Research

Justina Burns, Ph.D. serves as Associate Director of Analytical Chemistry supporting process development at the Medicines for All Institute. Previously she worked in contract research supporting a variety of projects which included sample preparation/analysis, report writing and training. Additionally, Justina worked in the Mass Spectrometry Center at the University of South Carolina focusing on ICP-MS. She holds a B.S. in chemistry from University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown and a Ph.D. in analytical environmental chemistry from the University of South Carolina.

Daniel W. Cook, PhD is a senior analytical chemist within the Medicines for All Institute where he utilizes his expertise in separation sciences and chemometrics to develop and implement analytical methods to support the Institute’s various projects. He holds a B.S in chemistry from Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, VA and a Ph.D. in chemistry from VCU. Prior to his current role at M4ALL, he held a postdoctoral fellowship at VCU in the Chemical and Life Science Engineering department working on both the Pharmacy on Demand project under Dr. Thomas Roper and M4ALL under Dr. Frank Gupton. He transitioned into his current role in early 2019.

Dr. Titas Deb joins our team from the University of Utah where she successfully defended her PhD thesis while serving as a graduate student in the synthetic medicinal chemistry department. While at the University of Utah, she had the opportunity to work on investigating a divergent reactivity between Cu(I) and Rh(II) carbenes generated from vinyl diazophosphonates as well as projects involving bioorthogonal chemistry and self-immolative linkers to improve the biodistribution of PSMA-targeting radiopharmaceuticals. Titas brings experience with the synthesis and purification of small molecules and technical skills in NMR, HPLC and LC-MS.

Daryl Guthrie (PhD Chemistry Johns Hopkins University, BSc Chemistry Randolph-Macon College) is a Richmond native who joined M4ALL’s Global Health research team in August, 2022.  He is a former NIH postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program (NIDA-IRP), where he designed and synthesized novel dopamine transporter (DAT) ligands, including 1) fluorescent cocaine analogs enabling single-molecule localization microscopy, and 2) tropane-based ibogaine analogs for rescuing the function of misfolded DAT mutants associated with Dopamine Transporter Deficiency Syndrome (DTDS).  Daryl's PhD at Johns Hopkins, focused on developing efficient HNO prodrug therapeutics for treating acute and chronic heart failure, for which he holds multiple patents. At M4ALL, Daryl applies novel chemistry to design and develop scalable, low-cost synthetic routes and processes to known or in-development active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and their key starting materials.

Sam brings nearly 17 years of diverse experience, first spending time in the automotive industry early on in his career before moving into organic and analytical chemistry groups. He worked several years in the aerospace industry on complex high precision microwave, millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave passive components and assemblies for ground and space use. Most recently for the past 6 years, he has been in supervisory roles helping grow the next generation of chemists by training on how to operate and maintain analytical instrumentation.  He earned his BS in Chemistry from Purdue University at Fort Wayne.

Dr. Huang brings over 16 years of industrial experience in organic synthesis, catalysis, and heterocyclic chemistry, with a proven track record of developing and scaling synthetic routes from gram to multi‑kilogram quantities in fast‑paced environments.

Most recently, Dr. Huang has been leading projects at Olon USA LLC, where he designed and optimized novel synthetic routes, supervised scale‑up teams, and successfully delivered complex multistep targets with exceptional purity. His earlier roles include positions at Tyger Scientific and J&W Pharmlab LLC, where he synthesized and scaled hundreds of advanced intermediates for pharmaceutical research.

Dr. Huang earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Alabama, under the guidance of Professor Kevin H. Shaughnessy. His doctoral work focused on asymmetric hydrosilylation, palladacycle synthesis, and rhodium‑catalyzed addition reactions. He is also highly skilled in analytical techniques, including GC, GC/MS, FT‑IR, NMR, and HPLC.

Dr. Li Jin earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), an institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and he completed postdoctoral trainings at both Clemson University and University of South Florida in the US. Dr. Jin is an experienced scientist with over 20 years of organic synthesis experience in both industry and academia.  He has expertise in asymmetric catalysis, API synthesis, process development, and scale-up in both R&D and GMP environments.  Prior to joining M4ALL, he led a team of scientists in the Synthetic Chemistry Department at Olon Ricerca Bioscience.  Beyond his expertise as a scientist, Li also brings experience leading teams, managing complex projects with tight deadlines, providing technical support to and communicating with sponsors/customers, and has authored 28 publications in high-impact journals including JACS and ACIE.

Douglas Klumpp obtained a B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Oklahoma. He then earned his Ph.D. degree from Iowa State University under the supervision of Professor Walter S. Trahanovsky. This was followed by postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Professor George A. Olah at the University of Southern California. His independent career has involved academic appointments at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and Northern Illinois
University.

More recently, he joined the scientific staff at the Medicines for All Research Institutes at Virginia Commonwealth University.

To date, he has published over 100 original research articles, seven book chapters, and the monograph, “Superelectrophiles and Their
Chemistry” coauthored with George A. Olah (Wiley, 2008). His interests include synthetic methodology development and target-oriented organic synthesis.

Dr. Pankaj Khairnar is a research scientist at Medicines for All Institute (M4ALL) working on the low-cost synthesis and process development to access active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). He received his Ph.D in 2020 from National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan, under the supervision of Prof. Wenwei Lin, where he worked on asymmetric organocatalysis and intramolecular Wittig reactions strategy using nucleophilic phosphine. Before his Ph.D he worked as an project assistant (2014-2016) at CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India, under the supervision of Dr. D. Srinivasa Reddy, where he worked on total synthesis of natural products and was involved in several medicinal chemistry programs.

Roudabeh Moazeni obtained her Ph.D. in Chemometrics, Analytical Chemistry at Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2014.  Her research focuses on the application of mathematical and statistical methods to evaluate data and analytical measurements. Dr. Moazeni combines chemometrics and analytical chemistry for use in areas such as biology, pharmaceuticals, chemistry, chemical engineering, food and environmental sciences. Her slogan is to “Help and make the people of the world be healthier and happier”. She joined Medicines for All Institute at VCU to develop process analytical technologies and chemometric models which can monitor the quality of pharmaceutical processes.

Kevin brings over 20 years of professional experience in research and development within
regulated analytical laboratory environments. Before joining Medicines for All, he spent five
years at Haleon as a Senior Analytical Scientist, where he led analytical method
development, validation, and method transfers to support the launch of numerous OTC
products in global markets. He worked closely with process development scientists to
optimize analytical resources and implement value-added testing of critical quality attributes,
enhancing new product development and innovation.

Earlier in his career, Kevin gained valuable experience at Alcami, GSK, and Novartis,
leading analytical projects, applying a wide range of techniques and instrumentation, and
mentoring junior scientists in both instrumentation and critical scientific thinking. He is highly
skilled in laboratory investigations to identify root causes of issues that may arise during
drug product release and stability testing.

Kevin earned his BS in Chemistry from South Dakota State University. Outside of work, he
enjoys golfing, reading across a variety of topics, and taking cruises with his family to warm
and scenic destinations.

Kevin Robb, Ph.D. is a native of St. Charles, Missouri. He received his B.S. in chemistry from Truman State University in 2013. He then enrolled in graduate study at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in the laboratory of Prof. Scott Denmark. While there, Kevin worked on numerous projects under the umbrella of organic synthesis and methodology, culminating in the study of preparative and mechanistic aspects of Lewis base catalyzed transformations. He contributed to the development of two catalytic, enantioselective transformations: 1) polyene sulfenocyclization and 2) carbosulfenylation of alkenylboronate complexes enabled by boronate migration.

He received his Ph.D. in chemistry in 2019 and spent the next four years as an educator, first as assistant professor at Hastings College (NE) and subsequently as visiting assistant professor at Grinnell College (IA). Kevin primarily instructed organic and general chemistry during this time and mentored several undergraduate research projects. To further explore his interests in pharmaceutical chemistry and process development, Kevin joined the VCU M4ALL Institute in August 2023 as a postdoctoral research associate.

Anand H. Shinde, Ph.D., completed his M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry at Fergusson college, Pune in India. He then completed a Ph.D. in Chemistry at Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH), India under the guidance of Professor D. S. Sharada in 2017 where he worked on cycloadditions and NH-activations strategies for the synthesis of novel drug-like molecules. Subsequently, he joined Professor Barry M. Trost’s research group in 2018 as Postdoctoral Research Scholar at Stanford University, where he worked on asymmetric catalysis in cycloaddition reactions. From there, he moved to University of Kansas to Prof. Shyam Sathyamoorthi’s research group as Postdoctoral Research Scholar, where he worked on metal catalyzed organic transformations (2019-2022). He is currently with Medicines for All working on process development to access active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).

Dr. Aline Souza is a Scientist at Medicines for All
(M4ALL). She joins our team from Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar,
Brazil), where she received her PhD in 2021 under the supervision of Dr. Kleber
Thiago de Oliveira. Her research focused on the development of
methodologies involving the functionalization of C-H connections via
photocatalysis and electrochemistry in batch and continuous flow regime. She
has experience with condition studies that enable the synthesis of molecules
using continuous flow conditions, making processes safer and more
economical as well as assembly and design of systems and reactors that
operate in a continuous flow regime. While finishing her PhD, she had the opportunity to work for a small
pharmaceutical company, where she helped improve the manufacturing
process to supply two active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Barrack Stubbs, Ph.D. is a senior analytical chemist for Medicines for All. He earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Kettering University in Flint, Michigan and his M.Sc and PhD in analytical chemistry from Michigan State University. Following graduation he served as an instructor of general chemistry courses at MSU. He brings over 14 years of combined education and hands-on experience in teaching and research. Prior to joining M4ALL Barrack worked as an analytical chemist for PharmaChem Technologies in Freeport, Bahamas.

Nakul holds BPharm and MPharm degrees from the University of Mumbai, and Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from University of Mississippi (Olemiss). Dr. Nakul Telang has broad experience in synthetic organic chemistry. He brings to the organization about 7 years of his strong post-doctoral research experience with focus on multidisciplinary approach. Before joining Medicines for All Initiative, his research focus was on the design, synthesis and lead optimization of novel chemical entities (NCEs) to develop potent and selective compounds for the treatment of breast cancer under the valuable guidance of Professor John Gupton at University of Richmond. As a post-doctoral fellow in Gupton's group, he also successfully synthesized numerous pyrrole-based marine natural products (Ningalins, Polycitrins, Lycogalic
acid and Lycogarubicin C). In addition, he had the opportunity to collaborate on an externally funded project with Boehringer Ingelheim, on the process optimization of initial key steps in the synthesis of Pradaxa. Previously, he also served as a visiting lecturer of Organic Chemistry at University of Richmond and was invited to teach a science outreach course titled as 'Great Ideas in Science' at School of Professional and Continuing Studies (SPCS) at University of Richmond.

Dr. Tokala brings over 18 years of expertise in synthesis, process development, scale-up, and technology transfer for API manufacturing across both R&D and cGMP-compliant environments. He possesses extensive knowledge of regulatory frameworks, including ICH guidelines and cGMP protocols, ensuring strong adherence to compliance and quality standards throughout all phases of pharmaceutical development.

Prior to joining Medicines for All, Dr. Tokala spent more than 11 years at Dow Inc. as a Process Technology Leader, where he led a team of scientists and managed multiple R&D laboratories and strategic projects. Earlier in his career, he gained over seven years of experience at Cambridge Major Labs (now Sterling Pharma Solutions), a leading CDMO, where he advanced from industrial postdoc to senior and principal scientist roles.

Dr. Tokala earned his Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, where he contributed to the total synthesis of several natural products. His research achievements have been featured in numerous international scientific journals.