Virginia Bioscience Podcast: Dr. David Ayares, CEO of Revivicor
This edition of the Virginia Bioscience Podcast features Dr. David Ayares, the CEO, Chief Scientific Officer and one of the co-founders of Revivicor, a Blacksburg, Virginia-based company, with expertise in the genetic modification of pigs for whole organ replacement and tissue regeneration.
Revivicor’s scientific team produced the world’s first cloned pigs and the first pigs that lack both copies of the gene responsible for triggering acute immune rejection in humans.
Prior to the formation of Revivicor, Dr. Ayares was Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Research and Development for PPL Therapeutics Inc., where he directed all administrative and scientific activities of the US Division. In his role as VP of Research, he had direct oversight for the research and development pipeline for PPL on scientific platforms including therapeutic protein production in the milk of transgenic livestock, and cloning and genetic modification of pigs for xenotransplantation.
Dr. Ayares is also the Principal Investigator on the company’s two federal grants; one a $1.9 million ATP (NIST) grant for the development of stem cell technology, and the other a $3.1 million DARPA grant for the production of human polyclonal antibodies in livestock against biowarfare agents such as Anthrax.
Prior to PPL, Dr. Ayares spent 8 years in scientific management in the pharmaceutical industry, specifically Abbott Laboratories and Baxter Healthcare.
He holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Illinois Medical Center and completed his postdoctoral studies in the Department of Biology at MIT. He earned his B.S. in Microbiology at Purdue University.
The program lasts approximately twenty minutes. The host of the program is Mark Herzog, executive director of the Virginia Biotechnology Association.
