Aman Johar, CEO
Dr. Marna Doucette, Consultant for Regulatory Affairs
Dr. Shelley Ching, Consultant for Non-Clinical Development
Maynard Lichty, Consultant for Product Development

Aman Johar, CEO
Aman is the Chief Executive Officer of Applied Protein Sciences. Since joining APS, Aman has been primarily responsible for defining and structuring the company’s operational strategy. He has been instrumental in the identification of two lead compounds that form the head of APS drug pipeline today, positioning APS as a leader in providing for unmet medical needs in cancer care. Under Aman’s leadership APS has grown from a concept and now partners with the leading healthcare companies for drug development in a variety of therapeutic areas. Recently, Aman was instrumental in securing option rights for in-licensing multiple products from a German group to expand the APS drug pipeline. He is also responsible for the overall business development and managing investor relations.

Previously, Aman was a client executive and cofounder at SynergyCPI, where he worked in a variety of technologies for enabling efficient web commerce. His varied experiences as an entrepreneur and investor position him well to identify opportunities for sustainable growth for early stage companies. Aman holds an MBA from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University where he was recognized as a Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow. He graduated with a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT-BHU, India and also holds an MS in electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois. His other interests include travel, photography, and golf.

Dr. Marna Doucette, Consultant for Regulatory Affairs
Marna Doucette has 25 years experience in regulatory affairs and clinical research in the pharmaceutical industry. She has worked extensively on oncology drug development programs, including both anticancer agents and supportive care products. Her regulatory and clinical experience extend beyond oncology to other therapeutic areas such as antivirals, immunology, cardiology, analgesics, and inflammatory conditions.

Marna started in the pharmaceutical industry at 3M Pharmaceuticals in clinical research and project management. She joined Burroughs Wellcome in 1990, where she held clinical and regulatory management positions. Since leaving GlaxoSmithKline in 2001, Marna has provided expert regulatory and clinical guidance to small biopharmaceutical companies, initially as a Director of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance at several companies and beginning in 2005, as an independent consultant with qd consulting, LLC. Marna has been a member of over 20 new chemical entity drug development teams and served as the project leader for 4 of the teams.

Prior to APS, she has been involved in the preparation of 7 INDs, 5 phase 3 clinical programs, and 3 NDAs, as well as orphan drug and compassionate use projects. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Marna worked as a registered nurse in the areas of cardiovascular medicine, public health, and pediatrics. She received a BS in nursing from the University of Wisconsin and a MBA from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN.

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Dr. Shelley Ching, Consultant for Non-Clinical Development
Shelley is an expert on all aspects of nonclinical development and safety and risk assessment for pharmaceutical products in many therapeutic areas – including oncology, cardiovascular, CNS, and respiratory disorders.

At APS, Shelley focuses on nonclinical development, scientific and regulatory strategy and participating on pharmaceutical drug development.

Previously, Shelley has advised numerous companies on general toxicology, drug metabolism, safety pharmacology and toxicologic pathology studies and issues and managed toxicology studies for preIND, IND, NDA and European MAA filings.
While at Integrated Laboratory Systems, Shelley was the principal investigator for government and commercial toxicology research studies and served as chairperson for National Toxicology Program Pathology Working Groups.

Shelley has also worked at Burroughs Wellcome, Merck and Glaxo Wellcome where she was International Head of Full Development Programmes in Medicine Safety Evaluation. She was also an Assistant Professor at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Shelley is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board, Consortium for Parasitic Drug Development at UNC for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where she advises on research and drug development proposals and programs.

She is a board certified veterinary pathologist and also an active member of the Society of Toxicology, Society of Toxicologic Pathologists and the American College of Toxicology. Shelley holds a DVM from the University of Georgia and PhD from Colorado State University.

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Maynard Lichty, Consultant for Product Development
Maynard has over 35 years experience in the process development and chemistry of peptides and biopharmaceutical compounds. He has extensive experience in the development of appropriate strategies and technologies for supporting drug development programs, establishing and coordinating activities with multiple contract laboratories, manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and drug products to meet clinical and commercial strategic requirements.

As an independent consultant, Maynard has also provided companies with expert advice on pharmaceutical supply chain strategic development, execution and maintenance from CTM to commercialization.

Maynard is also affiliated with the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE), American Chemical Society (ACS), the Controlled Release Society (CRS) and has numerous publications under his name. He received his BS in Chemistry from the Dickinson College and an MS from the Villanova University.

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