Our Team
Michael Lawman, PhD
President
Michael is a co-founder of Morphogenesis, Inc. Michael received his PhD from the University of Surrey, UK, while working at the Animal Virus Research Institute (The Pirbright Institute). Michael came to the US as an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tennessee. Michael then served on the faculty of the Colleges of Veterinary Medicine at Auburn University and the University of Florida. Michael also worked as a senior scientist in the Division of Immunology and Cytokine Therapeutics of the Veterinary Infectious Disease Organization - Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) of Canada. Michael also held a faculty position at the University of Florida in the College of Medicine and was Director of Research at the Walt Disney Memorial Cancer Institute. Michael has published extensively and is co-inventor on numerous US and worldwide patents. He has participated as a research consultant on a number of topics for the Biopharmaceutical Industry and for International and US agencies. Michael also served as a reviewer and as an Ad Hoc reviewer for a number of scientific journals.
Patricia Lawman, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Pat is a co-founder of Morphogenesis, Inc. and has served the Company as Chief Executive Officer since 2003. Pat also served as Morphogenesis’ Chief Operating Officer from 1996 until 2003. Pat previously served as Division Director of Cancer Molecular Biology at the Walt Disney Memorial Cancer Institute, where she initiated and led the multifaceted molecular biology, gene targeting, gene therapy, gene delivery, and universal stem cell projects. Pat holds degrees from the University of Florida in Anthropology, Plant Pathology, Immunology and Medical Microbiology with specialties in Hematology and Oncology and has held faculty positions at several Florida State Universities.
Dan Dearborn, CPA
Chief Financial Officer
Dan is a CPA who has spent his entire career working with healthcare companies, including over nine years of SEC reporting experience. After graduating from Loyola University in Maryland, he began with Ernst and Young in Baltimore. From there he quickly moved into Accounting management roles. He spent fifteen years at PharMerica, a long-term pharmaceutical company that quickly grew with large acquisitions and eventually went public. Later, he joined as Controller of BioDelivery Sciences, a public company that brought several innovative pharmaceutical products to market. More recently, he was CFO for Welldyne, a mid-size PBM (Pharmacy Benefit Manager) in Lakeland, Florida. Dan played a key role with the sale of Welldyne to Carlyle, one of the largest Private Equity companies. After the Welldyne transaction, Dan became CFO of MYMD Pharmaceuticals, an innovative early-stage Research and Development company.
Ashraf Dehlawi, PSM, CPLQM, H(ASCP), AMT
Director of Regulatory Affairs
Ashraf joined Morphogenesis, Inc., in 2013. He holds a Professional Science Master’s degree in Biotechnology with a Graduate Certificate in Bioinformatics from the University of South Florida in Tampa. Ashraf is a certified Medical Technologist (Clinical Laboratory Scientist) by the American Medical Technologists (AMT), the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) with a specialty in Hematology, and by the Florida Department of Health as a Medical Technologist in Hematology. He joins Morphogenesis with approximately 10 years of Clinical Laboratory, technical and management experience. He is also certified as a Clinical Laboratory Quality Manager by the University of British Columbia. His prior professional appointments include Product Management at Abbott Laboratories’ Diagnostics Division. Ashraf was named an ASCP 40 under 40 honoree in 2014, an international program that recognizes the future generation of laboratory leaders. Ashraf joined the Morphogenesis’ team in the capacity of Chief Clinical Officer as a liaison between Morphogenesis, Inc. and the Company’s clinical trial sites to ensure accurate policy and practice enforcement in addition to his role as Data Monitor. In 2018 Ashraf was appointed as the Company's Director of Regulatory Affairs.
Sarah Falsafi, PSM, AMT
Quality Assurance Officer
Sarah holds a Professional Science Master’s degree in Biotechnology from the University of South Florida in Tampa. She is a certified Clinical Laboratory Technologist by the American Medical Technologists (AMT), and by the Florida Department of Health as a Medical Technologist in Immunohematology, Microbiology, Hematology, Clinical Chemistry, and Serology. After 5 years of working as a transfusion services technologist, she joined Hoppe Regulatory Consultants as a clinical study monitor and progressed into quality assurance and regulatory affairs. As a part of her graduate degree, she had quality management training as an intern at Morphogenesis in 2016 and a year later she joined the Company.
Michael J. Shamblott, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Michael joined Morphogenesis, Inc. in 2016 as Principal Scientist of Research and Development. Michael is a stem cell biologist with extensive experience in pancreas development. Michael received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in cell and molecular biology and was both a Post-Doctoral Fellow and Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In these positions, Michael pioneered the derivation and differentiation of human embryonic stem cells and focused on the development of therapies to treat diabetes. Prior to joining Morphogenesis, Michael was the Walmart / Sam’s Club Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of South Florida Morsani School of Medicine, where he developed pharmacological therapies to stimulate endocrine pancreatic regeneration.