Edie Dullaghan

Head, Target Validation Centre for Drug Research and Development

  • Vancouver BC

Striving for excellence through mentoring people and by fostering creative/critical thinking,

Contact

Biography

I obtained my PhD studying the cause of TB. I emigrated to Canada and did a post-doctoral position at UBC again studying TB. After my post-doctoral position I served as a Project Leader for Inimex Pharmaceuticals Inc on a project funded by the Bill Gates Foundation. I have a strong track record in developing robust animal models of human infections.

As Division Head of Target Validation at the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) my responsibilities include the development of cutting edge assays to facilitate the identification of biomarkers of interest to develop as companion diagnostics for clinical trial drug candidates. My team has now facilitated several such assays that are enabling biotechnology companies in Canada to develop new drugs in several indications. In addition I execute project plans for Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) projects. Oversee scientific activities for projects and ensure appropriate resourcing for key POC experiments to be conducted.

Industry Expertise

Research

Areas of Expertise

Drug Development
Infectious Disease Biology
Molecular Genetics of Gene Expression
Immunohistochemistry
Antibiotic development
Tuberculosis infections
Staphylococcus aureus infections
Cell Culture
Protein Chemistry
Drug Discovery
Molecular Biology
MRSA infections
Life Sciences - Biotech and Pharmaceuticals

Accomplishments

• B.C. Childhood Lung Disorders Association Fellowship 2000-2002.

Two year funding to enable further understanding of the role of macrophages in tuberculosis infection.

• MRC (U.K.) Ph.D. Fellowship 1996-1999.

Ph.D. Funding at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, England

• MRC (U.K.) Sandwich Student Award. 1993-1994.

An 8 month award to study the role of the immune system in Plasmodium falciparum (malaria) infection in humans.

Education

University of Hertfordshire

Bachelor of Science with honors

Applied Biology

1996

National Institute for Medical Research

PhD

Microbiology

1999

The NIMR does not award its own degrees. The awarding body was University College London

Patents

MAO-B Selective Inhibitor Compounds, Pharmaceutical Compositions Thereof and Uses Thereof

PCT/CA2014/000658

2013-08-20

The invention relates to MAO-B selective inhibitor therapeutics, pharmaceutical compositions thereof and their uses and methods for the treatment of various indications, including epithelial and endothelial diseases. In particular, to therapeutic compositions and methods of treating epithelial and endothelial diseases.

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Anti-Bacterial Pyruvate Kinase Modulator Compounds, Uses and Methods

PCT/CA2015/000434

2015-07-10

Compounds of general formula that are capable of inhibiting bacterial pyruvate kinase and/or bacterial growth. The compounds may find use as antibacterial agents in therapeutic and/or non- therapeutic contexts.

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ANTIBIOTIC COMPOUNDS, PHARMACEUTICAL FORMULATIONS THEREOF AND METHODS AND USES THEREFORE

PCT/CA2016/000272

2016-11-04

International filing took place November 4th 2016.

Articles

"Discovery and optimization of a new class of pyruvate kinase inhibitors as potential therapeutics for the treatment of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections"

Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry

2014-01-24

This paper covers the optimization of a new class of antibiotics for serious Gram+ve infections including MRSA.

Liver-X-Receptor and Progesterone Receptor activation promote apolipoprotein E secretion from CCF-STG1 astrocytoma cells.

Journal of Lipid Research

2013-11-01

Abstract
Apolipoprotein E is the major lipid carrier in the central nervous system. ApoE plays a major role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), and also modulates repair pathways after several forms of acute brain injury. Modulating apoE expression, secretion and function may therefore provide potential therapeutic approaches for several neurological disorders. Here we report that natural progesterone and a synthetic progestin, lynestrenol, significantly induce apoE secretion from human astrocytoma cells, whereas estrogens and allopregnanolone have negligible effects. Lynestrenol also increases the expression of the cholesterol transporter ABCA1 at both transcriptional and protein levels via a liver-X-receptor (LXR) dependent pathway. By using a progesterone receptor inhibitor RU486, progesterone receptor (PR) is shown to participate in the regulation of apoE expression in response to lynestrenol and progesterone but has no effect on ABCA1 expression. These results demonstrate the selectivity of certain reproductive hormones to regulate apoE secretion by facilitating both LXR-dependent and PR-dependent pathways in glial cells.

Abstract 2187: Pan-cancer identification and prioritization of cancer-associated differentially expressed genes: A biomarker discovery application.

Cancer Research

2017-03-23

Cancer is fundamentally a disease of disordered gene expression. In fact, reversal or neutralization of the changes in gene expression has been shown to be attractive targets for the development of new anti-cancer drugs and therapeutic strategies. New approaches such as antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) also target differentially expressed genes as a mean to recognize tumor cells to selectively deliver toxins to a tumor. In the past decade, the global analysis of gene expression in human cancers have led to the development of a number of potential new biomarkers. For instance, mesothelin (MSLN) was identified as an over-expressed gene in pancreatic cancer and later was proved to be a useful diagnostic marker and so a therapeutic target. Large-scale gene expression analysis, using techniques such as RNA sequencing, provides a powerful tool to identify genes involved in human cancers. In this study, with the ultimate goal being to identify potential novel targets for cancer immunotherapy, we conducted a pan-cancer differential expression analysis in RNA sequencing data from more than 5,000 patients with 25 different cancer types generated by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We identified differentially expressed genes (present in at least 5% of samples in a tumor type) in comparison to a large compendium of normal transcriptomes (more than 650 samples, including 30 tissue types) gathered from Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx), illumina BodyMap project 2.0, TCGA, and an in-house database. In total, we identified 892 putative tumor-associated differentially expressed genes. In order to further identify novel candidate genes and rank them based on their antigenic potential, we performed an extensive literature search and systematic review to collect the characteristics of an ideal tumor antigen (TA). We developed an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model - a multiple-criteria decision-making solution - to depict antigen properties for ranking and prioritizing the tumor-associated differentially expressed genes. Our model recognizes the known tumor antigens (such as CA9, Nectin-4, FN1, MSLN and MUC16, which are currently in clinic or pre-clinical studies) in the top 25 of the ranked list. We are currently validating the top-ranked novel antigens in an orthogonal panel of tumor and normal tissues and cell lines using PCR.

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