Board includes experts from Case Western Reserve University, Duke University, University of Pittsburgh and Washington University in St. Louis
Cleveland, OH, Nov. 14, 2019 – Haima Therapeutics (Haima), a pre-clinical biotechnology company focused on developing bio-inspired therapies to mitigate bleeding, has announced the formation of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), comprised of four world-renowned scientists and clinicians in the field of engineering, trauma, surgery, hemostasis and critical care. They will provide external scientific review and high-level advice to Haima’s management with regards to its preclinical R&D activities and clinical development strategy for its lead candidate SynthoPlate, a platelet-inspired fully-synthetic nanoparticle-based hemostatic technology.
“The formation of our Scientific Advisory Board is an important step in our business development,” says Michael Bruckman, Chief Operating Officer of Haima. “They will help us to both accelerate and validate our drug development program. The SAB members bring significant expertise, highly complementary skills and an external perspective, which will be valuable in informing our strategy as we move forward.”
“We are excited and privileged to have the opportunity to work with this group of thought leaders on the development of SynthoPlate,” says Christa Pawlowski, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Haima. “Drs. Sen Gupta, Levy, Neal and Spinella provide us with the scientific and clinical experience required to bring SynthoPlate to the clinic.”
The appointments to Haima’s Scientific Advisory Board include:
Jerrold Levy, M.D., FAHA, FCCM, Critical Care Physician and Cardiac Anesthesiologist at Duke University School of Medicine: Dr. Levy is the Co-director of the Cardiothoracic ICU at Duke University Hospital. His expertise is in surgical hemostasis; coagulation and extracorporeal circulation; coagulopathy in the critically ill; shock; and anaphylaxis. He has developed purified and recombinant therapeutic approaches to treat bleeding and has authored over 450 scientific publications.
Matthew Neal, M.D., FACS, Roberta G. Simmons Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh: Dr. Neal is a general surgeon and faculty at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center specializing in complex hernia surgery, gastrointestinal surgery, trauma and emergency general surgery. He is the director of the Pittsburgh Trauma Research Center and manages an active research team in translational research in bleeding control coagulopathy, massive transfusion and outcomes following trauma and critical illness. Dr. Neal is heavily involved in several basic research and clinical studies in the areas of pre-hospital interventions for traumatic bleeding including the PAMPer and STAAMP trials.
Anirban Sen Gupta, Ph.D., Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University: Dr. Sen Gupta is the inventor of the SynthoPlate technology, co-founder of Haima Therapeutics and serves as the company’s Chief Scientific Advisor. Dr. Sen Gupta has 15-plus years of research experience and expertise in developing novel nanomedicine systems inspired by design cues from blood cells, for therapeutic applications. His research has focused on understanding and leveraging of blood platelets’ multi-faceted roles: heteromultivalent ligand-receptor interactions among themselves and various matrix proteins, soluble proteins and other cells, platelet secretome in physiological and pathological processes, and platelets’ biophysical (shape, size, stiffness etc.) attributes that influence their dynamic behavior in blood flow.
Phillip Spinella, M.D., FCCM, Professor of Pediatrics at Washington University in St Louis, and Director of the Critical Care Translational Research Program: Dr. Spinella served 15 years in the U.S. Army and separated as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2007. He is a veteran of the Iraq War, where he received a Bronze Star and the Combat Medic Badge for providing care under fire. In collaboration with investigators at the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research, his work in the area of the treatment of hemorrhagic shock received the U.S. Army’s Best Invention Award in 2008 for his role in the development of the concept of “damage control resuscitation”. Dr. Spinella co-founded and is co-chair of the Trauma Hemostasis and Oxygenation Research (THOR) Network, which is an international multidisciplinary network with a mission to improve outcomes for patients with traumatic hemorrhagic shock. Dr. Spinella is also a co-founder of the Pediatric Critical Care Blood Research Network (Blood Net). Dr. Spinella is a consultant to the U.S. Army Blood Research Program at the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research, and the Norwegian Navy Blood Research Program. In 2015, Dr. Spinella was appointed by the Institute of Medicine as a member on the Committee on Military Trauma Care’s Learning Health System and its Translation to the Civilian Sector. Dr. Spinella is a well-established clinical trialist who has been awarded approximately $20 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health. He has published over 195 manuscripts and 16 chapters in the area of both pediatric and adult critical care.
ABOUT HAIMA THERAPEUTICS LLC:
Haima Therapeutics is a pre-clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing bio-inspired therapies to mitigate bleeding in multiple therapeutic indications including traumatic injury, surgery and thrombocytopenia. Haima has developed a novel, fully-synthetic nanoparticle-based hemostatic technology called SynthoPlate that mitigates bleeding by acting at the site of injury and amplifying your body’s natural clotting mechanisms. Learn more at www.haimatherapeutics.com and follow us on Twitter @HaimaThr. Haima is located in Cleveland, Ohio.
Media contact:
Michael Bruckman
Chief Operating Officer, Haima Therapeutics
803-727-9487
mbruckman@haimatherapeutics.
www.haimatherapeutics.com
