Our Service Team
Founder
President & CEO
Daniel Ross, LVT, RLATG
Dan has over 16 years of experience in the field of research and development gaining experience at Wayne State University and Pfizer Global Research and Development. His vast experience includes veterinary surgery, model development, and designing/performing PK/PD and efficacy studies. He has served as president of the Michigan AALAS, and has extensive experience in running animal research facilities under all the requirements of USDA, AALAC and institutional IACUCs. Dan has provided exposure/activity data for preclinical packages on several drug candidates, and has experience developing, validating, and optimizing a wide variety of disease models, with different model organisms and microbial pathogens for numerous indications. With his expertise in developing new techniques, Dan has provided new models that supported Phase IV studies to get approval for new indications of marketed drugs as well as developed models for new disease targets such as sepsis.
Director of Research
Dr. Santiago R. Lopez, Ph.D.
Santiago received his B.S. in Biochemistry from Michigan State University in 2000 and his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Michigan in 2007. Following graduate school, Dr. Lopez continued in a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan. His graduate studies and postdoctoral experience involved characterization of two novel human proteins involved in Herpes Simplex Virus entry. His experience includes membrane protein purification, antibody production, tissue culture, fluorescence microscopy, in vitro viral infection models, gene cloning and various molecular biology techniques. Dr. Lopez also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Lansing Community College teaching Cell Biology and Microbiology.
Operations Manager
Samantha Ross, CHRS
Samantha is a Certified Human Resource Specialist with 11 years of administrative experience in Research and Development. Her career spans Drug Safety Evaluation, Safety Sciences and Drug Safety Research and Development. She brings extensive experience and knowledge in business operations in the areas of finance, human resources, purchasing, facilities management and legal activities.
Contract/Protocol Specialist
Marci Peek, MT (ASCP)
Marci graduated from Ferris State University in 1995 with a BS in Medical Technology. After 4 years working in a hospital, she began her career in pharmaceutical research. She worked for 9 years in the Pfizer Phase I Unit, where she ran first-in-human, bioequivalent, food effect, proof-of-concept and PK/PD studies. Her experiences include project management, study scheduling, various specimen collection, internal review board consulting and protocol editing. She also has 2 years of drug safety experience including adverse event reporting to worldwide regulatory agencies for clinical studies and post-marketed drugs.
Sr. Associate Scientist
Justin Snider, B.S.
Justin received his B.S. in Microbiology with a concentration in Medical Microbiology and Immunology from Michigan State University. After graduating Justin spent a year at the Center for Medical Mycology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center as a research assistant. As part of the clinical team he would plate, culture, test, and identify fungal pathogens. Justin was also engaged in multiple studies of oral candidiasis. In addition to his current duties, Justin also serves as our Biosafety Officer and is the Principle Investigator on most of our Animal Use Protocols.
Sr. Associate Scientist
Libby Ziemke, B.S.
Libby earned her B.S. in Biomedical Sciences with a minor in Chemistry from Western Michigan University. She has over eight years of small animal in vivo experience, including all forms of handling, dosing, study initiation and data capture.
Her invaluable experiences were captured at MPI, Pfizer Animal Health and Molecular Imaging Research. During her tenure, she focused on GLP standards working with small animal toxicology experiments, vaccine development and patent applications and running in vivo oncology studies with the use of numerous imaging modalities. Libby also has experience working in AAALAC accredited facilities while she was an IACUC and Biosafety committee member. Libby currently serves as our IACUC administrator in addition to her day to day activities.
Associate Scientist
Heidi Richardson, B.S.
Heidi received her B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from Albion College. After graduating Heidi gained experience in the Quality Assurance department at Amway Global as a Chemistry Lab Technician. Responsibilities in this GMP and GLP environment included many pH based tests and evaluating acid, hydroxyl and iodine values. Other instrumental experience included the use of viscometers, refractometers, pycnometer and hydrometers.
Associate Scientist
Lisa Lazaroff, AAS, LAT, LVT
Lisa graduated from the Veterinary Technology program at Michigan State University, and is certified by AALAS as a Laboratory Animal Technician. She has worked in small animal clinics throughout Mid-Michigan; however she spent the majority of her career at Pfizer, Inc. in the Toxicology department working with novel compounds in a variety of animal models. During her 16 year tenure, Lisa gained experience with numerous animal models and has an extensive background working in a GLP environment and operating under AAALAC guidelines. Lisa is also an adjunct faculty member at Baker College, teaching in the Veterinary Technology Program.
