Meet the Scientists

Distinguished Scholar Baruch Blumberg, M.D., Ph.D., Nobel laureate
Dr. Blumberg has been a tremendous source of inspiration for the Hepatitis B Foundation. His discovery of the hepatitis B virus is considered one of the greatest medical achievements of the 20th century. In 1976, Dr. Blumberg won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of the hepatitis B virus and development of the first blood test and first hepatitis B vaccine. When the Foundation was established in 1991, Dr. Blumberg joined as a charter member of the HBF Scientific and Medical Advisory Board. The HBF still seeks to find a cure to complete the circle of discovery that he started 30 years ago! Read more about Dr. Baruch Blumberg.

IHVR Faculty

Alex Birk, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Dr. Birk was awarded his Doctorate of Philosophy in Pharmacology from Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences College of Cornell University in New York where he also pursued his Postdoctoral training and held an Instructor position in Biochemistry and Pharmacology. In his position at IHVR, Dr. Birk is working on developing aminoglycoside-based antivirals against pathogenic Flaviviruses. Read Bio.

Songming Chen, Ph.D.
Asst Professor

Andrea Cuconati, Ph.D.
Project Leader, 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.

Ramila Philip, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist and Project Leader, Biomarker Discovery
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
Principal Investigator
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 Xu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, V.P. Investigator
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

Jinhong Chang, M.D., Ph.D.
Principal Investigator

Xiangdong David Ren,  M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor