
Semprus BioSciences Inc. tapped a veteran of the pharmaceutical world and a prominent MIT professor for its scientific advisory board.
Colin Gardner and Michael Cima will join the Cambridge, Mass.-based medical device coatings developer’s science panel effective immediately.
Gardner, a private industry consultant, put in time as chief scientific officer at TransForm Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired in 2005 by Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ). After the buyout he stayed on as senior vice president of research and site leader for TransForm. His resumé also includes a stint at Merck & Co. (NYSE:MRK).
It’s just the latest appointment for Cima, the Sumitomo Electric Industries Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Dept. at MIT, who’s already on the board of a number of medical device and biotech firms. Cima is co-founder and director of MicroChips Inc., Taris Biomedical Inc., Entra Pharmaceuticals Inc., T2 Biosystems Inc. and was a senior consultant and a member of the management team at TransForm.
Semprus is developing what it calls “the first complication-free, anti-biofilm, anti-thrombogenic” coating for medical devices, according to a press release.