Mr. David W. Carter

Mr. Carter currently serves as Chairman of the Board and CEO of Origen Therapeutics.  Prior to joining Origen, he was Chairman and CEO of Xenogen Corporation, a drug discovery and development tools company.  He was co-founder of Xenogen and participated from the first venture funding in 1998, through Xenogen’s IPO in 2004, culminating in Xenogen’s acquisition by Caliper Life Sciences in August of 2006. 

Prior to co-founding Xenogen, Mr. Carter was Chairman, CEO and President of Somatix Corporation from 1991 through 1997.  Somatix was a re-start of Hana Biologics (a public company) which was based on the acquisition of Somatix’s gene therapy technology, and the reintroduction of the company to the public market as a leading player in the emerging field of gene therapy.  In 1997, Somatix was merged will Cell Genesys to form the leading biotech company in the field of gene therapy focused on immune stimulation for the treatment of cancer. 

Before joining Hana/Somatix, Mr. Carter served as President of Northfield Laboratories, a hemoglobin-based blood substitute company from 1987 until 1991.  At Northfield, Mr. Carter began as one of four co-founders and was instrumental in raising the early funding prior to Northfield’s IPO in 1992. 

Prior to his 20 years in biotechnology, Mr. Carter held high ranking positions at Sybron Corporation and American Hospital Supply Corporation.  He now serves on the Boards of two public companies (Caliper Life Sciences and ImmunoGen) and one private company (Origen Therapeutics).

Pamela Reilly Contag, Ph.D.

Pamela R. Contag, Ph.D., founded Xenogen Corporation in 1995 and has served as President and Founder at Xenogen from 1995 to 2006, and concurrently, the CEO of Xenogen Biosciences from 2000-2006 when Xenogen merged with CaliperLS.  In 2000, Xenogen Corporation was listed as one of the “Top 25 Young Businesses” by Fortune Small Business and in both 2001 and 2003 received the R&D 100 award for achievements in Physics.  In 2004, Xenogen was named in one of the top 100 fastest growing companies by the San Francisco Times and received the Frost and Sullivan Technology Innovations awards. Dr. Contag was named one of the “Top 25 Women in Small Business” by Fortune magazine.

In 2005, Dr. Contag founded Cobalt Technologies, Inc., a venture backed company that produces biobutanol from renewable feedstock. She was the Chairman and CEO of Cobalt Biofuels from 2005-2008. Dr. Contag founded Cygnet BioFuels in 2009. Cygnet BioFuels is a company focused on the utilization of novel organisms for feedstock and biofuel production.  In 2007, Dr. Contag co-founded ConcentRx, Inc. a biotechnology company developing a unique cancer therapy developed by three Researchers from Stanford University.

Dr. Contag has held various consulting and board positions; public, private and not-for-profit. Those positions include a consulting Professorship at Stanford School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics (1999-present), the Dean’s Advisory Board of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (1999-2005) and the editorial board of the Journal of Biosecurity and Bioterrorism (2002-present). Dr. Contag was a Director of Xenogen Corporation (1995-2005) and was CEO and Chairman of Cobalt Technologies (2005-2008) and is currently a Delcath (Nasdaq) Board Member (2008-present). She also joined in 2009 the DOE Biomass technology Advisory Committee and two nonprofit boards, Springboard Enterprises and the Molecular Sciences Institute.

In 2010 Dr. Contag joined the Merrick Engineering Consultancy specializing in the energy field. She is also currently interim CSO at Origen Therapeutics, developing an avian transgenic system developing polyclonal antibody therapeutics for infectious diseases.

With more than 25 years of microbiology research experience, Dr. Contag is widely published in the field of Microbiology and Optical imaging and has over 35 patents. Dr. Contag received her Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1989 studying Microbial Physiology and Genetics (for Alternative Fuels) and completed her Postdoctoral Training at Stanford University School of Medicine in 1993 specializing in “Host/Pathogen Interactions”.