Human insulin · PDB 3I40 · 411 atoms drag to rotate · double-click to reset
Designing murine models, reading immune systems at 18 colors of resolution, and turning preclinical data into decisions in early-stage therapeutic development.
Master's-level translational research scientist with six years of hands-on experience across academia, government, and industry, supporting preclinical drug discovery and in vivo pharmacology in immunology, structural biology, diabetes, ophthalmology, and metabolic disease.
I design and execute in vivo studies β murine transplant and knockout models β and read out pharmacodynamic responses, biomarker profiles, and disease-relevant immune activity using multi-parameter flow cytometry and IHC/IF tissue immunophenotyping. My work sits at the interface where messy biological data becomes an actionable decision: continue, redesign, or kill.
Before the in vivo work I spent three and a half years in structural biology β solving 3D peptide structures by 1D/2D NMR, synthesizing and macrocyclizing the peptides myself, and applying SAR and pharmacophore mimicry to proteinβprotein interaction targets. It is the reason I read a therapeutic candidate as a molecule with a mechanism, not just a dose on a study calendar.
That work is backed by cGLP/cGMP and ISO experience from the manufacturing side of medical-device development, and by cross-functional collaboration with principal investigators, veterinarians, and QC/QA teams.
Murine disease models: colony management, breeding and genotyping, IP / retro-orbital / tail-vein dosing, blood and tissue collection, glucose monitoring, live animal imaging. Preclinical safety and efficacy studies with pharmacodynamic and biomarker readouts, under IACUC protocol.
Multi-parameter flow cytometry, β₯18-color panels. Cytek Aurora, BD LSRFortessa, BD FACSCanto II. Immunophenotyping, immune subset characterization, and inflammatory profiling for biomarker assessment. FlowJo.
Western blotting, SDS-PAGE, ELISA, chemiluminescence detection, reverse-phase HPLC, protein quantification. RNA/DNA extraction and purification, cDNA synthesis, PCR, qPCR, and molecular cloning for gene-expression and pathway analysis.
Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence on whole-mount cornea, conjunctiva, and lacrimal gland. Fluorescence and confocal microscopy, histopathology, and quantitative image-based immune infiltration analysis in ImageJ.
Preclinical safety, efficacy, and permeability of ophthalmic formulations β BCOP for corneal opacity and permeability, HET-CAM for irritation and angiogenesis, Franz diffusion cells for drug transit across ex vivo tissue.
GraphPad Prism, FlowJo, ImageJ, Qubit, NanoDrop, INSTRON. Mammalian and primary cell culture (adherent and suspension), phage culture with radioisotope labeling, cell migration assays. Statistical analysis and scientific writing.
1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy (TOCSY, NOESY, HSQC) with signal assignment in CARA and 3D structure calculation in CYANA; molecular modeling in UCSF Chimera. Solid-phase peptide synthesis, macrocyclization, reverse-phase HPLC, SAR analysis.
cGLP and cGMP operations β SOP development, QC/QA documentation, ISO 13485 and regulatory compliance, verification and validation, product labeling, and manufacturing scale-up from raw-material dispensing to finished product.
Three of the instruments this work runs on, made hands-on. The data are simulated β the behaviour is not.
Alfuraih S., Patel D., Choi W., Ramasamy K., Ansari R., Sharma A. A protocol for immunostaining of macrophages in whole-mount mouse cornea, conjunctiva, and lacrimal gland. doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2024.103444 β
Choi W. Analyzing Functional Interactions of Designed Peptides by NMR Spectroscopy. Chapman University. doi.org/10.36837/chapman.000507 β
Lohan S., Mandal D., Choi W., Konshina A.G., Tiwari R.K., Efremov R.G., Maslennikov I., Parang K. Small amphiphilic peptides: activity against a broad range of drug-resistant bacteria and structural insight into membranolytic properties. doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c01782 β
Ocular surface safety and tolerability evaluation of MG53 protein-containing hydrogel.
Irradiation conditioning regimen increases conjunctival chemokines and impacts conjunctival macrophages: implications for ocular GVHD.
Diabetes mellitus causes neutrophil and macrophage influx to the ocular surface and lacrimal gland.
β Travel Grant Awarded Β· Hot Topic 2024Recombinant extracellular domain Klotho-Ξ± attenuates senescence in human corneal epithelial cells.
Open to Research Associate II / Senior Research Associate roles in preclinical drug discovery, in vivo pharmacology, and translational immunology.