Leadership
Rob Boyce is the CEO of Plakous Therapeutics, Rob has been working in healthcare and life sciences throughout his career. He has been part of several start-up companies. Prior to Plakous Rob was at Imago Systems, Inc., a software as a service medical diagnostic company seeking to redefine the medical imaging.
Rob Boyce is the CEO of Plakous Therapeutics, Rob has been working in healthcare and life sciences throughout his career. He has been part of several start-up companies. Prior to Plakous Rob was at Imago Systems, Inc., a software as a service medical diagnostic company seeking to redefine the medical imaging. He started his business career at Johnson & Johnson, marketing the Tylenol Brand. While at J&J he led worldwide Sales and Marketing for Independence Technology, for Independence Technology, a Johnson & Johnson company specializing in state-of-the-art rehabilitation technology. Rob launched his career as a naval flight officer in the Navy’s E-2C Hawkeye.
Juliana Blum, PhD is the COO of Plakous Therapeutics. She received her doctorate in Molecular Biology from Loyola University Chicago with a focus in cardiovascular gene therapy in 2003, and completed her BS at Carthage College in Wisconsin.
Juliana’s experience and leadership focuses on a broad range of research and development activities through commercialization functions, including global regulatory affairs (US, EU, Japan), domestic and international product distribution, CMC development, business alliances, and manufacturing scale up. She leads internal and external commercial initiatives with proven skills in alliance management. Her responsibilities include identifying, developing, and managing manufacturing and tissue sourcing collaborations. Juliana was co-founder and Vice President of Humacyte, Inc. where she spent over 15 years focused on the development, management, and execution of a scaled manufacturing strategy to support commercial product launch of Humacyte’s regenerative medicine products. She received her doctorate in Molecular Biology from Loyola University Chicago with a focus in cardiovascular gene therapy in 2003, and completed her BS at Carthage College in Wisconsin.
Scott Washburn, MD is Founder, President, and Medical Director at Plakous. He earned his MD from the University of Arkansas College of Medicine and completed his residency at Eastern Virginia Medical School specializing in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Scott Washburn, MD is Founder, President, and Medical Director at Plakous. He earned his MD from the University of Arkansas College of Medicine and completed his residency at Eastern Virginia Medical School specializing in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Scott is the resident subject matter expert and has over 36 years of experience in birth tissue physiology, tissue donation, and neonatal care. He is a successful entrepreneur starting a birth-tissue bank and now Plakous Therapeutics Inc.
Michael Berger, PhD is Senior Product Development Engineer at Plakous. He earned his BS and PhD in biomedical engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University focusing on stem cell differentiation, biomaterial characterization, and manufacturing process evaluation for orthopedic and dental applications.
Michael Berger, PhD is Senior Product Development Engineer at Plakous. He earned his BS and PhD in biomedical engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University focusing on stem cell differentiation, biomaterial characterization, and manufacturing process evaluation for orthopedic and dental applications. In his training, he served as a graduate student fellow in the Office of Technology Transfer at VCU, evaluating patentability and market opportunity for disclosed technologies from VCU Health and the College of Engineering. He serves as head of the R&D lab in Winston-Salem, NC.
Jenna Hojnacki, BS is Research Associate at Plakous. She earned her BS in Biology at Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC. Upon graduation she worked as the Biology Lab Coordinator at Wofford for two years before joining the Plakous team in 2020.
Jenna Hojnacki, BS is Research Associate at Plakous. She earned her BS in Biology at Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC. Upon graduation she worked as the Biology Lab Coordinator at Wofford for two years before joining the Plakous team in 2020. She has developed extensive experience in tissue processing and process optimization as Plakous has progressed through our award SBIR Phase II Fast Track.