J. Melville “Mel” Engle, CEO, shared in a podcast that also featured Dr. Pamela Bush, SVP of Strategic Sales and Business Development.
Listen here for the full interview:
The use of AI in drug development is relatively new, but the trend is picking up speed faster than experts could have predicted. In fact,
Artificial Intelligence is helping to advance drug pipelines (in oncology drug development and beyond) faster and more cost-effectively. Scroll down to see the impactful statistics.
Dr. Kirshner has over 15 years of experience in cancer research, including preclinical model design, drug discovery and efficacy testing. Dr. Kirshner’s expertise spans multiple aspects of cancer biology including the development of physiological organotypic 3D cell culture models for preclinical drug testing, molecular target and biomarker discovery, evaluation of drug-resistance, tumor microenvironment, tumor heterogeneity and cancer stem cells, and tumor immunology.
As the founder of zPREDICTA, Dr. Kirshner leads the team in developing tumor-specific in vitro models for oncology drug discovery and research. The company is focused on accelerating the drug development process through its expertise in carcinogenesis, metastasis, and the tumor microenvironment. zPREDICTA’s complex in vitro models recapitulate the physiological environment of human cancer tissue and thus provide a more clinically relevant testing platform than commonly used alternatives.
Prior to starting zPREDICTA, Dr. Kirshner was an Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at Purdue University.
“ Combining zPREDICTA’s technology with Helomics, TumorGenesis, and Soluble Biotech will allow us to make true progress towards our joint mission of eliminating cancer.”
Ph.D., Molecular and Cell Biology
University of California, Davis
B.S., Genetics
Pamela Bush comes with more than twenty years of experience in venture creation, finance, and business development in the life sciences industry. At POAI, she leads the sales efforts and business development activities across the portfolio.
Prior to joining POAI Pamela worked at Eli Lilly & Company in various roles including Corporate Business Development, Finance and Patient Services. In addition to her Lilly work experience, Pamela has worked in economic development, academia, and business consulting supporting the creation and growth of 80+ life sciences start-ups.
“ POAI has developed solutions to help biopharma partners increase the probability of success of their oncology pipeline.”
Ph.D., Molecular Biology
MBA, Tepper School of Business
Dr. DeLucas is the Vice president of Operations for Predictive Oncology and President and co-founder of Soluble Biotech, Inc. DeLucas is currently working to complete development of GMP facilities at Soluble Biotech and at TumorGenesis. In addition, he oversees Soluble Biotech’s solubility and stability contracts for numerous pharmaceutical/biotech companies.
From 1981-2016 Dr. DeLucas was a faculty member at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) where he served as a Professor in the School of Optometry, Senior Scientist and Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center X-ray Shared Facility, and Director of the Center for Structural Biology. Dr. DeLucas received five degrees from UAB culminating in a Doctor of Optometry degree and a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry. He also received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from The Ohio State University, Ferris State University, the State University of New York (SUNY), and the Illinois College of Optometry. He has published 164 peer-reviewed research articles in various scientific journals, co-authored and edited several books on protein crystal growth and membrane proteins and is a co-inventor on 43 patents involving protein crystal growth, novel biotechnologies and structure-based drug design. DeLucas was a payload specialist NASA astronaut and member of the 7-person crew of Space Shuttle Columbia for Mission “STS-50”, called the United States Microgravity Laboratory-1 (USML-1) Spacelab mission. Columbia launched on June 25, 1992, returning on July 9. In 1994 and 1995, Dr. DeLucas served as the Chief Scientist for the International Space Station at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Dr. DeLucas was recognized as one of the scientists who could shape the 21st century in an article published by “The Sunday Times” of London titled “The Brains Behind the 21st Century.” In 2004, he was recognized as a Top Ten Finalist for the Entrepreneur of the Year award from the Birmingham Business Journal.
“ Soluble Biotech is continually demonstrating to pharmaceutical and biotech companies the significant value of its novel HSC technology for optimizing protein therapeutic formulations to treat a variety of chronic and infectious diseases. ”
Dr. Arlette Uihlein is Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality for Predictive Oncology and Site Leader of Helomics, serving as the Vice President of Operations, Pathology Services and Medical Director of Helomics® Clinical and Research Labs since 2011. Dr. Uihlein is Board Certified in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, Cytopathology and Family Medicine. Dr. Uihlein completed her Pathology Residency at Allegheny General Hospital, where she served as Chief Resident in Pathology and completed Fellowships in Cytopathology and Surgical Pathology. During that time, she conducted extensive clinical research involving molecular pathology diagnostic and predictive markers, imaging of solid tumors, and novel applications of cellular tumor markers. While serving as Medical Director at Helomics, a CLIA and New York State certified lab, Dr. Uihlein has published research in molecular assay development, lab automation, and tissue and cell processing. She is a Designated Civil Surgeon for the U.S. Dept. of Justice and a certified Medical Review Officer for the Department of Transportation. She is a Fellow of the College of American Pathologists and the American Society of Clinical Pathology, NYSDOH Certificate Qualified, and a member of ASCO.
“ At Helomics we’re delivering better-informed decision making saving pharma time and money, while providing cancer patients with appropriate therapies.”
Medical College of Ohio
Doctor of Medicine
Baldwin-Wallace University
BS, Biology
“ Patients are always first, is our driving force. Oncology is a tough space, and we are determined to bring the best validated science to help cancer patients and as our CEO says, ‘Eliminate Cancer.’ That takes teamwork and a lot of smart hard-working people, our team members at POAI are up to the challenge. ”
Ohio Dominican College
BS, Chemistry
Mark is currently Chief Technical Officer at Predictive Oncology. Using the power of AI, Mark is responsible for leveraging Helomics’ vast repository of physical and digital tumor samples, to build multi-omic predictive models of tumor drug response and outcome. Such models can be applied to the discovery of new targeted therapies for cancer as well as used in clinical decision support to help oncologists individualize treatment.
Dr. Mark Collins embarked on a career in the pharmaceutical industry following his postdoctoral work. Pursuing a passion for both biology and computing, Mark has held multiple executive roles in a variety of discovery, informatics and bioinformatics functions within global pharma, and founded three startup software companies in the artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning (ML) and drug discovery space. Mark relocated to the USA in 2001 to work for Cellomics (now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific), where he played a pivotal role in establishing the High-Content cell analysis market, building, and commercializing several key informatics and bioinformatics products.
Since leaving Thermo Fisher, Mark has focused on developing and commercializing informatics solutions for clinical and translational research, specifically in the specimen tracking, ‘omics data management and NGS analysis space, through key roles at BioFortis, Global Specimen Solutions and Genedata
“ I have been pursuing a vision since the late 1990s that AI will help deliver better patient therapies. I firmly believe at POAI we will deliver on that vision. ”
University of Wolverhampton, UK
Undergraduate Degree, Applied Science
Executive Officer, Compliance Officer, Corporate Secretary, and member of the Senior Leadership Team. Responsible for Finance, Administration, Human Resources, Investor Relations, and IT. Skyline Medical Site Leader.
Numerous years as CEO/Controller consultant including medical devices companies. Executive positions with CES Computer Solutions, Computer Accomplishments, Hi-Tech Stationary & Printing, Capital Distributors Corp, International Creative Management American Express, Showtime Entertainment and public accounting with Laventhol & Horwath, CPA’s.
“ It’s a privilege to work with a highly talented team to pursue oncology advances, while protecting and increasing shareholder value. ”
Adelphi University
MBA, Finance
Hofstra University
BBA, Public Accounting
Between 2012 and 2021, he was CEO of Engle Strategic Solutions, a consulting and coaching company focused on CEO issues. From 2009 to 2012, he was CEO and Chairman of Thermogenesis, a cell separation company. From 2002 to 2007, he was Regional Head/Director, North America at Merck Generics and CEO of Dey Laboratories, a respiratory company. From 1996 to 2001, he was CEO and Chairman of Anika Therapeutics, an orthobiologics company. From 1980 to 1995, he was with Allergan, Inc., an eye and skin care company, where he served as CFO, Managing Director (living in Toronto), and other positions with the firm.
“ Eliminating cancer is our overall goal. This is not an easy task. We are working hard every day to make this happen, using our novel technology and talented team of employees. ”
University of Southern California
School of Business
MBA, Finance
University of Colorado Boulder
BS, Accounting
