Barbara Jagodzinska, PhD

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.