Meet the Scientists

IHVR Faculty

Harold Almond, Ph.D.
Professor, Medicinal Chemistry, Drug Discovery, Computer Modeling

Andrea Cuconati, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Drug Discovery
Dr. Cuconati leads the antiviral drug screening and discovery program at the Institute for Hepatitis and Virus Research. He will also prepare grant applications to the NIH and other funding sources to complement this work. He joins the project from ViroPharma, Inc., where he contributed to a successful effort to discover drugs against potential agents of bioterrorism. Read Bio

Anne Dombrowski, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Microbiology of Natural Products, Natural Products Discovery Institute

Yanming Du, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Medicinal Chemistry
Read Bio

Michael Goetz, Ph.D.
Director, Natural Products Discovery Institute
Professor, Medicinal Chemistry, Natural Products
Read Bio

William Kinney, Ph.D.
Professor, Chemistry
Dr. Kinney is investigating antiviral approaches based on improving the host’s resistance.  He is also the Keystone Innovation Zone Coordinator at the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center and an Entrepreneur. Read Bio

Fred Klaessig, Ph.D.
Professor, Medicinal Chemistry
Dr. Klaessig is currently with Pennsylvania Bio Nano Systems, a small firm focusing on reference materials used in investigating chromatographic effects at the nanoscale.Read Bio

W. Thomas London, M.D.
Distinguished Professor, Population Science, HBV Epidemiology
In 1966, Dr. London began a long-term collaboration with Dr. Baruch Blumberg, the discoverer of the hepatitis B virus (HBV). He has had a leading role in epidemiological, clinical, and virological studies of hepatitis B and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that has resulted in more than 265 publications. Read Bio

Xuanyong Lu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, HBV, Liver Cancer
Cellular susceptibility to hepatitis B (HBV) infection; developing strategies to control cancer cell growth through silencing of overexpressed apoptosis inhibitors.

Bruce Marynoff, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor, Drug Discovery
Dr. Maryanoff has made numerous contributions in medicinal and organic chemistry.  He is an internationally renowned expert in drug design and drug discovery. Read Bio

John Ondeyka, M.S.
Instructor, Microbiology, Natural Products, Natural Products Discovery Institute

Ramila Philip, Ph.D.
Professor, HBV, HCV, Liver Cancer
Dr. Ramila Philip is an experienced immunologist specializing in use of mass spectrometry for the study of MHC class I epitopes. She brings more than 20 years of professional scientific experience to the Institute for Hepatitis and Virus Research and will serve as manager of the science, when Dr. Block is unavailable, and lead the mass spectrophotometry component and the ELISA development of this project. Read Bio

Kunwar Shailubhai, Ph.D., MBA
Professor, Liver Cancer, Bacterial Toxins
Dr.Kunwar Shailubhai is Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery, of Callisto Pharmaceuticals Inc. He previously served as a Senior Staff Fellow at the National Institutes of Health, and as an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland. Read Bio

Michael Sofia , Ph.D.
Professor, Medicinal Chemistry, Experimental Therapeutics
Michael J. Sofia, Ph.D. is currently President and Co-Founder of OnCore Biopharma, Inc. a company focused on the discovery and development of therapies to treat liver and viral diseases. Read Bio

James Thacker, Ph.D.
Professor, Lipopeptide Therapeutics
Dr. Thacker is founder of TherimuneX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Read Bio

Joe Vacca, Ph.D.
Professor, Therapeutic Drug Discovery
Dr. Vacca has over 30 years of experience in chemistry. He was formerly Vice President of Chemistry and Global Head of Structural Chemistry at Merck, with a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Read Bio

Michael Xu, Ph.D.
Director, Medicinal Chemistry Program
Associate Professor, Medicinal Chemistry
Dr. Xu manages the medicinal chemistry efforts for the discovery of novel therapies for viral hepatitis at the Institute for Hepatitis and Virus Research.  At the same time, Dr. Xu serves as President of Enantigen Therapeutics, Inc., a drug discovery & development company for viral hepatitis and other life threatening diseases at the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center.  He is also a co-founder of Pharmabridge, Inc. Read Bio

Adjunct Faculty

Joseph Aceto, Ph.D., J.D.
Adjunct Professor, Intellectual Property
Dr. Aceto is a practicing attorney licensed in Pennsylvania and at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, having a primary practice in patent and trademark law in areas involving medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology.  Dr. Aceto works with individual faculty and scientists at the Institute to develop an IP portfolio and advance the commercialization of new discovery.Read Bio

Jinhong Chang, M.D., Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor, Antivirals, MicroRNA, HCV, HBV, WNV, HCC
Discovery of antiviral drugs targeting host factors or enhancing innate immune response; regulation of viral replication by microRNA. Read Bio

Lillian Chang, Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor, Antivirals
Dr. Lillian Chiang is Founder and CEO of FORGE Life Science, LLC, an antiviral company dedicated to commercializing small molecule drugs for the treatment of virus-caused infectious diseases based on break-through discoveries made at Princeton University. Read Bio

Mary Ann Comunale, M.S.
Adjunct Instructor, HBV/HCV Glycobiology, Glycoproteomics

Osvaldo Flores, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor, Antiviral Drug Discovery, Virology

Haitao Guo, Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor, HBV DNA Structure, Signal Transduction
Molecular pathway of HBV cccDNA formation and cccDNA regulation by viral and cellular factors; Development of in vitro assay systems for discovery of novel antiviral drugs. Read Bio

Ju-Tao Guo, M.D.
Director, Pathogenesis Program
Adjunct Associate Professor, HBV, HCV, WNV Innate Host Defense
Molecular pathogenesis of hepatitis and dengue virus infection, interferon mediated innate immunity and antiviral drug discovery. Read Bio

David Horn, M.D.
Adjunct Professor, Experimental Therapeutics, Infectious Disease

Pooja Jain, Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor, HIV, HTLV
Dendritic cells in autoimmune and neuroinflammatory disease. Read Bio

Zafar Khan, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor, HIV
Animal modeling of microbial infections and neuroinflammation. Read Bio

Patrick Lam , Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor, Medicinal Chemistry
Patrick Lam is currently a medicinal chemistry and drug discovery consultant at Lam Drug Discovery Consulting, LLC. He is an Adjunct Professor at both the Drexel University College of Medicine and the Institute for Hepatitis and Virus Research. Read Bio

Anand Mehta, DPhil
Adjunct Associate Professor, HBV/HCV Glycobiology
Director, Early Detection Discovery Program
Development of new hepatitis B (HBV) therapeutics; identification of early markers of liver cancer. Read Bio

Tülin U. Morçöl, Ph.D.
Adjunct Faculty, Drug Delivery, Formulations
Read Bio

Brad Nefsky, Ph.D.
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Early Detection of Liver Disease

Pamela Norton, Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor, HBV, HCV, Protein Folding
Director, Academic Programs
Development of novel antiviral drugs for use against hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection; host cell defenses against HBV infection. Read Bio

Allen Reitz, Ph.D.
Adjunct Distinguished Professor, Medicinal Chemistry
Dr. Reitz is a biotech entrepreneur serving as CEO of ALS Biopharma, LLC and Fox Chase Chemical Diversity Center, Inc. Read Bio

Charles Reynolds, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor, Microbiology, Immunology

Ying-Hsui Su, Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor, Herpes, Liver and GI Cancer
Understanding interactions between herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and neurons during viral latency and reactivation; using nucleic acids in urine as diagnostic markers of cancer. Read Bio