Leadership
Rodney S. Markin, MD, PhD
Chairman
Rodney Markin, MD, PhD, has been Chairman of the Board since December 2020 and served as a Director from February 2014 to December 2020. He is currently Vice President for Network Development, Nebraska Medicine and Associate Vice Chancellor for Business and Executive Director of the UNeTech Institute at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, a public center of health sciences research, patient care, and education, where he has served since July 1985. Dr. Markin also serves concurrently as Courtesy Professor of Psychiatry and Courtesy Professor of Surgery at the University of Nebraska and David T. Purtilo Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Microbiology since 2005 and Professor of Pathology and Microbiology. He serves on the boards of Perceptimed Inc. since 2014, MikroScan Technologies Inc. since 2015, Afaxys Inc. since 2017, and Paradigm Diagnostics Inc. since 2018. In the non-profit sector, Dr. Markin serves as a Director of Children’s Hospital and Medical Center Foundation and as Trustee for Keck Graduate Institute, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, since 2015.
Previously, Dr. Markin served as Chief Technology Officer and Associate Vice Chancellor for Business Development at the University of Nebraska from 2011 to 2017, and as Director of Transgenomic, Inc. from 2007 to 2014. The Board believes Dr. Markin’s medical insight, board experience and executive experience in institutional healthcare qualifies him to serve as a director of our company.
Mark Erlander, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Erlander has served as our Chief Executive Officer since May 2020 and formerly as the Chief Scientific Officer from March 2013 to May 2020.
Previously, he was Chief Scientific Officer at bioTheranostics, a subsidiary of bioMérieux, a molecular diagnostic testing company focused on clinical applications in oncology, where he served from 2008 to 2013. From 2000 to 2008, Dr. Erlander was Chief Scientific Officer at Arcturus, Inc. (later AviaraDx), which was acquired by bioMérieux in 2008. Dr. Erlander entered therapeutics as a Group Leader and then Research Fellow in drug discovery at Johnson & Johnson from 1994 to 2000. From 1991 to 1994, Dr. Erlander was a Postdoctoral Fellow and then Assistant Professor at Scripps Research. He has 44 issued patents, over 50 pending applications, and has co-authored more than 90 scientific publications.
Dr. Erlander holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Davis, an M.S. degree in Biochemistry from Iowa State University, and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Lâle White
Independent Director
Lâle White has been a director since 2020. She is the chief executive officer of XIFIN, Inc. (“XIFIN”), a health information technology company that leverages diagnostic information to improve the quality and economics of healthcare. She lectures extensively on these topics and has consulted for major laboratories and laboratory associations throughout the U.S. Ms. White worked with HCFA and the U.S. Office of the Inspector General to develop the first OIG Model Compliance Program. She is a longstanding member of the California Clinical Lab Association, where for the last eight years she has chaired the state and federal contractor committees that work with the Medicare Administrative Contractors and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Ms. White was previously vice president – finance of Laboratory Corporation of America, one of the largest clinical reference laboratories in the U.S., and its predecessor National Health Laboratories, where she led the software development of several accounts receivable, inventory, cost accounting and financial management systems for the laboratory industry. Ms. White previously was on the Board of bioTheranostics while it was a BioMerieux subsidiary and CombiMatrix Corporation, until its acquisition by lnvitae Corporation in 2017.
Ms. White has a BA in finance and an MBA from Florida International University. The Board believes that Ms. White’s qualifications to serve on our Board include her significant executive experience with the strategic, financial, and operational requirements of health care organizations, particularly in the area of billing and reimbursement.
Renee P. Tannenbaum, PharmD
Independent Director
Renee Tannenbaum has been a director since 2021. Dr. Tannenbaum previously served as the vice president of global partnering at Halozyme, Inc., where she was responsible for leading business development activities and the company’s alliances through partnerships and collaborations. Prior to her time at Halozyme, Dr. Tannenbaum served as the head of global customer excellence at AbbVie, where she was responsible for building commercial capabilities for the organization, president of Myrtle Potter & Company, LLC, a global life-sciences consulting and advisory firm, and executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. During her time at Elan, Dr. Tannenbaum was responsible for revenue generation from Elan’s marketed products, preparing for the commercialization of pipeline candidates, and strengthening the company’s overall commercial capabilities. Prior to her role at Elan, Dr. Tannenbaum spent three years leading the global commercial operations organization at Novartis Pharma AG, and nine and sixteen years at Bristol Myers Squibb and at Merck and Company, Inc., respectively, where she held a variety of leadership positions in operations and general management. She has extensive Board experience, as she is currently a director at Zogenix, Inc., and previously served as a director at Nordic Nanovector ASA, Cipher Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Sharps Compliance Inc., and Immune Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
In addition to her roles in industry, Dr. Tannenbaum retains a faculty position at the University of the Sciences’ Mayes College of Healthcare Business and Policy, where she serves as the Dean’s professor. Dr. Tannenbaum received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Sciences, her MBA from Temple University, and her B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Connecticut.
Mani Mohindru, PhD
Independent Director
Mani Mohindru has been a director since 2021. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Novasenta, an early-stage biotechnology company, and a Director on the Board of CytomX, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTMX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. Dr. Mohindru previously worked in executive roles at several additional biotechnology companies, having served as Chief Executive Officer of CereXis, Inc., Chief Financial Officer and Chief Strategy Officer of Cara Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CARA), and Chief Strategy Officer at Curis, Inc (Nasdaq: CRIS). Prior to her leadership roles in the biotechnology industry, Dr. Mohindru spent several years as an equity research analyst covering the biotechnology sector at UBS, Credit Suisse and ThinkEquity. She also co-founded a privately held biotechnology company and was a healthcare industry consultant. She was also a member of the Board of Directors of SAB Biotherapeutics, a clinical-stage private biopharmaceutical company.
On the non-profit side, Dr. Mohindru is a member of the Executive Advisory Board of the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute of Northwestern University and a member of the Scientific Investment Advisory Committee of the Gates Center of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Colorado. Dr. Mohindru received her Ph.D. in Neurosciences from Northwestern University and her master’s in biotechnology and BS in Human Biology (Hons) from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, India.
James O. Armitage, MD
Independent Director
James Armitage, MD, has been a director since 2020. Since 2003, he has been a professor of internal medicine in the division of hematology and oncology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, after having served as chairman of the department of internal medicine, dean of the college of medicine, and in various other capacities since joining the Center in 1982. Dr. Armitage also holds a hospital appointment at Nebraska Medicine. He has authored or co-authored more than 600 articles, 108 book chapters and edited or co-edited 27 textbooks. He has previously served as president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (“ASCO”), and as a member of the ASCO board of directors. Dr. Armitage received a bachelor of science degree from the University of Nebraska and a medical degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and completed his post-graduate training at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. The Board believes that Dr. Armitage’s training as a physician, his research, clinical and administrative experience, and his previous service as a director of a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company provide him with the qualifications and skills to serve as a director.
Gary W. Pace, PhD
Independent Director
Gary Pace has been a director since 2020. He has been a director of Pacira Biosciences, Inc. since 2008, Simavita Ltd. since 2016 and Antisense Therapeutics since 2015 as well as a director of several private companies. Dr. Pace previously served on the board of ResMed Inc. from 1994 to 2018, Transition Therapeutics Inc. from 2002 to 2016 and ORxPharma Ltd. from 2001 to 2013. He is a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive with over 40 years of experience in the industry. He as co-founded several early-stage life science companies, where he built products from the laboratory to commercialization. Dr. Pace has contributed to the development of the biotechnology industry through honorary university appointments and industry and government committees. In 2003, he was awarded a Centenary Medal by the Australian Government “for service to Australian society in research and development” and was recognized as the 2011 Director of the Year (corporate governance) by the San Diego Directors Forum. Dr. Pace holds a B.Sc. (Hons I) from the University of New South Wales and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was a Fulbright Fellow and General Foods Scholar. The Board believes that Dr. Pace’s years of experience providing strategic advisory services to complex organizations, including as a public company director provides him with the qualifications and skills to serve as a director.
John Brancaccio
Independent Director
John Brancaccio, a retired CPA, has been a Director since December 2005. Mr. Brancaccio currently serves on the boards of Rasna Therapeutics, Inc. since 2016, Hepion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. since 2013, and Tamir Biotechnology, Inc. (formerly Alfacell Corporation) since 2004. Previously, Mr. Brancaccio served as Chief Financial Officer of Accelerated Technologies, Inc., an incubator for medical device companies from 2004 until his retirement in 2017. The Board believes Mr. Brancaccio’s experience as a chief financial officer provides valuable financial and accounting expertise that qualifies him to serve as a director of our company.