External Advisory Board

Kristen L. Billiar, Ph.D, Professor of Biomedical Engineering Worcester Polytechnic Institute

The focus of Dr. Billiar’s lab is tissue mechanobiology – the way in which mechanical forces regulate the development and healing of connective tissues and the pathogenesis of disease. The Billiar Lab utilizes engineered two- and three-dimensional constructs as model systems to study the effects of multiaxial mechanical stimulation on cell and tissue mechanics. These systems also have the potential to be used for high-throughput, high-content drug screening. Tissues studied include skin, lung, and blood vessels with a special focus on heart valves.

Dr. Billiar is Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) where he served as department head for the past decade. He created the Tissue Mechanics and Mechanobiology Laboratory at WPI in 2002 following four years at Organogenesis Inc, the biotechnology firm which produced the first FDA-approved tissue engineered material, a living skin equivalent. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University and his MS and Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Billiar is a board member for AIMBE and BMES. He is a Fulbright Fellow, a Fellow of ASME, BMES, AHA, and AIMBE and an active member of ASEE and the Biophysical Society among others. His research funding has included the NSF, the NIH, the AHA, the US Army, and the Whitaker Foundation.

Brian Fallica, PhD, Senior Director IQVIA, Cambridge, MA

Brian Fallica is a life sciences strategy and analytics leader with extensive experience advising pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies on market access, commercial strategy, forecasting, gross-to-net optimization, and advanced analytics. At IQVIA, he has led consulting engagements, managed multidisciplinary teams, developed scalable analytics offerings, and overseen solution strategy for a market access analytics practice that grew substantially under his leadership. Previously, he worked at ZS Associates, supporting pharmaceutical clients on forecasting, financial analysis, sales force strategy, and operating-model design. 

He holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering and Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics from Boston University, where his research focused on biomimetic culture systems for cancer research and drug development. He also earned a B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering from Tufts University.

Eric Henderson, MD, Assoc. Prof. of Orthopaedics, Medical Director

Dr. Henderson is an Associate Professor of orthopaedic oncology at Dartmouth College. Dr. Henderson’s research primarily involves improving the safety and efficacy of surgery for patients requiring complex limb salvage operations for cancer, authoring the world’s largest-to-date series of limb salvage surgeries, resulting in a failure classification system that has since been adopted by the International Society of Limb Salvage. Dr. Henderson is an adjunct faculty member at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, where he works to improve surgical safety and efficacy through advanced optical navigation; this work is currently funded by the NIH. Dr. Henderson has published over 120 scientific manuscripts and holds 17 medical device patents.

Lloyd Klickstein, PhD, President & Chief Executive Officer Koslapp Therapeutics, Inc.

Lloyd Klickstein A79, A14P, M25P, G25P is currently President & CEO of Koslapp Therapeutics, a biotech company with a novel approach to create drugs that activate the ribotoxic stress response to treat cancer.  He is also interim CMO for Adicet Therapeutics and is the Board Chair for Refuel Bio.  Lloyd earned MD, PhD degrees at Harvard University, trained as a rheumatologist, had an active academic practice and led an externally funded basic science laboratory at Brigham & Women's Hospital (BWH) in Boston.  Mid-career, Lloyd moved to an industry role leading translational medicine for the New Indication Discovery Unit at Novartis.  While in academia and later industry, Lloyd has filed dozens of patents and led several novel drug-device combination development programs.  

Vincent Ling, PhD, Chief Business Officer Morphocell

Vincent Ling, PhD, is a biotechnology executive with more than 30 years of experience advancing therapeutic innovation across biologics, cell therapy, regenerative medicine, drug delivery, and translational science. As Chief Business Officer at Morphocell Technologies, he leads business development strategy and partnerships to support the advancement of the company’s tissue engineering and cell therapy platform for serious liver diseases.

Before joining Morphocell, Dr. Ling held senior roles in pharmaceutical sciences and business development at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where he helped identify, finance, and develop early-stage therapeutic opportunities. He also held leadership positions at Genetics Institute/Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Adnexus, and Neurotech Pharmaceuticals, building and guiding research organizations across stem cell biology, checkpoint inhibitor discovery, genomic mining, protein engineering, recombinant cell line generation, biologics development, formulation science, biomaterials, and drug delivery.

Dr. Ling earned a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and MS and PhD degrees from the University of Illinois. He completed postdoctoral research at Harvard Biological Laboratories as a NASA Research Fellow in space biology. Across his career, he has focused on translating promising science into therapeutic platforms that address serious disease and improve patients’ lives.

Marjolein C H van der Meulen, PhD, Swanson Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Associate Vice Provost of Research, Nancy E & Peter C Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University

Samir Mitragotri, PhD, Hiller Professor of Bioengineering

Samir Mitragotri is the Hiller Professor of Bioengineering and Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. His research is focused on drug delivery and it has led to new technologies for delivering small molecules, proteins, nucleic acids and cells. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Inventors and American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He is also an elected fellow of AAAS, CRS, BMES, AIMBE, and AAPS. He received BS in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology, India and PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Dennis Orgill MD, PhD, Medical Director, BWH Wound Care Center; Professor, Harvard Medical

Dr. Orgill studied Bioengineering at UC Berkeley.  He then joined the HST program at MIT in the Medical Engineering and Medical Physics program where he worked with Dr. Yannas at MIT and Dr. Burke at the MGH on developing artificial skin for burn victims for his PhD thesis.  Originally, the prototypes were made in the lab at MIT but then eventually transferred to Integra LifeSciences Corporation with the product being commercially sold and referred to as “Integra”.  He helped with the manufacturing translation process while he completed his MD degree and residencies in Surgery and Plastic Surgery.  

He is a plastic surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital where he directs the wound clinic and his Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.  He has an active practice in adult reconstructive surgery and has been a co-author on over 500 peer reviewed publications.  

Kelly Sullivan, PhD, Associate Director, Molecular & Cell Biology at Vertex 

Kelly Sullivan is an Associate Director of Molecular & Cell Biology at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where she leads a team focused on developing complex cellular and tissue-based assays designed to better predict the efficacy of small-molecule therapeutics. She has spent the past 6.5 years at Vertex, following a postdoctoral fellowship in Comparative Biology and Safety Sciences and a subsequent Scientist role at Amgen. Prior to joining Amgen, she earned her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Tufts University, where she conducted her doctoral research in Professor Lauren Black III’s laboratory, studying myocardial remodeling following infarction and its impact on therapeutic intervention. She is passionate about developing increasingly complex 2D and 3D models and innovative assays that more accurately recapitulate human biology and ultimately transform the way therapeutics are developed. Outside of her scientific career, she is a wife and mother of two who enjoys spending time outdoors running, hiking, and camping.

Marie Tupaj, PhD, Dean of STEM Middlesex Community College

Marie Tupaj is the dean of the STEM division at Middlesex Community College. She has spent twenty years working in higher education as a scientist, engineering professor, and administrator. At Middlesex, Marie works on building new academic programs, including career focused short-term curriculum in biotechnology and math corequisite models. She has advised many students on STEM pathways and regularly advocates for women in science. Prior to Middlesex, she worked as a postdoctoral associate in the department of pharmaceutical sciences at Northeastern University, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Bioengineering Institute at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and taught engineering courses at Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology. Marie earned a B.S. in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Tufts University. She is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a member of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE).