Tioga Research’s senior management team evidences a constellation of special domain expertise, experience and skills. 

Elena Alifanova has been a Research Scientist at Tioga Research since its founding in 2011 and has over ten years of experience in biochemical laboratory studies and formulation development. During her tenure at Tioga Research, Elena has designed, managed, and performed Standard Operation Procedures (“SOP”s) for a variety of advanced formulation development, stability and solubility studies for topical and transdermal drug delivery using Tioga Research HTE platforms, Franz diffusion cells, flow-through permeation cells, radiolabeling, and robotic metrology for identifying high-performing formulations. Prior to launch of Tioga Research, Elena spent over five years as a Research Technologist at Nuvo Research U.S. where she was responsible for high throughput formulation screening campaigns, permeation measurements and ELISA assays; she also developed SOPs and qualification reports, and contributed to the development of several formulation innovations, such as PENNSAID 2% for treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee. Prior to joining Nuvo Research, Elena held positions as a Research and Laboratory Associate at research institutions in Russia where she conducted experimental studies of blood samples using erythrocytapheresis. Elena holds a M.S. in Biochemistry from Nizhny Novgorod State University, Russia.

Edward T. Kisak has served as CSO of Tioga Research since its founding. He has over ten years of experience in topical formulation development, having served in both managerial and lead scientist roles.  Ed has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara where his doctoral research focused on developing “vesosomes” – a multiplexed liposomal structure containing liposomes nested within other liposomes for advanced drug delivery therapies. This doctoral research was later pursued by Advanced Encapsulation – a start-up company co-founded by Ed to improve and develop the vesosome technology. Ed also served as consultant to Sinus Pharmaceuticals and reformulated their lead tobramycin sinusitis formulation, which later went on to clinical trials. After joining fqubed (later acquired by Nuvo Research, CA:NRI) in 2005, Ed acted as Director of Research, and was responsible for laboratory operations and for managing formulation innovation and skin delivery screening campaigns. During this tenure, Ed acted as the lead formulation scientist on developing PENNSAID® 2% (currently approved in the US for the treatment of osteoarthritis) along with other formulations in Nuvo’s pipeline. Additionally, he was the prime driving force behind the development, optimization and production-mode use of Tioga Research’s HTE platforms, including INSIGHT™, STORM™, SPATE™, SPLASH™, TORNADO™, MONSOON™ and SKIVER™. He is an inventor on more than 15 issued and pending patents, including that claiming the PENNSAID® 2% formulation. 

Francesco Caserta joined Tioga Research in 2023 as Senior Director of Business Development, bringing over 15 years of experience in the research and development of skin-applied formulations. He currently leads global scientific engagement and business development activities for the company.

Francesco earned his PhD in Pharmaceutics from the University of Hertfordshire, where he conducted research on novel dermal drug delivery systems. Since then, Francesco has spent his career in developing and testing topical and transdermal products in the UK and USA.

In previous roles, Francesco managed scientific teams and supported project managers in delivering high-quality results while ensuring strict adherence to regulatory guidelines for in vitro skin testing studies. He also led global business development initiatives for several companies, driving revenue growth and expanding market presence for clinical studies and in vitro testing studies across topical and oral dosage forms formulations.

Throughout his career, Francesco has authored numerous peer-reviewed papers, review articles and book chapters in the fields of topical and transdermal drug delivery.

Guohong Zhao has served as Manager of Analytical Development of Tioga Research since September 2019. He has a broad background in analytical and physical chemistry and biochemistry, with over twenty-five years of experience in analytical method development for various products, including food and personal care products, by using variety of modern mass spectrometric techniques (LC-MS/MS, LC/TOF, GC-MS, FTMS, LDI-MS) and chromatographic techniques (HPLC, GC). Guohong has a PhD in Physical Chemistry from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland where his doctoral research focused on studying photodissociation and ion-molecule reactions of isomeric ions by using Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry (also called Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry). He then pursued post-doctoral research in the Environmental Analytical Research Laboratory of Texas A&M University at Galveston. He helped establish and managed an analytical laboratory to support clinical metabolism studies while working as a research scientist in Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He joined Unilever as Senior Research Scientist to support formulation development and manufacturing processes for both hair care and deodorant products. Moving to Northland Laboratories (acquired by Matrix Science in 2018) in 2007, he was responsible for analytical method development and validation, problem solving in food testing, and technical reviews and approvals of laboratory daily operations. He has been a member of the American Chemical Society and the American Society for Mass Spectrometry since 1994 and was previously a member of AOAC and IFT.