RIP Dan Gincel: Former colleagues remember Maryland biotech leader’s love for life sciences, community and jokes

Confronted with his own mortality, Dan Gincel took to Maryland’s news outlet of record to explain what living with stage four brain cancer taught him about what matters most. 

“Family, friends and gratitude are my individual core values,” he said in an op-ed the Baltimore Sun published in November. “I believe these values define a life well-lived. What are yours?”

Many of these friends came from the biotech and life sciences community he worked with throughout his career, including nearly 14 years leading state-founded investor TEDCO’s Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF). Members of that ecosystem throughout Maryland paid tribute to him, on social media and in comments to Technical.ly, in the days and weeks following his death on Christmas Eve. 

Those honoring Gincel highlighted his passion for innovations in potentially life-saving technology, which he promoted throughout a career that started in Israel, where he was born and studied life sciences before coming to Johns Hopkins University for a post-doctoral fellowship. This interest guided his professional career: Between 2007 and 2021, Gincel built much of TEDCO’s current infrastructure for supporting stem cell research at Maryland’s colleges. Before his health forced him to stop working, he most recently served as a senior vice president of strategic collaborations and scientific affairs for Miami-based cellular therapies developer Longeveron. 

His work’s impact can be measured in numbers — 55 startups funded and over $120 million in follow-on funding, according to Jewish community publication Jmore — and by anecdotes that reveal his influence. Former TEDCO president and COO John Wasilisin recalled a time when Gincel brought a young woman with sickle cell disease, from which she was recovering thanks to treatments TEDCO funded, to a state legislative hearing to defend TEDCO’s budget.

“Everyone in the hearing room was transfixed on what this young woman, her father and her doctor were saying,” Wasilisin said via email. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. I have been testifying in Annapolis for over 40 years, and I never witnessed such a moving moment during a hearing!”

Gincel also brought this passion to his service commitments.

He served on boards for such entities as ScienceAbroad, an Israeli organization facilitating intellectual exchange among the country’s scientists working throughout the world; the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative Fund, through which the state matches private funds for universities’ endowed chair positions; and the Frederick Innovative Technology Center Inc., whose CEO Kathie Callahan Brady recalled how he would stay in the business accelerator after board meetings to speak with clients. 

“He was such a giver, so humble yet very knowledgeable, which was very attractive to my companies,” she said.

Chris Frew is the CEO of BioBuzz, a digital platform highlighting news and opportunities throughout life sciences markets in Philadelphia, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. He also highlighted Gincel’s care for the various constituencies he served, including through events he co-hosted with BioBuzz. Frew was supposed to interview Gincel during TEDCO’s latest Entrepreneur Expo, a recurring conference whose affiliated stem cell track Gincel previously led, but ultimately could not. 

“He really believed in the importance of community and was so passionate about doing things that made a difference for those communities that he gave so much to,” Frew said.

Several former colleagues also noted Gincel’s sense of humor. CEO Jennifer Hammaker of Red and Rugged, a business consultancy for women entrepreneurs, reported to Gincel for six years after moving from Pennsylvania to launch TEDCO’s Maryland Innovation Initiative for commercializing university-bred tech. She recalled once returning from vacation to find he covered her entire office covered in caution tape. 

“That was Dan,” Hammaker said. “His sense of humor was always intact.”

She also noted his candor and honesty in managing their team, which he called “the dot” since it was too small to deem a “circle” of individuals, she said: “It’s a reference that still makes me laugh years after the team disbanded.”

“Today, I imagine Dan somewhere above, passionately rallying the troops, telling jokes and sharing his compelling reasons for why they should do things differently,” Hammaker added. “No doubt, he will win the debate, and those around him will be better for it.”