Board of Directors

James D. Talton, Ph.D., is the President, Chairman and CEO of TRON Group Inc. (OTC:TGRP), Nanopharmaceutics, Inc. (subsidiary) and Alchem Laboratories Corporation (Subsidiary). Dr. Talton previously served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Nanotherapeutics, Inc. for seventeen years. He also serves on the Alumni Advisory Board for the University of Florida Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Dr. Talton has developed multiple clinical-stage products as well as NanoFUSE® DBM, a sterile, FDA-cleared (K062459) easy-to-reconstitute bone graft. Leading multiple successful government programs, Dr. Talton has successfully won over $1 billion in contracts with government partners including NIH, DOD, and BARDA. Dr. Talton is an inventor on thirteen U.S. patents and has authored several peer-reviewed publications and book chapters involved in drug delivery systems with a primary focus in drug analysis and controlled release formulations, pharmacokinetics, and pulmonary drug delivery. Dr. Talton received his B.S. and M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering and his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Florida.

Chris Deigl, M.S., is Alchem's Director of Quality Assurance.  Prior to joining Alchem in 2021, Chris enjoyed 16 years at SynQuest Laboratories, Inc., ultimately serving as their Director of Quality.  While at SynQuest, Chris worked diligently with internal and external customers to ensure compliance, all while promoting a culture of goodwill and proaction.  Chris also built an independent QC lab, served on the Executive Management Team, and implemented an ISO 9001:2015 conforming quality management system.  He earned both his B.S. in Chemistry and M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida.

George L. Fails was a Manager at Alchem from 2016 to 2024 and Operations Manager and Director of CTD Holdings, Inc. (now Cyclo Therapeutics, Inc. NASDAQ:CYTH), from 2001 to 2016.  He served as President of CTD, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of CTD Holdings, Inc. from 2009 to 2016 and Operations Manager of CTD, Inc. from 2000 to 2016. Prior to joining CTD Holdings, Inc., Mr. Fails served as a Detective Sergeant with the Veterans Administration Hospital in Gainesville, Florida, with special duties as a Predator officer with the U.S. Marshal’s service. From 1965 until his retirement in 1986, Mr. Fails served with the U.S. Army Special Forces, including several tours in Vietnam, Salvador, and Angola. Mr. Fails also served two years with a United States intelligence arm. Mr. Fails received his B.A. from the University of the Philippines, and has also received degrees from 43 Military schools, as well as the Federal Police Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Gideon Shapiro, Ph.D. has 35-years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry with record of achievement in drug discovery, development and drug program management. He received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley. He completed postdoctoral research at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland and advanced to manage CNS drug discovery at Sandoz/Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Basel, Switzerland where he developed M1 agonist clinical compound SDZ-163 for Alzheimer’s disease. In 1998, he co-founded the Novartis Venture diagnostics company EraGen Biosciences in the US which was ultimately sold to Luminex in 2011. After EraGen he founded and acted as CSO of Somatocor Pharmaceuticals developing peptidomimetics of the marketed octreotide drug Sandostatin®. Subsequently, he acted as VP of Chemistry at Fidelity neuroscience venture company EnVivo Pharmaceuticals where he co-invented and participated in the development of numerous clinical candidates including Encenicline which was advanced to Phase 3 clinical trials in Alzheimer’s Disease and Schizophrenia. 

Jeffrey S. Thinschmidt, M.A. is a Senior Biological Scientist at the University of Florida. He has an extensive publication record and background in CNS electrophysiology with expertise in preparation of live brain slices for electrophysiological recording and whole-cell patch clamp recording in brain slices. Masters degree included training as an electrophysiologist and neuroanatomist studying brainstem modulation of the hippocampus (Dr. Robert Vertes), He then joined the neuroscience department at the University of Florida (Dr. Don Walker) studying electrophysiological, anatomical, and behavioral effects of chronic ethanol consumption. Other work includes biophysical, cell biological, and pharmacological studies of alpha-7 subtype nicotinic receptors (Dr. Roger Papke) as well as thorough analysis of hippocampal bidirectional, short- and long-term synaptic plasticity across the adult life span in the rat (Dr. Mike King).

Steve Vasile, Ph.D. was Director of Discovery at Alchem from 2018 to 2024 supporting assay development and high throughput screening (HTS). He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the State University of New York at Buffalo’s Roswell Park Cancer Institute division in 1993. Dr. Vasile has over 25 years of experience in the HTS field, with significant experience with multiple assay formats and with diverse screening laboratory instrumentation and automation. Dr. Vasile was recruited in 2018 from Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute where he was Director of HTS for their Orlando, FL site. Prior to SBP he was at Sugen Inc./Pharmacia/Pfizer. At Sugen his team helped to discover Sutent, an FDA-approved drug for renal cell carcinoma, Gleevec resistant GIST and advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.