About InVitria

Invitria was founded to improve cell culture, bio-manufacturing, and final product formulation.

InVitria is a leading developer and manufacturer of recombinant proteins and supplements used by leaders in biomanufacturing and final formulation of vaccines, biologic medicines, cell therapies, gene therapies and regenerative medicines. Our products are sustainable by design, utilizing our ExpressTec system that employs plants as the production host and eliminates animal-derived components from gene to final product. ​

Our customers trust us to provide safe and effective alternatives to serum and serum proteins, which are often limited, variable from lot-to-lot and introduce unnecessary risks of adventitious pathogen contamination. InVitria’s customers choose these products to achieve the performance and scalability they need, while also making the most sustainable choice. 

InVitria’s technical experts are available to provide personalized technical support and guidance to help customers achieve their goals. If you’re working in cell and gene therapy, vaccines, biomanufacturing, or final formulation, reach out so we can help you achieve your goals.​

Vladimir Akoyev, Ph.D., Vice President, Analytical Development & Manufacturing Sciences

Dr. Akoyev leads analytical chemistry and method development, validation, and support. His expertise includes a wide spectrum of biophysical and biochemical methods of protein characterization including mass spectrometry, HPLC, capillary electrophoresis, spectroscopy, scanning calorimetry, and ultracentrifugation. Before joining InVitria, Vladimir was a Senior Scientist at Kansas State University. Prior to this, he was a Research Scientist in the Institute of Cell Biophysics at the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he received his Ph.D. in Biophysics and Hematology.

Ron Backman, Vice President, Quality

Mr. Backman leads InVitria’s Quality Assurance and Quality Control. He has over 23 years of biopharmaceutical Quality experience with increasing responsibilities throughout his career. He joined the company after managing Product Quality, Stability and Microbiology services at KBI Biopharma, a global contract development & manufacturing organization. Prior to KBI Biopharma he managed Quality Control and Support at Diosynth Biotechnology. Ron started his career in the Quality department of Boehringer Ingelheim. He received his Bachelor of Science in Biology from Kansas State University.

Crissa A. Seymour Cook, IP Counsel

Crissa is a U.S. Patent Attorney and serves as outside counsel for InVitria.  She advises InVitria on every aspect of its intellectual property, including all domestic and foreign patent and trademark matters, related contracts, due diligence matters, enforcement, and dispute resolution. Crissa is a Partner with Hovey Williams LLP, a law firm founded in 1929 and focused exclusively on intellectual property law. She has also been an adjunct professor at the University of Kansas School of Law since 2012, where she teaches courses in patent law and patent practice.

Marcus Curl, Vice President, Product Applications

Mr. Curl leads the Product Applications team working with leading developers in cell and gene therapy and vaccines to help them improve their workflows by implementing recombinant, scalable and sustainable solutions for biomanufacturing and final formulation. He has been instrumental in establishing the customer opportunity pipeline and has account management responsibilities in Europe and UK.  His responsibilities are global where he has developed an unique perspective valued by customers. Mr. Curl received his B.S. in Biology from Pitzer College, one of the Claremont Colleges.

Scott E. Deeter, President

Mr. Deeter is InVitria’s Founder and President and serves as CEO of InVitria’s parent company, Ventria Bioscience Inc.  Previously, he started and led a joint venture between Cargill and F. Hoffmann-La Roche that commercialized several novel pharmaceutical ingredients.  Scott has served as President and CEO of CyberCrop and was a member of the Technology and Life Sciences Group of Salomon Brothers.  He is a graduate of the University of Kansas, University of Chicago, and London School of Economics and Political Science.

Jake Hanks, Business Development Manager

Mr. Hanks serves as a Business Development Manager supporting InVitria’s key accounts. He focuses on developing strategic partnerships to support customers through evaluation, qualification, regulatory approval and scale-up. He works closely with the Product Applications Team. Previously, Mr. Hanks worked for BOK Financial as a member of the commercial banking group. He also served as a Business Development Manager for Synergy One lending. Mr. Hanks received his Bachelor of Science and his MBA from the University of Tulsa while a member of their Division 1 football team.

L. Mark Lagrimini, Ph.D., Vice President for Upstream Product Development

Dr. Lagrimini provides leadership for Product Development. Most recently he served as the Vice Provost for Research at the University of California where he supervised nine Research Centers. He is an emeritus professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he served as department head from 2005-2011 and led a research program in plant biotechnology. He was a plant biotechnology research leader at Syngenta and prior to that was an Associate Professor in Biochemistry at The Ohio State University. Dr. Lagrimini received his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Iowa.

Elliott Renft, Director, Product Applications North America

Mr. Renft  oversees Product Applications for accounts in North America. He works with customers to optimize workflows using recombinant, scalable and sustainable technologies. He facilitate the implementation of InVitria products in cell and gene therapies, vaccines, medical devices, and biologic formulation. Before joining InVitria, he had responsibility for commercial activities within the Interventional division of Becton, Dickinson and Company. There he worked with clinicians to deliver bio surgical devices for patients. Mr. Renft received his Bachelor of Science in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology with a Minor in Business from the University of Kansas.

Andrew Simon, Director, Molecular Biology

Mr. Simon works with the team responsible for new product development. His expertise in molecular biology and novel process technologies has led to some of the important innovations represented by InVitria’s product portfolio. Prior to working with the company, Andrew was a research scientist in biotechnology for Edenspace Systems Corporation. There he used recombinant DNA and molecular genetic techniques. Andrew received his Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from Kansas State University.

Kevin Sitts, Vice President, Manufacturing & Supply Chain

Mr. Sitts leads manufacturing and supply chain operations. Previously, he managed manufacturing operations for Pfizer in McPherson, KS with 380 operations personnel responsible to supply millions of units of drug product per year with multiple manufacturing lines operating 24 hours per day and seven days per week. In addition, Mr. Sitts was Director of Manufacturing for Tolmar Pharmaceuticals, a maker of injectible cancer therapeutics (Eligard) where he managed 80 operating personnel. Previously, he led sterile manufacturing for Meridian Medical Technologies and was with Amylin Pharmaceuticals prior to its purchase by Eli Lilly & Co. Mr. Sitts graduated from Kansas State University.

Interested in a career in advanced biotech?  InVitria is currently hiring

Product Development

InVitria continues to innovate with it’s line recombinant, scalable and sustainable proteins and components for cell and gene therapy, vaccines and biologic final formulation.  If you have a degree in molecular/cell biology, virology, biochemistry or related areas and have interest in being part of the future of innovation by developing new products, please submit your resume and cover letter below.

Commercial Product Applications

Our Product Applications team works daily with customers across a broad spectrum of applications.  We actively consult with scientists and product development teams at leaders in cell therapy, vaccines, gene therapy, regenerative medicines, diagnostics and final biologic formulation to better understand their unique challenges and how we could apply InVitria’s products to improve performance, scalability and reliability.  If you’re interested in directly working with customers, please submit your resume and cover letter below.

Send your PDF resume to careers@InVitria.com

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