Board of Directors

C. Thomas Caskey, MD, FACP, is the director and chief operating officer of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine and the executive vice president of molecular medicine and genetics at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston. After graduating from the University of South Carolina and Duke University Medical School, Dr. Caskey began a career in medical research that has spanned more than 40 years. During that time, he has held positions with the NIH, NHLBI, and the Baylor College of Medicine. In 1994, he joined Merck Research Laboratories as senior vice president of research and president of the Merck Genome Research Institute. He returned to Houston in 2000 to become founding director and chief executive officer of Cogene Biotech Ventures and Cogene Ventures. Dr. Caskey serves on the boards of several corporations as well as serving as a member of the Science Review Panel for the US Food and Drug Administration.  He belongs to numerous scientific organizations and has merited a number of awards for his work and dedication to science.

Jeff Clark is managing general partner at The Aurora Funds, a venture capital firm that he co-founded in 1994. Working primarily with Aurora's life sciences portfolio, Jeff leads Aurora’s healthcare team to identify  new investment opportunities and to support  approximately 30 healthcare portfolio companies.  Jeff currently serves on the boards of several of Aurora's life science portfolio companies, including  Aldagen, Argos, Hyperbranch, and Regado, assisting in the strategic direction of each.  Prior to forming Aurora, Jeff spent thirteen years working in development and external affairs for Duke University (including Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duke Medical Center and the School of Engineering). Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University and a MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.  He maintains strong ties to Duke University, serving on the board of directors of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.  Jeff also supports the entrepreneurial efforts of greater RTP community by having served as Chairman of the Board for North Carolina's Council for Entrepreneurial Development  (CED) and by co-founding of the North Carolina Initiative for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NCIIE).

Doug Jamison (Board Observer Rights) is president, chief operating officer, chief financial officer and managing director of Harris & Harris Group, Inc.. Prior to joining Harris & Harris Group, he was a senior technology manager in the University of Utah Technology Transfer Office. A graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Utah, Doug is director of Harris & Harris Enterprises, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Harris & Harris Group, Inc. In addition, he is a director of four private Harris & Harris Group portfolio companies: Chlorogen, Inc., Evolved Nanomaterial Sciences, Inc., NanoOpto Corporation and Nextreme Thermal Solutions.  He is Co-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Nanotechnology Law & Business; Co-Chair of the Advisory Board, Converging Technology Bar Association; a member of the Advisory Board of MIT’s Deshpande Center IdeaStream and a member of the Advisory Board, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative Nanotechnology Venture Forum.  His professional societies include the Association of University Technology Managers, for which he serves on its Survey Statistics and Metrics Committee.

John Oxaal is a general partner at Sevin Rosen Funds. At SRF, John focuses in areas of imaging, computing, photonics, RF communications, and semiconductors. Before joining SRF in 1999, John co-founded and was CEO of Volumetrics Medical Imaging and was on the founding team of the Digital Signal Processing Division of Analog Devices. John holds several patents in the field of real-time volumetric ultrasound imaging. In addition to continuing as the Chairman of Volumetrics board, John serves on the boards of Ethertronics, Luminescent, Luxtera, Metabolon, and Scintera. Oxaal holds an engineering degree from Duke University and a MBA from the University of Chicago.

John Ryals, Ph.D., Board Member, President and Chief Executive Officer, received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Texas at Dallas. Prior to joining Metabolon, Dr. Ryals was CEO, President and Founder of Paradigm Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDGM). There, he raised over $100 million in equity financing, including an Initial Public Offering in 2000 and a follow on offering in 2001 and closed on R&D partnerships valued at over $200 million. Dr. Ryals has 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry including senior research positions at Novartis and Ciba-Geigy and currently serves on the Board of North Carolina State University College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.