management.htm

Dinesh Patel Ph.D., Acting Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of vSpring Capital. Dr. Patel is a founding partner of vSpring Capital, an early stage venture capital firm with over $180 million of committed capital under management. Dr. Patel has been at the forefront of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals in the Intermountain Region for the past two decades. Dr. Patel co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of TheraTech, a biotechnology company that he took public and eventually sold for $350 million. Dr. Patel also co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Salus Therapeutics, a biotech company ultimately sold to Genta (GNTA). At vSpring, Dr. Patel focuses on investing in life science companies and serves as board member/observer of several vSpring portfolio companies including Altea Therapeutics, Exagen, Protalex, Q Therapeutics and Inflabloc. Prior to vSpring, Dr. Patel was an active angel investor, funding 12 companies in the biotechnology and life sciences sectors. Dr. Patel brings to Inflabloc a wealth of life sciences industry relationships and general startup expertise.

Willem Spiegel, Acting Chief Financial Officer. Willem Spiegel has over 25 years of experience in finance and financial management for publicly traded and privately held companies in oil & gas, biotechnology and information technology. During his career, Willem Spiegel was instrumental in a merger and the sale of two public biotechnology companies and has been successful in raising over $60 million for three startup information technology companies. He recently relocated to Salt Lake City where he works with early stage and middle market companies to define and implement their financial strategies. Willem Spiegel was the CFO at Fresher Information Corp., a San Francisco based internet company. He was a consultant for The Brenner Group and CFO for Alexa Internet, which was acquired by Amazon.com. In the biotechnology field he served as CFO for DNA Plant Technology, acquired by ELM, and for Salt Lake City-based Agridyne Technologies, which merged with Biosys and Crop Genetics. Willem Spiegel started his career with Royal Dutch Shell, where he was assigned to various financial and management positions in England, South Africa and the U.S. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Claire A. Daugherty, Director, Clinical Development, joined the Company in September 2000, with 8 years of previous experience in Biostatistics, Data Management and Clinical Research. Prior to joining the Company, Ms. Daugherty held positions as Manager of Biometrics at Cephalon, Inc. (formerly Anesta, Corp.) and Manager of Biostatistics at Watson Laboratories, Utah (formerly TheraTech, Inc.) both in Salt Lake City. Ms. Daugherty's experience includes experimental study design, statistical analysis, data management and clinical trials project management. Ms. Daugherty holds a BS in Mathematics and an MS in Statistics from the University of Cincinnati.

John R. Gebhard, Ph.D., Director of Research and Development, joined the Company in September 1996. He currently directs the Company's pre-clinical identification of anti-inflammatory therapeutics and participates with the Clinical team in the development of promising candidates. Prior to joining the Company, Dr. Gebhard was a postdoctoral fellow at The Scripps Research Institute in the Department of Neuropharmacology where his research focused in RNA based antivirals and virus-host interactions. Dr. Gebhard holds an M.A. in Tumor Immunology from CSU Fullerton and a Ph.D. in Cellular, Viral, and Molecular Biology from the University of Utah. Dr. Gebhard has authored numerous publications in the areas of viral immunobiology, molecular biology, viral inflammatory induced diseases.

David L. Vollmer, Ph.D., Director of Analytical Development and Quality Control, joined the company in January 2002, with nearly 10 years experience in Analytical Chemistry in the pharmaceuticals and medical device industries. Prior to joining Inflabloc, Dr. Vollmer was Analytical Group Manager at Iomed, Inc. and earlier held the position of Project Manager and Senior Scientist at Tandem Labs (formerly Northwest Bioanalytical). Dr. Vollmer holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Missouri Western State College, a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Nebraska, and has authored over 15 research papers.

Paul A. Litka, M.D., Acting Medical Director. Dr. Litka most recently served as Vice President, Clinical Drug Development, at Anesta Corporation in Salt Lake City, with responsibility for Clinical Research, Regulatory Affairs, Drug Safety, Data Management and Biostatistics. In his 20 years of industry experience he has held senior positions in clinical development, drug safety and medical affairs. His assignments have encompassed both large (SmithKline Beecham/SmithKline Beckman) and start-up companies (Magainin Pharmaceuticals), U.S. and international development activities (including a 2 year assignment in the UK with SmithKline Beckman) and contract research (IBRD), as well as independent consulting.


	Company Info Management Team