Executive Leadership

Leah Amir, MS, MHA, CEO 

XCellCure CEO Leah Amir has achieved commercial success throughout her career, starting with her experience at Mallinckrodt Medical and extending through her input as Executive Director of The Institute for Quality Resource Management. She has developed and provided creative solutions to vastly increase market share for Biosphere Medical, Medtronic, Zimmer, RadioTherapeutics, DataScope, and FocalSeal in addition to many other companies.  As a Partner at Data Management Consultants, she achieved exceptional growth through sales negotiation to Modis in 1999. With 20 years of experience leading commercialization of new products, Leah Amir has become an expert in delivering clinical solutions in numerous areas of medical practice including cardiovascular disease, orthopedics, diagnostics, and tissue regeneration.

Expertise:  Product development, FDA submission / clearance, Reimbursement, Sales Force Training, and Implementation of routine use of new technology.

 Burak Okumus, PhD, Vice President Research and Development

Originally trained as a physicist, Burak has been extensively working on developing new methods for studying biological systems. For his Ph.D. in Biophysics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he devised novel assays for single-molecule microscopy. During his postdoc at the Harvard Medical School, he was instrumental in developing various microfluidic platforms for single-cell analysis – ranging from quantification of low-abundance molecules with single-molecule accuracy to high-throughput screening. As an interdisciplinary scientist, he worked on a diverse range of subjects and co-authored a number of publications in different scientific journals, including Science, Nature Methods, Nature Communications, JACS and PNAS. Burak is also an inventor on several patent applications. Prior to joining XCellCure, he continued his research career at Illumina and ArcherDX (now Invitae), focusing on NGS (next-generation sequencing) and its applications in molecular diagnostics, liquid biopsy, genomics and oncology.

Expertise: biochemical and biophysical assays, molecular biology, microfabrication and material science, microfluidics, single-molecule and live-cell microscopy, single-cell handling and analysis, high-throughput automation and screening, microbiology, NGS and genomics.

Lin Li, PhD, Director of Engineering 

Lin received the BS in Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University, China and the MS and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in Michigan State University. In his Ph.D. research, he is specialized in on-CMOS electrochemical biosensor arrays, sensor packaging, and microsystem integration. Lin now leads our sensor hardware design and software development for portable device detection system for hospital, physician office and home use. His understanding of sensor imaging contributes to innovative design of XCellCure’s portable detection system to enable home use for millions of people in the U.S. to manage key markers on a continued basis. Results from the portable detector are sent via Wi-Fi to the patient’s designated clinician.

Jim Carlile, Strategic Advisor

Jim has extensive experience growing sales and launching products against competition to emerge as the market leader. As the past president at Mallinckrodt Medical Imaging Division, Jim developed a core team to drive sales of a 3^rd to market diagnostic product exceeding $1 billion over a mere 3 years. Having recently participated in the successful launch of other privately-financed medical product opportunities, Jim has in-depth knowledge of the strategy necessary for financial realization in the world of medical technology.

Expertise: Executive-level management experience, board participation, hands-on comprehension of the dynamics of launching products worldwide while delivering shareholder value

Stuart T. Higano, MD, FACC 

Stuart is on staff at Missouri Baptist Medical Center as a High Volume Interventional Cardiologist. He is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular diseases, nuclear cardiology and interventional cardiology and has strong ties to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Dr. Higano completed his medical degree at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, MA and completed all post-graduate training at the Mayo Clinic, including his residency in internal medicine, a cardiovascular training program, and an interventional cardiology fellowship.

Frank Peacock, MD, FACEP, FACC

Professor of Emergency Medicine and Research Director of Baylor College of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine lends insight into cardiac emergency medicine triage. He has over 600 publications, is an entrepreneur, and well regarded worldwide. 

John Kirby, MD, FCCWS, FACS Surgery / General Surgery 

John currently practices in the Division of Acute and Critical Care Surgery Washington University School of Medicine. In addition to his employment at Washington University, John is an Associate Professor of Surgery in the Division of General Surgery - Acute and Critical Care Surgery Section and Director of the Wound Healing Program Barnes-Jewish Hospital & Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. His experience in high volume institutions with immensely varied patient populations is an asset to support clinical trials in the area of emergency detection of an impending MI and for patients with acute and chronic wounds.

Dr. Erik (E.A.L.) Biessen, PhD

Dr. Biessen currently serves as a Professor of Experimental Vascular Pathology at University of Maastricht. He is the principal Investigator on multiple studies fueling the innovative technology at XCellCure including groundbreaking studies regarding the prognostic value of Cardiac Biomarkers CCL3, CCL5, and CCL18.

Dr. Theo van Berkel, PhD

As a specialist in Cardiology, cell biology, and molecular biology, Dr. Theo van Berkel serves as a leading expert at Leiden University. Dr. van Biessen has contributed groundbreaking discoveries to the field of cardiac biomarker use in risk assessment, particularly regarding prognostic value of CCL3, CCL5, and CCL18. He serves as Head of Department at Leiden University's Biopharmaceuticals & Atherosclerosis Center for Drug Research in addition to his contributions at XCelLCure.

Robert Bolla, PhD  Molecular Biologist 

Dr. Bolla recently served as Associate Provost for Research at Bradley University in Peoria, IL. Prior to his post at Bradley University he was Chairman of the Biology Department at St. Louis University.  Bob brings to XCellCure extensive experience launching innovative technologies for SLU and later Bradley University.