Our mission is to pioneer cell therapies for clinical application. Our vision is to improve the human condition through functional cures by bioengineered cell transplantation.
Pioneering Cell TherapiesTM
Advancing cell therapies from concept to benchside to clinic.
CellTrans Services
Clinical Services
CellTrans provides world-class services for autologous and allogeneic islet isolations for the purpose of clinical transplantation.
Pre-Clinical Services
Includes contract research ranging from proof of concept to planning and execution of IND/IDE enabling pre-clinical testing.
In-Vitro Services
CellTrans has unique expertise in complex in vitro cell product assessments. We can help you develop batch release testing for your cellular product.
Meet the CellTrans Team.
José Oberholzer, MD
Founder & President
James McGarrigle, PhD
Chief Operating Officer
Prior to CellTrans, Dr. McGarrigle served as Assistant Research Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in the Department of Surgery, evaluating various cell therapies and biomaterial products to combat diabetes, as well as research projects aimed to improve and better assess human islet manufacture and transplantation. Earned bachelor’s degree in Microbiology and Biochemistry and a PhD in Microbiology, both from the National University of Ireland, Galway.
Giovanna La Monica, PhD
Director of Quality
Peter Rios, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Ying Liu, Ph.D.
Chief Technology Officer
Ying Liu’s academic journey is marked by interdisciplinary training. She received her B.S. in Engineering Mechanics from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China in 2001, followed by her Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University in 2007. Notably, she was offered a tenure-track assistant professor position by UIC in 2006 before her graduation from Princeton University. Before officially joining UIC in 2008, Ying Liu deferred her position and spent a year as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago in the Department of Chemistry and James Frank Institute. Throughout her career, Dr. Liu has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including Howard Carthoren Phillips Graduate Fellowship of Princeton University (2003), National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2014), UIC Researcher and Scholar of the Year Award (2016), UIC Graduate Mentor Award (2017), and Faculty and Student Team Research Award at NSF’s ChemMatCARS (2019). Dr. Liu has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles, authored two book chapters, and held the inventorship for 10 patents and published PCTs.
Dr. Liu’s expertise lies in the fields of soft-matter physics and biophysics. Specifically, through her in-depth understanding of molecular interfacial packing, interactions, reactions, and self-assembly, Dr. Liu takes the lead in developing knowledge-based designs for bioreactors and biomaterials, with a particular focus on drug and therapeutic cell delivery. Within the Liu research group, several scalable, continuous, and self-assembling processes have been developed to enable the high-throughput screening and mass production of well-controlled nano- and microparticles, meticulously engineered for precise targeting delivery and sustained release of small molecular compounds, macromolecules, and therapeutic cells.
Ira Joshi, MS
Senior Research and Manufacturing Associate
Sofia Ghani
Quality Manager
David Cook, MS
Manufacturing Associate
Daisy Lopez
Research and Manufacturing Associate
Hafsa Nasir
Research Associate
Quetzalli Rodriguez
Undergraduate Research Assistant
In her free time, Quetzalli enjoys reading medical memoirs and spending time with her family.
Sharon Roberts
Undergraduate research assistant
Fun Fact: Sharon collects antiques that included novels and music boxes dating back to the 1800s.
Yi Li, Ph.D
Director of Biostatistics
Jenny Cook, CPA
Chief Financial Officer
Yong Wang, MD, MS
Vice President
Publications
Clinical
Research focused on achieving a functional cure for Type I diabetes through islet transplantation
Pre-Clinical
Research focused on microencapsulation of islets to prevent immunorejection and achieve long-term islet graft
In-Vitro
Research focused on bioengineering of microfluidic biochips to study beta-cell physiology