People 

Professor Gregory E Rice
Non-Executive Chairman

Professor Greg Rice is a co-founder of HealthLinx and a co-inventor of key patents that underpin HealthLinx’s product development goals.

Professor Rice is an NHMRC Principal Research Fellow at the University of Queensland’s Centre for Clinical Research. He has an outstanding international reputation in reproductive biology, using both human and animal models. His academic qualifications include: BSc (Hons), PhD, Grad Dip Management and Master of Health Administration.

Professor Rice’s current research programs focus on the aetiology and early diagnosis of complications of pregnancy and reproductive tract cancers. His research teams are leaders in proteomic biomarker discovery platforms and the development of multiplex assay systems.

Dr John Chiplin
Non-Executive Director

John joined the Board on 1 December 2010. Dr Chiplin is highly respected in the Australian biotechnology sector with over 20 years’ experience in life science and technology industries in the US, UK and Australia.Dr Chiplin was most recently the CEO of Arana Therapeutics (ASX:AAH), one of the largest publicly quoted biotechnology companies in Australia. In his role at Arana, Dr Chiplin successfully guided its lead drug candidate (a ‘domain’ antibody) through Phase I into Phase II clinical trials and IND FDA filing. Dr Chiplin ultimately led the corporate re-engineering of Arana Therapeutics, a world leading antibody developer, which resulted in the acquisition of the company by Cephalon Inc for a significant premium to market in July 2009. Immediately prior to running Arana, Dr Chiplin was head of the US$300M ITI Life Sciences investment fund in the UK.

Dr Chiplin's own investment vehicle, Newstar Ventures Ltd, has funded more than a dozen early stage companies in the past ten years. Dr Chiplin's pharmacy and doctoral degrees are from the University of Nottingham, UK and he currently serves on the boards of or acts as an advisor to a number of international public/private companies and venture capital funds.

John Evans
Non-Executive Director

John joined the Board on 1 April 2008.  John holds a B.Com (Hons) degree and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, and a member of CPA Australia and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.  John is currently the principal of a Business Broking & Advisory practice, and advises a range of businesses in both the SME sector and larger corporate clients, on matters such as strategic planning, marketing, governance, and financial analysis.

Prior to this, John held a series of positions in Finance and General Management over a 15 year period, across a wide range of industries including telecommunications, banking and insurance, superannuation and funds management, media, hospitality, and property development. John’s approach to advising businesses balances the need for practical, achievable solutions with the need to always keep in sight the overall strategic objective.  John is a director of another listed company, several private companies and two not-for-profit organisations, and provides Board consulting services to three other company groups.

Nick Gatsios
Managing Director & Executive Director

Nick is a co-founder of HealthLinx, spinning the technology out of a leading Melbourne hospital in 2003. The company was privately funded for three years until Nick negotiated a reverse acquisition of an ASX listed company in late 2005. In February 2006 the transaction was completed with the company being re-capitalised to allow for the development of the OvPlex™ panel.

Nick was also co-founder of Teraform Advisory that was established in early 2001 to advise on the commercialisation of intellectual property emanating from universities and research institutes in Australia. He has been responsible for developing and establishing licence agreements and partnerships between appropriate partners which resulted in increased value of clients’ products/service and increased access to investment.  Nick has an extensive network in local and international financial institutions with a strong focus in the US.

Nick has spent the past ten years building strong international networks and relationships where technology can be partnered and developed through to product and market. Nick has been successful in securing over $60 million in funding and grants. More recently Nick has been very active in establishing distribution channels for HealthLinx in targeted jurisdictions and establishing trials for regulatory approvals for OvPlex™.

Dr Stewart Washer
Non-Executive Director

Stewart joined the Board on 1 April 2008, and has over 20 years of senior executive and Board experience in commercial technology companies in the medical, food, agricultural and industrial sectors. He was a founder of Biopacific Ventures, a $120m New Zealand based fund. He is currently a Venture Partner with the Swiss Inventages Fund, a €1.5 billion life science fund and Investment Director of the IB Fund in Australia.

Stewart was the founding CEO of Phylogica Ltd (ASX: PYC) between 2003 and 2007, a company with a promising peptide drug discovery platform. Before this, he was CEO of Celentis and managed the commercialisation of intellectual property from AgResearch in New Zealand with 650 Scientists and $130m revenues.  During this time he formed and governed a number of  successful biotechnology companies that employed over 100 people with profitable revenues in excess of $30m.

Stewart is Chairman of Resonance Health (ASX:RHT) who have developed imaging technology for measuring liver iron (Ferriscan) and other liver disorders and Hatchtech Pty Ltd, which has a novel headlice treatment in phase II clinical trials. Stewart is a Senator at Murdoch University and a member of the Federal Government Advisory Panel for Industrial Biotechnology.

Associate Professor Elizabeth M Dax
AM MD BSc PhD

Elizabeth M Dax is an expert in the quality management of laboratory science and medicine, with extensive experience in project and financial management and research and is well known as a consultant, an educator, and an adviser in policy development in Australia and developing areas.

A/Prof Dax directs a national program for the quality of tests for transfusion transmitted infections and testing in facilities including the Australian Red Cross Blood Service and internationally, supporting quality in 80-100 reference laboratories in the South-east Asian and Western Pacific regions (funded partially by the World Health Organization (WHO). Laboratories with both diagnostic and blood transfusion safety mandates are involved. Programs are established pertaining to their specific requirements and resources.

Her current interests include: HIV vaccines, early immune responses to HIV and other infections, diagnostics development. Specific projects include development of an HIV test for incidence and development of software to facilitate quality assurance of laboratories. Patent is pending on an HIV incidence test.

Associate Professor Jane Armes

Dr Armes is a renowned clinical pathologist and researcher with broad expertise in women’s reproductive tract cancers, breast cancer and the application of advanced anatomical, histological and cytogenetic techniques for the analysis of such cancers.

Dr Armes has previously worked with: the Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium; Department of Pathology, University of Melbourne; Department of Pathology, Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne; and the Departments of Gynaecological Oncology and Pathology, Mercy Hospital for Women, Melbourne; before accepting her current appointment as Director of Anatomical Pathology Mater Adult Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland.

Associate Professor Mahesh Choolani
MBBS, MRCOG, FRANZCOG, MMED, FAMS, PhD

Associate Professor Mahesh Choolani is one of the most highly regarded Professors in Singapore. He is currently Associate Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore where his current programs include the Fetal Genetics Programme & Ovarian Cancer Programme, (Diagnostic Biomarker Discovery Laboratory) & the Fetal Therapy Programme (Fetal Therapy Laboratory).

Dr Choolani is also a Senior Consultant of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the National University Hospital in Singapore, Chairman of the NLAM Clinician Scientist Unit & Co-chairman of Research of NUS Leadership in Academic Medicine Program both at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. He is also Chairman of the Clinician Leadership in Research Programme at National Healthcare Group.

He has been awarded numerous awards, has contributed to hundreds of articles and publications and is currently named as the co-inventor of 4 patents.

Professor Murray Mitchell

Prof Mitchell has more than 30 years experience in senior research positions spanning the United Kingdom, United States and Australasia. Currently he is the Director of UQ Centre for Clinical Research, Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Queensland. Prof Mitchell has contributed to more than 400 publications during his career and is recognised as a leader in reproductive biology.

Prof Mitchell brings a wealth of both academic and commercial experience to the SAC and the company with focus on women’s health.
 

Nick Gatsios
Managing Director

Nick is a director and co-founder of Teraform Advisory which was established to advise on the commercialisation of intellectual property emanating from universities and research institutes in Australia. Teraform advises on the market and application of the technology where commercial opportunities are discovered. Nick has spent the past five years building strong international networks and relationships where technology can be partnered and developed through to product and market.

Nick’s strengths are:

• Negotiation of licensing agreements for early and late stage technology;
• Market intelligence for IP and where it best fits within the global landscape
• Identifying the best fit industry partner and bringing together the two groups to proceed with transaction; and
• Structuring IP for either a spin off strategy and/or a licensing strategy
  

Dr Dominic J. Autelitano
Chief Scientific Officer

Dr Autelitano received his Ph.D. from Monash University, Australia in 1986 in the field of endocrinology, working predominantly on the isolation and characterisation of novel peptide hormones. He spent four years as a Fulbright post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University and Mt. Sinai Medical School in New York, furthering studies on transcriptional regulation of peptide hormone genes involved in the stress response. In 1991, he returned to Melbourne to the Baker Heart Research Institute and was awarded an NHMRC RD Wright Fellowship to further research the regulation and function of peptide hormones and their receptors on cardiac function. 

Dr. Autelitano joined Cryptome Pharmaceuticals as Senior Group Leader, Cell Biology when it was formed in 2002 and was instrumental in developing and implementing both the peptide-based platform technology and phenotype-based screening processes and in the pre-clinical development of novel peptide therapeutics. He has an extensive research and develpment background and experience in small biotechnology companies involved in drug development and biomarker activities.
 

Linda Raineri
Senior Scientist/ Laboratory Manager

Linda graduated from Curtain University in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science (Medical Science) with High Distinction. Linda worked in Singapore’s largest Hospital (TTSH) for 3 years, with 1 year in Sydney at Gradipore/Life Therapeutics and 6 years in Brisbane at Agenix and Bio-Layer/Anteo Diagnostics. Most recently, Linda was employed as a Senior Scientist with Universal Biosensors developing Point of Care Diagnostics involving novel electrochemical biosensor development.

With over 10 years extensive experience in the development of both in-vitro and in-vivo diagnostic tests using various platform technologies, Linda’s expertise ranges from technology transfers with international clients, including the quality and regulatory submissions associated with taking a product from research through to market with both FDA and TGA authorities, to day-to-day lab management and experiment design. Linda joined HealthLinx as a Senior Scientist in August 2010.

Jennifer Edwards
Finance Manager

Jennifer graduated from RMIT with a Bachelor of Business (Accountancy) and completed her CA in 2004. Jennifer has worked for Chartered Accountants Grant Thornton, Matthews Steer, Murdoch Partners and most recently with ANZ Trustees.

During her career, Jennifer has gained extensive exposure to all aspects of accounting, taxation and GST compliance issues through working with clients at both domestic and international levels. This knowledge, coupled with experience in budgeting and other peripheral business issues, has ensured a smooth transition into her role as HealthLinx's Finance Manager.