Managing Team
Syan Biosciences’ management team members have a balance of business, management, entrepreneurship, and scientific backgrounds.
 Loleta Robinson, MD, MBA Founder and Chief Medical Officer
Previously, Dr. Robinson was Director, Medical Sciences at MedImmune, Inc. In this role she was responsible for identifying, developing and maintaining collaborative relationships within the medical community. She facilitated medical education and training needs for new product introductions and participated in the planning and execution of Phase IV clinical trials. Her experience includes the planning, design, implementation and execution of clinical trials for Thermo Electron’s Point of Care and Rapid Diagnostics Division leading to 510(k) submissions and subsequent FDA approval. Dr. Robinson has a B.A. in microbiology from the University of Kansas, an M.D. from the University of Kansas School of Medicine and an M.B.A. in Health Administration from the University of Colorado.
 Colleen Nye, MBA Founder and Chief Operating Officer
Ms. Nye’s experience includes supervision, process engineering, engineering design, and project management in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and specialty chemical businesses. She has knowledge of FDA regulations, cGMP requirements and lithography. Ms. Nye has direct experience with process development, manufacturing, manufacturing engineering, project management, support services, and client relations. She has working involvement with logistics, purchasing, business development, research and development, engineering design, government regulations, finance, and unions. She received a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Rochester and an M.B.A. from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
The founders are also 2006 ACTiVATE graduates. ACTiVATE is an entrepreneurial training program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
Advisors
Gregory Payne, PhD is the Director of UMBI’s Center for Biosystems Research and a faculty member at UMBI. His lab focuses on the construction of soft functional materials using biological polymers and enzymes. His group has published extensively on the biopolymer chitosan, and in 2001 they received an Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award for a government-industry-university partnership. Dr. Payne has served on the Scientific Advisory Committee for several international conferences focused on the properties and applications of chitosan. He has also served on NIH study sections for Tissue Engineering since 2004. He is a chemical engineer with BS and MS degrees from Cornell University and a PhD from The University of Michigan.
David Fink, PhD is currently the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the UMBC TechCenter. Dr. Fink has over 30 years of experience in biotechnology and biomedical product development as a researcher, consultant, entrepreneur and officer of several start-up biotech companies. At Battelle’s Columbus Labs, he managed more than 100 research projects over a 12-year period. He founded CollaTek Inc., a collagen biomaterials company, in 1986. He has also served as VP of International Technology Development for Osiris Therapeutics, an adult stem cell company, and as President and COO of Chondros Inc., another cell therapy company. He is currently a Founder and VP for R&D of Cell Targeting, LLC, a cell therapy start-up in Cleveland, OH. At techcenter@UMBC, Dr. Fink coordinates incubator services and advises early-stage incubator companies. For the past 3 years, he has also been an instructor for UMBC’s ACTiVATE entrepreneurship program for women. He received his BSChE from the University of Cincinnati and his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He has authored over 40 scientific papers and book chapters, and he been awarded 22 US patents. Dr. Fink will serve as our business and technical advisor.
Ralph Shober is President of Rapbo Tech, a Maryland consulting business. As VP of Corporate Development at MatriGenix, Inc., Mr. Shober developed marketing and sales strategies and managed the efforts for product launch in in-vitro diagnostics as well as drug discovery. Additionally, Mr. Shober has experience with promotion, distribution, license agreements, and contract agreements. Mr. Shober also has experience at Cambrex-BioWhittaker, Inc. in business development, operations, and marketing of diagnostic and other products, as well as participation in negotiations, divestiture, due diligence, and integration during acquisitions. Mr. Shober received a BS in Biology from the University of Maryland, an MS in Biomedical Science from Hood College, and an MBA from Frostburg State University. Mr. Shober will serve Syan Bioscience as our marketing and sales advisor.
Mary Ann Shallcross is the founder and Principal of BioStrategies, Inc. in 1997, an independent consulting group serving biotechnology clients in the diagnostic and pharmaceutical segments of the healthcare industry. She has also served on the Advisory Board of a gene therapy company, managed development programs for the company’s lentiviral vector platform and facilitated acquisitions of enabling technologies. Prior to establishing BioStrategies Inc., Ms. Shallcross held key positions within both diagnostic and pharmaceutical divisions at Abbott Laboratories including business development, strategic planning, marketing and product development. Her experience encompasses technology evaluations and negotiations resulting in successful partnering and licensing. Ms. Shallcross holds an MBA from Loyola University in Chicago and a Bachelor in Biological Sciences from the University of Chicago. Ms. Shallcross will serve as our business development advisor.
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