Management Team
Dr. De Groot earned degrees from Smith College (BA, 1978) and the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago (MD, 1983). She was trained in internal medicine at Tufts New England Medical Center (1986), and then went on to complete additional training in immunoinformatics and vaccine research under Jay Berzofsky at the National Institutes of Health (1989). Following her fellowship at the NIH, she returned to Tufts NEMC for clinical training in infectious disease (1991). She became board certified in Internal Medicine in 1986 and in Infectious Disease in 1992. De Groot obtained her first (K08) NIH grant in 1990. In 1992, she joined the faculty of the Brown University Medical School, where she opened the TB/HIV Research Laboratory. De Groot licensed the EpiMatrix vaccine design technology from her laboratory at Brown and established EpiVax, a bioinformatics and vaccine design company in 1998. Dr. De Groot currently devotes 33% of her effort to Brown as Associate Professor of Community Health and Medicine and Director of the TB/HIV Research laboratory, and 67% of her effort to EpiVax, where she directs the company's business strategy, marketing and scientific efforts. She also teaches vaccinology to undergraduate students at Brown University and the University of Rhode Island, and also provides clinical care to patients at the Rhode Island TB clinic. She is founder and Co-Chief editor of Infectious Diseases in Corrections report (an on-line electronic journal, established 1998) and founder and Scientific Director of the GAIA Vaccine Foundation (501c3, 2002).
De Groot has received uninterrupted federal funding for her research activities through multiple NIH (K08, R21, R01, SBIR) and foundation grants since 1989. She was the recipient of a National Foundation for Infectious Diseases-Eli Lilly Award, two Rhode Island Foundation awards and a Commercial Innovation Award (from the Rhode Island Center for Cellular Medicine). More recently, she was recognized as one of the "Best and the Brightest" in Science and Technology by Esquire Magazine (2003) for her work on the GAIA HIV vaccine. She has published more than 60 articles and chapters describing the development of epitope-driven vaccines and the application of immunoinformatics tools. In addition to her active research on vaccines for HIV, TB, Tularemia, Smallpox and EBV, she is a pioneer in the field of deimmunizing protein therapeutics.
William Martin is the principal architect and developer of the EpiMatrix System. Building on the work done in Dr. De Groot’s Brown University laboratory Mr. Martin has revised and expanded the EpiMatrix toolkit. In addition to developing new and improved predictive matrices for many Class I and Class II HLA alleles, Mr. Martin has developed a suite of protocols, ancillary tools and database structures allowing for fast and efficient analysis of input protein sequences. Since joining Dr. De Groot in 1998 Mr. Martin has developed algorithms, software, and protocols related to genome alignment and analysis, the identification of T cell epitopes, vaccine design, and the deimmunization of therapeutic proteins. As CIO at EpiVax, Mr. Martin manages the network, content, business process, and information management systems in place at EpiVax. In collaboration with Dr. De Groot, Mr. Martin has published many peer reviewed articles related to the prediction of T cell epitopes, vaccine design and protein deimmunization. Before joining EpiVax, Mr. Martin worked as a Team Leader, Business Analyst, Database Architect, Application Developer, Clinical Data Manager, and Research Assistant at PAREXEL International Corporation, and Abt Associates.
Ms. McMurry, MPH began developing vaccines at EpiVax in 2000 and continued to collaborate closely during her tenure directing the TB vaccine project at the TB/HIV Research Lab, Brown University. At Brown, Julie directed the epitope-driven TB vaccine project which received funds from the Gates Foundation (through the Sequella Global TB Foundation). She has also been instrumental in the development of vaccines for HIV (AIDS), HPV (Cervical Cancer) and HCV (Hepatitis C).
Julie is a graduate of Rhode Island College, and has had additional training in immunology and virology at Brown University and holds a Masters of Public Health from the University of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). Since rejoining EpiVax, she is responsible for managing several deimmunization programs and three recently-awarded NIH grants for the development of vaccines against H pylori, smallpox, and tularemia.
Dr. Moise completed his ScB in Biochemistry at Brown University in 1993, and went on to pursue graduate studies in the Molecular and Cellular Biology and Biochemistry (MCB) Program at Brown University, where he worked under Dr. Edward Hawrot in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biotechnology (MPPB). His doctoral thesis topic was NMR solution structure of the principal bungarotoxin binding site on the alpha7 neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in complex with bungarotoxin. After he received his PhD from Brown University in May 2002, he was an NIH COBRE Postdoctoral Research Associate in Dr. Hawrot's lab, studying the functional effects of bungarotoxin binding site transplantation into other proteins.
In July 2005, Lenny joined the TB/HIV research laboratory at Brown University as an Instructor in Medicine, studying vaccine design and T cell immunology. In June 2006 Lenny joined the EpiVax team as Director of Vaccine Research. He has been working on development of vaccines against tularemia, smallpox, and H. pylori, and has been leading the effort in deimmunization of botulinum neurotoxin.
Board Members
Dr. Shaked joined Spherics as President and CEO from ILEX Oncology where he was Chief Operating Officer. He initially joined ILEX as President of ILEX Products. At ILEX, Dr. Shaked directed the development of the company’s pipeline of anti-cancer drugs. Dr. Shaked brings more than 20 years of experience to Spherics in management and product development in the biotechnology industry. He is a pioneer in the development of protein biotherapeutics, synthetic peptides and conventional compounds, including oncology, autoimmune, wound healing, growth factors and allergy products. Dr. Shaked holds patents in these areas. Additionally, Dr. Shaked brings extensive senior management, research and product development experience from previous roles with ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corporation, Berlex Biosciences, Inc., Triton Biosciences, Inc. and Codon and Cetus Corporation (now Chiron). Dr. Shaked earned his doctorate in applied biochemistry and organic chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and undergraduate degrees in chemistry and physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Dr. Klaus Nickisch is a senior executive with broad experience in scientific, technical, business, and managerial matters related to the chemical/pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Nickisch has in depth knowledge in the fields of oncology, CNS, and female health and experience in all aspects of the drug development process in the US and Europe. Dr. Nickisch has extensive experience in project management; portfolio and alliance management; contract negotiations; technology assessment; process development; and the production of both small molecules and bio-therapeutics.
Dr. Nickisch has been a long time employee of Shering AG / Berlex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. During his tenure at Schering / Berlex (1979-2006) Dr. Nickisch held a number of titles including Senior Vice President for Global Project Management; Vice President, Corporate Portfolio and Project Management; Vice President of Portfolio and Cooperation Management Oncology; Project Leader for Female Health and Therapeutics; Vice President of Chemical Development; and Director, Process Research.
Dr. Nickisch has been a faculty member of the Institute for Organic Chemisty Hannover since 1993, and a lecturer at University of Witten-Herdecke in Project Management since 2002. He serves on three Advisory Boards: Metallchemie Germany, Heyl Pharmaceuticals, and Laborchemie Apolda. He joined the Board of Directors of EpiVax in 2006.
Dr. Nickisch earned both his M.S. in Chemistry (Summa Cum Laude) and Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry (Summa Cum Laude) from the Technical University of Berlin.