Frank Huerta, CEO, President, and Founder
Mr. Huerta is the former Co-founder, CEO, and President of Recourse Technologies, Inc., a provider of computer security threat management solutions to contain, control, and track malicious computer attacks.  With over 15 years of new product development, product management, and engineering experience, Mr. Huerta has a successful track record of bringing innovative technologies to market. Mr. Huerta raised  nearly $40M from leading venture capitalists and corporations including Doll Capital Management, Menlo Ventures, Canaan Partners, Intel Capital, Itochu, and Mesirow Financial.  After three and a half years, he sold his company to Symantec Corporation (NASD: SYMC) in August 2002 for $135M in cash.  He then served as a Vice President of Symantec for over a year.  Prior to starting Recourse, Mr. Huerta was the Director of Business Development for Exodus Communications where he focused on mergers and acquisitions.  He has held other product management positions at Seagate Software and VeriFone, Inc. and started his career in engineering and later new product development at Hughes Aircraft Company, Santa Barbara Research Center.  He serves on the board of the Arthritis Foundation of Northern California and the Stanford Graduate School of Business Management Board and is a former board member of the Hispanic Network for Entrepreneurs.  He has an undergraduate degree in physics from Harvard University cum laude and an MBA from Stanford University.

Jennifer Elisseeff, PhD., Chief Scientist and Founder
Dr. Elisseeff is an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University with an adjunct appointment in Orthopedic Surgery.  She received a bachelor’s degree with honors in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon and a PhD in biomedical engineering from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.  After doctoral research in tissue engineering with Robert Langer, Dr. Elisseeff received a Pharmacology Research Associate Fellowship from the National Institute of General Medicine for research in the Molecular Biology section of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.  Her biomaterials and tissue engineering laboratory at Johns Hopkins focuses on developing new biomaterials and minimally invasive technologies for tissue repair, stem cells, and musculoskeletal tissue engineering.  She has collaborations with plastic surgery, orthopedics, ophthalmology and otolaryngology clinical departments.  Dr. Elisseeff has published over 50 articles and book chapters,  several patents issued and pending, and has given over 60 invited national and international lectures.  She serves on a number of NIH and foundation review panels, the science advisory board for Bausch and Lomb and Cellular Bioengineering, Inc.  Dr. Elisseeff has received awards including the Carnegie Mellon Young Alumni Award, Arthritis Investigator Award from the Arthritis Foundation and was named by Technology Review magazine as a top innovator under 35 in 2002 and top 10 technologies to change the future.  In 2005, the Urbanite magazine voted Elisseeff one of the up and coming in Baltimore and the Baltimore Business Journal recently named her to Baltimore’s 40 under 40.

Norman Marcus, M.D., Chief Medical Officer and Founder
Dr. Marcus is a practicing orthopaedic surgeon in Northern Virginia with extensive experience in sports medicine, joint reconstruction, and cartilage restoration. Dr. Marcus has performed numerous cell based cartilage transplants using the autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) technique since 1997.  He has published over twenty articles in the orthopedic literature and has worked with teams at both the University of Virginia and George Mason University on the development of genomic and proteomic science as applicable to cartilage. He has been working with Dr. Elisseeff since 2001 on the use of biomaterials to correct cartilage lesions. Dr. Marcus is the former Chief Science Officer of Cell Mechanics, LLC and is a member of the Orthopedic Research Society, the International Cartilage Repair Society, and the International Society for Stem Cell Research. He is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University (BA), Stanford University School of Medicine ( MD), and the Orthopedic Residency Program of the University of New Mexico.

Ross Erickson, Executive Vice President, Regulatory and Clinical Affairs
Mr. Erickson brings to Cartilix, Inc. 35 years experience in the medical products industry. Most recently, Mr. Erickson served as the Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Clinical Research at Angiotech Pharmaceuticals. Prior to acquisition by Angiotech, Mr. Erickson was Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Clinical Research at Cohesion Technologies. Mr. Erickson’s corporate background also includes clinical and regulatory positions at Alza Pharmaceuticals, Cobe Laboratories, Laserscope and Collagen Corporation. His experience is focused on Class III medical devices, including drug-device combination products for surgery. Mr. Erickson was instrumental in completing clinical studies and obtaining regulatory approvals in jurisdictions such as the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan. He received his M.A. in physiology and B.A. in biology from Western Michigan University and also completed the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Education Program.

Susan Wade, Quality Assurance and Quality Control
Ms. Wade has over twenty years of industrial training in the areas of Quality Assurance and Quality Control program development for manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.  Working for such companies as Cell Genesys, Syntex, Collagen Corporation, and Orquest, she has developed extensive experience with aseptic processing, sterile fill, and validation of products including proteins, antibodies, traditional pharmaceuticals, viral gene therapy vectors and autologous cell therapies. She has hands on experience with auditing, validation, analytical and bioanalytical assays development, as well as development of policies and systems for ISO, QSR and cGMP compliance.  Ms. Wade has a B.A. in biochemistry from Cal State Hayward.