PACT Management
Derek Hei, Ph.D
• Principal Investigator, PACT project
• Director, Waisman Biomanufacturing, UW-Madison
• Waisman Biomanufacturing link: http://www.gmpbio.org
As Principal Investigator of the PACT project and Contact PI, Dr. Hei serves as scientific and management lead for all cGMP banking activities. As Director of Waisman Biomanufacturing, he oversees a team of scientists with extensive experience in current Good Manufacturing Practices and current Good Tissue Practice. Dr. Hei currently serves as Principal Investigator for the NIH-funded National Stem Cell Bank and has served as PI and co-PI on other NIH-funded clinical manufacturing projects.
Peiman Hematti, M.D.
• Co-Principal Investigator, PACT MSC Team Leader
• Director, Clinical Hematopoietic Stem Cell Processing Laboratory, UW Hospital
• Medical Director, UWHC Apheresis Center and Marrow Collection Center for NMDP, Department of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology Section, UW Hospital
• UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, Bone Marrow Transplant Group link:
http://www.uwhealth.org/blood-disorders/bone-marrow-transplant/10733
As PACT MSC Team Leader, Dr. Hematti is responsible for overseeing the initial derivation of hMSC lines as well as providing technical support for all hMSC banking and testing activities. As a bone marrow transplant (BMT) physician, he has extensive experience in using hematopoietic stem cell transplant to treat a variety of malignant and nonmalignant disorders. As a basic scientist, Dr. Hematti investigates the immunobiology of MSCs using a variety of in vitro and in vivo models. Furthermore, these MSCs have been provided to a wide range of collaborators on the UW-Madison campus. In his role as Director of the Clinical Hematopoietic Stem Cell Laboratory at the UW-Madison, Dr. Hematti has been instrumental in supporting an active BMT program and a variety of novel cell therapy phase I-II clinical trials by providing services such as CD34+ selection, CD133+ cell selection, T-cell depletion and NK cell selection. Dr. Hematti has also been the UW-Madison site PI for a phase-III industry sponsored clinical trial on use of BM-derived MSCs in steroid refractory acute graft-versus-host disease.
Tim Hacker, Ph.D.
• PACT Cardiac Physiology Team Leader
• Associate Scientist, UW-Madison, Medicine/Cardiology Dept
• UW-Madison Cardiovascular Animal Surgery and Physiology Core link: http://www2.medicine.wisc.edu/home/cardiology/oscar/
As PACT Cardiac Physiology Team Leader, Dr. Hacker is responsible for overseeing the pre-clinical animal studies that will be conducted by the UW-Madison Cardiovascular Animal Surgery and Physiology Core Facility. Dr. Hacker has extensive experience in designing and conducting animal studies to evaluate novel cell therapeutics. In addition, he has directed several projects that have involved the development of specialized animal models to assess in vivo efficacy of stem cell-based therapeutics.
Amish Raval, M.D.
• PACT IND Support Team Leader
• Assistant Professor, UW-Madison, Medicine/Cardiology Dept.
• UW-Madison Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center link:
http://stemcells.wisc.edu/faculty/raval.html
As PACT IND Support Team Leader, Dr. Raval is responsible for overseeing clinical testing, product administration adverse event reporting, and clinical data management. Dr. Raval will provide consultative advice on efficient pre-clinical and clinical study design to satisfy scientific and regulatory requirements. Additionally, he will provide consultative advice on local delivery methods, delivery mode biocompatibility testing (i.e. catheter testing) and robust imaging approaches. Dr. Raval is PI on several early Phase biologic trials, including a recently initiated cell therapy trial for critical limb ischemia. Additionally, he has a strong background in cardiovascular imaging and has active projects with minimally invasive targeted approaches for local cardiovascular cell delivery.
Marlowe Eldridge, MD, MSME
• PACT Pulmonary Physiology Team Leader
• Associate Professor, UW-Madison, Medicine/Pediatrics Dept.
• Respiratory Neurobiology Training Program link: http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/cbs/mitchell/rntp/eldridge.htm
As PACT Pulmonary Physiology Team Leader, Dr. Eldridge is responsible for lung function modeling in both large and small animals as well as humans. The techniques used include isolated perfused and ventilated lung studies in both rodents and large animals including measuring pulmonary perfusion (microspheres) ventilation pressures, perfusion pressures, mixed venous PO2, lung volumes, and compliance during baseline and under alterations of left atrial pressure and alveolar oxygen tension. These parameters can be measured in various animal models including bleomycin injury, elastase-induced emphysema or hypoxic pulmonary hypertension models.
Tenneille Ludwig, Ph.D.
• PACT hESC Media Optimization Team Leader
• Senior Scientist, Director Media Optimization and Distribution, WiCell Research Institute
• WiCell Research Institute link: http://www.wicell.org/
As PACT hESC Media Optimization Team Leader, Dr. Ludwig will direct extracellular matrix evaluation studies and hESC media qualification assays. Dr. Ludwig specializes in media optimization and culture of human embryonic stem cells and has both published in this area and developed specialized media formulations for hESC culture. Dr. Ludwig will also provide technical support for all hESC culture aspects of the project.