Director
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Scott E. McNeil, PhD Dr. McNeil serves as the Director of the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory (NCL) for Leidos Biomedical Research and Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, where he coordinates preclinical characterization of nanotech cancer therapeutics and diagnostics. |
Pharmacology & Toxicology
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Stephan T. Stern, PhD, DABT Dr. Stern is actively involved in applied nanomaterial research, and has published numerous articles on nanomaterial toxicology and pharmacokinetics in leading scientific journals. |
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Abdullah Mahmud, PhD Dr. Mahmud joined the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory (NCL) as a Formulation Scientist in October 2011. His responsibilities include development and reformulation of existing anticancer drugs using novel nanotechnology based delivery technologies. |
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David Stevens, PhD Dr. Stevens develops novel drug formulation strategies including micelle formulations and polymeric prodrugs for the improved delivery of small molecule chemotherapeutics. |
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Sarah Skoczen, MS Ms. Skoczen joined the NCL in September of 2005, as a Research Assistant. She is responsible for helping maintain human and animal primary and immortalized cells. |
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Kelsie Snapp, BS, MBA Kelsie’s role at the NCL involves working with bioanalytical assays and helping to develop methods for measuring nanoparticle drug release for the pharmacology and toxicology section. |
Immunology
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Marina A. Dobrovolskaia, PhD, MBA Dr. Dobrovolskaia is a Senior Principal Scientist and Head of the Immunology Section at the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory (NCL). |
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Enping Hong, PhD At the NCL, Dr. Hong studies the mechanisms of inflammation instigated by novel nucleic acid-based nanoparticles, and also investigates the immunotherapeutic potential of nanoparticles for peptide delivery. |
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Ankit Shah, PhD Dr. Shah joined the NCL as a post-doctoral fellow in the immunology section in July 2016. His studies are focused on the immunotoxicities associated with nanoparticles. In particular, he is interested in understanding the immune responses and the underlying molecular mechanisms resulting from iron oxide nanoparticles. |
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Barry Neun, BS Mr. Neun is the primary technician responsible for endotoxin and sterility pre-screening of all materials submitted to the NCL. |
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Edward Cedrone, BS Mr. Cedrone’s main role at the NCL is assessing nanoparticle effects on immune cell function by conducting in vitro and in vivo cell-based immune assays. Edward brings a wealth of experience in cell and tissue culture from his previous employment at the Cell Biology Program of the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) in Manassas, Virginia. |
Physicochemical Characterization
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Jeffrey D. Clogston, PhD Dr. Clogston joined the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory (NCL) as a Scientist in March 2006. In his position, Dr. Clogston conducts physico-chemical characterization and standardization of nanoparticles intended for cancer therapeutics and diagnostics. |
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Jiewei Wu Dr. Wu joined the NCL as a Scientist in August 2016. Her efforts are focused on the physicochemical characterization of nanoparticles, the development of new analytical methods for nanomedicine evaluation, and chemical synthesis and nanoformulation. |
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Sonny Man, MS Sonny Man joined the NCL in August of 2008 as a research associate. He is involved in the synthesis of nanomaterials intended for cancer therapeutics and diagnostics. |
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Alison Vermilya, MS Mrs. Vermilya assists in the physicochemical characterization of nanoparticles that are studied at the NCL, including transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging and size analysis, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and zeta potential measurements. |
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Cassandra Mankus, BS Cassandra Mankus joined the NCL in July 2016. She works in support of the physicochemical characterization of nanoparticles. |
Cancer Biology
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Pavan Adiseshaiah, PhD At the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory, Dr. Adiseshaiah will be responsible in the experimental design, implementation and analysis of in vivo oncology studies to characterize nanomaterials for therapeutics and diagnostics. |
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Bhawna Sharma, PhD Dr. Sharma joined the NCL in 2016 as a postdoctoral fellow in the Cancer Biology Section. Her work involves investigating the role of nanoparticles in cancer therapy and inflammasome activation. |
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Timothy Potter, BS Mr. Potter is the primary tissue culture technician for the NCL, maintaining human and animal primary and immortalized cells. His duties include running a variety of cell-based toxicity and immunology assays and working closely with other NCL personnel in assay development. |
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Travis Kerr, MS Travis joined the Cancer Biology section of the NCL in October 2016 as a Research Associate I. His duties include maintaining the tissue culture laboratory, both human and animal primary and immortalized cells, and running cytotoxicity assays (e.g. MTT and LDH) as part of the assay cascade for the characterization of nanomaterials. |
Alliance Management
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Jennifer Grossman, PhD Dr. Grossman leads NCL's Alliance Management Division, which has established and managed productive collaborations within NCI, FDA, NIST and a network of over 150 drug development labs in industry and academia. |
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Rachael M. Crist, PhD Dr. Crist is a Scientist II in NCL’s Alliance Management Division, part of a team of scientists responsible for managing the NCL’s external collaborations with academic and pharmaceutical organizations from around the globe, as well as interfacing with various agencies within the US Government. |
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Maggie Scully, PhD Maggie is a scientist on the Alliance Management team aimed at providing clear communication between NCL and its collaborators. Prior to this position, Dr. Scully spent over 9 years at the laboratory bench engineering and validating nanoparticles for drug delivery and imaging applications, predominantly for cancer. |
HQ Support
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Christopher McLeland, BS, MBA Chris McLeland joined the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory in October of 2004 as a Senior Research Associate. Mr. McLeland functions as the laboratory manager by providing financial analysis, logistical coordination, and technical support to team members. |
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Jamie Rodriguez, BS Mrs. Rodriguez joined the NCL as a Research Technician in January 2007. |
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Becky Schneider, BS Becky Schneider joined the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory in 2013 as the lab’s administrative professional. In her position, she provides administrative support to the lab’s Director and staff members, as well as liaise with staff from the National Cancer Institute’s Office of Cancer Nanotechnology Research. |