Andrew Crofton, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Andrew Crofton is a founder and a member of the board of directors of Karamedica.
Dr. Crofton is an emerging leader in chitosan research and manipulation as it relates to medicine. He obtained a B.A. in Chemistry and Religion with a Biomedical Studies Concentration from St. Olaf College in 2009. He then completed Loma Linda University School of Medicine’s Integrated Biomedical Graduate Studies PhD program with emphasis in clinical anatomy in 2015 before joining the faculty of Adventist University of Health Sciences. He has 8 years experience in chitosan research, decontamination, and nitrogen plasma sterilization/depyrogenation. Dr. Crofton is the co-inventor on 5 patents or pending patents related to chitosan and Alzheimer’s disease. He is also an experienced leader having served as a mentor for small businesses in the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps) and president of several non-profit organizations.
Samuel Hudson, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Sam Hudson is a founder and a member of the board of directors of Karamedica.
Dr. Hudson is considered one of the world’s leading experts in chitosan with more than 25 years of experience in chitosan research and manipulation. He even attended the first international conference on chitosan and has published over 85 articles and book chapters. Dr. Hudson obtained a B.S. in Chemistry and Textile Chemistry from North Carolina State University followed by Ph.D. training in Fiber and Polymer Science, also at NCSU. Dr. Hudson was a senior chemist with DuPont Co.’s Pioneering Research Lab prior to joining the NCSU College of Textiles in 1987. Dr. Hudson is an established innovator holding 2 patents and the inventor of a number of different physical forms of chitosan and more recently fibroin. He has served on the scientific advisory board of several companies including Nexia Biotechnologies and presently Bolt Threads.
Taub T Swartz, MBA
Chief Financial Officer
Taub Swartz is a co-founder of Karamedica.
After a 20+ year career at Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter ,and Kidder Peabody in capital markets in NYC and London, Taub Swartz is currently the CFO of Codename Enterprises, Inc, parent of Buzzr.com, a web content management company. Taub received his MBA degree from the Stern School of Business at New York University and prior to that earned his BS from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also served for four-years as the president of Boosters of Rhythmic and Artistic Gymnastics, a 501(c)3 organization.. Taub lives in NYC with his wife, two daughters and two dogs!
Eric Gosink, PhD
Senior Vice President – Corporate Strategy
Eric Gosink has extensive experience translating biomedical science into partnership opportunities.
Having spent 19 years in business development, marketing, intellectual property management and licensing, he has served both a commercial and educational role at several research institutions, including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the University of Utah, the UC San Diego, Loma Linda University Health and currently at the UC Riverside where he trains other universities how to commercialize their research, mentors new technology companies and supports a new business
incubator. While in industry, he enabled the launch of new licensing programs in cellular bioproduction and diagnostic instrumentation for Life Technologies Corporation. Dr. Gosink obtained a B.A. in Biochemistry and Cellular Biology from UC San Diego followed by a Ph.D. degree in Physiology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is an author on multiple peer-reviewed scientific publications in physiology and cellular biology.
Claudia F.E. Kirsch MD, FACR, FASFNR
Outside Medical Advisor
Dr. Kirsch is a Professor of Neuroradiology Division in the Yale Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging in Neuroradiology. She is a Fellow in the American College of Radiology and American Society of Functional Neuroradiology, and currently completing her PhD Thesis research with neopath.org at the University of Sheffield School of Clinical Dentistry on “Viral mediated disease in the skull base, head and neck”, utilizing high resolution 7T MRI at the BioMedical Engineering and Imaging Institute (BMEII) at Mount Sinai Medical Center and artificial intelligence to enhance understanding of how viruses affect the skull base with advisors Dr Ali Khurram PhD, Senior Honorary Consultant Pathologist, Professor Daniel Lambert Ph.D. Chair Molecular Cell Biology and in 7T MRI labs under Priti Balchandani PhD, Professor and Director Advanced Neuroimaging Research Program (ANRP), BioMedical Engineering and Imaging Institute (BMEII) at Mount Sinai Medical Center under NIH grants.
Ricky Whitener, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
Ricky Whitener is a Senior Research Scientist at Karamedica, Inc.
Dr. Whitener earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Auburn University in 2019. His doctoral work focused on development of novel hydrogel drug delivery platforms for development of innovative contact lenses. As a postdoctoral scholar at Rowan University, he used nucleic acid aptamers to create targeting nanoparticles for specific drug delivery to cancer cells. Dr. Whitener has also worked as a senior chemist at ChromoLogic LLC, where he successfully completed two research projects and won multiple DoD grants expanding the growth of those projects for the company. One project involved the development of a self-healing polymer for medical applications. The other project sought to create multilamellar vesicles capable of transporting many types of hydrophobic drugs, some examples included drugs for traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and radiation mitigation. Dr. Whitener has won many awards for teaching, presentations, grants, and others. He joined Karamedica in 2021.
Justin Brier-Jones, MS
Research Scientist
Justin Brier-Jones is a staff scientist of Karamedica, Inc. He has a Master’s of Science degree from Loma Linda University with emphasis in clinical anatomy. He has extensive experience working with stem cells and materials science.
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