Daniel T Reilly Email and Phone Number

• Employed modeling and experimental methods to increase the stability and potency of biologic drug products• Increased the throughput and reliability of lyophilization and vacuum drying manufacturing processes using fundamental heat and mass transfer principles• Performed formulation development of biologic drugs to enhance critical attributes, particularly related to thermal stability and moisture uptake• Analyzed key process attributes to understand and increase drug stability utilizing data science and machine learning techniques (via Python)

Research and Development scientist working on Drug Product Development in Biologics Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls, primarily on monoclonal antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, and parenteral formulations. Key responsibilities include late-stage development, process scale-up and characterization, technology transfer and regulatory filing support. Primarily supports the drug product development process from first-in human studies to Phase III clinical trials. Additional activities include data oriented strategies and initiatives to reduce manual workflow using Python and streamlining the communication of results to our clinical site partners, in order to enable rapid site activation.

My project focused on the characterization of immune cell populations in idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM) disease states. IIM are among the largest number of potentially treatable muscle disorders in humans, but they have high mortality and morbidity rates with few currently available treatments. We hypothesized the lack of a mechanistic understanding of these diseases underpins the lack of therapeutic treatments available. To this end, we used multi-channel confocal fluorescence microscopy on antibody stained human tissue to identify and characterize dendritic and lymphocyte cell populations in biopsies of patients with Dermatomyositis (DM) and Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM). Our results show a greater amount of inflammation and increased dendritic and lymphocyte cells in IBM compared to DM. These findings challenge classic correlations between immune cell patterns in DM and IBM and suggest new therapeutic targets for IIM.Key Achievements:1. Implemented an automized system for counting cell populations across an extensive dataset of acquired images, drastically reducing time spent manually inspecting the images for the same data.2. Applied a computer program developed internally to explore levels of cognate interaction between immune cell sub-populations based on distance mapping and further extract proposed functional immune regulation in these diseases. 3. Managed the laboratory, with primary responsibilities including: ordering lab supplies and reagents, helping to set up and establish the new lab within budgetary constraints, and acting lab safety officer, ensuring adherence to standards for chemical and biological experiments.

Advisor: Dr. Charles Schroeder, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular EngineeringDissertation: Advances in Single Molecule Spectroscopy and Microscopy for Biological Imaging and Polymer CharacterizationMy project focused on applying techniques from single molecule imaging to study problems in the biological sciences and polymer physics. My first project involved the design and characterization of a new class of synthetic fluorescent probes to study biological phenomena at a molecular level. Our hypothesis was that we could vastly increase the brightness of our probes by covalently bonding multiple dyes onto a single molecular unit. In a separate project, I helped to assemble a new instrument in the lab, magnetic tweezers, which I used to study the effect of solution additives on polymer physical properties.Key Achievements:1. Achieved increased brightness (up to 5x photon output compared with standard dyes) in our newly designed set of probes with multiple dyes, allowing easier and more precise imaging at a single molecule level.2. Increased photostability by up to 10x as much by covalently attaching photoprotective molecules to the dyes, increasing the amount of time a biological process could be observed.3. Analyzed complex signals against noisy background information using advanced image analysis algorithms using computational software such as Matlab.4. Demonstrated biological relevance by successfully using these probes in bacterial imaging and single molecule DNA observation and published a first author peer-reviewed paper in the journal Analytical Chemistry.5. Assembled and successfully calibrated a new instrument in the lab, magnetic tweezers.6. Managed chemical waste disposal, safety regulations and trained new grad students in these areas.Teaching:Fall 2012, Spring 2015-- Fluid Mechanics and Heat TransferFall 2014- Polymer Chemistry and Engineering

Advisor: Professor Jennifer Lewis, Department of Materials Science and EngineeringI worked for Professor Lewis (currently a Professor at Harvard) as my PhD advisor when I first started at the University of Illinois on a project with the major aim of creating novel structures and devices for the controlled release and encapsulation of active chemicals of interest. In the short amount of time I was able to pursue this project however, there were several areas I was able to make progress into.Key Achievements: 1. Worked on a collaborative project with a major chemical company developing novel methods for encapsulation of active ingredients for controlled release applications.2. Synthesized custom polymers designed for controlled release of industrially relevant active chemicals3. Spearheaded a lab effort using electrospinning, a never before used technique in the lab, to create core-shell fibers composed of photocurable polymers optimized for encapsulation and release

Advisor: Professor Themis Matsoukas, Department of Chemical EngineeringHonors Thesis: Improved Surface Coating Methods of Silane Coupling Agents on Silica Nanoparticles to Enhance Stability and Surface CoverageThis research was performed in order to graduate with Honors in Chemical Engineering from the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State. This work was sponsored by a company that had a problem with silica nanoparticles aggregating inside their heat exchanger fluid, decreasing the heat transfer coefficient. Our lab solved this problem by attaching silica coupling agents (SCAs) which bind to the silica nanoparticles and prevent aggregation by electrostatic repulsion and steric hindrance. To measure the size of these nanoparticles I used dynamic light scattering and to characterize the surface charge I used zeta potential measurements.Key Achievements:1. Developed a new method of attaching SCAs onto the nanoparticles that decreased a problem where the SCAs self-polymerized in the presence of water.2. Increased time before irreversible aggregation and surface coverage through this method by over 50%. 3. This work resulted in a peer-reviewed publication at Langmuir and an honors thesis.

Advisor: Professor Katriona Shea, Department of BiologyThe goal of this project was to simulate using Matlab, competitive interactions between plant species under a precisely controlled disturbance, to mimic natural disasters and how they affected species competition and plant survival. This work would help inform agricultural practices to allow for more abundant crop yields. A major problem we encountered was the program ran too slow to be feasible, so I rewrote the core algorithm in the much faster language C++, interfaced this with the rest of the program, which sped up the program greatly and allowed it to be run in a reasonable amount of time. Finally, we observed surprising complex non-linear behavior in our model which we developed theoretical justification for. Key Achievements1: Developed the code base for the model from scratch, including the C++ code and figuring out how to combine it into Matlab. 2. To decrease computational time, I gained access to the university's local cluster of computers and wrote the shell scripts to submit the jobs using parallel coding techniques.3. Wrote the first several drafts of the manuscript we eventually submitted and got accepted into the peer-reviewed publication Ecological Research.