Dr. Mills, is the President & CEO of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The $3 billion agency is the world’s largest and most comprehensive institute dedicated to the advancement of stem cell therapies. Established in 2004, CIRM now has 12 major research facilities, three state-of-the-art medical research clinics, a genomics center, a 3,000 line iPS cell bank, educational programs from high school through graduate school, and approximately 300 projects in various stages of development from discovery through Phase 3.
Prior to joining CIRM, Dr. Mills served for 10 years as the CEO of Osiris Therapeutics (Nasdaq: OSIR), taking it public and building it into the first profitable stem cell company. In 2005, Osiris launched the first commercial stem cell product, Osteocel®, and in 2012, received the world’s first approval for a stem cell drug, Prochymal®, to treat children suffering from graft vs. host disease. Under his leadership, Osiris developed and commercialized five cell therapy products responsible for more than $1 billion in cumulative sales.
Dr. Mills started his career in transplantation at the University of Florida Tissue Bank and was a co-founder and a Vice President of Regeneration Technologies (Nasdaq: RTIX). Dr. Mills invented the company’s core technology, BioCleanse®, the first system accepted by FDA for the sterilization of human tissue for transplantation. BioCleanse products have been used in over 3 million surgical procedures without a case of disease transmission.
Dr. Mills is currently Chairman of Tissue Banks International (TBI), the largest provider of ocular tissue for vision restoration and serves on the Board of Directors for the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine and the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine Advisory Board.
He earned a PhD in Drug Development and Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology both from the University of Florida. He is married with two children and is a certified pilot.