Dr Kevin Yehl
Dr Joe Campbell
I am a program officer in the division of microbiology and infections diseases (DMID) in the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). My primary role is running the base contract under which our in vitro testing pre-clinical services are conducted (https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/vitro-assessment-antimicrobial-activity-resources). In addition, I am involved in the running of contracts in our pre-clinical models of diseases base contract (https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/pre-clinical-models-infectious-disease). Finally, I run DMID’s bacteriophage interest group. The goal of this group is to work with the FDA and other federal agencies to promote the clinical use of bacteriophages.
Prof Thomas Patterson
Dr Steffanie Strathdee
Dr. Strathdee is an infectious disease epidemiologist who received her doctoral training at the University of Toronto. She is renowned for her research on the intersection of HIV and drug use, having generated >600 scholarly publications. She is Associate Dean of Global Health Sciences and Harold Simon Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Diego where she codirects the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics. She is married to Thomas L. Patterson, Professor of Psychiatry at UC San Diego, where they co-direct a research and training program on the Mexico-US border.
Strathdee was recently credited with saving her husband’s life from a deadly superbug infection using bacteriophages –viruses that attack bacteria. The case, which involved cooperation from three universities, the U.S. Navy and researchers across the globe, shows how phage therapy is a future weapon against multi-drug resistant bacterial infections which are expected to kill 10 million people per year by 2050. Strathdee and Patterson co-authored a book on their story called The Perfect Predator: A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug.
Dr Brian Varnum
Dr. Varnum is a biotech veteran with more than twenty years of experience. Brian began his career with Amgen, and spent more than 18 years at the biotech pioneer as the company grew from a start-up to the largest and most successful biotechnology company. He started in discovery research where his team purified novel growth factors and advanced antibodies and small molecules into clinical studies. Brian also worked in development, assisting with clinical development of proteins, antibodies and small molecules. In this capacity, Brian contributed to key regulatory filings, market research and product launch, giving him experience in drug discovery and development from the lab bench to product launch and marketing.
After retiring from Amgen in 2007, Brian turned his focus to the start-up landscape, working in several capacities, including assisting investors, entrepreneurs and start-ups in the assessment of technologies for funding or in-licensing. In these capacities, Brian established research strategies and plans, and served as CSO for several companies, securing funding, and executing research contracts with large and mid-sized pharmaceutical companies.
Brian obtained his Ph.D. from UCLA studying oncogenes, and his drug development research experience includes hematopoietic growth factor discovery, oncology, auto-immune/inflammatory disorders, personalized medicine in IBD and infectious diseases.
Dr Benjamin Chan
Tobi Nagel
Photo Credit: Mark Warren
Phages for Global Health is a nonprofit organization that facilitates the application of phages to combat antimicrobial resistance in developing countries. We accomplish this mission in two general ways: by delivering laboratory training workshops through which we teach scientists in developing countries how to isolate and characterize phages locally; and by partnering with developing world researchers to co-develop phage products for specific applications in their countries. Before founding Phages for Global Health, Tobi had 15 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry where she worked with international teams to co-develop products that have been tested in over 80 clinical trials worldwide.
Dr Shawna McCallin
Scott Stibitz
Dr Magda Barbu
Dr. Magda Barbu, Senior Director of Synthetic Biology, leads engineering efforts for C3J’s pipeline of phage therapeutics programs. Dr. Barbu is an established scientist with over 15 years of experience working with lytic and lysogenic phage in both industry and academia. Magda combines her deep expertise in molecular biology, phage biology, bacterial pathogenesis and antimicrobial drug development, to set strategy and deliver key preclinical data essential for advancing the synthetic phage programs from bench to clinic.
Dr. Barbu earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology/Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Magda completed her postdoctoral training at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, which included identifying druggable targets for cancer and other diseases using in vivo phage display. She then worked at Synthetic Genomics, Inc. heading up development of the phage engineering platform and related assets, that were subsequently acquired by C3J Therapeutics. Magda has authored 18 peer-reviewed publications, presented worldwide as an invited speaker and received private and priority government grants for her research in antimicrobial therapeutics and synthetic biology. She has several patents pending.