Rama Shivakumar Email & Phone Number

Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States

Technical Support • Leads technical discussions with MaxCyte scientists and external parties to facilitate pre-sales technology positioning, demo planning and post sales technical support.• Serves as subject matter expert to support the FAS and Sales teams• Works with FAS leadership to create a demo data base• Serves as a member of the company’s cross-functional core team that reviews the design and system requirements for the new product development.• Participates in the verification and validation of the consumables and software• Participates in generating data that will promote customers’ broad adoption of MaxCyte’s technology.• Assists the legal team with the evaluation of intellectual property filings and contractual documents that require scientific inputScientific Communication:• Synthesizes complex data drawn from publications, customers, collaborators and the internal R&D team to provide the technical focus for writers developing marketing materials. • Delivers scientific talks to promote the MaxCyte technology at scientific meetings, “lunch-and-learn” gatherings, and global Sales meetings • Aligns recent trends in science with MaxCyte’s life sciences strategy by following current literature• Attends select scientific conferences to network with leading scientists and key opinion leaders in order to identify new areas of applications for MaxCyte’s technologyTraining and Development:• Serves as a scientific subject matter expert for various applications of the MaxCyte platform such as T cell engineering, NK cell engineering, CAR-T Therapies, Gene editing and protein production • Assists in the scientific on-boarding of new cross functional team members • Directs the Scientific Journal Club- a forum for the FAS and the internal R&D team to expand their scientific knowledge and disseminate ideas through the introduction and discussion of new and pertinent scientific research published in journal articles

Gaithersburg Md

Strategic Marketing:• Contributes to creating compelling scientific and technical content in the areas of CAR Therapies, T cell engineering, NK cell engineering, Gene Editing and Protein Production for use in application notes, white papers, posters, presentations, case studies, manuals and other forms for materials needed for Sales, R&D and corporate purposes.• Manages and curates the scientific publications database.• Collaborates with the sales, field applications and in in house R&D teams to gain understanding of the current market trends.• Trains and educates the sales, marketing and field teams so that they can sell effectively with confidence and credibility.• Works hand in hand with marketing and R&D to position the company’s data to protect and promote sales of products.• Researches and prepares the write up and review of publications for key symposia and meetings.• Works hand in hand with marketing to identify and strategize plans for key symposia and meetings that result in lead generation.• Presents overview of company’s capabilities at conferences.Product Development:• Member of the core team that reviews new product system requirements (software) and processing assemblies to be used in conjunction with MaxCyte’s ExPert electroporation device.• Verifies and validates the ExPert platform and the processing assemblies• Working hand in hand with the engineering team, ensures that requirements and processes are delivered in a timely manner.• Working with the engineering team, tests the processing assemblies and assess the release criteria before commercial use.

Gaithersburg Md

Customer Facing Role:• Conducts technical demos in the US, UK, Europe and India• Conducts demos for cell therapy, protein production, viral vector production and vaccine development.• Relays tech transfer of information related to the use and expansion of applications of the MaxCyte GT system for the generation of DC vaccines—for example to Life Cell, India.• Relays tech transfer of information related to the use and expansion of applications of the MaxCyte GT system for the development of nutraceuticals—for example to EID Parry, India.R&D Activities:• Independently designs and executes experiments and interprets data in the areas of cell and molecular biology.• Conducts research on developing electroporation parameters and subsequent cell culture and assay conditions for primary (NKcells, Tcells, DC), adherent, suspension cells, insect cells and algal cells.• Conducts R&D of a DC vaccine using the MaxCyte GT platform for clinical use. Worked on the electroporation and culture of dendritic cells and subsequent analysis of the product.• Possesses extensive hands on knowledge of R&D of AAV and Lentiviral production using MaxCyte’s STX platform.• Possesses extensive hands on knowledge of R&D of mammalian protein production and process development-tested MaxCyte’s proprietary feed strategies and commercially available media/feed combinations in CHOs cells, HEK cells, ExpiCHO cells, insect cells.

Gaithersburg Md

• Optimization of Lentiviral production• Validation of large scale electroporation in K562 cells• Conducted large scale feasibility experiments to load ZFN mRNA for knocking out CCR5• Optimization of Electroporation protocols for multiple cell types in Protocol Development program• Optimization of transfection parameters of Algal cells• Assisted in animal experiments testing anti angiogenesis agents• Optimization of electroporation conditions for Sleeping Beauty Transfection in CD34+ cells

Gaithersburg Md

Sponsored Research Agreements:• Assisted the technical lead in the feasibility studies demonstrating the use of MaxCyte GT platform in various clinical/non clinical applications• Cloned a number of genes- IL2, CD40L, GFP, SMAR elements intovector backbones so they can be used as transfection controls• Mammalian Cell culture of primary cells, HEK cells, 10T1/2 fibroblasts• Performed all the molecular Biology techniques like Western Blots, ELISAS, PCR, Cloning

Master'S Degree, Molecular Biology

Master'S Degree, Botany/Plant Biology

Bachelor'S Degree, Botany/Plant Biology