufacturing Engineer and Engineering Lead. Before working at Jabil, Luis worked for Becton Dickinson in the Electromechanical Manufacturing Division. Luis received his BS in Mechatronics Engineering from CETYS University and has been certified as Project Management Professional (PMP) by PMI.

Quality Engineer

Prior to GPB, Rechea worked as a Quality Engineering team lead at Applied Medical. Utilizing her exposure to mechanical and electrical device failure analyses, Rechea strives to obtain continuous quality improvements for the Curate system. She has earned her BS in Biological Engineering and M.Eng in Biomedical Engineering from Cornell University.

Research Associate II

Erika earned her B.S. in Biology from California State University (CSU) in 2016. She was a member of the CSU San Marcos Sigma Pi Sigma Honors Society, Golden Key. In 2014, she was recipient of the Fenstermaker Foundation Scholarship, California State University’s Scholarship for high achieving students. Her research, under the direction of Dr. Dr. Jayasinghe, focused on the use of biochemical and biophysical techniques to investigate the structure and membrane association of polypeptides. In 2015, her work “Membrane Interaction of Peptides from the Transmembrane Segments of Wza and CsgG,” was showcased in the 27th Annual CSU Biotechnology Symposium San Diego.

Director of Sales