Scientific Advisory Board

Richard K. Cooper
Senior Vice President - Research and Development
TransGenRx, Inc.

Richard K. Cooper, chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board, has been a professor at Louisiana State University since 1991, and has a joint appointment with the LSU Agricultural Center and the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine. Cooper received a Bachelor of Science degree from Mississippi College in 1985, a Master of Science degree from Mississippi State University in 1988 and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia in 1991. Early after his arrival at LSU, Cooper began working in the area of gene delivery and developed a transposon-based system to efficiently incorporate DNA into a recipient genome. The technology was first used to successfully make disease-resistant channel catfish, but later applied to several other species as a method for gene therapy. Recent use has been for pharmaceutical protein production in cell culture and avian species. Cooper has served as major professor and/or been on the committees for 37 graduate students, has served on numerous committees including the Genetic Engineering Review Committee, and played a key role in establishing the AgCenter Biotechnology Laboratory in the LSU AgCenter. He has authored/co-authored more than 40 peer-reviewed articles, has 10 issued patents and 15 pending patent applications. 

John McDonald
Partner
Intellectual Property Practice Group
Atlanta, Georgia

John McDonald is a partner in the Intellectual Property Practice Group and concentrates on biotechnical, pharmaceutical and chemical patent prosecution. He is actively involved in developing the firm's European business. He began his career as an instructor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Dallas, where he was engaged in reproductive neuroendocrine research. McDonald joined the faculty of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Emory University School of Medicine, where he later became a tenured full professor. While at Emory, his research studies in peptide neuroendocrinology, neuroscience and endocrinology were funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. He served in various capacities including director of the Graduate Neuroscience Program and president of the Atlanta Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience. McDonald also conducted research studies in pancreatic endocrinology at the Marine Biological Laboratories in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and in neurobiology at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Atlanta. He received the Basil O'Connor Scholar Research Award from the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation; a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health; and the Basmajian/Williams & Wilkins Award for outstanding research and teaching from the American Association of Anatomists. McDonald graduated magna cum laude from Colgate University as Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. with highest honors in psychology. He completed his Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, Department of Anatomy. He served a postdoctoral fellowship in neurochemistry and neuroanatomy in the Department of Cell Biology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Dallas. His law degree is from Georgia State University.

Wayne W. Fish
Research Chemist
U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service
Lane, Oklahoma

Since 1999, Wayne W. Fish has been a research chemist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service. His current research is on the physical-chemical properties and mechanism of action of natural plant defense proteins and the enzymes of fungal pathogens of plants. Fish received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1963 and a doctorate in biochemistry in 1967 from Oklahoma State University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University from 1967 to 1970 and a visiting professor at the University of Uppsala Sweden in 1978. From 1970 until 1986, Fish was a professor of biochemistry at the Medical University of South Carolina. During this time, he published more than 100 papers in the areas of physical biochemistry and enzymology. In 1985, Fish was honored as South Carolina’s outstanding chemist by the American Chemical Society for his work on iron metabolism and blood coagulation. In 1986, Fish joined Phillips Petroleum Company as a senior scientist in the Biotechnology Division. During his tenure there, Fish published patents and papers in the areas of enzymology, yeast glucans and yeast-expressed recombinant proteins. In 2004, he was awarded the L.M. Ware Research Award for outstanding research in horticulture.

William C. Fioretti
President
TransGenRx, Inc.

William C. Fioretti has been a director and president of the TransGenRx, Inc., since November 2003. He became Chief Executive Officer of the company in July 2004. Fioretti also has been Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Agritech Technologies Ltd. since 1991 and Chairman of the Board of NanoMatrix, Inc., since 2001. Each of these companies is a privately owned biotech company. Fioretti was a founder of Mannatech™ Incorporated, a publicly traded nutritional supplement company, and served as its Chief Executive Officer and Chief Science Officer from 1994 to 1998. Fioretti received a Bachelor of Science from Appalachian State University in 1974; he did graduate work in biochemistry at the Medical University of South Carolina from 1974 to 1978 and engaged in postgraduate studies at the University of Florida from 1978 to 1980.

Rob Keene, DVM
Veterinarian
Three Forks, Montana

Rob Keene received his undergraduate degree in Animal Science from Montana State University in 1980. He attended veterinary school at Colorado State University and graduated in 1983. He began his practice career in California in a mixed animal practice, focusing on herd health, reproduction and surgery. Since 1985, Dr. Keene has served as a consultant and technical services veterinarian to many veterinary and research companies. Dr. Keene has served on various committees of the American Association of Equine Practitioners. After a decade as a technical field consultant with Fort Dodge Animal Health, he currently works with Boehringer-Ingelheim, traveling extensively in support of sales and assisting in the expansion of the diagnostic testing and pharmaceutical portfolios. He was a founder of TransWestTech in Bozeman, Montana, which was an early pioneer in the area of chicken transgenics.