Our Team

FruitVaccine Family

S. Indu Rupassara, PhD, MBA (Co-Founder/President/CEO/Director)

Dr. Rupassara’s multidisciplinary research expertise includes biotechnology, microbiology, immunology, biochemistry, and ‘omics’ technologies, using a wide array of biological systems such as humans, small model animals, plants, and microorganisms. She has worked as a Consultant, Metabolomist/Mass Spectrometrist, Lab Director, and as a Researcher/Lecturer, in the US, Australia, and Sri Lanka. Indu received her PhD (Metabolomics/Biotechnology), Professional-MBA, and MS (Biochemistry) degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA (UIUC), MSc (Microbiology) from the University of Sydney, Australia, in and BSc (Agric. Sc.) from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Indu has presented talks in conferences in the US, Europe, Australia, and Asia, in addition to publishing her research in journal articles and book-chapters.

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The Late Dennis E. Buetow, PhD (Co-Founder/Founding President) 

Dr. Buetow served at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and at Baltimore City Hospitals in Maryland from 1959 to 1965. Since 1965, he was employed as a Professor in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology at UIUC. He was Head of this department from 1983-1988 and Interim Head from 1991-1992. He was Professor Emeritus in this department where he did research on a daily basis. He received his PhD in 1959 from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He was Editor for the Academic Press series “Cell Biology, a Series of Monographs” among over 100 other book chapters and journal articles on his research. Dennis is missed dearly by all of us at FruitVaccine and we will strive to carry on the vision he helped to create.

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John W. Kindt Jr., MBA, BS (Technical and Business Analyst)

John Kindt serves as a business and technical specialist with a decade of experience in the financial services industry and University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) system. He is working with Dr. Rupassara assisting FruitVaccine’s R&D efforts through data analysis, forecasting, and funding applications, and evaluating the feasibility of novel processes and production methods. John also performs market analysis and helps manage the development of a unique logistic FruitVaccine ecosystem. John received his MBA from the Gies College of Business at UIUC, and his BS degree in Finance from Eastern Illinois University.

M. Kathleen Buetow, MD, DrPH (Director/Consultant)

Dr. Buetow had been a Pediatric Physician on the staff of Carle Foundation Hospital and a member of the Carle Physician Group in Urbana, Illinois during 1965-2020. She served on Carle’s Immunization Committee as the Head of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at UIUC from 1986-2007. Kathleen received an MD from the University of Maryland in 1954 and a Doctor of Public Health degree at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. She became a diplomat of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in 1959, and has been a member of the AAP since then.
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Claire P. Schane, BS (Research Assistant)

Claire Schane is a researcher who obtained her Bachelors of Science in Chemistry from UIUC. While pursuing her undergraduate education, Claire gained research experience in Food Science and Immunology. After her graduation, she began working as a full-time researcher in Biochemistry and Immunology in the areas of cancer therapy and protein-engineering. Claire began working with Dr. Rupassara on grant proposals and funding opportunities in February 2019. She now will use her laboratory experience along with her understanding and dedication to FruitVaccine towards the vaccine development projects in the company.

Dawson Dodds, BS (Supply Chain and Marketing Assistant)

Dawson Dodds is a supply chain and business professional with Bachelors of Science in Finance and in Supply Chain Management from UIUC. Throughout his time at UIUC and post-graduation, he has had experience with contracting and procurement, social enterprise consulting, onboarding, data mining, and volunteer outreach. Dawson joined the FruitVaccine family in 2019 and has been working with Dr. Rupassara employing his breadth of experience for developing cost models and future business plans, marketing materials, and designing the FV website. He has a passion for biotechnology and is excited for the future of the company.

Emily Sandoval, BS (Healthcare Planning Assistant)

Emily Sandoval is a researcher who obtained her Bachelors of Science in Community Health with a concentration in Health Administration from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Emily gained work experience at Carle Foundation Hospital in the surgical services department and at Rush University Medical Center. She has been working with Dr. Rupassara since February 2019 managing projects aimed to increase hRSV awareness on FruitVaccine's Twitter and Instagram pages, and compiling publication findings on respiratory viruses impacting us across the globe.

Research Advisors/Consultants/Collaborators

Edwin G. Moore, Ph.D.

Dr. Moore brings 30 years of biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, and clinical diagnostic industry experience from global companies, Baxter Healthcare Corp and Abbott Laboratories, in R&D product development. During his career, he has held various roles in CMC pre-clinical product development for recombinant therapeutic proteins and for IV parenteral small molecule products in Analytical Method Development, Stability Testing, Formulation, as well as leading overall pre-clinical product development for a recombinant therapeutic protein product. Ed also mentors start-up companies at EnterpriseWorks, the University of Illinois incubator. Ed has a PhD in Physical Biochemistry from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and received a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
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Charles J. Arntzen, Ph.D.

Dr. Arntzen is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors. He received the USDA Award for Superior Service, and served as chairman of the National Biotechnology Policy Board of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Arntzen’s primary research interests have been in plant molecular biology and protein engineering, as well as the utilization of plant biotechnology for enhancement of food quality and value, for expression of pharmacologically active products in transgenic plants. He has been recognized as a pioneer in the development of plant-based vaccines for human disease prevention, and for disease prevention in animal agriculture.
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Indika Kahanda, Ph.D.

Dr. Indika Kahanda is an Assistant Professor in the Gianforte School of Computing at Montana State University, where he directs the bioinformatics, biomedical informatics, and medical informatics lab. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Colorado State University in 2016 in the area of Bioinformatics, a Master of Science in Computer Engineering from Purdue University in 2010, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 2007. His research interests lie in the areas of Bioinformatics, Biomedical Informatics, and Medical Informatics. He focuses on the application of machine learning and natural language processing techniques to solve problems involving large-scale biological, molecular, and biomedical data.
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Hugh S. Mason, Ph.D.

Dr. Mason was the first to publish peer-reviewed work on the use of plants for production of vaccine antigens, showing expression of authentic hepatitis B surface antigen in tobacco (Mason et al., 1992). He was a leader in this field for many years and continue to publish work in plant-based vaccines (Kim et al., 2015). With funding from NIH-NIAID, Dr. Mason focused on oral delivery of vaccines for enteric diseases including Norwalk virus (Mason et al., 1996) and enterotoxic E. coli (Haq et al., 1995), and demonstrated oral immunogenicity in mice after ingestion of transgenic potato tuber.
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Brenda Anne Wilson, Ph.D.

Dr. Wilson is a Professor of Microbiology and Associate Director of Undergraduate Education in the School of Molecular & Cellular Biology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, with a joint appointment in Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, at the UIUC. She is also an Inaugural Professor in the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. Brenda earned her B.A. degree in Biochemistry and German from Barnard College, Columbia University, in New York, and her M.S.-Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where she studied β-lactam antibiotics. She also studied on bacterial protein toxins as a microbiology postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. Her current research focuses on host-microbe interactions: structure and function and molecular evolution of bacterial protein toxins, their molecular interactions with and biochemical effects on eukaryotic host target cells; developing novel post-exposure antitoxin therapeutics and toxin-based therapeutic delivery platforms; and exploiting comparative and functional genomic technologies to study extensively drug resistant bacteria and microbiomes in health and disease.
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Erik Nelson, Ph.D.

Dr. Nelson received his BSc (major: zoology, minor: chemistry) and PhD in comparative endocrinology from the University of Calgary. He then moved to Duke University School of Medicine to pursue postdoctoral studies specializing in pharmacology and cancer biology. In 2014, he was recruited to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology. His research program is focused on how hormones and cholesterol metabolism impact breast and ovarian cancer progression. In recognition of his research, Dr. Nelson has been awarded the Government of Alberta Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship, a Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, and a National Cancer Institute Pathway to Independence Award.
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Jagdeep S. Sandhu, Ph.D.

Dr. Sandhu obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK, in 1996. He conducted postgraduate research on transfer of the RSV fusion-protein into plants, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1996-2000, in Buetow-lab), and then as a biotechnologist at the Punjab Agricultural University, India, where he is employed at the present time.
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Jose O. Solbiati, Ph.D.

Dr. Solbiati is currently conducting research at the University of Florida. He also served at the University of Illinois for over 10 years after being employed both in Argentina and Spain upon completion of his PhD in Argentina. Dr. Solbiati has been collaborating with Dr. Dennis Buetow and Dr. Indu Rupassara on the research related to genetic engineering to stabilize the RSV gene.
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Daniel McKim, Ph.D.

Dr. McKim is an assistant professor in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He completed his doctoral and postdoctoral training at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center with a focus on neuroendocrine regulation of hematopoiesis using mouse models. Dr. McKim currently runs a research lab studying the interactions between lifestyle factors, hematopoiesis, and chronic health conditions. Dr. McKim contributes to the FruitVaccine team with expertise in animal modeling for immunology research and employs relevant techniques including flow cytometry, single cell transcriptomics, and functional assays.
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Other Consultants