Scott Rakestraw, Ph.D., Senior Business Advisor

Scott Rakestraw, Ph.D. is Founder and Managing Director of The Branta Group, a business, corporate, and financial development advisory business with clients in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, health care investment, and private equity sectors. Prior to The Branta Group, Dr. Rakestraw was a co-founder and principal of Orchid GeneShield, a subsidiary of Orchid BioSciences (Nasdaq: ORCH), and he was the General Manager of Orchid’s Pharmacogenetics business from 2000-2002. From 1997-2000, Dr. Rakestraw served as Vice President of Business Development and a member of the Board of Directors (1999-2000) of Altus Pharmaceuticals, Inc (Nasdaq: ALTU). While at Altus, he co-founded the company’s biopharmaceutical business and helped catalyze a corporate transformation of the company into a clinical-stage drug development company on the strength of over a dozen deals with leading companies in the pharmaceutical, diagnostic, and medical device sectors, as well as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. From 1990-1997, he held investment, business development, R&D, and marketing positions at DuPont Ventures, where he was instrumental in building Qualicon™ LLC, a developer of rapid DNA diagnostics for the biochemical process industries and the public health sector. Dr. Rakestraw received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He serves on the numerous advisory boards of emerging healthcare companies, the Chemical Sciences Leadership Council of the University of Illinois, and the Biomedical Engineering Advisory Board of Rutgers University.

Thomas H. Rossing, M.D., Clinical Consultant

Dr. Rossing is an experienced consultant and executive in the field of drug development. He received his MD from Harvard in 1976 and is board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary disease, and critical care. He worked for large pharma (Merck, Glaxo) and biotech (GeneMedicine, Ribozyme) for over a decade in the general areas of clinical pharmacology, clinical research, regulatory affairs, and product development. This broad experience in pharmaceutical development permits him to offer a broad range of consulting expertise to both biotech and large pharma. Dr. Rossing has experience with data monitoring committees or data and safety monitoring boards.