Conference Faculty

David Audley
Executive Director, International Cellular Medicine Society

David Audley is a business development professional who holds degrees from Willamette University and Portland State University. He has been Vice President of Sales and Marketing at VizX Labs, Alumni Director at Willamette University, and CEO/Partner at TribalMind. Currently he is the Executive Director and Chief Executive of the International Cellular Medicine Society (ICMS), helping to advance the society's mission of promoting safe and effective stem cell therapies world wide.

Augusto Brazzini, MD
Director, Brazzini Institute of Interventional Radiology; Professor, San Martin University; Vice President, Asociacion Peruana de Terapia Cellular (APTCEL)

Dr. Brazzini received his medical degree from Federico Villarreal National University in 1977 and additional training in Radiology from San Marcos National University Police Peruvian Hospital and National Institute of Neoplasic Diseases. He is currently the Director of the Brazzini Institute of Interventional Radiology in Lima, Peru and a Member and current Vice President of the Peruvian Association of Stem Cell Therapy, APTCEL.

Kristin Comella
CEO, Stemlogix; Chief Scientific Officer, Ageless Regenerative Institute; VP Research & Corporate Development, BioHeart

Ms. Comella is founder of Stemlogix, LLC, of which she currently serves as CEO. The Stemlogix Program involves education, training, technology and support in delivering regenerative medicine to clinicians. In addition, she has been a member of the Bioheart Inc. senior management team since 2004. Ms. Comella was appointed as Bioheart’s Vice President of R&D and Corporate Development in December 2008. Since joining Bioheart in September 2004, she has played a major role in managing the product development, manufacturing and quality systems. Ms. Comella has over ten years of cell culturing experience including managing the stem cell laboratory at Tulane University's Center for Gene Therapy. Ms. Comella also developed stem cell therapies for osteoarthritis at Osiris Therapeutics.
Ms. Comella holds an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from The Ohio State University and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of South Florida.

Christopher Centeno, MD
Co-Medical Director, Centeno-Schultz Clinic; Medical Director, International Cellular Medicine Society

Dr. Christopher Centeno is the Co-Medical Director of the Centeno Schultz Clinic in Colorado.  He is an international expert and specialist in regenerative medicine and the clinical use of mesenchymal stem cells in orthopedics.  He is board certified in physical medicine as well as rehabilitation and in pain management through the American Board of Anesthesia.  Dr. Centeno is one of the few physicians in the world with extensive experience in the culture expansion of and clinical use of adult stem cells to treat orthopedic injuries.  His clinic incorporates a variety of revolutionary pain management techniques to bring its broad patient base relief and results.
Dr. Centeno trained at the Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Medical Center and the Institute for Rehabilitation Research.

Alan Kadish, N.M.D.
President, World Stem Cells LLC, Lutz, FL / Advanced Cellular Medicine Clinic, Cancun, Mexico

Dr. Kadish is the president of World Stem Cells, a patient management firm focused on stem cell therapeutics, where he has been pivotal in designing unique protocols and integrating a divergent group of both laboratory services and techniques for the scientific study of stem cells. His background includes a 26-year history of providing family medical services as a primary care naturopathic physician. Dr. Kadish is a diplomat of the American Board of Anti-Aging Medicine (ABAAM), an area of interest since 1979 when he was the technical editor for the Life Extension Handbook published by Endless Horizons. He has been actively treating complex disorder patients with an emphasis on the hormonally challenged and those on the autistic spectrum. Dr. Kadish has been utilizing the biomedical approach to ASD and is a level 2 DAN practitioner. He holds degrees in Biology and Chemistry from Montclair University and a BS in Natural Health Sciences and his medical degree from Bastyr University. The expansion of his services into the field of stem cell research and treatment is a natural extension of the many aspects of a naturopathic, life extension/enhancement based integrated medicine practice. Dr. Kadish has consulted fora number of international nutraceutical and diagnostic laboratories, and has been instrumental in designing medical devices for a number of specialty applications. Dr. Kadish makes numerous television and radio appearances, along with medical school and professional medical organization lectures, promoting health education and the utilization of natural methods for both prevention and resolution of disease. Currently he is a primary investigator for an IRB approved study involving a urinary disorder, and is involved with writing two books addressing concerns of preconception planning and stem cells with and emphasis on integration of adjunctive therapies.

Ravi K. Kamepalli, M.D., CWS
Regional Infectious Diseases & Infusion Center, Lima, OH 
Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases, St. Rita’s Medical Center, Lima, OH

Dr. Ravi K. Kamepalli is a board certified infectious disease physician and a certified wound specialist who has been practicing in Lima, Ohio since 2003. He is also Medical Director of the Hyperbaric Clinic and Chief of Division of Infectious Diseases at St. Rita’s Medical Center. He has a passion for wound care and all things wound related. He has participated on multiple Expert Consensus Panels. He is actively involved in clinical research and has participated in over 39 clinical trials. Dr. Kamepalli received his medical degree from Guntur Medical College, Guntur, AP, India. He did his residency at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York and Infectious Diseases fellowship at Saint Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center, New York, NY.

Todd McAllister, PhD

   CEO, CytoGraft Tissue Engineering, Inc., Novato, CA

Dr. McAllister has a Ph.D. in BioMedical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego. He is the co-founder and CEO of Cytograft Tissue Engineering, Inc. Dr. McAllister has been an early proponent of tissue engineering approaches that do not require synthetic scaffolds, and is a co-inventor of the Tissue Engineering by Self-Assembly (TESA) technology. Dr. McAllister has also pioneered a novel business strategy within regenerative medicine, taking Cytograft’s lead product, the Lifeline™ Vascular Graft from inception to commercial licensure in Europe on less than $10M in private equity. The Lifeline autologous graft was the first tissue engineered vascular graft (TEVG) to be used in arterial circulation in humans. Similarly, the Lifeline allogeneic graft was the first TEVG to be used in humans, and is now in Phase III clinical trials. Dr. McAllister is also the co-Director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the St. Joseph’s Translational Research Institute in Atlanta, Georgia, where he oversees a broader range of cell-based cardiovascular repair technologies. He also serves on several advisory boards, including the TERMIS industry committee, Siricell, Lumen Therapeutics, Biocardia, and the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. McAllister is also a director of the International Cell Medicine Society (ICMS), and on the editorial board for several journals.

Toshio Miki, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Research, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California

Dr. Toshio Miki, Assistant Professor at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at University of Southern California, received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. Prior to his move to USC, Dr. Miki had conducted various medical researches at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2005 he discovered stem cell-like cell populations in human amnion and since then Dr. Miki is best known for his studies of placental stem cells and of clinical applications. He has authored over 30 scientific articles, books and chapters.

Neil H. Riordan, Ph.D.
Chairman, Medistem Panama, Inc., Panama City, Panama

Dr. Riordan is a scientist, entrepreneur and avid inventor. He is the author of 59 medical journal articles, two book chapters and has 10 issued patents and 17 patents pending. He holds a B.S. from Wichita State University, a Master’s degree from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, and a Ph.D. from Medical University of the Americas. Dr. Riordan is the founder and CEO of Aidan Inc., Aidan Clinic, and Aidan Products of Chandler, AZ. He is also the founder and Chairman of Medistem Panama, Inc. and the Stem Cell Institute in Panama City, Panama. He founded and is the past President and CEO of the publicly traded company, Medistem, Inc. He is the past Research Director of the Riordan Clinic and the IAT Cancer Clinic in Freeport, Bahamas.

Saud Ahmed Sadiq, M.D.
Research Director and Senior Research Scientist, Multiple Sclerosis Research Center of New York
President & CEO, International Multiple Sclerosis Management Practice, New York, NY

Dr. Saud A. Sadiq is the founder of a novel concept in disease-based management: to combine unparalleled, clinical care excellence with innovative research directed to establish the cause of multiple sclerosis in order to ultimately find a cure. To enable realization of his utopic vision he had to leave traditional university-based centers of treatment in 2006 when he created an independent clinical care center, the International Multiple Sclerosis Management Practice (IMSMP) and a research affiliate, the Multiple Sclerosis Research Center of New York (MSRCNY). With an 80,000 sq. ft. location in Manhattan, IMSMP and MSRCNY together constitute the largest MS center in the world and serve patients from over 40 countries. Dr. Sadiq is a board-certified neurologist with medical school training in Kenya and residency training in both Internal Medicine in England and in Neurology at the University of Texas, where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. Funded by Dana and MDA Fellowship awards he completed research training in neuroimmunology at Columbia University in New York. He made rapid progress from an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Neurological Institute at Columbia University to heading the MS Research and Treatment Center at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York, where from 2000-2005, he served as Chairman of the Department of Neurology at St. Luke's-Roosevelt with a faculty appointment at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. As a clinician, Dr. Sadiq is an internationally acknowledged expert in multiple sclerosis, winning numerous awards for his care. As a researcher, he is a leader in intrathecal forms of therapy and is currently conducting the first clinical trial using neural progenitor cells for disabled MS patients. His basic science efforts are directed at identifying the initial trigger that leads to MS. He is widely published and has presented at over 100 national and international meetings.

Warren Sherman, M.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, NY
Director, Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine, Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy, Skirball Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Columbia University Medical Center, NY

Dr. Warren Sherman earned his Bachelor of Science (Life Sciences) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Medical Doctorate at the State University of New York, Upstate Medical Center. Following an Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Rochester, he spent 3 years as a Fellow in Cardiovascular Diseases at the Oregon Health Sciences University, where many of the cardiac procedures that form the foundation of modern interventional cardiology originated. 
In 1983, Dr. Sherman moved to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York to investigate new techniques for treating patients with acute myocardial infarction. It was at that time that the first thrombolytics (clot dissolving medications) were being evaluated in patients. 
In 1989 he shifted gears to a fully clinical role, and created the Interventional Cardiology Program at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. During his 12 years as Director of the Division of Interventional Cardiology, the program emerged as one of the foremost in the Northeast, recognized for its quality of comprehensive care and training program in cardiovascular diseases. Due to his deepening interest in regenerative techniques, Dr. Sherman pioneered a technique for injecting stem cells into the heart. In Rotterdam in May 2001 he performed the first catheter-based injection of adult stem cells into the heart of a patient with a heart failure due to a previous heart attack. This technique was then brought to the U.S., where he performed a similar procedure at Mount Sinai Hospital in April 2003. Presently, as Director of Cell Therapy at Mount Sinai Hospital, Dr. Sherman is the Principal Investigator of a multicenter clinical study of autologous skeletal myoblast injections for patients with congestive heart failure, and lead investigator on numerous translational studies. In April 2005 Dr. Sherman began a new position as Director of Cardiac Cell-Based Endovascualar Therapies, within the Division of Cardiology and the Center for Interventional Vascular Therapies at Columbia University Medical Center.

Francesca Vitelli, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President Operations & Technology Commercialization, Stematix, Inc., Houston, TX

Dr. Francesca Vitelli is currently the Senior Vice President of Operations and Technology Commercialization for Stematix. Prior to this she served as Assistant Professor of Research in the Center for Molecular Development and Disease, Institute for Biosciences and Technology (IBT) at Texas A&M University System–Health Science Center, and Technology Director of Regenetech, Inc. Dr. Vitelli received her Ph.D. in Neurogenetics from the University of Siena, Italy and did her post-doctoral work in Human Genetics and Pediatric Cardiology research at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Ariel Luksenburg Wiernik, M.D.
Chairman, Glyco, Montevideo, Uruguay

Dr. Ariel Luksenburg Wiernick is a medical doctor on the Faculty of Medicine at the University of the Republic, Montevideo, Uruguay. He specializes in Gynecology and Obstetrics and Cosmetic Gynecology with a focus on therapy using platelet rich plasma. He is a member of the Gynecological Society of Uruguay, the International Cellular Medicine Society and the Mexican College of Cosmetic Gynecology. Dr.Wiernik is also Chairman of Glyco and lives and works in Uruguay.