Jessica Meinke, PhD

- PSB lead for oncology target validation and drug discovery efforts to select the lead molecule for CMC, Spearheading all molecular biology designs and developing receptor occupancy assays.

- Co-lead for oncology drug discovery program, including protein production, generating clonal overexpression cell lines, and assay development to support antibody screening efforts for both drug candidate and anti-mouse surrogate molecules.

- Contributor to multiple drug discovery programs, including reagent production for immunizations, assay development, and reagent/assay transfer to CROs for antibody discovery and screening.

Advisor: Dr. Adrian Keatinge-Clay - Cloned, expressed, and purified Polyketide Synthase (PKS) domains from E. coli using affinity and size exclusion chromatography for crystallographic screening and optimization. - Crystallized, optimized, solved and refined six x-ray crystal structures of PKS domains to discern important enzymatic features required for polyketide biosynthesis. -Evaluated the catalytic activity of excised PKS domains on both protein-linked and small molecule substrate mimics. Engineered point mutations and assessed effects on catalysis to elucidate potential mechanisms. - Award winning teaching assistant with seven semesters of TA experience in upper division biochemistry courses.

- Led and assisted in the development of a 96-well multiplex respiratory diagnostic assay using Target Capture and real-time Transcription Mediated Amplification (TMA) for the amplification and detection of RNA from multiple respiratory viruses for adaptation to a fully automated assay platform. - Led and assisted in optimizing lyophilization parameters and reagent compositions containing enzymes, nucleotides, excipients, and target specific primers and probes for single-unit-dose testing utilizing GLP/GMP principles.

- Led and assisted in the design and development of a quantitative TMPRSS2:ERG gene fusion assay using Target Capture, Transcription Mediated Amplification (TMA) and Hybridization Protection Assay (HPA) for the amplification and detection of TMRSS2:ERG mRNA on a fully automated assay platform. - Led and assisted in the design and development of TMPRSS2:ERG TMA HPA qualitative and quantitative assays on multiple manual assay platforms. - Participated in analytical study preparation and testing for FDA submission of the PROGENSA PCA3 Assay. - Promoted three times in four years; nominated for the Excellence in Innovation Award.