Management
Martin LeBlanc
President and CEO
Martin was named President of Caprion Proteomics in March 2007 following the merger between Caprion Pharmaceuticals and Ecopia Biosciences (now Thallion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.). As co-founder of Caprion Pharmaceuticals and its Chief Operating Officer from 2000 to March 2007, Martin led the development and implementation of Caprion’s proteomics technology and business, as well as Caprion's business development efforts which involved the negotiation of strategic alliances with over 10 major pharmaceutical companies.
Prior to Caprion, he was successively a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, VP of Sales & Marketing at Advanced Bioconcept Ltd. and its General Manager after its acquisition by NEN Life Sciences (now Perkin-Elmer). Martin is also a member of the Board of Directors of Victhom Human Bionics Inc. (TSX: VHB), Montreal InVivo and the Atlantic Cancer Research Institute.
Martin earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Moncton prior to completing an M.A. in Economics and Politics at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.
Dr. Dan Chelsky
Chief Scientific Officer
Dan brings to Caprion Proteomics deep industrial experience in applying the CellCarta® proteomics platform to drug target and biomarker discovery.
Prior to joining the Company, Dan was President and General Manager of BioSignal Packard Inc. (a division of Perkin Elmer), where he oversaw the development of novel technologies and reagents for drug discovery and genomics research, including the AlphaScreenTM and BRET2TM technologies and product lines. Dan also spent five years at Pharmacopeia where, as Senior Director of Biology, his team identified many lead compounds from Pharmacopeia’s million member combinatorial chemistry libraries that resulted in multiple compounds in the clinic. His previous experience also includes positions at Onyx Pharmaceuticals and the DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company in cancer research.
Dan received his B.Sc. from the University of California at Santa Barbara and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University Of Oregon Institute of Molecular Biology and was an American Cancer Society fellow at the University of California at Berkeley.
Stefano Bazzocchi
Vice President, Finance
Stefano is responsible for Caprion’s finance and administration functions. He initially joined the company to oversee the transition of majority ownership from Thallion Pharmaceuticals to Great Point Partners
Prior to joining Caprion, Stefano held the position of VP Finance at Mitec Telecom Inc. (TSX: MTM), a company involved in the manufacturing of telecommunications equipment for both the cellular and satellite space. Stefano also gained experience in the Biotechnology sector wherein he held the position of Controller/VP Finance at Nexia Biotechnologies Inc. (TSX: NXB) where he saw through the company’s sale to PharmAthene, a privately held biotechnology research company.
Stefano received his BComm. in Accounting from Concordia University, a degree in Public Accountancy from Concordia University Faculty of Graduate Studies and holds a Chartered Accountant designation from the “Ordre des Comptables Agréés du Québec”.
Didier Jean-François
Director, Marketing & Business Development
Didier oversees all aspects of Caprion’s corporate communications and is responsible for developing partnerships and strategies to ensure the successful commercialization of the company's current and future services portfolio.
Prior to Caprion, he worked as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, held sales & marketing positions at both Boehringer Ingelheim and Coherent-AMT. He also served as President of the SAF Entertainment Group.
Didier earned his B.Sc in Biology from McGill University and his MBA from the University of Notre-Dame.
Dr. Eustache Paramithiotis
Director, Molecular and Cell Biology
Eustache is responsible for all the experimental biology at Caprion. He leads the development of new biology applications for the CellCarta platform and has broad experience in target protein and biomarker discovery and validation in areas such as oncology, inflammation, and central nervous system disorders. He is the Principal Investigator of Caprion’s NIH/NIAID program in infectious disease.
Prior to the development of the CellCarta platform Eustache led Caprion’s mad cow disease diagnostic development program, resulting in the development of conformation-specific antibodies against aberrantly folded prion protein. He also has prior experience in homogeneous and heterogeneous assay development.
Eustache holds a B.Sc. in Biology from Concordia University and a Ph.D. in Immunology from McGill University. He did postdoctoral research in immune system development and memory at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Alabama at Birmingham with an award from the prestigious Irvington Institute for Immunological Research.
Dr. Joanna Hunter
Director, Protein Analysis
As head of the Protein Analysis group, Joanna provides leadership in the areas of blood plasma and tissue-derived sample processing and mass spectrometry. She oversees the production protein analysis team as well as evaluates and implements new technologies that provide important improvements to the protein expression profiling platform.
Before joining Caprion, Joanna was an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Laval University in Quebec City. In this capacity, she was responsible for mass spectrometry in the Proteomics Center at the Laval University Hospital Center. Prior to her tenure at Laval University, Joanna was a senior staff scientist at GeneTrace Systems, a biotechnology company in Alameda, California where she developed mass spectrometry systems for high-throughput genotyping applications.
Joanna earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University, and she has spent her career in the field of biomedical applications of mass spectrometry.