Former Cesca Therapeutics Director Returns to Serve on Board Again

Rancho Cordova, Calif.-based Cesca Therapeutics Inc., formerly known as ThermoGenesis Corporation, has re-appointed Mahendra Rao, M.D., Ph.D., to the company’s board of directors effective April 1. This appointment brings the number of directors to six.

Rao previously served on the company’s board of directors from 2008 to 2011. He resigned from the board upon taking his director position at the National Institute of Health, as required per government rules and regulations.

Rao has worked in the stem cell field for more than 20 years in private industry, academia, government and regulatory affairs. He received his medical degree from Bombay University in India and his Ph.D. in developmental neurobiology from the California Institute of Technology. Following postdoctoral training at Case Western Reserve University, he established his research laboratory in neural development at the University of Utah.

Currently, Rao serves as the director of the NIH’s Center for Regenerative Medicine (NIH CRM). As founding director of NIH CRM in 2010, and under Rao’s leadership since that time, the NIH has become a recognized leader in regenerative medicine, having established international collaborations, led an effort to harmonize regulations, developed a novel crowd-sourcing methodology making cell lines available world-wide, and having formed an international panel to develop standardized quality control tests vital to advancing the field. Rao’s appointment to the Cesca board follows his planned departure from the NIH in March 2014.

Prior to joining the NIH, Rao spent six years as the vice president of regenerative medicine at Life Technologies in Carlsbad, Calif. He co-founded Q Therapeutics, a neural stem cell company working on the development of cellular therapy to treat multiple sclerosis. He also served internationally on advisory boards for companies involved in stem cell processing and therapy; on committees, including as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Cellular Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee chair; and as the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine and International Society for Stem Cell Research liaison to the International Society for Cellular Therapy.

“We are very fortunate to have Rao join the Cesca board,” said Matthew Plavan, CEO of Cesca. “With the recent consummation of the Cesca merger, the timing couldn’t be better to bring Mahendra aboard with his extensive experience and knowledge in the stem cell arena as well his broad relationship reach within the regulatory bodies so important to our growth plan.”

“I look forward to working with the board and supporting management’s strategy,” Rao said. “Cesca’s approach to developing stem cell therapies is unique and compelling and their commercialization method has the potential to change the way we deliver safe, curative, and cost effective care.”

Cesca is engaged in the research, development, and commercialization of autologous cell-based therapeutics for use in regenerative medicine. The company also makes automated blood and bone marrow processing systems and companion disposable products for the separation, processing and preservation of cell and tissue therapy products.