Scientific Management
Chief Scientific Officer – Ed LeCluyse, Ph.D.
Vice President, Operations – Chris Black, Ph.D.
Director of In Vitro Services – Jeanette Hill, Ph.D.
Study Director – Stephen Ferguson, Ph.D.
Study Director – LaHoma Easterwood, Ph.D.
Study Director – Karla Johanning, Ph.D.
Study Director – Jonathan Jackson, Ph.D.
Study Director – Rob T. Taylor, Ph.D.
Study Director – Cheryl Bartleson, Ph.D.
Study Director – Ganesh Rajaraman, Ph.D.
Scientific Advisor – Jasminder Sahi, Ph.D.
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Chief Scientific Officer – Edward LeCluyse, Ph.D.
Dr. Edward LeCluyse leads CellzDirect research
in the in vitro hepatic area. He also contributes significantly to hepatic cell product and assay development and
CellzDirect collaborations, consulting, and scientific lectures. Dr. LeCluyse oversees training of all cell
culture staff members, as well as the writing and implementation of the company’s standard operating procedures.
Dr. LeCluyse completed his postdoctoral fellowship in Toxicology/Pharmacology at the University of Kansas Medical
School under Dr. Andrew Parkinson. He served as senior research biologist at Merck & Co, Inc. and as
associate professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Pharmacy from 1996 until 2004.
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Vice President, Operations – Christopher Black, Ph.D.
At CellzDirect, Dr. Christopher Black manages
overall operations for cell products and contract services. Dr. Black leads the scientific teams that produce quality
hepatic cell products and design and implement GLP and non-GLP in vitro drug metabolism services in support of drug
discovery and drug development. Dr. Black also leads the company's sales program for contract research services.
Dr. Black received his doctorate from Ohio State University and completed his postdoctoral fellow at the University of
Texas at Austin, focusing on drug action mechanisms. His collaboration with Professor René Levy at the University
of Washington at Seattle focused on
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Director of In Vitro Services – Jeanette Hill, Ph.D.
Dr. Jeanette Hill manages in vitro services
for CellzDirect including contracted drug metabolism projects for in vitro CYP450 induction studies,
in vitro cytochrome P450 inhibition (drug-drug interaction) studies, metabolite profiling, and enzyme
identification studies.
Dr. Hill began her career as an analytical chemist at Sigma Chemical Company. She received her doctorate from
Washington University and completed post-doctoral research in autoimmune diabetes at Case Western Reserve University
where she studied the inflammatory processes involved in alcoholic liver disease, focusing on the role of Kupffer
cells, cytokine release, nitric oxide and apoptotic signaling on hepatocyte destruction and liver damage. As a
senior scientist/manager at Ricerca Biosciences, LLC, Dr. Hill directed an In Vitro Drug Screening/DMPK
group for performance of contracted drug development and discovery studies. Her additional duties included
scientific consultation, business development and proposal preparation.
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Study Director – Stephen Ferguson, Ph.D.
Dr. Stephen Ferguson is a study director for CellzDirect with expertise in the areas of receptor-mediated CYP450 gene regulation and the use of human hepatocyte model systems to study drug metabolism and induction. Dr. Ferguson serves as a study director for various projects including induction, reaction phenotyping, inhibition, metabolic stability, and research & development projects.
Formerly, Dr. Ferguson was a research fellow in the Human Metabolism Section of the Laboratory of Pharmacology and Chemistry at the National Institute on Environmental Health Sciences. As a research postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Joyce Goldstein’s laboratory, Dr. Ferguson studied the mechanisms of drug induction and pharmacogenetics in collaboration with Dr. Masahiko Negishi and Dr. Edward LeCluyse. Dr. Ferguson received his Ph.D. in chemistry in 2000 in the North Carolina State University laboratory of Dr. Charles Cornman, where he utilized molecular biology tools to study and develop novel metalloproteins with transition metals for future development strategies of catalytic metalloantibodies. Dr. Ferguson has published 10 peer-reviewed articles in the areas of CYP450 induction, drug metabolism and pharmacogenetics.
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Study Director – LaHoma Easterwood, Ph.D.
Dr. LaHoma Easterwood is a study director for CellzDirect's drug metabolism projects, including in vitro CYP450 inhibition and induction, metabolite stability and profiling, and enzyme identification studies.
Dr. Easterwood received her doctorate in chemistry from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and completed her postdoctoral training in the Department of Pharmacology/Toxicology at the University of Utah. Her post-doctoral research under the leadership of Dr. Garold Yost focused on investigating the role of CYP450-dependent dehydrogenation in mechanism-based enzyme inhibition, through which she gained expertise in CYP450 enzyme kinetics and CYP450 inhibition (direct and time-dependent). In addition, her research focused on the identification of metabolites generated by CYP450-mediated catalysis of small molecules.
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Study Director – Karla Johanning, Ph.D.
Dr. Karla Johanning is a study director for CellzDirect's drug metabolism projects, including in vitro CYP450 inhibition and induction, metabolite stability and profiling, and enzyme identification studies.
Dr. Johanning received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in biological sciences from the University of Rhode Island and received postdoctoral training at Louisiana State University Medical Center (LSUMC) and Tulane University’s medical center. In LSUMC’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, she studied the cellular and molecular biology of enzymatic processing of pro-hormones into bioactive peptides. At Tulane, Dr. Johanning continued her postdoctoral training in molecular biology at the Tulane Cancer Center to research the effects of genetic and environmental factors on repetitive sequences resulting in genetic instability in the onset and progression of cancer. In March 2002, she joined the Center for Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane and Xavier Universities as senior research scientist in the Environmental Endocrinology Lab, where she conducted research in the field of endocrine disrupters.
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Study Director – Jonathan Jackson, Ph.D.
Dr. Jonathan Jackson directs CellzDirect’s in vitro drug metabolism studies, including cytochrome P450 induction, inhibition and reaction phenotyping studies.
Dr. Jackson received his doctorate in molecular and cellular toxicology from North Carolina State University in a graduate partnership program with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). He was a pre-doctoral research fellow in the Human Metabolism Section in the NIEHS Laboratory of Pharmacology and Chemistry, under the direction of Drs. Joyce Goldstein and Masahiko Negishi. Dr. Jackson’s dissertation focused on the role of nuclear receptors in the drug-induced transcriptional activation of cytochrome P450 enzymes. As a postdoctoral research fellow, Dr. Jackson investigated the effects of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease on drug metabolism and disposition at the University of Arizona, under Dr. Nathan Cherrington.
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Study Director – Rob L. Taylor, Ph.D.
Dr. Rob Taylor is study director for CellzDirect’s in vitro drug metabolism studies, including cytochrome P450 inhibition and induction, and drug–drug interaction studies.
Dr. Taylor received his doctorate from the Molecular Toxicology Interdepartmental Doctoral Program at the University of California at Los Angeles. Under the guidance of Dr. Oliver Hankinson, Dr. Taylor’s dissertation focused on elucidating mechanisms of transcription of cytochromes P450, mediated by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor complex. Through his graduate training, Dr. Taylor gained expertise in molecular biology and cytochrome P450 gene induction by xenobiotics.
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Study Director — Cheryl Bartleson, Ph.D.
Dr. Cheryl Bartleson directs CellzDirect’s in vitro drug metabolism studies, including cytochrome P450 induction,
inhibition and reaction phenotyping studies.
Dr. Bartleson received her doctorate in biochemistry from Iowa State University in the laboratory of Dr. Donald J. Graves.
Dr. Bartleson’s dissertation focused on the substrate and inhibitor specificities of phosphorylase kinase and protein
phosphatase-1. She completed her postdoctoral training at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
In the Department of Pharmacology with Dr. Hamm’s lab, Dr. Bartleson studied the role of heterotrimeric G proteins in
synaptic transmission. Dr. Bartleson continued her post-doctoral studies in the Center in Molecular Toxicology and
the Department of Biochemistry. As a research fellow in Dr. Guengerich’s laboratory, Dr. Bartleson studied the expression
and tissue-specific localization of the human “orphan” cytochrome P450s.
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Study Director – Ganesh Rajaraman, Ph.D.
Dr. Ganesh Rajaraman is a study director for CellzDirect’s in vitro drug metabolism studies, including
cytochrome P450 induction, inhibition, and drug–drug interaction studies.
Dr. Rajaraman received his doctorate from the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Manitoba under the guidance
of Dr. Frank J. Burczynski. Dr. Rajaraman’s dissertation focused on understanding the role of fatty-acid binding
proteins in important hepatocellular processes such as fatty-acid uptake and transport, mitosis, and
oxidative stress. As a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of British Columbia, he conducted
toxicological studies to assess the effect of herbal extracts on drug-induced hepatotoxicity in
both in vivo animal models and in vitro rat hepatocyte models, under the guidance of
Dr. Thomas K. Chang. Dr. Rajaraman gained expertise in the areas of in vitro hepatotoxicity screening,
drug-induced liver toxicity, and drug-drug interactions involving cytochrome p450s through his graduate and
post-doctoral training.
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Scientific Advisor – Jasminder Sahi, Ph.D.
At CellzDirect, Dr. Jasminder Sahi
focuses on customer scientific
consultation, product development, hepatic research, study design, report review, scientific presentations, and
operational oversight.
Dr. Sahi completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois
at Chicago, where she was focused on gut transport and signal transduction research. After 10 years with
Parke Davis and Pfizer Global R&D, Dr. Sahi has gained vast experience in preclinical drug discovery
and development. At Pfizer, she was senior principal scientist in drug metabolism and earned prestigious project/program
leadership positions including global head of drug induction studies. Dr. Sahi is recognized as an
expert in the areas of liver enzyme induction, transporters and in vitro drug discovery and development
strategy, and has published or contributed to 25 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.
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