Management team

Adam Roth

Vice President and Head of Business Operations

Adam heads Business Operations for Galvani Bioelectronics. In this capacity he leads a variety of functions including business development and transactions, alliance management, procurement, IT, market insights, strategy, grants, communications, administration, and facilities.

Prior to the formation of Galvani, Adam led business development activities for the Bioelectronics R&D unit of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). He joined GSK in 2010, working within R&D strategy for the Pharmaceutical R&D organization. Prior joining GSK, Adam worked in the healthcare consulting practice of McKinsey & Company and in finance within the semiconductor manufacturing division of the Intel Corporation.

He holds a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology, an MBA specializing in Finance & Entrepreneurship, and a B.S. in Engineering Science and Mechanics, concentrating in Biomedical Engineering.

Firat Yazicioglu

Vice President and Head of Translation and Engineering

Firat brings pioneering our miniaturised Bioelectronic devices to reality. Working in Neuromodulation Devices, he joined GSK Bioelectronics in 2015 after spending 13 years at imec, Europe’s largest independent research centre in microelectronics and nanoelectronics. He has developed devices and technologies for medical-grade wearable and implantable biomedical devices, including wireless cardiac monitoring patches, wearable EEG monitoring headsets and implantable neural probes for high density recording. Firat was also involved in the creation of a San Francisco-based wearable healthcare start-up, Bloom Technologies.

With a Ph.D. from KU Leuven in Belgium, Firat has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications along with 20 patents, including a book on low-power biomedical microsystems. He has served on the technical program committees of European Solid State Circuits Conf (ESSCIRC), International Solid State Circuits Conf (ISSCC), and Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conf (BioCAS) and remains Associate Editor for IEEE Trans. of Biomedical Circuits and Systems.

Kristoffer Famm

President and CEO, Galvani Bioelectronics

Kris is president and CEO of Galvani Bioelectronics, being overall responsible for the company’s path to and delivery of bioelectronic medicines to patients. Before his appointment to lead Galvani Bioelectronics, he was founding VP and head of Bioelectronics R&D at GSK, which he launched in 2013. There he managed the unit’s extensive research towards establishing the treatment potential, disease reach and technology requirements for bioelectronic medicines, working together with a network of research partners across academia and industry.

During his time at GSK he also headed up the R&D Strategy Group and the Protein Degradation Discovery Performance Unit.

Kris obtained his PhD in Molecular Biology at University of Cambridge, following an MSc in Chemical Engineering at Lund University, Sweden. Before joining GSK in 2009, he worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co

Raolat Abdulai

Chief Medical Officer

From August 2024 Raolat Abdulai, M.D. is the Chief Medical Officer. In her role, she is leading Galvani’s clinical organization encompassing the clinical development, surgical, clinical operations, medical affairs, biostatistics, and disease biology-focused pre-clinical functions as well as the portfolio of current and future clinical studies. She joined Galvani Bioelectronics from Sanofi, where she most recently served as the Global Clinical Lead for dupilumab in Immunology and Inflammation. She played a pivotal role in shaping the clinical strategies for multiple indication expansions across disease areas, most recently with the approval of the first-ever biologic for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), focusing on late-stage data to transform treatment paradigms and enhance patient outcomes.

Raolat is a pulmonary and critical care physician with an extensive background in early and late clinical development, digital biomarkers, and technology in clinical operations. Raolat received a B.S. in from the University of Maryland and an M.D. from Howard University. She completed her Internal Medicine training at the Mayo Clinical and her fellowship Pulmonary and Critical Medicine at Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She was also a fellow in the NIH-funded training program and completed her Masters in Medical Science in Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School.

Rhiannon Pinkham

Director, HR

Rhiannon is Galvani’s Head of HR and a member of the company’s management team. Before her appointment in Galvani Bioelectronics, Rhiannon held multiple roles within GSK’s HR function, ranging from HR leadership at one of GSK’s pharmaceutical manufacturing sites, to partnering with a number of GSK’s corporate support functions.

Rhiannon has a Bachelor’s degree in Management, a MSc in Human Resource Management & Organisational Analysis and is CIPD qualified.

Sarah Mateen

Head of Legal and Chief of Staff

Sarah is the Head of Legal and Chief of Staff at Galvani.

In her role as Head of Legal, Sarah oversees and manages Galvani’s legal affairs and has primary accountability for company contracting needs, together with intellectual property and corporate risk management. As Chief of Staff, she supports the President and other members of the Management Team and leads on activities relating to the Galvani Board of Directors, company-wide internal engagement and management against company performance objectives.

Sarah has an MA in Law from the University of Cambridge. She trained and qualified at Slaughter and May in London, where she advised GSK on a number of deals including the formation of the Galvani Bioelectronics joint venture, upon completion of which she joined Galvani in early 2017.

Suzanne Bryant

Suzanne Bryant

Senior Director, R&D Finance

Suzanne is Head of Finance for Galvani Bioelectronics. She joined the team in January 2019.

Suzanne has over 15 years’ experience within GSK during which time she has held a number of different positions across the organisation including in Corporate Finance, Commercial Finance Partner, UK Pharma and Financial Controller, Norway Pharma based in Oslo. Prior to Galvani, Suzanne was Finance Director, Respiratory R&D providing financial leadership to the early stage Discovery Performance Units (DPUs).

Suzanne has a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Exeter. Prior to joining GSK she trained as a Chartered Accountant at KPMG in London.

Board of directors

Amy Altshul

Board of Directors

Amy Altshul is GSK’s Senior Vice President for Legal supporting R&D and the Global Commercial Franchise organisations. In her current role, Amy is accountable for all legal matters relating to R&D across Vaccines and Pharma as well as the global commercial organisations for Oncology and Specialty and Primary Care

Amy joined GSK in 2009 in the Business Development transactions legal team and during more than ten years with the company she has led the legal support across areas such as Rare Diseases and Cell & Gene Therapy. She holds a Bachelor of Science degrees in biology and chemistry and has completed Masters coursework in medicinal chemistry.

Prior to law school, Amy was a researcher at the National Cancer Institute conducting studies in secondary leukemia. She spent several years in private legal practice in New York as a corporate transactional lawyer, before going in-house at Wyeth Pharma, then Pfizer, Inc., before joining GSK. Amy is also a licensed patent attorney. She is passionate about science and the potential of new technologies to enhance the quality of life of patients.

Andrew Trister

Board of Directors

Andrew Trister, MD, PhD, is the Chief Scientific Officer at Verily where he leads the company’s population health initiatives and provides expertise across Verily’s portfolio as the company furthers its precision health strategy. Previously, Andrew served as the Deputy Director of Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where he led the Foundation’s development and investment in digital health and artificial intelligence to address global health inequities. Prior to that, Andrew was a founding member of Apple’s Health team, where he led clinical research and machine learning with Apple partners. Andrew holds an M.D., Ph.D in bioengineering, an MSE and BSE in computer science, and a B.A. in biological basis of behavior from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his clinical residency in radiation oncology at the University of Washington, with additional focus areas in medical and bioinformatics.

Anurag Mehta

Board of Directors

Anurag Mehta is the Head of Corporate Development at Verily where he is responsible for driving the inorganic growth agenda through acquisitions and investments to support strategic growth.

Before joining Verily, Anurag spent seven years across various roles at Johnson & Johnson in New York, including Global Head of Strategic Transactions for the Consumer Health Division, Venture Investor at JJDC (J&J’s venture investment fund), and Head of JLABS NYC (J&J’s startup accelerator in NY). Prior to J&J, he spent close to a decade in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group within the Investment Banking Division at Credit Suisse in New York. Anurag started his career in Product Development at Oracle Corporation in their Advanced Supply Chain Planning Division in Redwood Shores, California.

Anurag holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, an MS in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research from the University of Florida, and a B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.

Christopher Corsico

Board of Directors, Chair

Chris Corsico is the chairman of the Galvani Board of Directors. Chris joined GSK as the Global Head of Development in 2019. The Development organization is responsible for supporting pipeline clinical development from phase II through approval and the pharmaceutical marketed portfolio from approval through end of the life cycle.

Prior to joining GSK, Chris worked at Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) for over 20 years, his last several years as the Global Head of Medicine and Chief Medical Officer. Prior to that, Chris worked in BI’s US organization in various roles including Head of Regional Pharmacovigilance, Head of US Regulatory Affairs and Medical Director, North America.

Chris was a Howard Hughes-National Institutes of Health Research Scholar where he studied mammalian cell regulation and growth inhibition in the laboratory of Dr. Bruce Howard at the National Cancer Institute. Chris received his medical degree from the Cornell University College of Medicine in New York City and his MPH from the School of Public Health at Yale University. Chris trained in Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He practiced Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Medical Services Corporation and was an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Dartmouth Medical School prior to joining industry

Ken Gabriel

Board of Directors

Kaigham J. (Ken) Gabriel is currently the inaugural CEO of BioForge, a University of Pittsburgh organization with a mission to accelerate innovations and breakthroughs in the development and manufacturing of new biologic, precision medicines to speed their delivery, use and impact.

Before taking on this role, he served as the founding Chief Operating Officer of Wellcome Leap, a non-profit spin-out of the Wellcome Trust with a mission to accelerate human health discovery and innovation by building bold and unconventional programmes and funding them at scale. Prior to that, Ken was president and CEO of Draper, a spin-off engineering company of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology notably famed for developing the Apollo guidance computer in the 1960s. Ken’s roles prior to Draper include corporate vice president and founding colead of the Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group at Google and deputy director and acting director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the U.S. Department of Defense. Ken also was a tenured professor in both the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.

Ken earned his ScD in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Recognized as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, Ken has more than 200 technical publications and presentations and holds 14 patents ranging from signal processing to MEMS and materials.

Subesh Williams

Board of Directors

Subesh Williams is Senior Vice President, Global Corporate Development at GSK, a role he was appointed to in September 2013. In his current role, Subesh is responsible for M&A and Business Development across GSK’s commercial businesses and has been involved in executing a number of transactions, including the creation of ViiV Healthcare (a HIV JV with Pfizer and Shionogi) and the three – way deal with Novartis which involved the acquisition of Novartis’ vaccines business, the creation of a JV in Consumer Healthcare and the sale of GSK’s oncology business. From 2009- 2013, Subesh was Chief Financial Officer of ViiV Healthcare, with responsibility for Finance, Business Development, IT and Supply. Subesh joined GSK in 1994 and has had roles of increasing responsibility in Finance and Corporate Development. Subesh is a chartered accountant and, prior to joining GSK, was a manager at PwC.

Galvani Bioelectronics Team

Akin Akinjogbin

Mechanical Engineer, Neural Interfaces

Akin is the lead mechanical design engineer for implantable devices and test systems in the neural interfaces team. He also works closely with translational sciences and surgical teams to identify and implement design requirements for neural interface devices.

Akin holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Coventry university and a master’s in automotive engineering from the university of Brighton.

Akin started his career working on high-speed air movement systems for Torin-Sifan before joining Dyson as a mechanical design engineer owning motors and drives design for several mass-produced environmental care projects

Alice Bradney

Assistant General Counsel, Patents

Alice is responsible for intellectual property activities for Galvani Bioelectronics. Alice joined GSK in 2004 and has developed worldwide patent strategies for internationally-based research teams, managed worldwide outside counsel in patent prosecution and litigation matters and has advised R&D and Business Development decision makers on patentability, freedom-to-operate issues, in-licensing opportunities and regulations governing development of NIH funded technology.

She has a BS in Biological Sciences, a PhD in Microbiology (Immunology focus) and postdoctoral experience in HIV and Immunology. She is a member of the North Carolina State Bar and a patent attorney registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Amap Bhatt

Lead Software Systems Engineer

Andrew Williamson

Business Systems Service Manager

Acting as the primary interface between Galvani’s Business and IT Operations organisations, Andrew leverages his expertise to ensure Galvani’s business systems are fit for purpose and running smoothly. Through solution architecting, vendor selection and assessment, implementation and ongoing technical engineering and support, Andrew maintains a detailed understanding of the IT platforms supporting business processes and ensures they are optimally deployed.

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Caroline Dundridge

Executive Assistant

Caroline Dundridge is the Executive Assistant to Kris Famm and provides support to the Galvani Management Team.

Prior to joining Galvani, she worked at Citigroup Investment Bank and PCS Legal.

Christopher Lai

Director and Business Development Lead

Christopher Lai, MD, MBA is a Director in Business Development and Project Management for Galvani Bioelectronics. His main role is to facilitate Galvani Bioelectronics transactions and support the development of our assets to clinical development.

Prior to Galvani Bioelectronics, Christopher was with GSK for 3 years, working in Worldwide Business Development and R&D Strategy Development. Prior to this role, he was in U.S. Respiratory Finance, supporting GSK’s respiratory launches of Anoro, Breo and Nucala.

Before GSK, Christopher was an emergency physician who practiced at several institutions such as Kaiser, Sutter and Duke. He continues to practice at the Durham VA ER. He obtained his business degree at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in 2013, his medical degree at The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 2002 and trained in Emergency Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh in 2005. Prior to medical school, he spent nearly 2 sleepless years at Citigroup in investment banking.

Daniel Chew

Senior Director, Translational Research

Daniel is a founding member of Galvani Bioelectronics and leads the Translational Research team within. The team is based in the UK with dedicated onsite electrophysiology laboratories, as well as managing academic and CRO collaborators externally.
Translational research for Galvani focuses on preclinical-to-clinical studies of autonomic nervous system neuromodulation, and the ability to modulate organ physiology and treat disease across an indication pipeline. Research explores the fundamentals of nerve physiology, translational biology, and pathophysiology, while discovering and optimising ways of interaction with disparate visceral neuroanatomy. This involves the pursuit of in silico, ex vivo, and in vivo electrophysiology methods to determine the efficacy and safety profiles of Galvani therapies, with the goal of delivering clinical therapy.
Prior to industry research at GSK and Galvani, Daniel studied Neuroscience at the University of London; Queen Mary (PhD – 2009), and the University of Cambridge (Post Doctorate – 2009-2013). Research from his academic career focused on understanding the dynamics of the peripheral nervous system, developing pre-clinical in vivo neurosurgical models, and novel neuroprosthetic design and application. Daniel is the Home Office License Holder and Risk and Ethics owner for in vivo research in Galvani, and is author to over 50 scientific publications and patent applications.

David Peterson

Director, Product Development

David Sokal

Director, Translation & Engineering

David works within the Translational Sciences group to perform and manage in-house and collaborative electrophysiological studies in small and large animal models and human tissue, aimed at developing and refining clinically-relevant stimulation parameters. David has a long-standing interest in neural interfacing; during his PhD he worked to develop high-density neuronal recordings with applications for the treatment of epilepsy. Prior to Galvani Bioelectronics, David has over 20 years of experience in Neuroscience, the last 15 of which has been in Psychiatric Drug Discovery within major international pharmaceutical companies.

Dean Rynhoud

Director & Business Technology Lead

Dean leads the IT department within Galvani Bioelectronics and is accountable for Galvani’s global business systems and technology infrastructure.

Prior to joining Galvani, Dean acted as a Functional Consultant at GSK, where he was responsible for deploying GSK’s Global SAP solution to a number of GSK’s manufacturing facilities around the world. Dean obtained his MPhil in Engineering from the University of Cambridge and his BSc Engineering in Mechatronics from the University of Cape Town.

Eric Irwin

Director, Surgical Development, Treatment Discovery

Eric is board certified General and Vascular surgery with over 25 years of clinical experience in these areas. He is an adjunct professor of surgery at the University of Minnesota where he is involved in training for medical students, residents and practicing clinicians and is involved in clinical research activities.

During the past 18 years he has also worked with biomedical device companies developing therapies to treat cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. In these efforts he has worked in initial proof of concept studies; with R&D teams to develop initial implantable systems and to improve their usability; and with Clinical and Regulatory staff in clinical protocol development and establishing clinical events committees for clinical trials.

Eric worked with Galvani Bioelectronics since its inception working to study the anatomy at proposed interface sites, develop surgical techniques for humans and perform risk assessments and risk mitigation strategies for the surgical procedures developed to implant the neuromodulation systems.

Grace Anderson-Barker

Senior Investigator, Clinical Translation

Grace is an Investigator (Clinical Translation) within the Translational Medicine group at Galvani Bioelectronics. Her role centres around the design, execution and interpretation of high-dimensional flow cytometry experiments to support Galvani’s Indication Expansion Programme in the identification of novel disease targets for neuromodulatory therapy. Data from this work will provide comprehensive information about the immune phenotype of relevant disease models and identify biomarkers for monitoring disease progression and efficacy of neuromodulation. In parallel, training in clinical development and clinical operations is being undertaken to provide support for Galvani’s clinical work.

Hanna Whiteman

Director, Quality

Hanna is the Quality Manager for Galvani Bioelectronics. She is responsible for implementation and maintenance of the quality system, and for ensuring quality and regulatory compliance across the organization.
Prior to joining Galvani, she was responsible for the quality and regulatory functions of multiple medical device start-ups and worked closely with R&D and clinical teams to usher devices from concept phase to commercialization. She has a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Computation from Stanford University.

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Hugh Addison

Program Manager, Neural Interfaces

Hugh is a Programme Manager within the neural interface development team at Galvani Bioelectronics. In this role, he is responsible for developing novel, implantable neurostimulation leads.

Hugh has worked in project leadership roles in the medical device industry for over five years. Prior to joining Galvani, he was a Project Manager at Cambridge Consultants, where he built on his prior experience in the pharmaceutical industry to lead the design and development of novel drug delivery systems and surgical technologies.

Hugh is a Chartered Engineer and holds a Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering with Bioengineering from Newcastle University, as well as post graduate qualifications in Industrial Project Management from the University of Birmingham.

Isha Gupta

Manager, Translation & Engineering

Isha is a Senior Investigator with the Translational and Engineering group in Galvani Bioelectronics. Her role is to manage in-house and collaborative electrophysiology and computational modelling studies aimed at investigating and refining clinically relevant dose for multiple disease indications. She works with Clinical team as a Field Clinical Engineer to implement & investigate therapies in the clinic. She also manages and drives academic and industrial collaborations such as CRACK-IT focussed on driving research into novel and future platforms for early disease indications.

Isha is a PhD graduate in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from the University of Southampton (2018). Work from her PhD focussed on exploiting emerging nanoelectronic memristive devices for the application of neural signal processing, with wider application in Internet-of-Things computing. Her scientific work is described in several patents and over twenty peer reviewed publications.

Jason Miranda

Manager, Principal Scientist, In Vivo Science and Neuromodulation Devices

Jason investigates the interaction between biology and technology. Using electrophysiology and integrative biology, he works to understand the stimulation parameters and device configurations required to modulate peripheral organ function.

Prior to joining Galvani Bioelectronics, Jason spent seven years in small molecule drug discovery, studying mechanisms of sensory processing and neuroregeneration.

Jason holds a PhD in Neuroscience and a BSc in Cell Biology and Physiology. During his academic research he discovered new interactions between reproductive endocrinology, sensory processing and behaviour.

Jerry Hunsberger

Principal Biomedical Engineer, Neural Interfaces

Jerry is an in vitro/ex vivo Investigator within Disease Biology primarily supporting the respiratory portfolio projects. He has a keen interest in novel mechanisms and interfaces to achieve fiber selective modulation of peripheral nerves to treat disease. In this role, Jerry also works closely with the Target Discovery and Neuronal Modulation Devices groups to help identify user requirements and functionality testing of neuronal interfaces.

Prior to joining Galvani Bioelectronics, Jerry worked for 10+ years in GSK’s Respiratory Therapeutic Area Unit and Neuronal Targets Discovery Performance Unit supporting lead optimisation of various chemical series targeting GPCRs and ion channels, including INCRUSE ELLIPTA® (umeclidinium) and Dinirixin. His past work has predominantly utilised functional ex vivo tissue preparations, electrophysiology, and calcium imaging techniques.

Jerry holds a BSc in Biomedical Engineering from Drexel University.

Kevin Kwong

Investigator, Disease Biology

Kevin is responsible for delivering preclinical validation in models for respiratory indications. He draws upon standard as well as innovative measurement tools to assess physiological end points and incorporates them into a closed loop design to optimise treatment parameters with the goal of providing a compelling preclinical demonstration.

Prior to joining Galvani Bioelectronics, Kevin led a lead-optimisation program at GSK developing small molecule sodium channel blockers for cough and other respiratory indications.

Kevin earned a PhD in physiology at the University of Kentucky and completed post-doctoral training at Johns Hopkins University, where he made contributions to the knowledge of airway sensory neurobiology.

Kristen Rall

Director, Translational Development

Kristen leads the U.S. Translational Development team of preclinical scientific content experts generating pre-clinical data and supporting clinical study implementation. With extensive experience in Alliance Management and a CA-AM certification, Kristen’s responsibility also include maintaining key relationships with external partners ensuring best practice and synergies across Galvani to deliver value through partnerships.

Prior to joining the Galvani team, Kristen was with GSK for over 20 years in various roles including Worldwide Business Development , Finance, and Marketing. Kristen holds an MBA from Temple University, and a B.S. in Finance from Drexel University.

Lynsay Evans

Operations Associate

Lynsay is Galvani’s Operations Associate, and has over 12 years of experience working in the pharmaceutical industry. Together with Clare De Vere, Lynsay provides administrative support to the Galvani Bioelectronics team.

Before joining Galvani Bioelectronics in 2016, Lynsay worked in the sports development sector for a County Sports Partnership and also for the NHS.

Margriet Vervoordeldonk

Senior Director, Immunomodulation & Clinical Science Lead

Margriet is Director Immunomodulation and Clinical Science Lead in the Clinical Development team. As such she is mainly focusing on the development of neuromodulation strategies for the treatment of (chronic) inflammatory diseases. Her main tasks are to participate in the design and execution of the clinical development strategy and is responsible for the execution of Galvani’s first clinical study. She lead’s and participates in the data review and analysis of the trial results in close collaboration with the Clinical Operations team. She provides expert scientific input to clinical trial documents and the program regulatory dossier and lead or assist with Competent Authority and Ethics Committee/IRB submissions together with the Regulatory team. In addition, she supervises R&D involving ex- and in vivo research delivering proof-of-concept studies on the target nerve performed in collaborative research projects with several universities in Europe.

Margriet holds a PhD in Biochemistry which she obtained at the university in Utrecht (The Netherlands). Previously she was working as COO at Arthrogen (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), a small biotech company developing gene therapy for arthritis. Holding also a position as University Teacher at the division of Clinical Immunology & Rheumatology (Academic Medical Centre (AMC)/University of Amsterdam) she was supervising the research-lines focusing on neuro-inflammationn and gene therapy in rheumatoid arthritis. Currently she holds a position as University Teacher at the Tytgat Institute (AMC) and contributes to the development of neuromodulation for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. She is author of over 60 peer-reviewed publications.

Mina Park

Senior Counsel, Patents

Mina is responsible for intellectual property (IP) activities for Galvani Bioelectronics. As a UK and European qualified patent attorney, she works closely with the R&D team and the business to capture arising IP, build and manage the IP portfolio. She also evaluates potential IP risks or opportunities and advises the business with strategies to address them.

Prior to joining Galvani Bioelectronics, Mina was in private practice at two leading IP firms, having entered the IP profession in 2011. Coming from an engineering background, her practice had previously been more engineering and computing focused. Mina enjoys working with the complex blend of engineering and biology that Galvani Bioelectronics brings together.

Morten Hansen

Programme Director, Implantable Devices for Neuromodulation

Morten is a director in the development of the bioelectronics devices in the Galvani Bioelectronics team. He draws on experience from several development projects of active medical devices for both stimulation and sensing applications including devices for pain management, paralysis and prosthetic control. Morten’s responsibility is on overall direction of the development projects at Galvani Bioelectronics, with specific focus on user requirements, surgical procedures and instrumentation.

Prior to joining GKS’s Bioelectronics group, Morten spent nearly 15 years working on medical devices at the Alfred Mann Foundation and Bioness in California. He received his PhD in Biomedical and Electronic Engineering from Aalborg University, Denmark.

Paul Matteucci

Director, Neural Interface Development

Paul is Director for Neural Interface Development. In this role he oversees the research and development of Galvani’s portfolio of implantable neurostimulation leads.

Paul has over 10 years of experience in neuromodulation, across several countries. These include the development of a retinal neuroprosthetic to restore sight to the blind as part of the Bionic Vision Australia project (UNSW, Australia), and Medtronic, where he supported and managed Deep Brain Stimulation across Australia and New Zealand.

Phil Milliken

Diector, Clinical Development

Phil is Director within Clinical Development group and head of Indication Expansion. He is responsible for overseeing programs to diversify our lead therapy into new therapeutic areas, to confirm proof of concept and translational path to clinic. This includes developing translational biomarker strategies to define mechanisms of action and therapeutic response in our clinical trials. Prior to this he was Disease Biology manager, leading multiple projects with our academic collaborators, to demonstrate effects of neuromodulation on defined neural circuits in differing disease conditions.

Phil has extensive non-clinical and clinical experience across multiple therapeutic areas. He joined GSK in 2007, working in Safety Pharmacology with an in vivo cardiovascular and translational focus, followed by a position in Safety Evaluation & Risk Management in the Global Clinical Safety & Pharmacovigilance group. He moved to Pfizer as Non-Clinical Drug Safety Lead for the Neuroscience & Pain Research Unit, before joining Galvani Bioelectronics in 2016. Phil gained a PhD in Physiology & Pharmacology at the University of Strathclyde, followed by a post-doctoral position at the University of Edinburgh in the Centre for Cardiovascular Sciences.

Robert Coatney

Director, Translation Sciences

Bob supports Galvani’s Translational Science programs. Using his 30 years of animal research experience, he ensures that the team has the right animal and surgical models for establishing treatment parameters and generating preclinical evidence of treatment and device safety.

He obtained a Doctor of Veterinary medicine from Colorado State University and a PhD in Cardiovascular physiology from Michigan State University. He also completed a residency in veterinary surgery at Purdue and a fellowship in laboratory animal medicine. Bob spent over 23 years in small molecule drug discovery and safety development animal models, directing surgical support programs, and establishing ultrasound and non-invasive imagine as a research tool supporting the evaluation of drug safety and efficacy.

Sarah Hassan

Senior Investigator, Clinical Translation

Sarah holds a scientific investigator role within Disease Biology at Galvani Bioelectronics. Here she explores, refines and validates current avenues for pre-clinical neuromodulation. Previously Sarah was part of the Bioelectronics R&D Unit at GSK working as a postdoctoral researcher. She holds a strong background in integrative electrophysiology and an understanding of central and peripheral neuronal control of autonomic function.

Sarah received her PhD in Advanced Medicine from Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Here, she focused on prefrontal cortex control of cardiorespiratory and thermoregulatory function under the scope of methamphetamine abuse and mental health disorders.

Sebastien Ouchouche

Principal Engineer, Neural Interfaces

Sebastien leads the mechanical design efforts for the neural interface development at Galvani Bioelectronics.

Prior to his work at Galvani Bioelectronics, Sebastien worked in many areas of design engineering, across several countries. These include piezoelectric micro-systems in NOLIAC (Denmark) and Safran Electronics & Defense (France), before moving to implantable medical devices when he joined Sorin/LivaNova (France) to develop pacemaker and defibrillator systems, with specific focus on the leads and interfaces. Sebastien also spent 4 years at Medtronic (Netherlands) to work on the development of thin-film based leads and interfaces for deep brain stimulation.

Sebastien has a Master of Science in Mechanical and Microtechnoloy Engineering from the French National School of Mechanical Engineering and Microtechnology (ENSMM).

Shannon Springer

Director, Regulatory

Simon Meng

Lead Biomedical Systems Engineer

Simon is the Lead Biomedical Systems Engineer, supporting the development of the next generation Galvani neuromodulation system.

Prior to joining Galvani in Nov 2017, he was with CareFusion/Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) as Sr. Systems Engineer for the development of the new medical ventilators.

Simon earned a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Drexel University, Philadelphia, where his focus was to design a wireless intracranial pressure sensor for the patients with traumatic brain injury. He obtained an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering and B.S. in Electrical Engineering separately both from Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China.

Wesley Dopson

Senior Investigator, Clinical Translation

Wesley was an early Galvani adoptee, joining Galvani in January 2014 from GSK. Over the years, he has worn many different hats, ranging from EHS, UK safety and quality lead, lab manager and equipment inventory lead, purchasing support, and in-vivo study support.

Wesley current supports the Clinical Translation team as an in-vivo study director, leading disease model characterisation studies while bringing together many different workstream leads across Galvani and GSK to deepen our understanding of such target diseases, identifying potential clinically translatable biomarkers to set us up well for our pre-clinical studies. Here we will determine efficacy of our therapy for new diseases, potentially leading to subsequent Clinical Development.