Allan Black of the Fabrzyme Class Action Suit, Sarah Greene of Cancer Commons, and Eric Valor and Ryan Bethencourt, proponents of "Guerilla" style biotech for ALS, discuss empowering patients and the future of clinical trials.
Bio
Ryan Bethencourt
Ryan Bethencourt is CEO of Halpin Neurosciences. To assist with the development of Halpin, Les recruited Ryan Bethencourt, a biotech entrepreneur with experience in CNS translational medicine development and Damian Crowe, a serial finance and biotech entrepreneur. Together they are planning on accelerating the development of Motor Neuron/ALS therapeutic drug development with rapid proof of concept testing and shortened First in Man testing times (including innovating on biomarker development and crowd sourced patient involvement).
Allen Black
Dr. Black has practiced patent law at some of the largest law firms in the U.S. He has handled patent prosecution matters for universities and companies
ranging in size from small startups to Fortune 100 firms.
Before practicing law, Dr. Black was an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where he developed vaccines for infectious diseases and cancer. Dr. Black received his postdoctoral training at the Magee Women's Research Institute in Pittsburgh in the areas of mucosal immunology, molecular biology, and microbiology. Dr. Black has published original research in the Journal of Immunology and Infection & Immunity among other journals. He is a contributor to the recently released book, Gene Profiles in Drug Design, and holds patents for an RNA-based drug technology.
Dr. Black is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law where he teaches Biotechnology Law
Sarah Greene
Sarah Greene is Executive Director of Cancer Commons, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance and report the latest precision therapies to patients through Rapid Learning Communities involving patients, researchers and physicians. Most recently she was editor-in-chief of The Scientist magazine and its parent, Faculty of 1000, a post-publication peer review service in London. She is a publishing and new media entrepreneur with three startups acquired by Wiley (Current Protocols), Elsevier (HMS Beagle web magazine and BioMedNet), and Thomson Reuters (Praxis.MD; Best Practice of Medicine). She was a co-founder of the Society for Participatory Medicine and launched the Journal of Participatory Medicine as managing editor. Greene also developed websites with original content and formats for the New York Academy of Sciences (eBriefings, Science & the City) and The New York Times-Health, and was chief content officer at Keas, Inc. She trained as a soil microbiologist and puts this to good use at her family farm in Nebraska.
Eric Valor
Eric Valor had just turned 36 when he was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrigs disease). Before this time, he was an avid surfer, snowboarder and scuba diver as well as self-taught Information Technology professional with a career of nearly 20 years. The continued advance of ALS led to his early retirement by February 2008. In July of 2008, Eric suffered a pulmonary event that required a tracheotomy and the permanent use of a ventilator. By this time he had also lost his ability to eat and was fed through a tube to his stomach. You can learn more by reading his “My History With ALS”.
