Mike Mendez has held a number of top industry positions at the forefront of the molecular biology revolution. In addition to serving as Director of Bioengineering at GenWay, Mr. Mendez was also associate director of Exploratory Research at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. There he established a new department that focused on novel platforms for over-expression, purification, and crystallization of membrane proteins.

Mr. Mendez co-founded and led the technical program at MemRx, a structural biology company that focused on the structure determination of membrane proteins, specifically GPCRs. Mr. Mendez is widely regarded as one of the lead pioneers in the development of fully human antibodies and is the lead author and co-inventor of the Xenomouse platform technology that formed Abgenix, Inc., most recently acquired by Amgen for $2.2 billion. He created all the viral vectors for the Cell Genesys Platform technology, GVAX. Mr. Mendez has served as a genetic consultant and scientific adviser for numerous biotech and academic institutions, including Geron Corporation, Gentrol, Inc., Expression Systems, Aliva, Inc., and the California Institute of Technology. He is also the founder and principal scientist of Gryffin Consulting, Inc., a genetic engineering consulting firm specializing in the areas of gene therapy and antibody and membrane protein production.

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