EIDD - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Biology and DMPK / the Emory Institute for Drug Development / Emory University
Dr. Ryan graduated from Cornell College with a BA in Chemistry before earning his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Washington State University in the lab of Dr. Rock Mancini. During this time, his research was focused on the development of immunomodulator prodrugs targeted to enzymes relevant to cancer and bacterial metabolism.
Brett earned his BS in Chemistry from Rice University. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis in the lab of Dr. Timothy Wencewicz.
Cody earned his B.S in Chemistry from Kennesaw State University in 2016. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2022, working in the laboratory of Prof. Jeffrey S. Johnson.
Job Titles:
- Senior Development Scientist / Education
Dr. Kuiper graduated from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry with a BS in chemistry with a focus on biochemistry, and then later earned his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Oregon State University under the direction of Prof. Richard Carter. This was followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in medicinal chemistry at Emory University under the direction of Prof Dennis Liotta.
Job Titles:
- Director, Research Projects / Education
Following a BS in biology at the University of Georgia, Dr. Schneider earned a Ph.D. in microbiology also at the University of Georgia under the direction of Dr. Joy Doran Peterson, where she studied biocatalysts for the conversion of lignocellulose to ethanol and other products. Then Dr. Schneider completed a postdoctoral fellowship in biochemistry under the direction of Dr. Loren D. Williams at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she investigated ribosomal RNA-protein interactions. Dr. Schneider also earned an MBA at Georgia State University.
Dr. Schneider was a faculty member at Gwinnett Technical College for three years, during which she developed curriculum for several courses in the Bioscience Technology Program. Afterwards, she transitioned to a Class II medical device company for five years, during which she held managing roles in Assay Development, Clinical Affairs, and Translational Research. Then Dr. Schneider joined an antiviral drug development company, where she supported a preclinical IND-enabling program. Finally, she joined the EIDD to support project management of antiviral discovery and preclinical programs. In her leisure time, Dr. Schneider enjoys sporting events, traveling, and playing tennis.
Job Titles:
- Development Scientist / Education
Deborah earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of South Carolina.
Job Titles:
- President and CEO / the Emory Institute for Drug Development / Emory University
George Painter has twenty-four years of experience in the discovery and development of pharmaceutical agents, and most recently held the position of Executive Vice President, Research and Development, at Triangle Pharmaceuticals where he was a member of the founding management team. In addition to his management experience at Triangle Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Painter held positions at Burroughs Wellcome Co. beginning in 1983 including Director of Chemistry and Director of Virology. Subsequently, he served as Director of Research Process and International Deputy Therapeutic Head for Antiviral Research at Glaxo Wellcome Inc.
Dr. Painter is a co-inventor of over forty-five patents, six of which have led to approved commercially available drugs or combinations of drugs for the treatment of HIV and hepatitis B. He has led international teams, which generated data for nine investigational new drug applications and three new drug applications. Dr. Painter earned a B.S. in chemistry, an M.S. in physical organic chemistry and a Ph.D. in synthetic chemistry from Emory University.
Job Titles:
- Development Scientist / Education
Jose's professional interests and experience span over 30 years and range from EPA-regulated Pesticide Registration and Evaluation (Battelle Memorial Institute), Drug Discovery, Drug Metabolism, Bioanalysis, first-in-man metabolite ID, reviewer of Influenza Hemagglutination Inhibition assays/validation packages for the development of a cell-derived influenza vaccine (Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc./AbbVie), and GLP-regulated Drug Development (AtheroGenics, Inc.). He has extensive experience in the development of LC-MS/MS bioanalytical methods for small molecules and has focused a great part of his career on in vitro metabolic stability testing and on in vitro/in vivo metabolite profiling and identification. He was a key contributor to the data packages for EIDD-2801, which is marketed by Merck as Malnupiravir for the treatment of COVID-19; EIDD-2173, currently in Phase 2 clinical trials with Antios Therapeutics for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B; and EIDD-2023, that was successfully out-licensed to AbbVie as an oral treatment for Hepatitis C. José oversees the chemical and metabolic stability testing, the design of in vitro drug metabolism assays using various liver fractions (microsomes, S9 fractions), and metabolite ID. Jose's personal interests include food and wine, traveling, and sailing in the Caribbean.
José obtained his B.S. in Chemistry with a minor in Biology from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico and attended The Ohio State University for graduate courses.
Job Titles:
- Senior Scientist / Education
Dr. Saindane earned his Ph.D. degree from Pune University in India and completed postdoctoral study at Emory University under the supervision of Prof. Dennis Liotta and subsequently under the supervision of Prof. Ziegler at Yale University.
Dr. Saindane has 30 years of experience in Process Research and Development within the pharmaceutical industry and has held positions of increasing responsibility in Process R & D. He joined Emory Institute for Drug Discovery in October 2009. He is currently the Director of Process Chemistry at the EIDD since October 2009. He applies the expertise gained in the industrial sector to the development of drug candidates in EIDD. He has most recently developed large-scale synthesis for the Hepatitis C (EIDD-2023)and EIDD-2749, for arenavirus, influenza and SARS-Cov-2. His expertise resulted in the process development and preparation of 50 kg of API of EIDD-2801( Molnupiravir).
Previously, he was the Director of Process R&D at Celgene Corporation, where he directed and provided strategic leadership for Process Research and Development Department.
He began his industrial career in 1984 at Sterling Winthrop Pharmaceutical research division as a Research Leader in the chemical development where he designed and developed processes for variety of development candidates. He was responsible for preparing API on multi-kilo quantities in compliance with GLP and cGMP.
Job Titles:
- Technical Project Manager / Education
Marcus earned a B.A. in Studio Art from Georgia State University.
Marcus began his career in the IT industry during his undergraduate years at Georgia State and has been fortunate to have had a wide range of positions and experiences in multiple industries to become what can best be described as a Generalist in technology. With a passion for problem solving, Marcus is eager to take on new challenges and apply novel solutions to existing problems. Aside from spending time with his family, Marcus enjoys volunteering for the Boys Scouts of America and the NorthPoint family of churches as well as trying to make his home smarter and more efficient through technology.
Job Titles:
- Lead Research Specialist / Education
Meghan earned her B.S. degree in Forensic Science and Chemistry with a minor in mathematics from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Meghan Andrews graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2020; her time at school was filled with volunteer work and holding various positions within student organizations she was a part of. She previously worked at Bureau Veritas performing oil and diesel fuel analysis for particulate contamination, grease efficiency, and additive depletion in both fuels and oils. In her free time, she enjoys reading and spending time with her family.
Job Titles:
- Director of Operations
- Principal Scientist
Dr. Natchus earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1992 with Prof. Tomas Hudlicky and later completed his postdoctoral research at Stanford University of under the supervision of Prof. Paul Wender. He later completed his MBA in 2010 at The Goizuetta Business School at Emory University.
Dr Natchus has over 30 years of experience in drug discovery and development both within the pharmaceutical industry and academia. He has held positions of increasing responsibility in both drug discovery and development (Procter and Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Project Leader; Somatocor Phrmaceuticals, Director of Chemistry; Metastatix, VP of Research and Development). He is currently the Dir. of Operations at the Emory Institute for Drug Development (EIDD), where he oversees drug discovery and development operations as well as fiscal oversight of the R&D programs. While at EIDD, he has been responsible for the submission, operational management and execution of 5 government contracts worth >$40M combined as well as numerous grants worth over $60M combined. This includes the Antiviral Countermeasures Development Center (AC/DC), which is one of nine Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Centers around the country being funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) with a mission to identify countermeasures against viruses that have future pandemic potential. Most recently he was the operational manager for the discovery and preclinical development of Molnupiravir, a broadly acting and orally available treatment for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infections and received Emergency use Authorization in December, 2022.
In his spare time, he has been an active, multi-instrumental musician, arranger and sound engineer for most of his life. He is currently the musical director for The T Tones, a regional jazz ensemble he founded with his wife, Jennifer in 2015 and released their first full-length CD in 2022 (thettones.com). He also a long-time little league baseball coach for both of his sons.
Job Titles:
- Senior Scientist / Education
Dr. Hager graduated from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) with a BS in chemistry and then earned a Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Emory University under the direction of Professor Dennis Liotta. After a postdoctoral appointment in the Professor Frost's research group at Michigan State University involving research in biocatalysis reactions, he completed a second postdoctoral study in dendrimer chemistry in Professor Gorman's research group at North Carolina State University.
Dr. Hager joined the medicinal chemistry group at FOB Synthesis (Kennesaw, GA) in 1999 as a research scientist where he focused on anti-infective research and development. As he advanced to the position of senior investigator, he led the efforts in various projects ranging from developing a new class of beta-lactam antibiotics to developing and synthesizing phospholipid nucleoside bioconjugates as highly effective antiviral agents with enhanced cellular uptake properties. Since joining the EIDD in 2011 as a senior development scientist, he has utilized his extensive experience in nucleoside prodrug strategies toward the development of synthetically challenging antiviral nucleoside phospho- and diphospholipid conjugates. Dr. Hager also has lead chemistry efforts in providing bioanalytical standards for drug metabolic studies that were an integral part in preclinical development of both the HCV antiviral candidate EIDD-2023 and SARS-CoV-2 antiviral Molnupiravir. In his personal time, Dr Hager enjoys mountain biking and hiking with his family in the North Georgia mountains.
Michelle's love for scientific research was sparked over two summers during her undergraduate career while working in the Naval Research Enterprise Internship Program for the DoD in Bethesda, MD. There, she aided research on the treatment of ballast water and wastewater with the goal of protecting local marine life from pollutants and invasive species. After this, she began research in total synthesis at William & Mary followed by C-H functionalization research at UNC to facilitate the synthesis of bioactive compounds with potential pharmaceutical applications. After completing her M.S., Michelle joined EIDD in 2023 as an administrator to facilitate research from outside the lab with her exceptional organization skills. In her free time, she enjoys knitting, video games, learning about linguistics, and cats.
Job Titles:
- Associate Development Scientist
- Development Scientist / Education
Dr. Govindarajan received his Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from NIPER-M, India.
Dr. Govindarajan has served as an associate development scientist since Jan 2019. During his post-doctoral training in the university of Arkansas, he worked on the total synthesis, medicinal chemistry, and chemical biology aspects of anti-cancer natural products like OSW-1 and Ipomoeassin-F. During his stay as a post-doctoral fellow in EIDD, he was part of the team developing nucleosides and their prodrugs against alpha viruses and played an important role in the identification of EIDD-1931(NHC) as a broad-spectrum antiviral agent.
Job Titles:
- Lead Research Specialist / Education
Rebecca earned her B.S. degree in biochemistry with minors in psychology and sociology from Louisiana State University.
Job Titles:
- Associate Development Scientist
Job Titles:
- Senior Development Scientist / Education
Dr. Mao earned her Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Emory University in 2005 with Prof. Dennis Liotta and completed the postdoctoral research at Chemistry Department of University of Pittsburgh under the supervision of Prof. Peter Wipf and Prof. Kay Brummond. She later completed her MBA in 2018 at Emory Goizuetta Business School.
Dr. Mao has more than 15 years of research and development experience including two and a half years within the pharmaceutical industry. She has co-authored a number of publications and patents. During her graduate study, she primarily focused on the design and synthesis of novel cyclobutyl nucleoside analogs as anti-HIV agents. At University of Pittsburgh, she designed and executed the synthesis of four chemical libraries using Diversity-Orientated Synthesis (DOS) to find biologically active compounds. She also made significant contributions towards the total synthesis of Dnacin A1 and B1. After joining FOB Synthesis, Inc., an Atlanta biotechnology company, she synthesized carbapenem analogs as antibacterial agents and two of the compounds identified by her research team were licensed to AstraZeneca. After joining EIDD in early 2011, Dr. Mao continued her research on nucleosides and prodrugs as RNA virus and DNA virus inhibitors. Since 2011, she has played an important role in the early development of EIDD-2801 (Molnupiravir), EIDD-2023 and EIDD-2749 as well as the discovery of EIDD-2992. Currently, she is leading a team focusing on designing and developing picornavirus inhibitors. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with the family, hiking, and playing tennis.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Mississippi
- Development Scientist / Education
Dr. Tomioka obtained his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 2004 working with Professor Bruce Lipshutz at the University of California, Santa Barbara, focusing on the study of atropselective synthesis of vancomycin biaryl. His postdoctoral training was subsequently in the group of Professor Amos Smith at the University of Pennsylvania where he was intimately involved in gram-scale synthesis of spongistatin.
Dr. Udumula earned a master's degree in Organic Chemistry from Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Brigham Young University, Utah with Prof. David J. Michaelis.
Job Titles:
- Associate Development Scientist / Education
Zachary Sticher graduated from Wabash College with a bachelor's degree in Chemistry and a minor in Economics.