INFECTIOUS DISEASE TEAM

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Case W. McNamara, PhD
Senior Director, Infectious Disease
[email protected]

I have more than seventeen years of experience in drug discovery for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), including contributions toward multiple clinical-stage antimalarial candidates. Since joining Calibr-Skaggs in 2014, I have directed numerous and various drug discovery programs under funding from the Gates Foundation, ranging from parasites and worms to bacteria and viruses. A previous investment from Wellcome Trust in Calibr to become an NTD Flagship afforded our team even greater opportunities to develop new medicines to improve global health for cryptosporidiosis, Chagas disease and schistosomiasis.

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Team Leaders

Malina A. Bakowski, PhD
Associate Director
​Antibiotics, Antivirals, Kinetoplastids, & Parasitic Worms
​[email protected]
Krittikorn Kumpornsin, PhD
Research Scientist II
​Malaria Biology Lead
​[email protected]
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Paridhi Sukheja, PhD
​Investigator
​TB Biology Lead
​[email protected]
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Team Members

Carolina Manchola Varon. PhD
Research Scientist
​AMR & Kinetoplastids
Bakowski Lab
​[email protected]
Alma Trinidad-Javier
Research Assistant II
Malaria
McNamara Lab
​[email protected]
Dylan Mendonsa
Research Assistant I
Poliovirus, Influenza & HRV
​Bakowski Lab
​[email protected]
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Jasmine Webb
Research Assistant II
Tuberculosis
​McNamara Lab
​[email protected]
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Lauren Huerta
Research Assistant IV
​Influenza & Lab Biosafety Officer
Bakowski Lab
[email protected]
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Rachel Ford
Research Assistant I
​Tuberculosis
McNamara Lab
​[email protected]
Previous Lab Members:
  • Karen Wolff, Associate Director, antiviral team
  • Zhong Chen, Senior Research Scientist, antiviral team
  • Khushboo Pathak, Research Scientist I, antiviral team (currently Researcher/Lab Manager at Cedars Sinai)
  • Danielle "Dani" Wainio, Research Assistant II, kinetoplastid team (previously EH&S officer for Scripps Research)
  • Hannah Corman, PhD, Research Scientist I, kinetoplastid team  (currently Disease Research Scientist, County of San Diego)
  • Mina Heacock, Research Assistant II, antiviral team (currently Staff Research Associate II, UCLA Health)
  • Ixchel Urbano, Research Assistant II, antiviral team (currently at PhD graduate program at UC, Davis)
  • Megan Hackbarth, Intern (currently at Thermo Fisher Scientific)
  • Alessandro Cascioferro, PhD, Research Scientist I
  • Laura Riva, PhD, Investigator, antivirals (currently Principal Investigator at Calibr-Skaggs in Kristen Johnson's team)
  • Jenya Antonova-Koch, PhD, Research Scientist I, malaria team
  • Eva Geierstanger, Intern (currently attending Stanford)
  • Melanie Kirkpatrick, Research Scientist (currently in a MS program at UC, Santa Cruz)
  • Kastin Pan, Research Assistant I (earned her MS at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and is now a Clinical Researcher at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital & Broad Institute)
  • Amanda (Ward) Shane, Research Assistant IV, kinetoplastid team (earned her MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health)
  • Melissa Love, PhD, Associate Director (currently a Medical Science Liaison, AbbVie)
  • Amal Gebara-Lamb, Research Assistant II, antiviral team
  • Brianna (Lee) Baswell, Research Technician, cryptosporidosis team
  • Peiting "Melanie" Kuo, Intern
  • Kerstin Gagaring, Research Scientist (previously at Janssen Pharmaceutical Company of Johnson & Johnson)
  • Whitney Bullard, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate, antiviral (currently at Boehringer Ingelheim)
  • ​Kush Rawal, Research Assistant I, malaria team (currently at Rejuvenate Bio)
  • Surendra Jain, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate, TB team  (currently at HD Biosciences)
  • Changyou Lin, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate, TB team (currently at Sorrento Therapeutics)
  • Michael Harbut, PhD, Investigator, TB team (currently at Janssen Pharmaceutical Company of Johnson & Johnson)
  • Victoria Parra, Research Technician 
  • Yuzhou Tu, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate
  • Hee Jin "Joyce" Kim, Intern (currently at City of Hope)
  • Amanda Nguyen, Intern
  • Huafeng Wang, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate (currently at Regulus)
  • Fred Beasley, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate (currently at Taconic Biosciences)