Board of Advisors

Christine Copple, Ph.D., is President and CEO of Starise Ventures, Inc.  Starise provides team-based services to entrepreneurs and investors designed to mitigate the intrinsic risks of translating biomedical discoveries from bench to bedside.  Previously she was President and CEO of  ASM Resources, Inc. the venture arm of the American Society for Microbiology.  With over twenty years as a senior executive in biotechnology growth companies Dr. Copple has experience in early-stage investing, public offerings, private/venture investments, joint ventures, licensing and partnering, public corporate reporting, public relations, investor relations, international marketing, product development, regulatory affairs, legislative affairs, facilities design/build-out and training entrepreneurs. Chris was the Chief Operating Officer at Neuralstem, Inc., an emerging company commercializing a CNS stem cell technology platform. Before joining Neuralstem she ran the Office of Industry Liaison for the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute where she provided entrepreneurial guidance and services for faculty and start-up companies. For the ten years prior to relocating to Maryland, Chris was V.P. of Marketing & Investor relations for the Boston public company Microfluidics International. Dr. Copple received her B.S. degree from the University of East Anglia and her doctorate from the University of Birmingham Medical School in the United Kingdom. She came to the U.S. to join the Cell Biology Laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, New York.

Roxanne Duan, Ph.D., is the founder of Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc. formed to discover medicine for cancer using proteomics and RNA silencing technology. Dr. Duan uses her experiences from the National Cancer Institute and Human Genome Sciences to develop faster, cheaper and better drug discovery processes. Infinity utilizes a discovery engine that consists of three technologies, ExpressionlessTM, TargetProTM, and DiseaseAssayTM, to narrow down these data into a short list of candidates for making drugs. Dr. Duan obtained her Ph.D. degree from the University of California at San Francisco. She has worked at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Cancer Institute and Human Genome Sciences, Inc.

Sharon Mates, Ph.D. is a co-founder and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Functional Genetics, Inc. (FGI) and Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. (ITI). From 1989 to 1998, Dr. Mates was the President of North American Vaccine and its predecessor companies. Since 1998, Dr. Mates has been involved in the formation of several biotech and healthcare companies, including FGI and ITI. Dr. Mates is a member of the Board of Visitors of the Biotechnology Institute of the University of Maryland, and a member of the Advisory Council of the Center for Society an Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Mates received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Amy Millman has established a successful 25-year career working for and with business and government officials. As one of the founders and current president of Springboard Enterprises, she has built an organization which has assisted hundreds of women-led high-growth enterprises raise $3 billion in investment capital in less than three years. Prior to Springboard, she served as Executive Director of the National Women's Business Council, a federal statutory commission providing advice and counsel to the President and Congress on issues of importance to women business owners. During her tenure, she launched several public and private sector initiatives which increased access to capital and market opportunities for women. Ms. Millman is a career advocate who has represented the interests of various corporate and industry groups. She is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and received a Masters degree from The George Washington University where she is currently an adjunct professor. She and her family reside in the Washington, D.C. area.