Kristin has over 10 years of business development and licensing experience. She is currently Licensing Team Lead for Therapeutics and Diagnostics within Innovation Ventures. She works closely with UCSF researchers to prioritize, develop, and partner their innovations for commercial development. Her portfolio includes therapeutics, diagnostics, and medical devices.  

Kristin holds a Ph.D. in Virology from Harvard University and an A.B. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University. She also has experience in business strategy consulting in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical space and in science and technology policy at the National Academies.

Heather joined the UCSF Office of Technology Management (OTM) in October 2013. She handles case and license agreement compliance, including analysis of license agreements for diligence and financial terms and interpretation, reporting and enforcement.

Prior to joining OTM, she was at Stanford University’s Office of Technology Management for eight years. Heather earned her MS degree from University of San Francisco and her BA from San Jose State University.

Jessica currently serves as the Manager of Business Development and Licensing at UCSF's Innovation Ventures, collaborating closely with UCSF researchers to identify and prioritize innovations in therapeutics, diagnostics, and digital health for commercial development.

Before joining UCSF, she was a Consulting Manager at Simon-Kucher, where she provided strategic advice to biotech and pharmaceutical companies on drug commercialization, focusing on pricing and market access. Jessica holds a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Columbia University and a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

David manages intellectual property arising from research conducted at UCSF. He works with faculty and staff to evaluate new inventions and to develop appropriate IP strategies, with the goal of commercialization of the technology through licensing, whether to established companies or to new ventures.

David has more than ten years’ experience in academic technology transfer, first at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and then at Yale University. Prior to that, he was with PricewaterhouseCoopers serving its biotech and tech clients. His Ph.D. is in biophysics from Harvard University, and he has master’s and bachelor’s degrees in physics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Stanford University respectively.

David is enthusiastic about working with faculty and other researchers to commercialize new technology for the benefit of the public.

Dr. Marlene Grenon is a practicing physician, scientist and entrepreneur. She currently holds the role of Director of Digital Health at UCSF Innovation Ventures and Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Surgery at UCSF, where she practices vascular medicine. Dr. Grenon has served as the Chief Medical Officer of Evry Health, as a vascular surgeon at the VAMC San Francisco and has an Adjunct Faculty at the International Space University. She has published over 70 peer-reviewed publications. She has more than 20 years of experience in the health care industry and has been the lead investigator for clinical trials funded by the NIH and NASA/NSBRI.

Dr. Grenon holds an MD from McGill University, a MMSc from Harvard Medical School, an MBA from Brown University and IE Business School, and a diploma in Space Sciences from the International Space University. She completed a residency in cardiac surgery (McGill) and fellowships in vascular surgery (University of British Columbia), endovascular surgery (Arizona Heart Institute) and aerospace medicine research (Harvard/MIT).  She has also held roles in the aerospace medicine community including with NASA and the FAA. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Vascular Medicine, a fellow from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) with Certificate of Specialist in both cardiac and vascular surgery. She advises start-ups in the Bay Area with a focus on digital health and serves as an expert consultant to the American Medical Association on matters of digital health and AI.

Mike currently lives in the Orange County area and comes to us with significant business development, strategy, product development, and operations experience, at large to mid-sized companies and with start-ups.  Mike was most recently with Optovue where he served as the VP of Strategic Planning and Innovation.  Prior to Optovue, Mike was with Alcon for 15 years.  Mike had several roles at Alcon including the lead on the development of a white space strategy to expand Alcon’s portfolio in new therapeutic areas, head of surgical glaucoma R&D, and the research head for vitreoretinal instrumentation.  He has been responsible for moving several products through the development and commercialization process. 

Mike has a Ph.D. from UC Irvine in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and is an inventor with over 42 patents. 

I am excited to have joined the Office of Technology Management (OTM) in June 2020 as a Strategic Partnerships Officer. In this capacity I work closely with the UCSF faculty and researchers to capture and protect Intellectual Property arising from novel research collaborations.

I earned a Ph.D. in Virology/Microbiology from Oregon State University and a B.A. in Biology from University of Oregon. After two post-doctoral fellowships, the first one at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center focused on Human Papillomavirus and an NSF-fellowship at UC Davis working on plant viruses I had a longstanding career at legacy Monsanto Company/Bayer Crop Science. During my time there I was first a researcher in Ag biotechnology and subsequently worked on Intellectual Property (IP) for both the Ag Biotech and the Global Chemistry Organizations. In addition, my IP experience was substantiated by working for a small startup company focused on manufacturing green plastics through chemistry. I am thrilled to be contributing to UCSF’s mission of advancing health through translating science and commercializing technology.

Abdalla is an entrepreneurial and results-driven professional with over 10 years of experience in business development, strategy, and licensing within the biopharmaceutical industry. He currently serves as Manager of Business Development and Licensing at UCSF Innovation Ventures, where he collaborates with UCSF researchers to evaluate inventions, develop patenting strategies, and create commercial partnerships in the areas of therapeutics, devices, diagnostics, and digital health.

Abdalla has a proven track record of spearheading and analyzing strategic business opportunities, particularly in deal structuring, partnerships, and executing licensing deals in oncology therapeutics. Prior to joining UCSF Innovation Ventures, Abdalla served as the Director of Business Development and Global Alliances at Elevar Therapeutics. He also co-founded a start-up oncology company, where he led business development, licensing activities, collaborations, and fundraising efforts.

Earlier in his career, Abdalla worked at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, conducting research in neuroscience and cardiovascular fields. He holds a Master of Science in Biotechnology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

In her role as a Licensing Associate for UCSF’s Innovation Ventures, Cathy is responsible for managing the University’s diverse intellectual property disclosures and assisting in licensing transactions.  Cathy joined the office in early 2016 and is enthusiastic about aiding faculty and staff in translating their scientific discoveries for the public benefit through commercial partnerships.

Cathy did her PhD at Columbia University and a post-doctoral fellowship at Ludwig Cancer Research– both focused on understanding the DNA damage response through biochemical, genetic, and molecular biology approaches.

Kathy has ten years of business development experience in university settings, both at UCSF and Stanford, where she sourced and executed several high-value licenses and managed various industry collaborations. Kathy is passionate about working with faculty members and industry partners to forge paths for startup formation with the goal of bringing new technologies to the public domain. Prior to joining the technology transfer field, Kathy obtained a PhD in Genetics at Yale and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, where her research focused on the roles of histone deacetylase inhibitors and ribosomal proteins in breast cancer. She received her AB in Biology from Cornell.