About REPROCELL

Chikafumi Yokoyama, Ph.D.

CEO, REPROCELL Inc.

Dr. Yokoyama joined REPROCELL Inc. in 2004 as a general manager of business development, a year after the formation of the company. Since 2005 he has been the Chief Executive Officer during which time he raised investment funds, arranged the initial public offering, and managed several global corporate acquisitions. Prior to REPROCELL, Dr. Yokoyama worked as an RandD Leader for Sumitomo 3M, a subsidiary of 3M Corporation. And earlier, for a period of nearly 8 years, he was employed in McKinsey and Company Inc. as a management consultant. Dr. Yokoyama received his Ph.D. in chemistry from Tokyo University in 1996.

Daisuke Usui

COO, REPROCELL Inc.
CEO, Bioserve Biotechnologies India, Pvt. Ltd.

Mr. Daisuke Usui has global experience in key business position of medical and biotech companies in mature and emerging markets. His diverse background includes various roles managing finance, sales and marketing, supply chain, and launching new products. Prior to joining REPROCELL, Daisuke was responsible for sales and commercial activities in Asia Pacific with HOYA Surgical Optics, in addition to being an executive manager for its subsidiary in India. Daisuke holds a bachelor of arts (International Studies) from Tsukuba University (Japan).

Yoshiyuki Yamakawa

Director, REPROCELL Inc.

Mr. Yamakawa has been a non-executive director of REPROCELL since 2008. He is the CEO of HIBIKI Partners, a consulting company, and a BOD member of some listed companies. Having graduated from Waseda University in economics, he started his career as a venture capitalist at Nippon Life Insurance. After experiencing directorship of corporate planning at Innotech Corporation, Mr. Yamakawa joined Sosei Co. Ltd. in 2001 and succeeded in its IPO and MandA as a representative executive officer and CFO.

Rama Modali

CEO, REPROCELL USA Inc.

Rama Modali is currently the Chief Executive Officer of REPROCELL USA, Ltd. He was the original founder and former President of Bioserve USA, which was acquired by REPROCELL in 2014. Rama has been contributing to the improvement of human health for almost 30 years by providing researchers around the world with access to human tissue samples from diseased donors, clinical collections, and molecular biology services. With a vast international clinical network to leverage, he continues to drive the company’s successful growth under the REPROCELL umbrella through international expansion and the provision of cutting-edge scientific applications to support biomedical research.

Prior to founding Bioserve, Rama was employed at the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute. He has over 32 peer-reviewed research publications.

David Bunton, Ph.D.

CEO, REPROCELL Europe Ltd.

Dr. David Bunton is CEO of REPROCELL Europe, a life sciences company based in Glasgow, UK, and a subsidiary of REPROCELL Inc. Having founded a human tissue assay service company (Biopta Ltd.) in 2002, Dr. Bunton later took over as the CEO of the conjoint REPROCELL Europe business after the acquisition of Biopta by REPROCELL. The company remains focused on the use of human fresh tissues, 3D models and the use of iPSCs to better characterize drug efficacy and inter-patient variability in drug responses.

Previously a Lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, David has numerous publications in physiology and pharmacology to his name and is a respected opinion leader in the use of human tissue for drug discovery. He chairs the Scottish Lifesciences Association’s special interest group in precision medicine, is a member of the NC3Rs/MHRA working party on human tissues in safety pharmacology and is an advocate for the wider global use of human cells and tissues in drug development.

Karen Bingham, Ph.D.

COO, REPROCELL Europe Ltd.

Dr Karen Bingham is COO of REPROCELL Europe, based in Glasgow, UK.  Karen is an experienced commercial scientist with more than 25 years of contract research and Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) knowledge. Karen graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Molecular Biology and a PhD in Cell Engineering (sponsored by Ethicon, a Johnson and Johnson company) from the University of Glasgow, UK. Having specialised in contract safety testing for the biopharmaceutical industry in the early part of her career, Karen joined Biopta Ltd in 2006 and led the development of its contract research operations. In 2011, Karen led the creation of lab operations at Biopta’s second laboratory in Maryland, located within the REPROCELL USA facility. Following the acquisition of Biopta by REPROCELL in December 2015, Karen was appointed Chief Operating Officer of REPROCELL Europe and continues to lead a team of highly skilled scientists at REPROCELL’s UK (GLP-accredited) and US laboratories, delivering its predictive drug discovery services.

Professor Stefan Przyborski

CSO, REPROCELL Europe Ltd.
Professor, Department of Biosciences at Durham University, UK

Professor Stefan Przyborski has more than 30 years Stefan has over 30 years of research experience within the fields of cell and tissue biology with specialization in stem cell science, cell differentiation and the development of advanced technologies that enable the construction of human tissues in vitro. REPROCELL’s Alvetex 3D cell culture technology was originally pioneered in Prof. Przyborski's laboratory at Durham University (UK).

Prof. Przyborski’s interdisciplinary research at the boundaries of physical science and biology led to the development of Alvetex in the early 2000’s. He founded the company Reinnervate Ltd in 2002 with the purpose of commercializing and further developing Alvetex products and services.

Reinnervate was acquired by REPROCELL in 2014. Alvetex continues to be developed Prof. Przyborski's team at Durham University together with REPROCELL Europe (Glasgow). REPROCELL now offers Alvetex systems globally both as products and in use in bioengineered tissue model services.

Norio Nakatsuji, Ph.D.

Director, Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS), Kyoto University

Career:

• Founding director and professor of Kyoto University’s Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS)
• Director and professor at Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences at Kyoto University
• Professor at National Institute of Genetics
• Principal investigator at the Meiji Institute of Health Science
• Postdoctoral training at Umea University in Sweden, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and George Washington University in the USA, and MRC Mammalian Development Unit in UK.
• Ph.D. from Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University

Hiromitsu Nakauchi, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor and Director, Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo
Professor, Department of Genetics, Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine

Career:

• Professor, Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo
• Professor, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Tsukuba
• Team leader, Tsukuba Life Science Center, RIKEN
• Assistant professor, Juntendo University School of Medicine
• Post-doctoral research fellow, Stanford University School of Medicine
• Ph.D. from Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo
• M.D. from Yokohama City University School of Medicine

Hiroyuki Mizuguchi, Ph.D.

Professor, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University.

Career:

• Professor at Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University
• Project Leader at National Institute of Biomedical Innovation
  National Institute of Health Sciences
  University of Washington
• Ph.D. from Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University

Wado Akamatsu, M.D., Ph.D.

Project Professor, Center for Genomic and Regenerative Medicine, Juntendo University

Career:

• Project Professor, Center for Genomic and Regenerative Medicine, Juntendo University
• Assistant Professor, Research Associate, Department of Physiology, Keio University School of Medicine
• Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Toronto, Medical Genetics and Microbiology
• Research Fellow, Japan Science and Technology Agency
• Research Fellow, Osaka University Hospital
• M.D. and Ph.D. from Graduate School of Medicine, Keio University

Taeko Naruse, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Medical Research Institute, Tokyo Medical and Dental University

Career:

• Assistant Professor at Medical Research Institute, Tokyo Medical and Dental University
• Research Fellow at Faculty of Medicine, Tokai University
• Research Fellow at Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka City University
• Ph.D. from Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka City University

Hiroshi Yagi, Ph.D.

Lecturer, surgery (general, gastroenterology), Keio University School of Medicine
In charge of hepatobiliary and pancreatic transplantation

Career:

• Lecturer, Surgery (General and Gastroenterology), Keio University School of Medicine
• Massachusetts General Hospital Postdoctoral Research Fellow
• Chief Resident Surgeon of Hino City Hospital
• Doctor of Medicine (Keio University)
• Keio University School of Medicine Surgery (General and Gastroenterology)
• Kyoto University Transplant Surgery Medical Associate
• Graduated from Keio University School of Medicine