Nina Ossanna, Ph.D.
Dr. Ossanna brings a wealth of experience in intellectual property, technology transfer and development, start-ups and early stage commercialization in life sciences to her clients. She also does international consulting for biotech companies and technology transfer. She is a founder of MZ Biolabs, a mass spec specialty company and was a founder of Pharos Diagnostics.
She currently serves as the Chair of the Bioindustry Organization of Southern Arizona, Industrial Board for the UA Professional Science Master's program, the District Export Council, and is on Arizona's statewide Biosciences Roadmap Steering Committee.
At The University of Arizona (UA) she played a dual role as the Director of Business Development & Strategic Planning for the BIO5 Institute and as an embedded technology transfer manager in BIO5. She served as an interim director of the UA’s Office of Technology Transfer for 14 months and was co-director of UA’s translational drug enterprise, BIO5 Oro Valley. At BIO5 she pioneered placing a business-minded, domain experienced embed in a research enterprise to develop university discovered technology as assets in order to build value and optimize commercialization.
In addition, she was faculty for the Eller College's Advanced Technology Transfer Program in Mexico for numerous CONACYT institutions and has taught Mexican tech transfer professionals through ADIAT. She has co-taught a graduate courses on Technology Commercialization & Entrepreneurship and Intellectual Property Management and served on the executive committee for the UA's Professional Science Master's program. Dr. Ossanna was an honorary professor at Centro de Investigacion Cientificas de Yucatan (CICY) and visiting professor in the Philippines for the ERDT program.
Prior to joining the UA, Dr. Ossanna was Senior Director of Business Development and Intellectual Property/Corporate Secretary for ImaRx Therapeutics, a Tucson biopharmaceutical company. She secured collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies and worked on INDs for the company's new drugs.
Before returning to Tucson, Dr. Ossanna spent 8 years at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Office of Technology Licensing in Baltimore, including serving as Director. At Hopkins she worked with the faculty on commercialization and start-up projects closing over 100 major transactions, successfully managing a Bayh-Dole march-in attempt and brokering numerous collaborations and disputes. In her last year as Director, the office brought in revenues of $12M.
She is a former patent examiner in the biotechnology arts at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) where she worked on numerous high profile patent applications. She is registered to practice before the USPTO. Dr. Ossanna earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the UA and completed a post-doc at the USDA where she developed new biological control agents for plant pathogens.
Dr. Ossanna brings a wealth of experience in intellectual property, technology transfer and development, start-ups and early stage commercialization in life sciences to her clients. She also does international consulting for biotech companies and technology transfer. She is a founder of MZ Biolabs, a mass spec specialty company and was a founder of Pharos Diagnostics.
She currently serves as the Chair of the Bioindustry Organization of Southern Arizona, Industrial Board for the UA Professional Science Master's program, the District Export Council, and is on Arizona's statewide Biosciences Roadmap Steering Committee.
At The University of Arizona (UA) she played a dual role as the Director of Business Development & Strategic Planning for the BIO5 Institute and as an embedded technology transfer manager in BIO5. She served as an interim director of the UA’s Office of Technology Transfer for 14 months and was co-director of UA’s translational drug enterprise, BIO5 Oro Valley. At BIO5 she pioneered placing a business-minded, domain experienced embed in a research enterprise to develop university discovered technology as assets in order to build value and optimize commercialization.
In addition, she was faculty for the Eller College's Advanced Technology Transfer Program in Mexico for numerous CONACYT institutions and has taught Mexican tech transfer professionals through ADIAT. She has co-taught a graduate courses on Technology Commercialization & Entrepreneurship and Intellectual Property Management and served on the executive committee for the UA's Professional Science Master's program. Dr. Ossanna was an honorary professor at Centro de Investigacion Cientificas de Yucatan (CICY) and visiting professor in the Philippines for the ERDT program.
Prior to joining the UA, Dr. Ossanna was Senior Director of Business Development and Intellectual Property/Corporate Secretary for ImaRx Therapeutics, a Tucson biopharmaceutical company. She secured collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies and worked on INDs for the company's new drugs.
Before returning to Tucson, Dr. Ossanna spent 8 years at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Office of Technology Licensing in Baltimore, including serving as Director. At Hopkins she worked with the faculty on commercialization and start-up projects closing over 100 major transactions, successfully managing a Bayh-Dole march-in attempt and brokering numerous collaborations and disputes. In her last year as Director, the office brought in revenues of $12M.
She is a former patent examiner in the biotechnology arts at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) where she worked on numerous high profile patent applications. She is registered to practice before the USPTO. Dr. Ossanna earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the UA and completed a post-doc at the USDA where she developed new biological control agents for plant pathogens.