PTGB Staff Profiles and Focus Areas

Joseph Agyin, Ph.D., M.B.A.

Dr. Agyin received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Purdue University, where he developed novel strategies to design and synthesize polyfunctional steroids and norbornene compounds and further studied their antenna-initiated photochemistry. After graduation, he joined the Cancer Therapy & Research Center's Institute for Drug Development (IDD) at San Antonio, Texas, as a postdoctoral research fellow and later, Assistant Member. At the IDD, Dr. Agyin designed and synthesized novel analogues of a lead preclinical anticancer agent, as part of a multidisciplinary team of researchers, including cancer biologists and clinicians. He later joined the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio as Assistant Professor in the Biochemistry department where his research program focused on the design and synthesis of novel, bone-targeted proteasome inhibitors for treatment of multiple myeloma and breast cancer. His programmatic interests include preclinical cancer drug development, medicinal chemistry, design and synthesis of small molecules, structure optimization, and biological evaluation of anticancer compounds.

Joseph Agyin, Ph.D., M.B.A.
Program Director
joseph.agyin@nih.gov

Weiwei Chen, Ph.D.

Dr. Weiwei Chen is a Program Director in PTGB. She obtained her Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology from the New York University, where she studied the molecular mechanisms regulating glucocorticoid receptor transcriptional activities. After graduation, she joined Genentech, Inc. to discover molecular targets important in promoting tumor angiogenesis and studied paracrine mechanism of hedgehog signaling in ligand-dependent tumor types. Dr. Chen served as Program Manager at the NCI Experimental Therapeutics Program, a cancer drug discovery and development initiative before joining PTGB. Dr. Chen's areas of interest reside in discovery and preclinical development of pharmacologic interventions to overcome cancer drug resistance and metastasis, with focus on transcriptional regulation, microenvironment components modulation and tumor stroma interaction, cancer cell organ tropism and dissemination, cancer metabolism, novel target validation, inhibitor mechanism of action study, in vivo model establishment and proof-of-concept efficacy testing, and in vivo pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics characterization.

Weiwei Chen, Ph.D.
Program Director
chenw6@mail.nih.gov

David Covell, Ph.D.

Dr. Covell is a graduate of the University of Michigan, with a BSE in aerospace engineering, MSEs in computer science and bioengineering and a Ph.D. in bioengineering. He joined the NIH in the Laboratory of Mathematical Biology in 1980 and since then has been associated with the NIH, with a transition to the DTP Screening Technologies Branch in 1990 and is currently assigned to PTGB. His research experience has focused on the applications of computational tools for the analysis of biological data, with an emphasis on bioinformatics. Throughout this tenure Dr. Covell has experience in studies involving pharmacokinetics/dynamics, protein structure, small-molecule screening data, gene mutations, targeted cancer therapy, preclinical drug discovery and the development of web-based tools for data analysis.

David Covell, Ph.D.
Program Director
covelld@mail.nih.gov

Suzanne L. Forry, Ph.D.

Dr. Suzanne Forry attained her Ph.D. in Anatomy and Cell Biology from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She joined NIH in 2004 as a Scientific Review Official in the Center for Scientific Review. Prior to joining NIH, Dr. Forry directed the gene therapy oncology programs at Genetic Therapy, Incorporated where her laboratory focused on cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Forry directs a portfolio of research grants spanning from drug discovery through pre-clinical studies supporting future clinical trials. She is the point person for several trans-NIH funding opportunities on drug screening, as well as a funding opportunity for therapeutic development and mechanisms of resistance in small-cell lung cancer (a component of the NCI Small-Cell Lung Cancer Consortium). Particular areas of focus in Dr. Forry's portfolio are strategies to inhibit mutant KRAS, mechanisms of action and resistance of targeted therapies, and combinations of immunotherapies and small molecule (standard-of-care) therapies. Dr. Forry's portfolio spans all cancer types.

Suzanne L. Forry, Ph.D.
Program Director
forryscs@mail.nih.gov

Yali Fu, Ph.D.

Dr. Fu received her Ph.D. at Cornell University. She has more than 30 years of experience in natural products drug discovery in cancer, HIV, malaria, TB and tropical diseases. Her areas of expertise include natural products drug discovery (marine and terrestrial microbes, plants and animals) and mechanism of action, biosynthesis/bioengineering, genetically engineered organisms for production, herbal and traditional medicines, drug formulations, drug delivery, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), nanotechnology in drug delivery (nanoparticles), liposomes, controlled release, targeted therapies, and preclinical pharmacology.

Yali Fu, Ph.D.
Program Director
fuyali@mail.nih.gov

William Greenberg, Ph.D.

Dr. Greenberg received his PhD in Chemical Biology from the California Institute of Technology, on the design, synthesis, and biochemical characterization of sequence-specific DNA binding molecules. After postdoctoral studies at Scripps Research on design of new RNA binding aminoglycoside antibiotics, he worked in the biotech industry and as an Assistant Professor at Scripps Research, gaining experience in a wide range of disciplines including medicinal chemistry, high-throughput screening, biocatalysis, and glycobiology. He joined NIH in 2009 and served as a Scientific Review Officer at the Center for Scientific Review for over a decade, where he managed a study section focused on structural biology and macromolecular biophysics across a wide range of biological systems, as well as special emphasis panels in chemical biology, drug discovery, and structural biology. His programmatic interests include preclinical cancer drug discovery and development, chemical biology, and molecular mechanisms of cancer therapeutics.

William Greenberg, Ph.D.
Program Director
will.greenberg@nih.gov

Sudhir B. Kondapaka, Ph. D.

Dr. Sudhir Kondapaka serves as a Program Director in PTGB and has 20 years of experience in preclinical cancer research. He joined NCI in 2001 as a Senior Scientist at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research where he was involved in the development of novel drug screening platforms relevant to cancer. Before joining NCI, Dr. Kondapaka, served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where he studied the role of receptor activity modifying proteins (RAMPs 1-3) in altering association of the calcitonin receptor like receptor (CRLR) with its ligand. As a Research Scientist at MD Anderson Cancer Center, he studied the role of p21-activated kinase in tumor invasion and metastasis. Dr. Kondapaka's programmatic research interests include: preclinical cancer research involving siRNA/shRNA and/or small molecules; signal transduction; epigenetic alterations; DNA damage/repair; apoptosis; autophagy; human microbiome and cancer; target identification and validation; drug screening and development; mechanism of action of anticancer agents; biochemical and molecular assays; protein and antibody arrays; and drug resistance; fusion oncoproteins.

Sudhir B. Kondapaka, Ph. D.
Program Director
kondapas@mail.nih.gov

Morgan O'Hayre, Ph.D.

Dr. Morgan O'Hayre received her PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California, San Diego, where she investigated the role of chemokines and chemokine receptors in cancer cell survival and metastasis. After graduation, Dr. O'Hayre conducted post-doctoral research in the intramural research program at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), NIH. During her postdoctoral training, Dr. O'Hayre characterized G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) cell signaling pathways in the context of normal cell function and disease states including cancer. Prior to joining PTGB, Dr. O'Hayre was a health policy analyst and special assistant to the NIDCR director and performed a program detail with the Translational Genomics Research Branch in NIDCR's Division of Extramural Research. Her programmatic interests include preclinical cancer research involving GPCRs and downstream signaling targets, stem cells, head and neck cancers, ovarian cancers, and leukemias and lymphomas.

Morgan O'Hayre, Ph.D.
Program Director
ohayrem@mail.nih.gov