Erik Schaefer, PhD
Co-founder & CSO
Erik is co-founder and CSO of AssayQuant Technologies, Inc. He has over 25 years of experience leading innovative life science tool companies, including Promega, BioSource, Invitrogen/Life Technologies, Thermo Fisher Scientific and now AssayQuant Technologies, Inc. In his many leadership roles, Erik has built and led high-performing R&D and manufacturing teams focusing on integrating innovative technologies to enable customers across diverse market segments and drive business performance. He has developed and commercialized more than 750 new products with a focus on workflow solutions and novel assay formats to improve understanding of signal transduction pathways and phosphoregulation in normal and disease states and to enable drug development leading to more effective treatments of human disease.
Erik holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, with a focus on molecular and cellular biology, from the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. He has 65 peer-reviewed publications and one patent (1 pending). He did his postdoctoral studies at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX and the Texas A&M Institute of Biosciences & Technology in Houston, TX, working on insulin receptor structure-function and creating animal models for diabetes.
Outside of AssayQuant, Erik enjoys time with his family, fly fishing, gardening and hiking.
Barbara Imperiali, PhD
Co-founder, CTO & Board Member
Barbara is co-founder and CTO of AssayQuant Technologies. She is currently the Class of 1922 Professor of Biology and Chemistry at MIT and has run an independent research group working in the fields of chemical biology and glycobiology at Carnegie Mellon, Caltech and MIT. Barbara received a B.Sc.(Hon) in Medicinal Chemistry (University College London, UK) in 1979 and a Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (MIT, Cambridge MA). She also carried out postdoctoral studies at MIT and Brandeis University.
Barbara’s research focuses on diverse aspects of protein structure, function and design, and she applies multi-disciplinary approaches involving organic synthesis, state-of-the-art spectroscopy, molecular modeling, enzymology, and molecular and cellular biology to address fundamental problems at the interface of chemistry and biology.
Barbara has co-authored over 220 peer-reviewed publications and 14 patents, and she is a member of the National Academy of Science.
In her free time, Barbara enjoys hiking and CrossFit and on longer escapes, she likes to go on long-distance backpacking trips.
Gerry Labonte
Chief Financial Officer
Gerry is a finance and accounting executive with 30+ years of leadership experience focused on system implementation, defining roadmaps, and developing financial platforms. He has successfully led a broad range of financial implementations impacting private equity and real estate, including investment returns and calculations, and performance reporting.
Gerry’s finance and accounting experience is in diverse industries (Real estate, public accounting, consulting, etc.) for both public (State Street Bank, Brookfield Asset Management) and private (Hipercept, AEW Capital Management) companies.
He has delivered operation excellence across diverse areas, including RFP process management, accounting operations outsourcing analysis, ERP software selection and integration, large-scale implementation of accounting, finance, and warehouse management systems and automation of common financial processes to deliver improved function and efficiency.
Bill Radany, PhD
CEO
E. William Radany, PhD, brings over 40 years of experience in the biotechnology industry, with a strong track record of scientific innovation, executive leadership, and company building. Prior to joining AssayQuant, Dr. Radany founded the synthetic biology companies VertuBio and Verdezyne, and served as President and CEO of High Throughput Genomics, Inc., a pioneer in array-based gene expression assay technologies for the life sciences sector.
Earlier in his career, he was President of Biacore and the founding CEO of NeoGenex. Dr. Radany has also held key executive roles at leading biotech firms including Xencor, Caliper Technologies, and Stratagene, where he was instrumental in forging strategic partnerships with major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
Dr. Radany earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Cell Biology from Colorado State University, and holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Physiology from the University of Wyoming.
Earl May, PhD
Senior Director of Discovery Technologies
Earl brings over 25 years of expertise in biochemistry, biophysics, and enzymology across multiple therapeutic areas. He has held research and leadership roles for companies like SmithKline Beecham, GlaxoSmithKline, OSI Pharmaceuticals, and numerous innovative biotechnology companies. He has explored hundreds of drug targets at the early end of the pipeline and has driven dozens of projects into and through screening and hit to lead activities.
During his tenure at GlaxoSmithKline, Earl provided quantitative analysis to multiple therapeutic areas and was a part of Bob Copeland's Enzymology and Mechanistic Pharmacology group. He then moved into biotech, taking on more significant leadership roles in screening sciences and lead discovery. Over the last decade, his enzymology experience has deepened with a focus on time-dependent and irreversible inhibition, protein-protein interaction inhibitors, and three-body biophysics problems, with over half of the enzymes he targeted being kinases.
Earl received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University after his undergraduate work in Biochemistry at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His post-doctoral work was in Nancy Craig's lab at Johns Hopkins University, where he dissected bacterial transposition in reconstituted systems.
Earl and his wife live in Watertown and have three adult children, scientists all, although one has unfortunately chosen not to use that gift.
Jefferson Chin
Director of Inventory Management & Automated Services (IMAS)
Jeff brings over 30 years of experience to AssayQuant within the fields of chemistry and compound management. Jeff has worked in a variety of small and large companies such as Cheminpharma, Bayer, Novartis, BMS and Pfizer. Jeff started out as a peptide chemist before transitioning to analytical chemistry, primarily NMR spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry and finally into leadership positions within Compound Management. Jeff’s broad experience has enabled him to bring innovative ideas into compound management such as acoustic ejection mass spectrometry for the analysis of compound integrity. Jeff has co-authored over a dozen articles within the field of NMR spectroscopy and presented at SLAS conferences regarding best practices in compound management.
Jeff obtained his MBA from the University of New Haven and then decided to become an Adjunct professor within the Chemistry department teaching laboratory skills in Organic Chemistry and Instrumentation.
In his spare time, Jeff enjoys woodworking, pottery and volunteering as a mentor. Jeff is most proud of his three adult children and being able to donate a kidney to improve the quality of life.
Karen Allen, PhD
Board Member
Karen is a Professor of Chemistry and the Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Boston University. Karen received a B.S. in Biology (Tufts University) in 1984 and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry (Brandeis University (Waltham, MA) in 1989. She was an American Cancer Society Post-doctoral Fellow at MIT and Brandeis University. Since 1993 she has led her own research team at Boston University, first in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the School of Medicine, and since 2008 in the Department of Chemistry.
Karen is a Fellow of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and has co-authored over 135 peer-reviewed publications. Her research is focused on the use of protein biochemistry and biophysical analysis to understand protein structure and mechanism with an eye toward therapeutics. In this context, her laboratory has plumbed the basis of enzyme-mediated phosphoryl transfer, phosphoglycosyl transfer and decarboxylation reactions.
Jeff Hoerle
Board Member
Jeff Hoerle is Managing Partner of Stone Run Capital, LLC, an investment firm based in New York. Prior to founding SRC in 2010, Jeff worked at Reich & Tang Asset Management from 2003 as an investment analyst and portfolio manager.
Formerly, he worked at Ovid Technologies, Inc. from 1993 in a number of roles including Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer.
Mr. Hoerle has a B.A. from Yale University (1990) and an E.M.B.A. from Columbia University (1997).
Gil Price, MD
Chairman of the Board
Dr. Price is an experienced biotech executive and entrepreneur with expertise across clinical asset investment strategy, evaluation, financing and execution. Additional leadership experience within R&D, Medical, and Strategy corporate functions.
Dr. Price was previously responsible for the strategic and tactical management of all business at Drug Safety Solutions, acquired in June 2017 by Linden Capital Partners. Dr. Price now functions as the Chief Medical Consultant for the global ProPharma Group.
Over the years, Dr. Price has served on multiple corporate boards, including public, private, and not-for-profit. His board duties have included the Chairman's role on Compensation and Governance and a member's role on Audit Committee. He has served on boards that report to; TSX, NYSE American, and NASDAQ. In his recent most recent experience at Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE American: RNN), he serves on Compensation, Governance, and Business Development Committees. In his previous role with Sarepta Therapeutics NASDAQ: SRPT, he helped guide the company's transition from an $80 million market (2008) to its current $8.4 billion market cap (2019).
Albert Li
Board Member
Albert is a seasoned senior leader with over 30 years of general management, finance and business development experience in startup, growth and turnaround environments. He had held executive roles in large multinational corporations and startups, including CFO Byton, Electric Last Miles Inc., Ford China and Changan Ford, Head of China Bombardier Aerospace, and CEO Ford Taiwan. Albert worked in Canada, Japan, Thailand, China and Taiwan. His achievements include public listing of Electric Last Mile Inc,, significant fund raises for Byton, successful launches of Ford Nanjing Assembly Plant and vehicle programs, financial led in Ford’s successful acquisition of Land Rover and spinoff of Visteon Automotive Components.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA from the University of Toronto.
