Our Teams

Jon is a Licensing Associate at the Office of Technology Management where he supports the licensing efforts at UCSF. He received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from UCLA on the influence on cage environment on porous, catalytically active materials. After post-doctoral research and working as a Tech Transfer Fellow at Sandia National Laboratories, Jon worked as a Patent Agent at WSGR where he developed in-depth expertise in building intellectual property portfolios, counseled clients in due diligence matters, and collaborated with business, legal and scientific partners.

Anna evaluates market opportunities for novel technologies identified through research conducted at UCSF. She works closely with UCSF faculty and staff on commercialization activities, including start-up formation and IP licensing. Her role facilitates collaborations between the academic, industry, and early-stage investors to inform development of the next big breakthroughs. 

Anna joined UCSF in 2021. She was previously a life science consultant at CBPartners focused on clinical trial design optimization, go-to-market, and market access strategy for high unmet need pipeline therapeutics -- with particular expertise in oncology and neurological disorders. Anna graduated with honors from Johns Hopkins University where she earned a B.A. in Public Health Studies. 

As an Assistant Director of Licensing at Innovation Ventures, Ellen is responsible for sourcing and completing high value deals for UCSF's most commercially attractive technologies. In addition to helping bring UCSF's innovation from bench to bedside, Ellen manages a large and diverse IP portfolio, advises faculty/staff on IP strategy, and negotiates intellectual property terms for large-scale industry collaborations.

Ellen has been managing intellectual property on behalf of UCSF since February 2007, when she initially joined the Office of Technology Management. Over these years, Ellen has completed a wide range of partnering deals, and played critical roles in the formations of many UCSF start-ups which have gone on to have successful IPOs or acquisitions. Ellen holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Science from UC San Diego, as well as a B.A. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from UC Berkeley. Her scientific background is strongest in molecular and cellular biology, cancer biology, and human and yeast genetics.

Ellen is passionate about aiding UCSF faculty and staff in realizing the fullest commercial potential in their inventions, and helping UCSF achieve its mission of advancing health worldwide through strategic partnerships leading to successes in clinical development and health sciences.

Kathy joined the UCSF Office of Technology Management (OTM) in March of 2014. She works with UCSF faculty members to protect intellectual property arising from their research and negotiates licenses to these technologies with both startups and established companies.

Prior to joining OTM full-time, Kathy was a part-time Technology Analyst with UCSF OTM while completing her postdoctoral training at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Dr. Christopher Benz’s laboratory. Her postdoctoral research focused on the role of ribosomal proteins in breast cancer. She received her Ph.D. in Genetics from Yale University in Dr. David Stern’s laboratory, studying regulation of gene expression and cytoskeleton rearrangement by BRCA1-related proteins. Kathy’s A.B. is from Cornell University, where she was a Presidential Research Scholar.

Kathy is passionate about helping UCSF investigators move their discoveries from the laboratory to the public domain.

Amy joined the University of California, San Francisco, as the Associate Director of the Office of Strategic Alliances for the department of Innovation Ventures in July 2022. She received her PhD in Molecular Pharmacology from the State University of New York at Buffalo – Roswell Park Cancer Institute. She has experience in designing, implementing, and maintaining tailored action plans and partnering strategies for multidisciplinary research collaborations and agreements with government, industry, academia, and philanthropy partners. 

Previously, Amy served as a Lead within the Strategic Science Engagements Office for the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where she coordinated high-level efforts across various Department of Energy (DOE) labs and the National Cancer Institute and was recognized in 2017 by the United States Department of Energy for the Secretary’s Appreciation Award for responding to the Vice President's Cancer Moonshot. She has focused on the application of computational predictive biology in oncology, drug discovery, and neurodegenerative efforts resulting in numerous publications and external funding. 

With an education in film, a passion for adventure, and the good fortune to work with organizations like Greenpeace, Amazon Watch and Sea Shepherd, Sean has spent much of his life travelling and documenting the environmental movement. In 2005 he settled in San Francisco, joined Beyond Pix Studios to cover the world’s biggest technology innovators, including Apple, LinkedIn and Amazon. Along with new priorities came new skills that included commercial production and design.

Working with an incredible team of creative professionals, Sean led commercial campaigns for local and national broadcast television, which was honored with a pair of Emmy Awards for directing ad campaigns in 2009 and 2014.

In 2016, he began working with the University of California designing and producing educational media projects, and today you can find him wandering the ivy walled campus of UC San Francisco tending to brand and visual communications with the Innovation Ventures team.

Aleks comes to UCSF after almost a decade at Verily, a precision health company where she worked on multiple diverse programs beginning with the company’s inception as a moonshot project at GoogleX. Notable examples of her experience at the intersection of health and biotech include research on diagnostic and therapeutic nanoparticles, and product management of Virtual Stainer, a digital pathology platform for tissue imaging and deep learning-based histological staining. She has a passion for early-stage product development and building meaningful partnerships that accelerate the commercialization of new technologies. 

Aleks received her Ph.D. in Biophysics and Computational Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC).

Olivia joined the Office of Strategic Alliances in November 2018 as an Alliances and Business Development Manager. Previously, Olivia worked as a scientific advisor where she focused on protection of biotechnology intellectual property. Olivia received her PhD in Immunology from Mayo Clinic School of Biomedical Sciences where she studied the endogenous antiviral mechanisms in the domestic cat. Subsequently, Olivia was awarded an NIH institutional research and academic career development award to pursue her postdoctoral studies at UCSF in the laboratory of Dr. Melanie Ott. A focus of her postdoctoral research was to identify the molecular mechanisms contributing to transcriptional repression at the HIV-2 promoter. During her tenure as a UCSF postdoctoral fellow, she also worked as an immunology consultant, where she provided technical expertise to support a biotechnology litigation case. Additionally, Olivia was an intern in the Office of Technology Management where she conducted prior art searches for patentability and determined commercial assessment of UCSF technologies.

Inder joined the University of California, San Francisco, in June 2022 to manage special projects/programs for the Innovation Ventures team, specifically working with Strategic Alliances and the Entrepreneurship Program.  He has a background in executive public relations, partnership development, and communications. Prior to joining UCSF, Inder worked at Morling Financial Advisors, SLAC National Lab, and the Global Engagement Office at UC Berkeley. Inder has his MA from San Francisco State University and BA from the University of California, San Diego.

Nate Prorok brings a diverse and wide ranging skill set and experience to the Catalyst Program team. After undergraduate studies in Physical Therapy and Athletic Training at Loyola Marymount University, Nathaniel worked with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps - International in Tacna, Perú, with local communities to develop sustainable solutions to the problems they faced in health and education. Afterwards, Nathaniel earned a graduate degree in Healthcare Administration from Marquette University and worked with Children’s Hospital Wisconsin to develop a medical home for youth in foster care. Prior to joining the Catalyst Program, Nathaniel completed a fellowship at the University of Utah Health where he worked on various population health, wellness, and social determinants of health projects.

Sohela serves as the program director for Catalyst Program and InVent Fund, within Innovation Ventures at UCSF. With a strong passion for advancing research projects and promoting technology patenting and commercialization, Sohela is dedicated to bridging the gap between groundbreaking innovations and real-world applications. Before joining Innovation Ventures, she held the position of founding product manager at The Production Board, a prominent technology incubator and investment holding company in San Francisco, where she made significant contributions to the TERA startup project.

Sohela started her career journey in academia, earning her Ph.D. in Genetics from Tufts University's School of Biomedical Sciences in Boston. Building upon her expertise, she pursued postdoctoral training in rare disease genetics at the University of California San Francisco, followed by a research fellowship in clinical genetics and genomics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as a Niehaus Scholar. After her academic research and training, Sohela transitioned to the field of technology startups focused on developing software tools and solutions for curating, interpreting, and analyzing complex biological data. She played a pivotal role in the development of NGS (Next-Generation Sequencing) data interpretation and reporting software for genetic test results at Ingenuity Systems (acquired by QIAGEN) and Invitae Corp.

Driven by her dedication to the field of genetics and genomics, Sohela aspires to continue making significant contributions. She aims to foster collaboration between academia and industry, working towards driving innovation and improving patient outcomes. With her diverse expertise in research, product management, and technology commercialization, Sohela is poised to make a lasting impact in the field.

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.

Danielle is primarily responsible for handling the intake of invention disclosures and compliance with federal and non-profit sponsor reporting obligations. Danielle also contributes to various projects for OTM, which she joined in May 2016.

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.

Dorin joins OTMA with several years of experience in intellectual property formerly as a Licensing Analyst at UC Santa Barbara. She has a BS from Cornell University and a MS in Nutritional Biochemistry from UC Berkeley. As an IP Operations Manager within OTMA, Dorin will be primarily responsible for patent prosecution, patent maintenance, and federal reporting.

Sherri has a B.S. in Speech Pathology and a J.D. from Lincoln Law School in Sacramento, and joins OTMA with several years of experience in intellectual property, including most recently as a Principal IP Analyst at UC Davis.  As a Licensing Contracts Officer within OTMA, Sherri will be primarily responsible for Material Transfer Agreements, Bailments, and Inter-Institutional Agreements.

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.

Lorraine Johnson joined the UCSF Office of Technology Management and Advancement in January 2021 as a manager of Engagement and Opportunity Development. In her role,  Lorraine focuses on evaluating inventions and commercial opportunities in the areas of devices, diagnostics, and digital health. Lorraine comes to UCSF from Industry and has spent more than 20 years commercializing medical devices and digital health platforms with Johnson & Johnson and several start-ups.

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.

Gemma has been sourcing and executing high value deals on UCSF’s innovative technologies since 2014, when she first joined the office. She is currently responsible for managing UCSF’s alliances with the ‘Parker Institute of Cancer Immunology’ and 'Chan Zuckerberg Biohub'.  An integral part of this role is determining the commercial and patenting strategy of the University’s intellectual property, engaging with faculty, building and nurturing new relationships with internal stakeholders, industry partners and early stage investors, and negotiating license agreements.  

Gemma holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Stem Cell Biology from the National University of Ireland, Galway, and a B.Sc. in Neuroscience from University College Cork, Ireland. She received postdoctoral training from the University of California, San Francisco and the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. Her research focused on neurological applications of stem cell therapies.

Gemma is passionate about guiding UCSF investigators in realizing the fullest commercial potential of their innovations.  She believes in working collaboratively to find solutions to problems and drive progress. She loves working at the interface between academia and industry, establishing partnerships that have the potential to benefit patients worldwide.

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.

Danica joined UCSF’s Office of Technology Management in August 2022. In her role as IP Operations Manager, she handles invention case intake, sponsor compliance, processing of material transfer agreements, and royalty reports. Prior to joining UCSF, Danica worked at UCLA’s Technology Development Group for four years as their first Post Execution Contracts Manager. Her position ensured consistent management of TDG’s contracts and was responsible for ensuring TDG’s IP-related agreements were properly entered into the organizational databases and securely maintained. Danica also worked to monitor contractual performance of licensees and audit general agreement compliance, including equity issuance, and progress and royalty reports. Prior to her joining UCLA, Danica worked as a Licensing Manager in the toy industry. Danica attended West Chester University of Pennsylvania, and has a B.A. in Communication Studies. She also has a Paralegal Certificate from UCLA Extension.

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.

Lei manages intellectual property, identifies market opportunities, and licenses technologies developed at UCSF.

Lei joined UCSF in the February of 2022. Before that, Lei was a technology transfer associate at Augusta University. She was responsible for patent portfolio management, business development, and licensing negotiation. Lei completed her PhD and Postdoctoral training at The Ohio State University and the University of Michigan respectively. Her research focused on signaling pathways and the treatment of cancer.

Lei is enthusiastic about working with UCSF inventors, transferring research from the bench to the bedside, and advancing the impact of breakthrough discoveries at UCSF.

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.

Hailey has extensive experience in life science R&D and business development. Currently serving as the Manager of Business Development and Licensing (BD&L) in Innovation Ventures at UCSF, she collaborates closely with inventors in the UCSF community to identify and cultivate partnerships in therapeutics, diagnostics, and digital health areas.

Before joining UCSF, Hailey worked in Merck KGaA's Business Development team and worked as a consultant at L.E.K. Consulting, specializing in evaluating life science assets for the private equity sector. She holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

Dr. Callcut is General Surgeon and Associate Professor of Surgery at San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Hospital. She leads a NIH and DOD funded team of researchers focused on integration of biomedical big data and surgical data science into critical care for improved clinical decision support.

Mary Beth is responsible for business development, including the recent transaction with GE. She has 25 years of broad healthcare expertise in conceiving and completing deals in digital health, biopharma, behavioral health, disease management, wellness, health systems, pharmacy benefit management, and health plans. Prior to UCSF, she was a co-founder of a venture capital backed digital health coaching solution built from IP validated at Partners Healthcare. Mary Beth holds a BBA in marketing and a BFA in commercial design.

Ed is a technologist with 20+ years of experience in software engineering with the last 5 years at UCSF focused on cloud-computing application solutions.  He has a B.S. in Computer Science from UC Davis and a M.Sc. in Healthcare Information Technology from Boston University.

Elizabeth manages the Surgical Innovations program, playing a key role in goal-setting, strategic planning, and outreach. Working closely with faculty leadership, Liz oversees Surgical Innovations’ accelerator and seed funding program, organizes project teams, and coordinates with stakeholders across campus.

Dr. Lee is a pediatric surgeon with research interests in the integration of emerging devices and technologies in medicine. As Clinical Director of Surgical Innovations, Dr. Lee is passionate about collaborating with multidisciplinary experts to solve clinical needs.

Jessica overseas day-to-day operations and leads CIC partnerships with industry and academia. Previously, she has led product design in various San Francisco startups as well as co-founded Healtho, a consumer health information company. She is also the co-founder of one of the largest health meetups in Seattle, the Seattle Health Innovators.

Jessica received her MBA from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School in 2012 while she concurrently completed her Residency in Health System Pharmacy Administration at Johns Hopkins Medicine. She also holds a Doctorate in Pharmacy and BS in Biochemistry from the University of Washington. While in college, she attended the UW Academy, an early entrance program for young scholars to attend university at an early age.