MICHAEL LONG:
President and CEO, Velcura Therapeutics in Ann Arbor. Long has served as a consultant for startup and leading biotechnology firms as well as major pharmaceutical firms, particularly in the areas of refining and troubleshooting their discovery research efforts. He worked extensively with a later stage biotechnology company to improve its scientific presentations in preparation for an IPO and played a role in the company’s subsequent acquisition–valued in excess of $500 million. Long’s organizational management experience includes the direction of large for-profit clinical laboratories. He has worked in the area of cell and molecular biology for more than three decades and received more than $12 million in funding for his research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) prior to founding Velcura. He was a professor for 20 years at the University of Michigan and the inventor on 12 patents that the university exclusively licensed to Velcura, as well as two recent patents for Velcura. Long served on multiple national grant review committees at the NIH and has reviewed grant applications for the American Cancer Society and other national organizations. He has been a reviewer for Science, Nature, Nature Biotechnology, and many other scientific publications. Long received his bachelor’s degree in biology and master’s and PhD degrees in human physiology from Wayne State University School of Medicine. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center and sabbatical training in the laboratory at one of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute laboratories. He also has 27 years of volunteer experience with the nonprofit Leukemia and Lymphoma Society; he served six years on its executive committee and now is a director of this $300 million organization.
