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People
Barbara Leinweber, Ph.D.
My B.S. is in Microbiology with an emphasis in chemistry. I've got an M.S. in Public Health with an emphasis in environmental science. My PhD is technically in physiology with dissertation in a smooth muscle biochemistry. My dissertation helped solve one of those age old mysteries of why turkey gizzards are so rubbery. Solving this mystery involved the discovery of a novel protein. It also involved use of fluorescent probes, an ananlytical instrument called a stopped flow spectrophotometer, and numerous very inexpensive quantitative assays.
I used my post doc/ research scientist career as an excuse to explore the country developing inexpensive techniques wherever I went. Most of these techniques involved fluorescence.
I left academia for a start up company that uses metal oxide nanoparticles for the isolation of DNA and RNA from a variety of biological sources. When this company ran out of money I started consulting for whomever wants inexpensive solutions to complex problems. One of these consultation gigs involved removal of bacterial biofilms from medical diagnostic instruments. Another project involved helping a dietary supplement company get a New Dietary Ingredient Clearance from the FDA.
One thing about the dietary supplement industry is the need to perform basic toxicology testing on limited funds. Once a dietary supplement company obtains access to cultured cells, the new challenge is to perform toxicology testing in microtiter plates. Some of these assays only involve color changes. Other toxicology assays involve changes in fluorescence. Microtiter plate readers that work in the fluorescence mode are not inexpensive even on Craigslist. They are also not light weight and easy to carry.
This dietary supplement market pain point was one of the founding ideas of Ringtail Bio. We can build an instrument that can be transported to any place that the dietary supplement company can obtain cultured cells and/or tissue homogenates. Data analysis could be performed in “the Cloud” as well as emailed for outside analysis for a small fee. A pain point in the medical device biofilm removal dilemma is that there is still not a good way of diagnosing the biofilm problem in the field and determining if the treatment was effective. Having an electrical engineer/software engineer and a physical organic chemist as part of the team opens the possibility of a custom instrument geared to the real life of a traveling medical device service technician.
David ('Dr. Dave') Luttrull, Ph.D.
Thirty-three (33) years experience in chemical research, product development, product marketing, and R&D management. This includes 22 scientific publications.
Dr. Luttrull initially became interested in organic chemistry because of his intrigue in the seemingly magical photochemistry involved in traditional photography. Pursuant to his interest in photochemistry, he earned a M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry at Bowling Green State University (Center for Photochemical Sciences), a Ph.D. in Physical-Organic Chemistry from Arizona State University (1987-91, Center for the Study of Early Events in Photosynthesis) and completed a NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship at The University of Rochester (NSF Center for Charge-Transfer Studies).
Dr. Luttrull has successfully conducted or directed R&D in several industries, including specialty chemicals area (Nalco Chemical Company, Sugar Land, TX), dielectric-composite materials for telecommunications and cellular infrastructure (Park Electrochemical Corp., Tempe, AZ and Isola Group, Chandler, AZ), and bio-monitor development (Rosestreet Labs, Phoenix, AZ).
As a testament to Dr. Luttrull's ability to work with other scientists and medical professionals to complete a diverse set of seminal research studies, he has authored or co-authored over 22 scientific publications, including two (2) patents, and ten (10) scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals such as the medical journal RETINA (1), J. of Amer. Chem. Soc. (2), Langmuir (2), J. of Organic Chemistry (1), Photochemistry & Photobiology (2), Royal Society of Chemistry (1), and Science (1).
Steve Shelby, BSEE
Steve Shelby started SEG13 in 2002. Steve has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stony Brook University and 25 years of real world, hands-on experience in the electronics industry.
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