About Us

Dr. John is an accomplished medicinal chemist and leads the Drug Discovery Laboratory (DDL) at the Department of Neurology at UCLA. Dr. John is a member of the Alzheimer's Disease Program in the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer's Disease. The DDL team consists of scientists and skilled technicians with basic science and drug development experience who have joined the lab to find effective, safe therapeutics for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The DDL team identifies preclinical candidates and then establishes partnerships to progress these therapeutic agents from bench to bedside. Previously Dr. John was with Athena Neurosciences and Elan Pharmaceuticals for 18 years where he led a team of medicinal chemists developing drugs for central nervous system (CNS) diseases with a focus on AD. His work at Elan led to clinical candidates that went into advanced human trials. Dr. John is an inventor on over 100 pending or issued patents on compounds and analogs for CNS related targets.

Dr. Jagodzinska is a medicinal chemist, with many years of drug discovery experience in the pharmaceutical industry (Elan Pharmaceuticals, Novartis and Kelsius Inc.). She is a member of the Alzheimer's Disease Program in the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer's Disease under the direction of Professor Dale E. Bredesen, M.D. For the last several years Dr. Jagodzinska consulted for the Alzheimer's Drug Development Network (ADDN). At ADDN she focused on drug discovery with novel targets in neurodegenerative diseases and AD through analoging and small molecule optimization for potency and bioavailability. In collaboration with the Dominican University of California she established a Medicinal Chemistry Laboratory for preparation and characterization of analogs. During her tenure at Elan Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Jagodzinska was part of the γ-secretase and BACE inhibitor program teams. Systematically synthesized a family of inhibitors and identified a target specific nanomolar lead candidates as effective inhibitors of APP processing. She acted as a liaison between Chemistry and Pharmacology during optimization phase of the AD project during collaboration between Elan and Pharmacia, later Pfizer.

Patricia has over 20 years of experience in neurodegenerative disease research, including 12 years with world-renowned neuropathologist Stephen J. DeArmond, M.D., Ph.D., and Nobel Laureate, Stanley Prusiner, M.D. at the University of California, San Francisco. For the last ten years, her focus has been on development of new therapeutics as part of an Alzheimer's disease (AD) drug discovery team following a pharmaceutical industry model in an academic research setting. Patricia played a key role in the ADDN at the Buck and her work has resulted in advancement of AD therapeutic candidate tropisetron to clinical trials. In the Drug Discovery lab Patricia supervises and performs in vivo pharmacokinetic/dynamic studies, collects and analyzes all project data, and she is frequently the presenter of project status to funding partners. The success of our current program, starting at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, CA and continuing at the Drug Discovery Lab at UCLA, has resulted in generation of multiple NCEs and garnered significant venture capital investment. In addition to writing grants and three first-author publications in the last 6 years, Patricia gave presentations at international scientific conferences such as the Alzheimer's Association International Conference and the Society for Neuroscience Conference, and to the lay public.

Tina Bilousova received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry in Ukraine in 2003. She got her postdoctoral trainings in laboratories of Dr. Iryna Ethell (UC Riverside) and Dr. Daniel Kaufman (UC Los Angeles). During more than 10 years in biomedical research Dr. Bilousovas' long-standing interest is in structural and biochemical synaptic alterations in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. After joining Dr. Gylys' laboratory (part of Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer's disease Research at UCLA) in 2010 the main focus of her research is Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Bilousova joined the Drug Discovery laboratory in 2014; she participates in bioassay development and testing new drug candidates on cell culture and animal models of Alzheimer's disease.

Jesus has over 6 years of experience in a broad range of analytical chemistry techniques, molecular biology, enzymology and protein assays, and nanoparticles synthesis for controlled drug release. He has developed expertise in screening compound libraries, designing screening methodologies, and performing expanded in vitro studies of test compounds. Jesus is currently working on screening the 200K UCLA small molecule library for various targets to identify new and novel AD targets, formulations of nanoliposomes to improve drug brain penetration and solubility, and determining ADME profile of compounds. He was part of the Alzheimer's Drug Development Network (ADDN) at The Buck Institute for Research on Aging which focuses on developing new therapeutics for AD. His contribution to ADDN supported the generation of multiple new chemical entities (NCEs) that caught the attention of significant venture capital investors. In addition, his ongoing work in the drug discovery research has resulted in co-authorship on two manuscripts in 2014.

I have the expertise, leadership, training, and motivation necessary to successfully carry out the proposed research project for the Air Force grant. I have a broad background in neuroscience, with specific training and expertise in neurodegenerative animal model study, pre-clinical trial management, histology and pathology in rodents and secondary data analysis. I am currently the director for Brain Research Institute microscopic core facility at UCLA. My research involves pre-clinical drug trials in mouse models of Parkinson's(PD) and Huntington's (HD) diseases. I am the senior member of the laboratory and my expertise in neuropathology has enabled me to become a key member of research projects in the lab and to lead the neuropathological analyses in these projects. I am also in charge of in vivo drug administration and behavioral assessment for some of these studies. I am actively involved in teaching and mentoring students. I have trained a number of undergraduate and graduate students in histological techniques and supervised other staff research associates in their work involving in vivo mouse work, histology and pathology. I also train, advise and help postdoctoral researchers in their research involving histology and pathology. Additionally, these experiences have provided me with leadership skills that have been invaluable in assembling the unique team of UCLA investigators who will contribute to the research efforts described in the proposal entitled, 'Salivary Exosome (nsEV) Analysis to Elucidate Intercelluar Signaling Events that Precede Pilot Fatigue & Impaired Cognition,' that we have submitted to the Air Force Office for Scientific Research Human Performance & Biosystems Department.

I'm excited about having the opportunity to act as Project Coordinator in the context of this consortium research effort and am confident that I can excel in this role to provide the Air Force with excellent returns on its investment of resources in our team's cognitive fatigue biomarker discovery and validation studies. I appreciate the AFOSR's consideration of our request for these research resources and look forward to putting together our unique blend of capabilities to work in helping the Air Force further its standing as the planet's most technologically advanced airborne combat group.

Bruce Teter received a B.S. in marine biology and a minor in chemistry from Cal. State U., Long Beach, and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Southern California, studying DNA structure in control of protein binding and gene expression. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neurogerontology focusing on epigenetic control of gene expression changes with aging, working with Dr. Caleb Finch at the Andrus Gerontology Center in the School of Gerontology at USC. In 1996 he joined the lab of Dr. Greg Cole at UCLA and is currently Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology, and Chief of the ApoE Research Laboratory and Research Associate at GRECC at Veterans Administration, GLAHS. He began work in Dr. Varghese John's lab in 2021, where he leads a project on genetic engineering of apoE4, and contributes to molecular biology aspects of other drug development projects. Dr. Teter's research focuses on the neurobiology of apolipoprotein E (apoE), and how apoE4 is the major genetic risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease. Dr. Teter has published seminal works on the influence of apoE4 in inhibits neuroplasticity. His current research examines how apoE4 increases inflammation and modulates the innate immune system. These and other phenotypes of apoE4 are being examined for their mechanisms and potential as a target for therapeutic drugs, and lifestyle effects of exercise. Another tactic is to target the ApoE4 gene itself, genetically engineering it to the ApoE3 form.

Whitaker Cohn is a first graduate student in UCLA's Molecular, Cellular, & Integrative Physiology (MCIP) interdepartmental Ph.D. program. After graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Science in Biopsychology, he worked as a Research Associate at UCLA's Pasarow Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, where he utilized mass spectrometry-based proteomics, metabolomics and lipidomics to conduct research across a diverse range of scientific disciplines. His interests lie in advancing the understanding of the complex cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate homeostasis and disease in physiological systems.

Sujyoti completed her PhD in Biochemistry from Rush University Medical Center, Chicago in 2019. She joined the Drug Discovery Lab for her first postdoctoral training in March, 2019. During her doctoral study, Sujyoti's research was focused on lysosomal biochemistry and neurodegenerative disorders. Sujyoti has experience in different biochemical techniques as well as animal behavior. She has published several first author and coauthored manuscripts and given poster and oral presentations at Neurochemistry and Alzheimer's disease related conferences. Here, at the DDL, she is working on evaluating the efficacy of different compounds for potential beneficial effects in Alzheimer's Disease. Sujyoti is also developing a new project on receptors of amyloid precursor protein and amyloid beta that she will work on at the DDL.

Malaney received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY, in 2015, and her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from University of Minnesota in 2021. Her doctoral research focused on the development and implementation of FRET-based high-throughput screening assays to identify novel drug candidates which target pathological protein interactions involved in neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. Malaney joined the DDL as a postdoctoral researcher in 2021 and is continuing to grow as a project leader and well-rounded researcher in drug discovery for both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Apart from science, Malaney enjoys listening to music, going to concerts, practicing yoga, and petting dogs. Her long-term goals are to pursue a Professorship at a top research institution and continue the process of finding a cure for currently untreatable diseases.

Juan Marcucci graduated with a Bachelors in Genetics and Genomics from the University of California, Davis. During his undergraduate degree he participated in various labs investigating topics such as plant biology, genetic and protein processes involved in the circadian rhythm regulation in d.melanogaster, and bioinformatics studies of the c. elegans genome. At the DDL Juan oversees mice breeding, maintaining colonies, tissue collection, and a multitude of biological assays.

Dongwook has 2+ years of experience in a broad range of organic chemistry techniques and small molecules synthesis. He graduated from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. While studying at UMN, he spent 2 years involved in Dr. Wayland Noland's lab, working on the synthesis Diels-Alders compounds with heterocycles nitrogen compounds for dementia diseases by utilizing analytical methods including solid-liquid extraction for testing for medicinal activity. He then received a M.S in Pharmaceutical Sciences from USC in 2021. Shortly after, Dongwook joined the Drug Discovery Lab in 2021 and is currently working as a chemist. In the DDL lab, he strives to synthesize several different small molecules for the treatment of skeletal muscle and pulmonary dysfunction in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. He is focusing on synthesizing brain permeable small molecule mimetics of the Humanin Peptide as a novel target for modulating neurodegenerative diseases, while utilizing techniques including flash chromatography, flow chemistry, liquid-liquid extraction, and interpreting data by using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Agilent 1290 HPLC System, and MS/MS (Agilent 6460 Triple Quadrupole).

Sadhana is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, and she is majoring in Psychobiology as well as minoring in Neuroscience. At the DDL, she is actively involved in performing biological assays of Alzheimer’s drug discovery such as the ELISA and AlphaLISA assays. Prior to the DDL, she also worked at Recombinant Technologies, where she assisted in the development of amyloid-beta based Alzheimer’s therapeutics. After her undergraduate studies, she aspires to pursue a DDS/PhD program, and she is specifically interested in studying the neural functions of the orofacial area.

Jessica is a transfer student from Riverside City College and will be graduating Spring 2022 from UCLA with a B.S. in chemistry. She is interested in synthetic organic chemistry and aspires to become a medicinal chemist. Her hobbies include hiking, catch and release fishing, and taking pictures of her dog Monster.