As a Scientist and Director of Clinical R&D at Creatv MicroTech, I am the lead investigator in the isolation & identification of rare blood analytes, such as Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs), Circulating Cancer-Associated Macrophage-Like Cells (CAMLs), Circulating Tumor DNA (ctDNA), and Circulating Tumor Proteins (CTPs) from cancer patients. My current responsibilities include the development of diagnostics for rare cellular events (i.e. bacterial, viral, proteins, circulating DNA & whole human cells) from a variety of biological matrices (i.e. urine, blood, bone marrow & cerebrospinal fluid). I develop methods from the initial proof-of-principle, to R&D, to clinical trial testing. I have commercialized multiple product lines in the CellSieve™ Enumeration product line, i.e. PD-L1, PSMA, PDX-1, etc., and helped develop multiple cancer drug targets. I currently manage Creatv MicroTech’s New Jersey clinical core laboratory which develops the methods for and analyzes patient samples in >12 clinical trials. In addition to the industrial work, I am responsible for the discovery, phenotyping and classifying CAMLs, tumor-macrophage fusion cells and mitotic CTCs in blood samples. I have numerous US and international patents, 18 first/last authored manuscripts, 15 coauthored manuscripts, and 4 book chapters mainly focused on blood based liquid biopsies for drug development. Further, my work on cell isolation from human based matrices has been presented at a number of conferences in both poster and lecture forms. My other works include the detection of rare biological events, such as bacterial pathogens from food/environmental matrices; Alzheimer’s peptides from human plasma and neurofilament protein from human serum. This includes the development silica bead assays using fluorescence and luminescence detection, applying fluorescent DNA intercalators in amyloid aggregates and buoyant glass microbubble chromatography for purifying low quantity analytes.

My primary role was as an Associate Research Scientist in the R & D purification and manufacturing departments using bacterial, mammalian and human proteins from both bacterial/mammalian culture and human sera for oncology development. This work included various purification techniques from periplasmic, extracellular and intracellular proteins including bioactive cytokines and antibody based drug development. I also served the company safety officer for 2 years and as an internal consultant in supply chain management and in CLIA operations.

I worked in clinical manufacturing and clinical development of chromogenic Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL). LAL is a naturally occurring purified reagent used for the detection of Gram-negative (endotoxins) and fungal components, ((1→3)-β-D-Glucan).