Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D. (see Officers)

Mr. Joseph W. Reilly (see Officers)

Robert S. Langer, Sc.D
Dr. Langer is one of 13 Institute Professors (the highest honor awarded to a faculty member) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). 
Dr. Langer has written over 950 articles.  He also has more than 600 issued or pending patents worldwide, one of which was cited as the outstanding patent in Massachusetts in 1988 and one of 20 outstanding patents in the United States.
Dr. Langer’s patents have been licensed or sublicensed to over 200 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and medical device companies; a number of these companies were launched on the basis of these patent licenses.   He served as a member of the United States Food and Drug Administration’s SCIENCE Board, the FDA’s highest advisory board, from 1995 -- 2002 and as Chairman from 1999-2002.
His work is at the interface of biotechnology and materials science. A major focus is the study and development of polymers to deliver drugs, particularly genetically engineered proteins, DNA and RNAi, continuously at controlled rates for prolonged periods of time. Work is in progress in the following areas:

• Investigating the mechanism of release from polymeric delivery systems with concomitant microstructural analysis and mathematical modeling.
• Studying applications of these systems including the development of effective long-term delivery systems for insulin, anti-cancer drugs, growth factors, gene therapy agents and vaccines.
• Developing controlled release systems that can be magnetically, ultrasonically, or enzymatically triggered to increase release rates.
• Synthesizing new biodegradable polymeric delivery systems which will ultimately be absorbed by the body.
• Creating new approaches for delivering drugs such as proteins and genes across complex barriers in the body such as the blood-brain barrier, the intestine, the lung and the skin.
• Researching new ways to create tissue and organs including creating new polymer systems for tissue engineering.
• Stem cell research including controlling growth and differentiation.
• Creating new biomaterials with shape memory or surface switching properties.
• Angiogenesis inhibition.

Dr. Langer has received over 150 major awards.  In 2007, he received the 2006 United States National Medal of Science. In 2002, he received the Charles Stark Draper Prize, considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for engineers and the world’s most prestigious engineering prize, from the National Academy of Engineering. He is also the only engineer to receive the Gairdner Foundation International Award; 68 recipients of this award have subsequently received a Nobel Prize. Among numerous other awards Langer has received are the Dickson Prize for Science (2002), Heinz Award for Technology, Economy and Employment (2003), the Harvey Prize (2003), the John Fritz Award (2003) (given previously to inventors such as Thomas Edison and Orville Wright), the General Motors Kettering Prize for Cancer Research (2004), the Dan David Prize in Materials Science (2005) and the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research (2005), the largest prize in the U.S. for medical research.  In 2006, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.   In 1998, he received the Lemelson-MIT prize, the world’s largest prize for invention for being “one of history’s most prolific inventors in medicine.”  In 1989 Dr. Langer was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and in 1992 he was elected to both the National Academy of Engineering and to the National Academy of Sciences.  He is one of very few people ever elected to all three United States National Academies and the youngest in history (at age 43) to ever receive this distinction. 
Forbes Magazine (1999) and Bio World (1990) have named Langer as one of the 25 most important individuals in biotechnology in the world.  Discover Magazine (2002) named him as one of the 20 most important people in this area.  Forbes Magazine (2002) selected Langer as one of the 15 innovators world wide who will reinvent our future.  Time Magazine and CNN (2001) named Langer as one of the 100 most important people in America and one of the 18 top people in science or medicine in America. Parade Magazine (2004) selected Langer as one of 6 “Heroes whose research may save your life.”  He has served, at various times, on 15 boards of directors and 30 Scientific Advisory Boards of such companies as Wyeth, Alkermes, Mitsubishi Pharmaceuticals, Warner-Lambert, and Momenta Pharmaceuticals.  Dr. Langer has received honorary doctorates from Yale University, the ETH (Switzerland), the Technion (Israel), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), the Universite Catholique de Louvain (Belgium), the University of Liverpool (England), the University of Nottingham (England), Albany Medical College, the Pennsylvania State University, Northwestern University and Uppsala University (Sweden).  He received his Bachelor’s Degree from Cornell University in 1970 and his Sc.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974, both in Chemical Engineering.

Mr. Boris Kalandar

Mr. Kalandar is a co-founder of MentorTech Ventures and serves as a General Partner.  He is also the Founder and Managing Partner of SVM Associates, Ltd. (SVM) - a boutique merchant banking and financial advisory firm in its 14th year of operation, providing a broad range of strategy, financial, operational and intermediary advisory services to middle market and early-stage technology companies.  Mr. Kalandar is co-founder and a General Partner of SVM Israel, a special opportunities fund focused on investments in both funds and operating companies in Israel. He was previously a co-founding shareholder of three successful technology companies and has served on Boards of VINtek, Inc. and Sinewave, Inc., as well as on the boards of a number of Fund I’s portfolio companies.  Mr. Kalandar worked for 10 years as a principal and senior executive with Strategic Management Group, Inc. (SMG) - a leading developer of software and interactive simulations for management training and executive education to "Fortune-200" clients. He led the $50M recapitalization exit for SMG founders by Berhrman Capital.  Mr. Kalandar currently serves on the Investment Advisory Committees of the Ben Franklin Technology Fund of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which successfully invests in early stage software, biotech and manufacturing technology companies. He started his VC experience at Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE: SFE), a public venture capital holding company, where he was with the first early stage venture capital fund sponsored by Safeguard.  Mr. Kalandar earned his MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania with concentration in Finance and Strategic Planning.  Mr. Kalandar also holds a graduate degree from the Institute of Electrical Engineering in St. Petersburg, Russia.