About Jefferson Innovation

Thomas Thornton

Vice President, Innovation, Strategy & Business Development

Tom Thornton is the Vice President of Jefferson Ventures at Jefferson, a comprehensive enterprise comprising Jefferson Health, Thomas Jefferson University, and Jefferson Health Plans — a $14 billion system with 65,000 employees, ranking among the top 15 non-profit health systems in the United States. In his role, Tom partners with thought leaders across the university, health system, and insurance plan to transform ideas into measurable improvements in health outcomes, patient experience, and new revenue streams. 

Previously, Tom was the inaugural Senior Vice President of Northwell Ventures at Northwell Health, leading Northwell’s corporate venturing programs. His work encompassed enterprise growth initiatives, strategic investing, company creation, innovation management, consulting, and the formation of industry joint ventures, all aimed at diversifying the health system’s revenue streams.

Outside of Jefferson, Tom is a board member and angel investor in healthcare startups, an advisor to academic medical centers globally, and an advocate for water quality initiatives on Long Island. He lives in Oyster Bay, NY, with his wife, Lindsay, and their five children.

Heather M. Rose, PhD, JD

Vice President, Licensing & Startups

Dr. Rose oversees the team responsible for identifying, protecting, and commercializing innovations developed by Jefferson faculty, staff, and students. She provides strategic leadership for intellectual property management, patent prosecution, startup formation, and industry engagement efforts around these matters across the University and Health System. In addition to overseeing the office, Dr. Rose also personally leads select high-impact projects in the biotech, pharmaceutical, medical device, healthcare, AI, and computational medicine spaces, managing efforts from translational development through commercialization.

Heather Rose, PhD, JD, joined Jefferson Innovation in 2017 and currently serves as Vice President of Technology Licensing & Startups. Prior to her time at Jefferson, she worked for five years at Drexel University’s Office of Technology Commercialization, managing life sciences innovations. Dr. Rose holds a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and a JD with an Intellectual Property Law concentration from Drexel’s Kline School of Law. She has previously conducted gene therapy research and held internships in pharmaceutical IP law. Dr. Rose is a member of the PA, NJ, and United States Patent Bars. Heather is also a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP).

Alexey Melishchuk, PhD, MS

Director, Technology Licensing

Dr. Melishchuk works across the Jefferson enterprise to commercialize biopharmaceutical, medical device, artificial intelligence and healthcare technologies via licensing to existing companies and assisting with startup formation. He also helps Jefferson faculty and clinicians establish collaborations with industry.

Dr. Melishchuk brings a lot of tech commercialization experience from Drexel University and, previously, the University of Pennsylvania, where he started as a postdoc studying ion channels. His industry experience comes from investment banking at Janney Montgomery Scott, where he concentrated on fundraising and M&A in the healthcare sector, and business development consulting for early-stage biotech companies and investment funds. He holds a PhD in biophysics from the Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology (Kyiv, Ukraine), and MS and BS in applied physics and mathematics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (Moscow, Russia). He is also a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP).

Robert Arcadipane

IP & Licensing Specialist

Mr. Arcadipane manages the process of invention intake and coordinates with inventors on information and signatures needed for documents related to patent disclosure, filing and prosecution. He maintains a database of patent inventions and coordinates correspondence with external patent firms and attorneys engaged by Jefferson in the IP protection process, and establishes internal operating procedures regarding IP management and communications.

Robert joined Jefferson in October of 2016 after moving to Philadelphia from New York, where he provided support to C-level Executives for six years in the publishing and advertising industries. Robert received a BA in English Literature with a Minor in Business from the University of Delaware. Robert  is also a Certified Licensing Professionals (CLP).

Faheem Ullah, Pharm-D, MSc, PhD, CLP-A

Technology Transfer Specialist

Dr. Ullah is responsible for reviewing the invention disclosures for patentability, coordinates with inventor and external patent firms for filing and prosecution. At Jefferson, he leads the efforts for Jefferson Technology Marketing and Business Development overseeing technology outreach and marketing initiatives. He works very closely with licensing team and Jefferson inventors to strategically identify business partners for their technologies.

Faheem Ullah joined Jefferson Innovation in January 2025. He has a great passion for impact-creating biomedical research. He holds a PhD in Neuropharmacology from the University of Western Sydney (Sydney, Australia), MS in neurobiology/neuroscience from Gyeongsang National University (Jinju, South Korea) and BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the school of Pharmacy (Malakand, Pakistan). Prior to joining Jefferson Innovation, he completed four years of postdoctoral training in Neurosurgery at Rutgers University working on neurodegenerative diseases and the effects of chemotherapy on the human brain. He published his work in several reputable journals. During his postdoctoral training, Dr. Ullah received six months training in Emory University, Technology Transfer Office. In addition, Faheem completed a one-year fellowship with Rutgers Office of Technology Transfer where he developed a deep understanding of IP law, technology transfer, invention evaluation and commercialization strategies. Faheem is also a Certified Licensing Professionals, Associate (CLP-A).

Robin Ford

Senior Contract Specialist

Robin Ford is responsible for managing and reviewing a variety of agreements, including Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs). Her role is key in investigating third party material use situations and ownership related issues, as well as providing strategies to resolve complex intellectual property matters.

Ms. Ford has over 20 years of contract and intellectual property experience in both profit and nonprofit institutions and has come to Thomas Jefferson University most recently from the Center of Technology Transfer at Cornell University. In addition to her extensive legal work in patents and trademarks, Ms. Ford is an inventor of multiple US patents and is an ABA certified paralegal. The arts are a passion for Robin, who has worked professionally as an actor and writer. she attended the University of California, Los Angeles, Sonoma State University, and the MFA program at the New York Academy of Art with degrees in psychology, fine art, and biology.

Talia Glaras

Financial Operations Manager

Ms. Glaras was born and raised in Philly. She has a deep passion for our city, its people, and its history. Jefferson holds a special place in her life, as she was delivered here. She is proud to be a part of an institution that not only helped bring her into this world, but provides life-saving, and life-changing healthcare for people all over the world.

Ms. Glaras graduated from LaSalle University. She has served in various industries such as banking, cosmetics, food and beverage, and pharmaceutical packaging where she worked on data analytics, financial analysis, sourcing and procurement, supply chain operations, efficiency, and quality to name a few. The exposure and experience in these various industries allows her the ability to lead the financial operations of Innovations in a streamlined, effective, and efficient manner.