Chitra Edwin, Ph.D., RAC
Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance
Dr. Edwin has two decades of regulatory affairs, regulatory compliance and quality systems experience, and has been a key member in the development of infectious disease, oncology and cardiology products that have secured regulatory approval for commercialization. She has established and managed regulatory compliant (GLP) testing laboratories, multidisciplinary teams and CROs, and has initiated CLIA accreditation. Dr. Edwin earned a Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Minnesota, and then trained at the Harvard Medical School as a Research Fellow at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and as an Instructor in Medicine at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. She holds Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC) from the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society, is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the College of Pharmacy, University of Cincinnati, and was the Director, Capstone Project, Master’s in Drug Development Program.
Geoffrey Laff, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President of Business Development
Dr. Laff earned his B.S. in Biology and Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology at Yale University, where he received the Sterling Prize Fellowship. He continued his training as a postdoctoral research scientist at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Laff’s eclectic career in the life sciences has included venture capital, buy-side equity analysis, competitive intelligence, business development, market research, and medical communications.
At a Boston-based venture capital fund, Dr. Laff sourced, vetted and managed investments in early-stage life sciences companies. In this role, he advised portfolio company executives on financial, strategic and technical matters and contributed actively to discussion and decision making at Board of Directors meetings. As a biotechnology analyst at several long/short equity hedge funds, he generated timely risk assessments and trading recommendations, mapped the competitive landscape for disease- and technology-specific markets, and conducted comprehensive due diligence to support his investment theses.
Paul Reid, Ph.D.
President, Celtic Biotech Iowa, Inc.
Dr. Reid has extensive experience in new drug/product development and clinical trial design. Expertise includes therapeutic product development, regulatory and clinical affairs, and manufacturing. For over 20 years, Dr. Reid has pioneered the clinical study of neuroactive components from rattlesnake and cobra venoms. Dr. Reid has managed clinical studies throughout the United States and Europe using venom components as novel drug candidates for treating Adrenomyeloneuropathy (AMN), Cancer, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and Multiple Sclerosis (MS). He has published over a dozen peer-reviewed articles on his research and has been awarded patents in the United States. Dr. Reid holds a BA in Microbiology from Trinity College, Ireland, and a PhD in Neurobiochemistry from Imperial College, England.