Zoran Gatalica, M.D., D. Sc.

Professor, Pathology and Director, Anatomic Pathology – Medical Director
Dr. Zoran is Professor of Pathology and Director of Surgical Pathology at Creighton University Medical Center and Omaha Veterans Hospital. Dr. Gatalica is board certified in the American Board of Pathology in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology. Dr. Gatalica received his M.D., D.Sc. from the University of Zagreb School of Medicine, Croatia and completed his residency in Pathology (AP/CP) at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Gatalica is actively involved in Anatomic Pathology diagnoses disease based on the examination of patient cells, tissues and organs. He conducts basic and translational research along with teaching towards the goal of increasing the recognition of organ-directed disease processes and furthering diagnostic techniques such as electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry and molecular diagnostics.

Bai-Lin Wu, M. Med., Ph.D., FACMG

Adjunct Laboratory Director and ABMG Certified Clinical Molecular Geneticist
Dr. Wu is an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, Director of Genetics Diagnostic Laboratory and Director of Molecular Genetic Pathologist Training Program at Children's Hospital Boston. He received his Master of Medicine degree from Shanghai Medical University in China and Ph.D. from Boston University, MA. He completed postdoctoral training in the Harvard Genetics Training Program. Dr. Wu's primary clinical responsibilities focus on the direction of genetic diagnosis in molecular pathology. His teaching activities concentrate on the laboratory training of fellows in Harvard Genetics Training Program and Harvard Molecular Pathology Training Program, both accredited by the American Board of Medical Genetics (ABMG) and the American Board of Pathology (ABP). His research contributions are publications on gene mapping, gene mutation identification and novel approaches for molecular diagnosis.

Manika Koul, Ph.D.

Director, Clinical Reference Laboratory
Dr. Koul is the Director of the Clinical Reference Laboratory at Transgenomic, Inc. She received her B.S. and M.S. in Genetics from the University of Delhi, New Delhi, India and her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology as part of the Human Genome Project from the University of Houston. She completed her ACMG accredited fellowship in Clinical Molecular Genetics at Children’s Hospital, USC, Los Angeles and further was involved in clinical research at UCLA’s School of Medicine Jules Stein Eye Research Institute. She joined Transgenomic in 2005 with 10 years experience in the field of molecular/clinical genetics. Her research contributions include publications on gene mapping, gene mutation identification and clinical diagnostics. She is also involved in research and development of new molecular diagnostic tests for clinical applications and clinical trials. Her clinical focus is on the direction of genetic diagnosis of inherited disorders, mitochondrial disorders and Hematology and Oncology-related disorders.

Gary Gerard, Ph.D.

Vice President, Enzymology Research and Development
Dr. Gerard is Vice President of the Enzymology Research and Development Group at the Transgenomic Pharmacogenomics Research Center in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Dr. Gerard was trained as a classical enzymologist at Pennsylvania State University (B.S. in Biochemistry) and Michigan State University (Ph.D. in Biochemistry). His post-doctoral training at the Institute for Molecular Virology at St. Louis University School of Medicine was focused on the enzymology of retroviral replication. Here, Dr. Gerard continued his research on retroviral replication becoming an Assistant Professor in 1973 and an Associate Professor in 1977. In 1982, he joined Bethesda Research Laboratories (later to become Life Technologies, Inc.) as Section Head, RNA Enzymology and spent the next 20 years leading efforts focused on applied basic research and development of nucleic acid modifying enzymes and associated reagents resulting in the marketing of scores of new LTI products becoming a Director in 1985. Dr. Gerard joined Transgenomic in 2002 as Vice President of Research and Development to initiate an in-house research and development program focused on enzyme-based mutation detection. To date the program has generated a number of products, including the SURVEYOR^® Nuclease line of mutation detection kits among other marketable products and applications. Dr. Gerard’s scientific contributions further include authoring over 75 publications, a book chapter and 15 issued or pending patents.

Benjamin L. Legendre, Jr., Ph.D.
 

Senior Research Scientist
Dr. Legendre is a Senior Research Scientist at Transgenomic. He received a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry at Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA and his Ph.D. in Bioanalytical Chemistry at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA. He has been employed at Transgenomic, Inc., for over 10 years, where he has worked in the areas of separation chemistries and methodologies as well as instrumentation development for high sensitivity mutation detection. Presently, his work focuses on the research and development of new oncology- and mitochondrial-based molecular diagnostic assays for clinical applications and clinical trials. In addition, he is working on optimized protocols for high sensitivity mutation screening of large gene(s) using Transgenomic reagents and mutation detection platforms. These assays screen genomic samples for either germline (inherited) or somatic (acquired) mutations. His research contributions include publications on gene mutation identification. He is also is co-inventor on numerous patents involving separations methodologies.

Grant Wu, M.B., M.A.

Senior Applications Scientist
Dr. Wu is a Senior Application Scientist at Transgenomic. After receiving his M.B (equivalent M.D.) from Capital University of Medical Science, China, he finished his residency in Internal Medicine at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, China, and then received his two years research fellowship at Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, NE. He also received his M.A. in Molecular Biology from University of Nebraska at Omaha. He spent five years of post-doctoral research at Department of Pathology and Microbiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center. He joined Transgenomic in 2000. He is involved in research and development of new molecular diagnostic tests for clinical applications and pharmacogenetic genotyping. His research contributions are publications on gene mutation identification and clinical diagnostics.

Nicolas Neckelmann, Ph.D.

Senior Applications Scientist
Dr. Neckelmann is a Senior Applications Scientist at Transgenomic. He received his Ph.D. in Biology at the University of California-Los Angeles specializing in molecular genetics with an emphasis in mitochondrial research. While at Emory University School of Medicine, his research focused on (i) sequencing and characterization of the mitochondrial genome, (ii) the discovery of conformational mutations in the human mitochondrial genome, (iii) the identification of nuclear genes encoding mitochondrial proteins such as the catalytic β subunit of the human F₁F_o ATP Synthase and (iv) the in vitro expression and purification of recombinant mitochondrial proteins. Dr. Neckelmann has a number of publications and joined Transgenomic in 2000 where he has worked in various important capacities including applications and product support, customer support and training as well as product development and sales.

Reyes Candau, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist
Dr. Candau is a Senior Scientists at the Transgenomic Pharmacogenomics Research Center in Gaithersburg, Maryland and received her Ph.D. in Biology from the UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA, Seville, Spain. With over 17 years in biomedical research and development, Dr, Candau joined Transgenomic in 2006 bringing her expertise in molecular genetics with a specialty in developing and screening knock-out systems in bacteria and yeast, transfection systems in mammalian cells and protein expression. Currently, her work focuses on the research and development of assays and applications for the detection of low-level mutations and polymorphisms.

Yanggu Shi, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist
Dr. Shi is a Senior Scientist at the Transgenomic Pharmacogenomics Research Center in Gaithersburg, Maryland and received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Biochemistry from the New York University School of Medicine and a B.S. in Cell Biology from Peking University, China. Joining Transgenomic in 2004, Dr. Shi brings over 20 years experience in somatic/germline nuclear and mitochondrial genetic variation analysis of genetic diseases. In addition, Dr. Shi brings a wealth of experience in molecular modeling and protein engineering, virology, clinical assay validation for clinical trials as well as pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic analysis and design.

Ying Han, Ph.D

Senior Scientist
Dr. Han is a Senior Research Scientist at the Transgenomic Pharmacogenomics Research Center in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She received her Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Chemical Technology (Shanghai Branch) East China and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Han has over 20 years experience in biomedical research specializing in protein chemistry and purification including recombinant and fusion protein design, expression and purification. Her work also specializes in transcription activation and regulation, cDNA array and oligo array technology as well as reverse transcriptase regulation and dynamics. Prior to joining Transgenomic in 2002, she was a Senior Scientist at SuperArray Bioscience Corporation and led all R&D and product development activities in the PCR and Gene function product development group. Her scientific contributions further include numerous publications and presentations.

Harini Shandilya

Senior Scientist
Harini Shandilya is a Research Scientist at the Transgenomic Pharmacogenomics Research Center in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Harini received her Masters Degree in Biochemistry from Villanova University-Pennsylvania with an emphasis in cellular and molecular biology and has over 10 years experience in biomedical research specializing in enzyme and protein chemistry, and purification including vector design, cloning, site-directed mutagenesis and protein expression systems. Currently her work focuses on research applications for SURVEYOR^® Nuclease - a mismatch-specific endonuclease - supporting pharmaceutical and research institutions discovery initiatives as well as assay design and validation.

Sunil Mahurkar

Research Associate/Project Manager
Sunil Mahurkar is a Research Associate/Project Manager at Transgenomic. He received a B.S. in Pharmacy from Gulbarga University, India and his M.S. degree in Chemistry from Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC. He has been employed at Transgenomic for close to three years and is involved in high-sensitivity and high throughput mutation scanning using various mutation detection platforms including Transgenomic’s enzymes and instruments. His current research focuses on designing assays and evaluating samples as part of a team focused on genetic biomarker discovery and analysis for various institutes ranging from academia to bio-pharmaceutical companies. His research contributions include discovery of novel disease causing mutations in Schnyder Corneal Crystalline Dystrophy among other debilitating diseases.

Jeffrey Durocher

Laboratory Manager, Transgenomic Pharmacogenomics Services
Jeffrey Durocher is a Laboratory Manager in the Transgenomic Pharmacogenomics Research Center in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He joined Transgenomic in 2001. He received his B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and performs both administrative and research functions. Jeffrey leads a team of molecular biologist research associates running a high-throughput laboratory in developing and validating diagnostic assays as well as playing an instrumental role in Quality Assurance and Project Management assuring prompt, accurate and reliable reporting to our bio-pharma clients. His research contributions include numerous publications and abstracts focused on low level somatic mutation detection and characterization.

Bart Poulsen

Director of Chromatography Product Management
Bart Poulsen has over 25 years experience working for companies specializing in the manufacturing of polymeric based chromatography columns and consumables. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in chemistry, he worked as a chemist for Interaction Chemicals for nine years, eventually becoming the Director of Quality Control after it was acquired by E. Merck (Darmstadt). In 1991, he co-founded Interaction Chromatography, serving as Vice President until 1997. In addition to developing chromatography columns routinely used in the analytical chemistry industry for the analysis of carbohydrates, organic acids, and amino acids, he has co-authored articles on liquid chromatography applications. In 1997 Interaction Chromatography was merged with Sarasep and Cetac, to form Transgenomic. After serving as the Operations Manager of the chromatography group responsible for developing the DHPLC column for the WAVE^® System, he is currently working as the Director of Chromatography Product Management.