Bios
Kate Marusina, Ph.D., MBA
Dr. Kate Marusina serves as Manager, Research Facilitation and Industry Alliances. In this role, Dr. Marusina assists with corporate partnering for both basic research and clinical trials. The tasks include preparation of partnering materials, active search for the strategic industry partners, the assistance in negotiating the scope of work and streamlining the path from a contact to a contract. Dr. Marusina also represents UC Davis CTSC on the National CTSA level in Public-Private Partnerships and IND/IDE Support task groups. Prior to UC Davis Dr.
Marusina was a part of the Business Development Group of Novozymes Biotech Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Novozymes A/S, Denmark, a global leader in industrial enzymes with over $1 billion in worldwide revenues. As a part of the global BusDev team, she was responsible for the U.S. activities in partnering and technology/product licensing. From 1998 to 2000, Dr. Marusina served as Product Manager of Clontech, then a Becton Dickinson Company, based in Palo Alto, California. Among other portfolio products, she was responsible for the global strategy for the Creator, a universal gene cloning platform, and for the release of the Infusion, now a leading system for high throughput cloning. Earlier, Dr. Marusina was a Territory Sales Manager for Stratagene, La Jolla, CA. She received my Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from the Leningrad State University, Russia, Ph.D. in Molecular Immunology and MBA with specialization in Marketing, both from the University of Cincinnati, OH. She did postdoctoral Fellowship at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UCSF, and San Francisco CA.
Dean Welsch, Ph.D.
Dr. Dean Welsch is currently a Research Fellow in Pfizer’s Indications Discovery Research Unit. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Minnesota and completed his post-doctoral training at Merck. Dr. Welsch has been with Pfizer and legacy companies (Monsanto, Searle, and Pharmacia) for 20 years, where he has consistently been a leader in identifying and advancing novel therapeutics. His therapeutic area research interests have been primarily diseases associated with Inflammation/Immunology and Allergy & Respiratory. In addition to leading teams that advanced 6 programs to clinical evaluation, he has been responsible for helping define strategic directions, the discovery of novel drug targets, the identification and quantification of biomarkers of collagen metabolism important to OA, the establishment of a state-of-the-art high-throughput screening lab, and the successful out-licensing of a COX-2 inhibitor for veterinary use. Since inception of Pfizer’s Indications Discovery Research Unit in 2007, Dr. Welsch has been engaged in efforts to fully leverage existing Pfizer assets by identifying additional therapeutic opportunities for later-stage development compounds, based on their mechanisms of action. Dr. Welsch has found this work to be extremely rewarding and productive as it leverages his broad technical expertise, collaborative nature, and entrepreneurial inclinations. Dr. Welsch has published over 30 papers and reviews on his research.
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