Julie Monagle
Executive Chair

Julie has been developing Lab Automation solutions over the past 13 years for both Drug Discovery and Development initiatives.  She is currently working at Transform Pharmaceuticals, a JNJ company, and heads up the Automation Technologies Group which is responsible for development and operation of platforms on which High Throughput Experiments are conducted to accelerate drug development processes such drug crystal form and formulation screening.  Prior to joining Transform, Julie was the Lab Automation Manager for High Throughput Screening efforts at Neurogen Corporation in Branford, CT.

Tim Blankenship
Secretary

Tim has been working with lab automation since 1989, holding sales and service positions with Beckman and Gilson and serving as the northeastern automation specialist with Millipore. He has served as the Secretary of the LRIG New England chapter since November of 2002.

Jim Follen
Treasurer

Jim has been working with laboratory automation since 2000.  From 2000 - 2005 Jim managed the screening facility at the Harvard Medical School's Institutes for Chemistry and Cell Biology. He left Harvard to work an automation engineer at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research in the Lead Discovery Center.  Jim currently works as a consultant with ID Business Solutions (IDBS).  Prior to his laboratory automation career, Jim served as a chief warrant officer and aviator flying Black Hawks in the United States Army.

Dan Cinicola
Steering Committee Chair

Dan is working at the Amgen Cambridge, MA site, with the Research Automation and Technologies group. He started working with automation 15+ years ago in the laboratories at the R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute. In 1993 he joined Zymark Corporation (now Caliper Life Sciences) as an Application Engineer and was responsible for the customization and installation of robotic systems in various laboratory settings. He then went to work for TekCel Corporation where he helped with development and integration of their automation platform in the laboratory.  In 2001, was hired as the automation group leader for Millennium Pharmaceuticals' Lead Discovery Technologies group. 

Bill Goode
Steering Committee Chair

Bill started working with Laboratory Automation at Millennium Pharmaceuticals after graduating from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1998.  At Millennium he worked within the Lead Discovery group building automation and IT systems for Compound Management, High Throughput Screening, and Molecular Pharmacology.  In 2003, Bill joined Novartis as head of the Robotics & Automation group in Cambridge.  Bill currently works at Amgen in Cambridge, MA within the Research Informatics department.

Seth Cohen Ph.D
Member at Large

Dr. Cohen received his PhD in Microbiology from the University of Georgia, Athens in 1985, and then went on to post-doctoral research at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston where he studied the physiology, genetics and biochemistry of multiple drug resistant bacteria with Dr. Stuart Levy.

Following his post-doctoral research, Dr. Cohen developed DNA probes and assays for infectious disease diagnostics at Gene-Trak Systems before joining Millennium Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge MA in 1997, initially helping to build and lead the HTS group and finally serving as the Program Director for Millennium’s Lead Discovery department.  Dr. Cohen joined Caliper Life Sciences in late 2003 as Director of Application Sciences.

Steve Fillers Ph.D

Steve is a biochemist, receiving his degree from The Ohio State University Department of Food Science and Nutrition.  He conducted research at the University of Pennsylvania Medical and Veterinary schools.  Later, at the Sandoz Research Institute (now Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research) he built up an HTS group.  During this time, he became a member of the original LRIG (now LRIG-MA) and was named to the Data Management chair.  Steve then moved to Biogen (now BiogenIDEC) and built another HTS group.  He formed the second LRIG chapter (LRIG-NE) and was Executive chair of that group for three years.  Currently, Steve is an officer of LRIG-NE and is member at large for LRIG Global functions.

Pete Niggemann

<Pete's bio here>

Marsha Paul

Marsha is an Organic Chemist and Automation Professional with over 24 years experience.  During this time, Marsha gained extensive knowledge in laboratory automation while holding various positions such as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for TekCel Corporation, Applications Engineer and Sales and Business Development Manger for Zymark Corporation; Automation Sales Consultant in the Drug Discovery for Beckman Coulter.  Presently, she is a Senior Sales Consultant for Caliper Life Sciences.  She is a member ACS, Women in Science and LRIG board.  Marsha received her BS in Chemistry from Framingham State College and graduate training in Biochemistry at Brandeis University and Business Management at Boston University.

Scott Reeves

Scott has been involved in creating and implementing laboratory automation solutions since 1993. He was first introduced to laboratory automation as a Research Associate at Myco Pharmaceuticals, which eventually became part of Millenium Pharmaceuticals, implementing new technologies for High Throughput Screening and Assay Development. Scott then joined Zymark Corporation (now Caliper Life Sciences) in 1996, first as a Systems Engineer developing and implementing robotic system solutions for laboratory applications then as a Senior Software Engineer / Project Leader within the R&D group. Since 1999, Scott has worked at REMP, a pioneer in automated sample storage systems, holding various positions from Senior Software Engineer to US Product Manager. He is presently the Operations Manager at REMP, now a Tecan Group Company. He received his B.S in Biology from Boston College in 1993 and his M.S in Medical Physiology from Boston University School of Medicine in 1996.

Mike Shanler

Michael has been working at BD Biosciences (Bedford, MA) since 2000 and is directing the WW HTS and ADME automation efforts for his division. In addition to managing the automation, he is leading several new product development programs and technology initiatives within the R&D group. Prior to joining BD Biosciences, Mike was a Lab Automation Engineer at Genetics Institute (Cambridge, MA) Small Molecule Drug Discovery Division, where he maintained the Compound Inventory and HTS systems. His team also designed and installed HT sample processing and LC/MS analysis systems for the PK & Drug Metabolism groups. His first exposure to laboratory automation was in 1992 at Boston University, where he earned a BS in Biomedical Engineering.