Nucleus RadioPharma’s leadership team

Charles S. Conroy brings to Nucleus more than three decades of experience in the life sciences industry, including several significant senior positions within the radiopharmaceutical industry.

Most recently, Mr. Conroy was the CEO of ARTMS, a revolutionary developer of isotope manufacturing equipment. Prior to joining ARTMS, he was the General Manager of Jubilant Pharma where he was responsible for North American sales and operations and has held leadership roles in various life sciences companies including Express Scripts, United BioSource Corporation, Covidien and Eli Lilly.

Geoffrey B Johnson, M.D., Ph.D. is founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Nucleus RadioPharma. Dr. Johnson is board-certified in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine and recently rotated out of an 8-year tenure as Chair of Nuclear Medicine at Mayo Clinic. Under his leadership, Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN has become the largest theranostic center in the world, averaging 40 therapies per week for 2023.

Dr. Johnson now serves as Associate Director of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center (MCCCC) and as Chair of Radiopharmaceutical Therapy.

Dr. Johnson was the top-recruiting physician in the MCCCC in 2022 and has enrolled over 140 patients on radiopharmaceutical cancer therapy trials in the last 3 years, serving as overall PI and local PI. He also serves as Co-PI on multiple active theranostic trials.

Dr. Johnson is a co-inventor of Alpha-PET Double-L.E.T. theranostic technologies, the first of which is now licensed to Perspective Therapeutics.
Dr. Johnson served as Medical Director of the Nuclear Medicine Technology Program, Program Director of the Nuclear Radiology Fellowship Program and Chair of PET/MR research and development committee.

Dr. Johnson earned his B.S. in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving Tau Beta Phi academic honors. He completed his M.D./Ph.D. in the Mayo Medical-Scientist Training Program as the Davis Physician-Scientist Scholar. He completed postdoctoral training in immunology and surgery in the Mayo Graduate School. He went on to complete an internship in internal medicine, a residency in diagnostic radiology and a fellowship in nuclear radiology in Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education.

In recognition of his work, Dr. Johnson has received awards and honors, including the Roentgen Resident Research Award and the twice the Honored Educator Award, conferred by the Radiological Society of North America; Physician/Scientist of the Year, conferred by Mayo School of Health Sciences; and the Carman Award for Excellence in Clinical Practice, conferred by the Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Johnson is active in research and education, garnering more than 30 awards with trainees on projects at national and international meetings. Dr. Johnson’s memberships with 13 professional organizations include the AAI, ACR, ABR, ARRS, RSNA, ASNC, SNMMI and STR.

Leading as Chief Operating Officer with Nucleus, Mark Przekop brings over three decades in nuclear pharmacy and radiopharmaceuticals industry. Mark possesses extensive commercial and operational experience in expanding supply chain networks, marketing and regulatory compliance oversight.

Prior to joining Nucleus, Mark held multiple roles at ARTMS, Inc., most recently as Chief Operating Officer responsible for overseeing supply chains for business operations, product development and chemistry teams, managing regulatory strategy for the ARTMS portfolio, and cultivating business partnerships with key U.S. nuclear pharmacy customers. He was also Vice President of Pharmacy Services at Jubilant Radiopharma, providing executive sales and operational support over the entire East Region, which included 26 radiopharmacies and PET manufacturing.

As Chief Commercial Officer, Kathy Spencer-Pike brings more than two decades of experience within highly matrixed Fortune 50 environments as well as fast-paced growth and start-up enterprises.

Before Nucleus, Ms. Spencer-Pike was Chief Sales Officer at McKesson where she spurred significant company growth, built a high-performance commercial team and merged three legacy organizations into a single commercial organization achieving unprecedented double-digit growth year over year. Ms. Spencer-Pike previously was VP, Commercial Leader for Novo Nordisk, successfully leading the planning, development and execution of market and sales strategies, exceeding revenue goals. In addition to her commercial experience, Ms. Spencer-Pike is a dedicated advocate for DE&I, leading the largest US-based Women’s Employee Resource Group (ERG) at Pfizer and Novo Nordisk, both of which were the largest ERGs within the companies.

As Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Rebecca brings almost three decades of leading all aspects of the HR function – including talent acquisition and management, employee relations, benefits administration, compensation, training and development, mergers and acquisitions, employee programs and executive partnership. Rebecca’s career in radiopharmaceuticals primarily was with the Triad Isotopes nuclear pharmacy network from 2009 through 2018.  She also supported Human Resources priorities and projects for ARTMS, Inc. out of Vancouver, BC for three years prior to joining the Nucleus team.  Recognized as a trusted advisor who excels at building collaborative partnerships throughout all levels of an organization, she serves as a key contributor towards the long-range success of an organization.

Justin is a Partner at Eclipse, where he collaborates with founders working at the intersection of multiple disciplines. He is particularly passionate about novel approaches to complex issues in infrastructure in healthcare and life sciences.

Justin works with companies building technologies, products, and services that enable the development and, ultimately, the foundation upon which the next generation of healthcare and life sciences advancements can thrive. His focus is on building the infrastructure of these industries, closing the gap between scientific development and clinical deployment.

Prior to joining Eclipse, Justin built and led the commercial operations at Misfit, a digital health company acquired by the Fossil Group for more than $250M. Before Misfit, Justin managed the commercialization efforts in the foods, fuels, and chemicals spaces at Synthetic Genomics (SGI), a leading synthetic biology company.

Justin received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from UCSB and his MBA from MIT Sloan. He sits on the Industry Alliance Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and the Commercial Advisory Board of the National Science Foundation Center for Cell Manufacturing Technology (CMat).

Justin enjoys skiing, mountain biking, and sailing and leads the Kathryn Butler Foundation in honor of his late wife, where he is working to support the needs of those battling cancer and bereaved children.

Chris McDonald is Global Head of Technical Operations at Kite, a Gilead Company. Chris brings to Nucleus unparalleled technical expertise in biopharmaceutical operations.

His background in overseeing complex projects, including the design, construction, and launch of Kite’s East Coast high volume cell therapy manufacturing facility, directly addresses the unique challenges faced by Nucleus RadioPharma.

His leadership roles at AstraZeneca, Novartis, and Amgen, where he was instrumental in managing intricate manufacturing processes and executing significant capital projects, showcase his capability to navigate the intricacies of the biopharmaceutical industry.

Manu S. Nair is Chair and Head of Corporate Development under the Department of Business Development at Mayo Clinic and leads business development efforts that are of highest strategic importance to Mayo Clinic.

Prior to assuming this role, Mr. Nair served as vice president of Technology Ventures for the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF) in Oklahoma City. He oversaw developing and commercializing OMRF’s technologies, establishing strategic industry collaborations, and managing the innovation fund dedicated to such development efforts.

Mr. Nair started his technology commercialization career at OMRF in 2004 and was involved in OMRF’s intellectual property (IP) commercialization and startup company efforts. He later joined Mayo Clinic Ventures (MCV), the technology commercialization and investment arm of Mayo Clinic, where he served as a technology licensing manager and subsequently as senior licensing manager. He managed a diverse portfolio of technologies and was in charge of related IP protection, development and commercialization, including company formation and technology-based investments. He also led MCV’s international collaboration and funding initiatives.

Appointed by the governor of Oklahoma, Mr. Nair served as vice chair of the Oklahoma Science and Technology R&D Board. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Legal Assistance of Olmsted County, Rochester, Minnesota and the Midwest University Research Network. He currently serves on the boards of IBIS Therapeutics, Jupiter Bioventures, Nucleus RadioPharma, USA Healthcare Alliance and Volnay Therapeutics, serves on the business advisory board of Progentec Diagnostics, and is a member of the External Advisory Committee for the NIH-funded SE XLerator Network Hub. In addition, Mr. Nair serves as a business consultant for several U.S. and international entities, including prominent research institutes and technology companies.

Mr. Nair received his MBA from Lamar University in Texas and an advanced degree in law from the University of New Hampshire School of Law focusing on intellectual property, commerce and technology laws.

Dr. Rivers has been an Executive Director within AstraZeneca’s Corporate Development & Ventures group since 2014. From 2009 to 2014, Dr. Rivers was at MedImmune Ventures specializing in biotechnology investing. In addition to our board of directors, Dr. Rivers also serves as a member of the board of directors of ADC Therapeutics SA, Cerapedics, Inc., and Quell Therapeutics, Ltd. Dr. Rivers holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.B.A. from New York University Stern School of Business.

Michael Rossi is currently President and CEO at Y-mAbs Therapeutics, Inc. Michael served as the Head of Radioligand Imaging for the Advanced Accelerator Applications, a Novartis Company.

Michael also spent five years at Jubilant Pharma where he served in several different roles including President of Jubilant RadioPharma, and brings experience from GE Healthcare, Tyco Healthcare/Mallinckrodt and Syncor International.

Michael earned a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of the Sciences, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and holds an Authorized Nuclear Pharmacist Certification from Butler University. He has served on several Boards of Directors and remains a Licensed Pharmacist in the state of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Norman E. “Ned” Sharpless is a physician, scientist, entrepreneur, and former federal official. He served as Director of the National Cancer Institute from 2017 to 2022, and as Acting Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration in 2019.

Prior to government, Dr. Sharpless was Director of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at UNC. He founded G1 Therapeutics, which developed the FDA-approved medicine Cosela (Trilaciclib), used to prevent chemotherapy toxicity.

He is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy, the Association of American Physicians, and the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Mary Kate Wold has held leadership positions in the pharmaceutical and healthcare, financial services, legal, and government sectors, including sitting on the boards of numerous organizations. She is the CEO and a board member of the Church Pension Group (CPG), a pension and financial services company that is headquartered in New York City.

Prior to joining CPG, Ms. Wold was Senior Vice President, Finance, and a Principal Corporate Officer of Wyeth, one of the world’s largest research-based pharmaceutical companies, leading its Treasury, Tax, Procurement, Enterprise Risk Management, and Business Process Outsourcing functions. Sitting on several executive oversight committees, she provided direction across a spectrum of Wyeth’s business and finance operations.

Before Wyeth, Ms. Wold was a partner and chaired the tax practice group of Shearman & Sterling, one of the world’s leading law firms. She advised the firm’s global clients on cross-border mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactions. Earlier in her career, she served in the United States Department of the Treasury as a member of the Office of International Tax Counsel, where she negotiated the first income tax treaty between the United States and China.

Ms. Wold has served on numerous boards of both for-profit and non-profit organizations. She currently is a board member, sits on the executive and audit committees, and chairs the investment committee of The Jackson Laboratory, a biomedical research institution dedicated to the discovery of genomic solutions to cancer and other human diseases. She is a board member of the Burke Neurological Institute, a research organization affiliated with Weill Cornell Medicine, and is a member of its executive committee.

A native of North Dakota, Ms. Wold attended Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, from which she graduated summa cum laude and was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. She holds an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University.

Dr Jeremie Calais, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Nuclear Medicine and Theranostics in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He is the director of the UCLA Theranostics Program and the Director of the Clinical Research Program of the Ahmanson Translational Theranostics Division. He is also a faculty member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Institute of Urologic Oncology, and the Physics and Biology in Medicine Graduate Program at UCLA. Dr. Calais earned his medical degree and Master of Science degree at the University of Paris, France.

Dr. Calais is a nuclear medicine physician specialized in cancer imaging and theranostics. His goal is to improve the outcome of patients with cancer through theranostic approaches and the application of knowledge gained from preclinical models and clinical studies.

Dr Calais is also an Associate Editor of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, a Board Member of the Correlative Imaging Council (CIC) of the SNMMI, a Committee Member of the Prostate Theranostics and Imaging Centre of Excellence (ProsTIC), Melbourne, a Member of the SWOG Cancer Research Network and an Advisory Board Member of the Oncidium Foundation, Belgium.

Dr. Iagaru is a Professor of Radiology – Nuclear Medicine and the Chief of the Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging at Stanford University Medical Center. He completed medical school at Carol Davila University of Medicine, Bucharest, Romania, and an internship at Drexel University College of Medicine, Graduate Hospital, in the Department of Medicine in Philadelphia. He began his residency at the University of Southern California (USC) Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, in the Division of Nuclear Medicine. Dr. Iagaru finished his residency and completed a PET/CT fellowship at Stanford University’s School of Medicine in the Division of Nuclear Medicine. His research interests include PET/MRI and PET/CT for early cancer detection; clinical translation of novel PET radiopharmaceuticals; peptide-based diagnostic imaging and therapy; targeted radionuclide therapy. Since joining the faculty at Stanford in 2007, Dr. Iagaru has received several awards including the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) 2009 Image of the Year Award; AuntMinnie 2016 Best Radiology Image, American College of Nuclear Medicine (ACNM) Mid-Winter Conference 2010 Best Essay Award; 2009, 2014 and 2015 Western Regional SNM Scientist Award; 2011 SNM Nuclear Oncology Council Young Investigator Award; the 2020 Sanjiv Sam Gambhir Distinguished Scientist Award, Western Regional SNM and the 2022 Sanjiv Sam Gambhir Trailblazer Award, SNMMI. Dr. Iagaru published more than 230 papers in peer-reviewed journals, as well as 9 book chapters and 1 book.

Dr. Luke Nordquist is a Medical Oncologist who is recognized for his expertise in Prostate Cancer. He is the Founder and CEO of XCancer® in Omaha, NE.

Dr. Luke completed his Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC with a focus on Prostate Cancer.

Dr. Luke founded his cancer center & research network in 2010. His center, XCancer®, is globally recognized for its contribution to the advancement of therapies for prostate cancer. More than 450 prostate cancer patients from more than 40 states and several countries travel to Omaha for their prostate cancer care. To date, Dr. Luke and his team have accrued more than 1500 patient to clinical trials and conducted more than 20 1st-in-World Patients to novel clinical trials for Prostate Cancer.

Dr. Luke and the XCancer® team are also recognized as leaders for their global work with theranostic trials. They have performed over 40 radiopharmaceutical and molecular imaging trials for Prostate Cancer and are considered a go-to site for phase 1 trials because of their focus, quality and exceptional efficiency. His team accrued the first patient, the most patients and had the highest quality data on the Lu177 PSMA Vision Trial. His team has experience with a multitude of radioisotopes for Prostate Cancer.

Dr. Luke is the Founder of TheranosticTrials.org a digital platform to increase awareness, education and access to theranostic trials globally.

XCancer® has expanded to assist other Community Cancer Centers from coast to coast in conducting novel clinical trials including the strategy and development of Radiopharmaceutical programs that are clinical trials ready. XCancer® is helping assist cancer care as far away as Tanzania, Africa.

Dr. Luke’s trifecta is Science, Compassion, & the Entrepreneurial Spirit

Martin Pomper is Professor and Chair of Radiology and the Effie and Wofford Cain Distinguished Chair of Diagnostic Imaging at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He received undergraduate, graduate (organic chemistry) and medical degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Postgraduate medical training was at Johns Hopkins, including an internship on the Osler Medical Service, residencies in diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine and a fellowship in neuroradiology. He was on the radiology faculty at Johns Hopkins between 1995 and 2023, with other joint appointments, recently transitioning to UT Southwestern. His interest is in the development of new imaging and therapeutic agents for cancer, central nervous system disease, and other disorders.

Oliver Sartor, M.D. is a Professor of Medical Oncology at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Sartor has broad expertise in prostate cancer research extending over a 30-year career and has published over 500 manuscripts in the peer-reviewed literature, the vast majority of which focus on clinical and translational studies in prostate cancer. At last count, his manuscripts have been cited over 46,000 times in the peer-reviewed literature (H-index, 96). Dr. Sartor has served as PI or co-PI of multiple pivotal phase III trials leading to FDA approval of several prostate cancer therapeutics including samarium-153, radium-223, cabazitaxel, and Lu-177 PSMA-617. These trials have been practice-changing and have helped to shape the current therapeutic landscape in advanced and castration-resistant prostate cancer. In addition, Dr. Sartor continues to co-lead several phase III pivotal trials (i.e. PSMAddition study), including a trial being sponsored by the NCI NRG Cooperative Group (i.e. NRG-009). Furthermore, he is deeply involved in the development of novel therapeutics at the level of multiple other phase I/II trials.

Currently, he is the Medical Oncology Chair of the NRG GU Committee in addition to being the Director of Radiopharmaceutical Trials at Mayo. He was recently appointed Chief of the Genitourinary (GU) Cancer Disease Group at Mayo Clinic (system-wide). He has served on numerous guideline and consensus committees including those convened by the AUA, AJCC, APCCC, and the Prostate Cancer Working Group (PCWG3/4) and has served as an ad-hoc consultant to the FDA and MEDCAC.

Dr. Sgouros is Professor and Director of the Radiological Physics Division in the Department of Radiology at Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine. He is an author on more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, several book chapters and review articles. He is a recipient of the SNMMI Saul Hertz Award for outstanding achievements and contributions in radionuclide therapy and the 2024 recipient of the Paul C. Aebersold Award for outstanding achievement in basic science applied to nuclear medicine or molecular imaging. He is a member (2000-) of the Medical Internal Radionuclide Dose (MIRD) Committee of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), which he chaired from 2008 to 2019. He has chaired a Dosimetry & Radiobiology Panel at a DOE alpha-emitters workshop and also an ICRU report committee for ICRU guidance document No. 96 on dosimetry for radiopharmaceutical therapy. Dr. Sgouros is a former member (2012-2017) and chair (2015-2017) of the NIH study section on Radiation Therapeutics and Biology (RTB). Dr. Sgouros is also the founder and principal of Rapid, a dosimetry and imaging services and software products start-up in support of radiopharmaceutical therapy.

Lisa Jenkins VanLuvanee, Ph.D., is the Chief Operating Officer & Vice President of Research and Development at Facet Life Sciences. Dr. VanLuvanee has almost 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry. She specializes in product, program, and business R&D strategy; CNS, ophthalmic, and PET radiopharmaceutical product development; trial design, endpoint selection, and analysis; and FDA interactions. She has provided US strategic program and product guidance, tactical support, and content review for hundreds of products over the course of her career.

Prior to her position at Facet, Dr. VanLuvanee served as an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington as a research psychologist studying normal and diseased aging. Several years later, she joined Wyeth Pharmaceuticals as Principal Statistician and then transitioned to Senior Manager of Regulatory Affairs. Dr. VanLuvanee gained much of her regulatory strategy experience at Wyeth working on venlafaxine, desvenlafaxine, sonata, and methylnaltrexone. She received the Wyeth Team of the Year Award twice and the “Above and Beyond Award” four times in a six-year stretch. After 7 years at Wyeth, she joined Kendle International, Inc., a clinical trial organization (CRO) headquartered in the Midwest. In the roles of Associate Director and Regulatory Group Leader at Kendle, Dr. VanLuvanee led numerous New Drug Application (NDA) and Biologic License Application (BLA) teams which resulted in successful U.S. filings and subsequent approvals. Dr. VanLuvanee also led regulatory affairs, biometrics, and medical writing teams as the Director of Strategic Regulatory Services at ISI (a regulatory submissions company acquired by CSC, Inc. in 2010).

Dr. VanLuvanee received her bachelor’s degree from Juniata College, her Ph.D. from Syracuse University, and completed a 3-year post-doctoral fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis. She served as Deputy Editor of DIA’s Therapeutic Innovation and Regulatory Science journal from 2015-2017. She has published in a multitude of peer-reviewed industry journals, including Global Forum, Neurology, Journal of Neurology, Psychology and Aging, has presented at numerous industry conferences (RAPS and DIA Annual Meetings). She was awarded by PharmaVoice as one of the 100 most inspiring people in 2015.