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Joanna Davies, DPhil

Joanna Davies graduated with a D.Phil. in Immunology from Oxford University, U.K., in 1986. She became Assistant Professor at The Scripps Research Institute in 1998 and established her first independent research group there. In 2001 she moved her research group to Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, where she became Professor and Director of Scientific Affairs from 2009–2014. She established San Diego Diabetes Research Institute (i.e., Ballad) in June 2013 and incorporated San Diego Biomedical Research Institute in July 2013.

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James Binley, PhD

Dr. Binley earned his Ph.D.  in Immunology/HIV in 1995 from The Scripps Research Institute and the University of Sheffield, UK. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York in 1999. He was an Instructor at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. In 2001, he returned to The Scripps Research Institute as Staff Scientist. In 2004, he established his laboratory at Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies. 

 

Celine DerMardirossian, PhD

Céline DerMardirossian received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Paris Orsay XI, France and completed her post-doctoral studies in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology in Prof. Gary M. Bokoch at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA. As an Associate Professor at The Scripps Research Institute in the Molecular and Medicine Department, her work was focused on deciphering the molecular mechanisms that regulate the spatio-temporal activation of GTPases for efficient cell locomotion. This information is critical to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying normal physiological function and the consequences of dysregulation under pathological conditions as cancer. Recently, Dr. DerMardirossian joined SDBRI as a Professor, she is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Molecular and Medicine Department at The Scripps Research Institute. Ongoing projects in the lab are the analysis of the role of RhoGTPases, their regulators GEFs and GAPs, and their new binding partners identified in the lab in regulating cell migration and invasion to design new strategies to control the aberrant activation of RhoGTPases in cancer.

Experimental approaches used in her lab include techniques of biochemistry, state-of-the-art microscopy, high throughput screening, and xenograft mouse studies.

 

Wael M. ElShamy, PhD

Dr. ElShamy obtained his B.Sc. in Chemistry in 1986 from the Ayn-Shams University in Egypt. He received his Ph.D. in Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics in 1998 from the Royal Karolinska Institute in Sweden. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School before becoming an instructor at Harvard Medical School in 2002. He is Dr. Lawrence and Mrs. Bo Hing chan Tseu American Cancer Society Research Scholar. Most recently, he was the director of the Molecular Cancer Therapeutic Program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Cancer Institute. Dr. ElShamy’s interests encompass basic, clinical and translational cancer research and research programs in his laboratory focus on identifying and improving treatments for breast and ovarian cancers, especially metastatic diseases. Towards this aim, his laboratory focuses on identifying the earliest lesions of these diseases and development of targeted therapies against them. His is also interested in identifying novel diagnostic as well as prognostic biomarkers for these early lesions and developing novel drug delivery techniques.

 

Maria Cecilia Marcondes, PhD

Dr. Marcondes received her PhD in immunology from  Immunology, Universidade de Sao Paulo (Brazil) in 1996. She was a postdoctoral fellow at New York University Medical Center, Skirball Institute of Molecular Medicine and The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), Department of Neuropharmacology. Before joining San Diego Biomedical Research Institute as Associate Professor, she was Assistant Professor at TSRI,Molecular and Cellular Neurosciences Department. The Marcondes Lab examines oxidative stress-mediated mechanisms that affect body temperature by modifying thermogenic programs centrally and in the brown fat.

 

Barbara Mueller, PhD

Dr. Mueller graduated with a Dr. rer. nat. (Doctorate in Natural Sciences) degree from Christian Albrechts Universitaet in Kiel, Germany. She completed postdoctoral studies with Dr. Ralph Reisfeld in the Department of Immunology at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA. She has been a faculty member at The Scripps Research Institute, the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, and the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies. 

 

Fahumiya Samad, PhD

Fahumiya Samad received her Ph.D. in Biology (Immunology) from The University of Wisconsin. Upon completion of her post-doctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute in the laboratory of Dr. David J. Loskutoff, she became Assistant Professor in the Department of Vascular Biology at Scripps. She then joined the La Jolla Institute for Molecular Studies as Associate Professor, later moving to the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies. Dr. Samad is Editor-in-Chief of Adipocyte, the first international peer-reviewed journal focusing exclusively on all aspects of adipose tissue physiology and pathology.

 

Richard Milner, PhD

Richard Milner trained at the University of Cambridge where he received his PhD in Neurobiology in 1995 and MD in 1998. He completed postdoctoral training at Cambridge and at The Scripps Research Institute before establishing his independent group there in 2006. He joined SDBRI in 2018. His studies focus on the design of new therapeutic approaches aimed at combating neurological disease by increasing blood supply and reducing vascular breakdown. Dr. Milner serves on grant review committees for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the American Heart Association and actively reviews for several scientific journals.