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Mark Mitchnick, M.D.
Executive Chairman

Mark founded his first company, sunSmart, Inc., in 1991 while still in his pediatric residency. The company was based on Mark’s patents for the use of  nano-zinc oxide as a sunscreen., Trademarked as Z-COTE®, and sold it worldwide to pharmaceutical and personal care companies. Sunsmart was purchased by BASF in 1999.

In 2002 mark became the founding Chief Science Officer of International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM), whose mission was to develop and bring to market a woman-controlled technology for the prevention of male to female transmission of HIV. That product, a vaginal ring containing an NNRTI, has been approved by the EMA and has already launched in several African nations.

In 2004, Mark founded Particle Sciences® (PSI) ,one of the leading formulation and cGMP production groups for complex drug products in the USA such as sterile products, highly potent compounds, nano-particulates and drug eluting devices. In 2015, PSI was acquired by Lubrizol, a Berkshire Hathaway company.

In 2018, became CEO of a nascent B2C tech company, Mindsciences, a developer and marketer of evidenced based habit-change apps built on Dr. Judson Brewer’s work on the science of mindfulness. In the summer of 2020, Mindsciences was acquired by Sharecare.

EDUCATION

  • B.Sc. in Animal Sciences from Purdue University.

  • M.D. from Georgetown University Medical School.

  • He was trained in Pediatrics at The New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center, is a licensed acupuncturist, and a graduate of the OPM program at the Harvard Business School (a non-degreed exec-ed program).

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

  • David Kleinman, Jenni J. Hakkarainen, Anita Kirti Ghosh, Sean David Ogle, Kevin Sill, Brian A Mendelsohn, Mark Mitchnick, Simon Kaja; PLL-g-PEG inhibits antibody-drug conjugate uptake into human corneal epithelial cells in vitro.. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2022;63(7):3239 – A0274.

  • Lee, R. W., & Mitchnick, M. (2017). “Early-stage formulation considerations”. Current Protocols in Chemical Biology, 9, 306– 314. doi: 10.1002/cpch.32.

  • Romano J., Variano B., Coplan P., Van Roey J., Douville K., Rosenberg Z., Temmerman M., Verstraelen H., Van Bortel L., Weyers S., Mitchnick M. “Safety and availability of dapivirine (TMC120) delivered from an intravaginal ring.” AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses 25.5 (May 2009):483-8.

  • Arias M., Loxley A., Van Roey G., Fairhurst D., Eatmon C., Wegmann F., Mitchnick M., Shattock R. “HIV-gp140 antigen-adsorbed wax nanoparticles induce strong in vivo systemic and mucosal humoral immune responses.” Poster Presentation (2008) AIDS Vaccine 2008, South Africa.

  • Cain, Christopher D., Schroeder, Frank C., Shankel, Stewart W., Mitchnick, Mark, Schmertzler, Michael, Bricker, Neal S., Identification of xanthurenic acid 8-O-B glucoside and xanthurenic acid 8-O sulfate as human natriuretic hormones, 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 17873-17878, 104 45

  • Gasparro, F.P., Mitchnick, M. and Nash, J.F. (1998), A Review of Sunscreen Safety and Efficacy. Photochemistry and Photobiology, 68: 243-256. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-1097.1998.tb09677.x