Meet our Principals
Gerald E. Loeb, MD
Gerald Loeb is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Medical Device Development Facility at the University of Southern California. He received B.A. and M.D. degrees from Johns Hopkins University and surgical training at the University of Arizona. From 1973 to 1988, he was an intramural research scientist and Chief of the Section on Neurokinesiology in the Laboratory of Neural Control at the National Institutes of Health. He was Professor of Physiology and Director of the Biomedical Engineering Unit at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, until 1999.
Dr. Loeb is an inventor on over 70 US patents, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and a consultant to the medical device and instrumentation industry. He served as Chief Scientist to Advanced Bionics Corp. and is a founding director of SynTouch Inc., designated a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. Dr. Loeb’s research activities are in sensory-motor neurophysiology and implantable electronic devices. He has published over 400 articles, most available at http://mddf.usc.edu
Frances J. Richmond, PhD
Frances Richmond, BNSc, MSc, PhD, ndc, is an internationally recognized expert in regulatory and quality regulation, with deep experience in the conduct of medical product development and testing. She was previously the Director of the D.K. Kim International Center for Regulatory Science and founding Chair of the Department of Regulatory and Quality Sciences at the University of Southern California. She now enjoys the status of USC Emerita Professor of Regulatory and Quality Sciences. She has served as a policy advisor to Industry Canada; consulting clinical scientist at the Alfred E. Mann Foundation (1994-1995) and Advanced Bionics Corporation (1995-1999); and Director of Regulatory and Quality Affairs at the Alfred E Mann Institute (1999-2007). Past product development research focused on implantable electrical devices, combination products and microsensors. Dr. Richmond has also published extensively on regulatory policy and product development methodologies. She has been part of five US research consortia (NIH Engineering Research partnership, NIH Bioengineering Research partnership, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science, Consortium for Technology and Innovation in Pediatrics).