Dr. Shannon Dahl is Chief Scientific Officer of Cell Care Therapeutics. She is a regenerative medicine leader and a company builder who defines a clear path forward from early research to clinical trials, commercialization, and reimbursement. Previously, she co-founded Humacyte, Inc., a pioneering regenerative medicine company, where she held leadership roles in technology, product translation, pipeline, corporate, and commercial development. She has set precedents with CBER at FDA and has negotiated a path to reimbursement with CMS. In 2018, PharmaVOICE named Dr. Dahl as one of the 100 most transformational leaders in the global life sciences industry. Dr. Dahl received a PhD in biomedical engineering from Duke University, performed research in orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical School, and received an SB from MIT in materials science & engineering with a concentration in economics. She serves on scientific and strategic advisory boards for cell and gene therapy companies.

Daniel Gil is a veteran leader in Pharmaceutical R&D, specializing in early drug development. He is currently a Board member of Cell Care, as well as Founder of CELLerity Consulting and CEO of Pelage Pharmaceuticals. In his 30+ year career at Allergan, which ended in 2018, he led drug research and early stage clinical development in the areas of Ophthalmology, Neuroscience and Dermatology. He elevated 13 drug candidates into clinical development, directed 8 clinical development teams and oversaw clinical studies ranging from translational to phase 2 proof-of-concept stages. Most recently, he served as: Co-chair of Early Stage Governance Board that oversaw pre-POC clinical development across therapeutic areas; Chair of Research Portfolio Committee that oversaw progression of the research portfolio; Director of a research group that included Medicinal Chemistry, Biologics and translational pharmacology. At Allergan, he directed several biotech partnerships including one with Acadia Pharmaceuticals. He is an inventor on more than 70 issued US patents and author on 42 peer-reviewed research articles. Dr. Gil has an undergraduate degree in Biology from Harvard and a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. J. Mario Molina is Founding Dean of the Keck Graduate Institute School of Medicine and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Molina Healthcare, a FORTUNE 500 company founded by his physician father in 1980 to provide health care to low-income individuals receiving benefits through government programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare. In 2005, Dr. Molina was featured in Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential Hispanics in America. He has an honorary doctorate from Claremont Graduate University. Modern Healthcare listed him among the 100 most influential people in health care.  He is a board member for Homeboy Industries, the Aquarium of the Pacific and an Overseer of the Huntington Library and Curator of the Osler Library. He is a trustee of Johns Hopkins Medicine and served on the Visiting Committee for the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Dental School.

Dr. Rajashekhar Gangaraju is currently Professor of Ophthalmology, Anatomy, and Neurobiology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, as well as the founding Chief Scientific Officer of Cell Care. His academic research program’s goal is to employ adult stem cells derived from adipose tissue for the treatment of retinal neuro-vascular pathology. He primarily utilizes preclinical in vitro and in vivo models to investigate the potential of his findings for clinical translation, with the long-term goal of advancing clinical management of Diabetic retinopathy (DR) and Age-related macular degeneration. By training, he is a cell biologist with experience in Physiology, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Pharmacology with special interest in vascular biology. He earned his Ph.D. at the National University of Singapore, School of Medicine, Molecular Biology and completed his Postdoctoral fellowship at Indiana University School of Medicine, in Vascular Biology.

Dr. Baruch D. Kuppermann is the Roger F. Steinert Professor, Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology, and Director of the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute at the University of California, Irvine. He also holds a joint appointment with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UC Irvine.  After earning his PhD in neuroscience at the California Institute of Technology and his medical degree at the University of Miami, Dr. Kuppermann completed his internship at the Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center and his residency in ophthalmology at the University of Southern California Doheny Eye Institute in Los Angeles. He completed fellowships in retina and vitreous at St. Joseph Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland and at the University of California, San Diego. He is also extensively involved in clinical research, having served as Principal Investigator in many trials evaluating new drugs and technologies for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and retinal vein occlusion.

Dr. Gerard Lutty is the G. Edward and G. Britton Durell Professor of Ophthalmology and the director of the Ocular Vasculogenesis and Angiogenesis Laboratory at the Wilmer Eye Institute, which studies the development of  blood vessels in the eye and how they change in diseases like age-related macular degeneration, retinopathy of prematurity, and sickle cell and diabetic retinopathies.  The focus is on the factors that stimulate new blood vessels, angiogenic factors, and naturally occurring inhibitors of angiogenesis, antiangiogenic factors, with the goal of developing therapies to stop the blood vessels from being blocked in ischemic retinopathies and inhibit the growth of neovascularization in the retina and choroid. Dr. Lutty received his M.S. in microbiology at Catholic University and his Ph.D. in cell biology/biochemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He first joined the Wilmer faculty in 1979.

Dr. David S. Boyer is a Board-certified ophthalmologist specializing in the treatment of diseases of the retina and vitreous and is a senior partner at Retina-Vitreous Associates Medical Group with offices in the Los Angeles area. Dr. Boyer earned his medical degree at Chicago Medical School, completed his internship and residency at the University of Southern California/Los Angeles County Medical Center, and fellowship in retinal surgery at the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. Dr. Boyer, who is also Clinical Professor with the University of Southern California, has an extensive research background. He is one of the leading retinal clinical researchers in the country for new treatments in macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. A widely-published author and avid lecturer, Dr. Boyer lectures nationally and internationally on retinal research and the innovative approach to the treatment of retinal diseases. He has authored or co-authored numerous works in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Arnold Caplan is a Professor of Biology and Director of the Skeletal Research Center at Case Western Reserve University. He received his Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Caplan is a national and international scholar focusing on experimentation in the area of musculoskeletal and skin development. He has published over 400 papers and manuscripts and has long been supported by the NIH and other non-profit and for-profit agencies for his efforts in trying to understand the development, maturation and aging of cartilage, bone, skin and other mesenchymal tissues and for his pioneering research on Mesenchymal Stem Cells. Arnold Caplan is also the founder of Osiris Therapeutics, the first company to ever treat a patient with an autologous cell therapy product and to successfully bring the world’s first approved stem cell drug to market in Canada and New Zealand, remestemcel-L for treatment of GvHD (BLA currently under review by FDA).