All About Us

Summary

Dr. Niels Vande Casteele oversees and directs all business and scientific aspects at AcelaBio. He sets the organization’s vision and mission, develops and executes strategic and operational plans and oversees employees, ensuring engagement and compliance. Niels leads and protects the organization’s culture, values, diversity, and reputation.

Background

Dr. Vande Casteele is trained as a Clinical Pharmacologist and holds a Bachelor in Pharmaceutical Sciences and a Master in Drug Design and Development from the University of Leuven, Belgium. He performed research in the field of Molecular Biology at the Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Scotland and in the field of Immunology at Sanquin, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Niels obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, focused on Personalized Medicine to treat patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, at the University of Leuven, Belgium.

Prior to starting AcelaBio, Niels was with Alimentiv Inc. for seven years where he established the Precision Medicine group and oversaw the implementation of Clinical Pharmacology and Translational Medicine in over 25 clinical trials in all phases of drug development. He remains a Senior Scientific Advisor to Alimentiv and continues to lead the global Alimentiv Translational Research Consortium.

Besides his work in the Life Sciences industry, Niels holds an academic position as Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Diego, United States, where he conducts academic research, mentors students, and teaches a course on Biologics and Biosimilars Drug Development. His main research efforts focus on the application of Clinical Pharmacology and Translational Medicine to ascertain efficient drug development.

Major achievements

Dr. Vande Casteele has published over 120 peer reviewed research articles and book chapters, has given over 40 invited lectures globally, and has received awards for his research contributions from distinguished professional organizations such as the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization (ECCO), the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation (CCF) and United European Gastroenterology (UEG) association.

Ethos

In order to see the view, you have to climb the mountain.

Summary

Nick’s role covers a wide range of responsibilities in the lab, including accessioning, grossing, processing, and embedding gastrointestinal tissue, in addition to specimen sectioning, slide preparation, and subsequent application of hematoxylin & eosin (H&E), immunohistochemistry (IHC), immunofluorescence (IF), in-situ hybridization (ISH), and special staining protocols. 

Currently, Nick is also tasked with establishing AcelaBio as a certified service provider for Visium Spatial Gene Expression testing, a powerful next-generation sequencing (NGS) method for mapping entire transcriptomes within the context of the tissue’s morphological features on a single slide. When away from the bench, you may find him writing/editing SOPs or reviewing slides and scanned images for quality assurance.

Background

Nick graduated from Revelle College at the University of California, San Diego with a Bachelor of Science in General Biology and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, along with a minor in French literature. Soon after, he worked in a peripheral diabetic neuropathy research lab (UCSD) for several years before making the leap to the clinical side of pathology (UCSD Health). For over a decade, he continued to broaden his repertoire of high-complexity testing for disease diagnosis/prognosis on a wide variety of human tissue types in the hospital setting. His detail-oriented, consistent benchwork earned him the role as the lead histotechnologist of his lab, which specialized in producing high-quality IF, ISH, and muscle enzyme histochemical stains for pathologist interpretation.

Ethos

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” -MLK Jr.

Summary

Pamela is responsible for maintaining and managing the laboratory and staff in a CLIA/CAP accredited environment. She also supports validation of various histological procedures for implementation in the laboratory and will communicate and provide high quality data for our clientele in histopathology. In addition, Pamela will assess new technologies to drive innovation in the histology field.

Background

Pamela has a thorough knowledge of the translational research environment developing and validating various immunohistochemistry companion diagnostic assays for novel targets for patient stratification in Phase I dose expansion. In addition, she spent six years in a CLIA/CAP accredited histopathology laboratory at the University of Colorado Hospital.

Major achievements

Pamela is currently maintaining an ASCP certification as a Histotechnologist (HTL), and a Qualification in Immunohistochemistry (QIHC).

Ethos

“If you only shine light on your flaws, all your perfects will dim.”  Colleen Hoover

Summary

Sam supports the team with general histology tasks including, but not limited to, grossing, tissue processing, paraffin embedding, microtomy, staining with hematoxylin & eosin (H&E), immunohistochemistry (IHC), special stains, and digital whole-slide imaging.

Background

Sam earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Saint Vincent College and has over seven years of histology experience, including six years in Dermatology (Dermpath Diagnostics, Rabkin Dermatology, Dermatologist Medical Group of North County) and two years combined of research laboratory experience at Reveal Biosciences and the San Diego VA hospital.

Major achievements

Sam’s lead role in the startup of a dermatology laboratory. 

Ethos

“What’s meant to be, will always find a way.” -Trisha Yearwood

Summary

Iryna Borzilova is responsible for leading AcelaBio’s business growth and marketing strategy within the clinical and precision medicine research space, along with establishing and managing strategic partner relations. She drives the organization’s brand recognition and new market value proposition.

Background

Iryna has over 7 years of business development experience in progressive roles. Before joining AcelaBio, she worked as a Business Development Lead with Diversigen Inc., a CLIA/CAP certified microbiome profiling company with a strong track record of supporting microbiome-related clinical trials, large pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology companies. Prior to this, Iryna contributed to business development efforts at a Nestle Health Sciences-owned nutraceutical brand.

In addition, Iryna serves on the board of a Canadian charity organization, Maple Hope Foundation, established to help Ukrainians in need. 

Iryna received a Bachelor of Health Sciences with a Minor in Business Administration Degree from the University of Ottawa.

Major Achievements

As a Board Member of Maple Hope Foundation, Iryna contributed to collectively raising over $600,000 for humanitarian, medical, and military aid in Ukraine and for the Ukrainian Displaced Person Assistance Program in British Columbia, Canada.

Ethos

“You will never plough a field if you only turn it over in your mind.”

Summary

Jen engages in all technical aspects of the histopathology workflow from start to finish, including grossing, tissue processing, paraffin embedding, microtomy, routine hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and Immunohistochemistry (IHC)/special staining, and digital whole-slide imaging.

Background

Jen earned her Bachelor of Arts in biology from UNC Charlotte, then completed her post-baccalaureate training in histology at Carolinas College of Health Sciences in Charlotte, NC. As an ASCP-certified Histotechnologist, she has worked in routine and specialized histology at UCSD and Biotheranostics.

Major achievements

Jen is an ASCP-certified Histotechnologist and played a major role in the implementation of AcelaBio’s laboratory information system.

Ethos

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”

 – Robert Brault

Summary

Dr. Xianyong (Sean) Gui, MD, FCAP, FASCP is the primary pathology contact to represent AcelaBio’s pathology perspective. He is responsible for providing scientific and medical leadership for the development, validation, and operationalization of anatomic and molecular pathology services in the AcelaBio laboratory, including selection and design of assays to identify biomarkers for a drug or therapeutic indication. Sean also plays an important role in the review of clinical cases, including but not limited to disease activity scoring and diagnosis. He works closely with the Medical Laboratory Director to guide the laboratory operations at AcelaBio in accordance with organizational and industry best practices that meet regulatory requirements and guidelines.

Background

Dr. Gui is a licensed physician and an anatomic/clinical pathologist certified by American Board of Pathology, with additional subspecialty credential in gastrointestinal (GI)-hepatobiliary-pancreatic pathology. He completed his pathology residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago and GI/liver pathology fellowship at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He has been practicing in academic medical centers and serving on faculty at the University of Calgary (Alberta, Canada) and University of Washington (Seattle, USA) for more than 14 years. He remains to hold academic appointment as Clinical Professor of Pathology at both of these two institutions and continues to be a consultant pathologist performing diagnostic service and teaching pathology trainees. He was the inaugural Director of GI/Liver Pathology Service at the University of Calgary / Calgary Laboratory Services and served in that position for 6 years. Dr. Gui has extensive clinical and research experiences in both non-neoplastic and neoplastic GI/liver diseases, and he is particularly interested in the pathobiology and clinical-pathological correlation in the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Prior to his pathology career, Dr. Gui also had postgraduate clinical training in gastroenterology as well as post-doctoral research experience in basic digestive science.       

Major achievements

Dr. Gui has published more than 80 research articles. He received the “Basic Science Research Award (for clinical faculty)” from the Cumming School of Medicine in University of Calgary in 2013. He was instrumental to the development of PiCaSSO Histologic Remission Index (PHRI), a novel and simplified histologic score for assessing mucosal healing in ulcerative colitis, that was proposed in 2022 by an international group of gastroenterologists and GI pathologists in which Dr. Gui was the pathology lead.  

Ethos

“Sometimes, it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.”  – Alan Turin

Summary

Vicky provides support in the histology laboratory, specifically tasks related to specimen handling, accessioning, processing, scanning archiving and routine preparation of microscopic slides as well as support in maintaining laboratory instrumentation and ensure cleanliness. Additional to laboratory tasks, Vicky assists with office related administrative responsibilities including but not limited to, upkeep of documentation, ordering consumables/supplies and shipping documents and samples.

Background

Vicky has worked in a laboratory setting for just over four years, with one year at Millennium Health and three years at Precision Diagnostics. Her time at Millennium was spent focusing on accessioning and she continued her expertise with that at Precision Diagnostics. After six months, Vicky was promoted as a Specimen Verification Specialist and shortly after to Accessioning Lead. Although Vicky has had some experience in revenue cycle, her focus and expertise is in accessioning.

Ethos

“For my hustlers, here’s some motivation: he who has begun is half done.” – Nas

Summary

Dawn engages in all phases of the histology workflow including, but not limited to. grossing, tissue processing, paraffin embedding, microtomy, staining with hematoxylin & eosin (H&E), immunohistochemistry (IHC), special stains, and digital whole-slide imaging.

Background

Dawn has over 18 years of histology experience, most recently as a histotechnician at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX in the Neuropathology Laboratory where she specialized in enzyme histochemistry, frozen sectioning of muscle and nerve tissues, and IHC.

Major achievements

Dawn is an ASCP-certified Histotechnician.

Ethos

“The most difficult thing is to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” – Amelia Earhart

Summary

Con is implementing and validating a Laboratory Information System to support AcelaBio’s workflow and is looking forward to supporting the AcelaBio team in accomplishing the grand vision of the laboratory and its services.

Background

Con received his Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from Cal-Poly Pomona and continued his post-graduate education, obtaining an MBA with an IT Concentration from the University of La Verne. He later completed a Medical Technology Internship with the Veterans Administration Hospital in West Los Angeles.

Con has several years of experience as a contractor with Sutter Healthcare system in northern California, taking on various assignments throughout many of their 27 hospitals, mostly in the Bay Area. He worked with Sunquest Information System for ten years in the Professional Services group focusing on implementations, training and support with hospital clients all around the country. As a Clinical Laboratory Scientist, Con has performed testing in Chemistry, Hematology, Microbiology and Blood Banks in addition to various supervisory roles.

Major achievements

Con’s best achievement is his family, for which he is incredibly grateful.

Ethos

“Credo Ut Intelligam” (I Believe So That I May Understand) – Saint Augustine

Summary

Cenit’s primary focus is to manage the project lifecycle of AcelaBio’s studies/projects by implementing templates and tools that encourage efficiency and collaboration with AcelaBio’s partners and clients.

Background

Cenit completed her undergraduate studies from the University of California San Diego and holds a Bachelor in International Studies.

Prior to starting AcelaBio, Cenit worked in the medical device industry for seven years providing high-level administrative expertise and supporting the growth of the clinical affairs department. In 2022 Cenit transitioned into the pharmaceutical industry in a business operations and project management capacity where she supported the organizations clinical operations department.

Cenit has a successful track record of supporting the growth of organizations by maintaining a positive culture, creating and implementing organizational-wide processes, and promoting a collaborative space through open communication.

Ethos

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Nelson Mandela

Summary

Gaby supports the team with specimen handling, accessioning, processing, archiving and routine preparation of slides, and assists in laboratory instrumentation, maintenance, and cleanliness. Additionally, she helps in office related administrative tasks, shipping, and ordering.

Background

Gaby has 6 years of experience working in a laboratory environment, previously 5.5 years at Millennium Health. During her time at Millennium Health, she worked in specimen receiving, lab support, data entry, aliquoting, centrifugation, batching and racking. Since Gaby showed a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail, she became a trainer for the both the laboratory and medical data entry positions. Finally, she was promoted to work with rogue specimens in the Specimen Resolution Department.

Additionally, before coming back to the laboratory setting, Gaby ventured out into a different line of business as a Claims Specialist for multiple mortgage servicers and investors. Gaby dedicated herself to growing her knowledge and became an insurance adjuster for Farmers Insurance.

Major achievements

Gaby is a licensed property and casualty adjuster. 

Ethos

“It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices.” – A. Dumbledore