Management Team

Richard O. Snyder, Ph.D.

Director

Dr. Snyder has over 15 years experience with pre-clinical and first-in-man studies supporting the commercial development of biotherapeutics. In addition to his duties as the Director of the Center of Excellence for Regenerative Health Biotechnology, Dr. Snyder is the Director of Biotherapeutic Programs in the Office of Research and a faculty member in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology in the College of Medicine. Previously, he was the Director of the Human Applications Laboratory and Vector Core within the Powell Gene Therapy Center at the University of Florida. Prior to joining the faculty at UF, Dr. Snyder was an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He also brings considerable industry expertise, holding previous managerial positions at Cell Genesys, Somatix, Merlin, and Avigen, where he was engaged in efforts to develop gene transfer vector and vaccine technology, along with therapeutic applications. He serves on several local, national, and international boards and committees in gene and cell therapy. His Ph.D. in Microbiology is from SUNY at Stoney Brook.

Joyce Francis, Ph.D.

Associate Director

Dr. Francis has over 25 years of quality and regulatory experience in clinical and commercial phase biopharmaceutical production. Dr. Francis is responsible for the day to day operations of Florida Biologix®. She was most recently the Director Quality Assurance and Quality Control for the Human Applications Laboratory, and Director of Quality Assurance for the National Gene Vector Laboratory Toxicology Center at the University of Florida. Prior to this position, Dr. Francis held several positions in the biopharmaceutical industry, including: Senior Director, Quality for Baxter Healthcare's licensed product vaccine production facility where she was responsible for Quality Assurance, Quality Control, Validation and Analytical Development, Director of QA/QC for Genetic Therapy, Inc, a Novartis company and Manager of Quality Control for Wyeth-Lederle's licensed product vaccine manufacturing facility. She has a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Cornell University.

Linna Lim, M.S.

Director of Operations

Ms. Lim is responsible for manufacturing and fill finish activities at Florida Biologix®. Ms. Lim has 13 years of cGMP production experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Previously, she was the Fill Finish Manager at Florida Biologix®. Previously, Linna was a Team Leader in the Fill Finish Process Development Department at Human Genome Sciences and was the Fill Finish Project Manager at Charles River Laboratories. Linna has an M.S. in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University.

Christine Aytug, MBA

Director of Marketing and Sales

Ms. Aytug is currently responsible for Sales and Marketing at Florida Biologix®. Prior to joining Florida Biologix Ms. Aytug worked for 20 years at GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceuticals in various areas including immunology research, contracting, market research, brand management and sales. Ms. Aytug holds an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a BS in Zoology from Duke.