About Our Management
Todd Patrick, MBA
President and CEO
Prior to joining C3 Jian, Todd Patrick served as President & Chief Operating Officer, and joined the Board of Directors of ID Biomedical Corporation in 1998 after the Company elected to exit its core diagnostic business to focus on vaccines. Mr. Patrick started ID Biomedical's vaccine subsidiary in 1994. In September 2005, GlaxoSmithKline purchased ID Biomedical for approximately $1.5 billion plus the assumption of $200 million in debt. To date, the GSK/IDB merger is the largest "pure play" enterprise value M&A transaction in the history of the vaccine industry. Prior to joining ID Biomedical, Mr. Patrick was the first Director of the Office of Intellectual Property Administration at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Mr. Patrick joined UCLA to help form its new IP program in 1989. Mr. Patrick serves as a director for several biomedical and device companies. He is also a current or past trustee of a variety of organizations in the Pacific Northwest, including the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute (Chairman of the Board), Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association (WBBA), and the WSU Research Foundation.
Wenyuan Shi, PhD
Co-Founder // Chief Science Officer, Executive Vice President, and Chairman of Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Shi is Chairman and Professor of Oral Biology at UCLA School of Dentistry and a Professor of Microbiology at UCLA School of Medicine. He leads a team of over 30 researchers using multidisciplinary approaches to study microbial pathogenesis with a specific focus on microbial biofilms, inter-species interaction and signal transduction. Dr. Shi's laboratories are actively involved in the development of next-generation diagnostic tools for microbial agents, including lateral flow and nanotechnology based real-time detection systems. Therapeutic applications of his technologies include the development of peptide-based targeted antimicrobials and a rationally screened herbal library. These translational research efforts have resulted in six licensed technologies by major pharmaceutical and dental companies and two start-up biotech companies. Dr. Shi obtained his BS degree from Fudan University in 1984 and his PhD degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1991. He completed his postdoctoral training at University of California-Berkeley during 1992-1995. He has authored or co-authored over 100 scientific articles and is inventor or co-inventor of 12 issued patents.
Laura A. Navalta, BA
Vice President, Clinical Operations
Ms. Navalta joined C3 Jian in April 2011, and currently leads the clinical operations area for the C3 Jian organization and also oversees regulatory initiatives. Prior to joining the C3 Jian, Ms. Navalta served as Chief Operating Officer at Novalar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Ms. Navalta brings over 25 years of industry experience with proven expertise in clinical and regulatory areas, as well as driving projects to commercialization. Ms. Navalta served as Executive Director for Vical Inc., responsible for the clinical operations for oncology and infectious disease programs. She also served as Senior Director of Global Clinical Operations for Baxter Healthcare Corporation's BioScience Division where she was responsible for clinical research involving coagulation disorders, biosurgery and critical care areas with management and corporate responsibilities for global teams in the U.S., Germany and Austria. Her biopharmaceutical experience also includes drug development of products involving CNS diseases such as Alzheimer's, stroke, insomnia, in addition to Kaposi's sarcoma and solid tumor research while at CoCensys, Inc., Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Vestar, Inc. Ms. Navalta earned her BA from the University of Southern California
Randal Eckert, PhD
Laboratory Director
Dr. Eckert leads the scientific discovery team at C3 Jian and manages the design and direction of the research pipeline. He is also the project leader for the anti-caries STAMP (specifically-targeted antimicrobial peptide) development group. Dr. Eckert pioneered the successful development of the first STAMP molecules while in the laboratory of Dr. Wenyuan Shi at University of California, Los Angeles and has evaluated their activities in vitro and in vivo. He has authored research publication and intellectual property filings relating to STAMP design and discovery. Dr. Eckert received his BS in microbiology from Washington State University in 2001 and obtained his PhD from UCLA in 2006 specializing in microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics.