About Us

Background

Affinergy develops site-specific biological systems using biofriendly linkers that selectively adhere to proteins, drugs, cells, and biomaterial surfaces in order to kickstart biology toward an intended outcome. Affinergy is focused on developing coatings and medical devices for the orthopedic and cardiovascular markets.

Affinergy's technology was patented at Duke University and was awarded 2005 Innovation of the Year by Frost & Sullivan in the category of Medical Device Coatings.

Executive Team

Peyton Anderson, MBA
Chief Executive Officer

Peyton is a successful entrepreneur who co-founded SciQuest, Inc. in 1995 as its founding CEO. SciQuest raised over $175 million in capital, including a successful Initial Public Offering in 1999. His responsibilities included raising capital, recruiting the management team, doing strategic partner deals, and orchestrating 8 acquisitions.

Peyton joined Affinergy as CEO in September 2003. Since that time, Affinergy has secured $5m in investor funding, recruited a Board of Directors, and negotiated partnership agreements with Boston Scientific, Synthes, DuPont, and MTF. Affinergy is now positioned as a platform technology in the rapidly growing market for combination products with opportunities to partner with medical device companies across several large markets as well as developing its own proprietary products.

Peyton is a frequent speaker at entrepreneurial conferences and MBA classes. He has served on the executive committee of the Board of Directors for the Council for Entrepreneurial Development. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the U. of Richmond in 1989 and earned his MBA from UNC's Kenan Flagler Business School in 1995.

Jonathan Gindes, MBA, RAC
Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice-President of Business Development

Jonathan and Affinergy's scientific co-founders (M. Grinstaff, D. Kenan) began working together in 2002 to form Affinergy while Jonathan pursued his M.B.A. at Duke's Fuqua School of Business. Jonathan developed Affinergy's initial business strategy, negotiated the technology license from Duke University, and recruited a senior management team along with other scientific staff and business advisors. Jonathan now focuses his time at Affinergy building, strengthening, and managing relationships with Affinergy's present and potential medical device partners, as well as overseeing all of Affinergy's financial activities.

Prior to attending Fuqua, Jonathan spent several years working in the corporate strategy group at Deutsche Bank with the firm's senior management team. His work focused on merger integration, IT/Operations consolidation strategies, and business plan development for potential spinouts and involved significant periods of time working overseas, including extensive commitments to projects in London and Frankfort. Jonathan received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Rutgers University, and is also Certified in Regulatory Affairs.

Bruce Lamb, Ph.D.
Senior Vice-President of Research & Development

Bruce brings to Affinergy over 23 years of leadership experience in developing medical devices in the biosurgical area. He was most recently SVP of R&D and Regulatory Affairs at Lifecell which was acquired for $1.8 billion in 2008. Previously, Bruce was VP of Worldwide R&D for Biosurgicals at J&J's Ethicon division. Bruce also previously held leadership roles in product development at Convatec as well as Pfizer's Hospital Products Group.

Bruce earned his Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry at SUNY College of ESF, Syracuse. He earned his M.S. in Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and his B.S. in Chemistry at Bradley University.

Laura Kiefer, Ph.D., J.D.
Director, Intellectual Property

Laura combines her scientific and legal training to strategically manage and build Affinergy's patent portfolio. She received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Duke University and a law degree at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Laura has over 10 years combined experience as a research scientist and patent agent/attorney in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

Prior to joining Affinergy, Laura practiced as an intellectual property attorney at the law firm of Jenkins, Wilson, Taylor & Hunt, P.A., where she focused on helping clients identify and obtain patent protection for their inventions. Previously, Laura held roles as in-house patent agent at Paradigm Genetics, Inc and research scientist at Triangle Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Laura has published over 15 scientific manuscripts.

Daniel Kenan, M.D., Ph.D.
Scientific Co-Founder

Dan is an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Duke University Medical Center. Dan received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology at Duke. He later received his M.D. at Duke where he continued residency training in Pathology.

In 1997, Dan became the Director of the Combinatorial Sciences Center at Duke. Dan has published more than 30 manuscripts and is the principal investigator on 4 NIH grants.

Mark Grinstaff, Ph.D.
Scientific Co-Founder

Mark is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. This professorship is funded by a $14MM Whitaker Foundation Leadership Award. Mark received his Ph.D. from U. of Illinois and was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology.

Mark has published over 60 manuscripts. His awards include the ACS Nobel Laureate Signature Award, NSF Career Award, Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship.