Executive Board
David Ku, M.D., Ph.D. serves as the Executive Director of APDC and is the Lawrence P. Huang Chair Professor of Engineering Entrepreneurship, a Regents' Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship's Program for Engineering Entrepreneurship at Georgia Tech. He has an active research interest in cardiovascular disease pathophysiology and treatment. He has additional interest in commercialization of novel medical devices through start-up companies, and efficient methods of product development. He has been involved with four start-ups and successfully raised over $20 million in private financing.
Barbara D. Boyan, Ph.D. is a director of the Atlantic Pediatric Device Consortium and Dean of the School of Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University. She was previously a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia where she held the Price Gilbert, Jr. Chair in Tissue Engineering. She was a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering. In 1993, she co-founded OsteoBiologics, Inc. (San Antonio, Texas), which was acquired by Smith & Nephew in 2007. Dr. Boyan is also founder of Biomedical Development Corporation in San Antonio, as well as Orthonics, Inc. and SpherIngenics, Inc. in Atlanta. She sits on the Board of Directors of Arthrocare, Inc. (Austin, TX) and Carticept Medical, Inc. (Alpharetta, GA). The author of more than 370 peer-reviewed papers, reviews, and book chapters, Dr. Boyan holds 13 U.S. patents.
Kevin Maher, M.D. serves as a Director for the APDC and is a pediatric cardiologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. He is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech. He is the Director of the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, the Co-director of Center for Pediatric Innovation at Children's and Georgia Tech and serves on the Board of Directors for the Global Center for Medical Innovation and the Petit Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech.
Wilbur Lam, M.D., Ph.D. serves as a Director of APDC and is a bioengineer and pediatric hematologist/oncologist. He is Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech, where he is developing and applying novel technologies using micro/nanotechnology, microfluidics, and cell mechanics to research, diagnose, and treat blood diseases and cancer. Dr. Lam is also involved in the invention, development, and clinical assessment of novel medical diagnostics for childhood diseases. His laboratory has numerous publications and grant support for those projects with a filed patent and spin-off company, CellScope Inc., stemming from his work.
L. Franklin Bost, M.B.A. IDSA, serves as the Director of Educational Programs for APDC. He is the Executive Associate Dean in Engineering and the Executive Director of the Translational Research Innovation Projects (TRIP) at VCU. Mr. Bost is also the president and chief executive officer of SpherIngenics Inc., an early stage device company focusing on enhancing the delivery and effectiveness of stem cell therapies. Previously, he was Professor of the Practice in biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech when APDC was awarded its original P50 grant. In his industry career, Mr. Bost was president of Porex Surgical Inc., a developer, manufacturer and distributor of implantable biomaterial products for craniofacial reconstructive surgery and previously served in executive management and development positions with several large medical device companies.
Executive Committee
Bruce Rubin, MD, MBA serves as an APDC Pediatric Advisor at VCU and is the Jessie Ball duPont Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the VCU Medical Center. He has appointments as Professor of Biomedical Engineering and an Adjunct Professor of Physiology and Biophysics as well. Dr. Rubin is a pediatric pulmonologist, a biomedical engineer, and has a master’s degree in business. He has spent the past 30 years studying airway biomaterials (primarily mucus), developing and testing medical aerosols, and creating cell and tissue culture models of chronic airway diseases. His discoveries have led to 9 patents – 3 in the past 4 years.
Charles Frame, PhD serves as Director of the APDC Business Planning Core and is an Assistant Professor at Emory School of Medicine and Adjunct Associate Professor at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. He coordinates business planning and marketing efforts for the APDC and provides marketing expertise and guidance with project PI’s and other APDC inventors. Dr. Frame’s direct efforts related to these projects include assessment of funding mechanisms (both private-sector and Federal), analysis of level and market strength of competing devices, assessment of size of markets for innovations, market segmentation, and analysis of channels of distribution for successful commercialization.
Traci Leong, PhD serves as Director of the APDC Biostatistics Core and is a Research Assistant Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics in the Emory Rollins School of Public Health. Dr. Leong has longstanding collaborations with research faculty in the Emory Department of Pediatrics and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She has collaborated actively for more than 10 years on pediatric related projects in the fields of oncology, cardiology, nephrology and emergency medicine. She is the author of 50 articles in statistics journals such as Statistics in Medicine, Journal of the Royal Statistical, Society and Applied Statistics as well as medical journals such as Cancer, Blood and Circulation.
Andi L. Shane, MD, MPH, MSc serves as the Clinical Trial Advisor in the APDC Biostatistics & Clinical Trial Design Core, and is an Associate Professor in the Emory Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Shane has 15 years of experience in the design and conduct of clinical research towards improving health outcomes in children. She has served as a site principal investigator on multi-site studies and has independent funding for her own investigator-initiated clinical trials. With a Master’s of Science in Clinical Research and her demonstrated ability to mentor, guide and advise others on their own research endeavors, Dr. Shane provides essential input and expertise as our device projects enter the clinical testing phase of development. Dr. Shane also works closely with the Biostatisticians in this core to ensure all clinical trials are powered appropriately and that data collection methodology has been well designed and defined.
Stacy Heilman, PhD is a Research Director at the interface of the Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta pediatric research partnership. Within APDC Dr. Heilman facilitates child health related research efforts by identifying and ensuring access to critical resources, such as research core services, and aligning program needs with appropriate funding mechanisms. She educates researchers and inventors on best practices and winning strategies when competing for program and research funding and fosters important collaborative connections within the consortium. Dr. Heilman works closely with many members of the APDC consortium including the Biostatistical & Trial Design Core and the Business Planning Core leaders to ensure funding requests are matched to innovators’ collective research and business needs.
Martha Willis, MS serves as Research Program Manager for APDC and provides overall administrative leadership for the Consortium. She holds an MS degree in electrical engineering and has over 15 years of project management experience in academic research and development, government contracting, and industry. Ms. Willis serves as the primary point of contact for APDC clinicians, inventors, investigators, and other consortium personnel. She coordinates the APDC seed grant program, from application through the establishment and management of subcontracts with small businesses and other research entities affiliated with the consortium. She also coordinates federally mandated reporting for the consortium and manages all aspects of APDC’s subject’s protection standards.
