Gene Petrella Email & Phone Number

Cambridge, MA, US

Cambridge, Massachusetts, US

• Spearheaded efforts to develop enabling technologies for precision medicine.Focus area: autoimmune and inflammatory diseases
• Developed and implemented qPCR-based biomarker strategy for patient stratification
• Pioneered mobile qPCR for point-of-care therapeutic management
• Developed lateral flow test utilizing novel peptide nucleic acid capture technology
• Led IND-enabling in vitro preclinical pharmacology activities
• Pioneered LNP-mRNA-based modality to deliver protein therapeutics (engineered DNASE1L3 for neutrophil extracellular trap [NET] degradation and elimination)

Gachibowli, Hyderabad, Telangana, IN

Providing end-to-end Discovery services from Target ID & Validation to IND. * Integrated in-house Biology, Synthetic & Medicinal Chemistry, DMPK, Toxicology * Currently, over 600 Discovery scientists running a diversity of technologies > Exploratory Biology lab in Cambridge, MA > Integrated Discovery & Development Campus, Hyderabad, INDIA > Process labs.

NH, US

Startup with unique platform technology for the rapid discovery and development of small molecule therapeutics that act directly on disease-causing RNA.I have been responsible for fundraising, team building, platform development, scientific strategy and all operational activities.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, US

• > Led the RNA Editing platform group. Utilizing Wave's proprietary oligonucleotide chemistry as guide molecules to edit RNA targets via endogenous adenosine deaminases acting on RNA (ADARs).> Co-led Wave's In Vivo.
• Managed the full on-boarding life cycle for new contract research organizations (CROs)
• Negotiated license agreements for in vivo disease models, managed master service agreements (MSA) and statements of work (SOW)
• Created and implemented new project management tool to track and integrate work and processes
• Increased capacity of team via FTE hiring, outsourcing, and contract reconfiguration for existing CROs> Led the Wave postdoctoral program.
• Reset the direction and goals of the postdoctoral program with greater emphasis placed on peer-reviewed publication(s), career insight and development, succeeding in a matrix management environment, broadening and.

Basel, Baselstadt, CH

• Spearheaded a new effort to directly target RNA in neuromuscular diseases. Project approved at highest level of Research (NIBR New Target Review Committee) triggering broad resource allocation. Early success spawned an.
• Developed both biochemical and biophysical HTS assays to probe the interaction of proteins, LMW compounds, and oligonucleotides with disease-causing repeat sequence RNA. Full-deck (1.5Mio LMW) screen executed.
• Procured (both academic and for-profit sources), validated, and deployed patient-derived primary cells for phenotypic screens. -Developed high content imaging (HCI)-compatible FISH technique for elucidating repeat.
• Project sub-team leader for NMR and biophysics follow-up team. Facilitated the design of NMR-ready, model RNA structures.**High resolution NMR data has been acquired and used to elucidate binding mode of lead compounds**
• Collaborated with computational biology group to execute virtual screen using a reductionist RNA flexible receptor model.**Candidate fragments confirmed as selective binders using RNA molecular beacon thermal melts**

Basel, Baselstadt, CH

• Muscle atrophy and Fascioscapulohumeral Dystrophy
• Piloted early discovery efforts aimed at utilizing EGF-family ligands to reverse muscle atrophy using HCI readouts.
• Introduced hydrodynamic injection technology and worked with in vivo muscle biology colleagues to deliver neuregulin to muscle.
• Validated microsatellite contraction-mediated changes in muscle gene expression profile (FSHD) via qPCR.**Project fully adopted by Musculoskeletal Disease Area. Compounds recently discovered from parallel indication.

Basel, Baselstadt, CH

• Co-founded a proteomics-based target identification platform (TIP)
• Managed TIP cell biology and biochemistry responsible for small molecule-based affinity capture and identification of novel targets
• Supported numerous projects/disease areas via target-finding and mechanism of action studies
• Co-authored book chapter on "Kinase Inhibitor Profiling Using Chemoproteomics"

Basel, Baselstadt, CH

• Co-established Academic HTS Partnership Program and served as scientific liaison
• Built biology lab with early stage discovery capabilities including biochemical and cell-based assay development, MTS/HTS, multiplex assays (Luminex xMAP)
• Designed and executed synthetic lethality screen for p53-mutant cancers leading to launch of internal institute-wide program
• Set up and managed academic collaboration centered on early discovery efforts for Friedreich ataxia

• Supported internal discovery projects by developing and implementing HTS-amenable biochemical assays
• Led HTS efforts and coordinated cross-disciplinary information dissemination
• Developed thermal shift technique for optimizing protein stability enabling project team to determine the first 3-dimensional structure of ZAP kinase

• Invented high throughput method to stabilize proteins and facilitate protein crystallization
• Granted five U.S. patents

• Managed all ThermoFluor® HTS. Led team that discovered novel hdm2/p53 antagonists
• Served as co-project team leader, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) collaboration
• Innovated functional genomics application of ThermoFluor® technology
• Decrypted BMS microbial target proteins
• Expanded ThermoFluor® HTS and Biophysics Groups to 12 members
• Managed and maintained 3DP compound archive

• Developed the ThermoFluor® technology, a high throughput, thermodynamic measurement of protein stability
• Characterized protein-drug interactions via ITC and DSC

Postdoctoral Fellow, Cell Biology

Ph.D., Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

B.S., Biochemistry And Microbiology