About Us

Dr. John is an accomplished medicinal chemist and 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. He is the Co-Director of the Alzheimer's Drug Development Network (ADDN), a network that was originally co-founded by Drs. John and Bredesen at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato. Dr. John is also a member of the Jonsson Cancer Center at UCLA and a member of the Brain Research Institute at UCLA. Previously Dr. John was with Athena Neurosciences and Elan Pharmaceuticals for 18 years where he led a team of medicinal chemists developing drugs for CNS diseases with a focus on AD. His work at Elan included development of potent inhibitors for BACE and γ-secretase, key enzymes in formation Aβ and amyloid plaques. 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.

Dongsheng graduated from Norman Bethune College of Medicine at Jilin University in 1989, and worked as a pediatrician in Dalian Medical University in China before joining Dr. Antonio V. Delgado-Escueta's lab at UCLA in 2000. For the past fifteen years, Dongsheng has worked on the identification and mapping, of multiple genes associated with epilepsy, using techniques in molecular genetics, cell biology, and biochemistry. Dongsheng played an important role in the identification of the first non-ion channel gene for juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (EFHC1) and the establishment of the first Lafora mouse colony. In 2015, Dongsheng joined Drug Discovery & Translational Laboratory and focused on testing anti-Alzheimer's Disease candidate drugs using animal models.

Dr. Alam is a medicinal chemist with over seven years of research experience working on small-molecule drug discovery projects in the academic setting in the laboratories of Professor Hecht and Professor John. He has great interest in the area of translational research and more specifically bench-to-bedside research for the development of novel targeted therapeutics to slow the progression of AD. In his pursuit of new, effective approaches to AD, he is synthesizing analogs using state-of-the-art flow-chemistry with the Syrris equipment. He is working towards an antagonist library for corticotropin-releasing factor receptor 1 (CRFR1) based on a lead compound that was identified from a select panel of CRFR1 antagonists which lowered phosphorylated tau (p-tau) both in vitro and in vivo and improved cognition in AD model mice. In another project, he is involved in designing targeted and controlled drug delivery system using chemically modified elastic liposomes for encapsulation of proteins, miRNA and small molecules with low brain permeability in these nanovesicles for delivery to the brain. Dr. Alam is also attempting to address the problem — the lack of sensitive, noninvasive methods to follow the effect of treatment on pathology-related biomarkers — by designing a screening method for analyzing brain-derived extracellular vesicle (EVs). The ability to detect brain-derived EVs in blood opens a window into the brain and creates the possibility of development of brain-specific liquid biopsy for AD and other neurological conditions. His role in this project is to design and synthesize specific bead-based linkers for bio-conjugation using 'click-chemistry', which will help in isolating brain-derived EVs from biofluids such as plasma. When fully developed, this method may create a non-invasive blood-based early diagnostic test for AD, a way to monitor drug treatment effects, and to identify novel biomarkers and targets for new AD therapeutic development.

Dr. Hatami has over 9 years of experience in neurodegenerative research. After completing his undergraduate studies in Neuroscience at UCLA, he earned his Ph.D. under the mentorship of Dr. Charlie Glabe at UC Irvine, where he investigated amyloid aggregation and structural diversity using amyloid conformation-dependent monoclonal antibodies, with a focus on Alzheimer's disease. Upon graduating from UC Irvine, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Marie-Francoise Chesselet at UCLA, where he investigated potential therapeutic strategies for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and traumatic brain injury in preclinical rodent models. As a member of the Drug Discovery Laboratory, he will focus on screening compounds to identify molecules with therapeutic potential in the treatment of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. He will also investigate the potential for brain-derived exosomes to be used as biomarkers for a wide range of neurologic disorders, including multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.

Michael has 3+ years of experience in neuroscience research. He graduated from Brandeis University where he earned a bachelor's in biology and completed a thesis studying the role of interneurons in epileptogenesis. After graduating, he spent 2 years working as a barista, tutor, pharmacy technician, and pizza delivery guy. Michael joined UCLA Neurology in 2015, working in the lab of Dr. Marie-Francoise Chesselet, where he studied potential neuroprotective treatments for Parkinson's and Huntington's Disease. He then joined the Drug Discovery Lab in 2016, where he is working to refine biochemical assays that help facilitate the identification of preclinical drug candidates for Alzheimer's Disease. Michael is also a musician with Musicians on Call.

Thaidan recently graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor of Science in Integrative Biology and Physiology and a minor in Asian American Studies. She is excited to be in the process of applying to medical school. Thaidan has 3+ years of experience in laboratory research. She started doing research in Dr. Gylys' laboratory in 2013, focusing on Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. Thaidan joined the Drug Discovery Laboratory in 2015 where she worked on developing label-free target identification approaches to elucidate novel targets for AD therapeutics.

Haley Gallo is a fourth year undergraduate studying Psychobiology and Gerontology. She uses Caco-2 cell assays to measure the ability of compounds and deformable nanovesicles to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, and she uses Drug Affinity Responsive Target Stability (DARTS) to determine the protein targets of various compounds. She is currently applying to Ph.D programs, where she hopes to conduct research that will improve the quality of life for older adults and their caregivers.

Joshua is a Senior Undergraduate at UCLA studying Neuroscience, and while pursing an MD after, is interested in the research field particularly with the neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. Joshua is an active learner and is willing to learn as much as he can from the DDL and contribute to this research.The Drug Discovery Lab will be his first, aside from academic laboratory experience. He is passionate about the aging population and the different challenges they face. He is already a part of the Geriatrics and Gerontology Interests Group at UCLA and is excited to take on an officer position this year to spread awareness of the effects of aging on various fields of study. With the DDL, Joshua will be working on the drug delivery system where small membranous particles, liposomes, will be prepared and used to encapsulate drug compounds for delivery across the blood brain barrier.

Nikhil is a second-year undergraduate studying Computer Science and Engineering at UCLA. He has extensive experience in writing robust and maintainable computer software and designing intuitive and elegant websites, and has worked for several companies and consulting agencies in the past. He also has experience in the field of bioinformatics and biostatistics, having worked on a project to detect common gene expressions between various cancerous and non-cancerous tissue in order to identify whether gene-splicing and DNA recombinant technology could reduce the spread of cancer.

Alexandra is a first-year undergraduate student at UCLA, studying Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology. She began volunteering in the Drug Discovery Laboratory in 2016, and currently assists with genotyping and studies liposome drug encapsulation. She is very excited to begin her studies at UCLA as a new Bruin, as well as to assist in further research with the JBDD Lab.