Andrew Herr, Ph.D.

Dr. Herr was instrumental in the creation and development of the BioLexa Platform, so we are honored to have him on our advisory board and grateful for his assistance to the Company.

Dr. Andrew Herr, PhD, is an associate professor in the Division of Immunobiology and Center for Systems Immunology, with an affiliate appointment in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital within the UC Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Herr completed his thesis work in molecular biophysics from Washington University in St. Louis, and completed his postdoctoral work in structural immunology at the California Institute of Technology as a Damon Runyon Research Fellow. He was recruited to the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine as an Ohio Eminent Scholar in Structural Biology before moving to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

The Herr lab studies mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis. Specifically, they discovered the zinc-dependent mechanism of intercellular adhesion in bacterial biofilms formed by Staphylococcus epidermidis and S. aureus. Biofilms are specialized bacterial colonies that are highly resistant to antibiotics and immune responses, so developing novel therapies to prevent biofilm formation is of high importance. This is of particular significance in eczema, since nearly 90% of people who suffer from atopic dermatitis are colonized by S. aureus on their skin. Dr. Herr also solved the first structure of a human IgA1 antibody bound to its cognate Fc receptor while at Caltech, and his lab has continued to study antibodies and immune receptors implicated in autoimmune diseases. In addition, the lab is studying a family of related collagen-specific immune receptors such as glycoprotein VI, which activates platelets upon exposure to fibrous collagen. Before joining the faculty at Cincinnati Children’s within the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Dr. Herr was an Ohio Eminent Scholar in Structural Biology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and served as an associate director of the Cincinnati Medical Scientist (MD/PhD) Training Program. Dr. Herr received the 2014 Emerging Entrepreneurial Achievement Faculty Award from UC for his work to commercialize a novel anti-infective therapy based on his lab’s research.

Mona Zaghloul, Ph.D.

Professor Mona E. Zaghloul, earned her PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada, in 1975. She was the first woman to graduate with PhD in Engineering from U of Waterloo. She was also the first woman to be appointed as a faculty member at the School of Engineering and Applied Science, The George Washington University in 1980, first woman to be promoted to Full Professor in 1989, and first woman Department Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1994-1998. She became the Chair of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering again in 2009-2014. During her tenure at GWU, Dr. Mona Zaghloul served as a Program Director in the Division of Electrical Communication and Cyberspace Systems of the National Science Foundation (NSF), and as a Faculty Hire and Sabbatical Researcher at NIST, ARL (Army Research Laboratory), NASA in the US, and at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands. In 2017 she was elected member of the National Academy of Inventor, she is a Fellow of NAI. Her publications (she published over 350 papers), several patents, teaching, and research, as well as her professional service at the IEEE, have helped to create the scientific foundation for Sensors, MEMS/NEMS systems that led to the establishment of the Institute for MEMS and VLSI Technologies at GWU. She published widely in those and other areas and became a Life Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and the IEEE Circuits and Systems Jubilee Golden Medal awardee in recognition of her pioneering work. She was the IEEE Sensors Council President (2009-2010) and received Honorary Doctor Degree from University Waterloo, Canada in 2007.

Jeanne Jordan, Ph.D.

Dr. Jeanne Jordan received her B.S. in Medical Technology from UW-Madison, and her Ph.D. in Molecular Virology from U-Pittsburgh. At UPMC-Magee she was Medical Director of the Microbiology and Virology lab for 18 years, where she developed a large molecular infectious disease testing menu. During that time, she was PI of several NICHD-funded R03 and R01 grants developing 16S rRNA PCR and pyrosequencing for detecting bacterial and candida neonatal bloodstream infections in her research lab at Magee Women’s Research Institute. Currently at GWU School of Public Health, she is PI of an NCI-funded R01 with a focus on identifying more specific biomarkers than the anal Pap to better predict AIN2+ in HIV+MSM population. She is also Director of DC-CFAR NGS lab, Co-I on NIAID-funded DC-Cohort HIV Molecular Epidemiology study, the Moderna COVID19 vaccine trial, and for the HPTN, HVTN and ACTG clinical trial network studies. She serves on the Science Advisory Board for DC Forensic Sciences and Public Health Labs, and in 2020, won the Ed Nowakowski Senior Memorial Clinical Virology Award, recognizing an outstanding scientist whose contributions to this field have had a major impact on the understanding of viral disease pathogenesis.

Vincent C. O. Njar, Ph.D.

Dr. Njar has over 38 years of demonstrated accomplishment as a medicinal chemist and oncopharmacologist in academia at several universities, including 23 years with University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. He has >120 scientific publications, over 35 issued patents and 30+ pending patents; H-Index: 43; citations: 10,571. He has a Ph.D. in Chemistry (University College. London, UK) and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental biology, Shrewsbury, MA, USA.

He is Currently Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore and Head, Medicinal Chemistry Section, Center for Biomolecular Therapeutics (CBT); Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR). He is the Lead Inventor of a drug candidate, galeterone (originally code named VN/124-1), which advanced to Phase III clinical trials in patients with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (licensed by UMB to Tokai Pharmaceutical Inc., Boston, MA, USA). Galeterone was recently licensed to Education Scientific LLC (ESL), who is continuing its clinical development. Dr. Njar co-founded Isoprene Pharmaceuticals Inc (IPI) in 2018, a cancer therapeutic company developing novel small molecules for the treatment of cancer.

William Weglicki, M.D.

William Weglicki, MD trained in Medicine at the Georgetown University Hospital before completing his cardiology fellowship at Duke University Medical Center. After two years as a Research Associate at NIH and Johns Hopkins University, he joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School for seven years and there he was promoted to Associate Professor of Medicine. In 1975 he was appointed Chairman of the Department of Biophysics at the Medical College of Virginia of Virginia Commonwealth University. While at Harvard and MCV he was awarded several NIH research grants. At the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation he led their Cardiovascular Research Program. He joined the George Washington University Department of Medicine in 1985 and formed the Division of Experimental Medicine; in 1987 this core group of investigators was awarded a Program Project grant on Molecular Mechanisms of Cardiovascular Injury from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. For 12 years he served as chairman of the Department of Physiology at GWU. From 2002 -2006 he served as President of the US, Canada, Mexico Section of the International Society for Heart Research. In 2005 he organized a symposium for the WHO on magnesium and disease processes. In 2006 he was an invited chair and speaker at the International Magnesium Society meeting in Japan. He chaired the Gordon Conference on Magnesium in Biochemical Processes and Medicine in 2008 in California. He has been a principal investigator on NHLBI research grants for more than 30 years. From 2014-2018 at GWU he served as Interim Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine. His ongoing research includes the study of cardiac and cutaneous side effects due to some of the EGFR/Tyrosine Kinase Inhibiting anticancer drugs.

Glenn Cruse, Ph.D.

Dr. Glenn Cruse, PhD, is currently Assistant Professor of Immunology at North Carolina State University within the College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Cruse completed his graduate studies at Glenfield Hospital, of the University of Leicester, United Kingdom, where he focused on human lung mast cell biology in asthma. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship training in the Laboratory of Allergic Diseases, NIAID at NIH before starting his own research program in his current position at NC State. The goal of his research program is to establish novel regulators of allergic inflammation and to develop targeted therapeutics for allergic inflammation and mast cell-mediated diseases.

Adam Friedman, M.D., F.A.A.D.

Adam Friedman, M.D., F.A.A.D. is Professor and Interim Chair of Dermatology and serves as Residency Program Director and Director of Translational Research in the Department of Dermatology at The George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences. Dr. Friedman completed his undergraduate training at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with Distinction in Dermatologic Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He completed his internship at New York Hospital Queens and returned to Einstein for his Dermatology residency, where he was appointed Chief Resident during his final year. Dr. Friedman joined the Einstein faculty after graduation and served as the Director of Dermatologic Research, Director of the Translational Research Fellowship, and the Associate Program Director.

Michael Peters, Ph.D.

Dr. Michael Peters is currently Professor of Chemical and Life Science Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is also an Associate Member of VCU’s Massey Cancer Center and an affiliated faculty in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. Dr. Peters received his PhD from the Ohio State University in 1981 and his B.S from the University of Dayton in 1977. Dr. Peters teaches across a broad spectrum of courses in mathematics, science, engineering, and medicine, was involved in the teaching of medical school gross anatomy for over 15 years, trained in animal surgical methods, and has held both academic and clinical appointments.

Dr. Peters bioengineering research spans from fundamental to applied studies merging detailed biomolecular computations and mathematical methods to experimental studies, including preclinical and laboratory experiments. His fundamental research includes protein structure, function and interactions, protein folding, and fragment-based protein engineering methods. Current applied studies include inhibition strategies against the SARS-Cov-2 spike protein, amyloid fibril therapeutics in the treatment of AD, and inhibitor design and development for the HSP70-Bag-1 anti-apoptotic pathway in a variety of chemoresistant cancers.

Richard Granstein, M.D.

Dr. Granstein is one of the nation’s most esteemed dermatologist and the current Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at Weill Cornell Medical Center. His extensive and prestigious background studying skin disorders will be invaluable to the Company in our attempt to bring relief to the approximately 32 million Americans suffering from eczema.”

Richard D. Granstein, M.D. is the George W. Hambrick, Jr. Professor and Chairman of the Department of Dermatology. Dr. Granstein obtained his undergraduate education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his medical education at the UCLA School of Medicine. After completing his internship in 1979, he trained in dermatology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. As a Research Fellow, Dr. Granstein studied immunology and tumor biology at the National Cancer Institute-Frederick Cancer Research Facility and at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Granstein joined the faculty of the Department of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1984. In 1995 he left Harvard to become Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Dermatologist-in-Chief at the NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Dr. Granstein’s research interests center on the regulation of immunity within the skin and the relationship of the skin’s immune system to the development of skin cancers. He also has a special research interest in the regulation of the immune system by stress and the nervous system. He was the first to demonstrate that certain immune cells within the skin are capable of initiating an immune response against a malignant tumor and that immune cells within the epidermis (the upper layer of the skin) have an anatomic relationship with nerves and can be regulated by proteins produced by those nerves. His clinical interests include autoimmune disorders of the skin, skin cancer, and psoriasis.