Nirupama (Rupa) Pike, PhD

Dr. Pike earned her doctorate degree from Harvard University and completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Ligand Pharmaceuticals. At Ligand Pharmaceuticals, she was part of the team that designed novel hematopoietic screening assays for erythropoietin and thrombopoietin in partnership with GlaxoSmithKline, a part of the program for development of Promacta®. Dr. Pike gained extensive industry and biotechnology experience by working at Life Technologies, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Stem Cell Theranostics. In her past roles she successfully managed R&D laboratory operations, new product development, quality management, infrastructure development, customer relations and business development. She has worked with a hematopoietic stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells for regenerative medicine and drug discovery applications. Dr. Pike’s role is be to oversee operations of the GMP Cell Manufacturing Laboratory for advanced cell manufacturing of hematopoietic cells, mesenchymal stem cells and other cell types that will be used in first-in-human clinical trials. She also assists UW Madison researchers, clinicians and other academic/industry partners by providing manufacturing services, designing novel assays, providing scale-out and scale-up options for specific cell types and assisting in filing IND applications.