Rotello to receive second CSC alumni award during Homecoming

Since 2010, Rotello has been associated with Cedarville University’s new School of Pharmacy as an associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences. He teaches pharmaceutical science and pharmacogenomics at Cedarville and also leads students in team- and problem-based learning.

Rotello also is in charge of an active research laboratory at Cedarville and is a primary consultant with Aerpio Therapeutics in Cincinnati. This past year, he received Ohio’s Excellence in Education Award for College Professors.

Before accepting his current position, he worked 15 years as a scientist in the biotechnology core for Procter and Gamble Pharmaceuticals at Mason, Ohio. After just two and one-half years with the company, he was promoted to senior scientist in cellular and molecular biology. He also was the coordinator for a group of about 20 scientists.

Highlights of his tenure with Procter and Gamble included leading the development of therapeutic antibodies, and being the inventor of several antibody patents. Two of the patents are being developed and tested in humans as potential therapies for treating blood vessel disorders.

Rotello is a graduate of Mapleton High School in Denver and was recruited to play football at Chadron State. He saw action at wide receiver for the Eagles all four years, catching 66 passes for 826 yards and returning punts and kickoffs as a senior.

He also starred academically at Chadron State. Besides earning academic all-district honors in football, during his junior year he was named the college’s outstanding undergraduate major in chemistry and at Ivy Day just before his graduation in May 1983, he was recognized as the college’s outstanding senior in the physical sciences. He majored in both chemistry and biology.

Soon after graduating, he entered the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, where he earned a master’s degree in anatomy. He also holds a Ph.D. in experimental pathology from the University of Colorado in Boulder, and was the first postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Junying Yuan’s Cardiovascular Research Center at the Harvard Medical School in Boston.

During his three years at Harvard, he researched and published cutting-edge work on cell death. He then wrote chapters for several books on indicators of cell death.

Rotello has been married for 34 years to his high school sweetheart, Alisha. Outside of academia he enjoys mentoring students, gardening, playing golf, and coaching youth sports and is active in his church and the YMCA in Lebanon, Ohio, where the family resides.

The Rotellos have two sons. Zach is a junior at Cedarville University and Lucas is a high school freshman. He said his boys have led him to appreciate music and baseball.