Meet Our Team

Dr. Hickey is Professor Emeritus of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics of the Eshelman School of Pharmacy, and Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering of the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, the Royal Society of Biology, the Royal Society of Medicine and the National Academy of Inventors. He received the Research Achievement Award of the Particulate Presentations and Design Division of the Powder Technology Society of Japan, the David W Grant Award in Physical Pharmacy of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists; Thomas T Mercer Joint Prize for Excellence in Inhaled Medicines and Pharmaceutical Aerosols of the American Association for Aerosol Research and the International Society for Aerosols in Medicine, the Ralph Shangraw Memorial Award for Excipient and Excipient Technology of the International Pharmaceutical Excipient Consortium Foundation. He is founder (and formerly President and CEO) of Cirrus Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; founder (formerly CSO) of Oriel Therapeutics, Inc,; CEO of Astartein, LLC. and; Scientific Advisor to TFF Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Chair of the USP Joint Sub-Committee on Nanotechnology, Member of the USP Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms Expert Committee (DFEC) and Aerosols Sub-Committee of the DFEC of the United States Pharmacopeia. He conducts multidisciplinary research programs in the field of pulmonary drug and vaccine delivery for the treatment and prevention of a variety of diseases.

Joshua earned his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pittsburgh before completing postdoctoral studies at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA as a NIH Postdoctoral Scholar. He started his independent career at NC State University as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and has built a group of 15 graduate students and postdocs tackling cutting-edge problems at the interface of chemistry and biology/drug discovery. During his time at NC State Joshua has been awarded an NSF CAREER grant, 2 NIH R01 grants, has been selected as a University Faculty Scholar and recently was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure. In addition to his duties in the department of Chemistry he is actively engaged in the Comparative Medicine Institute at NC State where he holds the position of Associate Director of Emerging and Infectious Diseases. Finally, Joshua is the Founder and CEO of Synoxa Sciences, Inc., an early-stage startup company focused on developing novel small molecule antibiotics inspired by marine natural products.

Robert is a Research Professor of Chemistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and founder of the RCR Consulting Group, has a BS in chemistry from the University of Virginia and a PhD in organic chemistry from Duke University. Dr. Reynolds has a strong background in grant writing and reviewing and also provides insight and guidance on agency policies and procedures from pre-award proposal preparation to post-award grant and contract management. He has significant experience in the life sciences, particularly relating to drug design and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as personal care products, and his clients have ranged from small and large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, large cosmetic and formulation companies, and federal agencies that include DOD and the NIH. Dr. Reynolds has successfully managed relationships with these organizations to secure over $100M in funding for capital improvements, major scientific research programs and establishment of robust contact and chemical screening databases. He is actively involved in several NIH review committees giving him an excellent background and insight into the federal grant system including small and large grant programs.

Nancy is Senior Scientist, Board on Life Sciences at the National Academies. She was previously Senior Scholar, Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. and prior to that Professor in the Division of Infectious Disease in the Department of Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (RNJMS) and the Rutgers Biomedical Health Sciences. She received a PhD in microbial genetics from Harvard University. Dr. Connell’s major research focus was antibacterial drug discovery in respiratory pathogens such as M. tuberculosis and B. anthracis. She has served on a number of committees of the National Academy of Sciences, e.g., the Committee on Advances in Technology and the Prevention of their Application to Next Generation Biowarfare Agents (2004), Trends in Science and Technology Relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention; an International Workshop (2010), and the Committee to Review the Scientific Approaches used in the FBI's Investigation of the 2001 Bacillus anthracis Mailings (2011).

Ethan is the Founder and CEO of Perlara, he is an aspiring orphan drug discoverer, evolutionary pharmacologist, and indie scientist. He was previously CSO of Chief Scientific Officer at the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. Ethan has a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from Harvard University, and was a Lewis-Sigler Fellow at Princeton University.

Aaron is a board-certified neurologist with a sub-specialty in Behavioral Neurology. Dr. McMurtray earned his medical degree in 2000 at Vanderbilt University and completed neurology residency training at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, followed by fellowship in Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry at UCLA/West LA VA Medical Center. After completing fellowship training, Dr. McMurtray joined the faculty at the University of Hawaii where he was awarded an American Academy of Neurology Clinical Research Training Fellowship and completed a Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Sciences. In 2012, Dr. McMurtray rejoined Harbor-UCLA Medical Center as director of the Behavioral Neurology clinic and founded a multispecialty Neuro-HIV clinic, where he instructs Neurology residents and conducts clinical research studies. Dr. McMurtray’s primary areas of expertise include: traumatic brain injury, neuro-infectious diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. He is a member of the American Neurological Association and the American Academy of Neurology (Behavioral Neurology, Neuro-infectious Diseases, and Government Services Sections), he is also an investigator at the Los Angeles BioMedical Research Institute and an assistant clinical professor in the Neurology department of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His recent publications include clinical studies on Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, neurocysticercosis brain infection, and complications of traumatic brain injury.

Jim is currently the Chief Chemistry Officer of Apex Therapeutics, Inc., Indianapolis, and Founder of Pisces Therapeutics, LLC., Rockville, MD. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics. Prior to this he was Chief Technology Officer of Coalesix Inc., Cambridge, MA. He retired in 2004 from Eli Lilly & Company as head of the Department of Structural and Computational Sciences of The Lilly Research Laboratories. He has been actively engaged in pharmaceutical research for over 40 years as both a laboratory scientist and as a scientific manager, and has 41 peer-reviewed scientific publications and 50 issued U.S. Patents. The subject matter included in these patents and publications describe 4 molecules that underwent clinical evaluation as drug candidates and one successfully marketed agricultural product. Mr. Wikel has a B.S. and M.S. degree in chemistry from Marshall University in WV.

Chris is Owner and Principal Consultant for TW2Informatics in Sweden, has a PhD from the LMU Munich, MSc in Virology from Reading and a BSc Hons in Biochemistry from Dundee. Dr. Southan has an extensive multidisciplinary background in protein chemistry, bioinformatics, cheminformatics and drug discovery acquired in both commercial and academic contexts. The most recent positions were Senior Cheminformatian for the Edinburgh University BPS/IUPHAR Guide to Pharmacology (2013-18), freelance consulting as TW2 (2011-12) contractor in the AstraZeneca Knowledge Engineering Program for Chemistry Connect (2009-11) and coordinating the ELIXIR Database Provider Survey at the EBI (2008-9). These positions were preceded by a Principle Scientist and Bioinformatics Team Leader position in AstraZeneca, Mölndal (2004-7) and senior bioinformatics positions at Oxford Glycosciences Gemini Genomics and SmithKline Beecham. He has over 100 publications is a member of several journal editorial boards, two database advisory boards and has adjunct academic appointments at the Universities of Edinburgh and New Mexico.

Sharon is President of Taylor’s Tale, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that was founded in 2007 by the family and friends of Taylor King of Charlotte, North Carolina, who was diagnosed with infantile Batten disease in 2006 at age 7.

Andrea is the Managing Partner of Eleventh Hour Inc. She has over 20 years of successful leadership and management experience (MDL, Scitegic, Accelrys, Vertical*I, CDD, Illumina). She has an earned reputation for exceeding rigorous organizational goals and objectives. Pragmatic, focused, and driven: a person recognized for “turning plans into action” while coaching and mentoring others to achieve their best.

Following his training at the University of London (Imperial College, Middlesex Hospital Medical School) and post-doctoral studies at the MRC Mill Hill, Phil has spent his career in clinical and drug development in large pharma (Glaxo/ Glaxo Wellcome), a clinical CRO (PharmaResearch) and a specialty biotech (BioCryst Pharmaceuticals). His focus in recent years has been on the accelerated development of novel therapeutics in rare disease.