About Us
Omni Bio is currently developing clinical applications using a broad patent portfolio licensed from the University of Colorado utilizing an FDA approved, off-patent drug, Alpha 1 Antitrypsin ("AAT"), to treat a variety of new indications.
Omni Bio's mission is to monetize sponsored research and licensed patents through the pursuit of partnerships or joint ventures with existing manufacturers of AAT.
Principal Investigator
Dr. Leland Shapiro is our principal investigator for the viral and bacterial pneumonia applications. Dr. Shapiro is an Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine and a Staff Physician at the Denver Veterans Affairs medical center. Dr. Shapiro received BA and BS degrees from Tufts University and graduated from the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine. He obtained medical training as a resident in internal medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he also served as Chief Medical Resident. This was followed by infectious diseases fellowship clinical and scientific training at the Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston, where he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Charles A. Dinarello as a post-doctoral fellow in Infectious Diseases. He was selected as a fellow of the American College of Physicians for outstanding achievements in the areas of clinical care and scientific investigation. Current research projects include investigating the role of innate immunity (including natural and synthetic serine protease inhibitors) in the pathogenesis of several diseases, including those considered bio-weapons. Dr. Shapiro also studies the recently described cytokine Interleukin-18 in HIV pathogenesis in several models in vitro. Also, stress-activated mitogen activated protein (MAP) kinase signaling pathways are being assessed in HIV pathogenesis.
Board of Directors
Charles A. Dinarello, M.D. was appointed Acting Chief Executive Officer on March 31, 2009. Dr. Dinarello has been our principal investigator for cell graft rejection and has been a member of the our Scientific Advisory Board since October 2008. Dr. Dinarello is Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver. Until 1996, he was Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and a staff physician at the New England Medical Center Hospital in Boston. Dr. Dinarello received his medical degree from Yale University and his clinical training at the Massachusetts General Hospital. From 1971 to 1974, he was a clinical associate and from 1975 to 1977 a senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. Dr. Dinarello has published over 700 original research articles on cytokines, particularly interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor. The Institute for Scientific Information listed him as the world's fourth most cited scientist (all sciences) for the 20 years of 1983-2003. He was elected into the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1998 and is currently a member of the editorial board of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Dinarello is a director of Techne Corporation (NASDAQ NNM: TECH), and serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Senesco Technologies, Inc., Source MDx, Aveo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., GlobeImmune, Inc., and Capstone.
Vicki D.E. Barone has served as the Chairperson of our board since March 31, 2009. From March 31, 2008 until March 31, 2009, she served as the Chairperson of the board of Apro Bio Pharmaceutical Corporation, the predecessor operating company to Omni (“Apro Bio”). Since 1996, Ms. Barone has served as the Chief Financial and Compliance Officer for Bathgate Capital Partners LLC (“BCP”), formerly known as Bathgate McColley Capital Group, a full-service Investment Bank focused on the microcap space. In addition, as Senior Managing Partner and a member of the Commitment Committee, she actively manages the corporate finance projects of the firm. She is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Financial Planner and received her BS in Finance and MS in Accounting from the University of Colorado.
Michael D. Iseman, M.D. was appointed to our board in April 2009. From August 2008 until March 31, 2009, he was a director of Apro Bio. Dr. Iseman has been a Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver since 1980 with appointments in both the Division of Pulmonary Medicine and Infectious Diseases. Since 1983 he has also been a physician with the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, CO and currently serves as its Chief of the Clinical Mycobacterial Disease Service. His primary research interests relate to drug-resistant tuberculosis and disease due to the “atypical mycobacteria.” He has been a consultant for the Colorado State Health Department, The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. He was Editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases and author of the textbook published in 2009 called “A Clinician’s Guide to Tuberculosis.” He has received numerous honors including the Edward Livingston Trudeau award from the American Thoracic Society and American Lung Association (2005), the Gold Medal for Clinical Excellence of the Columbia Alumni Association (1995), election to the Colorado Pulmonary Hall of Fame (1997), the Governors’ Community Service Award from the CHEST Foundation (2004) and the Robert W. Schrier Award for Excellence from the Department of Medicine of the University of Colorado (2007). Dr. Iseman received his undergraduate degree with honors from Princeton in 1961, and his MD from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1965.
Michael D. Wort was appointed to our board in April 2009. From October 1, 2008 until December 31, 2008, Mr. Wort served as the Interim Chief Executive Officer of Apro Bio. He is a Chartered Graduate Biologist with a background in Industrial Microbiology. He has lectured both in the UK and overseas in Industrial, Pharmaceutical and Medical Microbiology. He spent 16 years in the pharmaceutical industry in a variety of sales, marketing and general management positions with Glaxo, SmithKline and Wellcome both in the UK and overseas. During 9 years as a small-cap specialist in the healthcare industry, he has been involved in more than 10 initial public offerings and over 20 secondary fundings raising more than £200 million. He is non-executive director of AudioVisual Prescriptions Limited. Additionally, Michael is Managing Director of Beckpharma, Ltd., a London based pharmaceutical development company and is now Managing Director of De Facto.
Albert L. Kramer was appointed to our board in April 2009. From April 2008 until March 31, 2009, he was a director of Apro Bio. Judge Kramer has served as an attorney, a State District Court Judge for the State of Massachusetts, Chief Policy Advisor to the Governor of Massachusetts and a Massachusetts State Legislator. Since 1993, Judge Kramer has been in private practice and also served as In-house Counsel to Syratech Corporation from 1993 to 2005 and as Chief Counsel to Travelers Marketing, LLC since 2004. Judge Kramer received his undergraduate and law degrees from Boston University.
Steven M. Bathgate was appointed to our board in April 2009. From April 2008 until March 31, 2009, he was a director of Apro Bio. Since 1996, Mr. Bathgate has served as Senior Managing Partner of Bathgate Capital Partners LLC. Prior to starting BCP, he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cohig & Associates, Inc., an Investment Bank specializing in public and private financing for emerging growth companies. Mr. Bathgate currently serves on the board of directors of Peerless Systems Corp. (Nasdaq: PRLS), Creston Resources, Inc. (pink sheets: CSTJ) and formerly served on the board of directors of Birner Dental Services Management Inc. (Nasdaq: BDMS). He received his BS degree in Finance from the University of Colorado.
Jeffrey S. Sperber was appointed to our Board in October 2009. Mr. Sperber has over 20 years of senior managment financial experience and currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer of Ceragenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly traded medical device company. From 2001 to 2004, he served as the Vice President and Controller of TeleTech Holdings, Inc., a $1 billion, global public company, which provides outsourced call center services primarily to the Fortune 1000. From 1997 to 2001, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of USOL HOldings, Inc., a publicly traded broadband provider focused on multi-family housing communities, where he led a successful public offering of USOL's common stock. Mr. Sperber began his career at Arthur Andersen LLP and received his CPA license in the state of Colorado, which has since expired.
Management Team
Edward C. Larkin was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in May 2009 and previously served as Interim Chief Financial Officer since January 2007. Since April of 2002, Mr. Larkin has served as Director of Corporate Finance for BCP. Mr. Larkin has 32 years of experience in the securities industry, enveloping most areas of broker-dealer operational expertise, including accounting, operations, compliance, management, research and corporate finance. Prior to joining BCP, Mr. Larkin has held diverse positions at Cohig & Associates, including acting as President, Chief Financial Officer, Director of Research and Managing Director, Corporate Finance. He is one of the 12 founding members of the National Investment Banking Association (“NIBA”) and served on its board of directors from 1997 to 2000. Mr. Larkin has acted as an outside director for three NASDAQ companies. He received his BS degree in Finance and Marketing from the University of Colorado and an MBA from the University of Denver.
Robert C. Ogden was appointed Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Secretary in May 2009. Mr. Ogden has over 20 years of senior financial management experience in both private and public companies. From 2007 to 2009, Mr. Ogden was a financial consultant, primarily providing services to public companies, ranging in size from Fortune 500 to micro-cap. From 2004 to 2007, Mr. Ogden served as Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Secretary of SAN Holdings, Inc., a publicly-traded data storage solutions provider and software company, where he was responsible for all administrative and finance functions. From 2000 to 2004, he was a financial consultant, primarily providing financial controller and financial reporting services for both private and public companies in a variety of industries, including software, computer hardware and financial services. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Vice President, Corporate Controller and Chief Accounting Officer for TAVA Technologies, Inc., a publicly held, national systems integration and software company. He began his career as a public accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mr. Ogden holds a B.S. in Commerce from the University of Virginia and is a CPA.
Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Iseman is currently our chairperson.
Dr. James Mier has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board since October 2008. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. He is also a practicing physician in the Division of Hematology-Oncology at Beth Israel. Dr. Mier is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Senesco Technologies Inc. Dr. Mier's research is funded by the NIH and he is a member of numerous professional societies.
Dr. James D. Crapo has been a member of the Scientific Advisory board since October 2008. He is Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs of National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colorado. Since 2004, Dr. Crapo has served as President of the Fleischner Society. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of Aeolus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (formerly Incara Pharmaceuticals Corp.) In addition to his administrative duties at National Jewish, his responsibilities include clinical care of patients and scientific research. He is one of the scientific co-founders of Incaras catalytic antioxidant drug development program and has been the program’s Chief Scientific Officer since its inception. He was the Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colorado from 1996 to 2004. Prior to 1996, he served on the faculty of Duke University Medical Center, where he served for 17 years as the Chief of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Division. He is the author of more than 200 original scientific publications, numerous book chapters and seven textbooks.
Dr. Eli Lewis has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board since May 2009 and is the director of the Clinical Islet Laboratory with Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Dr. Lewis is has also been a lecturer in clinical biochemistry for the faculty of Health Sciences Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Dr. Lewis received his undergraduate, masters and Ph.D degrees from Ben Gurion University of the Negev and received his Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Dr. Lewis received the Magna Cum Laude distinction in the masters program and the Summa Cum Laude in the Ph.D program at Ben Gurion. In October 2008, Dr. Lewis co-published a study in the Publication of the National Academy of Sciences with our Acting Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Charles Dinarello, and University of Colorado researcher Dr. Leland Shapiro titled “Alpha-1-Antitrypsin Monotherapy Induces Immune Tolerance during Islet Allograft Transplantation in Mice.” Dr. Lewis is a member of numerous professional societies.
