Maya Ivanjesku
Maya has over twenty years experience as a formulation scientist in the pharmaceutical, cosmeceutical and biotech industries. She has managed multiple projects, including OTC’s, cosmeceuticals, Rx topicals, topical medical devices and nutraceuticals.
In consumer products, Maya worked as a senior research scientist/project manager for Estee Lauder, where she led the development of new formulations and products within the innovation/blue sky group. In addition, she created products for LaMer, Bare Essentials, Urban Decay, Joe Malone, Arbonne, Origins, Clinique and the list goes on. In biotechnology, she worked for numerous companies guiding chemists on developing new formulas, managing a team of scientists to support the R&D process and organizing, writing and executing calibrations, validation and performance on all lab equipment. One of the strongest values
Maya brings her expertise and knowledge of product development to LaFlore — from concept to commercialization with emphasis on pharmaceutical quality standards.
Dr Kasthuri Venkateswaran
Dr. Kasthuri Venkateswaran (Venkat) is the Senior Research Scientist at NASA – Jet Propulsion Laboratory and supports Biotechnology and Planetary Protection Group. His 39+ years of research encompass marine, food, and environmental microbiology. He is also leading ISS “Microbial Observatory” projects to measure microorganisms associated with U.S. nodes, as well as Kibo Japanese Experiment Modules. He has applied his research in molecular microbial analysis to better understand the ecological aspects of microbes, while conducting field studies in several extreme environments such as deep sea (2,500 m), spacecraft mission (Mars Odyssey, Genesis, Mars Exploration Rovers, Mars Express), assembly facility clean rooms (various NASA and European Space Agency [ESA] facilities), and the space environment in Earth orbit (ISS; ESA Columbus facility). He directs several research and development tasks for the JPL – Mars Program Office, which enables the cleaning, sterilization, and validation of spacecraft components. He directs several NASA competitive awards on the microbial monitoring of spacecraft and associated environments for the Exploration System Mission Directorate, closed habitats like ISS or its Earth analogues for the Human Exploration and Operation Mission Directorate. Also, he provides expertise for non-NASA programs such as commercial agencies (Boeing – airline cabin air measurement), medical industries (tissue and organ transplants processing) in measuring microbial pathogens that are problematic and health related. The bioinformatics databases generated by Venkateswaran’s team are extremely useful in the development of biosensors. Further, these models or information in database are extrapolated to what is known about the spacecraft surfaces and enclosed habitats in an attempt to determine forward contamination as well as develop countermeasures (advance cleaning and sterilization technologies) to control the problematic microbial species. Specifically, his research into the study of clean room environment using state-of-the art molecular analysis coupled with nucleic acid and protein-based microarray, will allow accurate interpretation of data and implementation of planetary protection policies of present missions, helping to set standards for future life-detection missions.
Dr Greg Maguire
Dr. Greg Maguire is a former professor of neuroscience and ophthalmology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. His graduate training was at the University of California, Berkeley, University of Houston, University of Texas, The Marine Biological Labs, Woods Hole, MA, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY. He was visiting associate professor of physiology at Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo, Japan, visiting assistant professor of molecular neurobiology at the University of Washington, and a visiting scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), at Harvard University.
Awarded a prestigious Fulbright-Fogarty Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Maguire managed his NIH funded laboratory at UCSD studying tissue degeneration and regeneration, and the role of stem cell released molecules(SRM) through paracrine and autocrine actions to maintain, repair, and regenerate human tissues. His NIH funded studies of systems biology and reverse engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and stem cell biology at UC San Diego led to the development of adult stem cell-based S2RM technology for the development of therapeutics and medical procedures. Dr. Maguire has over 100 publications and is currently working on his book entitled, “Spontaneous Stem Cell Healing.” He is co-founder of the SRM Living Foundry at UCSD in San Diego, and is Chief Scientific Officer & Founder of BioRegenerative Sciences, Inc.
Anna Di Nardo
Anna Di Nardo, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist who oversees the High Risk Pigmented Lesion Clinic. She also specializes in mole mapping and digital dermoscopy to detect early-stage melanoma.
As an associate professor in the Department of Dermatology at UC San Diego School of Medicine, Dr. Di Nardo leads her research lab, which focuses on mast cells and skin immunology. She has published over 100 scientific articles in top journals, including Nature Medicine, Journal of Immunology and Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
From 1995-2001, Dr. Di Nardo was a clinical associate at University Hospital in Modena, Italy. From 2001-2005, she held the same position at San Gallicano Dermatological Institute (IRCCS) Rome.
Dr. Di Nardo completed fellowships at UC San Francisco School of Medicine and UC San Diego School of Medicine. She served her residency in dermatology at the University of Modena in Italy. She earned her medical degree from the University of Pavia, Italy, and her PhD in skin immunology and allergy at the University of Modena, Italy. Dr. Di Nardo is board-certified in dermatology.
She is a member of the Society for Investigative Dermatology, American Academy of Dermatology and the American Association of Immunologists.
Dr. Di Nardo is a recipient of the National Eczema Association Award and the Johnson & Johnson Focus on Giving Award for Outstanding Research.
She enjoys cooking, running, skiing, swimming and spending time with her family.
Alexey Melnik
Alexey V. Melnik received his BS and MS degrees in Analytical chemistry from Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia with an emphasis on Mass Spectrometry. Under the guidance of Professor Larisa Sokolova he focused on characterization and identification of plant isolated bioactive compounds. His research concentrates on integrating of mass spectrometry and microbial sequencing data to answer important biological questions of host-host and host-microbe interaction. He is interested in understanding of microbiome involvement in human health and disease.
Nicole Hollis
Rob Margolin
