Management

Keiji Nagano MBA,CEO

Keiji Nagano started his business carrier when he joined Exxon Mobil. Leaving Exxon, he joined Bain & Co., a Boston-based consulting firm and led Tokyo Branch as Vice President. He also headed the company's Korean Branch for its first 4 years. During his years at Bain & Co., his team worked with various projects on biotech, health care, IT, new technology, financial and entertainment business, and also helped successfully bringing in foreign operations into Japanese marlet. In 2004, he established 3DMatrix Japan, and introduced PuraMatrix™ in Japan. 3DMatrix Japan distributes self -assembling 3-dimensional cell scaffold for clinical tissue engineering use. The company has approximately 70 collaborators in top Japanese academic and industrial laboratories in tissue engineering.

Shuguang Zhang, Ph.D., Director & Co-Founder

Dr. Zhang pioneered the area of Self-Assembling Peptides in the research lab of Alex Rich at MIT and continues to develop new biomaterials and applications for this unique family of peptides. He spearheads the development of self-assembling peptides as the Director of MIT's Lab of Molecular Self Assembly, as Associate Director of MIT's Center for Biomedical Engineering, and as host of the biennial Conference on the Self-Assembly of Peptides and Proteins in Biology, Medicine, and Engineering. He holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Zen Chu, Director & Co-Founder

Zen Chu leads the business development and scientific priorities of 3DM. He is a seasoned entrepreneur and early stage venture investor. Prior to starting 3DM, he invested in early stage technologies in both private equity and corporate venturing roles. Mr. Chu has led product and business development efforts for both infotech and biomedical ventures. He also founded and directed Hewlett Packard's HPGarage new technology ventures group. He holds a B.S. in Biomedical/Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University and an M.B.A. from Yale University.

John Maki, Director

Mr. Maki is the Managing Director of Technology Directors, Inc.. Before TDI, Mr. Maki was Managing Director of the Audax Group, Principal at Bain Capital and a Consultant at Bain & Company. Mr. Maki currently serves on the boards of Addition Technology, Chroma Group, Quantitative Imaging, and Sunol Molecular. While at Bain Capital, Mr. Maki lead the investment in Physio Control and Wesley Jessen Vision Care that returned over 20x and 45X return on capital respectively and for a total profit of $500 million dollars. While at TDI, he was lead investor in Large Scale Biology that lead to one of the most successful genomic-based IPOs in year 2000 with peak capitalization of over $600 million dollars. In addition, Mr. Maki was founding investors in 3DM, Actuality Systems, Addition Technology, Alantos Pharmaceuticals, and deNovis. Since 1987, he has funded more than 50 companies and been a board member of 14 companies. Mr. Maki received his A.B. from Harvard University.

 

Jiro Takei, Ph.D., Director

Dr. Jiro Takei worked as postdoctoral research fellow at National Institutes of Health from 1998 and postdoctoral research fellow at Yokohama City University from 2003. He has worked on a number of publications in structural biology and biochemistry. He has also been involved in the research and development in the field of regenerative medicine/tissue engineering. His publications in biomaterial and cell therapy have contributed to the development of tissue engineering technologies. He graduated from International Christian University (BSc in Chemistry), Bristol University, UK (Ph.D in Biochemistry).

Lisa Spirio, Ph.D., CTO, Co-Founder

Dr. Spirio directs the 3DM's internal research priorities and external collaborations with numerous leading commercial and academic laboratories focused on cancer biology, stem cell biology and drug discovery. Dr. Spirio earned her Ph.D. in Human Genetics with Dr. Raymond White at the University of Utah. She was awarded the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America Postdoctoral Fellowship studying biological signaling pathways in human breast cancer with Professor Robert Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. She has published 22 scientific papers and authored two patents.

 

Scientific Co-Founders

Shuguang Zhang, Ph.D.

Please see above.

Alan Grodzinsky, Sc.D.

As Director of the Center for Biomedical Engineering at MIT, Dr. Grodzinsky's work centers on the synthesis of electrical, mechanical, and chemical processes in tissue remodeling and repair. His lab focuses on in vitro tissue engineering and analysis, bioreactors incorporating mechanical loading, and issues at the interface of tissues and biomaterials. Dr. Grodzinsky is the President-Elect of the Orthopedic Research Society and has served as Chairman of the Gordon Research Conference on Bioengineering and Orthopaedic Science, President of the International Cartilage Repair Society, and Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Cleveland Clinic's Department of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Grodzinsky has received the Goodwin Medal (MIT), an NIH Merit Award, the Kappa Delta Award from the American Academy or Orthopedic Surgeons, and was a Founding Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.

Alexander Rich, M.D.

The initial discoveries leading to the invention of self-assembling peptides occurred under the direction of Dr. Alexander Rich. Along with decades of pioneering work in structural molecular biology at MIT, NIH, and Linus Pauling's lab, Dr. Rich has co-founded Repligen, Alkermes and 3DM. In 1955 with Francis Crick, Dr. Rich deduced the three-dimensional, triple helical structure of collagen, the major fibrous protein of skin and connective tissue. His later discoveries include Z-DNA and its editor effects on RNA, the first polysomes, the first nucleic acid hybridization reaction, and the 3-D structure of tRNA. Dr. Rich received the National Medal of Science in 1995.

 

Carlos Semino, Ph.D.

Dr. Semino has served as a senior scientist at MIT in Douglas Lauffenburger's Biological Engineering Division, at MIT's Lab for Molecular Self Assembly, MIT's Center for Cancer Research, Bionomics, and Phylonics Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Semino is an Associate Professor at the Barcelona Bioengineering Center, Department of Industrial Engineering, University Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Spain, where he teaches and directs undergraduate and graduate research programs in the area of cellular bioengineering. His Barcelona Lab has been awarded a research grant from the European Community Six Frame Program, for collaborative interdisciplinary research focused on cellular self-organization and function, design of cellular microenvironments for stem and progenitor cell culture advances, and regenerative biology.

Clinical Advisory Board

Robert Langer, Sc.D. - Chair

Dr. Langer is a professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at MIT. He runs the largest biomedical engineering lab in the world and is recognized as one of the most prolific inventors in medicine worldwide. His work centers on biodegradable polymers, biomaterials, controlled drug delivery, tissue engineering, and mammalian cell transplants. Dr. Langer has written over 700 articles and has received over 120 major awards. He has over 550 issued or pending patents worldwide, many of which have been licensed or sublicensed to over 100 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and medical device companies. He served as a member of the United States Food and Drug Administration's SCIENCE Board, the FDA's highest advisory board, from 1995 -- 2002 and as its Chairman from 1999-2002. Dr. Langer received the National Medal of Science in 2007 for his contributions to clinical medicine.

Mikael Eliasson, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Eliasson represents Monitor Venture Services, the business unit within Monitor Group that focuses on working with entrepreneurial businesses, both venture backed and within large corporations. He received a bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College, a M.D. / Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins where he studied under Dr. Solomon Snyder. His research identified the importance of PARP in ischemic stroke. Dr. Eliasson received his clinical training in general surgery and neurosurgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Children's Hospital in Boston. Dr. Eliasson has served as a business development advisor to a wide-variety of health-science firms.

Shahe Fereshetian, M.D., Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon

Dr. Fereshetian is Chief of Plastic Surgery at the Boston VA Medical Center and holds a faculty position as Instructor in Surgery at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fereshetian is a Diplomat of The American Board of Plastic Surgery, participated as a principle investigator for R. W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Insitute and consulted with Curis, Inc.

Julie Glowacki, Ph.D., Professor, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Glowacki is a Professor in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, School of Medicine, and a Professor in the Department of Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery at the School of Dental Medicine at Harvard University. The author of over 100 articles and multiple textbooks and book chapters, Dr. Glowacki’s research examines bone regeneration, the function of engineered joints, the molecular mechanisms by which demineralized bone initiates cartilage formation, and the mechanisms by which steroids (androgens) increase bone mass in young patients with accelerated bone loss due to anorexia nervosa.

Tan Ince, M.D., Ph.D., Visiting Clinical Scientist, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

Dr. Ince is a Visiting Clinical Scientist at MIT's Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and a pathologist at Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. Following post-doctoral fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and residency in Anatomic Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital (2000), he completed a subspecialty fellowship in Women's and Perinatal Pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Ince lends his considerable expertise in tissue analysis, biomaterial tracking and measurement of tissue regeneration.

Jeffrey Popma, M.D., Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Jeffrey Popma is Director of the Angiographic Core Laboratory at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Director of Interventional Cardiology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Popma has authored more than 200 articles on new device intervention. In his research, he has developed innovative analysis methods for atherectomy, thrombectomy, stenting, chronic total occlusion, drug-eluting stents, and he has improved techniques for assessing the results of photoangioplasty and distal coronary protection devices. He also has expertise in the analysis of carotid stenting, and is the principal Angiographic Core Laboratory investigator on 4 carotid stenting trials.

Alexander Rich, M.D. Please see above