InVivo Therapeutics Hires CIO, R&D Director

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Medical device company InVivo Therapeutics Corporation today named John Baker, an experienced information technology executive, as the company’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Christopher Pritchard, an award-winning engineering science expert, as Director of Research and Development.

“I am delighted that these outstanding professionals have joined our growing company,” said Frank Reynolds, InVivo’s founder and chief executive officer. “John Baker has considerable expertise in designing and managing information systems crucial to maintaining the integrity of data. Christopher Pritchard has an impressive track record in engineering science and unusual ability in integrating research and development across scientific fields. Both are invaluable additions to the InVivo team.”

Reynolds founded InVivo in 2005 with the goal of using polymer technologies to restore function in individuals paralyzed by traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI). The company has advanced to its second round of nonhuman primate trials and has applied to the FDA for permission to enter clinical trials within a year.

John Baker Named InVivo Therapeutics CIO

As InVivo’s Chief Information Officer, Baker is responsible for ensuring the integrity of data collected as InVivo proceeds through preclinical and anticipated clinical trials.

With 20 years of executive and managerial experience spanning all areas of information technology, Baker said he feels well suited to the job. But he is particularly excited about joining the company because he believes that InVivo, with its novel technology, “is on the verge of making history.” He said: “I believe our product can improve quality of life for those with spinal cord injuries.”

Among other roles in the IT world, Baker founded and led Performance Analytics, LCC, a consulting company specializing in leveraging analytics to reduce IT costs for life science companies. As an executive at Global Crossing, an international telecommunications company, he founded an IT efficiency group and won awards for reducing operations costs. He has also served as a Naval officer in the Persian Gulf.

Baker holds degrees in computer science and mathematics from Hawaii Pacific University and is currently completing an MS degree in Engineering and Management Systems Design and Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Christopher Pritchard Named InVivo Therapeutics Director, R&D

As Director of Research and Development, Pritchard will play a key role in developing InVivo’s unique technology, which is focused on combining stem cells and polymers to prevent secondary injury and promote the growth of new tissue in traumatic spinal cord injury. Much of this work is being carried out in the laboratory of Robert Langer, Sc.D., at MIT.

Pritchard said. “I am excited to be working with top engineering, bioscience, and physical therapy experts to develop a technology that we believe has the potential to help people suffering from devastating injuries.”

Pritchard, who holds engineering degrees from MIT and Oxford University, has worked on a variety of health-oriented engineering projects in the US and abroad. A 2011 PhD candidate at MIT, he is the recipient of the prestigious 2008 MIT/Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology Medical Engineering Fellowship and of the 2007 Edgell Sheppee Prize for Excellent Performance in Engineering Science at Oxford University, among other awards.

InVivo Therapeutics Corporation is a Cambridge, MA medical device company focused on combining polymers and stem cells to restore function in individuals paralyzed as a result of traumatic spinal cord injury. The company was founded in 2005 on the basis of research initiated in the laboratories of Robert Langer, Sc.D., of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Jay Vacanti, M.D., of the Massachusetts General and Children’s Hospitals in Boston.