Our team
Dr. Christine Finck, Co-Founder
Christine Finck, MD, FACS is the Surgeon-in-Chief; Chief, Division of Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery; and Peter Deckers Endowed Chair of Surgery at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. She is also a Professor of Pediatrics and Surgery at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She is the co-founder of Esophadex and Executive Vice President of Biostage.
Dr. Finck is an well published, NIH-funded researcher in the fields of premature lung disease, stem cell therapy, esophageal disease, and tissue engineering.
Dr. Finck received her bachelor’s degree from Boston University and her medical degree from SUNY Upstate Medical University at Syracuse. She completed a surgery residency at SUNY Upstate Medical University at Syracuse and a pediatric surgery fellowship at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
Liisa Kuhn, PhD, Co-Founder
Dr. Kuhn is a tenured Professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Connecticut-Storrs. She received her undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at Duke University and worked at General Dynamics in San Diego, CA before completing her MS and PhD in Materials Engineering at the University of California Santa Barbara. Dr. Kuhn held postdoctoral positions at Case Western University and Harvard Medical School/Boston Children’s Hospital, conducting biomineralization studies and orthopedic research. She joined the faculty at UConn Health after co-founding and selling a start-up company in Boston, MA that developed bone graft substitutes.
John Laplante, MSAT, President
John Laplante, MSAT, brings over 25 years of business leadership to the team. Specialties include: Sales, marketing, operations, accounting, and leadership expertise. His background includes over 15 years of consulting experience, most recently for the Barney Graduate Consulting Service and PricewaterhouseCoopers.