About the Office of Technology Transfer

Marjorie Hunter directs the office with over 25 years of experience in intellectual property matters and technology transfer. She has served in many capacities including: Patent Attorney for Amoco Corporation, Corporate Counsel for Baxter Diagnostics Inc./Baxter Healthcare Corporation, Senior Technology Licensing Specialist at the Office of Technology Transfer, National Institutes of Health, Director of the Technology Transfer Office, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and most recently as the Senior Licensing Manager for the Technology Transfer Office at the University of Utah. She is a registered patent attorney and a member of several bar associations as well as the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) and the Licensing Executives Society (LES). Marjorie received her BS in Honors Biology from the University of Illinois in 1978, and went on to earn her JD at the Dickinson School of Law of Pennsylvania State University in 1981.

John Fahner-Vihtelic has been a technology manager and intellectual property professional for 16 years. He began his career in this field at the NIH where he managed the device and instrument portfolio for nine years. He was Senior Licensing Manager for Physical Sciences at the University of Utah, then joined the URMC as Deputy Director for OTT. Presently he spends most of his time working with new URMC start-up companies, in a variety of capacities—from business assessment, to IP protection, to fund raising, and all aspects of corporate management. He was trained as a nurse and EMT.

Michael Rusnak has over 23 years of professional experience—most recently holding the position of Venture Consultant with BCM Technologies, Inc., the venture subsidiary of Baylor College of Medicine. He has held senior positions in biotech business development with Ceros, CombiChem, and Lexicon Genetics where he has been involved with over $100 million of partnering activity. Prior to Lexicon, he has held various positions in marketing, sales, and project management with Baxter, Bayer, and Cetus. Michael received his MS in Clinical Science from San Francisco State University and has a B.S. in Microbiology from St. Bonaventure University.

Harl Tolbert is responsible for the commercialization of biological science technologies developed at URMC. He holds a masters degree in Animal Sciences and an MBA from the University of Illinois. Prior to working in academic technology transfer, Harl worked in sales and marketing at Abbott Laboratories. He also worked in the business development group at Pierce Chemical where he in-licensed technology from universities and life science companies.

David Wang has over 10 years of professional experience in life science industry. Most recently he has been involved in medical device start-up and global technology transfer of medical device technology. Prior to that, he held a senior position in business development and marketing at a biotech company in China. David has 6 years of experience in US pharmaceutical industry as a drug discovery/development scientist and licensing professional. David received his medical education from Hunan Medical University in China and his MBA from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI.

Zubair Mirza has a diverse professional experience of over 28 years in medical technology innovation, engineering, development, and management as well as business and organizational development and strategizing. He has served in various capacities in technology, scientific, corporate, entrepreneurial, clinical, consulting, and non-profit environments including: as Manager Advanced Development Engineering with Becton-Dickinson, VP R & D at Critichem, President of Natural Solutions, VP/Chief Technology Officer for Life Products and as a researcher on projects for WHO, SIU School of Medicine, Springfield Illinois Board of Education. He co-founded three medical start-ups, sold one to BD, licensed technologies to and from corporations, has served on various corporate and community boards and holds six patents. Zubair received his bachelors in Biology and masters in Industrial (medical product) Design from the University of Illinois and also has a degree in Respiratory Therapy.

Mithun Mukherjee has a broad research background in software programming and data analysis for fMRI research from his past experience as a technical associate at the Rochester Center for Brain Imaging. Mithun holds a masters degree in Electrical Engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology and is currently pursuing a masters degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Technology Transfer and Commercialization at the Simon Graduate School of Business.

Tiefei Dong is responsible for assisting in the commercialization of biomedical science technologies developed at URMC. Tiefei has broad research experience from his academic background. In addition, he has sales and marketing experience from his previous work at the Johnson & Johnson Beijing office. Tiefei received his B.S. in Cell Biology from Peking University, his M.S. in Pathology from UR, and his Ph.D. in Pathology from UR.