Rick Silva, PhD

Biography

Dr. Silva joined the Texas A&M to develop an external-facing collaborations program to augment the clinical and economic impact of the research enterprise at Texas A&M. In his career, he has successfully led over 300 transactions with academic, nonprofit, and commercial organizations in the US, Europe, and Asia, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500^® companies including facilitation of the creation of 60 biomedical startup companies. These transactions include over 150 licensing and collaboration deals that involved $68 M in licensing revenue and collaboration and technology development research agreements totaling over $50 M in research funding. Several of these transactions involved capital commitments or royalty buyouts of over US$40 million to technology development, upfront payments, or realized revenue. At Texas A&M he works directly with faculty and the biopharma, diagnostic, and medical informatics industries to develop research collaborations and translational roadmaps promising to validate biomedical research, patient engagement tools, and new technologies. 

Prior to Texas A&M, he spent 5 years at University of Arizona’s academic medical center in a similar role spanning the implementation of Banner Health’s academic affiliation with University of Arizona and assuming operation of their hospitals and practice plan.  At UA, he led the development of over $23 M in industry investment in major precision medicine and cell therapy alliances in oncology, diabetes, and cardiovascular specialties. Previously, in 15 years at the University of Colorado, he had numerous roles in developing and leading a variety of collaborations including licensing transactions, technology development partnerships, public-private partnerships, multiparty collaborations, clinical trials, biomarker validation projects, supply and distribution agreements, strategic alliances, and a major emphasis on new venture development.

He holds an academic appointment in Texas A&M’s Institute for Biosciences and Technology in the Texas Medical Center and publishes and speaks on emergent collaboration models at the academic industry interface. He is an inventor on patents on diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic strategies for diseases mediated by genome plasticity and co-leading an investigator-initiated clinical trial to validate these technologies for clinical use. He is a co-founder of CADRx Biopharma, a company developing innovative topical pharmaceutical products using 3D printing technology, with a lead product, LeukoPlax® to prevent oral cancer. He also leads an innovative clinical science program (Interprofessional PhrarmacoGenomics [IPGx] Program) with medical informatics and laboratory medicine collaborators for the development of a clinicogenomic registry and research network for implementation of pharmacogenomics in chronic disease management. Dr. Silva is passionate about strategies for achieving organizational effectiveness at the academic medical center- industry interface.

Dr. Silva received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from New Mexico State University, a Doctor of Philosophy in Physiology from Colorado State University, and a Master of Business Administration emphasizing Entrepreneurship and Finance from the University of Colorado-Boulder Leeds School of Business and is Certified Licensing Professional.