Founder & President
Sandeep Jain, MD, FARVO
Dr. Sandeep Jain is a clinician-scientist and B.A. Field Professor of Ophthalmology at the UIC Department of Ophthalmology. He is the Director of the UIC Dry Eye and ocular Graft-Vs-Host Disease clinic. He also directs the Cornea Translational Biology Laboratory in the Department. His research work is funded by the National Eye Institute/NIH and has led to more than 75 peer-reviewed publications in professional journals, multiple patents, start-ups and development of drugs. He has received numerous awards and recognition, including UIC’s Inventor of the Year Award, UIC’s Departmental Faculty of the Year Award and Physician-Scientist Award from Research to Prevent Blindness. He has been named Castle-Connolly Top Doctors and America’s Best Doctors®, and has received the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Achievement Award and the Association for Research in Vision's Fellowship award (FARVO).
After receiving his medical degree, Dr. Jain joined the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute at The Johns Hopkins University as a pre-residency fellow and completed his residency training in Ophthalmology at the Harkness Eye Institute at Columbia University, New York, followed by subspecialty fellowship in Corneal Diseases at the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School. He is also the founder of UIC’s “goGVHD Fund” which seeks to provide treatments to patients with Dry Eye & ocular GVHD who are unable to pay for them.
Business Advisor
Michael T. Flavin, PhD
Michael T. Flavin is the Corporate Strategy Advisor at SELAGINE, INC. Dr. Flavin received his B.S. degree in chemistry from Notre Dame and his Ph.D. degree in medicinal chemistry from University of Illinois at Chicago. After completing his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard in synthetic organic chemistry, he was a Senior Research Scientist at Baxter prior to founding MediChem Life Sciences. In 2000, MediChem completed a $54M IPO with UBS as the lead underwriter. MediChem was acquired in 2002 by deCODE genetics (NASDAQ:DCGN) to build a complete “gene map to drug” business model. He is the Managing Director of Flavin Ventures, an early stage venture creation firm focused on creating, financing and developing biotechnology companies. Dr. Flavin is also Visiting Research Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. At SELAGINE, Dr. Flavin will advise regarding a variety of high-level decisions surrounding corporate structure and FDA IND and Clinical Trial strategy.
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Kaja is an expert in ocular pharmacology and pre-IND study designs with more than fifteen years' experience in the academic, biotech, and pharmaceutical settings. He is the Dr. John P. and Therese E. Mulcahy Endowed Professor in Ophthalmology and Director of the Laboratory for Ocular Pharmacology and Drug Discovery at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. He holds additional academic appointments as Docent in Medicine and Experimental Ophthalmology at Tampere University and Adjunct Professor of Biological Sciences at Northern Illinois University. Dr. Kaja is the principal of K&P Scientific LLC. Dr. Kaja holds a Ph.D. in Medicine/Neuroscience and a B.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and has published 60+ peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts. He is a frequent speaker at ophthalmic drug discovery conferences.
Simon Kaja, PhD
Strategic Advisor
Christine Mun, BS, MSRC
Christine Mun serves as the Strategic Advisor to SELAGINE. In this role, she sets and guides the strategy to consistently articulate the SELAGINE mission. Christine also serves as the Assistant Director of the Dry Eye & Ocular GVHD Clinic at University of Illinois at Chicago. She has authored numerous scientific publications regarding pathology and treatment of dry eye diseases. Christine graduated from Loyola University in Chicago with Bachelors in Biological sciences, and Northwestern University in Chicago with Master of Science in Regulatory Compliance (MSRC). She joined the Department of Ophthalmology at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) as Clinical Research Coordinator and led the implementation of a NEI/National Institutes of Health funded phase I/II clinical trials as well as several Industry Sponsored Trials. Christine has participated in the FDA Pre-Investigational New Drug Application (PIND) meetings to discuss the development plans for an orphan drug. She leads the organizational activities of a national-level meeting in ocular GVHD that receives funding from NEI/NIH.
Business Consultant
Pooja Bansal, MBA is the Business Officer at SELAGINE, INC. She graduated from the FORE School of Management and subsequently joined Ernst & Young as Senior Associate - Transaction Advisor. At E&Y she was responsible for deal advisory and leading transaction advisory projects involving valuations, valuation of intangibles and financial modeling across various sectors including financial services (investment banks, banks, technology distributor, commodity exchange and retail). After 5 years at E&Y, she joined Vodafone as General Manager, Finance where she was responsible for leading financial analysis in strategic projects, investor relations and stakeholder management. She led the $500 Million commercial deal for Fibre to Home (Fixed Consumer Broadband) and Strategic Decision Matrix for choice of vendor for over US $500 Million 3G and 4G deployment. She also led the cost optimization project for supply chain management. Ms. Bansal is an entrepreneur who has started her own Art-based company. At SELAGINE, INC, Ms. Bansal will direct the strategic business plans and investment initiatives.
Pooja Bansal, MBA