Management Team

President & Chief Executive Officer

Özge Alper, PhD

Dr. Alper founded Alper Biotech in November 2006 after extensive experience as a senior scientist at the National Institutes of Health. Prior to her time at NIH, she pursued post-doctoral work at the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. 
Dr. Alper distinguished herself in the scientific community as the first researcher to show the secretion of aberrant HER-2 from human breast cancer cells. For this groundbreaking work, she received the Princess Takamatsu Foundation Award for the Promotion of Cancer Research.
Dr. Alper holds degrees in clinical biochemistry both from Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey, and from Tokyo University. She has also served as an Assistant Professor at the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University.

Senior Scientist

Cuiping Chen, PhD

Dr. Chen joined Alper Biotech in 2009 as a staff scientist and was promoted to Senior Scientist in 2010.  She established the company’s immunohistochemistry division and oversees research and development, with a focus on antibody characterization using cellular and molecular tools.

Dr. Chen began her research career in 1992 in her native China, working on the development of an asthma relief drug that was approved as a Class III New Drug by China’s Ministry of Health.  The drug also received the “Scientific Technology Research Achievement” award of Liaoning Province. In 1997, Dr. Chen moved to Japan where she received her PhD in Pharmaceutical Science in 2001 from the University of Toyama. She subsequently came to the United States for post-doctoral studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Dr. Chen joined the Neurosurgery Division of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) in 2006 to work on stem cell therapeutics. She has more than 15 years of extensive multidisciplinary research experience in cellular and molecular biology, neuroscience, and drug development in academic, clinical, and industry laboratories. She has authored or co-authored over 30 publications and regularly serves as a reviewer for peer-review journals. 

Business Development Team

Keith F. Batchelder, MD

Dr. Keith is the founder and CEO of Genomic Healthcare Strategies, a company focused on the changes in healthcare resulting from advances in molecular medicine. GHS provides strategy and implementation services for companies looking to enter or grow in the new markets emerging as result of predictive diagnostics and preventive medicine. Dr. Batchelder has long been interested in the intersection of the scientific, business and societal promises and challenges raised by personalized medicine. His area of expertise is in the analysis of new markets, channels, partners, and the new science supporting the rapidly evolving practice of medicine and wellness. During a career that has spanned medical research, clinical practice, and management in start-ups and large organizations, Dr. Batchelder focuses on the practical application of advanced healthcare innovation and its economics.

Peter S. Miller

Mr. Miller is Chief Operating Officer of Genomic Healthcare Strategies.  He did his undergraduate and graduate work at MIT. While working on his master’s degree at the Sloan School, he was a founding member of Abt Associates Inc, and over a period of 17 years worked as COO and Board member as the company grew from 3 people to 800. Abt Associates is a $300 million firm working in fields such as health care research and policy, clinical trials, and survey research. He has helped build successful companies in software and professional services, three of which were sold to public companies.  Alper Biotech consults with Dr. Keith and Mr. Miller on marketing strategies and licensing deals.

Intellectual Property Team

Arnold & Porter LLP

Intellectual property group advices Alper Biotech, on intellectual property counseling and patent prosecution.  They have extensive experience on the areas of biotechnology, medical devices, diagnostics, genomics, peptide and protein engineering, vaccines, and molecular biology. Eleven patents are in process and pending

Acting Chief Financial Officer

Banoo D. Mobedjina, CPA

Banoo Mobedjina took over the day to day financial operations of Alper Biotech LLC in February 2010. She has a Masters in Business Administration and over twenty five years experience in Accounting and Financial Management. Banoo has worked for a broad spectrum of companies, including NASULGC, a not for profit education association; Management Concepts, which has the federal government as its largest client; and U.S. branches of European companies such as IBFD of Netherlands and AT4 Wireless of Spain. Her expertise includes detailed monthly closings, year-end financials, and audit and tax return schedules. As Client Controller for Neuralstem Inc., a publicly traded biotech company, she handled the MD&A for 10-K and 10-Q filings with the SEC. Recently, as Director of Contract Administration of AAMVA, she handled all aspects of federal contracts including billing and required filings. She is a Certified Public Account and licensed in the State of Maryland

Advisory Board

Elke Bergmann-Leitner, PhD

Dr. Bergmann-Leitner has more than 20 years of experience in immunological research, having worked on a number of basic research projects aimed at improving passive and active immunotherapy. Furthermore, she has been involved in the design, analysis and evaluation of more than 10 clinical trials at the National Cancer Institute/NIH and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Dr. Bergmann-Leitner’s academic pursuits focus on immune escape mechanisms and antibody technologies.

Dr. Bergmann-Leitner has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and currently has two patents pending. She has been serving as executive guest editor for Current Pharmaceutical Design (Bentham Publisher) for over 10 years and is an editorial board member for Infection and Immunity (American Society of Microbiology) and the Open Vaccine Journal (Bentham Publisher). In addition to her position at the Walter Reed Army Institute, she holds an academic position as research assistant professor at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences and teaches immunology at the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences /Biotrac program at NIH.

John Deeken, M.D.

Dr. Deeken is a Medical Oncologist and cancer researcher in the fields of head and neck cancer, pharmacogenetics, and cancer stem cells. He completed his medical degree at the Georgetown University Medical School and residency in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital. He completed his training in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute, studying pharmacogenetics and cancer drug resistance under the mentoship of Dr. Susan Bates. He joined the faculty of the Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2006.   He directs the Medical Oncology Head and Neck Clinic as well as serves as an Attending in the Phase I/ Developmental Therapeutics Clinic. Dr. Deeken’s research areas are three-fold:  (1) improving therapies to treat patients with Head and Neck Cancer; (2) the pharmacogenetics of anticancer agents, and (3) Non-AIDS Defining Cancers in patients with HIV.  In 2010 he was named Regional Director for Medical Oncology for MedStar Health, Inc., the parent company of Georgetown University Hospital  as well as seven other hospitals in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area.  In 2011, he was promoted to Director for Oncology Clinical Operations for MedStar Health in the Washington, D.C. area.  

Aaron Auerbach, M.D., M.P.H

Dr. Auerbach is board certified by the American Board of Pathology in both Anatomic Pathology and Hematopathology. He received his M.D. from UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and his M.P.H. from Rutgers University, Graduate School of Public Health, New Brunswick, NJ. He did his residency in Anatomic Pathology at the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Laboratory of Pathology, Bethesda, MD, where he was the Chief Resident. He is a Delegate in the House of Representatives of the College of American Pathologists, a past President of the Metropolitan Washington Association of Cytology and a member of many professional societies including Physicians for the Human Arts, the Maryland Society of Surgical Pathology, the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, the American Medical Association, the American Pathology Foundation, the Association of Pathology Informatics, Imaging and the Internet, the Papanicolaou Society and the Society for Hematopathology.

Dr. Auerbach is the Senior Pathologist in the Department of Hematopathology as well as the Senior Pathologist in the Department of Gastrointestinal Pathology at the Joint Pathology Center. He also serves as the Medical Director of Hematacor, the Hematopathology Division of Bostwick Laboratories.  He was the Assistant Chairman of the Department of Hematopathology and the Director of the Department of Immunohistochemistry at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, while also serving as a surgical pathologist at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. He had also been a research scientist and performed fellowships in Hematopathology, Gastrointestinal Pathology and Hepatic Pathology. Dr. Auerbach is an authority in hematologic diseases with special expertise in the diagnosis of challenging lymphoproliferative malignancies utilizing the latest diagnostic techniques. His interest is in new biomarkers for cancer. 

Jae-Heup Kim, PhD

Dr. Kim has more than 25 years of experience pertaining to biomarker development research in human and other higher animals. He has diverse experiences in population studies using genotyping technologies at the National Cancer Institute/NIH and Samsung Advanced Technology Institute (SAIT)/Samsung. He performed many projects at SAIT as project leader of the biomarker development for the early detection of cancers and other chronic diseases, including myocardial infarction and diabetes. Dr. Kim has authored more than 25 peer reviewed publications and currently has 10 patents.

Dr. Kim also has served as guest professor at Seoul National University and at the Asia Nano-Bio Technology Center at Pusan University. In 2008, Dr. Kim founded his own company, COGENT Biotechnology, Inc., in Rockville, Maryland for further research and commercialization of his achievements in personalized medicine.