Management
David O'Hagan Ph.D.
Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer
David is the COO, inventor, and co-founder of Esperovax. Dr. O’Hagan Earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine and Genetics developing microarray technology for Genomic Solutions - that he spun off as Streamline Proteomics with Sloan Ventures, using microspheres to capture and analyze genomic and proteomic data. He completed his post-doctoral work at the Burnham Institute (La Jolla, California), returning later to Michigan to develop a novel cancer therapy for melanoma at the Karmanos Cancer Institute. Dr. O’Hagan also developed several products as a product manager for Stratagene (La Jolla, California), followed by a position in sales for Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, Missouri).
Dr. O’Hagan earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Wayne State University School of Medicine in 2002. Prior to that, he gained his Bachelor of Science degree in Biophysics at Lawrence Technological University.
Savita Nikam Ph.D.
Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer
Dr. Nikam has more than 20 years of research experience in academia and with biotechnology companies. Her expertise includes molecular biology, protein biochemistry, and expression of products from mammalian, yeast, and bacterial expression systems. Dr. Nikam gained extensive experience in molecular imaging research at Charles River Co, manipulating different cancer cell lines and generating reporter models for in vivo imaging of apoptosis following new cancer drug treatment. Her research included the development of a potent viral vaccine against Japanese encephalitis from primary chick embryo cell cultures. Dr. Nikham received her Ph.D. in microbiology from the National Institute of Virology, Pune University, India. She completed her post-doctoral research on the mechanism of HIV reverse transcriptase fidelity and the kinetic basis of drug resistance at the University of Michigan.
Board
Robin Robinson
Board Chairman
Dr. Robinson is a respected authority on the development of breakthrough biomedical technologies, and a seasoned expert in consummating collaborations with leading US government agencies, Fortune 500 companies, academic research groups, and foreign governments, for which he was cited in 2018 as one of the top 100 innovators in medicine by The Medicine Maker. Notably, Dr. Robinson was appointed as the first director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, managing an annual budget of $1.35 billion and a staff of 250 scientists and medical experts. He brought BARDA into prominence as one of the top 10 fully integrated R&D organizations worldwide supporting advanced development and acquisition of more than 240 drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, and medical devices for man-made biodefense threats, pandemic influenza, and emerging infectious diseases, including Ebola and Zika viruses. Some 32 of these medical countermeasure products were approved and licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration during his 12-year tenure.
David Roth
Board Member
David M. Roth is a Senior Managing Partner of SouthOcean Capital Partners, Inc., which has invested in real estate, venture capital, and public and private markets, both internationally and in the United States.
Previously, he served as a Principal and Managing Director of WLD Enterprises, Inc., a private investment company. Roth began his professional career in the Farmington, Connecticut law firm of Levy & Droney, P.C., where, as a partner, he specialized in litigation, investment banking and public finance law.
Roth is a Trustee at Lafayette College, a Director of the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (Chair), the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. He is also a past Director for the Jewish Community Foundation and the League of American Orchestras. Roth previously served on the Board of Directors of USI Holdings, Inc., CMC, Inc., Omniglow Corporation, Genomas Inc., and Exploria SPS.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Lafayette College, an M.A. (with distinction) from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from the University of Connecticut (cum laude).