COGNOS THERAPEUTICS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
Chris Smith, a director nominee, is a certified public accountant, licensed in the state of California, with over 35 years of experience in the public accounting profession, retiring from BDO, an international accounting and auditing firm, in 2022. From 1992 to 2022, he served in various roles, holding progressively more responsible roles within the BDO organization concluding with Global Head of Accounting and Auditing. During his time at BDO, in addition to serving as an engagement partner and engagement quality reviewer on audit engagements of both publicly held and privately owned entities in a variety of industries, Mr. Smith held various technical positions within BDO focused on audit quality, audit methodology, and accounting matters. He held seats on various professional and industry boards, committees and groups focused on the audit profession. He was a frequent lecturer and presenter on technical accounting and auditing topics. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Montana State University and an MBA from the University of San Francisco. We believe Mr. Smith experiences and education qualify him to serve as a member of our board of directors.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
Craig Burson, a director nominee, has served as the founder and Managing Member of Peak 8 Capital, LLC and Ski Mountain Properties, LLC, two commercial real estate businesses, since April 2020. From January 2021 to October 2022, Mr. Burson served as a board member and chairman of the audit committee of LMF Acquisition Opportunities, Inc., a special purpose acquisition company that merged with SeaStar Medical, Inc. (Nasdaq: ICU) in October 2022. From January 2000 to March 2020, Mr. Burson worked for H.I.G. Capital, LLC ("H.I.G."), a leading global alternative investment firm with approximately $58 billion of equity capital under management and a focus on the small cap and mid cap segments of the market. From June 2003 until March 2020, Mr. Burson served as a Managing Director for H.I.G.'s Growth Equity and VC funds. During his 20-year career at H.I.G., Mr. Burson focused on making investments in the business services, consumer, healthcare, and technology sectors. Mr. Burson was involved with over 20 investments while at H.I.G., sat on many of the boards of companies in which investments were made, and was a member of the audit and compensation committees for a number of his investments. Prior to H.I.G., Mr. Burson was a member of the Raymond James & Associates technology investment banking practice, where he was active in public offerings, private placements, and mergers & acquisitions. In addition, Mr. Burson had a 15-year career with the Dow Chemical Company, holding management positions in engineering, sales, marketing, and new business development. His focus at the Dow Chemical Company was on the healthcare, semiconductor, water treatment, mining, and oil & gas industries. Mr. Burson also served as a development leader at Dowell Schlumberger, where he was involved with advanced oil & gas treatment technologies. In addition, he spent time in the trenches working as a roust-a-bout for Phillips Petroleum while earning his engineering degree. Mr. Burson earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mining Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. We believe that Mr. Burson is well-qualified to serve on our Board due to his experience in finance and investments, including investments in the technology sector, as well as his board and audit committee service.
Job Titles:
- Member of the IP Management Team
- Chief IP Counsel
For almost fifty years, Dan Dawes has been involved in helping a wide variety of clients in creating and securing their Intellectual Property assets through astute patent, copyright, and trademark protection strategies. He has served with several high-ranking law firms in creating and defending client patent and copyright matters ranging from digital technologies, including the initial patent writing for the Intel 8086 and 8087 microprocessors, to in-flight projection systems, and data tape recorders. Dan has created patents on advanced Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), nanotechnologies, laser-based biomedical imaging systems, and many biomedical devices. In the latter category, Dan was responsible for performing the extensive patent work in domestic and foreign patenting of the Guglielmi Detachable Coils, a brain aneurysm catheter and implantation system, which has virtually replaced craniotomies as the standard treatment for brain aneurysms.
In addition to his technology expertise, Dan has also served in developing and creating IP for many well-known companies. This includes Bell and Howell, where he served as in-house patent counsel providing corporate patent services for five of the company's divisions. He also worked with Lucasfilm Ltd. where he served as vice president and intellectual property general counsel and was extensively involved in merchandising the Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Indiana Jones series of films under creator George Lucas.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Management Team
- Manager, Special Regulatory & Compliance
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Clinical Advisory Board
Dr. Sloan is an award-winning and respected leader in the field of Neurosurgery with deep experience in the pathology and treatment of gliomas and other brain cancers. He currently serves as the Director of the Brain Tumor and Neuro-Oncology Center at the University Hospital at the Cleveland Medical Center as well as being the Vice Chairman for the Department of Neurological Surgery at the Center. In addition, Dr. Sloan is a Professor of Neurosurgery at the Case Western Research University School of Medicine (CWRU). Prior to CWRU, Dr. Sloan held positions at many of the nation's top hospitals for Neuro-Oncology including the University of South Florida H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute and the Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute both in Tampa, Florida, the Grace/Sinai Hospital and the Children's Hospital of Michigan, Wayne State University and the Karmanos Cancer Institute, all in Detroit, Michigan.
Dr. Sloan received his graduate degree in Biology from Yale and his medical degree from Harvard followed by fourteen years of postgraduate study at prestigious institutions such as UCLA's School of Medicine and the MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is certified by both the National Board of Medical Examiners and the American Board of Neurologic Surgery. His clinical and research interests focus on the biology and treatment of tumors of the brain and spine.
Dr. Sloan has been recognized by his peers as one of the "Best Doctors in America" since 2003 and as one of the "Top Surgeons in America" since 2007. In 2014, he was elected President of the Ohio State Neurosurgical Society.
Dr. Sloan's research on glioma vaccines and glioma stem cells has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, the Ohio Third Frontier organization, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Brain Tumor Association, Adult Brain Tumor Consortium, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and other national organizations, and he is currently helping to develop a new generation of neurosurgical simulators.
Dr. Sloan has authored more than 135 publications in peer-reviewed journals, as well as numerous editorials, reviews, and book chapters made more than 525 invited presentations, and holds four patents and investigational new drug applications. He serves on the editorial board of several neurosurgical and scientific journals and is active in national surgical organizations, including the American Association of Neurological Surgery and the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group. He appears regularly on national news broadcasts as a brain cancer expert.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Management Team
- FACC, FACPD / Chief Medical Officer
- Fellow of the American College of Cardiology
Dr. Gang practices medicine full-time, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of complex arrhythmias. He is an expert in catheter ablation and implantation of pacemakers and automatic defibrillators. His research interests have included the development of advanced ECG technologies as well as the development of robotic approaches to ablation in the heart. He completed his medical studies, residency, and cardiology fellowship at Columbia University and is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Clinical Electrophysiology. Dr. Gang has served as co-director of clinical electrophysiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, and Heart Rhythm Society
Dr. Gang is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, Heart Rhythm Society, American Heart Association, and the American College of Physicians.
Job Titles:
- Leader
- Member of the Clinical Advisory Board
- FAANS / Board Member
Dr. Lang is a leader in the field of neurosurgery with a particular focus on deep-seated brain tumors located in eloquent brain regions. Currently, Dr. Lang is a tenured professor for the Department of Neurosurgery, Division of Surgery at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (UTMDACC) in Houston. He also serves as Director of Clinical Research at the Center. Dr. Lang is a faculty member at UTMDACC's Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and an Adjunct Professor for the Department of Neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine.
Dr. Lang earned a BS in Biology at Yale and received his MD from Yale University School of Medicine. He went on to complete his residency in neurosurgery at New York University Medical Center as well as a fellowship in neurosurgical oncology at UTMDACC. Dr. Lang is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including America's Top Doctors for Cancer, Guide to America's Top Surgeons, the Preuss Research Award, the Mahaley Award, and the Michael S. Voynick Award in Neuro-Oncology. He is an NIH-funded translational researcher who has published extensively on gene, viral, and cellular therapies for brain tumors and is a Principal Investigator on multiple clinical trials that investigate these new approaches. He has served on the Executive Committee of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons' CNS Section on Tumors and is the past Chair of this section.
Dr. Lang is a past president and current board member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Neuro-Oncology. He is board-certified in neurosurgery and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Lang is an Associate Editor of Neurosurgery and on the Editorial Board of Neuro-Oncology and Translational Oncology. He served on the Developmental Therapeutic Study Section within the NIH until his tenure ended in 2011, He has continued as an ad hoc reviewer for NIH and is frequently requested as a national and international lecturer. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Head
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Clinical Advisory Board
- Professor
Dr. Gabra is a Professor of Medical Oncology and Deputy Head of the Division of Cancer. He is Head of the Molecular Therapeutics Unit and Director of the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre at Imperial College located in the United Kingdom. Within Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, he is the Head of the Medical Oncology, Chair of the Cancer Research Committee, and is an Honorary Consultant Medical Oncologist. He is also Associate Director and Lead of the Cancer Division 1 of the NIHR Clinical Research Network for North West London.
Dr. Gabra studied Medicine at the University of Glasgow and graduated with a Bachelor of Science with an Honors degree in Molecular Biology a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery in 1987. After obtaining Membership at the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom in 1990, he undertook a Master of Science degree in Clinical Oncology and a PhD in Molecular Oncology from the University of Edinburgh. He then completed his specialist training in Cancer Medicine in Edinburgh and was a CRUK Clinical Scientist and Consultant Medical Oncologist at the CRUK (Cancer Research the United Kingdom) Edinburgh Medical Oncology Unit from 1998 to 2003 when he came to Imperial as Chair of Medical Oncology.
He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and London as well as leading the Ovarian Cancer Program at Imperial. His laboratory is involved in trying to understand the role of tumor suppressor genes in ovarian cancer, particularly how OPCML (Opioid Binding Protein/Cell Adhesion Molecule Like) regulates networks of receptor tyrosine kinases and how WWOX (WW Domain-Containing Oxidoreductase) acts to regulate taxane sensitivity. His clinical translational interests relate to the understanding of platinum resistance in ovarian cancer, and he has developed several molecular targets whose inhibition can reverse platinum resistance from laboratory to clinic.
He is President of the European Translational Ovarian Cancer Network (EUTROC), a multinational group that undertakes science in ovarian cancer clinical trials, principally in the context of complex phase II clinical trials. He currently sits on the CRUK Clinical Trials Awards the Advisory Committee funding committee for the UK and the INCa Scientific Evaluation Committee, Institut National Du Cancer of France. He is on the Editorial Boards of several journals including Gynecologic Oncology and the European Journal of Cancer. Dr. Gabra's research is principally funded by Ovarian Cancer Action, the national ovarian cancer charity. He is also funded by CRUK and EU FP7 as well as translational clinical trials funding from pharmaceutical collaborations. Dr. Gabra is widely published in his field.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Management Team
- Lead Regulatory for EU CE Mark
Dr. Jaap Laufer has over 30 years of regulatory and clinical experience. He specializes in implant, high-risk device, and combination product submissions, FDA QSR compliance, and clinical study submissions and compliance. As Emergo's Medical Director, he is an expert reviewer of clinical data and evidence for novel and high-risk devices. In his additional capacity as a senior clinical consultant, he also peer reviews EU clinical evidence submissions and product classification, and assists with Notified Body management. He has attended countless meetings with the FDA and Notified Bodies.
Dr. Laufer teaches International Regulatory Affairs at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles and is an active collaborator at the UCI incubation structure (Beall Institute and ULP "wet labs"). He is also a permanent member of the Medical Devices Coordination Group (MDCG) to the European Commission for Classification, formerly the Medical Devices Experts Group (MDEG, since 2005). He is the founder of EMDC, a small company in Europe that specializes in FDA compliance for non-US companies. In 1999 Dr. Laufer established the European Association of Authorized Representatives, a small but rather influential trade organization.
He held corporate positions in Regulatory and Clinical Affairs in Switzerland-based Lipomatrix (mammary implants), Pfizer Hospital Products Europe, and Abbott Laboratories (drugs).
Dr. Laufer holds degrees in Pharmacy and Medicine from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He published numerous articles in his areas of expertise and has presented at numerous national and international meetings. He is married and has two children, who have their own families in Irvine, CA, and in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Clinical Advisory Board
Dr. Bruce is a leading authority on complex tumors of the brain and skull base. He leads a multidisciplinary effort as Co-Director of the Brain Tumor Center and Director of Skull Base Surgery at the Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Bruce specializes in the surgical treatment of gliomas, meningiomas, pituitary tumors, skull base tumors, craniopharyngiomas, and pineal tumors. His surgical expertise includes extensive experience with minimally invasive techniques and stereotactic surgery as well as surgical alternatives such as radiosurgery. This broad expertise allows treatment to be tailored and optimized for individual patients according to their needs.
As Co-Director of the Brain Tumor Center at the Bartoli Brain Tumor Research Laboratory, and The Pituitary Tumor Center, Dr. Bruce leads an NIH-funded translational brain tumor research effort with interests in immunotherapy and drug delivery systems. In addition to his laboratory research interests, he is actively involved in experimental clinical protocols for the treatment of brain tumors.
Dr. Bruce received his BA degree in biological chemistry with honors from the University of Virginia in 1978 and his MD degree from UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in 1983. Following an internship in General Surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, he served as a medical staff fellow in the Surgical Neurology Branch of the National Institute of Health from 1984-1985. Between 1985 and 1990, he completed a neurosurgery residency at the Neurological Institute at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Following the completion of his residency, he began his tenure at Columbia University Medical Center.
Dr. Bruce is a past president of the New York Society for Neurosurgery and serves on the editorial boards of Neurosurgery and Current Surgery. Additionally, he serves on the Executive Board of the Joint Section on Tumors for the AANS/CNS, the Scientific Advisory Council for the American Brain Tumor Association, and the Goldhirsch Foundation. He is a member of the AAcNS and is Secretary/Treasurer of the Society of University Neurosurgeons.
Dr. Bruce's special interests include Brain Tumors, Skull Base Tumors, Pituitary Tumors, and Gamma Knife Radiosurgery.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Clinical Advisory Board
Dr. Sampson is internationally recognized in the field of neurosurgery and has received a number of national and international awards and grants in recognition of his expertise in neuro-oncology especially in the area of immunotherapy for brain tumors. He is currently Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery for the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Sampson is also a professor in Biomedical Engineering, Immunology, Pathology, and Radiation Oncology for the Center.
Dr. Sampson received both his BS and MD from the University of Manitoba. He went on to earn his MBA, an MHS, and his Ph.D. from Duke University before joining the Duke University Neurosurgery Residency Program. After completion, he became a senior staff member in the Division of Neurosurgery.
Dr. Sampson has received special training in the surgical resection of very complex brain tumors. In addition, he has extensive experience in the design and conduct of clinical trials. He did his research training under internationally renowned scientist, Darell D. Bigner, and Nobel Laureate, Gertrude Elion. He was the recipient of the Abhijit Guha Award in 2015 as well as the Young Clinical Investigator Award (1999), Researcher of the Year Award (2007), America's Top Doctors (2009), and America's Top Surgeons (2012).
Dr. Sampson currently focuses his clinical practice on treating patients with both benign and malignant brain tumors and divides his time between his clinical practice and an active research laboratory investigating new modalities of direct brain tumor infusion and immunotherapy.
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Clinical Advisory Board
Dr. O'Neill is a Consultant Neurosurgeon and Head of Neurosurgery at Charing Cross Hospital for the Imperial College NHS Trust. He is also an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Division of Clinical Neuroscience for the college. During his undergraduate work at St. Mary's Hospital in Paddington, he won a Medical Research Council award to study Neuroscience as an intercalated BSc. He was one of the first graduates under the newly formed alliance of St. Mary's and Imperial College.
Dr. O'Neill was appointed Registrar at The Atkinson Morleys Hospital in 1993 and the Sir Wylie McKissock Lecturer in Neurosurgery at St. Georges Hospital Medical School in 1994. He went on to become Senior Registrar in 1995 at Atkinson Morleys Hospital. Dr. O'Neill has produced several papers on the subjects of subarachnoid hemorrhage and novel investigative and treatment approaches to vasospasm, peripheral nerve, and spinal neurosurgery.
In 2004 he co-founded the Brain Tumor Research Campaign Charity to seed fund a research program that has since been awarded as PI Centre of Excellence for its broad translational studies including advanced imaging biomarkers and early detection strategies, characterization of epigenetic and metabolic vulnerabilities of brain tumors. Dr. O'Neill continues to pursue research into Neuroprotection and treatment of cerebral ischemia following intracranial hemorrhage, brain tumor invasion, and novel treatments as well as spinal cord and peripheral nerve regeneration.
Dr. O'Neill holds memberships in the Society of British Neurological Surgeons, the British Neurosurgical Research Group, the British Neuro-Oncology Group, and the Research Society of Neurological Surgeons.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Clinical Advisory Board
- Director of the Department of Neurosurgery for the University Clinic Hamburg - Eppendorf
- Member of the German Academy of Neurosurgery
Dr. Westphal is the Director of the Department of Neurosurgery for the University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf (UCHE) in Hamburg, Germany. Dr. Westphal specializes in neuro-oncology and neurovascular diseases. He has published more than 230 Medline-listed publications and 50 book chapters.
In addition to his appointment at UCHE, Dr. Westphal is also a member of the German Academy of Neurosurgery, a member of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies, and is a Past President of the German Academy of Neurosurgery. During his career, Dr. Westphal has held many prominent offices including the Chairmanship of the EANS Committee for Neuro-Oncology from 1995 to 2003, Secretary of the EANS from 2003 to 2007, Collegiate of the Neuro-Science Panel of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) from 2003 to 2012, Chairman of the Neuro-Oncology Committee of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies from 2009 to 2013. In addition, Dr. Westphal has been a standing Board Member of the European Brain Council since 2003.
Dr. Westphal is also a member of several key neuroscience and neuromedical associations including the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Endokrinologie ( German Society for Endocrinology), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (German Society of Neurosurgery), the Deutsche Akademie für Neurochirurgie (German Academy of Neurosurgery) and the Deutsche Krebsgesellschaft (German Cancer Society).
Dr. Westphal attended the Gymnasium Uhlenhorst, Barmbek for his secondary education before going onto Medical School at the University of Hamburg where he earned his MD. During that time he also served a one-year academic study at the University of Glasgow Medical School in the United Kingdom. Dr. Westphal's post-doctoral work was done at the University of California, San Francisco's Medical School in the Hormone Research Laboratory.
Upon returning to Hamburg Dr. Westphal established the Laboratory for Brain Tumor Biology within the Department of Neurosurgery at the University Hamburg-Eppendorf and shortly thereafter received his board certification and promotion to Associate Professor. Dr. Westphal was confirmed as Director of the Department of Neurosurgery in Hamburg in 2002.
Job Titles:
- Chief
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Clinical Advisory Board
- Professor
Dr. Marc C. Chamberlain is Professor of Neurology and Neurological Surgery and Chief of the Division of Neuro-Oncology at the University of Washington Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance in Seattle, Washington. Many of the methods used today in evaluating and managing neoplastic meningitis were developed by Dr. Chamberlain. Since 1995 Dr. Chamberlain's clinical and research interests have been in the area of primary brain tumors, with a focus on clinical trials.
Dr. Chamberlain earned a BA in Zoology and a BS in Biochemistry from the University of California in Berkeley. He went on to receive his medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. He performed his internship at Bronx Municipal Hospital Center. Dr. Chamberlain is currently a professor of Neurology at the University of Washington's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
Dr. Chamberlain has published more than 175 papers and developed many of the methods used today in evaluating and managing neoplastic meningitis. He is a certified member of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology as well as the American Board of Pediatrics. He was recognized as one of the 100 Best Doctors in Seattle by Seattle Magazine in 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2015. In 2016 Dr. Chamberlain was recognized as a "Top Doctor" in Seattle Met's annual survey. He served as a Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery in the Department of Neurology at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles as well as being a professor at the Department of Interdisciplinary Oncology at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute.
Dr. Chamberlain is a member of several professional organizations including the Child Neurology Society, the Northern California Cancer Group, the Society for Neuro-Oncology, the American Academy of Neurology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the European Association of Neuro-Oncology. He has served on numerous national and international high-level committees on neurology and cancer treatment including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the National Cancer Committee Network, the Austrian Science Fund, the Roche, the Steering Committee for Vemurafenib and Melanoma Brain Metastases, and several NIH SPORE grant review committees. He was the lead director for both the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance clinical trials of the use of Radiation Therapy and Temozolomide for Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma and a study on recurrent high-grade gliomas.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Clinical Advisory Board
Dr. Mitchel S. Berger is a nationally recognized expert in treating brain and spinal cord tumors and tumor-related epilepsy in adults and children. He also is a specialist in brain mapping techniques, used to identify areas of motor, sensory, and language function during surgery, and an expert in the use of the Gamma Knife for tumor treatment. Dr. Berger is the Chair of Neurological Surgery at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center. He is the Co-Director of the Adult Brain Tumor Surgery Program, Director of the Brain Tumor Research Center, and Director of the Center for Neurological Injury and Repair. In addition, Dr. Berger is the Director of the Adult Hydrocephalus and Shunt Program and practices in the Neuro-Oncology Program and the Radiosurgery Program.
Dr. Berger earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1975 and a medical degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine in 1979. He completed an internship and residency at UCSF and was awarded a clinical fellowship in neuro-oncology by the American Cancer Society and a research fellowship with the Brain Tumor Research Center. He completed further fellowship training in neuro-oncology at UCSF and in pediatric neurosurgery at the Hospital for Sick Children of the University of Toronto, Canada. His professional activities include his election to the board of directors of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and his appointment to the American Board of Neurological Surgeons. Berger is board-certified in neurosurgery.
Dr. Berger's main clinical interests are the treatment of brain tumors in adults and children as well as epilepsy related to brain tumors. He has extensive expertise in the intraoperative mapping of the brain to identify the sites of motor, sensory, and language function and thereby avoid their involvement or injury during surgery.
His current research interests involve identifying molecular markers in gliomas as correlates of tumor progression and prognosis. He is a Co-Investigator with Dr. John Park in UCSF's Comprehensive Cancer Center to develop immuno-liposome-directed targeted therapy for treating gliomas that express EGF receptors. Other collaborations include functional mapping localization of language pathways in the brain in conjunction with Dr. Robert Knight and the Cognitive Neuroscience Graduate Program at UC Berkeley.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Clinical Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Clinical Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Management Team
- Lead Regulatory Consultant
Dr. Susan Alpert has served as the Lead Regulatory Consultant of Cognos since February 2019. Since leaving Medtronic in 2011, she has served as a consultant and in the management of a number of start-up medical technology companies as well as a consultant to several investment groups in the medical technology space. She is the principal of SFADC LLC, a consulting firm to companies seeking FDA authorization for their products. In her eight-year career with Medtronic, she held many positions, including six years as Senior Vice President, Chief Regulatory Officer of Medtronic. In that role, Dr. Alpert was responsible for all Medtronic's global regulatory efforts. Prior to joining Medtronic, Dr. Alpert served as Vice President of Regulatory Sciences for C.R. Bard, Inc. She also previously worked at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) where she held a variety of positions in the centers dealing with drugs, devices, and radiological health and foods, including six years as the Director of the Office of Device Evaluation. Dr. Alpert is a Microbiologist and Pediatrician with a specialty in infectious diseases and has practical experience in laboratory research and clinical trials. Dr. Alpert completed her undergraduate degree at Barnard College, Columbia University, and holds a Master's degree and PhD in Biomedical Sciences from New York University. She received her Medical Degree from the University of Miami and completed her clinical training at Montefiore Medical Center and at Children's National Medical Center.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Clinical Advisory Board
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Executive Management Team
- Chief Neurosurgeon & Oncology Officer & Board Member
Dr. Thomas Chen has served as the Chief Neurosurgeon & Oncology Officer of Cognos since 2016, and as member of the board since 2016. He is a physician, a board certified neurosurgeon, and the Director of Surgical Neuro-oncology at USC. He is also a tenured Professor of Neurosurgery and Pathology at USC. Dr. Chen received his MD from University of California, San Francisco (1988); he graduated from his neurosurgery residency training at the University of Southern California (1995). In order to prepare for his career in neuro-oncology, Dr. Chen obtained his PhD degree in pathobiology from the University of Southern California (1996). His thesis was on the role of immunotherapy in malignant brain tumors. He is a fellowship-trained spine surgeon (1997) and one of a few surgical neuro-oncologists in the country who specialize in spine cancer surgery. Currently, Dr. Chen maintains a clinical practice in both surgical neuro-oncology and spine surgery. He heads a research laboratory focused on glioma biology at USC and is involved in developing new and novel treatments for the treatment of brain and spinal tumor disease. He is also co-developing surgical therapies is based on the newest techniques in microdissection and image guidance using neuronavigational therapy. Dr. Chen is a member of several professional societies including the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the American Association of Neurological Surgery, and the American Association of Cancer Research as well as several others. He is the recipient of many awards and peer recognition including being named one of Southern California Super Doctors by Los Angeles Magazine in 2015, one of America's Top Surgeons in 2007 and one of America's Top Oncologists (for Neuro-Oncology) in 2007. Dr. Chen has published extensively on glioma biology and neurosurgery. He is on the editorial board for The Spine Journal and Journal of Neuro-oncology, and is on the review board for Neurosurgery and Journal of Neurosurgery. Dr. Chen also serves on numerous national neurosurgery committees. Dr. Chen graduated summa cum laude in three years from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, where he received Bronze Tablet honors (top 3% of undergraduate students) and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa national academic honor society. He attended the University of California, San Francisco, for medical school where he was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha national medical honor society. We believe Dr. Chen's leadership experience in Neuro-oncology makes him an invaluable member of the board of directors.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Management Team
- Chief of Research & Operation, Consultant
Dr. Thomas Lobl holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and did post-graduate work at Caltech and Rockefeller University. He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over four decades in both big pharma and biotech industries. In 2002, he joined the Al Mann family of companies at AlleCure/Mannkind as Vice-President of Research and Development and was subsequently promoted to Senior Vice-President of R&D.
In January 2004, he helped start NeuroSystec, an Alfred Mann-funded company. NeuroSystec devised a therapy to inhibit the spontaneous firing of the spiral ganglion for the treatment of tinnitus, an auditory dysfunction that affects more than 50 million people in the US alone. Dr. Lobl served as acting CEO of the company for nearly seven years.
From October 2011 until October 2015, Dr. Lobl worked as an Emerging Technology Strategist at the Alfred Mann Foundation. In November 2015, he began working at the Alfred Mann Institute at USC as an Entrepreneur in Residence and as a consultant.
Dr. Lobl has over 74 publications and patents and has been a scientific reviewer or editorial board member in a variety of scientific journals. He has been a board member as well as an officer of a number of scientific organizations and is currently Past Chair of the American Tinnitus Association Board of Directors and on the Keck Graduate Institute's Advisory Council.
Dr. Lobl has been on a number of NIH grant review study sections and is a consumer reviewer for the U.S. government's Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. Dr. Lobl has scientific and research experience in a broad range of medical areas including medicinal and peptide/protein chemistry, drug discovery and development, clinical development, and drug, and tissue-specific delivery systems in cancer, inflammatory, infectious, reproductive, and endocrinology diseases areas. He is currently working in the neurobiology area for diseases/injuries of the brain, metronomic drug-delivery devices for the brain and brain cancer, and peripheral nervous system using medical devices and novel drug-delivery systems.
Job Titles:
- Chief Technology Officer
- Member of the Executive Management Team
- Senior VP of Product Development & CTO
Dr. Winston Wu has served as the Senior Vice President of Product Development and Chief Technology Officer of Cognos since July 2017. At UCLA, his work in creating one of the first wearable body sensor systems based around a smartphone was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and he helped define and create a first-of-its-kind fully integrated cane device with motion acceleration, rotational gyroscope, and pressure sensors targeted towards elder cane users. His industrial experience has been focused on FDA-regulated medical devices. He was the team leader of many projects from concept to commercialization and is the author of ten IEEE journal and conference publications and holds twelve patents relating to various innovative medical technology systems and concepts. He has been recognized for his achievements by many groups including winning a Fellowship Award from the NIH and being given a scholarship from the Leon Weinberg Memorial Scholarship Organization. In addition to his work with Cognos, Dr. Wu currently serves on the editorial board of IEEE Journal of Biomedical Health Informatics. Dr. Wu has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from San Francisco State University and a PhD in Electrical Engineering for Embedded Computing Systems from UCLA.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Co - Founder
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Executive Management Team
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Board
Frank Adell is the co-founder of Cognos and has served as the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board since the company's inception. From August of 2006 to July of 2015, Mr. Adell was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Pharmaco-Kinesis Corporation, the predecessor of Cognos, and from August 2016 to January 2021, he was the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Autonomous Medical Devices Incorporated, a medical development and manufacturing company with a focus on developing point-of-care diagnostic tools for diseases. Mr. Adell earned a Bachelor of Science degree with an emphasis in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Washington in Seattle. Mr. Adell is the recipient of the 2007 Congressional Order of Merit and is a member of the 2006 Business Advisory Board of the National Republican Congressional Committee. He received a Congressional Medal of Distinction from President George W. Bush in 2008 at the President's Dinner in Washington, D.C., and has worked with numerous government agencies, including the State Department and the FAA. In 1996, Mr. Adell received a letter of recognition from the FAA on behalf of President Clinton for his contributions to the security of the airline industry. His professional career began in 1980 as a nuclear engineer at Bechtel Corporation after receiving a Bachelor of Science degree with an emphasis in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Washington in Seattle. We believe Mr. Adell's leadership experience in the medical device technologies industry and board governance experience makes him an invaluable member of the board of directors.
Job Titles:
- Chief Innovation Officer
- CIO
- Co - Founder
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Executive Management Team
Josh Shachar is a co-founder of Cognos and has served as the Chief Innovation Officer and a member of the board since the company's inception. Mr. Shachar has held many executive management positions at high-technology companies dealing directly with the United States Department of Defense. Mr. Shachar began his professional career in 1981 at ThermoControl, Inc. in Chatsworth, California, as the founder and Vice President of Engineering. This company was acquired by Daily Instrument of Houston, Texas. In 1996, Mr. Shachar served as the Vice President of Engineering at Pastushin Aviation, Inc. In the following year, Mr. Shachar founded and served as the President of Lambda Signatics, Inc., which was later acquired by Shapco Industries. Mr. Shachar is still the principal owner and founder of numerous high-technology companies including ThermoCouple America LLC, EDEL Engineering Development Corp., and Engineered Magnetics, Inc. Mr. Shachar is an author of numerous U.S. Patent applications in medical, biometrics, and diagnostic applications. Mr. Shachar attended the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. After completing his studies there, Mr. Shachar returned to Israel where he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelors's and Masters's degree in Philosophy of Science and Mathematics from the University of Haifa in Israel. He earned a Fullbright Scholarship which he used to begin a doctoral program at the University of Southern California. Mr. Shachar holds more than 90 patents related to his advanced medical device technology and his work has been published in several leading journals. We believe Mr. Shachar's leadership experience in advanced medical technologies and board governance experience makes him an invaluable member of the board of directors.
Job Titles:
- Member of the IP Management Team
- IP Portfolio Manager
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
* Anticipated Board of Director: Agreed to join the Board upon closing of the business combination
Job Titles:
- Lecturer in Neurosurgery ( 1994 )