Team
Leadership
Michael Wassil, Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Wassil is an accomplished senior management executive with over 30 years in the Life Science Industry. Currently, he is a principal in MacroArray Technologies, LLC a company he co-founded for the development of diagnostic tests for cancer. Previously he served as CFO for 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals managing business development activities and capital requirements including its IPO. Prior, he participated in the startup of Interspec, Inc. a company that developed, manufactured and marketed medical ultrasound equipment and software for cardiology and radiology. As CFO he managed the company’s IPO and was subsequently appointed General Manager for Interspec’s international operations. After twelve years, he guided the merger of Interspec with ATL which created the world’s largest independent ultrasound company with revenues in excess of $400 million. Earlier in his career, he held several management positions with Rorer-Aventis and was a manager in the Philadelphia office of Price Waterhouse. During his career he has participated in over 50 M&A, licensing and research transactions, raised in excess of $150 million in equity capital, managed two IPO’s and negotiated business transactions with global organizations such as Siemens Medical, GE HealthCare, Abbott Diagnostics, Bristol Myers, JNJ/Centocor, Aventis, Norsk Hydro, and DuPont Pharma. Mr. Wassil is a graduate of King’s College with a BS in Accounting and is a licensed CPA. He is a co-founder of the Eastern Technology Council “ETC”, a business organization with over 1200 members and has also held Board positions with Moberg Medical, Telefactor, ETC and Big Brothers/Big Sisters.
Khosrow Kashfi, Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Kashfi is a pharmacologist by training with a strong background in biochemistry and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He received his PhD from the University of Tennessee – The Health Science Center and did Postdoctoral training at Cornell University Medical College – New York Hospital and the Rockefeller University before joining City University of New York School of Medicine. For the past 20+ years, Dr. Kashfi has been working on chemoprevention of cancer, primarily evaluating nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and their various chimeras. He is the inventor of the NOSH platform, with several worldwide issued patents in this general area. He has extensive publications in peer-reviewed journals, has co-edited a book on Cell Signaling and Molecular Targets in Cancer, and has co-authored several book chapters.
Jan Scicinski, Chief Operations Officer
Dr. Scicinski is an experienced drug discovery and development scientist, executive, and problem solver with a successful track record in new pharmaceutical product discovery and development. He has more than 30 years experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, in both start-up and large corporate environments providing leadership for programs in drug discovery from hit identification to lead selection and for development projects including CMC, IND-enabling activities, clinical trial operations and regulatory filings and communication. Prior to Avicenna, he was Sr VP and CSO at EpicentRx, Inc where he led the company's drug discovery efforts in basic research and preclinical development and was responsible for regulatory filings, QA and CMC. In addition, Dr. Scicinski was instrumental in shaping the company structure and strategy as a virtual entity, enabling the successful and cost-effective development of RRx-001 from preclinical to Phase 3. Prior to EpicentRx/RadioRx, Dr. Scicinski held leadership positions in research on Drug Delivery and Discovery at DURECT and ALZA and in Drug Discovery and Chemical Technology at Nuada Pharmaceuticals and GSK. Dr. Scicinski is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry with Chartered Chemist Status (FRSC, CChem) and holds a PhD from Cambridge University and BSc hons from Imperial College, London. He has co-authored over 160 peer-reviewed publications, patents, abstracts and book chapters.