Nivedita ‘Niv’ Hegdekar is a graduate student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore pursuing a dual degree in biomedical sciences and patent law. Prior to joining her PhD program, she obtained her degree in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences from the prestigious Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India.
Natalie McKinney is a marketing strategy leader with 15+ years of experience in life sciences and technology organizations. She uses data-driven, customer-centric approaches to gain a deep understanding of dynamic customer needs and drivers. She enjoys leveraging internal and external relationships to build a holistic customer view and gains alignment on high-impact, right-sized product and marketing investments that are timed appropriately for the market.
Danielle Kalkofen is a molecular cell biologist and biochemist with 15 years of industry and academic experience. In 2015, she turned her focus to biological assay development, leading cross-functional teams to develop, validate, and commercialize new pathogen detection assay products.
“5 Questions With…” is a weekly BioBuzz series where we reach out to interesting people in the BioHealth Capital Region to share a little about themselves, their work, and maybe something completely unrelated. March is WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH and BioBuzz will celebrate by featuring Women in the BioHealth industry all month, especially in “5 Questions With…”. This week we continue the series with Destinie Burgan, Upstream Supervisor of Manufacturing, Emergent BioSolutions.
Akunna Iheanacho, Ph.D., is the Scientific Director at Texcell North America, Inc., where she provides technical and scientific direction for novel assay development, virus purification efforts, and viral safety testing. She also serves as a Study Director for viral clearance studies. She is a subject matter expert with broad biotechnology experience and expertise in areas that include process development for large-scale cGMP manufacture of vaccines, AAV gene therapies, and biopharmaceutical purification.
Doug White joined Emergent in 2017 and serves as head of the devices business unit. He previously served as vice president and general manager of Molecular Diagnostics & Women’s Health at Becton Dickenson Diagnostics. Before joining Becton Dickenson Diagnostics, he was chief executive officer of OpGen Inc.
Paul Nolde has close to two decades of experience in the banking, finance, and venture capital sectors, serving in multiple business development and management roles. As the Fund Manager and Managing Director of Riverflow Growth Fund, a seed-stage venture capital fund based in Richmond, VA, Paul is responsible for all aspects of fund management and investment-related processes.
Rachel is the Director of the BARDA Alliance for Johnson & Johnson Innovation, based at JLABS @ Washington, DC. In this role, she is responsible for managing the BLUE KNIGHT™ collaboration between Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS (JLABS) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). BLUE KNIGHT™ focuses on addressing public-health threats and emerging infectious diseases by supporting companies with emerging science and technology solutions that aim to improve health security and responses.
Dr. Amritha Jaishankar serves as the Director, Programs and Strategic Alliances, Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF). In this role, Amritha is responsible for oversight of programs, scientific management, and oversight of the portfolio, as well as MSCRF business development. She works with stem cell scientists across Maryland to develop a collaborative research program and promote commercialization of stem cell technologies.
2020 brought about a lot of growth across the BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR) as dozens of organizations responded with urgency to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
