Business Synergy
Auxano Biomedical was initially funded and is managed by Emergent Technologies, Inc. (ETI), a venture capital firm with more than a dozen portfolio companies and technologies. ETI seeks scientific and business synergies within its portfolio of companies and partners, leveraging combined expertise to maximize opportunities for successful commercialization.
ETI has succeeded not only in gaining access to significant capital through four different affinity funds, but also in creating an efficient corporate structure that reduces costs of each company in the portfolio, leverages existing relationships and expertise, and successfully processes multiple opportunities without duplicating overhead and costs for each new endeavor.
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Management
Gary W. Pankonien, Chairman and CEO, Auxano Biomedical, LLC
Mr. Pankonien serves as Chairman and CEO of Auxano Biomedical and it’s subsidiaries. He joined Emergent as the President of WesTech Ventures in 2004, the third seed venture fund managed by Emergent Technologies. Mr. Pankonien has over 30 years founding, building and managing high tech companies, both public and private, funded personally or through venture financing. Most recently he was the President and CEO of Nanotechnologies, Inc, a provider of custom engineered nanopowders. Prior to that Mr. Pankonien was the President and Chief Operating Officer of CALEB Technologies which was sold to Accenture. He was the founder and CEO of 1st TECH Corp. which was sold to a NASDAQ company in 1996. Mr. Pankonien spent seven years at Compaq Computer Corporation where he co-developed and currently holds the patent for the first notebook computer, as well as several other patents. He graduated from Texas A&M University in 1972 with a BSEE degree in electronics and serves on the Board of Directors for several private companies.
Brian Windsor, Ph.D., Technical Advisor
Dr. Windsor joined ETI in the spring of 2004 and currently serves as Managing Director of three of ETI’s portfolio companies. He holds a B.S. and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Texas at Austin, and his graduate work on cell transport modulation in the laboratory of Professor Alan Lloyd helped lead to the development of technology licensed by Entercel, Ltd. (an ETI portfolio company). Prior to joining ETI, Dr. Windsor served as founder and Vice President of Research and Development for Texagen, Inc., a startup biotech company. Dr. Windsor is a co-inventor on 11 patents.
Ted W. Reid, Ph.D., Chief Scientist
Dr. Reid is a founding scientist of Auxano and a co-inventor of Auxano’s reepithelialization technology. He is also a Professor at Texas Tech University in the departments of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Chemistry, and Microbiology and Immunology. He is a member of the BioTechnology Institute and Honors College at Texas Tech. He was previously an Assistant and later Associate Professor at Yale University School of Medicine and Yale University from 1970-1984 in the departments of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, and Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, and Oncology. During 1980 he was a Visiting Fellow at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, England. From 1984-1991 he was a Professor at the University of California, Davis and a member of the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Neurobiology Graduate Groups. Dr. Reid holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Occidental College, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles. His main areas of research involve cell growth control. This includes wound healing and cancer cell growth as well as bacterial and viral replication.
Thomas Harlan, Director
Mr. Harlan is the Founder, Chairman, CEO, and President of ETI, which provides management services for Auxano. He has participated as a principal or consultant in virtually every phase of early-stage ventures and since 1999, has formed thirteen life sciences companies from technologies licensed from The University of Oklahoma, Texas Tech University, and the University of Texas at Austin. He has negotiated licensing and joint development agreements for ETI’s portfolio companies with multiple multinational corporations. Mr. Harlan is co-inventor on nine patents and has spearheaded the development and commercialization of numerous technological innovations. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Southern Methodist University and an interdisciplinary master's degree in theory and research from the University of Pennsylvania.
Edward K. Clark, CFO and General Counsel,
Emergent Technologies, Inc.
Mr. Clark joined ETI in October 2002, as Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel. He was elected as Director of the Company in April, 2003. He previously served as a consultant to the company for the past six years advising on the creation of several corporate entities, tax matters, and the reorganization of the Emergent Technologies Oklahoma, L.P. investment fund. His legal practice has concentrated in the areas of business, tax, and estate planning and related areas of corporate, securities, and real estate law. In addition to being licensed to practice law in Texas, he is Board Certified in Tax Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, and is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant in Texas.
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Advisors
Gregory Schultz, PhD
Bio forthcoming
David W. Hobson, PhD, DABT
Bio forthcoming
Randall Wolcott, M.D.
Bio forthcoming
Mark J. Mannis, M.D.
Dr. Mannis is Professor and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at the University of California, Davis. He also serves as Medical Director of Sierra Regional Eye and Tissue Donor Services in Sacramento, California. He completed his ophthalmology residency training at Washington University in St. Louis and a fellowship in Cornea and External disease at the University of Iowa. His primary research includes studies in the development of new antimicrobial agents, corneal transplantation, the role of contrast sensitivity and glare disability in corneal disease, visual rehabilitation of patients with corneal disease, and the management of diseases of the ocular surface. Clinically, he specializes in corneal and refractive surgery and diseases of the external eye. Dr. Mannis is editor/ author of five recent books and served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal CORNEA, the journal of record for the subspecialty of cornea and external disease for six years. He has published widely in peer-reviewed journals with over 125 published papers and is a reviewer for the Archives of Ophthalmology, the American Journal of Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology, and the CLAO Journal. Dr. Mannis is a recipient of the R. Townley Paton Award in eye banking from the Eye Bank Association of America and was a 1996 recipient of the Lew Wasserman Award in research from Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc. for his work in the development of antimicrobial peptides in ophthalmology. He conducts a busy referral practice in diseases of the cornea and external eye based at the University of California, Davis.
Chris Murphy, Ph.D.
Dr. Murphy is a Professor of comparative ophthalmology in Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to joining the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1991 he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at UC Davis. In 1989 Dr. Murphy completed a Corneal Fellowship at the UC Davis School of Medicine where his research focused on cell growth and wound healing. Dr. Murphy received a B.S. in Biology, a D.V.M., and a Ph.D. in Anatomy from Cornell University. Dr. Murphy has published more than 117 refereed articles in books and scientific journals. Recent research efforts have focused on modulation of cell behaviors by nanoscale topographic cues and neuromodulation of corneal wound healing. He has received numerous awards and honors related to veterinary practice and vision research, including the Lifetime Career Achievement Award in Research, presented in 2003 by the American Veterinary Medical Foundation and the AKC.
