About Us

Frank Ahmann is co-founder, President & CEO of XM Therapeutics, is an executive and entrepreneur with a passion for developing organizations and technologies that offer better therapeutic options for patients and healthcare providers. He combines strategic vision and analysis with substantial operational experience. Collaborating with a global network of cardiologists, he led the development of a permanent hydrogel implant and a percutaneous delivery system for advanced heart failure from concept to proof of clinical safety and efficacy. He co-founded MateraCor, a 2020 Medtech Incubator company recently acquired by Bioventrix. Previously, he was COO and CEO at start-ups including LoneStar Heart, Symphony Medical, Chimeric Therapies, and Allvivo. Frank also held senior management positions at Baxter International’s Biotech Group and Cardiovascular Group (now Edwards LifeSciences). He is a native Spanish, German, and English speaker with strong ties to the European medical market. He holds a BBA with Honors from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business in New York City.

Jeff Morgan, Ph.D. is Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Donna Weiss '89 and Jason Weiss Director of the Center for Alternatives to Animals in Testing, and Professor of Engineering at Brown University. A renowned and widely published researcher and inventor in three-dimensional tissue engineering, Dr. Morgan has developed and patented numerous methods and devices for self-assembling microtissues that have led to multiple applications in high throughput phenotypic drug discovery, toxicity testing, drug transport, and 3D tissue engineering. Dr. Morgan is a graduate of Syracuse University (BS) and Harvard University (PhD) with postdoctoral training at MIT and the Whitehead Institute. He was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School prior to Brown. He has co-founded four companies including XM Therapeutics. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors as well as a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.

Frank Sellke, MD is the chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital, and is the Karl Karlson and Gloria Karlson Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. His research interests include the regulation of microcirculation in health and disease, ischemic injury and inflammation during cardiac surgery, collateral vascular formation, and the use of growth factors and cell therapy to increase blood flow to ischemic tissue. Dr. Sellke received his medical degree from the Indiana University School of Medicine  and completed his residency at Indiana University/Akron City Hospital in Akron, Ohio, and a fellowship at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, Iowa. A noted clinical cardiothoracic surgeon, researcher and author, Dr. Sellke previously served as the chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and as the Johnson and Johnson Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Chest Physicians, and the American College of Surgeons.