About Us
James Zondlo
James Zondlo is a co-founder and President of Bio-Spring LLC and is responsible for cloning and expression activities. Expression systems include bacteria, yeast, baculovirus, insect cell and mammalian cell culture, at scales up to 100 liters.
With a Bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University in Microbiology he focused on industrial microbiology and large scale fermentation, including an 8 year career as a fermentation microbiologist, generating restriction enzymes and DNA modifying enzymes as reagent proteins for Pharmacia P-L Biochemicals in Milwaukee, WI. After graduate studies at the University of Maryland, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, he worked at Amgen Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA for 10 years, ultimately attaining the position of Principal Scientist. His lab was responsible for
constructing expression systems to
generate proteins for in vitro and in vivo studies, as well as reagent proteins for small molecule drug development. The latter included generating screen and counter-screen proteins for high throughput screening of small molecule drug candidates as well as
native and labeled proteins for biophysical characterization
and molecular structure determination (X-ray crystallography and NMR).
Grant Shimamoto, Ph.D.
Dr. Grant Shimamoto is a co-founder and Vice President of
Bio-spring LLC and has primary responsibility over the
recovery processes of protein production. Other
responsibilities include a close interface with
molecular biology, cell expression, product
characterization, formulation, and consulting activities
involved in recombinant protein manufacturing.
Grant is a protein purification research scientist
with over 30 years of industrial experience with
companies such as Monsanto and Amgen Corporations.
Prior to his industrial experience
Grant received
a
B.S. in Chemistry from California
Polytechnic University, a M.S. in
Biochemistry from Michigan State
University, a Ph.D. in Immunology and
Microbiology from Wayne State Medical
School, and a Post-doctoral Fellowship
in African Trypanosomiasis from Yale
University School of Medicine. He has a
relatively diverse background in many
biochemistry-related disciplines through
research with multi-functional
departments and organizations. Grant’s early research years include
the elucidation of microbial
carbohydrate and amino acid catabolic pathways as well
as the molecular biology, immunology, and protein
structure/function of parasitic surface proteins. His
later industrial work was concentrated in the areas of
Process Development and Discovery Research, directly
contributing to the Clinical Development and
Commercialization of such products as Methionyl Bovine
Somatotropin, N-Plate, and Prolia.This
research has led to numerous patents,
and speaker presentations at various
scientific conferences as well as
increased managerial responsibilities
and team leadership roles. Grant’s
current interests include antibiotic resistance,
veterinary health care, and cost-effective high quality
reagent proteins supporting discovery research.
Greg Cauchon, Ph.D.
Dr. Greg Cauchon supervises the analytical operations of
Bio-Spring, develops new analytical methods,and
coordinates the quality operations along with the
various other Bio-Spring functions. He has 25 years
experience in analytical methods development and
materials characterization.
Prior to Bio-Spring,
Greg served for eight years as a research
scientist in the Analytical R&D and Process Development
groups at the biotech firm Amgen, where he was
responsible for developing novel analytical
methodologies as well as characterizing both early- and
late-stage recombinant biotherapeutics and drug-delivery
materials. Greg is also the founder and President
of Amethyst Life Sciences (ALS), a diversified
technology holding company based at the Ventura
BioCenter in Thousand Oaks, CA. ALS assists scientists
and engineers in becoming entrepreneurs by providing the
business, financial, and technical resources they need
to compete in the global marketplace. Greg
is an angel investor and was a charter member of the
Maverick Angels of Agoura Hills, where he focused on
life-sciences startups. Greg holds a Ph.D. in
Chemistry from Purdue University, an M.S. in synthetic
organic chemistry from San Francisco State University,
and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Miami.
Greg is a member of the American Chemical
Society, the American Association of Pharmaceutical
Scientists, and the Southern California Biomedical
Council, and serves as an advisor to several
development-stage life-sciences and materials-science
firms. Greg's current research interests include
biotech drug design and development, polymer and
biopolymer chemistry, photopolymerization, conjugation
reactions, convective separation methods, and particle
characterization.