Taconic Biosciences Announces the Formation of Scientific Advisory Board

RENSSELAER, N.Y., Feb. 21, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Taconic Biosciences, a global leader in genetically engineered mouse models and associated services, announced the formation of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) with the initial appointments of J. Victor Garcia, PhD, Andrew Goodman, PhD, and David Hill, PhD.

The SAB will collaborate with Taconic's management in providing scientific insight and guidance on the evolution of the company's product and service portfolios. Capitalizing on Taconic's existing leadership in both the microbiome and immuno-oncology spaces, the SAB members bring complementary expertise to continue to drive innovation in these and other research areas.

"Discovery and pre-clinical animal models continue to move toward highly-complex and high-value translational models. To continue to provide the best solutions for our customers, it is essential for Taconic to have guidance from prominent scientific experts as we develop and validate new models and services," shared Bob Rosenthal, CEO of Taconic Biosciences. 

Dr. J. Victor Garcia is a Professor of Medicine in the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), the Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases (IGHID), and the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine, all at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is an Oliver Smithies Investigator and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Throughout his career, Dr. Garcia has established himself as an expert in the development, implementation, and use of humanized mice for biomedical research, particularly in the area of infectious disease. Dr. Garcia received a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey and a PhD in chemistry from Georgetown University.

Dr. Andrew Goodman is an Associate Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis and a member of the Microbial Sciences Institute at Yale University School of Medicine. For this work, Dr. Goodman has been recognized with the NIH Director's New Innovator Award, the Pew Scholars Fellowship, DuPont Young Professor Award, Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator Award, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholar Award, and the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering. Dr. Goodman's research is focused on understanding the mechanisms of interaction between members of the human gut microbiome and with the host. The Goodman Lab combines microbial genetics, gnotobiotic animal models, and computational approaches to develop new technologies for studying the microbiome and to apply these approaches to uncover the causes and consequences of interpersonal microbiome variation. Dr. Goodman was trained in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University and completed his PhD in microbiology at Harvard Medical School.