Taina Marques, PhD
Tainá is a biomedical scientist and Senior Research Biomarker Program Manager at Banner Sun Health Research Institute in Arizona, with over 10 years of experience dedicated to Parkinson's disease research. She holds a PhD in Medical Sciences from Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, where she built her foundation in fluid biomarker science, and has since grown into scientific and clinical program leadership across institutions in Luxembourg and the United States.
Jessica Loeffler
Jess is a Researcher in Dr. Koob's lab at the University of Minnesota's Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. For her Master's thesis at the University of Colorado Denver, she studied the fungal communities of partially mycoheterotrophic plants using a metabarcoding approach. Previously, she has worked in human virology while at National Jewish health, studying the efficacy of certain pulmonary surfactant lipids for the reduction of viral replication for viruses like RSV and SARS-COV-2.
Stefan Semrau
Prior to joining NYSCF Stefan was was a postdoctoral fellow with Alexander van Oudenaarden at MIT (systems biology) and Rudolf Jaenisch at the Whitehead Institutean and ran an independent research group as associate professor of physics at Leiden University. His work has focused on using single-cell techniques to study the mechanisms underlying cell fate decisions and the development of computational tools to interrogate single-cell and multiomics data.
Veena Thomas, PhD
Veena Thomas is the Scientific Program Manager for Team Fraser. She earned her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences at UCSF in Brian Shoichet’s lab, where her research focused on structural biology, enzymology, protein stability, and drug resistance. She then did her postdoctoral research in Vijay Pande’s group at Stanford, applying ligand- and structure-based computational approaches to drug repurposing for neglected diseases and to the prediction of drug side effects and toxicity. Most recently, Veena led cross-functional strategy management for the NIH-funded AViDD ASAP Discovery antiviral drug-discovery consortium. Her work now centers on enabling technically rigorous collaboration across disciplines and institutions to accelerate complex drug-discovery programs.
Anna Barber Janer, PhD
Anna is a Project Manager in the ADVANTAGE (ADVANced Disease Models, TArgeted Drug Discovery and GEne Therapy) group within the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at KU Leuven. She brings industrial experience in viral vector manufacturing and holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences. Her doctoral research focused on creating novel mouse models for synucleinopathies and developing artificial intelligence tools to automate histopathological analysis.
Katie Ghisays
Katie is a Senior Clinical Research Program Manager at Banner Sun Health Research Institute with nearly 15 years of experience leading observational and biomarker-focused research programs in neurodegenerative diseases. With an academic foundation in cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and chemistry, she has dedicated her career to advancing the understanding of neurodegenerative disease through long-term cohort studies integrating advanced brain imaging and fluid biomarkers. Katie has overseen complex research programs spanning MRI, PET imaging, blood-based biomarkers, and cerebrospinal fluid assessments, helping to support discoveries in disease progression, risk assessment, and early detection. Her expertise includes program leadership, study operations, cross-functional collaboration, and the successful execution of large-scale longitudinal research initiatives.
Evelyn Ordones Sanchez, PhD
Evie is a Project Manager with Justin McDonough's team. She has expertise in preclinical research, scientific communication, and translational support for in vivo and cell-based disease models. She earned her Ph.D. in Biopsychology from Temple University, where she investigated the effects of early life stress using rodent models. At JAX, she has contributed to both product development and commercial scientific support initiatives, including the creation of educational resources supporting the expanding iPSC portfolio. In addition to her scientific and operational work, she serves as IACUC Chair across multiple JAX sites, supporting institutional oversight of animal research and regulatory compliance.
Rik Gijsbers, PhD
Rik is professor in the Dept. of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, KULeuven University (Belgium). He studied bioscience engineering, and heads the Laboratory for Molecular Virology and Gene Therapy (LMVGT) in the ADVANTAGE group (ADVANced disease modelling, TArgeted drug discovery, and GEne Therapy). He heads the Leuven Viral Vector Core (LVVC), an academic viral vector core that provides scientists (academic, pharma, SME, …) with easy access to viral vector technology and model development.
Jessie Ni, PhD
Jessie H.-T. Ni is Vice President of Research and Product Development at BioLegend and a biotechnology executive scientist with 25+ years of experience across academia and industry. Trained in agricultural chemistry, biochemistry and technology management, she leads global R&D programs in neurobiology, immunology, and cell/gene therapy. Her work focuses on translational assay development, biomarker standardization, and quality-driven reagent innovation. She has held senior leadership roles at R&D Systems and Fujifilm Irvine Scientific and has led NIH/NCI- and MJFF-supported efforts, including α-synuclein immunoassay and neurodegenerative biomarker tool development. She is recognized for bridging discovery science with scalable, regulatory-aligned product development.
Michael Sasner, PhD
Mike is a Senior Research Scientist at the Jackson Laboratory. He is a co-Investigator for the MODEL-AD and VCID Centers, head of animal modeling for the International Neuroimmune Consortium, and co-Director of a course on improving preclinical to clinical translation in Alzheimer’s disease research. He got his PhD in Neuroscience and did post-doctoral training in Molecular Neurobiology at the NIH studying transcriptional regulation of NMDA receptors.
Valentina Fossati, PhD
Valentina is a Senior Research Investigator at the NYSCF | JAX collaborative, where her research focuses on glia-driven pathogenic mechanisms in PD, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and other CNS disorders. She earned her undergraduate degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and a PhD in Stem Cell Biology from the University of Bologna and completed postdoctoral training at Mount Sinai in New York. Valentina pioneered the development of human iPSC-derived glial cell models, establishing protocols for oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, microglia, and 3D organoid systems. She generated the first iPSC lines from individuals with progressive multiple sclerosis, led large-scale studies to uncover inflammatory glial phenotypes in MS and pioneered stem cell studies in Low Earth Orbit.
Matthew Goldberg, PhD
Matt Goldberg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has been a leader in the generation and characterization of targeted mutant mice and rats bearing mutations causally linked to PD.
Philip Denner, PhD
Philip is Head of the Core Facility for Lab Automation Technologies (CRFS-LAT) and leads the Core Research Facilities and Services (CRFS) at DZNE Bonn, Germany. A biochemist with over 20 years of academic and industry experience, he specializes in high-content screening (HCS) and image-based analysis to quantify cellular phenotypes across disease areas. Philip also develops advanced human cell models to improve the translational impact of preclinical research and drug discovery.
James Fraser, PhD
James Fraser is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. He completed his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley with Tom Alber on how conformational dynamics shape enzymatic catalysis. His contributions have been recognized with honors including the Pew Scholar Award, the Searle Scholars Award, the Packard Fellowship, the IUCr W.H. and W.L. Bragg Prize, and the Protein Society Carl Brändén Award.
Dmytro Radchenko, PhD
Dmytro Radchenko is Head of Parallel Chemistry at Enamine Ltd. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and completed an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. Since joining Enamine in 2018, he has led the building and expansion of Enamine REAL Space, one of the world's largest collections of synthetically accessible, make-on-demand compounds.
Bryan Roth, MD, PhD
Bryan Roth is the Michael Hooker Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at UNC Chapel Hill Medical School and the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health Psychoactive Drug Screening Program.
Balyn Zaro, PhD
Balyn is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California San Francisco. She studied chemical biology and protein glycosylation as a graduate student with Matthew Pratt at the University of Southern California. As post-doctoral researcher with Benjamin Cravatt at Scripps Research, she studied covalent drug development and chemoproteomics. She gained additional training in hematopoiesis and innate immunity with Irving Weissman at Stanford School of Medicine.
