Staff

LISA HOLIK

CMD Centre Administrator

  • phone: 617.353.2515
  • email: lholik

Ms. Lisa Holik received a B.A. from McMaster University, a Master’s level programme in Business Administration and Management (CSS) from Harvard University and an MSSc in International Relations from Syracuse University. She has several years experience at Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health and the University of California, Irvine. Before working in academia she worked in the private sector. She joined BU-CMD as the Centre Administrator in September, 2013.

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RICHARD TRILLES

CMD Organic Sythesis Specialist

Mr. Trilles was a Scientist in the Discovery Group at Pfizer Global Research and Development in Groton, CT. His research focused on the area of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases. Before Pfizer, he worked at Hoffmann-La Roche in Nutley, NJ, as a medicinal chemist in their Preclinical Department. Mr. Trilles received a B.A. in Chemistry from Rutgers University in NJ.  He joined BU-CMD in June, 2010.

STEPHEN BENGTSON

Analytical Core Specialist

  • phone: 617.358.0934
  • email: sjb18

Originally from North Attleboro, MA, Stephen completed his undergraduate studies and received his B.A. in Chemistry from Boston University in 2019. During his time at BU, Mr. Bengtson worked on the production of cinnamate Weinreb amides for the synthesis of rocaglate derivatives in the Brown lab. Following graduation, he continued on as a research assistant for the BU-CMD in the Brown lab where his main focus was the development of novel, fungal-selective HSP90 inhibitors until February 2020. After a brief hiatus, Stephen returned to the BU-CMD in July 2020 as the Analytical Core Specialist in which he is responsible for the curation and distribution of small, drug-like molecules to the BU-CMD’s many collaborators.

JAVEED RASOOL

CMD Postdoctoral Researcher

  • phone: 617.358.0934
  • email: jrasool

Dr Javeed Ur Rasool was born in Kashmir, India. He completed B.Sc in Chemistry and M.Sc in Organic Chemistry from the University of Pune, Pune, India. He received PhD from AcSIR, CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu, India in Aug-2023. His research focused on study of site-selective reactions in medicinally important scaffolds and cleavage of oxophenylacetyl in sugars. He joined Boston University, Center of Molecular Discovery as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Prof. Lauren E. Brown’s lab in April-2023. His main research is focused on the synthesis and investigation of resorcinol aminopyrazoles (RAPs) as fungal-selective HSP90 inhibitors.

SAMEER REDDY

CMD Postdoctoral Researcher

Sameer was born and raised in Hyderabad, the pearl city, in India. After obtaining his B.Sc. in Microbiology, Biochemistry and Chemistry (2006-2009) and M.Sc. in Chemistry from Osmania University (2009-2011), he Joined Dr. Raju L. Chowhan group (https://sites.google.com/site/drrajuchowhan/group; first Ph.D. scholar of the group!!) at central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, Gujarat for M.Phil.(2012-2014)/ Ph. D (2014-2019) integrated course.  His doctoral thesis work focused on “Heterocyclic Spiro Molecules Via 1,3-Dipolar Cycloaddition of Azomethine Ylides” and additionally worked on DST-SERB funded project on the concise total synthesis of bicycle butanolide natural products during the Ph. D. tenure. He has a total of 5 years of Industrial R&D experience (CRO) with Piramal Discovery solutions (Ahmedabad, Gujarat) and Sai Life Sciences (Hyderabad, Telangana) before joining Prof. Lauren E. Brown’s lab at CMD as Post Doctoral Associate in November, 2023. Outside the lab, he enjoys Carnatic classical, fusion, and Sufi music, indulges in non-fiction literature, and finds relaxation in the art of cooking.

MICHAEL RICCA

CMD Postdoctoral Researcher

  • phone: 617.358.0933
  • email: mricca

Michael Ricca completed a B.Sc, D-Lang, M.Sc and PhD at The University of Melbourne. His masters research project was conducted in Professor Mark Rizzacasa’s lab, focusing on the synthesis of bioactive natural products. He began a Ph.D. in 2019 in the same lab, with research interests including total synthesis and the development of metal complexes for hydrogen atom transfer reactions. In 2023, he joined the Porco group as a postdoctoral fellow investigating rocaglates as targets for the treatment of neuroblastoma. In his free time Michael enjoys going to restaurants, knitting, and reading 20th century history.

SOFIA MEDINA

CMD Undergraduate Student Researcher

  • phone: 617.358.0934
  • email: msofiam

Sofía Medina, from Bogotá, Colombia is a student completing her undergraduate studies to receive a B.A. in Chemistry from Boston University. Sofía joined the Brown lab in the BU CMD in June 2023, researching fungal-selective HSP90 inhibitors.

NYLA GILMORE

CMD Undergraduate REU Student Researcher

Nyla is currently a rising Junior at Clayton state university as a chemistry major. She’s interested in going to Graduate School after completing her undergraduate degree. Nyla wants to gain a career path around organic chemistry and she’s a Chemistry REU student for the summer of 2023.